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  1. People Who Think About Televisual Entertainmentation

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 2:33 pm MST

    Two links to people doing some smart thinking about television programs: - Robert David...

  2. Who gets to pay tribute to Vaclav Havel

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pm MST

    In November, Elizabeth May was twice denied the House’s consent to mark Remembrance Day....

  3. Alice Wong’s China delegation

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 12:45 pm MST

    The guest list includes a fundamentalist Christian who helped bankroll past Conservative campaigns

  4. Cameron's coming battle over the ECHR

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 12:17 pm MST

    The coming release of Abu Qatada on bail is going to put bellows under the whole debate about the European Court of Human Rights. In his recent speech to the Council of Europe, David Cameron rightly protested about a situation with terror suspects in which ‘you cannot try them, you cannot detain them and you cannot deport them.’ We will now find out how quickly Cameron is prepared to act on this issue.

    If Cameron wants to makes changes to the Courts and the Convention, then he is going

  5. ‘Making Canada a meaningful contributor in the world’

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 11:41 am MST

    Given the Harper government’s eagerness to celebrate international recognition, there will no doubt be...

  6. From the archives: Britain's new Queen

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 11:07 am MST

    To mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne in 1952, here is the leader that appeared sixty years ago on our front cover. It was written under the editorship of Wilson Harris, who had been in the position nearly 20 years.

    Queen and Nation, 15 February 1952

    The slow days are dragging their sad length along to the climax, when the mortal remains of King George VI will be laid, where so many of his forbears have preceded him, in the historic St. George's Chapel

  7. Interview: Brion McClanahan — The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 6 Feb 2012 | 11:04 am MST

    Liberals and conservatives can't agree on whether the Constitution is a "living" document or a "limiting" document. We'll talk to a historian who suggests we ask the Founding Fathers what they intended. Listen to Eagle Forum Live Radio Program aired on 2-04-12 Listen every Saturday (11-Noon CST): Bott Radio Network Archived Eagle Forum Live Radio Programs

  8. ‘Don’t accept any law that says some human beings are not human beings’

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 10:37 am MST

    In keeping with his campaign to start a national discussion, Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth...

  9. You can’t do that on TV, but you can do that

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 10:27 am MST

    Will M.I.A.'s middle finger change TV the way Janet Jackson's nipple did?

  10. OAS, here and there

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 9:11 am MST

    Bill Curry surveys how the retirement age has been handled elsewhere. Abacus Data finds 55%...

  11. A painful shot to Google’s private parts

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 6 Feb 2012 | 8:50 am MST

    Scott Feschuk on Google's potentially apocalyptic path to all-knowing corporate dictatorship

  12. ‘Knife control’ and Canada’s highland dancing MP

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am MST

    Scots on the Hill Andrew Scheer continued the Speaker’s tradition of hosting a Robbie...

  13. We must be honest about honour killings

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 8:11 am MST

    White guilt has terrible consequences. This was made profoundly clear in Canada during the three month trial of Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed. They were convicted a week ago of the first-degree murder of Zainab (19), Sahar (17) and Geeti Shafia (13), and 50-year-old Rona Amir. The three teens were Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Yahya’s daughters, Hamed’s sisters. Rona was Mohammad Shafia’s first wife. The four women had been drowned in their car in June, 2009. The killers had chosen a canal in Kingston — a university town

  14. Are we ready to go to war with Iran?

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 7:55 am MST

    Roland Paris considers the Harper government’s rhetoric on Iran. Yet it is also a...

  15. The race for Toronto-Danforth

    → Macleans.ca » Blog Central | 6 Feb 2012 | 7:05 am MST

    Voters will elect a new MP in Toronto-Danforth on March 12 March 19 and...

  16. Obama Gives Gambling a Christmas Present

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am MST

    Just before sneaking off to Hawaii for a Christmas vacation where he barred news photos on the golf course, President Obama overturned longstanding U.S. policy that prohibited internet gambling. Obama used a secret Justice Department opinion, dated last September and quietly released to the public on Christmas Eve. The Justice Department opinion opens the door for all U.S. states to sell

  17. Terry shouldn’t be captain, but that should be Capello’s decision to make

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 6:22 am MST

    The England manager Fabio Capello is both right and wrong about John Terry.

    Right because it was stupid and, as Terry Venables says, ‘knee-jerk’ of the Football Association to remove the captaincy from the rat-faced little scrote. That’s up to the manager, a man disinclined to give a clamorous press what it wants. Wrong, because Terry should not be captain in the first place, nor indeed on the field of play. These days, Eric Pickles would be a more mobile and nuanced centre half for the national side than Mr Terry.



  18. An important intervention on energy policies, but will the Lib Dems pay attention?

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 5:48 am MST

    The economist Dieter Helm is one of the few policy thinkers respected on both sides of the coalition. Oliver Letwin is a long-standing friend of his and Clegg’s office views him as one of the best economic brains in the country. All of which makes Helm’s attack on Chris Huhne’s energy policies in The Times today as interesting as the anti-wind farm letter signed by a 101 Tory MPs.

    Helm argues that the policy of huge subsidies for renewables is a mistake and that shale gas is a

  19. Just in case you missed them...

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 3:49 am MST

    ...here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend:

    Fraser Nelson says the richest 1 per cent pay 28 per cent of the UK's income tax, so let's not scare them away.

    James Forsyth says Lords reform is going to dominate the next parliamentary session, but the government will have a tough time passing it.

    Jonathan Jones reports on two attacks on David Miliband, and finds that public opinion is split on Gove's school reforms.

    Daniel Korski thinks a massacre in Syria now

  20. Putin's end

    → Spectator Blogs | 6 Feb 2012 | 2:41 am MST

    This weekend, thousands of people defied the cold and the control in Moscow to show their dislike for Vladimir Putin and what Russia has become under his leadership: corrupt, energy-reliant, centralised, and uncompetitive. It is now a country that must win externally because it can't help but lose internally. ‘Post-BRIC’, as a new report has it.

    My guess is that Putin will ‘win’ the presidential election, and will ensure that a sufficient number of counter-protests make it look as if he has more support than he actually has. That's exactly the

  21. Don’t let’s be beastly to the bankers

    → Spectator Blogs | 5 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am MST

    The Twitter hashtag #BankerOutrage was launched by Radio Four yesterday summing up a very popular mood. It’s not unusual for bankers to be hated after crashes. After the South Sea Bubble burst in 1721, there were calls in the Lords for the bankers involved to be dumped in sacks filled with serpents and dropped in the Thames. But that was the immediate aftermath: what’s odd now is the timing. As we say in the leading article of this week’s Spectator, Hester had a bonus twice the size last year — and no

  22. The government will have to fight for Lords reform

    → Spectator Blogs | 5 Feb 2012 | 9:16 am MST

    House of Lords reform is one of those subjects that make most people’s eyes glaze over. But it is going to dominate the next parliamentary session.

    The Queen’s Speech will include a bill for elections in 2015 for 20 per cent of the seats in the Lords using a ‘Proportional Representation’ voting system. This bill will take an age to get through the Commons, where it has to start if the coalition is to use the Parliament Act to push it through, let alone the Lords.

    One of the things

  23. Obama gives jobs to foreigners

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 5 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am MST

    In this video, Barack Obama is asked why we are importing foreign labor while Americans are out of work: Jennifer Wedel of Fort Worth asked why the government continues "to issue and extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?" She was persistent and at one point broke in on the president as he gave a response, to ask: "Why do you think the H-1B program

  24. The Court That Broke Jersey: The state's activist judiciary has forced taxpayers to finance unprecedented educational and housing regimes.

    → City Journal | 4 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Steven Malanga

    Squelching rumors this past fall of a presidential run, New Jersey governor Chris Christie observed that he had lots more to do to fix a "broken" state. He wasn't kidding: though already the nation's most heavily taxed state, New Jersey can balance its budget only by ignoring billions of dollars in employee pension liabilities and by slashing aid to struggling local governments. Christie has pushed through reforms that cut spending and cap property-tax increases. But he has only begun to grapple with an institution that bears much of the responsibility for the state's fiscal woes: the New Jersey Supreme Court. . . .

  25. Message from Phyllis Schlafly

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 4 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pm MST

    This is just a quick note to my Missouri friends to let you know that I'm planning to vote for Rick Santorum in the non-binding presidential preference primary on Tuesday, February 7. Faithfully, Phyllis Schlafly

  26. Are Egypt's Islamists Heading for a Fall?

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 4 Feb 2012 | 11:05 am MST

    Terrified of the secular/modern/liberal demonstrators who made their presence known in Tahrir Square, as well as of the soccer hooligans, Mohamed Tantawi and Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces have forged a mutually beneficial relationship with

  27. Panetta Predicts an Israeli Strike on Iran

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 4 Feb 2012 | 9:22 am MST

    It's not every day that someone like the U.S. secretary of defense forecasts an ally's move but this just happened when Leon Panetta said that he believes, in the paraphrase of a Washington Post reporter, that "there is a strong likelihood that Israel

  28. Misquoting Romney

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 4 Feb 2012 | 9:03 am MST

    Mitt Romney got attention for these two quotes: “I like to being able to fire people who provide services to me.” “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” Romney is being widely misquoted as saying that he likes to fire people and that he does not care about the poor. The differences

  29. Justice Ginsburg disrespects our Constitution

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 4 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am MST

    Liberty Counsel writes: When describing the nature of a constitution, Justice Ginsburg did appropriately recognize the importance of a constitution and the duty of the citizens to defend it. Justice Ginsburg did not, unfortunately, take her own advice. She undermined insight of its crafters and stated, “I would not look to the US Constitution if I were drafting a Constitution in the year 2012.”

  30. Supreme Court Not the Voice of God

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am MST

    In the dozen presidential debates that we've watched on television over the last year, one of the topics that has not gotten the attention it deserves is the judiciary. After all, the power of the U.S. President to nominate federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, is one of the most important duties of the President, and we have a right to judge presidential candidates based on what

  31. Back to work, grandma

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 3 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am MST

    Why the retirement age needs to change

  32. Stephen Harper’s confession

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 3 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am MST

    Paul Wells on why Harper's warning was really an admission— the Tories behaved like trust fund babies

  33. Culture Matters: Ibn Warraq's eloquent defense of Western civilization

    → City Journal | 2 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Bruce S. Thornton

    Occasionally, the mainstream media will let slip something that reveals the incoherence of multiculturalist orthodoxy. Not long ago, the New York Times reported on an Indian casino in California that had begun purging its rolls of members deemed insufficiently Indian. At the end of the story, an official from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, himself an Indian, remarked: "The tribe has historically had the ability to remove people. Tolerance is a European thing brought to the country. We never tolerated things. We turned our back on people." . . .

  34. Who Pays?: From breast implants to diabetes, Western health care is a mess.

    → City Journal | 2 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Nicole Gelinas

    What do a breast-implant scandal in Europe and the latest news about Paula Deen, the Southern-fried American chef, have in common? Both demonstrate, in their own ways, what's wrong with Western health care. The free market alone can't fix health care—but neither can the government. Instead, government must play a limited role and stick to it, allowing the market to work. That's not happening today. . . .

  35. Barack Obama Bypasses the Constitution

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 2 Feb 2012 | 6:30 am MST

    President Obama's lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution has reached the point that he thinks he can act like a king and do whatever he wants. In addition to giving away our money recklessly, he has announced his intention to refuse to enforce laws he doesn't like, even though the U.S. Constitution makes it the prime duty of the President to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

  36. The Last Sane Liberal: Mayor Ed Koch's practical progressivism saved Gotham's finances and restored its spirit.

    → City Journal | 1 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Tevi D. Troy

    This past summer, Edward I. Koch, a Democrat, made headlines by noisily endorsing Republican Bob Turner in a special election to fill the congressional seat of disgraced Tweeter Anthony Weiner. The former mayor explained that he'd decided to rally Jewish voters in Brooklyn and Queens to chastise President Obama for his Israel policy. Koch's outsize role in Turner's surprise victory made for big political news and led to speculation that Obama could be facing trouble in his reelection bid. . . .

  37. Bailing Out the European Union

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 1 Feb 2012 | 1:40 pm MST

    It was bad enough when President Obama bamboozled Congress into passing a Stimulus bill that didn't produce any jobs, then increased the federal budget deficit, then bailed out the big U.S. banks, and then appointed a Jobs Czar who creates jobs only in China. But it's over the top when Obama told the European Union Council President and the European Commission President that "the United States

  38. Visionaries on Demand: California's self-appointed philosopher-kings try to "think long."

    → City Journal | 31 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Troy Senik

    In the divisive world of California politics, only one belief produces unanimous agreement: state government is irredeemably flawed. Beyond that agreement, however, the conversation returns to the usual polarized positions. Depending on whom you ask, California's ongoing fiscal woes either owe to runaway public spending or to an insufficient tax burden on the state's affluent class; the Golden State's schools are failing either because they're starved of funds or because the powerful union establishment impedes even the most modest reforms; and the state's pronounced "green" tilt is either a model for environmental consciousness nationwide or a key reason for the state's flagging fortunes. Pick virtually any statewide issue, and the divide persists. . . .

  39. Think Long Comes Up Short: A new report calls for higher taxes in California.

    → City Journal | 31 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Steven Greenhut

    California's ongoing budgetary and political dysfunction has spawned a host of reformers backed by wealthy donors. The latest scheme, released with much fanfare in late November, is a report produced by the Think Long Committee for California and funded by billionaire Nicolas Berggruen. It's called A Blueprint to Renew California, and it leaves much to be desired. . . .

  40. Cuomo's Pivot: The governor's tax hike will harm New York's competitiveness.

    → City Journal | 31 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By E. J. McMahon

    Why did New York governor Andrew Cuomo, the first-term Democrat who had pledged "no new taxes—period," suddenly reverse himself and engineer a December special session of the state legislature to impose higher taxes on New York's top earners? Occupy Wall Street and other tax-the-rich advocates probably had less to do with Cuomo's turnabout than the state government's growing gap between spending and revenues. Last spring, the governor closed a $10 billion budget gap for fiscal 2011-12 without a tax increase but left an imbalance, initially estimated at $2.4 billion, for 2012-13. Following the summer's stock-market decline and eurozone chaos, Cuomo's November budget update estimated that the gap had grown by $1 billion. Moreover, after slashing school aid and freezing Medicaid spending in his first budget, Cuomo had promised to boost spending for both by 4 percent the following year. This effectively locked in 40 percent of the 2012-13 budget, narrowing options for balancing it. . . .

  41. Obama Tells Woman Her Husband Shouldn't Be Unemployed According To What He Sees

    → Eagle Forum Blog | 31 Jan 2012 | 3:35 pm MST



  42. The Middle East Forum: Strategy, not Advocacy

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 31 Jan 2012 | 9:49 am MST

    Given the many excellent organizations dealing with Middle Eastern and Islamic issues, what niches does the Middle East Forum's fill? We provide strategic counsel, as opposed to advocacy or apologetics. To understand what this means, look at the

  43. Here’s an idea: cut the programs that offend our intelligence

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 31 Jan 2012 | 9:40 am MST

    Our gravy-conscious government should pay more attention to which belts they're tightening

  44. Steady As You Go: John Taylor's new economic treatise would make helpful reading for our political leaders.

    → City Journal | 30 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pm MST

    By Guy Sorman

    Millions of Americans, reeling from the slumping economy, have become skeptical about the free market and inclined to listen to proponents of discretionary economic intervention. In election years, in which all political candidates must pledge to create jobs (and pretend that they've done so in their former positions), even pro-market candidates cannot entirely avoid advocating government policies to boost employment. They should read Stanford University economist John Taylor's new book, First Principles. . . .

  45. Newt Gingrich: best trivial pursuit president ever

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 30 Jan 2012 | 8:20 am MST

    Scott Feschuk on the walking Wikipedia with fat baby hands who is wooing America

  46. The right way for the West to get tough with Iran

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 30 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am MST

    Sanctions from members of The European Union are appropriate and necessary

  47. Agreeing with Rudy Giuliani

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 29 Jan 2012 | 6:42 am MST

    My disagreements with the Bush policies parallel those of Rudy Giuliani. His new Foreign Affairs article, "Toward a Realistic Peace," breaks dramatically with current policies on a number of issues, and especially vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict: Too

  48. Damascus and the Claim to Lebanon

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 29 Jan 2012 | 6:33 am MST

    What does the Syrian government want in Lebanon? Some highly-placed observers in the American government are sanguine about its ambitions there. Richard Murphy, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, told Congress in

  49. Arabs Criticize Illogic and Tyranny

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 29 Jan 2012 | 6:19 am MST

    In the initial years after political independence, Arab opinion leaders shied away from public criticism of their governments, fearing that anyone unsympathetic would seize upon their words and use them to discredit Arabic-speaking peoples. To a certain

  50. Muslims to Westerners: Get Tougher on Islamists

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 28 Jan 2012 | 6:52 pm MST

    Muslim-majority countries may be the main source of terrorism, but the leaders of these states generally take a harder line against their Islamists in opposition than do their Western counterparts. This makes sense, for (1) all this is quite new to

  51. Anarchy, the New Threat

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 28 Jan 2012 | 12:44 pm MST

    The scourge of the twentieth century was overly-powerful governments; could the looming problem of this century be too-weak governments? The political scientist R. J. Rummel estimates, in his evocatively titled study, Death by Government (New Brunswick,

  52. Stephen Harper’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-him approach

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 27 Jan 2012 | 5:30 am MST

    Paul Wells on why Harper works harder than any prime minister in his lifetime to take himself out of the picture

  53. Don't Ignore Electoral Fraud in Egypt

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 24 Jan 2012 | 1:48 am MST

    When Egypt's Lower House convened on Jan. 23, Islamists held 360 out of its 498 seats, or 72 percent. This astounding figure, however, reflects less the country's public opinion than it does a ploy by the ruling military leadership to remain in power. In

  54. Which political party is really rigid and inflexible?

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 23 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am MST

    The Conservatives have not only accepted gay marriage, they are defending it vigorously

  55. I see you think I’m not very interesting

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 23 Jan 2012 | 7:50 am MST

    Would it kill you to leave your cell alone for 30 seconds while we're together?

  56. Will No-Interest Banking Undo Turkey's Economy?

    → Daniel Pipes :: Writings | 21 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pm MST

    That's the thesis implicit to David Goldman's analysis at "Recall notice for the Turkish model." After dubbing the Turkish economy a bubble that "is bursting, starting with the stock market and national currency," he makes this observation about the

  57. Uniting under the bigotry umbrella

    → Macleans.ca » Opinion | 20 Jan 2012 | 6:30 am MST

    The Christian right’s prejudice against Catholics and Mormons is overshadowed by their prejudice against the “secular liberal agenda”



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