[Correction appended] Harper Environment Minister Jim Prentice wants to protect Sable Island by turning it into a national park. He has a funny notion of protection: Prentice would protect the island by ending the current ban on visitors impediments to tourism. He would protect the island by inviting the private sector to ferry tourists out to visit Sable. He would protect the island by continuing to allow oil and gas drilling off its shores. He would protect the island by permitting the slaughter of seals that whelp there. He would protect Sable by building park facilities to "take care of" the tourists he would "encourage" to...

26 January, 2010

Contrarian reader Miles Tompkins: I would like to see that little kid ask Anderson Cooper where the hell he's been for the past 20 years....

25 January, 2010

Defenders of Harper's three-month prorogation lean heavily on the talking point that Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau both used prorogation without provoking a fuss. Contrarian reader C. Leonhardt thinks the analogy is flawed: Both these prime ministers had a majority in the House when they prorogued Parliament. If their decisions had been challenged, they would have won the vote in the House. Harper's party does not hold a majority of the seats in the House. He would have lost the vote. To claim that his actions repesent past practice is false. At this point one man controls this country. The last line overstates...

25 January, 2010

I'm late getting to this, but Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria captured the fundamental fallacy of Washington's reaction to the Christmas Day [un-]Bomber. The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Its real aim is not to kill the hundreds of people directly targeted but to sow fear in the rest of the population. Terrorism is an unusual military tactic in that it depends on the response of the onlookers. If we are not terrorized, then the attack didn't work. Alas, this one worked very well. Hat tip: Cameron Bode, Excerpticize....

25 January, 2010

Cliff White defends Ormiston: I happened to catch both the clip of Ormiston holding the hand of, and then carrying, the little boy, and the one of  Cooper tousling the head of another. I didn't think there was any comparison. I was moved by the first and disgusted by the second. Watching Ormiston's reports over the last week or so, it's obvious she has been deeply affected by what she's seeing and reporting on. Her actions conveyed a real human warmth. It's not such a bad thing for viewers to occasionally see that reporters are not just automatons, but  are real people...

25 January, 2010

Herald columnist Jim Meek takes a shot at CBC reporter Susan Ormiston: In one story, the viewer was treated to moving pictures of CBC-TV reporter Susan Ormiston, who held the hand of a small Haitian child as they walked through a devastated, crowded neighbourhood. Ms. Ormiston later collected the tired child into her own tender arms, and on they marched. The made-for-TV pictures provided proof of Ms. Ormiston’s compassion, and I did wonder for a moment if the reporter or the youngster’s family was the intended focus of the story. I didn't see the piece in question, and I winced to see Ormiston...

24 January, 2010

It will not surprise regular readers to know that Contrarian is the founder and charter member of the Iceberg Lettuce Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to defending the iceberg's humble, moist, crunchy goodness from calumny and abuse at the hands and tongues of self-appointed food snobs. As you may imagine, this can be a lonely crusade. Thus it is with joy in our hearts (and thanks to Contrarian reader C.C.) that we offer membership to UK Guardian food columnist Tim Hayward for his recent, eloquent paean to the glories of the iceberg. Moneyquote: [T]he iceberg...

22 January, 2010

Last Saturday, 57-year-old Jules Paul Bouloute, got off a flight from Haiti to New York. While attempting to find his way out of  Kennedy Airport's American Airlines Terminal, he accidentally opened an emergency exit door and set off an alarm. [caption id="attachment_4221" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Jules Paul Bouloute"][/caption] This has happened to most of  us. In confusion, inattention, or an ill-considered attempt to find a shortcut, we open a restricted door and set off an alarm. Sometimes it leads to an embarrassed chat with the on-duty Commissionaire; sometimes there are no consequences at all. In Bouloute's case, however, security officials evacuated Terminal 8 for...

22 January, 2010
Contrarian would not have thought it possible for a defense of quackery to set me chuckling and nodding my head, but my old pal Warren Reed has done it. [Previous installments here and here.] Knowing that the best defense is a good offense, Reed began by catching me in the act of scientific error:
[caption id="attachment_4217" align="alignright" width="230" caption="Amedeo Avogadro"]avogad[/caption] One of the few things I remember from Nat. Sci. 3 is Avogadro's Number — 6.023 x 10**23.  So it isn't roughly 10**23 as you state — it's actually 6 times that.  Six is called The Republican Constant - any Republican can stretch the truth by a factor of six without raising an eyebrow on Fox News.  Journalists often get the same exemption. But we don't read Contrarian just for the science.  More puzzling is the notion that a group of pub-crawling Brits is claiming to know what constitutes "proper medical assistance."  Of the reasons for healing—the passage of time, the placebo effect, natural defenses—"proper medical assistance" is on the list, but is an evanescent concept at best.  It depends on many of the same principles for success as Homeopathy.  Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
More after the jump.
22 January, 2010
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