I went to a panel discussion yesterday [Saturday] on the policing of poverty and police accountability in Victoria last night. There were many interesting issues raised around poverty and accountability in policing. I thought it was…
The mystery of the ‘secret canadian bank bailout’
Stephen Gordon is concerned that the CCPA put out a press release saying that the Canadian Government secretly bailed out banks during the global financial crisis. I heard him on CBC yesterday and I listened carefully, partly because I know him to say things that are interesting and sometimes galling…
Five historical misconceptions, demisconceptualized
I grew up in a subtly, vaguely, self identifying Norwegian household. We ate lefse and told stories about lutefisk and had a Norwegian version of the lord’s prayer installed in our kitchen. But, most poignantly, we believed Vikings had horns on their helmets. Turns out that’s probably bullshit. We were also pretty much wrong about…
The use and abuse of science in editorial
I approve of science. I approve of evidence and research. By and large and in the long run, science reveals the facts or transparently fails to do so. Along the way we make mistakes, get things wrong, get our hands dirty and learn that stuff is often really complicated. And I also approve of journalists…
Toshiba supports the National Post
Do a search for the name, “Jim Hansen” on the National Post website and you get two hits from 2012 and 2011. Both hits are about NASA, which is good, since Hansen is the leading climate scientist at NASA. Unfortunately, both articles promote the protestations of 49 former NASA employees…
Public relations defense of Conservative policy
Here’s another reflection in my ongoing series on Dan Gardner’s article from the Ottawa Citizen about women who choose to wear the Niqab…
Dave Parsanishi
This short video featuring the art of Dave Parsanishi is interesting to me, in part, because I’ve seen several of his detailed sculptures, in person. But I’ve also had the pleasure of speaking with Dave about aesthetics and the psychology of presentation…
What was right about “See the veil for what it is”
This post is part of a series of reflections on Dan Gardner’s Ottawa Citizen editorial, “See the veil for what it is.” There are some things that Dan Gardner got right and I thought it would be good to make note of them, before examining his many errors.
See the veil for what it is: further reflections
I read Dan Gardner’s column in the Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday and, dissatisfied with his analysis, wrote a blog post reviewing some of his errors in judgement. During that time I had some opportunity to engage directly with Gardner via Twitter as well as with some others on the issues surrounding his column…
About “See the veil for what it is”
It is likely that any article written by a white male journalist that starts with a title like “See the veil for what it is” would raise my hackles. So when I saw the article today I had a bit of a reflexive response: here’s another white guy, with little demonstrated understanding of women’s issues, feminism, or Islam, about to tell us what the veil really is.