Drones, the new poster child for the left

And for the professional pontificators, they are a godsend.

Forgetting history

There are fewer and fewer for whom Pearl Harbor is the relevant benchmark of their lives. Their ‘who-I-am-is-where-I-was-when’ touchstones are the Kennedy assassination, the Space Shuttle explosion, and—of course—9/11.

Soviet-U.S. Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987 provides lessons worth remembering

It was an unprecedented agreement as for the first time, it eliminated completely an entire class of weapons.

On the rail: Amtrak and America

We joined an ‘Adopt a Highway’ cleanup effort on the main highway into Vail. Illustrative of De Tochville’s American volunteer spirit, we dressed in protective clothing, gloved, with bright orange vests and ‘grippers’ for picking up.

Total war a lesson in hypocrisy

We all suffer from hypocrisy. Nations are no less culpable than individuals. It is hard to find a nation where the existing government regards itself as acting from other than principled virtue.

Just what are we doing in Asia?

Canadian human rights: 2011 in review

Although we no longer ‘grade’ human rights action, Canada qualifies for the equivalent of an ‘A.’

America declines ‘Americans Elect’

The current U.S. political deadlock is existential; it is not a question of making quick fixes with marginal manoeuvres.

Obsessing over the Iranian nuclear program

What to do about Tehran and how or when to do it? This is definitely a conundrum for which the answers are even more illusive than attempting to lever Syria’s Bashar out of power.

Harper and Asia: breaking more ground

Harper plays his ‘China card.’ This was a useful reminder to Washington that Ottawa has other market options.

Third thoughts about Syria

And to be sure Bashar is no choirboy. Syria is a nasty dictatorship with a decades-long record of vicious human rights violations. But neither are his opponents choirboys.

On becoming grandparents and eligibility for old age pensions

So as Canadians absorb and review the first public information on their 2011 census, some may want to stop and think of the microcosmic elements of reality behind the 5.9 per cent growth.

That ##$%%&! pipeline decision

It is a travesty of a decision; one that fails both the sniff and giggle test.

More puzzles for Americans

Although Canadians doubtless are the epitome of virtue in their own minds, the ICC thinks otherwise.

U.S. depending on 2012 election to bring some clarity to road ahead

Regardless of the electoral outcome, Remembrance/Veterans day next year will have a different resonance in the United States.

It’s not your father’s Moscow anymore

‘Our’ Soviet Union was epitomized by Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984. All gone. In its place is something new—and to a casual, albeit attentive observer, considerably better.

The virtues of the INF Treaty: it worked

It eliminated Soviet intermediate range ground launched missiles.

Asbestos and the nanny state

Asbestos is hardly the only product with invidious effects if not employed with care and discretion.

Tory suppression of Liberal vote? How curious

Consequently one might conclude that it was not the brilliance of Tory machinations but the failures and shortcomings of the Liberal Party that resulted in its May 2 catastrophe.

Oh (fortunate) Canada

But the cycle has reversed. The United States is mired in what could become a 'double dip' recession with unemployment persistently above nine per cent, job creation for May equaling Canada's with one-tenth the population, GDP growth for the first quarter