NATO commander lauds Canada’s role in Afghanistan

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 3:49 PM - 5 Comments

The ISAF mission in Afghanistan needs the likes of Canada’s military trainers in Kandahar if the Afghan National Security Force will ever be ready to protect the country, says a top NATO general. In a paper for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, Lt.-Gen. William Caldwell lauded the efforts in training Afghanistan’s struggling army and police force. “Your forces are more broadly experienced than most other nations serving in the International Security Assistance Force,” wrote Caldwell, “and such mature soldiers, with multiple tours serving in Afghanistan, would be extremely effective.” He recommended that following the transition from a combat role to one of training Afghan security forces, Canadian military personnel are most needed in Kandahar, not in Kabul where the Harper government announced last November it would be keeping about 1,000 military personal for training purposes.

Ottawa Citizen

Wikileaks will continue "unabated"

By Claire Ward - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 3:14 PM - 24 Comments

The enigmatic founder of Wikileaks has announced that his organization’s release of U.S. diplomatic cables is far from over. Julian Assange spoke to reporters on Tuesday outside of a London courtroom following a procedural hearing on his possible extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sexual assault charges. Assange said that Wikileaks would be ramping up its publication of the cables, which would “shortly be occurring through our newspaper partners around the world—big and small newspapers and some human rights organizations.” Meanwhile, Assange and his staff at Wikileaks are reportedly concerned about being targeted as terrorists by the U.S., following comments by Sarah Palin comparing Assange to the Taliban, as well as the filing of subpoenas by a U.S. attorney’s office requesting Twitter account details for Assange and his suspected source for the cables, Pfc. Bradley Manning.

CTV News

Dictatorship oil

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 2:07 PM - 64 Comments

First, a correction. The list of oil sources posted here should have read: Algeria, the United Kingdom, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola, Iraq, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia and the United States. You’ll note that, in the original post, Iran was listed where Angola should have been. My apologies to to the good people of Angola.

Meanwhile, Ezra Levant, seemingly the inspiration for the government’s new rhetoric, continues to draw a line between good oil and bad oil: the former including our crude, the latter including crude from suppliers such as Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Algeria. In total, those four nations account for about 40% of our oil imports.

Sitcoms: Triumph of the Linear

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 2:03 PM - 0 Comments

“The Middle” was always going to get picked up for a third season (it’s doing quite well in a difficult time slot), but I’m glad ABC showed its confidence in it by making it one of the shows that got an early renewal (along with Modern Family, Cougar Town, Private Practice, and so on). It’s by far my favourite comedy in ABC’s Wednesday lineup, and probably the comedy I find the most solid and satisfying — it doesn’t hit the heights of some other shows, but it doesn’t have many weak links, either.

So many comedies at the moment are “yes, but” shows: yes, but they’re wildly uneven, yes, but this or that character is weak, yes, but they’re preachy and heavy-handed at times, yes, but there’s too many romantic subplots. The Middle has a narrow focus that appears to be getting narrower as it goes on: the most recent episode had a very simple story and only a small “B” story that felt very well integrated with the primary plot. The five main characters are all funny without being completely unreal, and the Neil Flynn character, in particular, is one of my favourite current characters. Most TV comedy characters are basically written as overgrown children, and he’s not. He’s not a boring paragon of virtue either, even though he can sound that way when he’s described; as written, and especially has played, he’s one of the few male characters around who is both eccentric (which comic characters need to be) and recognizably a grown-up. Plus the most recent episode offered one of my favourite comedy lines: Patricia Heaton and Flynn, satisfied that they’ve finally gained control of their kids, go out to see “The Little River Band Cover Band.” That line sounds funny and gets funnier every time it’s repeated, it’s a pop-culture joke, and it’s also a character joke about who these people are, what generation they’re from, and what entertainment they can afford.

The show that follows The Middle, Better With You, isn’t in that league, but it’s getting slowly, slowly better. Surprisingly, the strongest link in the cast is the guy I originally thought was just there to be the pretty young guy, Jake Lacy. The writers have actually figured out how to give him lines that are funny without being generic wisecracks. It’s still uneven, not just from episode but from scene to scene, but I root for it, partly because it’s the only four-camera comedy outside CBS (and therefore is in a very difficult position in an otherwise all-single-camera lineup) but mostly because it just has an air of likability and a sense that it’s getting better rather than worse. Between The Middle‘s strength and watching BWY’s slow and conscientious crawl toward self-improvement, I enjoy this lower-rated hour in ABC’s comedy lineup more than the Modern Family/Cougar Town hour. (Actually, The Middle and even BWY got more total viewers than Cougar Town last week, though that doesn’t matter in terms of 18-49 ratings and doesn’t prove anything bad about Cougar Town. I just bring it up to note that The Middle is even more popular than its pretty good 18-49 ratings would suggest.)

Now, here’s what the subject heading’s about: The Middle and BWY are examples of how non-linear storytelling seems to be quietly falling out of fashion in TV comedy, after being the biggest thing ever for only a few years. Better With You began as a How I Met Your Mother imitator in terms of style (they still have their share of knockoff moments), including lots of flashbacks and cutaways. These have been toned down to the point Continue…

Giffords' condition 'still critical'

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 1:12 PM - 0 Comments

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after being shot in the head at point-blank range during a shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona last weekend. Jared Lee Loughner has been charged in the attack that left 6 dead and 14 wounded. Giffords’ neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Lemole, said that no change in her condition is a “good thing,” and that her brain was “working at a higher level” than previously. Meanwhile, Loughner appeared in court on Monday and was charged with attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of first degree murder of a federal employee, and two counts of attempted murder of a federal employee. These are federal charges, meaning he may also face other state charges. Loughner, who if convicted will most likely face the death penalty, is represented by Judy Clarke, who defended Unabomber Ted Kacynski and is an opponent of capital punishment. President Barack Obama led the nation in a day of mourning on Monday, while some lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg and Republican Rep. Peter King, are planning to introduce legislation to tighten gun control.

BBC News

China tests stealth fighter jet

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 12:21 PM - 3 Comments

Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, confirmed Tuesday that China has conducted a test flight of a new stealth fighter jet. Hu Jintao told Gates about the J-20’s first flight in a meeting after pictures of it appeared on the front page of a Chinese newspaper. “It’s not a concern,” a Pentagon spokesman told the media. However, Gates told reporters that China “clearly has potential to put some of our capabilities at risk. “We have to pay attention to them, we have to respond appropriately with our own programs.” At this point, it’s unclear whether the J-20 can match the Americans’ F-22 Raptor fighter.

New York Daily News

Conservatives fund 634 new prison beds

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:52 AM - 5 Comments

The Conservatives announced $150-million in new spending for prison beds Monday which will allow 634 new spots at jails in Quebec, the Prairies and Ontario. Although the Conservative “tough on crime” agenda has been popular with many voters, the additional $601-million in funding announced for new beds has the opposition fighting back. “The big change was when we started to see what the costs were,” Mark Holland, Liberal public safety critic, said yesterday. The total number of new beds planned for current prisons is 2,552 and The Correctional Service of Canada is working on plans for new penitentiaries. More beds are needed to house criminals who may not have received jail time before new mandatory-sentence laws.

Globe and Mail

'No public figure can be completely immune'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:50 AM - 35 Comments

Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, recently the subject of death threats, considers the reality of public life.

“It makes us all stop and think,” LeBlanc told the Star on Monday. “No public figure can be completely immune from any threat whatsoever if you’re taking public positions on controversial issues. But it’s the responsibility of the police to ensure that public persons’ freedoms aren’t restricted by these threats.”

… Events like in Arizona, certainly that incident involving Mr. Chrétien, remind everybody that there’s often a violent fringe element that doesn’t live in any kind of real world, or any kind of reality, and can resort to senseless violence without any warning,” LeBlanc said.

Last year, a Guelph court dealt with a mentally ill woman who had been threatening the Prime Minister.

Former PMO chief of staff moves to U of T

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:47 AM - 3 Comments

Guy Giorno, the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, announced Tuesday, via Twitter, that he has accepted a new position at his alma mater, the University of Toronto. Giorno, who was replaced by Bay Street executive Nigel Wright, will be joining U of T’s School of Public Policy and Governance as a fellow. Since leaving the PMO on December 31, 2010, Giorno has acted as a partner at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, where he worked to promote private-sector compliance with business ethics and government regulation.

The Ottawa Citizen

Poor health threatens India’s economic growth

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:40 AM - 1 Comment

Quick action must be taken to better the health of India’s booming population, or else the country’s economic growth will be threatened, according to a new report in British medical journal The Lancet. India is in the early stages of a chronic disease epidemic, according to the report and noted by the BBC, which affects rich and poor people alike. Although Indians are getting richer, they’re exercising less and eating fatty foods, upping the rates of obesity and diabetes. The report, which consists of a series of studies, calls for a comprehensive national health system by 2020. They recommend funding health-improving measures by gradually boosting public expenditure and implementing new taxes on tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods.

BBC News

Oldest known wine press found

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:36 AM - 1 Comment

Archaeologists have found the oldest known wine-making facility, pinpointing a dry red wine produced in what’s now southern Armenia about 6,000 years ago, Reuters reports. Carbon dating puts a desiccated grape vine near the wine press at around 4,000 BC, making it 1,000 years older than any other wine-making facility that’s been found, according to researchers from Armenia, the U.S. and Ireland. Biochemical techniques show grape juice which, given a lack of refrigeration, would have turned into wine. The wine press was found in a cave complex called Areni-1, near Armenia’s southern border with Iran, where the world’s oldest leather shoe (about 5,500 years old) was found last year.

Reuters

The problem with prisons

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 10:29 AM - 33 Comments

John Ivison refers to the writings of Newt Gingrich to find fault with the government’s prison expansion.

The “hanging’s too good for them” brigade should read an eye-opening piece from last Friday’s Washington Post, co-written by Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, and Pat Nolan, former Republican leader of the California State Assembly. They pointed out that the U.S. currently spends US$68-billion on corrections — 300% more than 25 years ago — and the prison population is growing at 13 times faster than the general population.

“Our prisons might be worth the current cost if the recidivism rate were not so high but, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, half of the prisoners released this year are expected to be back in prison within three years. If your prison policies are failing half the time, and we know there are more humane, effective alternatives, it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners,” they concluded.

Conrad Black is equally unimpressed.

Murder and sex, Canadian-style

By Barbara Amiel - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 7 Comments

Ajax, Ont., teacher Paul Martin leaves a courthouse in Jamaica | Jamaica Observer

The first murderer in my life was John George Haigh, also known as the acid bath murderer. While in prison for some lesser crime, he dreamed up the idea of dissolving bodies in sulphuric acid until they were sludge. Which he did during the late 1940s in Britain, pouring loads of it down manholes. His last victim was a 69-year-old widow living at a hotel in Kensington. Haigh liked the Persian lamb coat she wore and it was the cleaning ticket for it that helped track him down.

The British papers were rapturous about Haigh. There are no subjects that people read about more eagerly and deny reading about more readily than murder and sex—preferably in combination. When someone speaks of reading such a story, they proffer the waiting-room defence. Perhaps you are reading this very column while waiting for your dental checkup.

Continue…

Thinking local, acting loco?

By Andrew Potter - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 37 Comments

Photography Cole Garside

The year 2010 marked the moment when the locavore movement went thoroughly mainstream, with even Wal-Mart getting with the program. But while it is invariably promoted under the guise of progressive values of living healthy, building community and preserving the environment, residents of Hamilton recently discovered the dark side of the cult of local.

Like the city itself, the Hamilton Farmers’ Market is a no-nonsense place. Along with the usual stalls of locally grown seasonal produce, it has long featured vendors selling imported foods—Asian fruit, Colombian coffee, Polish baked goods, Lebanese pita, etc.—making the market an unpretentiously cosmopolitan affair.

Continue…

Stuck in traffic

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 216 Comments

For one in four Canadians, the two-way commute takes more than 90 minutes | Janusz Wrobel/Alamy/Getstock, Fuse/Getty Images, Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star

Day breaks over Canada, and across the country, the morning commuter rises, dresses, hops into his car and is transformed into . . . traffic. Immobilizing, enervating, infuriating traffic, glaciers of metal improbably forcing their way down the nation’s roads each morning, only to have to force their way back up the same roads later in the day.

In Halifax, drivers seethe as they inch through the Armdale Rotary. In Montreal, it’s the seemingly hours-long grind along the infamous Autoroute Décarie. Toronto commuters visibly age waiting for something to move on the “Don Valley Parking Lot.” Calgarians have ample time each day to regret taking Deerfoot Trail, while in the Lower Mainland of B.C., drivers debate which is worse: the bottleneck on the Port Mann bridge or the eternal stretches of Highway 1 on either side of it.

Continue…

Who wants to be a princess?

By Leah McLaren - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 2 Comments

Will that be all, your majesty? 'It's not about trappings, but what’s inside,' says one royal watcher | Rudi Froese/Anzenberger/Redux

Miss Jerramy Fine, 33, royal watcher and American expat, is sitting at the kitchen table of her well-appointed Chiswick flat, explaining the difference between a real princess and the fairy-tale kind.

“Disney princesses aren’t bad, but they generally suggest frilly ball gowns and horse-drawn coaches, whereas the real ones—whether it’s the princesses of Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden or England—are more about duty and manners and philanthropy,” she says, taking a sip of tea and smiling serenely beneath her crown of glossy blond curls. “And what brings both varieties together is kindness.”

Fine is the author of the 2008 memoir Someday My Prince Will Come, which chronicles her journey from reluctant child of western Colorado hippies (she was forced to wear tie-dyed hemp fibre and given the traumatizing middle name Sage) to fervent adolescent anglophile and eventual transplant to London, England—where, in her 20s, she attended the London School of Economics, interned at the House of Commons, and secretly schemed to meet and marry a prince.

Continue…

'Let’s at least make troubled individuals easier to spot'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:02 AM - 84 Comments

Jon Stewart and Roger Ailes find themselves vaguely in agreement on something.

I do think that its important for us to watch our rhetoric, I do think that its a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with our enemies if for no other reason than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of paranoid mad men and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak. It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn’t in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on TV. Let’s at least make troubled individuals easier to spot.

More from Ezra Klein, Conor Friedersdorf, George Packer, Timothy Egan and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Richard Nixon, Opera Superstar

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

Photography Tim Matheson

Most modern operas get performed and then forgotten—but not Nixon in China. This treatment of president Richard Nixon’s famous meeting with Mao Tse-tung, composed by Pulitzer Prize-winner John Adams and written by Alice Goodman, wasn’t performed in North America for almost two decades after its 1987 premiere. But suddenly, everyone wants to do it. The Vancouver Opera gave the work its Canadian premiere last year, and in February, it will debut at both the Canadian Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera.

James Wright, Vancouver Opera’s general director, told Maclean’s that its production “sold more tickets than expected,” and it may rent its version to other companies. What was once dismissed as a “CNN opera” is doing better than CNN.

Continue…

Music: As good as it gets

By Paul Wells - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 11:07 PM - 32 Comments

Anthony Tommasini at the New York Times has a silly but entertaining project: to name the 10 greatest classical composers in history. He has  videos in which he discusses the likely nominees; seated at the piano, he shares personal and technical insights into (so far) Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Essays discuss their contributions. Readers are invited to nominate their own lists, and hundreds are chiming in.

It’s silly because it’s arbitrary. Why start, as Tommasini seems to want to, at Bach? Monteverdi fans will be in the streets. Apples-to-oranges comparisons are inevitable. Tommasini cheerfully admits all of this, thus making it more fun. The names on a list, and their order, matter less than the thinking behind them because it expresses a set of ideas about what makes music beautiful and lasting.

Readers are invited to discuss Tommasini’s project below, or on the Times comment boards. My own list would start with Beethoven, followed in this order by Bach, Mozart and Haydn. Below that, Brahms, Mahler and Wagner would show up somewhere. Schubert wouldn’t. I’m pleased that Benjamin Britten’s music is nominated by many of Tommasini’s readers. He’d be a dark-horse candidate even among 20th-century composers, but he’d be one of mine. It’s a whimsical exercise, but this week more than some, paying attention to what works and is beautiful seems preferable to the alternatives.

What's a finance minister to do?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 5:28 PM - 17 Comments

Stephen Gordon considers two options and advises neither. At least for now.

So that leaves neither renewed stimulus nor a program of austerity – at least, not for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Next year, if current trends continue, we’ll face a different set of circumstances: the recession will likely be behind us, and the deficit will likely still be with us. It would be nice to see some indication in this year’s budget of how the government intends to deal with next year’s problems.

Kevin Lynch makes the case for meaningful restraint. Bruce Anderson suggests there are political gains to be made at Jim Flaherty’s expense.

Universal flu vaccine is possible, researchers say

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 4:37 PM - 1 Comment

Medical researchers are working on a “universal” flu vaccine that could offer immunity from all flu strains for long periods of time, or even throughout a person’s life. That may now be one step closer to reality. A study of antibodies from survivors of the H1N1 swine flu adds proof that scientists are nearer to creating a “universal” flu shot, suggesting that such a vaccine “is really possible,” Patrick Wilson of the University of Chicago, who worked on the paper, told Reuters. Influenza kills between 3,300 and 49,000 people in the U.S. each year, so such a vaccine could have a potentially huge impact. Wilson’s team created antibodies from nine people who were infected in the first wave of the H1N1 pandemic, before a vaccine was available. Five of these were cross-protective, meaning they could interfere with several flu strains (including one strain of H5N1, avian flu). After testing these antibodies in mice, they found they were safe against an otherwise lethal dose of flu; some of these cross-protective antibodies were structurally similar to those other teams have pinpointed as having potential for a universal flu vaccine.

Reuters

Blood test for Alzheimer’s could be on horizon

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 4:35 PM - 3 Comments

A small trial published in the journal Cell suggests a new technique that might one day be used to create a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, as U.S. scientists have used thousands of artificial molecules to “fish” for the disease. More research is needed before a test is developed, although researchers suggest the technique could be used to diagnose other diseases earlier, too, like lung and pancreatic cancers. The body produces antibodies in response to alien matieral, like the proteins on viruses and bacteria, which means testing for antibodies can be a test for disease. In the new approach, a team at the Florida campus of the Scripps Research Institute used 15,000 synthetic peptoids to “fish” for antibodies in blood samples of six patients with Alzheimer’s, six with Parkinson’s disease and six healthy people. In this sample, they found two antibodies that flagged Alzheimer’s disease.

BBC News

Ignatieff starts whirl-wind (pre-election?) tour

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 3:33 PM - 12 Comments

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will visit 20 ridings—all of which are held by rival parties—over the course of a 11-day tour starting today. Ignatieff hinted in December he could force an election this spring. One strategist told CBC News Ignatieff¹s new message is simple: “If you vote NDP or Bloc to send Harper a message, you get Harper.” Among the tour stops are Winnipeg South, Richmond, B.C., Acadie-Bathurst in New Brunswick, and a Bloc-held riding in Montreal.

CBC News

Dozens killed as southern Sudan votes on secession

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 3:25 PM - 1 Comment

Violence has not stopped voters in southern Sudan from waiting as long as eight hours in line to vote for independence from the north. So far, thirty people have died in clashes in Abyei, a border region between the South and the North, where Arab tribes and southern Dinka Ngok are blaming each other for starting the violence. The referendum is the result of a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war between the Arab-Muslim North and the Christian and Animist South. The oil-rich South is widely expected to vote for independence, which Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has pledged to respect. Voting will end Jan. 15 and the results will be known in February.

CBC News