Calgary Bishop Fred Henry.  Photo: CBC.ca

Catholic Bishop for Calgary, Bishop Fred Henry, recently announced some extreme precautions to combat the H1N1 threat in Calgary area parishes.  In addition to suspending the age-old practice of taking communion on the tongue, Bishop Henry su… Read full post »

Alberta is perhaps the most unique case in Canada, a province that literally has been a one party democracy for most of it's existence.  Sure, other parties always run candidates, but the incumbent party wins an inordinate amount of time, and forms majorities an inordinate amount of time… Read full post »

As many of you know, one of the things I do when not writing here is stand-up comedy.  Sirius Satellite Radio, in conjunction with Canada's top comic Russell Peters, is sponsoring a contest to find a new opener for Russell.  Among other things, the winner will get to open a show… Read full post »

The September 2009 cover fo Gourmet.  Photo Credit: Gourmet.  Story Credit: Guardian.co.uk

With the recent demise of 4 big name titles from the Conde Nast magazine line, and recent closures of newspapers across north America, there is much debate about the magazine and newspaper in… Read full post »

Modern politics and music have a lot of connections.  Bill Clinton famously played his saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show in the 90's.  Bob Rae… Read full post »

Jim Balsillie - Rejected!!!  Photo: Cbc.ca

The bankrupt hockey team in the middle of the desert still has no owners.  Renegade business man Jim Balsillie, he of Blackberry billions, is completely and officially out of the running after his bid was rejected, with prejudice.  Tha… Read full post »

Chief Iranian Nuclear Negotiater (and obssessed Paul McCartnery player) Saeed Jalili.  Photo: Hossein Fatemi, Fars News Agency

In a shocking turn, the multi-party talks in Geneva with Iran, the US, Germany, France, and others, Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, softened his… Read full post »

This is a wonderful little tribute to two of the men who have brought science into the mainstream in the past few decades.  Practically all footage and sound samples come from Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, and Stephen Hawking's Universe series.  Set to a wonderfully "hip-hop"… Read full post »

Winston Blackmore celebrates a legal victory in Bountiful BC. Photo: CBC.ca

Bountiful, British Columbia is a small town in interior BC that's been in the Canadian news recently.  Populated by a group of FLDS fundamentalists, the Attorney General of BC has been contemplating charges of po… Read full post »

Iranian Prime Minster Ahmadinejad speaking at the UN.   Photo: The Telegraph.co.uk

You might think that members of the G20 have enough on their plates with global economic crash.  However, on the first day of the G20 summit, leaders found something else to talk about ... Iran.… Read full post »

The UN Vs. Tim Horton's ... no contest in Canada.  Photo: The National Post

Homer Simpson would be proud.  On a day when many world leaders were showing up to the UN in New York with the express intent of walking out on the speech of Iran's Ahmadinejad, the Canadian… Read full post »

Convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff.  Photo: Woopidoo Biographies

When the Madoff scheme first came to light, followed by other, smaller fraud schemes, a new meme started appearing in the mainstream press regarding the economic meltdown.  Roy Clancy displays this meme very well in hi… Read full post »

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, left, and deputy commissioner Bill Daly were in court Thursday in Phoenix. (Matt York/Associated Press)  CBC.ca

The saga of the Phoenix Coyotes continues toward the absurd.  In bankruptcy proceedings today, lawyers for the NHL quoted Meatloaf in court… Read full post »

EV1 electric car by GM.  Photo: Cars of the Future

I recently watched a re-run or "Who Killed the Electric Car" on CBC Newsworld.  I've seen this documentary a number of times since it was first made, and in many ways it does an excellent job in dissecting… Read full post »

Happy Birthday
by Lyle Bateman

Today is the day I shed my skin
wriggling out
to leave my dried husk behind

The new skin is same as the old
in facet and hue
but it glistens translucent under the moonlight.

Until next year.

A few weeks ago, I profiled a comic strip written by a guy I've been doing a lot of comedy with over the past couple of years, Mal's Open Mic by Derek Sweet.  Sweet has made his way to Open Salon now, and his first post is a great example of… Read full post »

Jim Balsillie.  Photo: Dalhousie News

How would you feel if you couldn't give away $212.5 million in the worst economic crisis in modern times?  If you'd tried, on several occasions, to give away large quantities of cash in exchange for a money-hemorrhaging product and were rejected… Read full post »

Usain Bolt.  Photo: www.telegraph.co.uk

There are certain figures that transcend the sport they are in, forever changing that sport.  Michael Jordan.  Wayne Gretzky.  Tiger Woods.   And, it seems obvious today, Usain Bolt.

Sprinting is a game of inches, of 1/100t… Read full post »

Suaad Hagi Mohamu.  Photo: TheStar.com

Suaad Hagi Mohamud finally arrived home in Canada yesterday after a three month ordeal in Kenya.  Mohamud's ordeal would be a wake-up call to all Canadians travelling abroad, but sadly, it's not something that tends to happen to white Canadian… Read full post »

Ford Pinto - a perfect submission to "Cash for Clunkers"
Photo: Wikipedia.com

A small rift in space-time appeared today in the vicinity of Washington, DC when lawmakers realized that the cash for clunkers program was a clunker itself.  "It's a disturbing situation," sighed one anonymous… Read full post »

Is it a good day when North Korea gives the US a lesson in both law and order, and diplomacy?  Let's review today's events ... Kathy Riordan has two good articles here and here for the details.

Bill Clinton, after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiation with North Korea, flew to Pyongyang today… Read full post »

Casper waits to get off the bus after his regular trip.
Photo: thisisplymouth.co.uk

Plymouth, UK (ANN): Controversy erupted in an English city this week when deep corruption in the transit industry was uncovered.  An unnamed source inside Plymouth's First Transit Authority cited political… Read full post »

At my previous blog, I was a member of a loose network of Canadian blogs called Progressive Bloggers.  With no political affiliation, PB allows bloggers of all political stripes with a progressive nature to air their opinions in an open forum.  As bi-partisan (or in Canada's case, m… Read full post »

I am not a knitter, though I have friends afflicted with this compulsive disorder.  And it clearly is a compulsive disorder, as evidenced by what happens when biologists learn to knit.

I must say that the frog looks reasonably accurate. There's got to be some necessary abstraction when r… Read full post »

I rushed to the park with the package still fresh in my hands, the sweet bubblegum wafting up to my nostrils.  Ripping it open, I tossed the gum away, after the real prize inside.  As I neared the park, I could see the regular group there, and I stopped

… Read full post »