Edited b/c I can’t spell Purolator Last week, I was waiting for a Very Important document (ok, a cheque) to arrive by Fedex. Oops — Ms. Delivery Woman knocked while I was in the shower, leaving a note saying “pick it up tomorrow at…” But I wanted the cheque NOW. So I called Fedex, got […] More »

Further to Potter’s comment on my post about “root causes” of terrorism, New Statesman has an article about significant changes underway in Islam, prompted at least in part by the activities of al-Qaeda and the fact that many moderate Muslims are sick of the bad name their faith is getting worldwide. A short excerpt: “For […] More »

For those of us who struggle in the art of finance, Bank Of Victoria is here to make it all right. The cheeky brainchild of Montreal’s Victoria Stanton, the project got its start as a way of helping a friend in debt. “I hated seeing him suffer like that. Credit cards are killers,” says Stanton. […] More »

I had to laugh when I got this response from my good friend Christy while warning her about the perils of Google’s new Gmail service. Gmail is a free, web-based, e-mail service (similar to Hotmail) that is in beta testing now; it uses Google’s search and advertising technology to read through a user’s messages and […] More »

The Walrus settles into a comfortable position just below THIS Magazine as one of Canada’s most interesting and relevant general interest magazines. October’s issue responds to THIS magazine’s profile of Jack Layton with a look behind the curtain at Stephen Harper’s Conservative strategy machine. Most interesting is the debate-by-essay on the American election, featuring psychographics […] More »

Buy an iPod! No just kidding. Here’s one more rainy day activity for you all: Say you were rich, like Carnegie/Thomson/Gates rich, and you wanted to get all philanthropic. What would you do? Over at Marginal Revolution, they’ve been debating whether it is better to endow a general foundation, or to sponsor a prize for […] More »

Pouring rain here in la belle province, though I note that the squeegee kids at Parc and Mt. Royal are still at work. So, if you don’t really have a job or are bored at the one you have, two things to while away the day: 1. Pick up the National Post and read all […] More »

A few years ago, Michael Bliss gave up a promising career as a historian so that he could be a mediocre political pundit for the National Post. In today’s Post, he kicked off a five-part series on “Canada’s myth of single-tier healthcare” with some observations about the place of healthcare in Canada’s constitution and in […] More »

This is a fine and impressive bit of journalism. Looks like Klein happened to schedule her several weeks in Baghdad just as the last hopes for a reasonably stable transition were, literally, exploding—the attack on the Palestine Hotel, the grisly murders in Fallujah, the beheading of Nicholas Berg. Klein courageously does her duty as a […] More »

Now that we’ve had the official word on “security,” “opportunity,” and “freedom” – key words all in George W. Bush’s acceptance speech last night at the RNC, here’s a rhetorical alka seltzer: Operation Truth – tales of the Iraq war in the words of those who are actually fighting it. I have a natural aversion […] More »

I can’t possibly add anything to this. Thanks to JKY for forwarding it. ***************** From: “Culture Jammers Network” To: “Culture Jammers Network” Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 3:56 PM Subject: communique 6: Blackspot Sneaker has Arrived Jammers, Naomi Klein threw cold water on the idea, and there was a widespread lefty revolt against it. “Why […] More »