Pico Iyer, Canada’s expat book noticer, has a piece on Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing in a recent Times Literary Supplement (no link, sorry — subscribers only. I know, I know). He has much praise for Cohen, which makes me happy. I think Lenny deserves the Nobel, easily as much as Dylan. However, I disagree […] More »

Go now and read Andrew Potter’s latest column in Maclean’s. In it, he outlines some of the basic tenets of the Euston Manifesto, which he calls “a statement of broadly left-liberal principles cooked up last spring by a collection of London-based journalists, activists and academics.” Quick full disclosure– Potter blurbed my book, and I do […] More »

In September of 2003, North America’s first safe-injection site opened in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Operated by the local health authority, Insite is allowed to exist thanks to funding and support from all three levels of government. Ottawa’s role includes a three-year exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The success of the facility has […] More »

The National Film Board has put online 50 animated shorts from throughout the years, including classics such as “The Sweater,” “The Cat Came Back” and my personal favourite, “The Big Snit,” a bizarre little cartoon with lots of sawing of furniture and eye-shaking. Give it a look and enjoy the ‘toons. IMAGE: “THE BIG SNIT” More »

Because I’m a big fan of lists, especially musical lists, I bring up this effort from The Guardian in the U.K.: “50 Albums That Changed Music.” I’ve only read the first 10 or so, but I like what I’m reading. Serious respect for Dylan, the Velvet Underground and NWA. Anyone take umbrage with the selections […] More »

Funny, why haven’t we seen this article about John Bolton saying there is no moral equivalent between Lebanese civilian deaths and terrorism victims published anywhere but the independent media? More »

The BBC reports: “Womb environment ‘makes men gay'”. According to a recent study, the number of biological older brothers a fellow has, the higher chance he has at being gay. So when if your worried if your kid throws funny, don’t stress unless he’s got fourteen older brothers born in constant succession of each other. […] More »

Nothing like a heat wave to angry up the blood. The woman who would be President is displaying some more of that base-cementing political genius she’s developed lately. The New York Times reports on comments Senator Hillary Clinton made about the missiles being lobbed back and forth across the Lebanon/Israel border. She leaves no room […] More »

I find myself completely appalled by today’s front-page column by George Jonas in the National Post. Normally I try not to let Post columnists provoke me into posting about them, since it just draws attention to their views. But in this case… Jonas is an apologist for the Israeli military, and practically the first words […] More »

“Power is essential for survival, but additional power is also needed for doing anything fast and complicated, like eating your neighbour…” From a discussion of: Current Middle East conflict? — No. Iraq/Kuwait, early 90’s? — No. North and South Korea? — No again. The quote is from a Times Literary Supplement review of the book […] More »

Since watching the last forty minutes of last week’s World Cup final, I have to say I am baffled by some of the mainstream media response to Zinedine Zidane’s head butt to Italian defender Marco Materazzi, including the initial — completely one-sided — response of the play by play announcer at the game. We’re supposed […] More »