Category Archives: Uncategorized
Their woes are our gain
The current economic problems in Europe and elsewhere have become, at least for the time being, a moment of opportunity for Canada. Canada’s relatively stable financial sector, low debt ratios and healthy consumer demand are attracting a great deal of attention from international investors. As a result, Canadian government bonds do not cost as much […]
America’s Housing Crisis – A Moral Dilemma?
The following video from 60 Minutes is a sobering look at America’s continuing housing crisis. It’s also an interesting discussion of a central contradiction in capitalism. On one hand, business people and corporate entities often make bloody-minded decisions that leave individuals jobless and homeless. As “rational actors” pursuing “the bottom line”, these capitalists are rarely […]
Comic Sans: The Write Type?
Apparently some people don’t like the Comic Sans font: “Comic Sans walks into a bar, and the bartender says, “We don’t serve your type.” But seriously, here’s a response in defense of our favourite faux handwriting font: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/06/quote-day-comic-sans-fights-back ………………. Here’s another somewhat backhanded endorsement of Comic Sans. Honest. Posted by Colin Welch at 8:59 PM […]
Health Care Costs: Relative to GDP or Gov’t Spending?
One of the best reasons to read The Tyee is Will McMartin. He is a rare journalist with the ability and desire to wade through the BC government’s own stats in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. In his latest article on health care spending, McMartin exposes the myth that health care spending […]
Sheldon Wolin
Let us return to Sheldon Wolin. In this entry, I want to briefly discuss the third chapter of Wolin’s Politics and Vision*. His key point is that political philosophy takes a sharp turn after the classic Greek city-states succumb to the Macedonian Empire. This philosophical shift continues and intensifies as the Roman Republic turns into […]
Reading Wolin, Part 3: Not-So-Political Philosophy in the Age of Empire
Let us return to Sheldon Wolin. In this entry, I want to briefly discuss the third chapter of Wolin’s Politics and Vision*. His key point is that political philosophy takes a sharp turn after the classic Greek city-states succumb to the Macedonian Empire. This philosophical shift continues and intensifies as the Roman Republic turns into […]
Bumper sticker politics
And you thought I was above juvenile humour? Posted by Colin Welch at 11:08 AM Edited on: Friday, July 23, 2010 1:30 PM Categories: American Politics, Education, Humour, Language, Modern Culture
One of the great Jon Stewart episodes
One of the benefits of a DVR is that I can watch Jon Stewart’s Daily Show even though I’m too old to stay up that late. The following is one of the best episodes I’ve seen from one of the best reasons to watch TV: [Update: Because the original episode has been removed, I […]
Sorry… we aren’t drowning in taxes
Here’s a story that I have yet to find in the Vancouver Sun or the G and M. [Update: I did find this story in the National Post, but it was half the length of the Toronto Star article.] This is not the sort of thing that low-tax corporate media outlets want you to know; […]
Reading Wolin, Part 2: Plato and Politics
What is “politics”? According to Chp. 2 of Sheldon Wolin’s Politics and Vision*, it’s certainly not an intellectual conception he shares with Plato. Plato’s vision of politics is of the Good: the right and just principles that are common to all rational beings, and that ought to govern their political community. It is a philosophical […]