High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news.
My wife is convinced that I am a magnet to strange people. I don’t view them as strange, in my eyes they are merely interesting and fun people! Sure I probably know more Gangsters than than the average person. The ones I know are ex-gangsters, some still in the Witness Protection Program, and some that […]
In 2013 Calgary. Alberta suffered their most serious flood in years when the Bow river bust its banks. Particularly had hit was the community of Sunnyside. Although the city has a population of over a million residents it always has a small town feel. Strangers say hello, strangers help other strangers. I recall the first […]
Every single year there are numerous classic blunders by politicians. 2013 was a wonderful year for political stupidity. President Obama scored high marks with the roll out of Obamacare, the first enrollee being someone with the strange name of Healthcare.gov. The House of Representatives were not far behind, essentially these highly paid men have spent […]
Welcome to the First Virtual Church of Our Lord and Savior, Steve Jobs. As you enter the sanctuary, please do not make eye contact with anyone. Keep your eyes focused on the screen of the mobile device of your choice. We are relevant and practice diversity here, which is easy since no one will even […]
If I am voting against the President, it is not racism but because he is going out of his way to persecute the Catholic church: The problem? The week after taking office, the President removed conscience rights regulations from the federal regulations. This means that the only thing standing between Catholics and Muslims from being […]
A lot of the news about the Middle East is politicized in the US press, but today’s reports are not good. The Reuters news agency Religion section has this article, that cautions: The fabric of Middle Eastern society has fundamentally changed. Being Muslim has replaced being Arab as the primary identifying factor. The consequences are […]
The headline in today’s Manila Bulletn is that hackers have taken down some government websites to protest the new “cyberlaw”. The cyberlaw is supposed to protect folks against having their email and facebook sites hacked, and to stop hackers from stealing your identity, but it also includes laws against libel: Basically, the group claimed, the […]
Should folks name a high school after a man who supported Eugenics? No, say the Canadian Metis blogger, ex-politician, and all around troublemaker Mrs. Gay Caswell on her blog. So who is she complaining about now? A Canadian bigshot who implemented socialized medicine in that country. Complains Mrs C: He followed the Regina Manifesto, a […]
Check this out: Natural Gas,via TPMBarnett’s webpage: natural gas deals are proceeding internationally: the flow out of North America alters things, regionalizing flows more as Japan and Germany move off nukes and seek to ramp up their use of gas to generate electricity, and as emerging markets in general ramp up their gas use… (cheap […]
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu was facing criticism for being too slow in building cases against participants in the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver. Â So he held a press conference in August where he introduced Constable Lee Patterson to explain how evidence is collected. Â It was an odd choice of spokesperson, since Patterson is accused […]
How do respond to the bravery of men who catch a man eating crocodile, to protect their children from harm? You tell them they should be ashamed of themselves, and that they should let the dangerous animal go free. Yes, the foreigners who pay all that nice money to PETA to get foreign women to […]
 Photo:  After battling prostate cancer, Jack Layton announced, “I’m almost vegan.”  Here he is seen during the election campaign eating a thick smoked meat sandwich in Schwartz Deli in Montreal. Jack Layton has just done something never done before in Canada.  In Monday’s federal election, he moved the left wing New Democratic Party from it’s chronic […]
Photo: Â NDP leader Jack Layton photographed on the campaign trail eating a smoked meat sandwich, after announcing earlier this year,”I’m almost vegan”. A leaked police report this week revealed that when a Toronto massage parlor was raided by the vice-squad, they found a naked Jack Layton lying inside. After interviewing Layton, police told him that […]
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has in the past criticized China for their human rights record.  But he has evaded requests for comment on why he endorsed an organization inside Canada with a record of human rights abuses, the left wing Carnegie Community Center Association on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The CCCA interfered with election results by […]
George Will reported in his Newsweek column, “More Stimulating that the Stimulus,†that “In Ottawa, the sensitivity police in a children’s soccer league announced that any team attaining a five-goal lead would be declared to have lost, thereby sparing the feelings of those who were, if you will pardon the expression, losing.†This was confirmed […]
How many times have you heard or read the phrase “the best interests of the child?†If you read much about family law and family courts, the probable answer is “more times than I can count.†Indeed, establish a Google Alert for the phrase and you’ll get links to several articles, court cases, op-eds, etc. […]
What would be the worst possible time to go to China to ink business contracts? When you’re facing criminal investigation for fraud. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is spending this week in China, visiting the Shanghai World Fair — Sept. 10th is Vancouver Day at the fair — and four other cities, talking to business people about […]
In the superb movie "Awakenings", Leonard Lowe (Robert DeNiro) is woken up from his catatonic state by a drug administered by Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams). All goes well until Leonard starts to exhibit some side effects. While this is happening, he insists that Dr. Sayer continue to film him, which Sayer is doing as […]
The following is an article by Fathers & Families Board Member Robert Franklin, Esq.: The case that’s dropped jaws all across the U.S. and Canada is finally coming to an end. Judge Kip Leonard is finally allowing Noah Kirkman to return to his native Calgary after two years in foster care in Oregon. Read about […]
When is a comic not a comic? When he takes insults about “dykes” and “c*nts” off stage,  when he twice marches over to the table of two lesbians in the audience, when he later grabs the sunglasses off the head of one of the lesbians after insulting her at the bar, when he hollers at the lesbians outside as they leave […]
Where was Zoey? The lawyer for lesbian Lorna Pardy seemed thrown by a question about the failure of Pardy’s ex-girlfriend’s to testify at the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The question was asked by adjudicator Murray Geiger-Adams during last Friday’s wrap-up of a hearing into homophobic remarks that Pardy was subjected to by comedian Guy Earle, just after her then […]
It was a human rights hearing that at times sounded like an ad for Corona beer. A discussion with waitresses about getting a round of cold Corona was the first in a chain of events that led to a hearing last week at the BC Human Rights Tribunal, a hearing in which Zesty’s restaurant in Vancouver and an MC at […]
 Lorna Pardy ended up hurting herself when she laid a human rights complaint against comedian Guy Earle for discriminating against her as a lesbian and a woman. That was obvious this week at the BC Human Rights Tribunal where witnesses were calmly asked, “Did you hear Mr. Earle say, ‘Don’t you have a strap-on […]
We are still waiting for the details of the Obama care bill that is going to save American health care, whether we want it or not. One is reminded of the saying: The devil is in the details; and indeed, in these days when money is going to rule all of us, one has to […]
  Photo: Mayor Gregor Robertson On Friday, Vancouver Police were asked to conduct a criminal investigation into Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson; Vancouver City Manager Penny Ballem (also a Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee member); the City’s Security Co-ordinator at Carnegie Center, Skip Everall; and Director of Carnegie Center and the Olympics Homeground Festival, Ethel Whitty. These […]
Ah, another “cost effective” study that makes one go “Huh”: from PsyOrg: Influenza vaccines: Poor evidence for effectiveness in elderlyFebruary 17, 2010Evidence for the safety and efficacy of influenza vaccines in the over 65s is poor, despite the fact that vaccination has been recommended for the prevention of influenza in older people for the past 40 […]
For years now we’ve been told that Diabetes is a lifestyle disease; in effect, the result of our reliance on the “meat-sweet” diet and our avoidance of regular exercise. While our “lifestyle” certainly plays a role in the onset of diabetes, according to several new studies, the actual cause may in fact be the result […]
Photo: Demonstrators gather at Thornton Park on Saturday, the morning after the opening of the 2010 Olympics. Anarchists in Vancouver, Canada have been promising “Riot 2010” for a few years now, and it happened Saturday. A crowd of roughly 200 people, mostly in their 20s, many dressed in full black regalia with their faces covered […]
Photo: Party lights at Vancouver’s Pacific Central train and bus station mark the opening of the Winter Olympics The struggle to put a stop to the alleged persecution of bloggers by the City of Vancouver has now reached the White House. President Barack Obama has been asked to back bloggers when he sends Vice President […]
As the torch for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games approaches Vancouver after being carried across Canada, the torch for a parallel games arrived yesterday. It was the torch for the 2010 Poverty Olympics, carried from city to city across British Columbia. It’s arrival was cheered by about 500 people packed into the Japanese Hall […]
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