Monday, the President ate a burger

By Mark Steyn - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 122 Comments

John Edwards’ adultery was back in the news last week. Well, okay, “back” is probably not le mot juste, given that the former presidential candidate’s mistress cum campaign videographer wasn’t exactly front-page news even in the days when he was coming a strong second in the Iowa caucuses or being tipped as a possible vice-presidential nominee. Every editor knew the “rumours” (i.e., plausible scenario with mountains of circumstantial evidence), but, unlike, say, Sarah Palin’s daughter’s ex-boyfriend’s mother’s drug bust, this wasn’t one of those stories you need to drop everything for.

Only when the hard-working lads at the National Enquirer doorstepped Senator Edwards in the basement stairwell of the Beverly Hilton after a post-midnight visit to his newborn love child and forced him to take cover in the men’s room did the Los Angeles Times swing into action. Alas, it was to instruct its writers to make no comment on a story happening right under their own sniffy noses. The editor Tony Pierce emailed as follows:

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Thinking about a great Arthur Erickson building

By John Geddes - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:34 PM - 4 Comments

Erickson at his best

Admirers of Arthur Erickson’s architecture will think of different buildings on news of his death. Here in Ottawa, I walk past his 1979 glass-and-copper Bank of Canada building, which firmly but respectfully embraces the bank’s old 1936 neoclassical headquarters. I like it much better than most attempts to preserve old buildings while adding a lot of new space.

But the Erickson design I’ve enjoyed most, and I’m sure I’m not alone here, is his Museum of Anthropology at University of British Columbia. With its engrossing collection of West Coast First Nations art, its stirring ocean view, and its charming indigenous-vegetation landscaping, the concrete and glass of the building itself might almost seem a secondary pleasure of a visit to the museum.

It’s not. Erickson drew, for obvious reasons, on the old post-and-beam lines of traditional northwest coast cedar lodges. Inspirations of this sort can result in a finished product that feels forced, sentimental or derivative. Yet Erickson found a genuine affinity between the old wooden buildings and his version of modernism. He had an eye.

Wandering through the museum, or around it, as I often have, I’ve never felt the building was anything short of the ideal solution for showcasing this particular collection on this precise site. In an era of Bilbao-inspired mega-museums it’s worth reflecting, on Erickson’s passing, on what can be accomplished on a much smaller scale, but with no less real ambition.

Dick Cheney: Obama gives "less than half the truth."

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:33 PM - 8 Comments

Dick Cheney also gave his own speech on national security this morning, defending enhanced interrogations and criticizing Obama. You can read the full text here. A few excerpts:

“In top secret meetings about enhanced interrogations, I made my own beliefs clear. I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program. The interrogations were used on hardened terrorists after other efforts failed. They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do. The intelligence officers who questioned the terrorists can be proud of their work and proud of the results, because they prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.”

“Over on the left wing of the president’s party, there appears to be little curiosity in finding out what was learned from the terrorists. The kind of answers they’re after would be heard before a so-called “Truth Commission.” Some are even demanding that those who recommended and approved the interrogations be prosecuted, in effect treating political disagreements as a punishable offense, and political opponents as criminals. It’s hard to imagine a worse precedent, filled with more possibilities for trouble and abuse, than to have an incoming administration criminalize the policy decisions of its predecessors.”

“Yet somehow, when the soul-searching was done and the veil was lifted on the policies of the Bush administration, the public was given less than half the truth. The released memos were carefully redacted to leave out references to what our government learned through the methods in question. Other memos, laying out specific terrorist plots that were averted, apparently were not even considered for release. For reasons the administration has yet to explain, they believe the public has a right to know the method of the questions, but not the content of the answers.”

“It is a fact that only detainees of the highest intelligence value were ever subjected to enhanced interrogation. You’ve heard endlessly about waterboarding. It happened to three terrorists. One of them was Khalid Sheikh Muhammed – the mastermind of 9/11, who has also boasted about beheading Daniel Pearl.”

“The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground in policies addressing terrorism. They may take comfort in hearing disagreement from opposite ends of the spectrum. If liberals are unhappy about some decisions, and conservatives are unhappy about other decisions, then it may seem to them that the President is on the path of sensible compromise. But in the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed. You cannot keep just some nuclear-armed terrorists out of the United States, you must keep every nuclear-armed terrorist out of the United States. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy.”

Mitchel Raphael on a hill feeding frenzy

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:20 PM - 1 Comment

Those people on the Hill sure like free food

The Canadian Pork Council held a BBQ on the Hill (free pulled pork sandwiches!) to publicize the safety of their product in the midst of swine flu panic. It was the longest lineup Capital Diary had ever seen for a Hill reception. The final 30 people did not even get meat—some of them grabbed buns to soak up the leftover liquid in the serving pan. New Democrat Peter Stoffer was one of the few MPs who waited his turn in the endless line, even when organizers tried to pull him to the front for preferential treatment. The line went slower when cabinet ministers like Gerry Ritz (Agriculture) and Jean-Pierre Blackburn (National Revenue) took over from staff to do the serving. Everyone from Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to Grit Leader Michael Ignatieff was chomping down. Conservative MP Shelly Glover noted she loves ham. “My kids live off of it,” says the mother of five, who was elected in the last election. (She is on leave from the Winnipeg Police Service, where she used to investigate crack houses and went undercover as a sex-trade worker.) Quipped deputy Speaker Andrew Scheer at the BBQ: “This is the good kind of pork on Parliament Hill.”

Who knew Justin had a tattoo?

Last year, Nova Scotia Grit Mike Savage was the lone MP to take up the Canadian Paraplegic Association’s challenge to spend a day in a wheelchair. This year, several politicians participated, including Conservative MP Dona Cadman and senators such as Olympic skiing gold medallist Nancy Greene Raine. They experienced first-hand the challenges of being in a wheelchair—travelling over carpets or hitting inaccessible committee rooms on the Hill. The day ended with wheelchair races. When Justin Trudeau took on his Toronto Liberal colleague Martha Hall Findlay, he suggested she remove her jacket. When she did and it was revealed she was sleeveless underneath, Trudeau, who was already without a jacket and tie, stripped down to his sleeveless undershirt. (A few people were surprised to see a small tattoo of the earth on his upper left arm.) He won for fastest male MP, but beat Hall Findlay only by a slim margin. It should be noted, however, that Hall Findlay had a “wardrobe malfunction.” Her bra straps slipped off her shoulders and she had to pause to push them back up.

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Ayers denied entry — or told not to bother?

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM - 19 Comments

UDPDATE3: It looks like things are a little more complicated. Apparently Ayers wasn’t actually denied a visa; instead, it appears that his lawyer, who has been trying to get him into the country since he was refused entry at Toronto in January, told Ayers not to bother even trying. Will try to figure out what that means soon.

CONFIRMED: Joanne Laucius has the story

So here’s a question: Why did Ayers apply for a visa? That’s one of the big unanswered questions at this point.

*******

Well at least they are consistent: William Ayers, due to give a talk next Monday at the Congress of the Humanities in Ottawa, has been apparently denied entry to Canada. More to come — no comment till I confirm it. If you have details drop me a line at

jandrewpotter at gmail.com

UPDATE: Here’s the link to his scheduled talk.

UPDATE 2: Here is Don Butler’s interview with Ayers when Galloway was refused entry.

The Difference between Bibi and Obama

By John Parisella - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:15 PM - 4 Comments

When they met last summer, Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu and Barack Obama were aspiring to lead their respective countries. This time, Obama has been in power for four months and Netanyahu for a little over four weeks. But even though each of them has taken the political reins in their respective countries, it is not surprising that the messages appeared ambivalent and inconclusive following last Monday’s meeting.

The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel and promised to work for peace. This was to be expected, but he also emphasized the need for a two state solution and asked for an end to the building of new colonies in the occupied territories. Finally, on the subject of Iran, Obama made it clear that he would pursue all diplomatic efforts to have that nation halt its nuclear enrichment program. Netanyahu, on the other hand, stressed his fear that Iran might one day have The Bomb and only alluded to an “arrangement between Israel and Palestine” as opposed to a two state solution.

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N.B. students get a vote on how schools run

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:10 PM - 0 Comments

New Brunswick high school students could soon have a vote in how their schools are operated. The province has put forward legislation that would give students a seat on district education councils. The representatives, to be elected by student council presidents, will be full voting members of school boards with the exception of personnel matters. According to Education Minister Kelly Lamrock, the move is in response to concerns from students, who have expressed the desire to become more involved. “I think having students at the front line saying when they feel engaged and when they don’t will make for better decision-making at all levels,” he said.

CBC.ca

Obama's plans for Guantanamo

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:09 PM - 0 Comments

This morning, Barack Obama outlined his plans for the remaining detainees at Guantanamo — sounds like some of them will go to US supermax prisons — and defended his release of secret CIA documents, argued that he has not made a reversal on military commissions, and defended his administration’s use of the State Secrets doctrine. The rather meaty and sometimes barbed speech is below. A  few excerpts:

On the Bush administration’s reaction to 9/11 and Democratic complicity therein:

“Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. And I believe that those decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that – too often – our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight, and all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, we too often set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And in this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans; politicians, journalists and citizens – fell silent.”

On the failures of Guantanamo:

“For over seven years, we have detained hundreds of people at Guantanamo. During that time, the system of Military Commissions at Guantanamo succeeded in convicting a grand total of three suspected terrorists. Let me repeat that: three convictions in over seven years. Instead of bringing terrorists to justice, efforts at prosecution met setbacks, cases lingered on, and in 2006 the Supreme Court invalidated the entire system. Meanwhile, over five hundred and twenty-five detainees were released from Guantanamo under the Bush Administration. Let me repeat that: two-thirds of the detainees were released before I took office and ordered the closure of Guantanamo.”

On the difficulty in closing it:

“There are 240 people there who have now spent years in legal limbo. In dealing with this situation, we do not have the luxury of starting from scratch. We are cleaning up something that is – quite simply – a mess; a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my Administration is forced to deal with on a constant basis, and that consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country.

Indeed, the legal challenges that have sparked so much debate in recent weeks in Washington would be taking place whether or not I decided to close Guantanamo. For example, the court order to release seventeen Uighur detainees took place last fall – when George Bush was President. The Supreme Court that invalidated the system of prosecution at Guantanamo in 2006 was overwhelmingly appointed by Republican Presidents. In other words, the problem of what to do with Guantanamo detainees was not caused by my decision to close the facility; the problem exists because of the decision to open Guantanamo in the first place.”

On sending detainees to supermax:

“Let me begin by disposing of one argument as plainly as I can:  we are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people. Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders – highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety. As we make these decisions, bear in mind the following fact: nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal “supermax” prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists. As Senator Lindsey Graham said: “The idea that we cannot find a place to securely house 250-plus detainees within the United States is not rational.”

Full speech below:

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Arthur Erickson, dead at 84

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:08 PM - 0 Comments

Modernist great Arthur Erickson, who called concrete the “marble of our time,” and saw his finances and reputation plummet and rebound over the past two decades, has died in Vancouver, aged 84. Erickson, who designed the Canadian Embassy in Washington and the California Plaza in L.A., is best known for the many landmarks he designed in Vancouver, a place he once called a “hick city,” including Vancouver’s downtown law courts complex, the stunning Museum of Anthropology at U.B.C., the MacMillan Bloedel building on Georgia St., Simon Fraser University (in suburban Burnaby), and more recently, the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at U.B.C.

Vancouver Sun

The right crowd

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 4 Comments

Until last month, parents at West Point Grey Academy, an elite Vancouver private school, no doubt thought they were tucking their children far from the scourge of drugs, gangs and violence. Point Grey, the premier’s riding, is one of the city’s toniest neighbourhoods; the academy’s junior school, where parents earn an average of $149,000, has been ranked as B.C.’s top elementary school for two years running by the Fraser Institute. When he still hated the limelight, Liberal scion Justin Trudeau was “everyone’s favourite teacher” there, according to alumnus Tyler Friesen. (After father Pierre’s death, students ringed the flagpole with red roses.) Trudeau Jr. taught French and drama at the senior school, where tuition can run north of $21,000.

Then, last month, the five-, seven- and 13-year-old children of Betty “the Loan Shark” Yan quietly exited the school for good. Four days earlier, their mother, a well-known Chinese underworld figure, had been found, shortly after 4:20 a.m., slumped over the steering wheel of her grey, late-model Mercedes outside the Canadian Chinese Chess Society, a suspected illegal gambling den in Richmond. Yan had planned to return home later that morning to drive the children—she called the youngest “mei mei,” Cantonese for “my little one”—to school.

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Wells's Rules, annotated

By Paul Wells - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:55 AM - 47 Comments

There have been questions about my Rules of Politics around here in the last few days. Okay, not a lot of questions, but still. Here is the full list of rules. About a year after I came up with the original two, I added two more, which was probably a mistake. Sometimes I come up with candidates for additions to the list, and here today I will reveal one I considered adding, before deciding against it. But I think it’s time to show a little discipline, so the canonical list will stop at four. Four shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be four. Ready?

1: For any given situation, Canadian politics will tend toward the least exciting possible outcome.

2: If everyone in Ottawa knows something, it’s not true.

3. The candidate in the best mood wins.

4. The guy who auditions for the role of opposition leader will get the job.

A few notes:

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Who-wunnit

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:48 AM - 0 Comments

When 50-year-old Stieg Larsson collapsed and died after walking up seven flights of stairs to his Stockholm apartment he left no will. For the estate of a less than prosperous crusading journalist it wasn’t that important a matter, but since his death Larsson’s crime fiction, notably The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has become a massive international success. His estate—now worth $20 million—has become the object of a bitter legal battle between his long-time companion, Eva Gabrielsson, a 54-year-old architectural historian, and his estranged family. Gabrielsson lived with Larsson for 30 years but has inherited none of his earnings since his death because they were not married. “I think it’s a great injustice,” Gabrielsson said, “It would have been beyond Stieg’s worst nightmares to know that someone other than me was handling the rights to his books and to know that the money we planned to invest is gone.” Worse, according to Gabrielsson, is that Larsson’s father and brother have offered to trade her the half of her apartment that they inherited, in exchange for the author’s laptop, which has a 200-page manuscript stored on it. “My legal adviser called it extortion,” she said. “I refused to hand over the computer.”

Times Magazine

A new twist in the three-way battle between authors, publishers and Google

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:43 AM - 0 Comments

Google’s desire to digitalize—and thereby monetize—millions of old books will face a new snag in 2013, say some commentators, because of a little noticed “widows and orphans clause” in the U.S. Copyright Act of 1978. No sooner than 35 years after granting rights to an author’s intellectual property, and no later than 40 years after, authors or their immediate heirs can recover from publishers or certain derivative licensees (like movie companies) the copyrights to works published. Not long ago most of the works would have been worth little or nothing, but now, thanks to Google, their value is suddenly increasing.

Ereads.com

First conviction since double jeopardy law was scrapped

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:41 AM - 0 Comments

In 2005, UK politicians voted to do away with 800 years of common law legal tradition and scrap the notion of double jeopardy—the concept that you can’t be tried twice for the same crime. Now a London man has become the first person to be convicted of a murder for which he had been previously acquitted. Mario Celaire, who killed an ex-girlfriend in 2002, has a long history of violence. And since his first trial he was convicted of attacking another ex with a hammer.

Guardian.co.uk

My hockey book, by Stephen Harper

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 19 Comments

For years now, since before he became Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has been reportedly working on a book about hockey. He’s obviously never going to finish the thing—so I’ve written it for him. Welcome to the first draft of Stephen Harper’s Book About Hockey.

Introduction. When I first revealed that I was writing a book about hockey, some people were skeptical. They suspected it was a crass ploy designed to “humanize” me to the masses. But believe me: I don’t need to pretend to write a hockey book to make me seem human. That’s why I have a sweater vest, a psychic hairstylist and three blood transfusions a week. The real reason I wrote this book is because hockey is so great. It’s the best sport in the world, in that it is fast-paced, skilful and none of its professional players are gay-married. But hockey is not just a game for heterosexual multi-millionaires anymore! I’m told it is also sometimes played by children, the handicapped, or even females.

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Vitamin D key to brain health

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:39 AM - 0 Comments

In a new study of 3,000 European men aged 40 to 79, those with high levels of vitamin D did better on memory and information processing tests, suggesting the vitamin could protect cells or key signalling pathways in the brain, the BBC reports. The study, which comes from the University of Manchester, follows another published in January that found high levels of the vitamin improves mental agility in the elderly. The latest study, published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, showed men with high levels of the vitamin performed best on a range of tests. Those who had low levels (35 nmol/litre or less) performed the worst. Vitamin D, which comes from fish and sun exposure, might trigger an increase in protective hormonal activity in the brain, researchers suggest, or may boost antioxidants to detoxify the brain.

BBC News

Who's got the best dogs?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:36 AM - 0 Comments

Oscar Mayer recently ran full-page newspaper ads in the U.S. claiming its Jumbo Beef Franks beat the rival brand Ball Park franks in a national taste test. That didn’t go down well with Ball Park, which is now suing Oscar Mayer’s parent company, Kraft Foods, for false advertising. Sarah Lee, which makes Ball Park franks, claims that the ad is misleading, because it implies that Oscar Mayer is better than all of Ball Parks hot dogs, rather than the one variety that the taste test was based on. Ball Park also disagrees with the statement that Oscar Mayer’s Jumbo Beef hot dogs are “100 percent pure beef.” Kraft says it stands by its “accurate advertising.” The big, unanswered question now: if not pure beef, what else is in those Jumbo franks?

Chicago Tribune

It's 1 a.m. Do you know where your kids are?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:26 AM - 0 Comments

If you needed any proof that grey power rules Maritime politics, check out the party platforms in the Nova Scotia provincial election. On the Liberal side, leader Stephen McNeil says he will dump the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax on funerals. Sure, dead people don’t vote, the party reasons. But pensioners do, and few of them like the idea of the state chipping away at their kids’ inheritance. Meantime, the Tories have promised a province-wide curfew for everyone under the age of 15, which theoretically would see the streets cleared of junior high-schoolers by 1 a.m. This too appears aimed squarely at the over-60 set, which has had enough of these late-night shenanigans kids get up to nowadays.

The Chronicle Herald

The Chronicle Herald – Link 2

Trekking through a bold new opera

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

According to medieval chroniclers, in 1212 a shepherd boy named Stephen led thousands of children on an ill-fated goodwill crusade to the Holy Land, armed with a letter he said he’d received directly from Jesus Christ. Marching to Marseille, Stephen preached that the Mediterranean would part, like the Red Sea for Moses, and his flock would simply walk to Jerusalem. When the sea failed to comply, merchants arranged to transport the children on seven ships. Later it was reported that two of them were shipwrecked, drowning everyone on board, while the children on the other five vessels were sold into Saracen slavery. This tale of tragic folly, which occupies that grey zone between history and legend, is now the basis for The Children’s Crusade, a bold new Canadian opera that sounds as quixotic as the crusade itself.

Created by veteran Canadian composer R. Murray Shafer, The Children’s Crusade will be staged in a derelict warehouse in downtown Toronto, with an expected audience of some 400 spectators trailing a troupe of over 100 singers, dancers and musicians as they move through the building, which covers an area larger than a football field. The performers include the 44-member Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus. And the whole shebang rests on the shoulders of a golden-haired boy named Jacob Abrahamse—a 12-year-old soprano from Peterborough, Ont., with no professional experience. He stars as Stephen, “the Holy Child,” and figures in every scene.

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Brad, Quentin and the Canadian 'basterd'

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:08 AM - 2 Comments

Brad Pitt in motion at the 'Inglourious Basterds' press conference in Cannes (photo: BDJ)

Yesterday was Brad Pitt Day in Cannes—although hard-core cineastes, especially the Gallic variety, perhaps thought of it as Quentin Tarantino Day. And for die-hard Canadians, it was Mike Myers Day. In the biggest blitz of Hollywood talent that we’ve seen during the festival, all three were on hand for the premiere of Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s outrageous Second World War epic. It was one of the most anticipated titles among the 20 films in competition here. The 2,300-seat Lumiere theatre was packed for the morning press screening, well before the 8:30 a.m. start time. And at the end of the two-and-half-hour opus, the Palais erupted with some of the strongest applause we’ve seen here. The movie is a hoot, and so was the press conference that immediately followed the morning screening. More on that in minute, but first a few details about the film. Continue…

Ignatieff, from both sides now

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 129 Comments

It is hard to quarrel with Michael Ignatieff’s analysis. Indeed, it’s unassailable. Had the opposition parties succeeded last fall in their plan to oust the Conservatives and form a coalition government in their place, the Liberal leader argues, it would have caused irreparable harm to Canadian unity. The coalition, he told a gathering in Montreal last weekend, would have “profoundly and durably divided the country.”

“There was also a question concerning the legitimacy of the coalition that troubled me,” he confided. While perfectly legal, it would nonetheless have struck many Canadians, coming so soon after an election in which the Liberals had suffered their worst defeat since Confederation, as if they and their coalition partners had “in some sense or another stolen power.”

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A cooking class with Harper buzz

By Jessica Allen - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 10:40 AM - 3 Comments

Jonathan Collins hums as he butchers a beef tenderloin. With one hand on a strip of fat and the other on his knife, the 36-year-old chef shakes his head, grins and recalls a fond memory: “At the Prime Minister’s residence, the maître d’ plays the violin like an angel. I’ll be cooking and he’ll just be playing. If that’s not paradise . . .” The 42 people here for his cooking class at Lakeview Gardens in Eagle, Ont., a hamlet about 45 minutes southwest of London, smile back. They know that on occasion Collins cooks for Stephen Harper, his family, and anybody else who gets invited for a meal, including President Barack Obama.

When he’s not in Ottawa, Collins is busy as executive chef at Lakeview Gardens, a labyrinth-like complex of greenhouses, gift shops and dining rooms owned and operated by his parents. The father of four is also co-owner and executive chef of Shutters on the Beach in Port Bruce, Ont., at work on a food-related TV show, and an aspiring MP. On most Saturdays, at Top Chef Culinary School, he leads the cooking class we’re here for. It costs $25. And that includes a tasting menu.

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Black's Magic

By Ken MacQueen - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 2 Comments

Rocki, by all accounts, was a good dog. A boxer with a winning personality, he was a fixture for 11 years in the Oak Bay Barber Shop. Oak Bay is a well-heeled suburb on the eastern edge of Victoria, B.C., and the location of Riffington, the oceanfront estate of a newspaper mogul named Black. David Black. Well, Rocki up and died last month and Black, being a regular customer of the barbershop, so informed the editor of the Oak Bay News—one of the 150 newspapers in Black’s growing empire. That’s right, a growing newspaper empire.

The editor wisely took the hint. That old newspaper adage about it only being news when “Man Bites Dog” may be true if you run a big city daily, but it doesn’t apply in Black’s world, and certainly not in the twice-weekly Oak Bay News. Rocki was accorded a sweetly eccentric send-off to dog heaven in the next issue of the News, complete with a picture of barber Glen Coxsford looking bereft. The headline read “Rocki goes down without a fight,” and you can bet it was the best-read story in the paper.

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Four arrests in NYC bombing plot

By macleans.ca - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 10:06 AM - 1 Comment

Four men were arrested in New York last night on charges of plotting to blow up two synagogues and shoot down military planes at a nearby Air National Guard base. The four were nabbed in a sting operation that involved them planting what they believed were explosives at two Bronx synagogues. An informant for the FBI also provided the accused with an inactive missile. All are Muslims and, according to Raymond Kelly, New York’s police commissioner, expressed a wish to engage in jihad.

New York Times