You made it! Welcome to Friday! Continue reading
Ice Shaman
43 posts
Almost there. Just keep swimming. Continue reading
You did it! Halfway through the week! Continue reading
Slow down, smell the … cherries. Continue reading
Canada and the United States are in many respects two very similar countries. Founded as white colonial settler societies, both are now developed capitalist democracies, with functioning multi-party (more or less) politics. In some very important ways, though, Canada and the US are very different countries. The United States has developed a national attitude of rugged individualism, premised on distrust of government and the notion that everyone can succeed and climb through society if they work hard enough. Canada is much more communitarian, turning more to society as a whole, with an attitude of trust in, and deference to, government. Why is this? What made our two countries so similar yet so different?
Back in July, I wrote about the descent into fascism in Greece (and Hungary). It seems like some recent events have finally awoken the Greek political class to the risk they face from fascism, and increasingly from the possibility of a fascist coup by the security services.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has taken to the media to defend his, and his police department’s, record. Let’s examine his arguments to see if they stand up to even basic scrutiny. I’ll be working off the op-ed that Kelly wrote, and which was published in the Wall Street Journal on July 23, 2013. Continue reading
For those of us watching the situation in Greece, and in Europe more generally, we are faced with the prospect of creeping fascism. In Greece and Hungary, and to a lesser extent Finland, the UK, France, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and a hodgepodge of other countries, fascist parties are emerging. In Greece the Golden Dawn, and in Hungary the Jobbik, have emerged as very important players on the social and political scenes. Fire-breathing nativists, these parties advocate for a kind of xenophobic, racist, politics that has not been heard so clearly for sixty-five years. Continue reading
In February, randyfmcdonald and I wrote about just how useless the Senate of Canada is and the expenses scandal engulfing the Senate. At the time, the scandal was (by Canadian standards) bad enough, with various Senators claiming money they weren’t entitled to, and questions arising as to whether those Senators were even constitutionally qualified to hold their offices. Continue reading
The Senate of Canada is, as randyfmacdonald pointed out two weeks ago, a useless appendage of the state, which has become a resting place for party bagmen to get paid to do not much of anything. As he noted at the time, two Senators were embroiled in a scandal over expenses (and in one case alleged criminality). Since then, the scandal has both deepened and widened. Many more Senators are facing allegations that they claimed expenses to which they were not entitled, and in some cases are facing allegations that they are ineligible to even sit in the Senate in the first place. Continue reading