print and democracy

By Andrew Potter - Friday, March 28, 2008 at 4:57 PM - 0 Comments

In the current edition of the New Yorker, Eric Alterman writes:

Yes, technologies are biases that enhance some forms of social organisation and inhibit others, but I remain unconvinced that the viability of a nation, let alone democracy as a whole, is dependent on the transmission of news remaining frozen at a certain level of mechanical and technological development.

If you want more, you’ll have to read my column in the print edition of Maclean’s now on sale.

Your number is up: ‘Stop-Loss,’ ‘21’ and ‘Fun, Fat Boy, Run’

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, March 28, 2008 at 10:53 AM - 0 Comments

This weekend bring us a trio of over-achieving guys, all working overtime to beat one system or another. In Stop-Loss, Ryan Phillippe plays a Texan war hero who becomes a fugitive after refusing a military order to return to Iraq. In 21, Jim Sturgess portrays an M.I.T. math wiz who wins a fortune counting cards at blackjack tables. And in Run, Fat Boy, Run, Simon Pegg is a perennial loser who enters the London Marathon in a bid to win back the girl he left at the altar. Respectively, we’re looking at a boisterous road drama, a glossy caper flick, and a slapstick romantic comedy. They’re all “action” movies of a sort—stories of stubborn heroes committed to high-stakes quests involving virtually insurmountable odds. And despite their wildly dissimilar styles, they’re all spins on familiar formula.

Stop-Loss—the first feature directed by Kimberly Peirce since Boys Don’t Cry (1999)—is the best of the bunch. It’s aims to be a Coming Home for our time, and it’s the first film about the Iraq war that attempts to be entertaining. For my thoughts on the film, along with my interview with Peirce, go to my piece in the magazine, Fresh from Iraq—soldiers gone wild.

The other two movies have some redeeming virtues, but I don’t recommend either. In both cases, smart music is used to pave over dumb scripts, and you know there’s a problem when the soundtrack has more depth than the narrative.

21
I’m always amazed at how a movie “based on a true story” can be so utterly fake. This one is based on Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, a non-fiction bestseller by Ben Mezrich. Directed by Robert Luketick—a 35-year-old Australian whose lightweight oeuvre ranges from Legally Blonde to Monster-In-Law—21 is billed as an “action adventure,” which may seem odd, considering it’s about  college kids playing cards. But from the computer-generated opening sequence—a kind of helicopter shot that swoops over a microscopic close-up of a jack, it’s clear that these card games are going to play like battle scenes. Or rock videos. The designated rock star is an appealing young British actor, Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), who makes a credible American in the role of M.I.T. braniac Ben Campbell. Ben has been accepted into Harvard medical school, but doesn’t know where he’s going to come up with the $300,000 in tuition and living expenses—unless he wins a long-shot scholarship, which would require him to write a “life experience” essay that will “dazzle” its academic overlord. Before you can say “Risky Business,” we know that Ben is about to embark on life experience that’s going to knock academia on its ear.

Enter Satan, in the guise of Kevin Spacey, performing a Keyser Söze turn as a slimy math professor named Micky who moonlights as a blackjack mastermind. Micky recruits the shy, vulnerable Ben onto a team of card-counting students who fly to Las Vegas each weekend to fleece the casinos. “I’ve been teaching for more than 14 years,” Micky tells him, “and I’ve never had a student as impressive as you—your brain is like a Pentium chip.” Betraying a pair of geek buddies, who are building a robot to win a science competition, Ben zooms into the fast lane. He spends his weekends in Vegas hotel suites and strip bars, while quarterbacking blackjack team of college hotties, who wear Mission Impossible disguises and communicate with coded hand signals. Meanwhile he slides into a romance with foxy lady (Kate Bosworth), the teammate who (Mata Hari-like) helped lure him into this underworld in first place.

With dry ice coursing through his veins, Micky keeps reminding his team that they’re not gambling. It’s not about luck or passion, he insists, just science. And counting cards is legal. But Ben is only human. Vegas is a tough town. And as brutal casino enforcer (Laurence Fishburne) picks up the scent, we know there will be tears before bedtime. We also know that, because this is Hollywood formula, our hero will somehow succeed in winning everything despite losing everything, including all traces of moral fibre.

I can’t say 21 is without some pleasures. I’m a sucker for neon landscapes and casinos lubricated with the throb of house music and the computer-enhanced smack of cards landing on green baize like rounds of ammo tearing up rice paddies in ‘Nam. The math is cool—makes you want to learn to count cards. And Sturgess is potentially likeable. At one point a teammate makes a crack about him looking looking like the guy in Rain Man. Not Tom Cruise, but the other guy—the retard. Actually, Sturgess comes across as a mix of Cruise in Risky Business and the young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. But he sells out his vulnerability to a movie that has as much soul as a line of cocaine on a chrome toilet fixture, and never gets it back. Despite the film’s attempt to mimic a speedy Goodfellas vibe—from the young narrator accelerating into a hell-bent spiral of ego and gluttony, to the inevitable Stones tune that cashes in the ending (“. . . you get what you need)—this movie is like a drug that comes on with a big fat buzz and leaves you feeling empty and cheated. Despite being “based on a true story,” the script is a loaded deck that plays like a pack of lies.
21 just doesn’t add up.

Run, Fat Boy, Run

By contrast, this screwball romantic farce is at least an honest confection. Simon Pegg, the Brit writer-actor best known for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, stars as Dennis, a sad-sack security guard who’s trying to win back Libby (Thandie Newton), whom he left standing at the altar, visibly pregnant. Now Dennis  lives alone in a miserable little apartment, dotes on visiting rights with his son as a dedicated dad, and still hopes win back his ex against all odds. But he’s mortified when Libby falls for a rich, conceited square-jawed hunk named Whit (Hank Azaria), who believes he’s perfect in every way—and is a perfect asshole. Whit is training for the London marathon. So Dennis decides he, too, will run. He has just three weeks to turn his body—both weedy and pot-bellied—into race material, training with the help of his only friend, a fey slacker (Dylan Moran), and his stereotypical East Asian landlord (Harish Patel).

Run, Fat Boy, Run, which marks the inauspicious directorial debut of David Schwimmer, is a crude, silly compendium of sight gags. If the audience I watched it with is any indication, it’s a crowd pleaser. And if you scream with th
e laughter at the prospect of a blister the size of a golf ball being punctured with the ejaculatory force of the semen gag in There’s Something About Mary, this movie may be your cup of, uh, tea.

Much of the comedy left me cold. But the absurd Chariots of Fire spectacle in the third act does exert an irresistible tug at the heartstrings, even more so because it’s so preposterous. Although this very conventional comedy lacks the edge and wit of the movies that made Pegg famous, his charm shines through.

Bruised or Messy

By John Parisella - Friday, March 28, 2008 at 10:44 AM - 0 Comments

In recent days it is clear Democrats are heading into muddied waters. What began as the most exciting primary race ever with a fairly optimistic hope to recapture the White House has now turned into a sniping contest between two attractive and potentially historic candidates. This was not expected to become a battle of personalities since the Democrats seemed to be way ahead on the issues and had possibly their best crop of candidates vying for the presidency in a generation. It seems that the lack of any major substantive difference on the issues, however has given way to attacks on character and individuals.

Continue…

The return of Bob Rae

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 8:11 PM - 0 Comments

It was Rae’s day as he easily swept to victory in the by-election held in Toronto Centre. Stéphane Dion and his wife Janine Krieber arrived for the celebration. The word Outremont was forbidden from being uttered in the staid room at the Courtyard Marriott.

Liberal spokeswoman Leslie Swartman checks the results.

Doing the wave: (left to right) Arlene Perly Rae, Krieber and Bill Graham.

Scott Brison hangs out with Enza “Supermodel” Anderson, who is the grand marshal for Toronto’s 2008 Pride day.

Defeated Tory candidate Don Meredith wished Rae well.

Meredith walks by Mark Warner (left), the former Tory candidate for the riding who got turfed by the party.

Warner is now a Liberal.

Liberal youth mover and shaker: Milton Chan.

Another Liberal youth mover and shaker: Brian Clow.

Clow poses with fellow Liberal youth Seth Jutzi.

Rae poses with supporters.

Rae organizer Craig Knowles was beaming that night.

Rae’s media man Fred Kuhr.

Two Tory youths decided to crash Rae’s victory party. Craig Stevens (left) and Shane Barnes provided some much needed emo trendiness at the bash.

Liberal diva Denise Brunsdon accessorized by Geoff Hunnisett, a member of the Liberal lawyer student group at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said he knocked on more doors for Rae than he’s done for himself.

Down the street from the Rae bash, the NDP candidate for Toronto Centre, El-Farouk Khaki partied with his partner Troy Jackson (right) and supporters. The NDP party was at the bar George’s Play in the heart of Toronto’s gay village and had much better music than the Rae event. The DJ spun songs by Amy Winehouse, Rihanna and Jully Black. Note to Liberals: invest in good DJs! Or at least have a DJ.

The food was foiled at Khaki’s party.

Video Gallery: SXSW 2008

By Jeff Harris - Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 5:26 PM - 0 Comments

Brian from Holy Fuck confesses that he sometimes fibs to “nice old ladies,” Cadence Weapon tells us why Paul McCartney tops his record collection, and Jason Collett explains how Austin is the “blueberry in the tomato soup” of Texas. See a Hanson concert from the boys’ point of view, and get proof that pop star Robyn can sing despite her band’s equipment meltdown.

Click here for exclusive video coverage.

Things are Being Done

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 2:44 PM - 0 Comments

Did you really think the Democrats will allow Hillary Clinton to become the next Ralph Nader? Harry Reid says not to worry, “things are being done” to end the Democratic ultimate fighting tournament. I’d like to be there when Howard Dean takes on Bill Clinton.

Made in Canada

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 6:27 AM - 0 Comments

According to the Globe and Mail, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion was challenged by one of his MPs yesterday to “show what he’s made of” and kick-start the electoral machine that remains unprepared for a federal election in Quebec.

One problem: most of us have already figured out on our own what Stephane Dion is “made of.” Here’s how it breaks down…

7% Snakes, snails, puppy dog tails.

18% Tweed.

2% Heart that beats with secret lust for Sandy Rinaldo.

23% Brain so powerful and high-pitched that only dogs can understand the decisions it makes.

29% Water (tap, not bottled).

6% Organ that used to be pancreas but has been reengineered to produce constant stream of excuses for not forcing an election.

3% Balls (currently the legally property of Mr. Stephen Harper, Sussex Drive, Ottawa).

11% Titanium endoskeleton that renders him completely impervious to flamethrowers, grenades and the cold, hard reality of his situation.

authenticity watch: slow food

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 10:03 PM - 0 Comments

One of my favourite sci-fi writers, Bruce Sterling (if you haven’t read Schismatrix, put down this blog and go read  it now), has a very neat but somewhat perplexing article about the slow food movement here.

The neat part is his account of SF  as a “networked movement”, made up of chapters (preciously called “convivia”) that scour the planet looking for artisanal cheeses from the milk of albino virgin goats and other such rarities. Sterling utterly nails the Slow Food  agenda, which is to promote products and services that, by their nature, can’t be scaled up and mass produced. This is the crucial move in the authenticity game, viz., to find a positional good which can’t be out-positioned and thereby lose cachet.

But what is weird about this is that Sterling can’t seem to decide whether the SF movement is a genuine economic revolution, or just yet another way rich people have  found to lord it over the poor while pretending to be morally superior (See: Organic Produce, passim). Speaking of slow food guro Carlo Petrini, he writes, “Petrini has become an international green guru who is on a first-name basis with Al Gore, Prince Charles, and Vandana Shiva.”

And he writes it  like that’s a good thing.

Moving on, here’s Sterling again:

Whoa whoa whoa. What’s the difference between a “cultural network” and a “capitalist business”? Is slow food somehow a free service given out to whoever happens to wander into the Trattoria? Not exactly:

Interesting: McDonalds is a capitalist business because it sells cheap burgers to the lower classes. Slow Food is a “cultural network” because it sells expensive burgers to the upper classes.

There is nothing surprising in this, except the ongoing inability of eco-snobs to admit that what they are doing is catering to the rich.

sequitur watch

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 6:24 PM - 0 Comments

In yesterday’s FT, Maurice Saatchi writes a clmn arguing that the perennial complaint that politics doesn’t operate enough along business principles is fundamentally misguided. I agree with his points about why normal truth-in-advertising standards can’t be applied to political campaigning, but he ends with this:

Does this follow?

Photo Gallery: SXSW 2008

By Jeff Harris - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

The hottest musicians have once again flocked to Austin, Texas for 2008′s South By Southwest festival. Check out The Donna’s lighting up the stage at Emo’s and the guys from illScarlet giving their beer a bath. Other artists featured include Billy Bob Thornton, The Constantines, and Holy Fuck, one of Lou Reed’s new favourite bands.

Click here for exclusive photo gallery.

Mega Culpas

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 6:28 AM - 0 Comments

David Paterson was recently sworn in as the 55th governor of New York. He is the state’s first black governor, its first legally blind governor, and its second straight ridiculously horny governor.

Over the past week, a number of Paterson’s “personal failings” have come to light. He cheated on his wife a bunch of times. He tried marijuana and cocaine. He got his mistress a government job. But unlike his predecessor in the Governor’s office, Paterson has a mitigating factor for each of his transgressions. He cheated on his wife a bunch of times because their marriage was failing and she was cheating, too. He used drugs back when he was young and foolish. He got his mistress a job because she was stacked, dude. Stacked! (I’m hypothesizing on this one.)

Other lapses that David Paterson will admit to in the coming days, and the mitigating factors he will use to defend them:

• Shot a man just to watch him die. (Mitigating factor: man was Scott Baio.)

• Let NASA use his basement to fake moon landing. (Mitigating factor: spectacle distracted America from traumatic release of Chicago’s debut album.)

• Co-wrote The Wiz. (Mitigating factor: see previous admission of marijuana and cocaine use.)

• Punched a dolphin at SeaWorld. (Mitigating factor: in all fairness, grinning bastard really had it coming.)

• Had sex with Eliot Spitzer’s wife. (Mitigating factor: had just heard Barry White song on car radio.)

• Had sex with Eliot Spitzer. (Mitigating factor: the man has soft hands.)

Richardson’s Endorsement

By John Parisella - Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 4:23 PM - 0 Comments

After a difficult week with the Pastor Jeremiah Wright controversy, receiving the endorsement of New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, was welcome news for Barack Obama. This former Clinton loyalist showed courage in stepping out in favor of Obama and calling for party unity. It would have been easier to stay on the sidelines or to endorse Mrs. Clinton. Instead, he chose to act in support of what he called ‘an historic candidate’.

The response from James Carville, a well-known Clinton strategist, was to label Richardson ‘Judas’. Not the most elegant of phrases and very typical of negative politics and the attack on individuals. While Carville shows no remorse for an over the top comment, he reinforces the notion that the Clinton way of doing politics is the old way, not the new way. Carville sounds like an old political strategist with a sense of entitlement and the belief that politics is a bloodsport. In so doing, he reinforces the raison d’être of the Obama candidacy. The droves of young people once again engaging in political life is largely motivated by idealism, hope and the profound desire to transform American political life. The Obama campaign has channeled this enthusiasm and changed the way politics has been conducted in this primary season. Carville’s comment merely reinforces the need for change. This is the sense behind Richardson’s endorsement.

A Second Resurrection

By John Parisella - Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

With Democratic candidates, Obama and Clinton, sniping at each other, it is becoming more and more evident that the outcome of the November election is not a sure thing. It is highly probable that the Democrats will not have an official nominee by June making it likely that the Obama – Clinton clash will be more divisive. If Obama wins the popular vote, the pledged delegate count and the majority of states, it will be left to the super delegates to either confirm his advantage or decide to nominate Hillary Clinton. If the latter happens, you can be sure that the Democrats are in for a nightmare showdown.

It seems that Clinton intends to make it a real battle up to the end. It is her right and she has credentials to justify her continued quest for the presidency. However, this was a campaign that she should have won in early February. Maybe she is ready for Day-One but her campaign has been poorly planned, negative, and unfocused. She may be doing better lately but it is obvious a Clinton victory will not unify her party.

This leads us to the Republican side and John McCain. Three months ago no one would have predicted that John McCain would be the nominee.  Against all odds and facing strong opposition from the right wing of the Republican Party, his candidacy was resurrected in the New Hampshire primary. From that point on, he eliminated his opponents in a decisive manner.  This was the first resurrection. He now has the luxury to prepare for an uncontested convention, the selection of the vice-presidential nominee, fundraising, sharper policy initiatives, and look presidential as he meets foreign leaders.

In recent days I have had the opportunity to delve into greater detail the life of John McCain. This authentic American hero is the last candidate a divided Democratic Party should want to meet. He is attractive to independents, is far from being an extension of George W. Bush and is a reassuring figure in a world of peril. Like it or not, we may be observing the second resurrection of John McCain which can only spell trouble for the Democrats in November.

Take that, World C ourt

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 3:37 PM - 0 Comments

In an interesting decision handed down today, the US Supreme Court has issued a ‘screw you’ to both the president and the International Court of Justice.
The case was being closely watched by those who fear the influence of international law on the US justice system.

And then she invented the Internet?…

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 10:35 AM - 0 Comments

Click here to watch the video of Hillary Clinton landing under sniper fire in Tuzla…. or not.

I never did buy her comment that there was a saying “in the White House that if there was a destination “too smallm, too poor, or too dangerous,” then send in the First Lady. Too small, I believe. But too dangerous? C’mon. I once traveled on one of those first spouse itineraries. It was pretty craft-heavy.

Alberta to be an international 'pariah' by 2050

By selley - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 2:22 PM - 0 Comments

LONG WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Must-reads: Scott Taylor on Kosovo; Daphne Bramham and Rex Murphy on Barack Obama; Greg Weston on Canadians imprisoned abroad; Dan Gardner on deluded environmentalists; John Robson on Canadian Catholics; Peter Worthington on Tibet.

Ottawa grab bag
An Easter Monday tour of Ottawa, from the Human Rights Commission to the Ethics Committee, the Serbian Embassy and Stockwell Day’s office. (He’s not there, by the way, and can’t be reached—especially if you’re in a foreign prison.)

Until 2007, George Jonas writes in the National Post, “all the zeal, obsession, civic-mindedness, ambition, sincerity or malice” of Brian Mulroney’s “inquisitors, trackers, clairvoyants and persecutors … hadn’t produced one tittle of evidence that he violated any legal or ethical standard.” In 2007, Karlheinz Schreiber, left with few remaining options to avoid extradition to Germany, “pitched his adopted country a ball.” If this matter was anything other than an undignified political witch hunt, Jonas argues, we wouldn’t be running with it.

Not only did recognizing Kosovo royally cheese-off Serbia, Scott Taylor writes in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, but it amounts to recognizing a non-entity. Most of Kosovo’s “legitimate revenue” comes from European Union handouts, nearly half of its citizens lucky enough to be employed work distributing those handouts or in support of foreign troops, “the region boasts the highest number of prostitutes per capita in the world,” and ethnic Albanians killed three dozen minority ethnic Serbs as recently as four years ago. Meanwhile, he notes, “those jubilantly celebrating their ‘independence’ are waving the Albanian flag—not the American-designed new Kosovo flag.” There’s still time for Ottawa to “come to its senses,” Taylor suggests.

The Toronto Star‘s Haroon Siddiqui asks whether “human rights commissions [should] judge what is, or is not, hate literature,” concluding that yes, they should, because that’s part of their mandate under the Human Rights Act. One begins to wonder if he’s actually missed the point that spectacularly—that he thinks people were suggesting the HRCs have no such mandate, rather than that they shouldn’t, or that they’re misusing it—but he changes tack abruptly and says that “we should get the human rights commissions out of the business of regulating the press.” But until then, he argues, the HRC must investigate complaints from Muslims, however spurious, just as it has investigated complaints from non-Muslims, lest it be accused of a double standard. Hell of a way to run a country, that is.

The Calgary Herald‘s Don Martin reveals his choices for the best “six-word memoirs” of various Canadian public figures—e.g., Stephen Harper: “Vote for me—or I’ll sue.” With a few exceptions, they’re pretty awful.

Sun Media’s Greg Weston reveals that during Stockwell Day’s tenure at Public Safety, the number of Canadians convicted of crimes overseas and allowed to transfer to Canadian prisons has plummeted. It’s gone from a “rubber stamp” arrangement, which Weston seems to think is ideal, to a “screw them” approach, as articulated in a B.C. community newspaper, which most reasonable people would agree is not. Given this state of affairs, Weston says Brenda Martin has little reason to hold out much hope of salvation. We think Weston might have mentioned that Martin has explicitly rejected accepting such an arrangement, but it’s interesting information.

Quebec’s first minority government is producing favourable results, Chantal Hébert argues in the Toronto Star. Premier Jean Charest seems reinvigorated, the Parti Québécois is “re-examining its social democratic creed with an eye for policies designed to generate more collective wealth” and abandoning a sovereignty referendum as Job One, and the Action démocratique is “exploring different approaches to immigration and demography.” Ottawa’s second minority government, Hébert continues, is producing yet more crappiness, where “non-of-the-above—or the Green Party—is becoming a serious default option.”

Alberta’s road to perdition
Ed Stelmach’s greenhouse gas emissions targets make the federal government’s unattainable, The Globe and Mail‘s Jeffrey Simpson reports, and furthermore they will “completely obliterate” the positive effects of British Columbia’s carbon tax. (We don’t recall Simpson mentioning this when he was tearfully nominating Carole Taylor for sainthood, but never mind.) And Alberta’s problems go well beyond Ottawa, he warns. By 2050, he believes Alberta will be “the pariah of jurisdictions internationally.” We look forward to the feds’ international “Blame Edmonton” ad campaign.

On the bright side, Lorne Gunter suggests in the Edmonton Journal, citing plummeting sales in oil and gas rights, Ed Stelmach might have single-handedly destroyed the oil patch economy with his ill-advised royalties grab. Of course, the money is flowing to Saskatchewan and B.C, which might make up the difference in emissions. But if Gunter has his way, the newly-elected Stelmach majority will soberly reconsider the new royalty regime and bring the good times back to northern Alberta.

After all, Gunter notes in the Post, five years of data from submersible Argo buoys deployed around the world hasn’t shown any warming in the oceans—which is a key factor in the climate change models. Naturally, he sneers, brainwashed scientists have been quick to question the buoys and not their dominant warming hypothesis.

Organizations like Greenpeace dismiss carbon capture and storage, Dan Gardner notes in the Ottawa Citizen, and they can’t stand nuclear power even though the threat it poses pales in comparison to their apocalyptic climate change predictions. “What they want instead is a big campaign for energy conservation coupled with promotion of green energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass”—which, in an amazing coincidence, is precisely what they’ve been advocating for decades. There’s an innate leftist distrust of big business at play in their blinkered attitude, says Gardner. But he also suspects their judgment has been impaired by “years of vilification.” “Nuclear is a threat,” he mimics. “Nuclear kills. Nuclear must be eliminated.” (Ample supporting evidence can be found here.)

Obama’s choice
The Vancouver Sun‘s Daphne Bramham is unconvinced by Barack Obama’s much-lauded reaction to the Jeremiah Wright controversy. “We don’t choose our relatives,” she says, identifying the “huge difference” between the private comments of Obama’s unenlightened white grandmother and Wright’s incendiary rants before “thousands of cheering people.” But more fundamentally, she wonders why a man who “not only envisions a ‘post-racial society’ [but] seemed to embody it” would listen to Wright in the first place.

Rex Murphy, writing in the Globe, makes precisely the same point. “Why would a ‘healing’ politician, one who sought to transcend race or ‘move past’ race, be a congregant in such a church with such a pastor?” he asks. Whatever the answer, and no matter how effective his speech last week, Murphy says the “most compelling dynamic” of Obama’s campaign—a black man for whom “race was not the fulcrum” of his presidential bid—has been neutralized.

All that may be, Susan Riley writes in the Citizen, but it remains in “everyone’s interests to rescue public discourse from the 24-hour news loop, the gore-splattered political arena, the obsession with petty crime and personal foibles.” That’s the part of the message that resonates north of the border, she suggests, where “menial-minded, risk-averse leaders” ensure little progress is made on climate change, the plight of aboriginal Canadians and other intractable problems.

The Star‘s headline department summarizes Thomas Walkom‘s column perfectly. Headline: “Is Bush the worst U.S. president ever?” Subhead: “Historians might argue over ranking, but there’s no doubt he has been an unmitigated disaster.” The only notable feature of the piece not captured there is its penchant for mixed metaphor. Our favourite: “His thrusts at social security reform were stillborn.”

Of hypocrites and apostates
If one showed up to chess club and “played trumpet instead of chess,” John Robson suggests in the Citizen, one would not “think it odd” if one was summarily shown the door. Yet thousands upon thousands of Canadians feel free to “reject the authority of the Bishop of Rome [and] yet remain in its church”—and they tend to howl in protest when someone like Terrence Prednergast, archbishop of Ottawa, calls them out. Robson reserves his greatest scorn for Catholic politicians who claim their constituents’ concerns outweigh those of the God they claim to believe in. This, he quite reasonably argues, is idiotic.

Outspoken Italian newspaper editor Magdi Allam’s conversion from Islam to Catholicism will only richen the bounty on his head among Islamists, Colby Cosh predicts in the Post. But the reaction among mainstream Italian and European Muslims will be more interesting to watch, he says—and so far, Islamic leaders have said all the right things. Allam’s post-Muslim life will be “a test of whether there can exist true freedom of religion when converts of one kind live in peace and those of another dwell in fear,” he concludes.

Of prostitutes and opportunists (prostitunists?)
We knew Rosie DiManno would find something other than figure skating to write about in Sweden… and it’s hookers! Four decades after “launching the sexual revolution,” she reports in the Star, this nation of statuesque blondes and ubiquitous social workers (many of them statuesque blondes) has recently seen a bizarre anti-prostitution alliance between arch-fe
minists and “the Mrs. Grundy faction.” In short: johns are prosecuted, but prostitutes never are, on the assumption that they are victims, and their “decision to trade in flesh [was] not a reasonably considered choice.” DiManno sounds highly skeptical, but declines to explicitly condemn or support the scheme.

50-year-old women who gave up careers at 25 to raise children and run a household while their husbands win the bread “ought not to be tossed into a competitive and unforgiving work world and told to sink or swim” if their marriages fall apart, the Globe‘s Christie Blatchford quite reasonably contends. Heather Mills is not such a woman, she quite reasonably continues. Indeed, she’s altogether ghastly, and apparently indicative of a growing sense of entitlement even among women who “marry the ordinary Joe.” Blatchford wonders where these women get the “confidence” to march into court and demand money for nothing. (We suspect the answer is “from lawyers.”)

Africa, etc.
The Toronto Sun‘s Peter Worthington has had enough of western governments and the United Nations voicing displeasure over various slaughters of the innocents around the world—from Rwanda and more recently Darfur to Iraq and more recently Tibet. And he wonders how anyone can “mouth ‘Never Again‘” when it comes to modern-day atrocities with a straight face. “Military action against China on behalf of Tibet is out of the question,” Worthington concludes. “What isn’t fair, is our silence—and reluctance to even consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics.”

The Star‘s James Travers files another Passive-Voice African Travelogue, a weird, utterly infuriating genre that we believe he invented. (Sample: “To drift around southern Africa after a decade away is to be slapped hard by a couple of changes.” Our suggestion: “I recently drifted around southern Africa, ten years after my last visit, and was slapped hard by a couple of changes.” But we digress.) Among all the things that haven’t improved, he reports, the ubiquity of cell phones is a positive development. They don’t just connect people, he argues. They, and their embedded cameras, provide a “slow drip of acid on authority.”

Duly noted
Two recent cost/benefit analyses of the counter-terrorism measures enacted since 9/11 have shown a return of between 9.5 and 15 cents on the dollar, the Citizen‘s Dan Gardner reports. Hawkish right-wingy types might dismiss this as overly simplistic, he says, but alas, they already accepted as gospel data commissioned by the same organization that found anti-global warming efforts were terribly cost-inefficient aria. If they dismissed these latest findings… why, they’d be hypocrites!

Pauline Marois’ suggestion that English language instruction in Quebec’s francophone schools needs to be improved is a rare example of a politician addressing “a real language problem instead of its effects,” Don MacPherson writes in the Montreal Gazette. The constitutional and legal battles over Bill 104, which closed a back door into the English school system for families that wouldn’t otherwise have access to it, is an example of the latter. Politicians both Péquiste and Liberal would rather duke it out in the courts than help Quebec parents satisfy their desire for bilingual offspring, MacPherson alleges.

The Toronto Sun‘s Peter Worthington eulogizes George Gross, the paper’s legendary sports editor and “day-oner,” who passed away last week at 85.

Am I …

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments

… the last person in the world to notice that ‘The True North, Strong and Free’ - the tagline recently imposed upon the country by Canada’s Still Undefeated Champion Minority Government – has apparently been lost in translation to our other official language? Instead, en Francais, it is transformed into the epic history of our brilliant exploits, which is oddly retrospective, compared to the English version.

Yes, yes; I know both are plucked from the respective versions of O Canada — really, don’t get me started on that; if we’re going to try to be a proper country, could we not at least sing the same words to the same damn song, even if we do so in different languages — but couldn’t they at least have chosen two lines with vaguely similar meanings?

Also, after spending far too long on the splash screen for the Government of Canada website, patiently hitting the refresh button over and over and over and over again to see the entire set of randomly generated background images of Canadiana, I am somewhat distressed to report that not once did a scene from the nation’s capital show up in the rotation. Not Parliament Hill, or even the Peace Tower made the cut. There is a closeup of the Terry Fox statue, but that doesn’t really count, since it could be from anywhere.

Why no love for the O-town, gc.ca web designers? The rest of the country may not be overfond of our politics (although they do send us the politicians, so it’s not entirely our fault), but surely that shouldn’t be held against our neogothic architectural prettiness, which is every bit as quintessentially Canadian as crab fishers and polar bears.

(Yes, this is what reporters resort to writing about when the federal government is shut down for an extra day of long weekend. Try not to judge too harshly.)

How not to win friends and influence allies…

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:37 AM - 0 Comments

And speaking of the Iraq invasion, this article in the Washington Post over the weekend was illuminating:

U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes: Chilean Envoy to U.N. Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion

Iraq 2013

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:28 AM - 0 Comments

Five years after the invasion, US casualties in Iraq have now passed the 4,000 mark. In this piece from the print mag, I take a look at what the next five years might hold.

Racism v. Sexism

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:24 AM - 0 Comments

I’m personally still processing Obama’s speech on race — and so is much of the country, it seems. Conservative pundit Bob Novak argues it has finally branded Obama as the “black” candidate. Meanwhile, David Broder loved it, sort of. The speech, as well as the comments of Geraldine Ferraro, and this op-ed by Gloria Steinem about gender being a greater political obstacle than race, has also prompted a lot of coverage of the allegiances of black women. (Both in this article and in other interviews I’ve heard, they tend to say race has been a bigger obstacle in their lives.)

The Paley Show

By Jaime Weinman - Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 11:26 PM - 0 Comments

The William S. Paley Television Festival has kind of changed over the years, and not in ways I particularly love. Its original mission was to have reunions/tributes for current shows and older shows alike. Now it’s essentially a place where the cast and crew of every current show can go to meet their fans. And their occasional “old” show reunions are often shows that they already covered when those shows were still on the air, like (this year) Buffy and The X-Files and Judd Apatow’s various cult flops. I’m not saying they should re-unite shows that nobody’s ever heard of or where all the cast members are dead, but even from relatively recent years, like the ’80s and ’90s, there are a number of shows they haven’t done or even (apparently) considered, where it would be interesting to hear from the cast and creators.

Now, my griping aside, the PaleyFest as it exists is a great thing, because there really aren’t a lot of opportunities for TV casts/crews of most shows to connect with actual fans of their shows. The format of these panels is sometimes similar to the gatherings at network upfronts, where the creator and whatever cast members are available will sit on the stage and answer questions about what they’re doing with the show — except that at PaleyFest, the people asking the questions are fans who wanted to be there to see the people who make their favourite TV shows, not a bunch of advertising and press people. (Not that there’s anything wrong with the press, and there most certainly is nothing wrong with advertisers, whom we all love and respect.) It’s not a format that lends itself to insightful revelations, except maybe for shows that are about to be cancelled and where the creator and actors are all in a foul mood. (The NewsRadio PaleyFest gathering was apparently quite revealing for just this reason.) But the opportunity to see everybody together, talking about their work without the editing that goes on in DVD special features, is the real fun of these gatherings. And of course someday these shows will all be “old” shows, and we’ll be glad that these gatherings were recorded for posterity.

See also Todd Van Der Werff’s report from the Buffy panel. (I admit that Buffy fans are terrifying to me, and I say this as a Buffy fan myself.

Paul Scofield

By Paul Wells - Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 11:10 PM - 0 Comments

A quarter-century ago, Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons worked its way into the head and heart of a boy who thought he hated high-school English. Eventually I saw the movie and, years later, a very good NAC Theatre production whose star was nonetheless too arch for all the dark business happening around him. Paul Scofield’s portrayal of one of the great roles in English literature remains definitive and, after Scofield’s passing last week, he will be missed.

Canada’s Next Great Prime Minster

By Mitchel Raphael - Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 8:09 PM - 0 Comments

The latest winner of Canada’s Next Great Prime Minster was Alika Lafontaine (below). The show aired March, 23 from 7-8pm. Lafontaine now joins a group of winners which include Deirdra McCracken, press secretary to industry minister Jim Prentice, and Joseph Lavoie, one of the spokespeople for a former PM Brian Mulroney.

being ken whyte

By Andrew Potter - Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 7:55 PM - 0 Comments

My Q&A with Daniel Pipes, in today’s Ottawa Citizen. For anyone interested, Pipes is in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto this week. Check out the end of the interview for details.

And before I get anymore emails accusing me of being a stooge of Zionists, please read this column.