The death of Pope Francis has prompted more praise, comment, criticism, cliches and solemn analysis than I can compete with, or even match. Instead, I’ll share a few anecdotes and a personal conclusion based on travels with three popes.… Read the rest
Compared to how today’s equivalents of emperors are dealing with crises and catastrophes, Nero being synonymous with “fiddling while Rome burns” is a bum wrap.… Read the rest
Nothing casts doubt on one’s acquired wisdom like economic imbeciles and experts on aging. As a countermeasure, I recommend the mantra of Deccie, a twelve-old character in my favourite crime novel series: they “just don’t understand the fundamentals”.… Read the rest
At the risk of seeming to mix the sublime and the ridiculous, a kid’s tee shirt and a 18th century philosopher sum up the latest fiasco — or maybe farce is a better word — of this week in the World of Trump.… Read the rest
Type “stupid” into Roget’s Thesaurus and more than 50 nouns and adjectives pop up. In varying degrees, all of them are applicable to the remorseless list of tragedies that plague the world. The tragedy of that is how acceptable willful and blind stupidity have become.… Read the rest
Polite appearances to the contrary, Canada’s relationship with the U.S. has always had an element that can be summed up in a paraphrase of the opening line of a sonnet by the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How do you p*** us off. Let us count the ways..” … Read the rest
As a guide for how to deal with the insults, about-turns and wrecking ball style that pass for American foreign policy without resorting to profanity, I suggest channeling Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, with a small tweak: “Appropriate or inappropriate, that is the question.”… Read the rest
Whatever you think of Donald Trump, he’s boldly gone where none of his predecessors went before. Barely into the second month of his term, he’s made his title and name into an oxymoron that matches my all-time favourite, friendly fire.… Read the rest
Canadian and American hockey fans booing each other’s national anthems is a clear and uncharacteristic indicator of how low President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has driven America’s image and standing in the arena of world opinion.… Read the rest
Since the beginning of the Cold War, the U.S. president has been self-styled and widely, if at times grudgingly, accepted as “the leader of the free world”. Less than a month into his second term, Donald Trump has superseded “leader” with “lout”.… Read the rest