It must be so nice to be a Liberal MP, especially a Liberal MP from Quebec. You’re almost guaranteed a spot in Cabinet, no matter how boneheaded you happen to be. To boot, you get to treat the entire country as your own little sandbox, wherein you can build and destroy sandcastles as the whimsy […] More »
Ah, the singular talent of caption writing. Donald Rumsfeld as karate master. I appear to be behind the times, but this is some fine funny stuff. Rumsfeld Fighting Technique Thanks to Christine for sharing this one. More »
American spy-master Alan Furst wrote a very entertaining book called Blood of Victory, about the central importance of Romanian oil reserves in the Nazi war machine. During WWII, oil was literally the lifeblood pumping through the expansionist German corps. With it in large quantities, there’s no telling how far Hitler would have gone. When he […] More »
This Magazine alum Sheila Heti and Carl Wilson are involved with this worthy event taking place in Toronto tonight. Wednesday September 29, 2004: Gladstone Hotel, Toronto An event to benefit Medecins Sans Frontiers “All the money will go to their work on the ground in Darfur, Sudan. We hope this event will raise money for […] More »
I know, I know, this is a Canadian blog and I’m supposed to talk Canadian politics. Okay, so the Globe reports Chretien knew something about the misspent sponsorship money. Shock and horror! And now, on the international front, it looks like China may be sending their first ever UN peacekeeping force into the Western Hemisphere. […] More »
While the world awaits a UN decision, expected this week, on deployment of African peacekeeping forces to halt the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the broader debate at the United Nations is internal democracy—specifically, which nations should have permanent seats and a veto on the Security Council. The 15 seat council has only 5 permanent members, […] More »
Thanks to everyone who slogged through my whine about Christopher Hitchens last week. I feel five pounds lighter. So, what appears recently in Britain’s The Independent? A truly fascinating analysis of the modern Hitchens, much of it in his own words. It explains a great deal, though not the decline of his rhetoric. I particularly […] More »
Update: As we passed Kingston just after 7pm, the conductor announced that we would be arriving in Toronto at 8:59pm, i.e. right on schedule. We pulled in at 9:26. Perfunctory apology. It is worth remarking that we somehow lost almost 30 minutes of time in the last two hours of the trip. That’s a rather […] More »
So, I hear that, as a step towards making Quebec a sovereign state within Canada (whatever that is supposed to mean) Mario Dumont wants to change the name of Quebec. Great idea! Might I suggest: Kanata (native for “meeting place”) Pas-si-Nouvelle France Narcissia More »
This is a long one, so bear with me. I’ve spent more than a bit of time the past while rereading some of what Vanity Fair and Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens has been writing about anything and everything. As a result, the quality of my Hitchens appreciation has changed somewhat. I’ve certainly stopped reading him […] More »