Year: 2016

Alger Hiss, Richard Nixon and Collingwood

Collingwood / Council / History & Biography / Politics / US Politics / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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Remember the case of Alger Hiss? I didn’t think so. It was before your time. Mine too. But let me jog your memory, just in case you’re older than I am. Or perhaps just well read in recent history. Hiss was a US government employee, a diplomat at the centre of a House Un-American Advisory Committee (HUAC) investigation in 1950. He was accused of being a Soviet spy and eventually sent to jail (coincidentally on the same day George Orwell died…). Ring a bell? How about the Pumpkin Papers? Remember HUAC? You know, the committee investigating Communism in America, the one that ……… click below for more ↓

The definition of evil

Council / Critical Thinking / Language & Grammar / PhilosophyLeave a comment

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I try to choose my words carefully. Words have power, words can create emotions, words linger and stick with us. Words matter. Words can be tools of great precision and effect. So when I hear or read them being abused, misused or simply inappropriately chosen, my hackles rise. I want to make corrections. I want to insert my idea of the better choice into the sentence. My Facebook followers know how I react (and react too often…) to misplaced apostrophes, misspellings and improper verb tense. It’s the aging editor in me, I suppose, plus my passionate love of writing and ……… click below for more ↓

Demagogues and dictators

Books & Reviews / History & Biography / International politics / Politics / US Politics / War & Military / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I’m not sure why they fascinate me, but I’ve been reading about demagogues and dictators for many decades now and still can’t seem to get enough of them. Of course, it’s in part because I like to read about politics in all its forms and fashions, but there’s something more than just celebrity watching with these. There’s the psychology of propaganda and mass movements, the inoculation of widespread ideologies, the use of technology and mass culture. The period between the two World Wars in particular intrigues me because it was an era of great social change. Upheaval, really. The rise of the ……… click below for more ↓

Power, naked ambition, and corruption

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies7 Comments

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No matter how many times you watch the film, Titanic, the ending is always the same: the ship hits the iceberg. Sort of like watching Collingwood Council these days. They just keep hitting the iceberg. And hitting it and hitting it and hitting it. But unlike the Titanic’s crew, our feckless crew is doing it deliberately. Their goal is to sink the ship. And they’re doing a bang-up job. Literally. Of course, they don’t plan to go down with the ship themselves: that’s the fate left to our town institutions and facilities. They’re just doing the steering. Into the iceberg. Although ……… click below for more ↓

Boris Godunov

Culture / Music & Reviews / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I’m not sure why Boris Godunov, moves me like it does, but it has a curious, emotional effect on me. It’s a sprawling tragedy mixed with politics and betrayal, weighted down by brooding and scheming characters, a fickle mob, a holy fool, a ghost, an imposter as pretender to the throne, and the overthrow of a ruler – very Shakespearean. Or perhaps Machiavellian, in the negative sense of the word. I’ve been listening to it, again, as background music while I work at home these past few days. And every now and then I stop to listen, and marvel at ……… click below for more ↓

Yellow Journalism

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Here’s an interesting approach to developing good relations with your print media advertisers: take their money, publish their full-colour advertisement, then challenge their content, their integrity and their claims in a story that doesn’t present all the facts. Then wonder why your other advertisers may be nervous about this tactic… and wonder why print media is in trouble. That’s just what the Collingwood Connection did recently. They accepted and ran an ad last week from Collus/Powerstream – an innocuous, non-political, full-colour ad that modestly promoted the utility and its partnership with the town – then challenged it in an piece this week (the original, online piece ……… click below for more ↓

Dear Amazon…

Books & Reviews / Humour & Satire / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

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Dear Amazon: Hello, it’s me, Ian. Yes, that’s right, the crazy guy who orders all those books. Yeah, the history books, the science books, the philosophy books, the ones on leadership and politics… you know, the guy who spends at least $100 a month buying books from you. Plus don’t forget the pasta maker, the PC games, the laptop battery, the kitchenware, the ukulele tuners, the gaming mice, drawing tablet, Kindle and other stuff, I’ve bought from you… 26 orders from you in the last six months alone. Yeah, that Ian. Well, I’m at it again. I just can’t get enough. ……… click below for more ↓

The 50% Solution

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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Imagine you want to go out for dinner with a friend. Get some wings and beer. You like mild dry rub wings, and a nice, crisp lager. Your friend likes sticky and spicy, with a dark stout. The restaurant will bring out the food and drinks split according to your wishes. And your bill. That means whoever pays for the meal gets to decide what you both get on the table. You can’t afford to pay for the whole meal yourself, and you don’t want your friend to pay for it because you don’t want to share a basket of hot ……… click below for more ↓

The gems of Salomé

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

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I was perhaps 11 or 12 when I first encountered Oscar Wilde’s play, Salomé. Some of it, at least. At the time, I knew nothing of Wilde, his writing, or even much about theatre in general. After all, I was in grade seven or eight. It would be a few years before I encountered (and developed a passion for) Shakespeare and other playwrights. But Wilde I actually discovered first. Faced with the dramatic challenges of their own – my mother was either still in hospital or had only recently been released and was struggling with the paralyzing results of her stroke – my parents ……… click below for more ↓

The Leadership Crisis

Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Municipal Politics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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In his latest book, The Leadership Crisis, Gord Hume defines seven characteristics – the Seven Cs – of great political leadership*. See how many you can recognize as attributes within our own council: Competencies, including people, organizational, business and strategic. Character, and its traits, values and virtues; integrity. Commitment, including aspiration, engagement, perseverance and sacrifice. Charisma, that unquantifiable attribute that political leaders either have or don’t. Communication, through effective messaging that inspires, informs and influences. Context, an understanding of what’s going on around them. Culture, and how to develop, create, change and advance that culture I think you can see ……… click below for more ↓

The Purple Thread

Critical Thinking / Philosophy / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Roman men wore togas for formal occasions. The basic toga – toga alba or toga pura – was a simple garment of plain white wool. It was undyed and unadorned. White was the colour required by Roman sumptuary law for citizens’ togas. This basic toga was also the garment draped on a boy when he went through his ceremony to manhood – called the toga virilis during that ceremony. A dark brown or grey toga pulla or toga sordida was reserved for periods of mourning. A fancier, bleached toga was worn by candidates for political office – the toga candida. ……… click below for more ↓

The Myth of Persecution

Books & Reviews / Christianity / Critical Thinking / Faith / Religious intolerance / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I just finished reading The Myth of Persecution by theology professor Candida Moss (Harper One, New York, 2013). I picked it up because of my general interest in theology, but also my more specific interest in early church history. I didn’t realize when I started to read it that this book was at the centre of a huge kerfuffle in the Christian community over its message and its accuracy. In short, Ms. Moss argues that while the early Christians in the first four centuries were often the victims of violence, and even some persecution, they were not the targets of ……… click below for more ↓

The CAO’s expenses

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / User fees and costsOne Comment

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Earlier this year, I filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request to see the expense records of Collingwood’s Interim CAO for 2015 and 2016 to the end of March. You can read these records by clicking on the links above. Let me start by saying a few things: first, the interim CAO is paid $225,000 a year – roughly $50,000-$75,000 more than his peers in similar and local municipalities – PLUS, as I understand it, he gets a car allowance paid by taxpayers. This council has twice extended his contract, after secretive backroom discussion among themselves. Second, the town ……… click below for more ↓

Stoic or Epicurean?

Books & Reviews / Classics / Ethics & morality / Logic and reason / Philosophy / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I’ve been listening to the History of Rome podcasts of late and was pondering on some of the comments about the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was, before listening, one of my top three choices for best ruler of the empire. What better role model than the philosopher-king? Now, I’m not so sure that he managed both the empire and his own position as well as I had assumed. But that’s neither here nor there. What caught my attention was the narrator’s comments on the philosophical life of his times. Marcus Aurelius was, of course, the unwitting author of the now-famous, inspirational work Meditations, ……… click below for more ↓

Marketing Wow

Advertising / Culture / MarketingLeave a comment

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Advertising and marketing, design and public relations, influence and persuasion – they all fascinate me. I love to listen to Terry O’Reilly’s show on CBC (both Age of Persuasion and Under the Influence). I’m actually reading one of his books, The Age of Persuasion, right now. I’m also reading a book on the science of shopping: Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy. I like to read about the effect, styles, creators, the history, sociology, the science and craft behind them and their craft. I consume books on advertising design that illustrate the power of art, photography and word that can engage ……… click below for more ↓

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