A rare moment of candour from an unlikely source: Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, said opening the Erez crossing would endanger its staff. But Mr. Seaman also asserted the absence of foreign journalists was good for Israel because the Hamas militants who rule Gaza fabricate coverage to make Israel look bad. “Andcontinue reading
Current Events Archives
Rae Days redux
California Republicans borrow a good idea: Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today ordered all state workers to take two days of unpaid leave each month to conserve money amid a record budget deficit and a legislative impasse over how to fix it. The furloughs will begin in February and will last throughcontinue reading
The value of cynicism, and defunding the left
I’ve long thought that Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas and One Market Under God, editor of the late, much-lamented The Baffler, and current WSJ columnist, was my psychic twin. Here, from his latest book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, comes the proof: Now, I’m the kind of guy who believescontinue reading
They make no sense in Russian either
Anti-coalition protester in Ottawa holds up a hand-drawn picture of Stephane Dion as some kind of Communist commissar. Unfortunately, what is written on the sign would be a non-existent word pronounced “ee-oo-yot” in Russian. I’m guessing they were going for “nyet.”
Bloc solid
Almost a decade ago, I was charged at the last minute with taking two Bloc Quebecois parliamentarians to a series of meetings in Moscow. They were more or less an afterthought, which is why they were assigned to me — the MPs from other parties were taken around, to many more meetings, by senior embassycontinue reading
Wow
First poll on the coalition: 76% of Quebecois are in favour.
Teach your children well… especially when it comes to how a parliamentary democracy works
Apart from all the other issues raised by the demise (fingers crossed) of our nasty and brutish Conservative government, it’s clear that very, very few Canadians understand how our political system works. I’ve long thought that this is one reason for the anemic interest in politics in Canada, and the widespread feeling that there iscontinue reading
You knew it was coming…
The inevitable exhortation to go shopping — with a new twist. If you don’t pony up, the recession is all your fault, according to Premier McGuinty: “But if you don’t buy that car — even though you can actually afford it — if you don’t buy that fridge, if you don’t shop at Christmas time,continue reading
The Rae Rehab continues
Rae Days were hated, but that doesn’t mean they were a bad idea. I thought at the time, and continue to think now, that shutting down services for a few days and having a limited number of unpaid days off in order to keep a greater people working full-time at full-time salaries is an excellent,continue reading
Ow, my neck
November 21, 2008: Harper calls crisis worst since 1929 October 7, 2008: “I think there’s probably a lot of great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as a consequence of all this panic.” September 15, 2008: “My own belief is if we were going to have some sort of big crash or recession, wecontinue reading