November 2008
17 posts
Dear Prime Minister:
On October 21st, you were elected not to govern absolutely and arbitrarily, but to lead a divided parliament in developing policies and legislation that could receive majority support. In this task, you have clearly failed: you chose to indulge your political instincts and ideology, rather than to act as a leader for all Canadians in a difficult time.
As a result,...
The benefits of evidence-based gardening →
Everything you need to know about Hitler's... →
Short version: It wasn’t missing.
Don't even bother with Web-based doc-rating... →
Some Canadian ones that I’ve read were spot on, though.
Can't we hold torturers accountable and still find... →
Yep. This isn’t genocide or even a civil war: it’s just people breaking (very important) laws. The (a hypothetical?) justice system has a responsibility to act on behalf of the victims – who are the tortured and not, I repeat, not, the American people. Forgiveness means very little coming from those who were not wronged.
The End of Wall Street's Boom →
“I heard later that a few years ago [the former CEO of an investment bank] sat on a panel about Wall Street at Columbia Business School. When his turn came to speak, he advised students to find something more meaningful to do with their lives. As he began to describe his career, he broke down and wept.”
3 tags
I was in the provincial court services office in Toronto the other day — it’s a jampacked, rundown room with lineups of ~1 hour at best. The lady at the “information” desk said, “I don’t know if they do that here, you’ll just have to wait” when I explained what I needed. How helpful. (It turns out they do.)
The waiting system is a complex series of coded...
Speeding Up Major Criminal Cases →
OK, good. What about the little things?
Going Private: The Spiral →
WWII teledrama subtitled for the times.
“Je ne comprends pas anglais,” he said.”
– Chrétien, Broadbent brokering possible coalition: reports. The man is back.
Barack Obama - and the first 'African-Roman'... →
“Once he had got rid of his brother (nastily murdered on his mother’s lap), he gave full Roman citizenship, and the legal privileges and protection that went with it, to all the free male inhabitants of the empire.”
1 tag
Harper: the economist who can’t count?
1 tag
“He made fun of Stéphane Dion for promising to address the crisis by holding a...”
– Paul Wells. PS. we told you.
3 tags
No Beer Store! →
Sign today (the Star has a write up).
Thanks Premier Dad (Selley) →
“Children are only perhaps the most precious thing in our society? Pray tell what, you hideous monster, could possibly be more precious?”
1 tag
Dalton McGuinty gets all up in your face... →
Creepy.
Fiscal update now a declaration of war (Ivison) →
At least it now appears that Harper is as inept at political war as he is at diplomacy.