IntenseDebate - Richard Nelson

11 years ago @ The Toast - How To Tell If You Are... · 1 reply · +4 points

Tiny error in 10th para.: "you fear YOU lack his courage".

I am a bit like commenter middlemarch, but I put it down to my maleness--and I probably wouldn't pick Hemingway.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - The Commons: Lawrence ... · 0 replies · +1 points

The funny thing is, a straightforward defence of investigating with the U.S. administration a common border scheme that maximized satisfaction of Canada's interests would be statesmanlike and possible close to accurate. The Conservatives' prevarication makes the project seem scarier and more underhanded than it needs to be and that it probably is.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Stalemate · 1 reply · +5 points

I'll extend this point further. Without controls we don't know why these lines are flat. The long-form census and prorogation didn't hurt the Conservatives? But maybe without them the Conservatives start to float upwards, seen as a steady, steadfast pair of hands for the Canadian state. As madeyoulook says, maybe without the bus tour the Liberals drift downwards.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Two cheers for Oiler e... · 0 replies · +1 points

Good one! Made me chuckle! :-)

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Two cheers for Oiler e... · 2 replies · +3 points

True - if the game is good, who cares about the incidental stuff (cheerleaders, music, etc., etc.)

I think the NFL cheerleaders are hot. I admit it. But I find the presence of sexy cheerleaders at football games irritating. Not offensive. Irritating - because I think I'm being told that I need to look at young girls in figure-hugging and often low-cut tops to justify my time in the stadium.

The same feeling I had my one visit to a local Hooters. "Do they really think I'm that shallow?" ;-)

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - "What others can aspir... · 3 replies · +6 points

I think that Ontario (& Canada's) success at breaking the link between a child's socioeconomic status and their educational opportunities does not rest with the McGuinty Ministry - or even the Robards one! Canada has always done a more or less good job of providing decent education to (almost) all its children.

You can pick apart certain sectors (First Nations springs to mind) where this hasn't worked. And I can myself rant for an hour - or three - about things that need much improvement.

But I know that I, personally, was lucky to have been born in Ontario, and to have gone to Ontario public schools (and one year in B.C.) - and I started in the system in 1959. I went to ordinary schools in ordinary places (with 2 years' exception I'd say we lived in "3rd quartile" areas), and got a very good education, and went to university, etc., etc. Having read Paul's biography, I wonder if his experience is the same. My American clients & colleagues distort their lives so that their kids can have a good education - we don't have to.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Joy division · 0 replies · +2 points

I expect so.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Joy division · 2 replies · +2 points

Great post. Made me snort-laugh, always good.

Don't think the head is wise, though. Just saying.

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Obama's hard war · 3 replies · +4 points

I'd seen the article before PW pointed it out, and it's the usual good WaPo overview of what's happening.

I chuckled when I read that the tanks are "powered by jet engines", which is only true if you're explaining it to 4-year-olds.

Has anyone noticed how different war reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq is from that in our grandparents' day in WWII? The embedded reporters have been great, but most political reporters seem to have no more knowledge of military matters than when they left high school (i.e., not much). They constantly use terms carelessly, and are confusingly vague about where things happen and who they happen to or are done by. Formations are always described as "units", which apparently covers everything from a fire team to a division. End of rant. :-)

15 years ago @ Macleans.ca - Health care: what we g... · 0 replies · +2 points

Interesting post, John. Adds to my view that Maclean's Canada Blog is the place to start reading every morning.

Very minor point ... the HUGEST variables in health are (1) public-health measures that are now just part of our background, starting with clean drinking water; and (2) antibiotics. Cholera & its ilk were huge killers 100 years ago (and still are where clean drinking water isn't available, viz Haiti), and sepsis was a huge killer even in our grandparents' day.

All the best.

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