February 2012
1 post
WatchRomeny demonstrating how out of touch he is with the socioeconomic problems facing Americans, and why an off-script Mitt is a disaster.
January 2012
6 posts
Michael Lewis - The Big Short
The credit default swaps, filtered through the CDOs were being used to replicate bonds backed by actual home loans. There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors’ appetite for the end product. Wall Street needed [Steve Eisman]’s bets in order to synthesize more of them. “They weren’t satisfied getting lots of unqualified...
WatchPretty amazing
WatchStand by your instincts Anderson. CNN is obsessed with flashy inane graphics. Do we really need 3 dimensional figures to illustrate people gathering at a location?
December 2011
5 posts
FDR's edits to Pearl Harbour speech →
Courtesy of the US National Archives
WatchObservations on the lost Canadian “left,” similar to points made by Chris Hedges in reference to the disappearance of the American liberal class
Very interesting Reagan doc →
Especially fascinating is the transition of his political ideology during the 1960s, and the creation of an idealized legacy of Reagan, essentially a self-serving conservative myth.
November 2011
3 posts
local history →
Not what Lulu is referring to, but a shout out to a little local #Guelph history nevertheless
West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson →
A film by Peter Raymont and Michèle Hozer
The Hill Times
“Mr. Del Mastro was responding to a claim from NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa-South, Ont.) on Monday that the Conservatives are attacking the CBC because the Crown corporation—as with the federal long-gun registry—is a lightning rod that motivates hardline Conservative supporters into digging deep to contribute to the Conservative Party when it is being attacked in Parliament.
“Killing the...
October 2011
7 posts
WatchGreat interview with David Brooks of the NYT, covering the decisions of the unconscious mind, value of emotional decision-making, and finally some insight into the global financial crisis. Of particular interest is his argument that while the US is experiencing a serious period of financial turmoil, the West is not in decline. Rather, the spirit of innovation and intellectual constructs of...
Michael Lewis - Boomerang
“The curious thing about the eruption of cheap and indiscriminate leading of money between 2002 and 2008 was the different effects it had from country to country. Every developed country was subjected to more or less the same temptation, but no two countries responded in precisely the same way. Much of Europe had borrowed money cheaply to buy stuff it...
JUDITH TIMSON/G&M →
“How can the Occupy movement not touch a chord? Put plainly, there is something completely screwy about a society in which, to take a current Canadian example, airline attendants, some of whom barely make $50,000 a year, are being challenged on their legitimate right to strike while, as Toronto Life magazine recently reports in its hot-off-the-press Who Earns What issue, certain fund...
September 2011
4 posts
G & M - Cat got Tony Clement’s tongue? →
“In Question Period Monday, the NDP jumped all over a trove of emails between the Industry Minister and municipal officials in his Huntsville riding. New Democrats argue the correspondence shows that Mr. Clement was circumventing the approval process to ensure G8 projects got into his riding.
The Industry Minister, however, did not respond to any of the charges, leaving it all to Deepak...
Mark Carney latest target of a Dimon tirade →
“Bankers say they broadly support the G20’s regulatory push. However, many say authorities are moving too quickly, choking the profitability of financial firms at the same time governments are calling on them to boost lending to fuel the economic recovery.
Mr. Carney dismissed that argument in a speech to the IIF on Sunday morning. “If some institutions feel pressure today, it is...
George Crile, Charlie Wilson’s War - P. 338
“The scope and the disquieting details of the Muslim jihad that the CIA was then sponsoring surely warranted Congress’s attention. The Agency was not just flooding Afghanistan with weapons of every of nature; it was now unapologetically moving to equip and train cadres of high-tech holy warriors in the art of waging a war of urban terror against a...
August 2011
2 posts
July 2011
5 posts
End of an Era →
GOP freshmen turn Boehner’s dream job into a... →
“Mr. Boehner mused this week that negotiating a debt deal acceptable to President Barack Obama, the Republican House majority and a Senate that is nearly evenly split between the parties is like solving a Rubik’s cube. But that is only partly true. At least every side moves on a Rubik’s cube.
“John Boehner is an old-style Republican. He’s conservative, but he doesn’t breathe fire,”...
Classic photo of RFK on the campaign trail in 1968 →
“Ethnic conflict has devastated the former Yugoslavia and parts of the former Soviet Union, and been the fuel of disputes in parts of Eastern Europe. It has also deeply affected much of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia… Our knowledge or awareness of these conflicts depends entirely on whether the media takes an interest in them, or are allowed to take an interest in them. The...
June 2011
3 posts
Is our demand for, and instant access to raw information always in our best interest?
“I often thought afterward of some of the things we learned from [the Cuban Missile Crisis]. The time that was available to the President and his advisers to work secretly, quietly, privately, developing a course of action and recommendations for the President, was essential. If our deliberations had...
May 2011
3 posts
Lefties a minority, hands down. But why? →
February 2011
1 post
MACLEANS' Andrew Coyne →
“The nub of the argument, whether we are talking about cars, or buses, or tennis rackets, is this: people make better decisions when they know what things cost. Right now the true cost of using the roads is hidden, leading people to drive more and in different ways than they would if they were better informed.
Even a modest road-pricing scheme would be a start: traffic jams wouldn’t be...
January 2011
2 posts
Why Canada's prisons can't cope with flood of... →
“…The mind-bending isolation of a segregation cell brings no peace to a depressed or unhinged mind. Nor does an environment of slamming cell doors, fear and intimidation. Behind bars, effective treatment is rarely more than a promise while reality is a severe shortage of psychiatric professionals and a patient population so diverse it can explode if different kinds of inmate mix.
...
Excerpt - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail... →
“Of course, though, people with long-term stakes don’t always act wisely. Often they still prefer short-term goals, and often again they do things that are foolish in both the short term and the long term. That’s what makes biography and history infinitely more complicated and less predictable than the courses of chemical reactions, and that’s why this book...
November 2010
3 posts
Students bare their dismay at death of climate... →
“So you think ordinary Canadians – especially the young ones – don’t pay much attention to what happens in the Senate?
It seems students at the University of Guelph, west of Toronto, have been watching the Red Chamber – and they have not been particularly pleased with what they have seen.”
www.globeandmail.com
Is Harper systematically ‘snuffing’ out democracy... →
“In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters: “We don’t believe an unelected body should in anyway be blocking an elected body.”
That was when the Liberals dominated the Red Chamber. Since that time, Mr. Harper has made 34 Senate appointments. The Conservatives now hold 52 seats in the 105-seat Senate and, when Senator Peter Stollery retires on Nov. 29, Mr. Harper will...
Massive new anthology argues in defence of rap’s... →
“Clearly the coarse vernacular of rap, which has inspired more than its share of censorship and congressional hearings, has done much to prevent its lyrics from being taken seriously as poetry. But [co-editor and University of Toronto professor Andrew DuBois] is quick to note that even today’s highest culture was risqué in its day. “There’s a book on my shelf right now called...
October 2010
5 posts
Political gridlock lurks as Tea Party prepares for... →
“Either way, Washington watchers expect the “big stuff” is off the table. Few, if any, envision the post-midterm dynamics will provide political room for major breakthroughs on immigration reform and climate/energy issues.
“Obama worked the big issues when he had a big majority. Some people think it was a mistake but that’s what he did. And now, in the standoff to come, the big...
Urban-suburban split divides city →
Library Or Bookstore: New Netherlands Branch... →
MACLEANS' Potter on gut-based politics →
“…The problem with experts is that they don’t always tell the government what it wants to hear. The past year has seen a nonstop parade of bad news from the experts, who have shot down one article of Tory faith after another: crime rates are falling, not rising; harm reduction for drug addicts works; climate change is real and serious; a voluntary census is useless.
The key to...
New spending on prison expansions draws flak →
“Another question is whether increasing the length of time people do for their crimes accomplishes anything more than satisfying a general desire to see criminals punished.
Increasing incarceration rates may suppress crime, at least temporarily, by keeping people prone to committing it off the streets, [Gary Ellis, head of the justice studies program at the University of Guelph-Humber,...