Every US presidential election makes me insane. I do my very best to avoid paying attention but it is very hard, with how dominant the TV coverage is, even in Canada. I find I have to pay attention to US government policy in my current job and so I find that this year I am …
Month: October 2012
Bad Science (2011) by Ben Goldacre
First off, this is pretty much an essential read for anyone who doesn’t have a science background. Goldacre gives an easy to understand and funny crash course in basic evaluative tools to assess scientific studies
19 Tough Questions for Libertarians, Part 4
This is part four in my series on the internet meme, “Jon Stewart’s 19 Tough Questions for Libertarians.” Please see part one here, part two here, and part three here. Today we deal with questions 10-19. You give money to the IRS because you think they’re gonna hire a bunch of people, that if your …
The Slow Death of Precedence-Based Democratic Safeguards in Canada
A prorogue is a device: the suspension of parliament, traditionally at the end of that parliament’s “legislative business,” with a planned date of resumption. It was intended to allow parliaments to take breaks without calling an election. The first problematic prorogue occurred in 1873, when John A. McDonald prorogued parliament not because their legislative business …
19 Tough; Questions for Libertarianism, Part 3
In this post we look at questions 4-9. For the first part see here. For the second see here. Do we live in a society or don’t we? Are we a collective? Everybody’s success is predicated on the hard work of all of us; nobody gets there on their own. Why should it be that …
19 Tough Questions for Libertarianism, part 2
So, for part two, we deal with questions 2-3. You can see the previous post here. One of the things that enhances freedoms are roads. Infrastructure enhances freedom. A social safety net enhances freedom. So obviously this is not a question, but a statement. But it gets to an important point, depending of course on …
19 "Tough" Questions for Libertarianism, Part 1
Around October 2011, Jon Stewart interviewed Andrew Napolitano, a prominent US “libertarian” on The Daily Show. At some point, some libertarians put Stewart’s interview questions into a meme sometimes called “Jon Stewart’s 19 tough questions for libertarians.” My understanding of this is that Napolitano did not acquit himself well enough in their eyes. This doesn’t …
Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Angela Cheng and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
This seems to be an attempt to collect Spanish piano concertos from the last 150 years into one spot. We have Isaac Albeniz’s “Spanish Rhapsody” from 1887, Joaquín Turina’s “Symphonic Rhapsody” from 1931, de Manuel Falla’s title track from 1915, and Xavier Montsalvatge’s “Brief Concerto” from 1953. The result of a survey of something like …
Jack White live at the Sony Centre, October 3, 2012
The opener was Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. They play a mixture of pre-rock and roll styles of music including things like Western Swing and jazz and other styles from that era. The band is very solid – especially his guitarist – and as a singer he is definitely authentic, but this is …