A Shrewdness of Apes

After an appropriately long hiatus, I return.  Kevin Clarke and David Primo have a really nice  piece  in the NY Times this weekend. They bo...

This blog is more or less static. It's just been too busy of a year to blog regularly. I've been working hard on papers, have been i...

Return to more traditional kicks to the face! William Elliot, the first civilian commissioner of the RCMP, is resigning. One of his former u...

I am not an expert on Egypt, or on democratic emergence, or on Arab politics. So, I shall just share two things. First, this video is remar...

There's much about party politics which I don't much like. Chief among these things are the often blind allegiance to a party's ...

For the third time in as many months, a party leader has been taken down by their caucus. As the  story  in today's Globe makes clear, E...

Perhaps courage is in short supply in our times. But the charge cannot be levelled against  Tony Proudfoot .  Proudfoot died  yesterday  fro...

This weekend, the Toronto Star ran a remarkable story about a man who gave an anonymous liver transplant. You can read it here , along with ...

The NYT has a very interesting  article  up on a randomized controlled trial for a homeless program in NY. A social agency in New York runs ...

Given that the leaders of both major parties in BC have been pushed out by factions in their caucus, it appears that elected members are mor...

Carole James has been made to resign as leader of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia. (The Globe has a quick story here ). This is...

A little self-promotion is  here .

Rob Ford gives an interview with CBC while running a football practice. This is truly amazing. Listen  here .

Herein  Jack Layton proposes to subsidize big polluters. Namely, all of us who heat our homes.  I don't even really have the energy to c...

Last week, the Toronto Star pasted a picture of Russell Williams, in female underwear, staring blankly back at readers. It was a picture as ...

Bob Probert died this  weekend . As always, this is a shame for family and friends. It's also a shame for hockey. All of his problems as...

I've had my share of baggage trouble of late, including a bag lost for a month, and a bottle of wine stolen from my luggage. But, if I w...

Michael Ignatieff has released a new policy  paper  outlining his party's foreign policy. Among it's recommendations is keeping Cana...

Daniel Rubenson and I presented the latest version of our paper on war deaths and Conservative candidate support. The basic story is that in...

Tasha Kheirridin has a nice piece in the Post today about saving  Question Period . She makes the common argument that the introduction of t...

And in one  moment  looks a little more like Jean Chretien and a little less like Paul Martin. 

Death Stands Above Me, Whispering Low Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear: Of his strange language all I know ...

Michael Chong has recommended substantial changes to Question Period. His recommendations will soon go before the House and then a Committee...

At the same time that Parliament is fighting for its right to be trusted with confidential documents of the most sensitive nature, the Leade...

Britain will be hosting it's first ever televised leaders' debate this evening. It should be great, if for no other reason than that...

This morning, Ron Bruinooge is holding a press conference about some private members bill he is introducing in regards to what he calls ...

I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that the new Nike  ad  isn't actually Tiger's father speaking to him. He's been dead...

This whole Rahim Jaffer affair is really perplexing. What seems most likely is that his procedural rights were violated when he was asked ...

I recently joined a Facebook group that wants to protect "Oh (sic) Canada" from having the line about "all thy son's (sic...

Suppose you were concerned about whether recently arrived Canadians are sufficiently respectful of individual rights and tolerance. Suppose ...

What Stephen Gordon  said . 

I've had several people forward me this story from the  BBC . The short version is that it's puzzling why so many Americans vote for...

After two weeks, Lufthansa has found my baggage which they lost en route to Geneva. As my friend Loren would say, "thanks for doing w...

I bought an iPhone a week ago. This morning I dropped it in my apartment, breaking the home button. This afternoon I strolled into an Appl...

Short story: a UFC champion gets sick in Manitoba. He goes to a hospital and is properly diagnosed, but not given a CT scan. He then hightai...

There's been much made of the Tories' recent decline in the polls. By most readings, they are more or less tied with the Liberals. ...

I just looked up the wiki on Shelly Glover . She's an MP from Winnipeg. She should do the same for ' Tom Flanagan .' I mean, not...

When Air Canada is creating a detailed list of the contents of your bag for purposes of searching they will not record that you have a pho...

The Star has a piece today on Ignatieff's university tour, which is set to begin this  week . As it happens, he's going to be making...

1.) Bob Dylan's " Shelter from the Storm " from the Rolling Thunder Review. That's T-Bone Burnett to Dylan's right. Th...

I am sitting at a coffeeshop at Geneva's airport. There was six inches of snow last night, so the airport is shut down. People are eve...

I suppose this is also the time I should note that someone in baggage handling stole a bottle of wine from a bag I checked with Air Canada i...

I have been in Geneva for the last three days. It's been quite a fun time. I was invited by the Swiss political science association to t...

Will the Prime Minister prorogue Parliament today? Inside opinion suggests that he will, though the Star is taking an inquisitive approach i...

Thanks to a failed terrorist attack, flying to America just got a lot worse . Apparently, one has to arrive three hours before a flight. Y...

This article won't tell you. This is incredibly simple and shoddy inference. Groarke and Fenske note that seven-in-ten faculty in (Eng...

Michael Schumacher is returning to F1 Racing . The return of the Loewen men to Montreal is now all but assured. I've said it before and...

Lee Sigelman, one of political science's great citizens, has died. Sigelman's career was, from my standpoint, most impressive. Sigel...

Paul Kennedy has released his report on the death of Robert Dziekanski. As Andrew Potter puts it , he found that the Mounties lied. Repeated...