Our curmudgeonly friend is back (previous instalments here, here, and here) with some observations on the language of politics: Folks will pound tavern tables for hours as they expound on the reasons our political system is failing us, but they rarely mention our sloppy use of words. Because we pay so little attention to their meaning, we are, as we are intended to be, oblivious the effect they have on us. Some examples. “Change” All politicians support change. But change what? And change it how? “Hope” See above. Hope for what? “A better tomorrow” See above. What will that look like, exactly? “Family values” See above. Many of the worst...

18 April, 2013

In the summer of 1976, Tom Enders, Canada's Ambassador to the United States, and officials of the US State Department were negotiating the details of a meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Allan J MacEachen and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Since Kissinger had called upon MacEachen in Ottawa the previous October, the assumption was that the next meeting would take place in Washington. As recorded in a confidential August 7, 1976, State Department memo to Kissinger, one of more than 1.7 million U.S. State Department cables dating from 1973-1976 released last week by Wikileaks, MacEachen suggested an alternative plan: AMBASSADOR ENDERS HAS ALSO INFORMED...

10 April, 2013

I generally refrain from commenting on developments in the Sydney Tar Ponds project, because I know better than most the PR minefield faced by those charged with getting the job done. Nevertheless, the Government of Canada has just released a short video that sanitizes the history of the cleanup in a manner so patronizing and false, it demands comment. Here's an excerpt from the video's smarmy narration: In the years and decades that followed, Sydney would see good times, and it would see hard times. But the resilience of its people would never falter. Faced with the environmental legacy of a century of...

10 April, 2013

From Halifax artist Shawna Mac:   [Click here for the full-sized image.] "I'm not very good with 'art talk,' " Shawna replied when I asked her what she was going for in this picture. "It just seems there is a lack of contemporary historical Canadian art. Most of the pictures being made these days are either derogatory, abstract, or pretty flowers and landscapes.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but someone should fill in the blanks.  I'm just glad I live in a country where I don't go to jail for it." To my undiscerning eye, the image imparts a schoolboy geekiness to...

05 April, 2013

As at least one news organization has noted, Tom Flanagan was Stephen Harper's campaign manager in the 2004 federal election when the Conservative Party levelled charges against then-Prime Minister Paul Martin strikingly similar to those that so damaged Flanagan last week. At the heart of the beleaguered professor's misgivings about child porn laws is the question of when and how the legal system should intervene to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. A similar, though not identical, issue separated the Conservative Party of Canada from the other three other parties contesting the 2004 election. The details of the dispute are not...

05 March, 2013

[caption id="attachment_11400" align="alignleft" width="125"] McGuire[/caption] [caption id="attachment_11401" align="alignright" width="125"] Cannon[/caption] In the moral panic that arose in response to Tom Flanagan's comments on child pornography last week, most of those who rushed to join the lynch mob were guilty of self-righteousness abetted by misrepresentation. CBC New executive Jennifer McGuire and University of Calgary President Elizabeth Cannon, however, deserve special mention for their failure to uphold the responsibility their instituions have for protecting controversial speech. Both had a duty to uphold a core principle of their organizations, and they weren't up to the task....

04 March, 2013

Yesterday, White House press spokesman Jay Carney kiboshed the idea of minting a platinum trillion dollar coin to get around the Congressionally imposed debt ceiling that Republicans are using to ransom deep cuts in medicare and social security. Some economists have urged President Barack Obama to exploit a legal loophole that would allow the government to print a single $1,000,000,000,000 coin, and deposit it with the Federal Reserve Bank, thereby enabling the US Government to pay bills Congress has already authorized. MSNBC Host Chris Hays summed up the case for the coin this way: If this seems surreal or ridiculous or magical to...

13 January, 2013

Chasing Ice, a new film from director Jeff Orlowski, follows photographer James Balog's attempt to catalog the climate change-induced melting of the north polar icecap, using time lapse photography. This scene, the film's climax, shows the spectacular breakup of a Manhattan-sized chunk of ice from Greenland's Ilulissat Glacier. To appreciate the images, click the gear at the lower right edge of the film, and pick the highest resolution your monitor will support. Then view the clip full screen. The trailer for Chasing Ice is here. H/T: Melanie McGrath...

05 January, 2013

Just after Christmas, I noted an angry denunciation of Chief Theresa Spence and the Idle No More movement by a Harper-friendly journalist. I took it as an early sign that Spence holds "outsized potential to cause trouble for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government." Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert seems to agree, albeit somewhat convolutedly: On the societal role of government, the gap between the various non-Conservative constituencies in this country has always been smaller than the gap between those who support the current government and those who don’t. The ranks of those who sympathize with the activist goals of the Idle No More movement stretch...

03 January, 2013

Right-wing blogger and Maclean's columnist Colby Cosh professes consternation at his discovery that running a hunger strike from a makeshift teepee in the middle of the Ottawa River involves actual out-of-pocket expenses, for which supporters of the striker might solicit actual contributions. Pressing his dudgeon pedal to the metal, Cosh waxes indignant at Chief Theresa Spence for "distort[ing] the perceived integrity" of "the most morally serious activity a protester can undertake." Oh, the humanity! Cosh concludes his thinly veiled ad hominem attack by speculating that Spence's "demands aren’t in earnest and the whole thing is no more than a publicity ploy." Well thank goodness for...

29 December, 2012
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