Tags: china

THE PRICE OF FRIENDSHIP.

Last Saturday, the U.S. kidnapped Venezuela’s President. On Monday, Donald Trump threatened to annex Greenland. On Tuesday, Marco Rubio added Cuba to the list. On Wednesday, American forces seized a Russian tanker in the North Atlantic. So today, mentioning what to do if America invades Canada feels neither fanciful nor juvenile. Indeed, serious people like Thomas Homer-Dixon and Bob Rae are claiming “We need to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. uses military coercion against Canada.”

Just in case it does between now and the next reporting cycle, here are some highly passive-aggressive forms of resistance for Canadians to practice on our invaders.

We’re known as the world’s most polite people; I say let’s use our overwhelming strength to save ourselves, or at least to slow America’s takeover of our home and native land.

Read on…

BIG SHOWS, BIG PRIZES FOR…BIG SCIENCE?

I took in two award shows last week, one at Koerner Hall and the other at the ROM next door.

The recipients weren’t powerlifters or Miss Universes or young pianists…or even drug-enhanced Olympians. They were medical scientists.

Offering big prizes for medical breakthroughs used to be rare. Now, there are many dozens of them worldwide, offering hundreds of millions in prizes. They’re driven by the mantra of discovery: “If you think research is expensive, try disease.”

Read on…

Books About Big Things

Hostage books take up a tiny speck in the vast universe of books published each year.

The stories themselves may be harrowing, but their half-lives are short, as the news cycle moves on and another terror grips our gaze.

That said, Canadians seem to be punching above our weight, mainly because our hostages are mainly from the media, like Amanda Lindhout, or they’re diplomats, like Robert Fowler,

But maybe it’s also because we’re Canadians; we travel internationally much more than Americans do (63% vs. 40%), and we think our Canadian passport somehow protects us from being scooped up on the street.

Not any more.

RamsayWrites

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