Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose...
In a recent article that appeared in The Weekly Standard, Joseph Loconte draws interesting parallels between certain 20 th century events and some others looming in the 21 st. Loconte, whose most recent book is The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm (Rowman &...
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Monday, February 27, 2006
Security? What Security...
We hear almost daily about the problems at America’s southern border, which appears to be about as porous as an Olympic ice-dancer’s costume. But we have our own problems in Canada. That was highlighted by an article which recently appeared in a Toronto community paper, and which approvingly spoke...
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Shock and Awe…
that is my reaction to President Bush’s threat to veto any bill that would prohibit a Dubai company for getting the contract to run a number of US ports. As a Canadian, I do not expect President Bush (or any other American politician for that matter) to pay attention to my views. For that and other...
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Sunday, February 19, 2006
More from the Cartoon Front...
Attacks on the US embassy in Jakarta, protests in Istanbul – the beat goes on. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Muslims all over the world have cancelled their subscription to the Danish paper that published the cartoon of the prophet and his bomb-laden turban. Seriously, though, we all...
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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
How the Judge Lost His Innocence
Before I go on to more serious matters again, although, in a sense, this too is serious, a few observations on a comment made by Mr. Justice Gomery. For the benefit of my American friends, His Honor was appointed by the former Canadian government to investigate wrongdoing by Liberal politicians, the...
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Happy Valentine...
Poetry is not my strength, but today I thought I’d share a ‘Shakespearean’ sonnet with you, composed recently! A Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! Sonnet The songs of love that men have sung at times Have sighed, have wooed and pledged their singers’ lives To lovers, flirts and even concubines,...
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Monday, February 13, 2006
Mistakes...
I read the news today, oh boy…no, sorry, that was the Beatles’ line, but I did, some of the news, as is my habit, leisurely over my morning tea on weekends, slightly more rushed during the week. Among the plethora of unpleasantness there was one item that, although on the face of it insignificant,...
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Wednesday, February 8, 2006
An Aside on Political Semantics
To be concerned with semantics is to be concerned with the meanings of words. As we all know, many if not most words (and I shall restrict myself here to nouns), can mean different things to different people at different times and in different contexts. I am tempted to say that most nouns are...
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Burning Embassies...
In my post ‘Islamic Caricatures’ I suggested that we are facing a clash of cultures, exemplified by Islam’s violent reaction to the publication of some satirical caricatures of Mohammed. Writersjourney, (WJ as I prefer to call him for short), a liberal, though a very articulate and thoughtful one,...
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Thursday, February 2, 2006
Islamic Caricatures...
There is much to be said about the rapidly escalating controversy over the publication of caricatures depicting the prophet Mohammed, but I shall confine myself to one point: that nothing serves better to illustrate the deep cultural divide that separates ‘us’ from ‘them’. Many in the West...
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