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Dalton McGuinty - money is no object

Is there any adult supervision at Queen's Park these days? Is Dalton McGuinty completely and utterly divorced from reality at last? I'm just asking, because five months after his government admitted that Ontario was likely to post a $25 billion deficit in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Premier announced in yesterday's Speech from the Throne that his government was going to create 20 000 more co

Diogenes Borealis | posted 2 days ago

When engineers cut loose

Check out this video of an amazing Rube Goldberg machine in action:

Diogenes Borealis | posted 5 days ago

rube goldberg machine, rube goldberg, music video

"Progressive conservatism" is an oxymoron - "compassionate conservatism" is a redundancy

James Delingpole of the Telegraph has some advice for young British Conservatives:So my job is to try to give the conservative political class of tomorrow the backbone the conservative political class of today is so sorely lacking. Key to this is helping them to understand that “Progressive Conservatism” is an oxymoron, and that the “Compassionate” in “Compassionate Conservatism” is a

Diogenes Borealis | posted March 4th

OMG - Bush was right after all!

Newsweek - Newsweek!!! - admits the painful truth:Bush's rhetoric about democracy came to sound as bitterly ironic as his pumped-up appearance on an aircraft carrier a few months earlier, in front of an enormous banner that declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. And yet it has to be said and it should be understood—now, almost seven hellish years later—that something that looks mighty like democracy

Diogenes Borealis | posted March 2nd

Gay libertarian runs for US senate

Marc Delphine, an openly-gay financial planner from Tigard, Oregon, announced his candidacy for the US Senate & will run in November under the Libertarian Party banner. From his website:As a Libertarian seeking public office, I seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of oth

Diogenes Borealis | posted March 2nd

What's the deal with gay conservatives?

Box Turtle Bulletin has an interesting podcast up this week that asks "What’s the deal with gay conservatives? How does LGBT identity intersect with our politics?" Moderated by Gabriel Arana, it includes analysis by "gay libertarian conservative" Timothy Kincaid and "progressive centre-left gay Democrat" Jim Burroway. Although it is from an American blog & focuses a lot on the gay marriage

Diogenes Borealis | posted March 1st

progressive centre, gay conservatives, box turtle, marriage issue, gay marriage, kincaid, political parties, canadians, podcast, democrat, gays, turtle, marriage, blog

Health & safety committee runs amok

This is from one of my favourite blogs, E-mails from Crazy People. It is from committees like these that future despots spring.Stairway AuditA surprise stairway safety audit was conducted by the East Building Office Safety Team on Tuesday morning, June 9th, from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. The intent was to raise awareness of stairway safety and to mitigate accidents on the stairways that lead from the

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 28th

Naked hockey art at Whistler

OK, I promise this is the last post about nude olympic athletes (see previous posts here and here) but I have to comment on a work of art which is currently on display in Whistler. Called "Slapshotolus", it is installed in Pride House, a "welcoming space for gay winter Olympians" near the athlete's village.The bronze sculpture depicts a male hockey player wearing nothing but helmet, skates an

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 24th

Weaponizing classical music

Brendan O'Neill at Reason Magazine writes about a new British trend in social control - "weaponized classical music":Britain might not make steel anymore, or cars, or pop music worth listening to, but, boy, are we world-beaters when it comes to tyranny. And now classical music, which was once taught to young people as a way of elevating their minds and tingling their souls, is being mined for i

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 24th

Can promoting equality for gay people be compatible with conservatism?

Yes, says British Conservative MP Nick Herbert. In fact, "such equality is in fact an essential element of modern conservatism", says the openly gay Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In a speech to the Cato Institute in Washington, Herbert outlined the role of gay conservatives in the British Conservative Party:So can promoting equality for gay people be compatible with co

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 17th

More momentum for all-nude Olympics

A few days ago I wrote an argument for returning the modern Olympic games to the ancient Greek tradition of having athletes compete naked. Since then I have learned that Canada's women's biathlon team, currently competing in Vancouver, has published a nude calendar to raise funds for their sport. For those of you who enjoy pictures of fit naked women tastefully posed with guns, you can order a

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 15th

Happy Thanks For Voting Liberal Day

Today is the second annual Family Day holiday in Ontario, or as I prefer to call it, Thanks For Voting Liberal Day. It has been two years since a shameless Premier McGuinty rewarded the citizens of Ontario with their own money by proclaiming a new statutory holiday to fulfill an election promise made in the 2008 election.I'm used to being cynical about politics but the Ontario Liberals plumb the

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 15th

ontario liberals, statutory holiday, election promise, public expense, new holiday, school teacher, malaise, politician, sunday school, taxpayers, citizens, consumers, money

Here's a prorogation model I can get behind

So, Dalton McGuinty is going to the Ontario legislature - cue the howls of outrage from Michael Ignatieff and the other guardians of democracy.What's to be done about this nonsense? Here's a proposal - lets adopt the legislative model of some US states. For example, the legislature of the state of New Mexico, population approximately 2 million, convenes in Santa Fe on the third Tuesday in Januar

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 10th

Let's run the Olympics like the ancient Greeks did: all nude

Chatelaine magazine has an on-line photo spread of six of Canada's male winter Olympic athletes in various stages of undress. The picture at right is of skier Kyle Nissen, skis strageically placed. So here's an idea - lets start staging the Olympic games with all nude athletes, just like they did in ancient Greece. I think it would do wonders for TV ratings.The ancient Greek Olympic games were

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 8th

Life imitates The Onion

Headline from The Seattle Weekly:Gay, Mentally Challenged Biracial Male Cheerleader Claims Discrimination(HT: Mark Steyn, The Corner)

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 6th

mark steyn, seattle weekly, cheerleader, discrimination

Hideous Public Art: "I see boobs"

Today's installment of Hideous Public Art takes a trip to the deep south for a look at works by Craig Wedderspoon, art professor at the University of Alabama. An aluminum sculpture of his called Argyle was recently ... um .. erected in a quadrangle of the univerity's campus in Tuscaloosa.According to the Tuscaloosa News the sculpture has provoked some mild but, in my opinion well-deserved, mocke

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 6th

Howard Zinn, RIP

Michael C. Moynihan at Reason.com has written a not-too-flattering obituary of American historian Howard Zinn, who died last week at the age of 87. Zinn is most famous for being the author of the immensely popular book A People's History of the United States, loved by socialists the world over. Moynihan sums up Zinn's legacy: "Call him what you will—activist, dissident, left-wing muckraker. J

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 3rd

Climategate - "now it's payback time"

James Delingpole has strong feelings about the collapse of the anthropogenic global warming consensus -I first met Professor Stott a couple of years ago. He’s emeritus professor of biogeography at the University of London, and I tracked him down because in those days he was pretty much the ONLY senior scientific academic anywhere in Britain brave enough publicly to dispute the AGW ‘consensus.�

Diogenes Borealis | posted February 1st

Harper vs the Senate

I don't know why the Tories don't defend their prorogation of Parliament by more forcefully arguing for the real reason the session was ended - reconstituting the Senate committees so that Liberals can no longer obstruct legislation passed by the House of Commons. As Don Martin points out in today's National PostBy a count of 51-49 -- with five PCs or independents still complicating the count -

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 30th

Architectural vandalism: the banks (part 3)

Parts 1 and 2 of this series looked at the golden age of bank buildings as seen in some surviving "temples of finance" in Toronto and Victoria, BC. Today - a look at the sad decline of bank architecture and the deadening effect it has on our communities.What the hell happened to us after the Second World War? We used to have legions of highly skilled artisans like stonemasons, bricklayers, sculp

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 28th

Architectural vandalism: the banks (part 2)

Part 1 showed some examples of Toronto buildings from the golden age of Canadian bank architecture. Here are some buildings from the west coast which serve as a reminder that we once took pride in building beautiful structures even for everyday purposes like banking.Victoria, BC is particularly blessed. Here are a few examples from just a few blocks of Government St, starting with this former Bank

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 26th

Architectural vandalism: the banks (part I)

At one time in our history the most important institutions in a community occupied buildings that reflected their status. Court houses, libraries, schools, churches, city halls and banks were the most imposing structures in town and reflected that importance in muscular neo-classical or gothic-revival buildings that looked like secular temples. Sometime after the Second World War we lost the confi

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 25th

Obama: "the trailer is anything but the movie"

Rex Murphy on President Obama in today's National Post - Pickup truck 1, Obama 0:Obama is a parochial politician. He emerged from the small pool of the university environment and Chicago politics -- the former, I think, more significant than the latter. Take his jibes at Scott Brown's pickup, which he delivered repeatedly in Boston two days before the vote. Only the thickest of tin ears could i

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 23rd

Are the wheels coming off the Obama bus?

What a week it's been!Brown wins huge upset in MassachussettsCopenhagen accord on climate change collapsing?Lib radio flops again - Air America goes bankruptPelosi: There aren't enough votes to pass the Senate billThree blue dog Democrats support GOP measure to block EPA from regulating carbon dioxideThe hits just keep on coming.

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 21st

blue dog democrats, democrats support, climate change, air america, gop, lib, senate, radio, farewell

Obama: "He’s done everything wrong"

A stunning critique of President Obama's first year from billionaire Democrat Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of US News & World Report:He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.This health-car

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 20th

mort zuckerman, fiscal disaster, health care plan, new agenda, obama, billionaire, democrat, critique, politicians, economy

Uganda's cabinet debates "kill the gays" bill

The government of Uganda has rejected proposed delays to introduction of a controversial anti-homosexuality bill in its parliament. It looks like this barbaric legislation is not going to be withdrawn despite international outrage (including from Prime Minister Harper). Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has the disturbing details:As the bill is currently written, it would Expand the definitions

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 20th

It's SENATOR Brown

Martha Coakley has conceded - Scott Brown is the new senator for Massachussetts. This is going to get interesting.(image: Hillbuzz)

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 19th

martha coakley, massachussetts

"If you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up."

So says Democrat Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana, in this report from ABC News:“There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this,” Bayh told ABC News, but “if you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up.”What is the lesson of Massachusetts – where Democrats face the prospects of losing a Senate seat they�

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 19th

senator bayh, evan bayh, senate seat, abc news, independent voters, independents, wake up call, denial, democrat, prospects, tendency, democrats, massachusetts

Math is hard ...

Thomas Friedman, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, comments on proposals by the New York Times to charge a subscription fee for on-line readers:What was coming to me anecdotally from my travels was the five worst words that as a columnist you ever want to hear: ‘I used to read you before you went b

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 17th

pulitzer prize winner, ann althouse, thomas friedman, autocratic government, line readers, green revolution, subscription fee, new york times, columnist, ht, proposals, travels, china

"The educated class was dazzled by style, the knuckledragging morons are talking about substance"

Mark Steyn weighs in on the looming Democrat Senate debacle in Massachussetts: America's preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of Good King Barack the Hopeychanger's reign by electing a Republican?In Massachusetts?In what the tin-eared plonkers of the Democrat machine still insist on calling "Ted Kennedy's seat"?Remember the good old days when the glossy magazine covers competed for th

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 16th

Stop the presses - Harper runs a tight ship!

Columnist John Ivison had an attack of the vapours in today's National Post in an article titled PM tightens grip on power. Ivison accuses Harper of running the government like Louis "I am the state" XIV ran France, and solemnly intones that academics who have recently protested the prorogation of Parliament would be "shocked at the extent to which Mr. Harper now controls every aspect of gover

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 13th

Homophobia in Africa

Two important stories appeared in today's National Post which highlight sickening persecution of homosexuals in Africa and the involvement of some American evangelical Christians.RW Johnson writes in The battle over homophobia in Africa:The arrest of a young Malawian male couple who had celebrated a gay marriage-- under the country's draconian anti-gay laws they face a 14-year sentence with hard

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 12th

Republican "Hottie McAwesome" poised to take Ted Kennedy's senate seat?

Check out the GOP's hot candidate in next week's Senate election to choose a replacement for the late Ted Kennedy: Massachussetts State Senator Scott Brown. According to some polls, Brown is in a statistical tie with his Democratic oponent and may deprive the Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.Plus, to be completely shallow about it, he's really good looking:and he's a Lieu

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 11th

A lifelong Republican on gay marriage

There is no doubt that Ted Olson is a conservative. He is a self-described "politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations" (he was Solicitor General under Bush from 2001 to 2004). His wife was killed on 9-11 while a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77 which was flown into the Pentagon.It may seem unlikely, but Olson is one of thre

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 11th

"I'm not campaigning for this asshole another day!"

New York Magazine quotes Elizabeth Edwards referring to her husband John, the extraordinary narcissist who thought he deserved to be President. The article is a fascinating account of the last days of the slow-motion train wreck that was the Edwards campaign:Edwards’s new image was sullied by a trio of interrelated imbroglios that bubbled up in 2007, which his advisers dubbed “the three H’s

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 9th

On Tiger Woods' torso

Ann Althouse muses about Tiger Woods' shirtless Vanity Fair cover shot and modern standards of male beauty:The Vanity Fair article has a fascinating Annie Liebowitz cover photograph of Tiger Woods's without a shirt — fascinating because the great athlete looks so different from those Men's Health-type torso models who work their muscles solely for the purpose of getting their muscles to look

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 6th

Architectural crimes against humanity (4) - the BC Supreme Court

Vancouver is a beautiful city set against a backdrop of spectacular natural beauty; unfortunately it is also home to some of the world's most wretched architecture. Case in point: the British Columbia Supreme Court building, which sits like a massive gun turret on two entire city blocks bordered by Hornby, Howe, Nelson & Robson Streets. It is a textbook example of a style of modern architectu

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 3rd

ROM Crystal "worst building of the decade"

The accolades keep rolling in for the Michael Lee Chin Crystal, Daniel Libeskind's grotesque addition to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. First it was declared the "eighth ugliest building in the world" and now - "worst building of the decade" from the Washington Post:Sure, there were a lot of Wal-Marts thrown up in the Aughts, but Daniel Libeskind's addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in T

Diogenes Borealis | posted January 2nd

royal ontario museum, daniel libeskind, wal marts, functional buildings, dead spaces, lee chin, casual visitors, washington post, curators, ugliness, 1914, aluminum, decade, toronto, map

A "cranky anachronistic curmudgeon" talks to himself

This post is a plug for one of my favourite bloggers, Edward Michael George. I think EMG is that rare occurence in amateur blogs - a good and original writer. He is noteworthy chiefly for a series of audio dialogues with himself called Semper Poo Poo Calls the World. The latest installment, The Drive, can be found here. These "audiotainments" contain dialogues between EMG and himself, or rather

Diogenes Borealis | posted December 21st

rare occurence, bob newhart, sacred cows, gay village, homophobe, anachronistic, s university, urban living, public art, dialogues, university avenue, hypocrisy, blogosphere, ego, apartment, aim, emg

COP15: let's turn the developed world into Cuba

Of all the nonsense pouring out of the COP15 conference in Copenhagen, this has to be the most nonsensical, and the most revealing of the true agenda driving many anti-global warming activists: Cuba - a world climate leader. Published in the COP15 Post, the official publication of the conference, it offers a glimpse of what would happen to developed nations like Canada if the emissions reduction t

Diogenes Borealis | posted December 14th