When I were a lad, I used to listen to Czechoslovakia, East German and other Warsaw Pact countries broadcasting on shortwave radio. Aside from the thrill of a distant identification signal or the puzzle of a spy number station and jamming, one of the most fun bits of it was the tortured political …

I never thought I would see the day that this might be a possible statement of truth:  •  I'll probably live in Newfoundland. There's no work here. Besides, I like Canadian girls better than French girls.  •  Did hell just freeze over? Did bovines go lunar? But besides that - should we care? Does …

This is an interesting piece from yesterday's National Post on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's plans to support or create or develop or defend "the Canadian Identity" which is an interesting turn coming from a Conservative government and party which has spent an inordinate amount of energy to …

How come the great ideas that wake you and keep up up never ever are really great ideas? Why doesn't you brain say "warning, warning: bad idea keeping you awake and not in anyway likely to make you millions!" I hate my brain on mornings like this. At least it's Friday.  •  Is Newfoundland …

So who do you blame? Who do you blame for the evaporation of much of the CBC today? Do you blame me who stopped watching and listening years ago and regularly disses it? For that you can pretty much blame Brent Bambury leaving the local CBC Ottawa drive home show as that was the last thing I would …

I wonder about things. I wonder why I need so many half consumed jars of jam. I wonder why the rise of the internet, the economic bubble and its bursting are all related. I wonder why no one seems to notice that. And I wonder why Twitter is taking off, jumping the shark and about to become (in Mr …

I don't really know if I believe in this science or that science. Belief in science is such an unfortunate thing. But not as unfortunate as those who act upon their belief systems like those in the Sontaran... err... German-Indian expedition which has been seeding the oceans with iron to induce …

As noted recently but worth repeating, what possible good is there taking a convicted criminal and presenting his ideas as authoritative or even just interesting. Words like this is a column of some complaint or another about a radio host he does not like:  •  I am told that he has advised his …

I came across this doozie of a foolish fib over at Darcey's the other day. All my good socialist life I have known other good socialists and liberals who like to hunt. Now, I swap beer with them for venison rabbit and duck. I may even get my own license to renew my acquaintance with hunting (if …

Pizza? Check! Beer? Check! Utter and complete idleness? Check!!!  •  What a festival of sloth was my life for the last 36 hours. When I was not asleep I was motionless before the idiot tube watching Somewhere U v. Dunno State. It was glorious even as spring came to town and I missed the day. Of … read more »

Being the bachelor man for one last night, I saw no reason to set the clock, to not watch all the basketball the TV could offer, then Obama on Leno, then a few infomercials. When you think about it, I probably haven't really adjusted from changing the clocks. That's it. That's why I woke up at the …

Do we hate "red tape" as much as before? Is there still a general feeling that too much intervention is always wrong? Not a chance. This morning I think even Stephen Harper with his recent anti-libertarian and anti- classic liberal statements would be nodding in agreement with this passage from …

Seeing as we are having short posts today, perhaps given my evening drive to the USA, have a look at Ron's last post. Ron is one of the best beer bloggers out there. He specializes in going to London libraries and museums and hunting out actual brewing records from the nineteenth and early 20th …

Sometimes web based graphical representations of data are perhaps more compelling than the information it represents. Whole lotta swooshing going on.

Because I went to a university with a journalism school, I have undergrad pals of the highest order who work at the CBC. People I respect and like to be around. I also do not watch or listen to the CBC. If I hear the tone of certain voices, I rush to change the channel. There. That is the …

It is taking off. Three have signed up... including me! Get the fever.

Sometimes comment maker Rob Paterson's recollections of family life growing up with money in Britain - and sometimes the colonies - are often an entertaining glimpse into another world but even this one about his father surprised me:  •  ...Dad had set up a metals trading company called PISS , or …

Monday morning. No one like Monday morning but you can bet you like this Monday morning more than a certain somebody in Ottawa:  •  An aide in Mr. Petit's Ottawa office said the MP was very busy, and would not likely have time for an interview to explain his comments.  •  Should we not feel for … read more »

I realize the annual sports pools haven't been what they should be. They are too complex and go on forever. By the time we actually get to the end it is summer outside, no one cares about the NHL and the pool just fades away. Answer: a phased sports pool. Rather than throwing everything in …

Watching the DVDs of the mid-60s Thunderbirds and looking over the new Facebook GUI got me thinking. When I was a kid in the 60s I was promised many things. A jet pack for instance. Also, world peace and, well, that jet pack. But I was also promised global information sharing. Have I got that? I …

It was 1:22 am when the game ended. I only made it to about four overtimes listening on UConn's radio AM 1080 out of Hartford but Syracuse won. So that was good. I thought I was staying up late to watch Cramer on John Stewart but that was a fold. I kept waiting for Cramer to say "but you don't …

One of the webby things that is actually good out of all the widgets on the internet are actually those little opportunities to just give feedback. Be honest. Web 2.0 continues to disappoint: being disappointed by your Facebook friends, time suck, workplace inefficiency, being bored by seventeen …

One thing that I think the internet may have done is tempered local weirdnesses about bad things. When I was a kid in the Annapolis Valley, the local AM radio stations would broadcast the fire alarm announcements as paid advertising. So, thirty four years ago, right in the middle of hearing the …

A big h/t to my man Jeffery the Clerkenwell publican. Just try to chew gum as this plays. I dare you.

Are the profiteers all that are left? Ben relishes the self-promotion of one who will go nameless or the other who will go nameless but US conservatives seem to have fallen to the point that these are all there is left. In late 2004, I posted a few half based things about recovering the moral …

Being a fan of a former great team in a far off country can be difficult. Difficult to get the information, difficult to explain to yourself why this is necessary. But once in a while there are little glimmers of hope that persuade you that there is a point. Today was one such moment as I checked …

Why doesn't the National Post point that out as part of the byline on Conrad Black's musings? I mean at the end of my fellow blogger Stephen Taylor's NP posts on the same "Full Comment" feature it states in sort of a footnote:  •  Stephen Taylor is a scientist, political analyst and a Fellow at … read more »

It was one of the best games I have ever attended in any sport. Bizarrely, this morning Canadian sports media are not covering it as their lead story. Had Bay hit the run and Canada gone on to win, the nation would have gloated for years. But the outcome was immaterial to the quality of the game …

I am tired of being sick with a cold. The first day you relish staying in bed. The second day you forget the passing of time and are surprised when the sun sets. By the eighth day, you can't tell if your are getting better or just no longer sensing whole sections of your corporeal being. Is that …

After years of obsession with surveillance, are the British starting to realize its limitations and its corrosive effect?  •  Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve also spoke to the London audience, arguing that the government's desire to control risk in society was "destroying our quality of …

When the news media collapses - after the traders in swamplands, certain rabid bloggers and political hacks on radio have their wish or way - I will most miss the interactive mapping provided by the New York Times like this one of county-by-county US unemployment rates. I have noted it before but …

Being off sick for a day sure gives perspective. One of the things we have to be thankful for is the need not to watch daytime TV when in the vice like grip of a cold because we can read a bazillion web based news services. It's one of the things I will miss in the coming collapse when first all …

Like you I am uneasy. Queasy even. But I am home sick and you are well, sitting at the office, putting off work by reading this. Yesterday, I was half-listening to On Point on NCPR and caught a bit of the discourse on what is "liberal" and whether it is actually coming back. Ben has been mulling …

Finally, it is nice to see the cult of personality being discussed out in the open:  •  I should say that there's something to like in the Limbaugh speech; I share a degree of his skepticism over the expanding role of the state in American life under Obama, and his confidence that the greater …

Previous celebrations: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. Spring happens this month. Baseball happens this month. Plants will poke their heads out of the ground. I might even BBQ. March good. The bad months are past. Woot.  •  These Too Be Sun Worshipers Update: While one may quibble as to the point …

Renee posted this helpful cartoon of the credit crisis yesterday which, along with the show by NPR's This American Life entitled "Another Frightening Show About the Economy", should explain why appetite and the worship of mammon, libertarian dislocation reality from idea and the era of the manager …