Shrinking cities

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM - 0 Comments

The auto manufacturing city of Flint, Mich., has been suffering through hard times for years now. Countless efforts to slow its decline have been fruitless. But the latest proposal to fix Flint is the most radical yet: tear down entire blocks, even neighbourhoods, rather than waiting for them to become abandoned. The idea is to shrink Flint into a few healthy areas. “Decline in Flint is like gravity, a fact of life,” one local official tells the New York Times, “We need to control it instead of letting it control us.” It could become a model for other cities struggling with foreclosures.

New York Times

Banks $4.1 trillion in the hole

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:13 PM - 2 Comments

How much money has disappeared during the current economic crisis? Yesterday the International Monetary Fund released its latest estimate—a staggering US $4.1 trillion. Of course, those losses are just for banks and financial institutions ($2.7 trillion of it south of the border.) No one wants to put a number on how much the rest of us are missing.

New York Times

Fowler/Guay watch: Released (?)

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:13 PM - 7 Comments

BAMAKO (AFP) — Two Canadian diplomats as well as a German and a Swiss, held for months by Al-Qaeda’s North African branch, were released Wednesday in northern Mali, security sources told AFP.

link

Fun Propaganda For All Ages!

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:02 PM - 5 Comments

Since we’re on an Earth Day kick (and lacking the opportunity to write a longer post on something else), I was thinking about those environmentally-correct cartoons they used to make in the late ’80s and early ’90s. For a while it seemed like everybody had to have an environmental message: Captain Planet, of course, but The Smurfs added an environment-friendly character called “Natural Smurf” and other shows did individual episodes about Saving The Environment. Which would be fine, except that the message of all these shows was as follows: polluters all want to pollute for no reason at all, just to be mean. There is no good reason for polluting. Therefore, all you have to do to save the environment is be nice and kind. I don’t recall any of them acknowledging that some level of pollution is required to produce all the cool stuff that’s advertised during the commercial breaks. So they told kids that there is never any trade-off or sacrifice for doing good, which, frankly, is a terrible message and one that probably turned a lot of kids very angry when they found out the truth.

The ultimate in cheerful brainwashing was, of course, “The Smoggies,” an international co-production with a theme song by the late Joe Raposo. Here we learn that a) All pollution is caused by ugly, joyless people who just want to make a mess for its own sake; b) Solar and wind power totally work for everything; c) If you respect the environment, you will be young forever and never have to grow up or die.

Preparing for torture

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

A U.S. Senate investigation has found that senior military and intelligence officials were preparing—and anxious—to use harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects long before the idea was rubber-stamped by the Bush White House. Previously secret memos and interviews reveal that CIA and Pentagon employees were exploring ways to break Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees in early 2002, up to eight months before Justice Department lawyers approved the use of waterboarding and nine other methods. Even more damning, the report from the Senate Armed Services Committee says numerous officials—from government lawyers to trained interrogation experts—warned that the techniques could not only backfire, but might violate U.S. and international law. One Army lieutenant colonel who reviewed the program warned in 2002 that coercion “usually decreases the reliability of the information because the person will say whatever he believes will stop the pain.” A second official, briefed on plans to use aggressive techniques on detainees, was quoted the same year as asking: “Wouldn’t that be illegal?”

Washington Post

Something else that Sarnia and Ottawa have in common

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 21 Comments

Ahem.

AWESOME!!!!!!!

OK, I’m back. Yes, it’s true. The summer festivals are announcing their schedules, and as I peruse the sunshine opportunities, I note that one of the headliners for Bayfest in my hometown of Sarnia is Kiss, or as all Southern Ontarians of a certain age like to pronounce it, in our best Arthur Penhallow voice: KISS.

Now this makes excellent sense in Sarnia because Bayfest’s artistic mandate is to not worry too much about the artistic mandate. Bayfest’s goal is large crowds. (As the legendary Hollywood producer Don Simpson put it, “What are my films about? Bums in seats.”) In this context, booking Counting Crows almost counts as some kind of risky, Fellini-esque artistic choice. I have never been to Bayfest, but I’m told it is two weekends of sun and fun. And goodness knows it’s lovely down by the water.

But if I need my fix of Kiss, or as we like to pronounce it, KISS, I needn’t go all the way home this July, for they will be playing in Ottawa too. Here the circumstances are maybe a bit more head-scratchy, because in Ottawa Kiss is playing at the Bluesfest. (So will those noted Delta slide-guitar specialists, Styx.) Continue…

Freddie Mac executive found dead

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 1 Comment

The Chief Financial Officer of money-losing mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead at his Virginia home this morning. Police are calling it a suicide. David Kellerman, 41, had worked for Freddie Mac for the past 16 years and was named acting CFO last September when the U.S. government seized control of the company to keep it from failing. A leading provider of the sort of high-risk mortgage loans that fueled the real estate bubble—and the current recession—Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year. Many of the company’s employees learned of Kellerman’s suicide on radio news reports as they drove to work. John Koskinen, the company’s interim chief executive, described his dead colleague as “a man of great talents. His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him.”

The Associated Press

Still searching for Holocaust victims

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM - 0 Comments

After lengthy negotiations with a property owner, the German government will begin excavating a birch-lined backyard 120 km southeast of Berlin, which scholars believe holds the remains of 753 Jewish concentration camp prisoners slain by the Nazis in the final days of the Second World War II. Historian Guenter Morsch said that 1,342 prisoners at the Lieberose site, a satellite camp of the better-known Sachsenhausen camp, were deemed unfit to be sent on a forced march when it was evacuated ahead of the Soviet Army’s advance in early 1945. In 1971, remains of 589 victims, believed to have been shot on Feb. 3, 1945,  were found in a nearby village. “The question remains, where are the other 753?” Morsch asked. Research at 20 possible sites in the area combined with interviews from six witnesses led him to zero in on the vast back yard behind a simple two-story house flanked by flowering trees. The excavation starts April 22, the 64th anniversary of the sub-camp’s liberation.

Yahoo

Don’t feel the burn? Get out of the sun

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

Think you have little chance of getting skin cancer because you don’t burn easily and have dark hair? You may actually run more risk depending on your genes, according to surprising findings presented at the recent American Association of Cancer Research conference. Variations in the MC1R gene may increase the risk of melanoma among people who historically haven’t been considered high-risk candidates. One study showed that the chance for skin cancer was 2.4 times higher in dark-haired people who have MC1R genetic variants. By comparison, blonds or redheads who had these same genetic variants were at no increased risk. What’s more, the MC1R gene was associated with higher risk among people with “dark eye colour (3.2-fold increase), who did not freckle (8-fold increase), who tanned after repeated sun exposure (2.4 fold increase) or who tanned immediately without burning (9.5-fold increase),” according to a summary of the research. “People with these characteristics are usually thought to be at reduced risk for melanoma.” Unfortunately, there is no screening test for MC1R available to the general public yet.

Science Daily

Two top Tamil Tigers surrender

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

Two senior Tamil Tigers surrendered today, the Sri Lankan military claimed, as it pushed deeper into the Tigers’ last remaining enclave in the northeast of the country where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped. Velayutham Dayanidhi, better known as Daya Master, a Tiger spokesman, was captured along with an interpreter known as George, who worked for senior Tiger rebels. Both men were taken “in the company of fleeing civilians” who have been streaming out of the Tiger enclave by the thousands over the last few days. Tiger foot soldiers are typically instructed to swallow cyanide rather than surrender or risk capture—apparently these functionaries decided this directive didn’t apply to them.

The Hindu

BBC

Das Kapital

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

Apparently, sales of Karl Marx’s opus are way up since the markets spun way down. Is it possible that Marx is newly relevant? Well, he did foresee globalization, noting “the need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.” And maybe his remark about how capitalism is like “the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the netherworld whom he has called up by his spells” could be applied to the derivatives markets. Leo Panitch, a Canada research chair in comparative political economy Toronto’s York, poses these questions in the international journal Foreign Policy.

Foreign Policy

Napolitano and who gets in

By John Geddes - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:11 AM - 9 Comments

It goes without saying that Canadians are frustrated by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s bizarre remark, in that CBC interview, to the effect that the Sept. 11 attackers slipped into the States through Canada. (They didn’t, of course, but the myth persists, as myths have a way of doing.)

But beyond her alarmingly vague grasp of the how 9/11 really happened, I’m wondering about Napolitano’s less blatantly ludicrous comment, “The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours.”
Continue…

"is also expected to have dinner with… may also find himself meeting… is also expected to meet…"

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:08 AM - 13 Comments

Mr. Ignatieff heads off to Washington, full of optimism.

Please stop exploiting Ron Cannan

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11:04 AM - 7 Comments

The Conservative MP rose after QP yesterday to apologize for Monday’s segue.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to apologize for any impression I may have given yesterday during statements that I was being disrespectful toward those who have suffered as a result of the tragedy that took place in Italy earlier this month. It was never my intention to show any disrespect.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, I immediately rose in the House of Commons following question period to clarify my comments but, unfortunately, as you later confirmed, you did not see me.

My personal and deepest sympathies go out to those in my community and others across Canada who have been touched by this tragedy. I would respectfully ask that this incident not be exploited further as it would only serve to prolong the pain of those who have lost loved ones.

These just in

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 8:38 AM - 3 Comments

• Nominees for governor-general should be subjected to televised parliamentary confirmation hearings, Adrienne Clarkson says. Makes sense – we want to make sure we fully explore their views on the critical relationship between oversized novelty scissors and ceremonial ribbon.

• According to a new survey, one in three children fear an apocalypse that will wipe out all of humanity and leave the planet a rotting, unlivable husk. The other two haven’t heard that Lindsay Lohan is single again.

• Justin Trudeau says more can be done by the international community to address the devastating humanitarian crisis taking place in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Ben Mulroney says Reese Witherspoon shared a steamy desert weekend with Jake Gyllenhaal!

• The Internet has turned 20, and Tim Berners-Lee – who is credited with creating the World Wide Web – laments that his creation is increasingly riddled with “misinformation” and “untruths.” He made the observation after looking down and realizing that, after all that, it hadn’t grown any bigger.

• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Continue…

Plan B for global warming

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 1:15 AM - 39 Comments

There’s a drawing of Don Quixote tacked to the wall of David Keith’s University of Calgary office; one of Gustave Doré’s famous illustrations showing the aging knight flying backwards off his horse as his lance bends against the blade of a windmill. The 45-year-old environmental scientist purchased it as a self-mocking reward after the publication of his 2004 paper, “The influence of large-scale wind power on global climate.” Using computer modelling, Keith and his colleagues posited that wind energy might not be quite as green as envisioned, potentially changing climate on a worldwide scale as fields of turbines slow the winds, changing rainfall and the amount of moisture in the soil. Their conclusion that the much-touted benefits from wind farms might actually be outweighed by the costs didn’t meet with broad public approval. Keith’s email inbox quickly filled with hate messages, a rare trick for an academic.

Should the trend hold, the professor might want to start clearing space on his wall for a crucifix. The work Keith is engaged in now messes with nature itself, breaking some of the greatest taboos of the world’s environmental movement. Spurred by new data suggesting global warming is progressing faster, and at a much more profound level than even the worst-case scenarios, he is at the fore of a small group of scientists proposing a quick technological fix: a “Plan B” to slow climate change and cool the earth almost overnight via massive human interventions. Among their science-fiction-style ideas: the deployment of millions of lenses the size of doughnuts in geo-stationary orbit between the earth and the sun, the creation of vast banks of artificial clouds over the world’s oceans, covering deserts with reflective material, and Keith’s preferred solution—seeding the stratosphere with sulphate or other particles. All schemes designed to send a portion of the sun’s rays back into the cosmos, and buy politicians, business and the public time to finally get serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Continue…

Earth Day Greetings From A Possum And a Porcupine

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:53 AM - 2 Comments

Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo, had already used the catchphrase “We have met the enemy and he is us” on a poster and in a foreword to a book, but this Earth Day strip from 1971 (the year after Earth Day began) was the first time he incorporated it into the newspaper strip.

As a bonus, here is Pogo discussing one of 2009′s hot topics, the imminent death of the newspaper… in 1953, because nothing ever changes: Continue…

Foreign Affairs field trip

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:46 AM - 12 Comments

The Foreign Affairs committee was having a lovely time in Washington. Then the State Department asked about Question Period.

Leaving a meeting at the State Department late in the afternoon yesterday, I was asked by a State Department official what I thought of the doings in the House of Commons during the day’s Question Period. I confessed I had been in meetings all day and hadn’t heard. Finally on the Internet in the evening, I read the accounts of QP and of the hyper-partisan attacks. Again, it was saddening. He we were with major players, acting professional and serious with some of the high people in the American administration, while back home it was partisan business as usual. Our teams had let us down. We had put aside our differences here to make an impact, and under Mr. Sorenson’s help I think we did, but it was being eroded at home. The saddest part of it all was that it was a State Department official who alerted me to the conduct in our own Parliament. This is hokey stuff and deserves better from all of us.

In Praise of Tie Games

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:27 AM - 43 Comments

So the Canucks are through, winning their fourth straight with a goal in the last minute of first overtime. Good for them: It’s the playoffs, someone had to win the series, and I’m glad there’ll be at least one Canadian team to cheer on for another couple of weeks. 

But then, since 2005, every NHL game has ended with a winner. Overtime was introduced in 1983/84, the shootout after the lockout, both moves arising out of a desire to produce more winners and – presumably – to make the fans happier.  Has it worked? Have the fans been served by the shootout? Has the game? And are those synonymous?

In a just-published book of quasi-academic essays about hockey, La vraie dureté du mental: Hockey et philosophie UdeM philosophy prof Daniel Weinstock has a paper caled “Eloge des matchs nuls,” in which he argues that the demise of the tie game represents an important loss for NHL hockey. 

The argument after the jump…

Continue…

Everything he does is literal

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 11:53 PM - 1 Comment

Jack Layton rolls up his sleeves.

Correctionish

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 11:34 PM - 0 Comments

The RCMP now estimates today’s crowd to have numbered about 30,000.

For the sake of comparison, a pro-coalition rally last December was reported to have drawn “upwards of 2,000.” A few days later, an anti-coalition rally drew approximately 3,000.

Life imitates Coyne

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 11:02 PM - 3 Comments

“Let [broadcasters] charge the cable companies for their signals if they like — but let the cablecos choose whether they wish to carry them.”

– A. Columnist, Let us watch what we want, Maclean’s, last week

“Liberal MP Scott Simms asked Rogers if it would endorse a U.S.-style system where the networks collect fees from cable companies, but they don’t have mandated carriage as the networks in Canada do. The company said yes, but only if CTV and Global were willing to give up their mandatory carriage.”

– Globe and Mail, April 21

“The political fight over television carriage fees took a bizarre twist yesterday, when Rogers Communications Inc. told a parliamentary committee it would support the American model for fee-for-carriage.

CTVglobemedia Inc., one of Canada’s largest over-the-air broadcasters, immediately heralded the move as a significant step toward solving the crisis in conventional television.”

– Toronto Star, same day

“In response to testimony delivered to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, CTVglobemedia welcomed statements today from Rogers Communications executives on the acceptability of a fee-for-carriage regime in Canada based on the American retransmission consent model.”

– CTV press release

Prime ministers at daggers drawn

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 9:42 PM - 6 Comments

From the print edition, my big piece about the feud between Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney.

The feud

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 8:50 PM - 62 Comments

The thing about the fight that Stephen Harper has managed to pick with Brian Mulroney, the paradox that elevates it beyond a few days’ bad headlines into the sort of event that makes party members wonder about the boss’s judgment, is that Harper was only doing what he has always done to win.

For as long as he has been in politics, Harper has returned, at important moments, to a few favourite techniques to manage the public agenda. Selective leaks to reporters. Titillating stories custom-designed to distract the press and public from weightier events. Wedge issues chosen with care to turn ally against ally.

Continue…