By BJ Bjornson
While the markets have apparently decided that all is well with Wall Street, more than a few of us are of the considered opinion that very little has changed and are waiting for the other shoe to drop on the vapourous wealth the investment banks have been continually [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I really wish I could find something to disagree with in this column by George Monbiot, but it is depressingly on target.
When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world's peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The nothing in this case being the supposed destruction of the raw temperature data the "sceptics" need to disprove Climate Change. The Times of London has the helpfully misleading story:
SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Yep. It turns out all those scientists got it all wrong and have had to reassess their work in light of more recent data. They’ve even went and published a new report, The Copenhagen Diagnosis, and I took a peek at their Executive Summary, which you may [...]
An interesting article about one of the other unintended consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq; the coming out of Turkey from behind America’s shadow and its rise as major player in the Middle East and beyond.
Turkey is extending its influence by diplomacy rather than force. It [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Admittedly, I don’t think this was too hard to figure out.
Chief executives in 35 of the top Fortune 500 companies were overpaid by about 129 times their "ideal salaries" in 2008, according to an analysis by a Purdue University researcher.
. . .
Fair pay for an average S&P [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It isn’t very often that my TV viewing works into any political posts, but thanks to the Chicago Tribune, there is a fair bit of sounding off in the right side of the blogosphere today regarding the TV series reboot of “V” being a none-too-subtle jab at [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I suppose the only thing stopping me is a bad case of morality.
Really, there isn’t much more to do with this excellent piece of journalism (and how often do we get to say that these days?) from McClatchy than offer some excerpts and recommend you read the [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Even if there are those who occasionally treat it that way.
The title refers to the introductory post of David Sloan Wilson’s at Scienceblogs, “Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God”. I have a number of critiques about the post, but none as glaring as [...]
By BJ Bjornson
You do have to hand it to Chris Hitchens. Not many people could take the news that Iran’s nuclear program is less of a threat than thought (or more accurately, claimed) and turn it into a reason to start bombing.
At question is a report noted by David [...]
Do you remember a few days back when it was reported that the Saudis figured that if the world ever actually got serious about reducing carbon emissions, and as a result, starting using less oil, they should be forced to pay the producers of oil compensation [...]
Richard Dawkins latest book is to some extent overshadowed by his previous work, The God Delusion. Indeed, in every interview I’ve seen of him promoting his newest tome, he has instead been dragged into a conversation about his last. Dawkins [...]
Tom Levenson has a major four-part opus up eviscerating Megan McArdle far asserting that a decrease in drug company revenues that might occur due to health care reform would result in decreased life expectancy for Americans. She uses a study to back up this claim, which Levenson notes [...]
By BJ Bjornson
By BJ Bjornson
I notice in the news this morning that there is a big hullaballoo brewing over a new “secret” Iranian facility for enriching uranium,
The leaders of the United States, France and Britain have disclosed intelligence information to the UN nuclear watchdog that confirms a second uranium-enrichment site in [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Despite the occasional flashes of good judgement, there has been little that has proven more disappointing in the Obama administration's actions than its continuation of many of the failed foreign policy initiatives of the unlamented Bush years. Today brings news of Hillary Clinton looking to continue one of [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Nate Silver has caused a bit of a buzz today by challenging the mainly conservative bloggers who seem to enjoy claiming how cool or cold it has been in their neighbourhood, or occasionally somewhere else, and then extrapolate their local conditions to claim that the global climate [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Elections are taking place in Iran today, with the reformist-minded Mir Hossein Mousavi looking to unseat the current neocon-friendly president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Neocon-friendly in the sense that he has provided all sorts of extremist rhetoric to support their own extremist views.
Now that it looks as though Ahmadinejad will [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The discussion over healthcare is continuing to heat up, with another editorial from the Wall Street Journal making the rounds today declaring how horrifying the Canadian system is. A system they then accuse Obama of pursuing for Americans. As with most such, it mixes a few facts [...]
By BJ Bjornson
This is just embarrassing
Three sterling silver flower baskets sold off by the government at bargain-basement prices on a government website were on loan to Rideau Hall from Buckingham Palace, Sun Media has learned.
Richard Legrand, who worked at the governor general's residence for 35 years, says he was' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
One of the big stories today is the speech Obama gave in Cairo. The reactions in the US are mostly predictable, with the majority of people quite impressed and some right wing nuts snatching tiny quotes out of context to scream about appeasement, apologies, weakness, anti-Americanism, and [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Via Matt Y., an interesting FP story about how demographics are beginning to shape Israel in ways not planned for by its founders.
The numbers are impressive. In 1960, the Israeli Central Statistical Bureau (ICSB) reported that just 15 percent of students in the Israeli primary-school system were [...]
By BJ Bjornson
My colleagues have been doing a good job keeping on top of the Afghan situation, but I had to post this little tidbit I saw in the McClatchy story regarding the costs and timelines for the war there.
The Afghan National Army is now 86,000 strong, and the [...]
By BJ Bjornson
At least according to the Government of Alberta.
Alberta legislators passed legislation early Tuesday that will give parents the option of pulling their children out of class when lessons on sex, religion or sexual orientation are being taught.
. . .
A clause in the bill, which is an amendment [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I read Michael Moore’s goodbye to GM this morning. In it, he makes a number of suggestions of what he’d like to see happen to the company now that the US government happens to be the majority shareholder. In doing so, he manages to solidify my feeling [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Obama has went out and made some rational sounding statements regarding Iran, noting that they may have the right to nuclear energy, (under the NPT, it is very clear that they do have that right), and that their energy concerns and aspirations are valid.
Predictably, this has driven [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Neil MacDonald has an interesting column up regarding the rise of those without any religious affiliation. It starts off quite well.
I have no belief as to whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Furthermore, I don't care. I don't bother reflecting on the matter. It's utterly irrelevant [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Police have arrested a man, believed to be Scott Roeder, for the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Roeder is apparently connected to the group Operation Rescue, whose founder came out today to call Tiller, "a mass murderer".
Justin Gardiner has a couple of pieces of information about [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Via McClatchy:
George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death Sunday morning as he walked into church services. Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Glad I'm not on this editorial staff:
President Barack Obama's milestone presidency has brought out its fair share of racists and hateful misfits, evident in an ad placed in the Times-Observer of Warren, in northwest Pennsylvania, earlier this week.
The ad in Thursday's paper read: "May Obama follow in'" [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I see a little brouhaha brewing on memeorandum over the possibility that Erich Muller faked his waterboarding for publicity purposes. I wouldn't put it past some people to do exactly that, but I'm not such a fan of torture porn that I would bother to watch the [...]
By BJ Bjornson
This weekend, the Israeli cabinet will be making a decision on a couple of bills that will go a long way in showing the world how the country intends to treat its Arab citizens.
After riding an ethnically divisive campaign to third place in Israeli elections, Foreign Minister [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Oh, how I pine for the days that “Conservative” carried the connotation of fiscal responsibility. Yesterday, Canada’s Finance Minister announced that he was now expecting a $50 billion dollar deficit this year, a new record for the country and $16 billion more than he was calling for [...]
By BJ Bjornson
There is nothing I love more than listening to the whine of the formerly rich complaining about how their greedy overreach has left them in bad financial shape. Today’s news brings the story of a bunch of Canadians who are upset that the stock market wiped out [...]
By BJ Bjornson
From the BBC:
Canada politician eats seal heart
Canada's governor general, Michaelle Jean, has helped to butcher and eat a seal in an apparent act of solidarity with hunters.
Ms Jean used a traditional Inuit knife to help gut the animal then ate a slice of raw heart.
Trust me,' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Do you believe in reincarnation and worry that in your next life you may not be born into wealth? Well, some bright people have come up with a solution! Just dump your life savings into the handy Reincarnation Bank, and then come back in your next life [...]
By BJ Bjornson
In case anyone was wondering just why the US had to waterboard Abu Zubaydah 83 times, the New York Observer managed to get a transcript of the entire operation.
(While the above is supposed to be humorous, the sad truth is that it is all too accurate on [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Some interesting stories coming out of Somalia recently that aren't directly related to piracy. The first is a report from the BBC a few days ago that Ethiopia has sent troops back across the border four months after leaving. The Ethiopians are denying the reports, but they've [...]
By BJ Bjornson
John Cole on Mancow deciding waterboarding is torture after undergoing the experience himself:
One of the things that supposedly separates humans from other animals is that we are able to learn from the experiences of other people. Apparently this ability is not available to right-wing radio hosts.
By BJ Bjornson
The big news this morning is about the four men arrested in New York for plotting to blow up a couple of Synagogues and shoot down some military aircraft. The only thing I find somewhat puzzling is the charge for conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Obama got around to pushing for some new mileage standards for the US auto fleet, and immediately the wail went up that he’s going to cause thousands of American deaths because smaller cars are less safe.
The Obama administration's sweeping fuel-economy and emissions initiative announced Tuesday reopens a' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
From the NY Times story about how gay marriage opponents in New York haven't managed to mount much of an opposition so far:
The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
One of my teachers once said that if bankers were in any other business besides banking, they’d all be in prison. That perspective has become far more salient the last year or so, but my teacher’s main beef was in the manner the regular business of banking was [...]
By BJ Bjornson
A pretty good article in the Washington Post regarding the high cost of being poor. They leave out the real biggie of health care, which costs those without insurance far more than what those with insurance pay for the same services, but they do a decent job [...]
By BJ Bjornson
This is just too damned funny. Andrew Breitbart saw a bunch of marchers protesting something to do with war, and making a few leaps to the conclusion that these must be a bunch of dirty anti-American hippies, jumps up to place himself beside an American flag and [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Like everyone else here, I haven't been too fond of Obama's flip-flop on releasing a number of torture photos. It is also pretty easy to fall into outrage over anything to do with this issue. As such, I have to recommend Jim Hoagland's take on the issue,' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Well, actually, just less catastrophic news, but like the news that rate of job losses was slowing, (since revised), less bad counts as good to some extent.
A new analysis halves longstanding projections of how much sea levels could rise if Antarctica’s massive western ice sheets fully disintegrated [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Ron has been doing a good job documenting the Republicans death spiral here over the last few weeks. Of particular interest is his post noting Fred Barnes’ statement that the Republicans should become the “Party of No”.
Improving the party's image is a worthy cause, but it isn't' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Things are going to hell in a handbasket at a slightly slower rate!
The American economy lost another 539,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate leapt to 8.9 percent, the government reported Friday, yet the deterioration was slightly milder than expected, buoying hopes that better days are [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Ron linked to a post at TMV yesterday comparing the current Republican situation to the British Tories long exile from the halls of power, seemingly soon to end now that they've finally picked a new leader with newer, more moderate positions.
There is, however, another example in' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Ron Grassi says he thought he had retired five years ago after a 35-year career as a trial lawyer.
Now Grassi, 68, has set up a war room in his Tahoe City, California, home to single-handedly take on Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Since we atheists are often told that it is impossible to have any sense of morality without religion, it is always nice to point out the evidence that the two often have an inverse relationship.
The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I always do love to be reminded that I come from Canada's version of the Bible Belt.
A controversial Alberta bill will enshrine into law the rights of parents to pull their children out of classes discussing the topics of evolution and homosexuality.
The new rules that would require [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Outside of certain vice-presidents and much of the mainstream media, a lot of people are starting to put this whole "Swine Flu" thing into perspective.
If I were to say that this year 30,000 Americans would die from the flu, you’d probably think I was offering an [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Face it. We've all been kinda waiting for something like this from Biden.
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.” A little' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
You could go over to the Daily Beast and read the informed opinions of several high-profile bloggers and columnists, or you could head over to The Onion, who have been keeping track of the major events of Obama's first 100 days in office for posterity's sake. [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Fester and Ron have already covered the defection of Senator Specter to the Democrats. The only thing I could add is that in the battle of which party's base is driving its leadership further to the extreme fringe, the Republicans have taken a major lead. The [...]
By BJ Bjornson
At this point, its still way too early to determine if Swine Flu is going to be anything more than a temporary flash in the pan crisis, but the PR work surrounding it has been fairly impressive, so much so that people are now beginning to argue over [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It will be interesting to see if the Village goes into “Obama needs to do something to stop the swine flu” mode. I’m not sure if invading Mexico or torturing people to find out where the swine flu came from is the answer.
But if [...]
By BJ Bjornson
At some point you almost have to feel sorry for the Republicans. I mean, what are the odds that within weeks of your railing against the waste of spending $900 million on pandemic flu preparation, you would wind up with a potential pandemic flu. Seriously, if I [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It appears that the swine flu is expanding its reach internationally.
Nova Scotia and British Columbia have confirmed cases of swine flu, while new cases of the infection have been found in New York City, as health officials around the world test for a virus linked to a [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I've read about a few of these mechanisms and how they relate to religious belief, but Andy Thompson does a very good job here of putting together many of the biological and psychological mechanisms that religious belief exploits.
The talk is similar in many respects to this article' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Jay was quite right to note that the torture floodgates have been opened. The revelations about the torture program, and the attempts of the apologists to defend them, remain very much the main topic of discussion these days. Since the rest of the crew is doing a [...]
By BJ Bjornson
With friends like this . . .
Just days after Janet Napolitano, the U.S. homeland security secretary, sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It turns out that the oil and gas, coal, and automobile industries own scientists were telling them that the science behind Climate Change was actually quite solid.
For more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an [...]
By BJ Bjornson
A rather impressive discovery of the "missing-link" variety.
It may look like a cross between a seal and an otter; but an Arctic fossil could, scientists say, hold the secret of seal evolution in its feet.
A skeleton unearthed in northern Canada shows a creature with feet that were [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The torture-apologists are working themselves into a lather today over reports that water-boarding KSM prevented a terror attack on the Library Tower on the west coast. Timothy Noah helpfully debunks that story by noting that the Bush administration had already claimed to have disrupted said attack [...]
By BJ Bjornson
May I say that I'm highly amused this evening to read that Rep. Jane Harman, who happily supported the government's right to eavesdrop on the conversations of the unwashed herds without any legal requirements whatsoever, is upset to learn that very same government may have listened to [...]
By BJ Bjornson
One of George Bush's speechwriters has an article in the Washington Post today defending the torture regime of his former boss. John Cole picked up on the most revealing paragraph:
Critics claim that enhanced techniques do not produce good intelligence because people will say anything to get' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I can’t help but get a chuckle out of this story by Steven Hurst about how Obama is outdoing former Soviet leader Gorbachev is his attempts to change America’s international image. Among the “stunning” moves Obama has made is his handshake with Hugo Chavez, the admission that [...]
By BJ Bjornson
So many lies, so little time. Perusing the blogosphere yesterday, I saw this interesting tidbit from Fox News.
Report: Antarctic Ice Growing, Not Shrinking
Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.
The results of ice-core [...]
By BJ Bjornson
This post deserves a great deal of attention.
I've put this detail in a series of posts, but it really deserves a full post. According to the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Yesterday was a rather important day for a lot of folks who were able to be recognized as Canadian citizens, as Rachel Maddow discovered.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
If my reading of the story is correct, Rachel's mother' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Talk about a bad trip.
An apparently distressed passenger aboard a small charter flight Wednesday night to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, forced open the aircraft's door and leapt to his death, police said.
The incident took place during a flight from Yellowknife northeast to Cambridge Bay, a community in western' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Well, it was a nice thought while it lasted:
The claim against the' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The rescue of Captain Phillips has got the intertubes burning up, but it certainly hasn't slowed the pirates down any so far.
Undeterred by U.S. and French hostage rescues that killed five bandits, Somali pirates brazenly hijacked four more ships with more than 60 crew members in the' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Rosa Brooks put out her last column yesterday asking for a bailout of journalism. Her reasoning is actually relatively sound:
If newspapers become mostly infotainment websites -- if the number of well-trained investigative journalists dwindles still further -- and if we're soon left with nothing but the yapping' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
With all of the outrage over the AIG bonuses being replaced by discussions of what kinds of concessions the unionized employees at GM and Chrysler will have to make in the near future, I was interested to see this little note about one of the more beneficial effects [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It seems many of those who got bonuses from AIG are having second thoughts given the outrage that followed their announcement.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group were giving [...]
By Bj Bjornson
Some illuminating video from Fox News
This comes to me the same time as news of an additional four Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan, ironically enough while on a joint combat mission with the US military. Canadian troop deaths in Afghanistan now total 116, which keeps us [...]
By BJ Bjornson
While the perfidy of AIG is burning up most of the blogosphere's oxygen these days, another of the stories on memeorandum caught my eye; a screed by the American Legion blasting Obama for a plan to get private insurers to reimburse Veteran's Affairs for their treatment [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Josh Marshall has a good post up on just why the AIG bonuses are becoming such a story. It isn't just the bonuses, but the apparent impotence of the administration to stop them.
Secretary Geithner found out about the bonuses. He told AIG CEO Edward Liddy it wouldn't [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I wish I could say I was in the least bit surprised by this:
The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to executives in [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Daniel Gross on those trying to blame the stock market crash on Obama.
Talk about misplaced anger. Wall Street built a wooden house, stuffed it with flammable material, set it on fire, and then poured gasoline on the blaze. And now it's blaming the inferno on the arson [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The Washington Post is playing concern troll today, publishing an article all but scolding Obama for noting that many of the problems the US is facing are the result of his predecessor's actions and policies. Apparently the proper way to talk to Republicans who refuse to support [...]
By BJ Bjornson
George W. Bush will be making his first post-presidency speech in not too many days, and unlike when he was actually President, he's decided to make Canada his first stop, (and boy, do I feel honoured).
It appears that it won't be all fun and games, however. Human rights' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Via John Cole a pretty good article that helps explain why we find ourselves in this mess.
Sixteen years ago, two economists published a research paper with a delightfully simple title: “Looting.”
The economists were George Akerlof, who would later win a Nobel Prize, and Paul Romer, [...]
By BJ Bjornson
While Republicans like to blame the least wealthy of Americans for the financial crisis, Daniel Gross does us all a favour and notes that it is what the wealthy were doing with their money that is the lion's share of our now collective problems.
The hedge-fund industry, which [...]
By BJ Bjornson
The NYTimes has an interesting article on the large number of physicists that found their way to Wall Street in the last decade and a half. It is probably some measure of the decline in respect for “elites” of all kinds that these “quants” will likely find [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Bouncing around memeorandum, I happened upon this piece by Jim Cramer lashing back at, among others, Jon Stewart for his less than complimentary broadside against him and the other financial analysts at CNBC.
Take Frank Rich and Jon Stewart. Both seize on the urban legend that I [...]
By BJ Bjornson
In news I can only describe as hopeful, it appears that more and more people are turning away from organized religion.
When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.
The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It’s little wonder that Republicans are always the ones leading the charge against evolution and looking for creationism being taught in the schools, the whole idea of empirical evidence just doesn’t figure into their worldview. Steve Benen points to an article by Bruce Bartlett, who looks [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Some Friday afternoon reading for all of you formally productive folks now going all "John Galt" because Obama has the sheer gall to allow Bush tax cuts to expire and send rates back to where they were in the horrible 90's of government surpluses and a strong economy. [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Recommended reading for anyone interested in COIN; Andrew Bacevich reviews David Kilcullen's. The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. Bacevich does an excellent job of cutting through Kilcullen's writings to note significant points. On the effects of the surge in Iraq,' [...]
By BJ Bjornson
Cernig, Sorry, Steve, has already noted that Obama's promise to negotiate with Iran may wind up being little more than a pretense so long as "Madame AIPAC" is in charge of the State Department. For myself, only time will tell if Obama is any less beholden to [...]
By BJ Bjornson
There is always a pretty fair bit of stupidity bouncing around the intertubes, and I'm man enough to admit that I may be responsible for contributing to that on occasion. However, every now and again you come across something so incredibly moronic that you're actually left physically stunned [...]
By BJ Bjornson
It is the time of year that all of those lovely tax forms start arriving in the mail, and the stack of them building up upon my desk awaiting my attention has turned my thoughts towards some of those means we all like to use to lower said [...]
By BJ Bjornson
I guess we’ll find out in the very near future whether or not the US under Obama will continue to allow Israel to dictate its foreign policy in the Middle East. The particular point of contention is how to approach negotiations with Iran, with Israel presenting a number [...]
