Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald offers a blood-curdling precis of the just released (but still redacted) CIA Inspector General's report (.pdf) on the agency's torture techniques. He concludes: The fact that we are not really bothered any more by taking helpless detainees in our custody and (a) threatening to blow their brains out, torture them with drills, rape their mothers, and murder their children; (b) choking them until they pass out; (c) pouring water down their throats to drown them; (d) hanging them by their arms until their shoulders are dislocated; (e) blowing smoke in their face until they vomit; (f) putting...

25 August, 2009

A US polling website tries to explain the difference between the Canadian medical care system and the British health care system. And does a surprisingly good job. .. .. .. .. .. .. UPDATE: Spoilsport contrarian reader JP points out: Fivethirtyeight.com isn't quite right, is he? Or he's at least misleading: Everything BUT doctor services in Canada are owned and run by the state. Point taken, but after all, this is an American writing about Canadian health care. How much accuracy can one expect?...

11 August, 2009

According to a New York Times report of a speech by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in New Delhi last Friday, Canada's liberal immigration laws have led the software giant to create many jobs here. Moneyquote: [Gates] was also critical of Congress’s stance on immigration, and said he would like to see immigration exceptions for “smart people.” Canadian laws are more favorable, he said, because they allow immigrants to work if they are offered a high-paying job. Microsoft has created “a lot of jobs in Canada for that reason,” he said. Less admirably, Gates would like us all to carry government issued...

27 July, 2009