Secretary of State John Kerry made an astounding confession today at the COP-21 climate conference in Paris: Emissions cuts by the U.S. and other industrialized nations will make no difference to global climate, he said.
Month: December 2015
The Hazards of Propaganda
Many employees of Canada’s national broadcaster believe the CBC workplace is psychologically unhealthy and managers do not deal effectively with issues that may threaten or harm them, according to an internal survey carried out following the Jian Ghomeshi scandal.
Facebook. For Getting People Fired.
When Michael Nolan called Clementine Ford a slut publicly, on Facebook, she notified his employer. They fired him.
The Controlled Demolition of America
Some liberty proponents are more than happy to believe in particular mainstream dynamics. They are happy to believe, for example, that the growing “conflict” between the East and West is legitimate rather than engineered.
Tax The Poor. Subsidize The Rich.
The government is constantly telling us how precarious our public finances are. However, when it comes to giving public money to friends of the Liberal Party, there’s always enough.
Google Knows Best
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, inserted himself directly into the middle of a heated debate about the line between fighting terrorism’s online reach and internet censorship.
“It’s our responsibility to demonstrate that stability and free expression go hand in hand,” he writes. “We should build tools to help de-escalate tensions on social media—sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment.”
The Don Corleone of Climate Change
If international climate talks really stall, don’t be surprised if there might be an ever-so-slight intervention by Pope Francis.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace who helped draft the pope’s June encyclical on global warming, said the pontiff has “deep trust” that negotiators in Paris will get the job done. But just in case they don’t, the pope might possibly send a gentle message, he said.
Freedom of Speech? Not in Canada.
A Toronto city councillor called Donald Trump a fascist on Twitter Tuesday and said the Trump International Hotel & Tower in the city’s downtown should change its name.
I believe the owners of Toronto’s Trump Tower should change its name. Toronto is a diverse & respectful city. Donald Trump is a fascist.
Ward 22 Coun. Josh Matlow said he was going to write to the owners of the 65-storey luxury hotel and residence asking them to remove the Republic presidential hopeful’s name from the downtown landmark.
College Students: The New Tyrants
It is one of William Faulkner’s most quoted lines. “The past is never dead,” he wrote in his novel Requiem for a Nun. “It’s not even past.” In fact, it’s being rewritten all the time for contemporary contexts. But when college students try to erase whole parts of the historical record, as many seem to want to do these days, it’s time to point out the lessons history has to offer about the consequences of such behavior—and how easily zealous righteousness is transformed into tyranny.
Mayor of London Calls for Alliance with Putin
Britain must join forces with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL), London Mayor Boris Johnson wrote in his weekly newspaper column.
Aristotle's Bench Press 