BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: July 2005 Archives

Here’s something for all you crazy copyleft anarchists out there. An open source beer recipe some students in Denmark came up with as an exercise in creative commons-like open sourcing.

See the BBC news piece:

Free Beer!

Just think, now that whole cryptic malted barley, water, hops and yeast conundrum is finally solved. We don’t have to rely on those recipe protecting bastards at Carlsberg to get us tipsy anymore. It’s the dawn of a new era.

But wait, haven’t I been making beer in a bucket under my sink for two decades now? Hey, I’m an intellectual property pioneer! I’m a world changer! I’m… a drunk!

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July 27, 2005

Caught in the Act

Posted by mason at 02:11 AM ET | Comments (6)

Allow me to draw your attention to a report on New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer nailing Sony for payola, the practice of bribing radio types to get airplay for artists. The immediate result was a $10M settlement and a promise from Sony to stop the practice, which is a more sophisticated version of direct “pay-for-play” to radio DJs, which was outlawed in the U.S. in the Sixties. Spitzer believes this is an industry-wide problem, and has asked for documents from other Big Music companies.

The long-term result could be more sweeping, as the Federal Communications Commission says if this is proven to be a violation of federal law, it could be a “potentially massive scandal.”

Spitzer certainly obtained some damning evidence, releasing to reporters several emails, including one from an employee of Epic to a radio station with the quote: “WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen.” (Ironic given that Audioslave is mostly old members of Rage Against the Machine whose left-wing politics are well-known. So far the Audioslave website is silent on the matter.)

The folks over at indie music hub Pitchfork and pro-music sharing site Downhill Battle are ecstatic about the news, showering Spitzer with praise and celebrating what is hopefully the end of a powerful tool Big Music used to overwhelm the independents and screw artists and consumers.

To me it’s another example of how irrelevant commercial radio has become. With music-sharing, podcasts, satellite radio, and quality live music at festivals and small shows, why does any fan need radio to hear about great new music? By the same token, what artist needs commercial radio to promote their tunes?

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July 26, 2005

What's your point?

Posted by andrew at 06:49 PM ET | Comments (2)

Thanks for everyone who has participated on this blog for the past year, it has been great fun. I'm off for a while. I'll leave you with this passage from Timothy Garton Ash's book Solidarity, which seems more relevant today than when I read it yesterday. At the very least, it might help clarify just what the Cold War was about.

(Hint: It wasn't about happiness or saving the environment)

***************
At the very least, the Polish experience should put our own in perspective. One particular distorted perspective was exemplified by the editor of the influential West German weekly Stern, in a leading article justifying martial law in Poland. The article was entitled, in a novel variation of Pontius Pilate's famous quip, "Freedom -- what is that?" "We citizens of the Federal Republic are free people," Mr. Henry Nannen concluded. "Are our 1.7 million unemployed also? Freedom -- what is that?"

However economically circumscribed the freedom of the unemployed is, there is no sense in which an employed Polish worker was more free in January 1982 than an unemployed West German worker. Of course there is no perfect freedom on earth; of course it is difficult to define freedom in the abstract; and yet I will not hesistate to offer and defend as a working definition: "Freedom is what a West German worker, employed or unemployed, did, and what a Polish worker, employed or unemployed, did not have in January 1982."

No one who has really understood the Polish revolution will so confuse our unperfect freedom with their unfreedom.

-TGA, 1983, p.353-354.

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14 Years After the Capitalist Victory—happier? safer? better off?

Posted by john_d at 11:13 AM ET | Comments (25)

The Guardian today is running a 14 year old story on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s abandonment of Marxism-Leninism as the official ideology of the Soviet Communist Party.

Was it only 14 years ago?

Back then (well, before then really -- more like 1989 I imagine) there was a communist bookshop across the street from the University of Toronto, and I remember the strange sight of a pyramidal display of Gorbachev’s Perestroika: New thinking for our country and the world in the window, now clearly ringing the death knell for that very book store, though who could have predicted all of the fantastic improvements the next few years would bring so rapidly and dramatically.

So, here we are 14 years later and, thank god for the victory of capitalism. Now the world is safe from conflict and strife. We’re on our way to saving the environment, and everyone has enough food and shelter. Thank you Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and the Georges Bush!

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"Shoot to kill" makes no sense

Posted by andrew at 09:25 AM ET | Comments (10)

Britain does not have the death penalty. So say you were to walk onto a subway, drop off a backpack full of explosives, and subsequently kill a few dozen people. If they managed to catch you later, and were able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law (where you would have a team of lawyers defending you) that you did indeed perpetrate the atrocity, the best they could do is jail you for life.

But Britain does now have a "shoot to kill" policy that has already claimed one innocent victim. According to this protocol, if a policeman merely suspects that you are about to commit an atrocity of the sort described above, he can pump eight bullets into your brain right there on the street.

So to summarise: In Britain, it is now legal for a lone policeman to execute someone whom he believes is about to commit mass murder (no judges, no warrants, no lawyers), while it is illegal for the state to execute you after they have indeed proven that you did commit mass murder.

So to summarise even more: you can be killed for something they think you are about to do, but once you've done it, they can only put you in jail.

Does anyone else find this weird?

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July 25, 2005

Everyone in the pool (except Quebecers)

Posted by andrew at 10:10 PM ET | Comments (0)

A spate of drownings in Ontario and Manitoba over the weekend has spurred renewed calls for better water safety and mandatory swimming lessons in schools.

That's from the CBC.

The idea is being pushed by Carolyn Bennett, who I almost defeated in the 2000 election,. She's still doing better than me: she has since gone on to become our Minister of State for Public Health.

Two questions arise.

1. Is mandatory swimming lessons the proper response to this?

2. And if so, is the federal government the proper level of government to implement this?

My answers are "no" and "no". For the first question, I think we need to be extremely wary of policy ideas that are developed in response to public tragedies. At the very least, a proper cost-benefit analyis needs to be done, especially to see if there are better places to put the money and resources. Would more lives be saved by mandatory swimming lessons, or by better trained and funded lifeguards? Is lack of swimming the problem, or is it the usual summer combination of booze, boats, and boneheads? etc.

For the second: Swimming lessons are offered by community centres, YMCAs, some schools, and other municipal bodies. It seems to me that if there is anything that is senstive to local variations and therefore not suitable for federal involvement, it is this.

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more suggestions plz

Posted by andrew at 10:05 PM ET | Comments (7)

1. If you were going to spend 26 hours on a three-hop trip to Lithuania from Montreal, what podcasts would you bring with you?

2. Anyone know of any good Polish rock/punk/electronica/etc?

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See Jane leave

Posted by andrew at 07:04 PM ET | Comments (3)

ooh boy, I know some ladies of the left who won't be too pleased with this: Jane Pratt, editor, is leaving Jane Magazine in September.

Jane magazine will no longer be named for its editor when Jane Pratt steps down as editor-in-chief in September.

A successor to Ms. Pratt, who launched the young women's magazine in 1997, will be named shortly, according to the magazine's publisher, Fairchild Publications. The magazine's name will remain the same.

Known for its frank treatment of issues facing women in their twenties and an edgy sense of humor, Jane will go through its transition on an up note. Single copy newsstand sales are up 16% for the six months through June 30, according to the publisher.

(Thanks again, Brandnoise)

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July 21, 2005

Beware of philosophers who would be kings

Posted by andrew at 11:09 AM ET | Comments (15)

My article in today's Post, offering a warning Michael Ignatieff. Canadians should be wary of philosophers who would be king, but in the case of Ignatieff, he should be wary of us.

(Subscription required)

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July 20, 2005

Autonomous media. Is anybody listening/reading/watching?

Posted by kellym at 05:23 PM ET | Comments (1)

"Autonomous Media: Activating Resistance and Dissent", a how-to handbook on seizing the media, edited by Andrea Langlois and Frederic Dubois carries a sustaining metaphor of autonomous media as a bamboo garden.

A single innocent shoot can stand alone for several years and then suddenly an entire field of bamboo begins to sprout…While on the surface each shoot appears to be an individual, related but separate from its neighbours, underground [they] are all connected.

-Autonomous Media: Activating Resistance and Dissent 17

"Pissing oneself in a dark blue suit...you get instant relief, you feel warm all over feel relief, but then..." is another powerful, yet somewhat unlovely literary device used to describe independent media as an interconnected mish-mash of democratic experiments in communication.

Langlois and Dubois introduce the book by positioning autonomous media as no less than the purveyor of a collective cultural salvation: "Autonomous media are the vehicles of social movements. They are the attempts to subvert the social order by reclaiming the means of communication".

Marian Van Der Zon, author of a chapter within the book titled "Broadcasting on your own Terms" recounts the story of how she soldered together a $20-dollar build-your-own radio kit and became a pirate of Montreal radio waves.

Van Der Zon's station, Temporary Autonomous Radio, (TAR) has signal strength of about three blocks, but has broadcast, at one time or another, from cities across Canada. TAR broadcasts whatever is on the minds of whoever might happen to wander by. What emerges is a pirate radio collective, a mix of multi-generational and marginalized story telling, underground music and participatory karaoke.

Van Der Zon talks about a shift of focus from broadcasting to narrowcasting as a tool to "disseminate tactical information, or a space to develop and share analysis around specific issues". She also talks about pirate radio’s ability to combat corporate media agendas and counter the affects of mass social amnesia.

Langlois and Dubois recognize some of the challenges facing autonomous media, including the "come and go nature..., as well as their marginality and limited audiences". But they encourage people to overcome these challenges with creativity and determination: reminding us that "media activists toolbox is not only microphones and keyboards, but also markers, glue, film, spray-paint and coloured pencils."

But is anyone listening/watching/reading? Not the point, argues this do-it-yourself guerrilla media guide. Whatever metaphor appeals to you, isolated bamboo connected through a root system or the gratuitous relief of pissing yourself in a blue suit, the important thing is to continue tearing the microphone/camera/press away from a handful of corporate behemoths and keep "imagining and unearthing revolutionary, radical, autonomous, spontaneous, creative ways of accessing the airwaves and filling them with the voices of many."

Sounds like a revolution to me.

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Reading list help please

Posted by andrew at 11:28 AM ET | Comments (12)

I'm off to eastern europe next week, till August 12 -- Lithuania, Poland, and then either Hungary or the Czech Republic. Blogging will end this week and probably not resume till September. Meanwhile, I need to do some quick reading to prepare. I just finished Gulag by Anne Applebaum and The Captive Mind by Milosz. I've got two books by Timothy Garton Ash ready to go -- Solidarity, and We The People: The Revolution of 89.

But can anyone recommend anything else? Either good travel journalism from the region, some poetry, or a novel?

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The Stranger, not by Billy Joel, Returns

Posted by john_d at 10:15 AM ET | Comments (5)

This bizarre case is getting so little coverage in North America—shame. Morally-suspect Polish/French director Roman Polanski (The Pianist—great film), is getting a little Albert Camus action these days, as a British libel case focuses on whether or not he was duly upset by the murder of his wife Sharon Tate, almost 40 years ago.

So far, former movie star and famous spouse Mia Farrow has said, yes, Roman was as upset as one would expect after a murder (I’m paraphrasing), while Harper’s Editor Lewis Lapham has said no, not really, in fact he was trying to pick up a gorgeous model at Elaine’s just weeks after Tate’s death.

All this as a result of a story that appeared in Vanity Fair, documenting the evening in question at New York’s famous Elaine’s restaurant. From the sounds of things, everyone was there, and Woody Allen was playing the clarinet in the corner.

The obvious question—who cares if Roman Polanski cried enough for his dead wife?

Read L’Etranger, by Camus. Report back.

Oh, and my favorite bit from Farrow:

Told that Polanski had admitted resuming casual sex within four weeks of his wife’s murder, Farrow said: “I feel there’s a big distinction – for men maybe – between relationships and having sex. I don’t see that as disrespect of Sharon … I would swear that on a stack of Bibles.”

Soooo, if ever I wind up defending my honour in court, someone please call Mia Farrow for me.

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July 19, 2005

Coyne gone kwazy?

Posted by andrew at 03:11 PM ET | Comments (3)

Anyone have any idea whazzup over at www.andrewcoyne.com?

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non-neutrality at the CBC

Posted by andrew at 09:57 AM ET | Comments (6)

The National Post today reprints a memo, distributed to CBC staff, outlining the Corpse's policy on the use of the word "terrorist" or "terrorism". The gist of it is that staff should "Exercise extreme caution when using either word" with the guiding principle being that "we don't judge specific acts as 'terrorism' or people as 'terrorists'".

The reasoning appears to be that calling something "terrorism" is a non-neutral description, "which can leave journalists taking sides in a conflict." So, the CBC is asking its staff to simply "describe the act or the individual, and let the viewer or listener or political representatives make their own judgement."

This one has me a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I think the memo is generally quite judicious, and, despite what some in the media are saying, it is not the result of wishy-washy multi-culti attitudes. But at the same time, it seems a bit odd to accept that there are terrorists in the world who engage in terrorism, but to deny that any particular act or person fits the description.

Further, I wonder about whether the CBC memo is not a bit arbitrary. As Norman Spector points out in the Post today, the CBC is happy enough to use the term "genocide", a term which is easily as controversial as "terrorism". (I did a quick search of the CBC website, and sure enough, "genocide" is used frequently and in a non-attributive manner).

And look at the CBC memo itself. It suggests that one could hypothetically describe what happened as follows: "A suicide bomber blew up a bus full of unarmed civilians early Monday, killing at least two dozen people."

But many radical Islamic mullahs reject the term "suicide bomber" as a non-neutral description, arguing that there are no suicides among martyrs. I'm not being glib here -- it is a serious point. Killing yourself is not the same as martyring yourself. The term "unarmed civilians" is also non-neutral. Many Palestinians hold that there are no Israeli civilians, and that they are all fair game. Similar claims are made by radical muslim clerics to justify the fact that insurgents are killing thousands of civilians, including fellow muslims, in Iraq.

So the question isn't whether the CBC can offer neutral descriptions of the world, that is impossible. To describe is to judge, and to judge is to take sides. The question is whether the CBC has drawn the line in the right place.

UPDATE: In today's edition of Norman's Spectator, Norman Spector draws our attention to the fact that over at Radio-Canada, they've told the CBC to take a hike over the memo. Spector writes:

Beyond embarrassment, however, it can't have escaped these CBC reporters that, far from not taking sides--as Burman suggests--the policy of terminological confusion helps one side--the side interested in brainwashing future suicide bombers and other terrorists.

To those who, understandably, worry about their jobs--believe me, you have nothing to fear: Burman is an intellectual second-rater, and doesn't have the guts to defend his policies.

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July 18, 2005

Two and a half cheers for a free press!

Posted by john_d at 11:11 AM ET | Comments (1)

Over at THIS Magazine, we like to boast that nobody owns us, meaning we are beholden to no-one’s worldview, not our advertisers’ (chief among them Canada’s labour unions), not any political party’s (despite being sometimes known as the media wing of the NDP—not true; we write better than the NDP). We like our writers, and readers, to make up their own minds and to be brave and smart in how they express their views. In other words we believe, in theory, that journalism, while highly political, does not practice politics.

Linda McQuaig (yes, I realize she is on our masthead) seems to have changed her mind on this matter. I read her op-ed in the Sunday Star over the weekend, and was, well, confused. In the matter of Karl Rove versus all concepts of decency, Ms. McQuaig and I agree, but her criticism of Rove was only a little tributary of her criticism of the press in the United States. Specifically, Ms McQuaig apparently believes that Judith Miller, a New York Times writer recently jailed for that time-honoured journalistic principle of protecting confidential sources, should do the right thing, get off her cell floor and tell the world that Karl Rove was her source.

She writes:

Surely protecting sources is about protecting people who take risks in order to get important information out to the public, not about protecting powerful officials who try to smear whistle-blowers and use the press to keep the public in the dark about crucially important matters — like the fabrication of the case for war… And if journalists are willing to sacrifice themselves to defend a journalistic principle, they should skip the jail-time histrionics and just do their jobs properly. They could start with exposing the administration’s deceit about Iraq…

There is something uncomfortably Rovian about the way McQuaig undermines Miller, painting her as an untalented mouthpiece for the Bush White House and suggesting she is serving time in the pokey “to preserve her White House connections,” all of which may be true indeed, but none of which cancels out the importance of the principle being upheld. Press freedom, including the freedom to maintain confidentiality, is under enough threat in North America right now without members of the press ganging up on it as well. Is Karl Rove manipulating the news media in the US and attempting to weaken its key functions? Probably. Should we help him? I’m thinking not.

Keeping our sources confidential is not a political tool. It’s a principle. If we like it when it protects our cherished whistle-blowers (as it did during the fall of Nixon), we sort of need to like it when it protects Karl Rove. Don’t we?

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No logo? Not quite.

Posted by andrew at 09:45 AM ET | Comments (0)

Here's an interesting article about some recent polling data debunking the notion that today's youth (18-24) are a bunch of anti-branding anti-capitalists. In fact, it would appear that this crew is actually less likely than the general population to be willing to spend more on ethically produced goods or environmentally-friendly products.

The upshot:

Manufacturers and marketers thus need to understand that there is a serious contradiction between what young adults claim to do and what they actually do. This is of particular importance to note as those manufacturers that regard young adults as a core market have even gone so far as to embark on changing their corporate behavior to cater to the supposed ethical trend in a bid to capture a portion of young adults' spend. In light of the disparities highlighted, this could be a risky move and the only way to develop and market compelling new products is to keep this point in mind throughout the new product development process.

For what it is worth, this dovetails with my admittedly limited experience with kids today. But my general impression is that a) the most brand conscious people are always the ones who claim the loudest that they don't care about brands, and b) the consumerist-activism agenda is held strongly but not deeply by most people.

(Thanks to Brand Noise for the link)

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July 15, 2005

Hot enough for you?

Posted by andrew at 04:20 PM ET | Comments (7)

That's from a CBC backgrounder on heatwaves.

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reading, writing, listening

Posted by andrew at 01:22 PM ET | Comments (0)

Just finished Colossus, by Niall Ferguson. A good, but not great, book, about the unspoken American empire. Like Michael Ignatieff, he allows his liberal interventionism to cloud the fact that the war in Iraq was backed by a pack of lies. Still, I'm broadly sympathetic to his normative position (liberals should not be afraid to be interventionist, or even imperialist.) We should also be quite worried about his conclusion, viz., that America is too broke, has too little manpower, and has too short an attention span to serve as a proper imperial power.

Just reviewing The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World for the National Post. Really interesting look at the relationship between architecture and power.

Just started: Gulag, by Anne Applebaum. Not exactly light summer reading, but essential.

Soundtrack to the summer: Brian Wilson's Smile. I know it's been out for a while, but I just discovered it, and I can't stop listening to it.

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The poverty of dignity

Posted by john_d at 10:56 AM ET | Comments (9)

Could Thomas L. Freidman's editorial in today's New York Times have been inspired by a recent THIS Magazine blog discussion?

It sure reads like it was.

More likely of course is that American journalists are taking the lead, way ahead of their government certainly, in finally trying to answer that second question on every American’s mind after the events 9/11. The first was “Who would do this?”, and the second was “Why do they hate us so much?”

The answer, of course, lies at a more complicated depth than anyone could get to in 2001, and one we are all just barely getting a whiff of now.

From the editorial:

“Some of these young Muslim men are tempted by a civilization they consider morally inferior, and they are humiliated by the fact that, while having been taught their faith is supreme, other civilizations seem to be doing much better,” said Raymond Stock, the Cairo-based biographer and translator of Naguib Mahfouz. “When the inner conflict becomes too great, some are turned by recruiters to seek the sick prestige of ‘martyrdom’ by fighting the allegedly unjust occupation of Muslim lands and the ‘decadence’ in our own.”

This is not about the poverty of money. This is about the poverty of dignity and the rage it can trigger.

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July 14, 2005

Greatests philosozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Posted by andrew at 04:19 PM ET | Comments (11)

Climb down off those tenterhooks kids, put away the pins and needles. The BBC's race to determine the Greatest Philosopher has been won by...

Karl Marx.

Hooo boy.

I can't say I'm pleased. My man Hobbes didn't even make it into the top 10, though my next two choices, Hume and Wittgenstein, did finish two and three.

Why Marx? This Old Labour commie thinks the vote shows that, in this age of market fundamentalism, "thousands of Britons must believe that real change is possible."

Riiiight. Didn't we try that one already? I'd be more inclined to chalk it up to the types of people who listen to Greatest Philosopher shows on the BBC than to any great social movement. But I'm already engaged in a bit of CBC bashing on this blog, so maybe I'll save the Beeb for another time.

If anything, Marx's success here is simply a corollary of what is now an iron law of academia. Just as you can be wrong about everything and still get tenure, your ideas can lead to tyranny and the slaughter of millions and the chattering classes will still love you.

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Fire Karl Rove

Posted by john_d at 12:35 PM ET | Comments (7)

Okay, it’s an American petition, so signing it from Canada will probably not help, but it’s worth noting.

He did say he’d fire whoever did this. He just didn’t expect it would be his daddy. Oh, what does a poor, feckless President do?

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July 13, 2005

Posted by andrew at 08:36 PM ET | Comments (18)

1-german cover.jpg

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the love boat...soon we'll be making another run

Posted by Lisa at 04:07 PM ET | Comments (3)

Did anyone see the article by Rick Mercer in the Post yesterday about Ezra Levant and his "Inaugural Western Standard Carribean Cruise with Ezra Levant".
If you were looking for an opportunity to travel with "like-minded convservatives" here's your chance. Check out www.westernstandardcruise.com for more details.
One can only hope there will be shuffleboard on the Lido Deck!

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CHANGING OF THE GUARD PARTY

Posted by kellym at 03:22 PM ET | Comments (0)

THIS Magazine will be holding a party to celebrate the changing of the guard on Thursday July 14th 8:00 PM, at Tortilla Flats 458 Queen St West, on the corner of Queen and Augusta in Toronto.

Help us welcome THIS Magazine's new editor, Emily Shultz. A two-time This Magazine Great Canadian Literary Hunt winner, Emily joins the magazine upon the heels of her editorship at Broken Pencil Magazine, after steering the content of this independent culture magazine and completing 12 outreach events in cities across Canada.

With a background in feminist publishing and small-press book publishing, Emily has also written articles for Toronto's Eye Weekly. Her other editorial credits include Outskirts: Women Writing from Small Places (Sumach Press, Spring 2002), and The Pocket Canon, a playful anonymous anthology, dubbed "best independent publishing venture" by NOW Magazine in 2003.

Emily's short story collection Black Coffee Night was a Danuta Gleed nominee for Best First Fiction in Canada in 2002, and she was chosen as one of four authors for The Globe and Mail's under-30 spotlight series.

In addition to welcoming Emily, help THIS Magazine say thank you and good luck to outgoing editor Patricia D’Souza, as she gets ready for her big move to Ottawa to take a position as an editor for Canadian Geographic.

Patricia has a long history with THIS Magazine, and took over as editor in March 2004. We're sad she's leaving, but know that she will have a great experience as an editor for Canadian Geographic.

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The new bombers?

Posted by john_d at 10:45 AM ET | Comments (8)

News today that UK officials have determined UK citizens were responsible for the suicide bombings that formed last week’s terrorist strikes on London.

Papers today are speculating about this “new kind” of terrorism, and how destabilizing it may be to current western anti-terrorism policies and practices.

Yet, at least one security professional has been aware of this growing threat for some time. Robert S. Leiken, Director of the Immigration and National Security Program at the Nixon Center in the States has a fascinating essay in the latest Foreign Affairs, entitled Europe’s Angry Muslims. It raises all sorts of interesting and terrifying questions.

The crux of his argument...

The crux of his argument is that Islamic extremism, while born in the Middle East and transported to the west on networks created by people like Osama bin Laden in Pakistan or Afghanistan, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, is now taking hold among second generation Muslim youth in cities like Paris, madrid, Amsterdam and London (what’s that you say? A link between Iraq and London?).

As potential terrorists, these youth have several advantages—they mix well culturally, having language and social skills to move through a western European city without notice, and they have an EU passport, which means their international travel, including travel to the US and Canada is unrestricted by Visas or interviews. Second generation extremists like those described by Leiken almost undoubtedly carried out the London bombings.

Leiken’s essay speculates that inconsistent, confused and ill-conceived immigration and assimilation policies in Europe have resulted in a large population of Muslim European citizens who are still disenfranchised from their homelands, and therefore ripe to be plucked by radical Islam and sent with backpack bombs to blow themselves up on public transportation.

Once again, murderers relinquish the right to discuss motives as though they had any justifying effect. The youths who blew up subways and a bus in London were psychopathic and/or extremely delusional. Yet their delusions were fed and nurtured under a definable social and political policy framework that has somehow resulted in an entire identifiable population in Europe being second-classed.

From the essay:

Given the United States’ comparatively happier record of integrating immigrants, one may wonder whether the mixed U.S. approach—separating religion from politics without placing a wall between them, helping immigrants slowly adapt but allowing them relative cultural autonomy—could inspire Europeans to chart a new course between an increasingly hazardous multiculturalism and a naked secularism that estranges Muslims and other believers. One thing is certain: if only for the sake of counterterrorism, Europe needs to develop an integration policy that works.

Recently on this blog, we’ve discussed relative racisms in North America and Europe, as well as sociopolitical counterpolicies for dealing with how terrorism develops. Leiken’s essay touches on all these points. Read it, and discuss.

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The new brand bullies?

Posted by andrew at 10:24 AM ET | Comments (9)

A while ago I posted a request for readers to talk to me about their brands. From many I received the usual earnest, but totally transparent falsities ("I don't care about brands" ... right). But many others sent very thoughtful considerations of their relationships to the stuff that surrounds us.

Here's my initial stab at making sense of this. I'm still working on this stuff, especially on the relationship between consumerism and citizenship, so if anyone has any constructive comments, I'd like to hear them.

And "why don't you discuss any Iraqi brands?" doesn't count as a constructive comment.

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thin grewal indeed

Posted by andrew at 10:11 AM ET | Comments (7)

Gurmant Grewal might be in trouble for a number of things, but my feeling is that "mishandling political contributions" is not one of them. He is accused of failing to report or issue receipts for campaign contributions.

Big deal.

Last summer, I was trying to get out of Peterborough just as the election writ was dropped. I wasn't sure who I was going to vote for until toward the end, when, like everyone else in Ontario, I freaked at the idea of a Conservative victory. Sorry everyone out West, but those Liberal "hidden agenda" attack ads were so effective. Who knew that advertising had the power to affect people's behaviour? Next thing you know I'll be eating at McDonald's against my will. Thank heavens for Morgan Spurlock... who knows how fat we'd be without him.

Anyway. In full panic, I headed down to the HQ of my local Liberal rep, Peter Adams. I wanted to help, but had no time. So I wrote a cheque for $100, handed it to the first guy I saw, and walked out. I never saw a receipt for the money. Hell, I never even received a thank you.

But the thing is, the HQ was a disaster area. It was total mayhem... I think I actually wrote my name and address on some stray piece of paper. It wasn't like I sat down with Mr. Adams' agent and we had a chat about election funding rules and so on.

I suppose I should look into this, maybe see about getting a receipt. But I'm hardly going to go to the press and start screaming election fraud.

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July 12, 2005

Making the World Safe for …

Posted by john_d at 10:43 AM ET | Comments (0)

I’ll take myself up on my own challenge to make Iraqi stories as compelling as London stories.

Q. Obviously, “military recruit” is as dangerous a job as one can get in Iraq today, since recruiting offices are regular targets for suicide and car bombings. What’s the second most dangerous job in Iraq?

A. Barber.

According to a recent report in The Guardian, which I found through All Headline News, a site collecting Iraqi news items in the English-speaking media, barbers are being targetted for assassination all over Iraq, as militant Islamist insurgents try to cow the general population into following strict religious codes—the shaving of beards, and western-style haircuts are considered a form of heresy. 10 barbers have been snuffed out in recent weeks. Here’s a quote:

The more detailed threats have warned against doing a French-style haircut called the “carré” and doing what Iraqis call the hiffafa, in which a length of thread is used to extract fine hairs on the cheek for a closer shave.

Customers have been executed as well, so the haircut-related deaths in Iraq are not limited to barbering professionals. Londoners, and these days (thanks to Anne McLellan’s inspiring words the other day) Torontonians are understandably nervous riding the subway. Imagine if taking a seat in a barber chair was a potential life and death decision.

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July 11, 2005

Help Wanted at Maclean's

Posted by joyceb at 08:22 PM ET | Comments (12)

Elsewhere on this blog (the previous entry), Andrew Potter comments that contributors to this blog seem to be more concerned with changes at This Magazine "while ignoring some serious layoffs at Maclean's." In an effort to rectify this situation I give you an update on the human resources goings on at Canada's national magazine.

June 15: Word leaks (to me, at least) courtesy of magazine industry insider DB Scott's blog, that Publisher/Editor-in-Chief/Poobah Ken Whyte has culled his senior staff, terminating or laying off Executive Editors Michael Benedict and Bob Levin and Art Director Donna Braggins, along with a number of other senior staff (according to the June 16 Globe and Mail, at least 11). Sorry but that Globe article is subscriber only.

July 5: Masthead Online, the trade rag of the magazine industry, reports several new staff at Maclean's: Former Globe staffers Mark Stevenson and Dianne de Fenoyl.

Here's the item in full:

July 7, 2005
Ken Whyte rebuilds team at Maclean’s
TORONTO—Yesterday, Maclean’s announced the appointment of two senior editorial staff members, who will join the newsweekly next month. Two Globe and Mail staffers, national editor Mark Stevenson and Review editor Dianne de Fenoyl, have reunited with Maclean’s publisher and editor-in-chief Ken Whyte. Former National Post managing editor, Stevenson worked for several years under Whyte as national editor of the National Post and deputy editor of the weekly Saturday Night. Stevenson’s new role as editor of Maclean’s will see him share daily operations responsibilities with Whyte. De Fenoyl, Maclean’s new assistant managing editor, also worked under Whyte while she was a former executive editor of Saturday Night and Life editor of the National Post.

July 11: A casual peek at the Masthead job boards today and I discover a posting for art director at Maclean's. Hm. Not very forward thinking, to let Braggins go without a plan. Must have been unbearable for at least one of them.

For an insightful view of the effect of the layoffs I recommend DB Scott's post of mid-June. My immediate reaction was shock at the idea that a national newsmagazine would trim it's research and fact-checking staff. But I have to admit, that although I was surprised at the number of layoffs and certainly departures of this order (Benedict and Braggins) raise eyebrows, it's hardly surprising that Whyte would clean house.

I do have one concern though, and it's rooted in my dubious opinion of the publisher/editor-in-chief combo that seems to be gaining in popularity in Canadian magazines. Where are the checks and balances in this food chain? That's a lot of faith the brass at Rogers are putting in Whyte to give him carte blanche to clean house so soon after joining the magazine. Whatever, I'm just a junkie for this kind of stuff. Does anybody else care? As long as Paul Wells is safe...

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Tale of Two Capital Cities

Posted by john_d at 10:33 AM ET | Comments (15)

No chance of missing the latest information about the London bombings last week. Any paper will do. The death toll is up to 52. Here’s a link.

And then there’s the (at least) 48 innocent Iraqis who were blown up by a suicide bomber yesterday in Baghdad. The victims were waiting to sign up for the new Iraqi military. Today’s Globe has the story on page A8—that’s 8 pages into the paper from the latest London news.

And a quote from the story:

“The attack came as a leaked British government memo revealed that the U.S. and Britain hope to more than halve their troop numbers in Iraq over the next year. Any such plan would rely on recruiting and training Iraqi forces to take over. But army recruits are a prime target for insurgents.

Any chance these stories are related? Whadda ya think?

So, if we’re all at war with the folks who bombed both London and Baghdad over a span of four days, why do our newspapers assume we only care about the people who were blown up in London?

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July 07, 2005

Welcome Emily

Posted by patricia at 12:06 PM ET | Comments (4)

All you This Magazine subscribers who tore open your copy of the July/August issue and turned straight to the editorial will already know that I'm leaving the magazine next week to head to sunny Ottawa and a job at Canadian Geographic magazine.

But, as always, This is in good hands. Our new editor, Emily Schultz started this week. Emily brings a wealth of experience to the position.

A two-time This Magazine Great Canadian Literary Hunt winner, she joins the magazine upon the heels of her editorship at Broken Pencil Magazine. For two and a half years, she steered the content of this independent culture magazine, and completed outreach events in 12 cities across Canada. With a background in feminist publishing and small-press book publishing, Emily has also written articles for Toronto's eye Weekly. Her other editorial credits include Outskirts: Women Writing from Small Places (Sumach Press, Spring 2002), and The Pocket Canon, a playful anonymous anthology, dubbed "best independent publishing venture" by NOW Magazine in 2003.

Please join me in welcoming Emily to the magazine and the blog.

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London Calling

Posted by andrew at 11:38 AM ET | Comments (15)

Yesterday afternoon, I spent three hours of my life opining on the CBC about the actions of the 200 or so "anarchists" who engaged in running street fights with police in Scotland. I was asked to respond to an interview clip from a Canadian activist named Hodge, who declared that the true violence was being perpetrated by our leaders and the governments of the western world, which, according to Hodge, are responsible for all of Africa's problems, from famine to kleptocracy to AIDS.

Whatever. It was the usual bit of warmed over countercultural BS, and I gave the standard response, just doing my bit to feed the goat. But as the afternoon progressed, I got more and more annoyed. Why were we spending so much time discussing the actions of 300 people in Scotland? Why weren't they interviewing someone from Engineers Without Borders, or Operation Eyesight, or IMPACS, or any of the dozens of NGOs doing amazing on-the-ground work in Africa and other parts of the world? What is it about the media cycle that it can be so easily hijacked? Isn't the point of having public radio precisely to get away from this kind of sensationalist nonsense?

In light of what happened today in London, I'm more angry now about all the attention that got paid to those anarchists yesterday. I feel cheated, that I spent time and intellectual energy on something so frivolous as responding to the behaviour of 300 losers. There's serious shit in the world, and there's unserious shit. Why does it take mass murder to remind us of where the distinction lies? And why do we forget within days?

I am now taking bets on how long it will be before a member of the Liberal Party of Canada blames George Bush for the explosions.

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Most overrated songs?

Posted by mason at 12:46 AM ET | Comments (11)

What’s summer for if not goofing off and wasting time with asinine debates? Nothing, of course!

In that spirit, let’s try this one on for size, shall we? Here we have a list of the 13 most overrated songs of all time. I have to agree with one of them for sure (“Imagine” is a highly skippable song, for all the reasons mentioned in the article), but I’d also like to challenge Blog This readers to submit their own. I’ll start: Beyond its initial catchiness, what do people see in “500 Miles” by the Proclaimers? I’m astonished this song has endured through painful karaoke renditions and ill-advised wedding spins. It was simply never that good a song.

Anyone else?

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July 06, 2005

He’s like a freakin’ god or something

Posted by john_d at 02:39 PM ET | Comments (3)

Nothing can make you cynical faster than following pro-sports because you happen to love the game. Baseball players pounding out record home run years and then testifying before Congressional hearings into steroids. Ouch. Let’s not even talk about pro hockey.

And then there’s that Lance Armstrong guy. He’s got the looks, the girlfriend, the life story. It’s all in place, so naturally, you’d think something about him has got to be wrong. Performance enhancing rumours have come up, but does anyone actually believe them? The other riders he regularly humiliates have nothing but good things to say about him, and he them. Here’s a bit of Lance lore from today’s fifth stage of this year’s Tour de France, after a masterful team time trial yesterday in which he set a tour record. From the official Tour website:

In a sympathetic gesture for Dave Zabriskie, the rider who lost the overall lead because of a crash at the end of the team time trial, Armstrong refused to don the coveted jersey at the start of the stage.

He didn’t believe he’d earned the right to wear yellow because of the unfortunate circumstances that surrounded his inheritance. In the neutral zone, Lance wore his Discovery Channel jersey but the race organizers insisted that the peloton stop at the site of the official start. They had to coax Armstrong into yellow. He eventually succumbed to their wishes and racing got underway, albeit five minutes after the expected departure time.

Oh, plus he has his own cancer survivor foundation. Somebody tell me the guy hurts cats or something. Please.

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July 05, 2005

Coralling Karla

Posted by john_d at 05:42 PM ET | Comments (0)

Quebec is not the only North American jurisdiction grappling with what to do with unimprisoned sex offenders in their midst. This article from the LA Times documents the strange ideas we get when we feel so threatened. Here’s my favorite quote:

“If we can get these people out of our community, it’s not that these crimes won’t happen,” said Christopher J. Shipley, 38, a real estate lawyer and member of the Mount Dora City Council.

“It’s just that they won’t happen in my community.”

Nice.

So, do we put Karla on a rope that ends just before she gets near the local Catholic girl’s school? Do we put her on a permanent cross-country tour, ensuring we spread this woman’s continued risk of reoffending equally among all communities in Canada. I’m pretty sure I know what Andrew Potter would advise. Any other suggestions?

Final quote from the article:

"You pass an ordinance to make people feel safer," Yatsuk said. "But are they safer? Or is it better to educate parents on how to best protect their children?"

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Danger! Media -- er, I mean Karla -- on the loose!

Posted by mason at 01:37 AM ET | Comments (21)

Did anybody catch the interview Karla Homolka gave on Radio-Canada (French TV) this evening, mere hours after leaving prison? Well, surprise surprise, the woman isn’t a monster! From what I saw she seems to be an intelligent, remorseful woman who wants to rebuild her life, contribute to the world and put a dreadful mistake behind her. Not a popular, opinion, I’m sure. Even though she got away with just 12 years in jail for her part in three terrible murders, Homolka’s release gives us few options: leave her alone and allow her to live a private life, or hound her until someone tracks her down and kills her or she reoffends in order to live some kind of private life. If you take her word for it that she’s reformed, which I do (perhaps foolishly, I realize), option one seems the only way to go.

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July 02, 2005

Welcoming AA

Posted by mason at 10:09 AM ET | Comments (8)

Seen on the marquee over Zanzibar’s, a downtown Toronto strip club, this weekend: Welcome Alcoholics Anonymous. Hot Girls and Cold Soft Drinks—Come On Inside

Toronto is hosting the annual convention of AA this weekend, and 60,000 delegates are in the city, making it the biggest convention Toronto has ever hosted. Walking around downtown they are very easy to spot, with nametags and special transit passes hanging from distinctive blue lanyards that read “I am responsible” in at least three languages. Kind of defeats the “Anonymous” part, doesn’t it?

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Previous month: June 2005
Next month: August 2005

THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

July 28, 2005

Open Source Beer

July 27, 2005

Caught in the Act

July 26, 2005

What's your point?

14 Years After the Capitalist Victory—happier? safer? better off?

"Shoot to kill" makes no sense

July 25, 2005

Everyone in the pool (except Quebecers)

more suggestions plz

See Jane leave

July 21, 2005

Beware of philosophers who would be kings

July 20, 2005

Autonomous media. Is anybody listening/reading/watching?

Reading list help please

The Stranger, not by Billy Joel, Returns

July 19, 2005

Coyne gone kwazy?

non-neutrality at the CBC

July 18, 2005

Two and a half cheers for a free press!

No logo? Not quite.

July 15, 2005

Hot enough for you?

reading, writing, listening

The poverty of dignity

July 14, 2005

Greatests philosozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fire Karl Rove

July 13, 2005

the love boat...soon we'll be making another run

CHANGING OF THE GUARD PARTY

The new bombers?

The new brand bullies?

thin grewal indeed

July 12, 2005

Making the World Safe for …

July 11, 2005

Help Wanted at Maclean's

Tale of Two Capital Cities

July 07, 2005

Welcome Emily

London Calling

Most overrated songs?

July 06, 2005

He’s like a freakin’ god or something

July 05, 2005

Coralling Karla

Danger! Media -- er, I mean Karla -- on the loose!

July 02, 2005

Welcoming AA