I recently bought a book at the local flea market entitled The Encyclopaedia of World Politics, copyright 1950.
When you look up “Republican Party,” it says:
[The Republicans are] regarded as the more right-wing party. Yet, strictly speaking, the two great American parties cannot be exactly classified under the left-and-right pattern, and there are conservative as well [...]
A lot of my friends have been forwarding me this article, published yesterday on the Kotaku gaming blog. “I totally heard your voice while reading it,” one guy said.
It’s a long, very critical article about life in modern Japan, written from the perspective of a foreigner who has been living there for about five years, and [...]
I don’t want to come off as someone who is excessively bashing Canada in my country’s moment of triumph, but… well, someone has to.
The main conclusion to be drawn in the aftermath of the 2010 games is that they were remarkably self-indulgent. The cloyingly insecure opening and closing ceremonies, which I have previously deconstructed, were [...]
They were worse than the opening ceremonies, which is saying something.
Basically, the same fundamental problems that plagued the opening show were even more apparent during this one. Beyond that, there’s not a lot to say.
Minister Moore’s efforts to ensure more French was spoken were evidently successful, but only in the most uncomfortable, forced, be-good-because-dad-is-watching sort of way. [...]
Obama’s much-ballyhooed bipartisan healthcare summit was widely mocked, and probably justifiably so, considering the lack of substantial… anything it was destined to produce.
But one thing I do admire about this president is the way he seems to be at least trying to usher in a new culture of public, partisan dialogue. Over the last few decades, the trend [...]
I had a letter published in the National Post yesterday. It was in response to an editorial by some guy named Chris Selley who was bemoaning the fact that Canadians, unlike Britons, don’t consider multi-party coalitions a legitimate form of parliamentary government. This, he believes, represents a disturbing dearth of knowledge about our parliamentary traditions, which are of course [...]
The concept of “Canadian spelling” has always intrigued me. When you grow up in Canada it’s a concept that people are always bludgeoning you over the head with, as is the case with so many of this country’s nationalistic idiosyncrasies. “Spell color with a u, dammit,” compatriots cry angrily.
But the inherent problem with Canadian spelling is the [...]
The death of Alexander Haig comes at an interesting time for me, because I’m in the middle of reading a fantastic oral history of the Reagan White House (Reagan: The Man and his Presidency, 1998). Discussing Secretary Haig’s infamous “I’m in control” moment, Lyn Nofziger is quoted as saying “that’s going to be the third paragraph in [...]
I attended a taping of The Colbert Report today. What a great experience. The man is a comic genius and he runs a fantastic show. He’s a lot more unassuming in person, too.
As part of his “Better Know a Canadian Riding” series, Colbert did an interview with Ujjal Dosanjh, who is one of the members [...]
This is completely insane. The Canadian heritage minister, James Moore, is actually complaining that there was not enough French in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 games. This, despite the fact that:
the games were opened in French by the Governor General
half of the national anthem was sung in French
the Vancouver Olympic [...]
