[UPDATED JANUARY 24]. Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s welcoming speech was one of the highlights at the Liberal Party of Canada’s biennial convention in Ottawa, more than a week ago now, on Friday, January 13, 2012. One of its most striking passages, I thought, came somewhat before the middle: “Choosing a new leader is no […]
It has me taken a while to get into the latest Stephen Colbert intervention in the real world of US politics (in conjunction with his colleague, Jon Stewart – who recently claimed that both “t”s in his surname are silent, to give “Sewar” when said out loud). But I have now been drawn in by […]
In a number of respects the Liberal Party of Canada biennial convention in Ottawa this weekend has been a surprising success. It was, eg, attended by some 3,200 delegates – considerably more than expected. As Jane Taber has also reported: “The party had wanted to show it can reinvent itself by becoming more open. It […]
Jackson Lears “teaches history at Rutgers University, is the editor of Raritan and author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920.” In the 5 January 2012 issue of the London Review of Books, he reviews two recent biographies of US President Barack Obama’s father and mother –Â The Other Barack by […]
[UPDATED JANUARY 18]. The main event in Canadian progressive politics this week is the biennial convention of the federal Liberals in Ottawa – Friday, January 13 to Sunday, January 15. Our first big hope here is that the Grits in their wisdom vote YES for resolution 114 : “Canadian Identity in the 21st Century … […]
By this point we no longer remember how our Zzzzzzzzzzzzz department – on the bar at the top of the page in the Home mode: “Links to recent news for those who really cannot get to sleep” – got started in the first place. But we do know that it has been woefully out of […]
I know Citizen X posted a piece yesterday, saying the “next article on this site will be in the New Year.” But on my way back from the far north I heard an enchanting new video on the world wide web –Â Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel doing the Nancy Wilson classic, “What Are You […]
If Google Analytics is to be believed – and it no doubt is, in some significant enough degree – the majority of visitors to this site arrive via “Search Engines,” looking for information on specific issues or subjects. We also have a discriminating flow of “Direct Traffic” and “Referring Sites,” which we value very highly […]
We are of course far from alone in our view of 2011 as a hinge of fate. Here, eg, is Bloomberg Business Week on the subject: “Rampaging natural catastrophes, global financial calamities, the deaths of despots and desperados, the passing of America’s greatest modern technical innovator and roiling protests that shook the Arab world and […]
Bunting says I’m not doing any work for the cause over the holidays, just bothering him as he keeps the torch of the skeleton crew alight in the office. But here I am on Christmas Day wishing everyone who drops by Happy Holidays – and above all else, HAPPY SANTA CLAUS. Among many other strange […]
