BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: September 2005 Archives

Frank magazine is back -- not back in print, mind you, but stinking up the Web with its Canadian political grumpsterism. Clearly the editors have put some work into the site, and the trademark sense of ha-ha is definitely intact (check out the Lamest Canadian for proof).

One problem, though: Most of the content is behind a subscription-only wall, and at $9.95 (Cdn) a month Frank is now more than twice as expensive as it was in print. I’m not saying they should be giving away their content for free necessarily (stay calm, John), but shouldn’t an outlet like Frank be thinking of something other than the same pay-for-content model that has failed traditional print publications looking to boost Web readership?

More entries on:

A dearth of foresight

Posted by at 10:33 AM ET | Comments (0)

I hate it when after-the-fact studies show what's obvious to many from the very beginning. When Ontario deregulated professional degree tuition fees, allowing law and med schools to charge more, many fought vociferously, complaining that tuitions of upwards of $15k a year were going to limit access. So it was absolutely no surprise at all that a new study reported on in today's Globe that this is actually happening: enrollment in these programs by students from middle income families is dropping. They can't afford to attend, and they often don't qualify for the financial assistance packages designed for low-income students. The middle income catch-22 simply isn't occurring in tuition stabilized provinces. Anyone with a modicum of foresight can see this will be a detriment to Ontario, both now for bright students who have to lower their educational expectations, and for the future, when a lack of diversity among professionals will cause gluts in some areas and shortages in others.

More entries on:

September 27, 2005

An unboring ceremony in the senate?!

Posted by at 01:53 PM ET | Comments (7)

Nice to see some real emotion on The Hill that didn't involve MP's calling each other names in question period. During her swearing in ceremony today new GG Michaelle Jean often had tears of awe and pride twinkling at the corners of her eyes. Her speech, while following protocol, had real meat in it. She and the PM also loosened up afterwards, clapping and singing along with a gospel choir from Montreal. Today the Globe reported that the majority of young people and Quebeckers think Jean is the right choice for GG -- it's not often that a decision Ottawa makes meets with anything other than disdain or indifference from those groups. We still, however, need to see more women and people of colour occupying seats of power across Canada.

More entries on:

September 26, 2005

Is this guy cute or what?

Posted by john_d at 06:25 PM ET | Comments (4)

In the posting below, Mason wonders why people need to be reminded not to litter. Don’t you just want to hug the guy?

Dude, there are people visiting this blog who don’t believe in global warming. The other day I got off the streetcar and the grandmotherly type in front of me let her paper transfer go into the wind, right in front of her grand-daughter. Shopkeepers in Toronto still clean their sidewalks with a hose. Someone told me the other day that, during a garbage strike in New York city, rich folks were wrapping their garbage like expensive presents and leaving it on their cars in the street. Human insensitivity to the environment knows no limits.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make a difference. Anyone actually interested in starting down the road to positive environmental change might do well to read Sweeping it Under in the latest THIS magazine. Or try Chris Woods’ article Melting Point in the latest Walrus magazine, which takes global warming theory as a given (imagine that?) and theorizes a new water map for Canada. Fascinating and scary stuff.

And for those still struggling with the question of how to integrate a “theory” into their consciousness, you might want to ask the good Dr. David Suzuki, who has this to say to the nay-sayers:

The world’s most prestigious scientific bodies—the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Royal Society of the U.K., the Royal Society of Canada and others recently signed a declaration warning about the “clear and increasing” threat of climate change and urging our leaders to act. An analysis in Science of all 928 peer-reviewed climate studies published between 1993 and 2003 found that not a single one disagreed with the general scientific consensus on climate change.

To ignore such evidence and insist on “proof” flies in the face of the way science actually works. Science does not progress in a direct, linear path. There are no straight lines from discovery to discovery to enlightenment. When I tell university students today about some of the ideas we had about genetics when I was their age, they burst out laughing. A recent analysis of scientific papers found that 50 per cent of them are probably wrong. But that’s not entirely unexpected. We learn from our failures as much as from our successes. That’s the nature of the scientific process.

To demand absolute proof in science before acting on a threat is to ask the impossible. It’s not just anti-scientific; it’s anti-science.

More entries on:

Sad state of affairs

Posted by mason at 11:00 AM ET | Comments (1)

can the litter

Please forgive the Toronto-centric post, but has anyone noticed the “Can the litter” ads on subways and around the TTC urging residents not to litter? It’s ad campaigns like this that make me truly discouraged about the state of affairs in our society. “Don’t litter” is one of the first lessons my mom taught me about 25 years ago. Are people so rude and inconsiderate that we need a whole campaign to prevent the most basic abuse of our environment? If so, what hope do we have to attack the really big pollution problems we have caused on our planet?

More entries on:

September 22, 2005

The Amazing Challengers of Unknown Mystery

Posted by mason at 11:42 AM ET | Comments (1)

If you find yourself in Toronto tonight around 8 p.m., why not join This illustrator Evan Munday for his comic book launch for The Amazing Challengers of Unknown Mystery? Apparently CanRock star Avril Lavigne has been captured, and the Amazing Challengers have been given the task of saving her. Check out the launch party for Avril covers, and Avril look-alike contest, comic-book readings and much more. It all goes down at Rancho Relaxo on College Street. Follow the link for details.

More entries on:

The Word on the Street

Posted by joyceb at 10:16 AM ET | Comments (0)

For the past 15 years, the tradition in cities across Canada on the last Sunday in September is to wander around the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Fair. This year's festival takes place on Sunday September 25 in Vancouver, Calgary, Kitchener, Toronto, and Halifax from 11 am to 6 pm.

The fair is free of charge and is chock-a-block with interesting book and magazine vendors, poetry, fiction and non-fiction readings, and special kids programming.

Be sure to visit the Canadian Magazines Tent if you're at the Toronto version, or drop by the This Magazine booth to say hello. If you're at any of the festivals and happen to spy a booth for one of your favourite Canadian magazines, grab a back issue and chat with the hard-working volunteers who make the magazine. Word on the Street is, like, the best day of the whole year, because you get to talk face to face with your readers.

More entries on:

September 19, 2005

Sweden to deport Iranian activist

Posted by mason at 12:18 PM ET | Comments (8)

Unfortunately, it looks as though Sweden has not learned the lessons of Maher Arar and Zahra Kazemi: IMC says the Scandinavian country is set to deport an Iranian labour activist who will be placed at risk of torture because of his work with the illegal workers’ movement in Iran. Sweden’s refugee board is refusing to translate a key document supporting Rabi Nikoo’s case.

Follow the link to a petition, just in case it does any good.

More entries on:

September 18, 2005

How rich is so rich that stealing from the rich is not so bad?

Posted by john_d at 10:42 AM ET | Comments (4)

In the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, there is a prison interview with Joyti De-Laurey, a young woman convicted of embezzling millions of pounds from the personal banking accounts of her bosses—all of whom were managing directors of Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s richest investment banks. The crime was a huge embarrassment for Sachs, since presumably being able to keep track of money is one of the prerequisites for the position of managing director. De-Laurey is serving seven years, and is fighting the sentence. Here’s a part of the analysis from the story:

There is a problem with the way major fraud is sentenced in general, argues Vera Baird QC, who has experience of cases involving large-scale theft. “The problem is that fraudsters are sentenced on the amount they steal, rather than on who they steal from and the impact on the victim,” she says. “To con a hard-up pensioner out of their meagre savings should be seen as a more serious crime than taking a tiny proportion of a rich person’s personal income.”

Agree? Disagree?

More entries on:

September 17, 2005

New issue's online

Posted by mason at 05:50 PM ET | Comments (8)

Just a quick note to say the new issue of This is now online. Dig in and discuss!

More entries on:

September 15, 2005

Crossing the (virtual) picket line

Posted by at 02:38 PM ET | Comments (2)

The skeleton crew currently running the CBC have conjured up a CBC Literary Awards site with a link off the beleaguered CBC homepage. While the contest is a CBC co-production together with the Canada Council and En Route magazine, the idea of entering online during the ongoing labour dispute feels like crossing the picket line. What will it be writers -- ethics or a lottery-small chance of winning $6K?

More entries on:

How my pregnancy relates to Parliament Hill

Posted by john_d at 01:45 PM ET | Comments (28)

Opinions abound about the publisher’s clearing house extravaganza that is Maclean’s magazine—known to me as “where Paul Wells writes”—and so little surprises me about Canadian magazines these days (what’s that? The Walrus is having trouble paying writers? Is it possible?), that I have just been staying out of it. Really, who cares?

Sorry D.B. Scott, but who really does care? I don’t personally know a single soul (other than you and a few old bosses of mine) who does. My friends talk an awful lot about whether or not the LCBO (Liqour Control Board of Ontario—aka the Canadian arm of the Australian wine industry) should be privatized, but about the life and death struggle to publish a national news-weekly?... not so much.

Then I come across a little nugget on Antonia Zerbisias’ blog informing me that not only is Barbara Amiel staging a return to Big Mac (and thank God too, because I was just wondering what hundred-year-old free-market aristocrats were thinking about Canada today), but that rumour has it the mighty Rebeckler will soon be bringing her powerhouse commentary to Wellington Street in Ottawa.

Oh please, please, please let her write about whether or not her stroller made it through the metal detector on the Hill, and how that made her feel as an ex-party girl discovering maternal feelings.

So, okay, maybe I do care a little bit.

More entries on:

What a week to be conservative

Posted by john_d at 11:20 AM ET | Comments (0)

Harper’s Quebec arm has gone for the throat. Check out “the letter” as transcribed by Paul Wells.

Brian Mulroney resurfaces as one of those embarrassing weapons that are insufficiently secured to the deck.

Those incredibly dumb ads keep showing up on my television.

Will these jokers ever be ready for an election?

More entries on:

September 14, 2005

Let them eat pie

Posted by john_d at 02:34 PM ET | Comments (3)

Economist Ellen Russell’s column in the September/October issue of THIS suggests that the near universally accepted standard of “success” for economies—growth (yay!)—may be a little naive. She asks the tough question: Is economic growth good?

I leave it to the economics majors out there to answer.

On the other hand, I have indulged my love of Excel to create this strangely one-coloured chart, based on the numbers quoted by Russell in her article (warning, we're edging dangerously close to real journalism here—I’m making charts). To me these stats, gathered between 1991 and 2001, a time when I was fully engaged with the Canadian economy (as I remain), suggest a more dude on the street type question: is economic growth enough?

If I ain’t seeing the growth in my actual wage, or in the amount the government spends on programs to support me as a citizen, where exactly is the growth going?

(don’t say deficit, don’t say deficit…)

Canadian economy.jpg

More entries on:

B.C.'s disaster response

Posted by mason at 10:08 AM ET | Comments (1)

From Seven Oaks magazine, a doomsday scenario for the fair province of British Columbia:

Day 6
With water levels in his home surpassing cupboard-level, Marc Emery ceases to make any distinction between his bongs and the rest of his glassware.

Check out the first days of disaster response here.

More entries on:

September 13, 2005

Stop the f***ing presses

Posted by john_d at 02:00 PM ET | Comments (10)

from Talking Points Memo:

President Bush: Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility. (emphasis mine)

...One thing for certain; having been down there three times and have seen how hard people are working, I’m not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives. Those Coast Guard kids pulling people out of the—out of the floods are—did heroic work. The first responders on the ground, whether they be state folks or local folks, did everything they could. There’s a lot of people that are—have done a lot of hard work to save lives.

I am now engaged in cartoonlike rubbing of my eyes in disbelief.

More entries on:

Win a copy of Fury's Hour

Posted by andrew at 12:36 PM ET | Comments (3)

UPDATE: Thanks for the comments here, but you all should really get involved in the trash-talking going on over at rebelsell.com.

Remember to read the rules all the way to the end. Only entries posted to my blog or sent by email are eligible!

*****************************

Who is most punk? Tell me, and win a copy of Fury's Hour and The Rebel Sell.

It is time to celebrate a few things. The coming of Fall, the publication of Fury's Hour, and the fact that The Rebel Sell has now spent 7 consecutive weeks on the Globe and Mail bestseller list. Time to have a contest and give away some books.

The Contest:

Who is the most punk person in Canadian history, or what is the most punk event, action, behaviour, occurrence, etc.? That is to say, what is the most punk thing that has ever happened in Canada?

Conditions:

1. Submissions must be in accordance with the schema for what punk is, as outlined in Warren Kinsella's new book, Fury's Hour. That is, the event or person must have been a) driven by Anger, and b) taken personal (DIY) action. Also, c) the activity or person must have been motivated by an anti-authoritarian impulse. But unlike Kinsella, I don't insist that the politics of the person or the action be demonstrably "left-wing". I think that centrist or right-wing actions can be punk as well.

So for example, the assassination of D'Arcy McGee counts (assuming it was by that Fenian Whelan), but the strangling of a protestor on Flag Day by the Prime Minister does not.

See the rest of contest details at my new blog: www.rebelsell.com/blog.

And this time, I'm really leaving. For good. I mean it.

More entries on:

Blog This, Meet Suzanne

Posted by mason at 12:13 PM ET | Comments (3)

I’d like to take a moment to introduce Blog This’s newest blogger, Suzanne Alyssa Andrew. This readers might recognize her name from the magazine, for which she has been writing most ably for the past year (at least). Suzanne is a Toronto-based writer and serves as books editor for our friends at Broken Pencil magazine. After seven years at Carleton University (plus a short-lived career as a civil servant on Parliament Hill) she has politics etched upon her brain. Despite living in Canada, she says she does not consider this condition a neurological impairment.

Please join me in welcoming Suzanne to the fold!

More entries on:

Read THIS

Posted by john_d at 10:43 AM ET | Comments (10)

The September/October issue of THIS Magazine should be on your local newsstand right about now. You must go and buy it. The editorial from new editor Emily Schultz is worth the price of admission. Pity poor Emily and her hair issues.

I had a great time on the streetcar this morning reading the letters to the editor, and marvelling at the conversation THIS inspires in Canada. There are still quite a number of people angry with former blogster Andrew Potter for his and Joseph Heath’s analysis of feminism a couple issues back. The four long letters of complaint—sorry Andrew, no compliments—make a wide range of claims about Potter and Heath’s scholarship and analytical abilities, and one concludes early “If there is any reason that would explain the women’s movement’s loss of momentum, it is that men like Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter are writing articles like ‘Feminism for sale.’” Since the last few letters pages have shown me the most intelligent and forceful defence of feminism I have seen from female writers in the popular media in years, I couldn’t agree less.

Our literary editor, Stuart Ross, continues to amaze me with his ability to pluck the best and weirdest from Canada’s lit-scene. Kingston surrealist Jason Heroux (whom I published in ink magazine so many years ago) gives us six exquisite poems and this gem from the subsequent interview:

“Life without poetry is like a large open wound without blood.”

There’s also a fantastically entertaining analysis of our favorite whipping province, Alberta from Iain Illich and a host of other writers, and a, well, stunning piece of investigative journalism by Alex Roslin, uncovering the disgusting practice of cargo sweeping in the Great Lakes. As someone who ordinarily enjoys the sight of a giant steamship going by on the Lake Ontario horizon, reading “Sweeping it Under” was like a blow to the gut. How is it possible this practice has been going on right under our noses? And why don’t our clearly defined laws on the subject put a stop to it?

In coming days, the issue will be loaded on the THIS website, but why wait? It’s a nice, sunny(ish) day across most of the country (sorry Vancouver). Take a little walk to the newsstand.

More entries on:

September 12, 2005

Ontario—leading the way, or living in a bubble?

Posted by john_d at 12:41 PM ET | Comments (3)

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty apparently got sick of all the bickering and decided to throw all the pieces off the game board when he announced this weekend that not only would there be no system of sharia law arbitration for Ontario’s Islamic population, but that all separate religious arbitration for family law disputes such as divorce and child custody will be eliminated as well. As The Toronto Star quotes him this morning:

“There will be one law for all Ontarians.”

So, while George Bush cosies up to African American religious leaders in the American south to try and repair some of his own personal hurricane damage—once again working from a playbook that has seen the concept of clear separation between church and state denigrated and all but abandoned—Ontario’s Liberal government goes very, very far in the other direction, removing an ill-conceived NDP policy from years before that has found itself, in the opinion of many, in conflict with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

So, Ontario—outpost of multi-faith freedom-loving democratic society, or stubborn hold-out in a North America increasingly defined by religio-politics?

More entries on:

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Posted by mason at 11:54 AM ET | Comments (6)

Some people, it seems, are extremely dedicatd to their mockery of the U.S. government. Take this site, which directly and playfully confronts the Bush administration’s stated intention to have “intelligent design” taught in schools alongside scientific explanations for the origins of life on Earth.

At the very least, a fun read.

More entries on:

September 09, 2005

more oil for food

Posted by john_d at 11:13 AM ET | Comments (1)

The Boston Phoenix drops some innnnteresting info on the oil for food scandal now making anti-UN folks so excited.

To be clear, as noted a couple days ago, Kofi Annan has said “my bad” on this scandal. This is just for perspective:

...Hussein smuggled $6 billion worth of oil out of Iraq — most of it through the Persian Gulf. Yet the UN fleet charged with intercepting any such smugglers was under direct command of American officers, and consisted overwhelmingly of US Navy ships. Most of the oil that left Iraq by land did so through Jordan and Turkey — with the approval of the United States. The first Bush administration informally exempted Jordan from the ban on purchasing Iraqi oil — an arrangement that provided Hussein with $4.4 billion over 10 years, according to the CIA’s own findings.

Scott Ritter, a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the first six years of economic sanctions against the country, unearthed yet another scam: The United States allegedly allowed an oil company run by Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov’s sister to purchase cheap oil from Iraq and resell it to US companies at market value — purportedly earning Hussein “hundreds of millions” more.

“It has been estimated that 80 percent of the oil illegally smuggled out of Iraq under ‘oil for food’ ended up in the United States,” Ritter wrote in the UK Independent.

Thanks to bookninja for pointing to this story—which discusses ten of the biggest news items you might not have heard over the last year. Good reading.

More entries on:

September 08, 2005

Nevermind the Stronachs, here’s Paul Wells

Posted by john_d at 10:05 AM ET | Comments (0)

Looking for a way to give to New Orleans? Send your cheques to Maclean’s back-pager Paul Wells who has organized a benefit dinner for NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Details at the link above.

And while you’re at it, read this week’s Wells column for some great N’Orleanian history.

The past speaks to you every minute in New Orleans, in tones that are not always sweet but often urgent. Constant reminders of slavery, race riot, colonial conquest, pestilence and flood. But also the distinctive tone of neighbourhoods as different as Mid-City, Marigny and the Vieux Carré. Extraordinary acts of generosity. Bloodcurdling acts of criminality.

Early in the last century, a miracle of geography put a kid named Louis Armstrong onto the Mississippi riverboats with his horn. He changed the world. It’s easy to forget. But if all you do is mourn, you dishonour the spirit of New Orleans.

UPDATE:

If you are interested in giving, send cheques made out to "Ottawa Friends of New Orleans" care of Paul Wells at Maclean's, 150 Wellington St., Suite 403, Ottawa K1P 5A4.

More entries on:

September 07, 2005

UN program blasted in report…

Posted by john_d at 04:31 PM ET | Comments (4)

From a BBC story:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he takes personal responsibility for the failures of the oil-for-food programme, highlighted in a new report.

Wow, I wonder what that’s like, having a leader who accepts personal responsibility for the failures of his government.

And just when does that Gomery report come down anyway?

More entries on:

$1.35 for a litre of gas? Who needs gas?

Posted by john_d at 12:07 PM ET | Comments (11)

“This can only be the start of a new era of public transit expansion, the beginning of a true renaissance of public transit.”

This quote from Michael Roschlau, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, appears in the Toronto Star report on Ontario government plans, multi-billion dollar plans, to take a new leading role in Toronto’s transit system, specifically helping to build the long talked about subway expansion to York University and a Steeles Avenue hook up to York Region’s complementary system to the north — hello commuters.

As always with these announcements, there is some political hoop-jumping going on as folks try to make sure they come off looking like the boss of this great idea, but who cares? Deliver the funding, deliver the expansion, but most importantly deliver the mindset that says major urban centres can’t breathe anymore so let’s stop focusing our infrastructure on people in cars.

UPDATE

More reasons to like high gas prices.

In the spirit of not letting Andrew Potter get away -- check out the hilarious post on his own blog this morning. Seems Quebeckers on the way out of the restaurant would like some of that delicious Alberta oil money to go. Just wrap it up so we can reheat it at home.

The Potter blog, where he regularly advocates for a change in marijuana laws, can be found at The Rebel Sell.

More entries on:

September 06, 2005

Weird action... but action

Posted by john_d at 10:21 AM ET | Comments (10)

This is painful for me:

Frank Stronach is doing very good work.

Roy MacGregor reports on beautiful action from the patriarch.

If you can get past the standard "he arrived with $40 in his pocket, blah, blah, self-made blah, blah (sometimes it's $40, sometimes $10, sometimes just $1 -- dammit how much money did Frank Stronach actually have in his pocket when he stepped off the boat, and what was the first thing he bought? a pulley? a fan belt? what?) you will see what crazy, outlandish capitalists can do with their money when they actually have a conscience.

Apparently, what they can do is use their corporate jets to ferry disaster victims to safety, and then buy them food and give them shelter while basically promising to make sure they do not remain homeless. Okay, wow.

So good for Frank. Maybe we don't need governments after all.

More entries on:

September 05, 2005

Fury's hours

Posted by andrew at 07:06 PM ET | Comments (0)

I go away for a while and all sorts of nastiness breaks out. I'd hate to think that I was a voice of moderation around these parts. At any rate, John and Mason and Lynda and Paul S are going to have to keep carrying the pail for the time being. After multiple false starts, I'm finally going to follow through on my promise to take a break from blogging for This Magazine. As I said before, it's been great fun and I want to thank everyone for all their attention and enthusiasm.

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the launch of my own personal blog. It will be the usual mix of culture, politics, music and bullshit. The debut entry is my sort-of review of Warren Kinsella's book Fury's Hour. All are welcome to drop by, and I hope it becomes part of your media grazing habits. Comments are open for now, but if it degenerates like it has around here I might have to do a rethink.

www.rebelsell.com/blog

More entries on:

September 02, 2005

Saving the politics for later

Posted by john_d at 10:37 AM ET | Comments (3)

“Why the hell can we send troops to Iraq and give Bush a blank check after 9/11 and not save the people of New Orleans?”—Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, today, throwing away his political career to try and help dying people on the streets of his city.

Here’s some more:

“They don’t have a clue what’s going on down here. They flew down here one time, two days after the event…”

“I give the President some credit on this. He sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done. His name is General Honore, and he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving.”

“I will tell you this, you know, God is looking down on all of this, and if they are not doing everything they can to save people, they are gonna pay the price. Every day that we delay, people are dying, and they’re dying by the hundreds…”

“There is nothing happening, and they are feeding the public a line of bull, and they’re spinning, and people are dying down here.”

“I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the Governor's problem, I don't know whether it's the President's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now."”

“Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something..."”

More entries on:

September 01, 2005

Oh, hell

Posted by john_d at 03:32 PM ET | Comments (6)

New Orleans media watch update—I saw this post on both bookninja and boing boing today.

Wire service photos showing post hurricane activity in New Orleans spot black people “looting,” and white people “finding” groceries and supplies in the flood-ravaged city.

More entries on:

“casual to the point of carelessness”

Posted by john_d at 10:42 AM ET | Comments (27)

The US president takes it on the chin this morning in an editorial from the NYTimes. No surprises there, what with the Times being the figurehead for “liberal” bias in the American media.

Fox News, on the other hand, leads today with a surreal story about Bush flying over New Orleans in Air Force One, to see the devastation for himself. They then make this petulant remark:

While condolences started trickling in from around the globe two full days after the widespread devastation in the southern United States left at least 100 dead in Mississippi alone, Germany and Great Britain on Wednesday were the first to offer their assistance if the United States requests such aid.

Yes, what’s important now is that Europe didn’t offer condolences to the USA fast enough, NOT that the President himself was two full days late in leaving his chaise lounge in Texas to actually do something about the disaster, and then what he did was fly over it and look down. Unbelievable.

Here’s more liberal bias from the Times:

While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast’s most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans’s levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane’s surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area’s flood protection?

It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America “will be a stronger place” for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won’t acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.

More entries on:

Previous month: August 2005
Next month: October 2005

THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

September 30, 2005

CBC's elephant

September 28, 2005

Even Frank doesn't get it

A dearth of foresight

September 27, 2005

An unboring ceremony in the senate?!

September 26, 2005

Is this guy cute or what?

Sad state of affairs

September 22, 2005

The Amazing Challengers of Unknown Mystery

The Word on the Street

September 19, 2005

Sweden to deport Iranian activist

September 18, 2005

How rich is so rich that stealing from the rich is not so bad?

September 17, 2005

New issue's online

September 15, 2005

Crossing the (virtual) picket line

How my pregnancy relates to Parliament Hill

What a week to be conservative

September 14, 2005

Let them eat pie

B.C.'s disaster response

September 13, 2005

Stop the f***ing presses

Win a copy of Fury's Hour

Blog This, Meet Suzanne

Read THIS

September 12, 2005

Ontario—leading the way, or living in a bubble?

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

September 09, 2005

more oil for food

September 08, 2005

Nevermind the Stronachs, here’s Paul Wells

September 07, 2005

UN program blasted in report…

$1.35 for a litre of gas? Who needs gas?

September 06, 2005

Weird action... but action

September 05, 2005

Fury's hours

September 02, 2005

Saving the politics for later

September 01, 2005

Oh, hell

“casual to the point of carelessness”