Way back when (although not in this space), I posited the question of whether Paul Martin has ever been tested for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Read this analysis of his just-concluded Asian trip by the Toronto Star's Tonda McCharles and tell me if you agree:

Through the power of quantification and calculation, some Brit egghead has figured out that Jan. 24 is the most depressing day of the year!

And this year, it's on a Monday! Bonus!

An excerpt from ...   more »

Jay Bakker is the son of Tammy Fae and Jim Bakker, the former TV preachers whose empire went up in smoke in the 1980s.

This NYT Magazine article profiles Jay, who runs a church-less church that tends to souls as that feel as lost, broken and outcast as he once did.

Being an online news sluggo, I like the sounds of this NYT article about online news -- mainly from the business side. It focuses on the deal for CBS MarketWatch.

An excerpt:

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. This particular BBC story is about a database dedicated to preserving the memories of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Let me know if the last sentence in this excerpt doesn't strike an emotional chord with you:

While researching the Pro-Iraq Blog - Courtesy of the CIA or not? post below, I saw a hilarious item on Martini Republic.

Apparently the Hook 'em Horns hand gesture used by fans of the University of ...   more »

This BBC story (apparently ripped off from the NYT; more on that below) is about three Iraqi brothers who actually think the U.S. is doing good work in their country, which has some accusing them of being CIA stooges.

Of course, having two of them invited to a Harvard blogging conference and pressing flesh with Dubya probably didn't help their cred in Baghdad.

Daniel Okrent, the NYT's public editor, looks at the kerfuffle raised by a Jan. 10 story (see Your daily newspaper, courtesy of a sponsor) and finds the NYT itself could have been more self-disclosing.

It's -17. The wind is blowing at 40k/h and is gusting to 50.

There's about five cm of snow on my stairs.

The Toronto Star's Peter Calamai looks at the federal government's disarray with respects to its Kyoto strategy:

An excerpt:

This is an excellent column by Harvard prof Orlando Patterson on Bush's definition of freedom.

Essentially, Patterson says there are two types: The freedom from (civil liberties and whatnot) and the freedom to, what he calls a more privatized view of freedom.

This NYT story reports that some scientists have found the protein that causes BSE, or mad cow disease, may migrate to other organs and that no part of an infected cow may be safe to eat.

But the experiments are only mouse-based at this time, and one scientist argued the U.S. food supply is safe because animals with obvious signs of illness don't enter the food chain.

This column by Harvard psych prof Daniel Gilbert explains why even Democrats can find a reason to be happy despite the fact that Dubya's got the keys to the White House for four more years....   more »

NYT columnist David Brooks tells us to forget about the drunken, privileged plutocrats-in-training who misbehaved at Inaugurathon parties -- the ideals behind Dubya's speech were real.

An excerpt:

A report by the CBC's Patrick Brown on how Chinese authorities are making sure the non-person status of former premier Zhao Ziyang follows him into the grave -- in both the real and virtual worlds.

Score a victory for freedom of the press in Africa. Kenya has dropped the colonial-era law of criminal libel.

An excerpt from the BBC story:

As I said in an earlier post, I went to see a film and discussion Thursday night called the End of Suburbia, which could have easily been called The End of Oil.

In a week where the New Yorker's cover story was about the coming wars and Dubya burbled about freedom (Freedom 27, Liberty 15 was the Daily Show's count -- "it was a noble effort by Liberty, which as you know has been playing hurt since the Patriot Act," cracked Jon Stewart) in his inauguration speech, it seems to me all three could be wrapped into one thread.

A summary of Seymour Hersh's Jan. 18 New Yorker article.

Notes and thoughts on Dubya's inauguration speech.

A look at the film The End of Suburbia, the issues it raises, and how it ties into the Hersh article and Dubya's inauguration.

Here's a link to it for now.

I'm going to see a film called The End of Suburbia. More on both when I return.

And if you're looking for lefty agit-prop about Bush's inauguration, go ...   more »

Saw this on the BBC website. Apparently U.S. conservative groups are turning their publicity guns on ... Spongebob Squarepants!

Spongebob is involved in a pro-gay propaganda project aimed at children! -- the forces of pro-intolerance say.

This is a wee bit o' cross promotion by the Toronto Star: It owns Harlequin Enterprises, who released a "Romance Report on guilty pleasures, whims, desires and indulgences."

That ownership stake isn't disclosed in the story. With that sin of omission documented, here's your blog junk food for today:

Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein notes that while the Red States are supposed to be self-reliance and all that good conservative hooey, they are actually get much more back in government funds than they pay ...   more »

I'm always heartened when I read health stories like this -- and the news may be even better for my gender!

An excerpt from the Washington Post:

Our American cousins: They're worried about the economy and Iraq (good instincts!), yet they're relatively optimistic about the next four years with Dubya at the helm, says this NYT/CBS News poll (I found some other polls too).

An excerpt:

An NYT article on a British filmmaker who's making a sequel to an earlier pro-peace film of his in order to promote Sept. 21 as a global day to put the guns down and chill.

I want this guy's travel budget! :) NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman decides to take in Dubya's inauguration from Paris -- the birthplace of freedom fries.

And what he finds is that Europe is the world's biggest Blue State. But he also claims Iran is the biggest red one.

As someone who has lived car-free since Sept. 22, 2002, the health of the Toronto Transit Commission is of urgent importance to me.

This Globe and Mail article tells about some of the pressure to cut the commission's capital budget -- so they can't buy luxury items like replacements for 24-year-old buses.

In this NYT commentary, Academy Award-winning documentary film-maker Errol Morris argues that when John Kerry left out a key part of his biography -- his opposition to the Vietnam War -- he committed a major ...   more »

The NYT's senior conservative columnist William Safire on why the MSM (sorry, Craig) still matters.

An excerpt:

Former BGMI co-worker -- and occasional patio-based beer-quaffing companion -- Craig Saila had an interesting item from Friday on his blog LCKY how the NYT is considering moving to some type of mix of paid ...   more »

Tom Popyk is a freelance Canadian journo who has done a couple stints in Baghdad (just finished one, actually).

On his blog, he has some tips he found from NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman on covering the Middle East.

If you're from Poland, India or the Philippines, you're in a global minority: You give the thumbs-up to Dubya's influence on global security.

But virtually everywhere else thinks the re-election of Bush 43 is bad ...   more »

A group of investigative journos is going to hold an event on Toronto on Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. It's about what reporters should do when the state comes demanding something.

Here's the whole e-flyer:

Can't say I was wowed by the inaugural episode of CBC Newsworld's The Hour, with ex-MuchMusic veejay George Stroumboulopoulos.

For openers, I find it amusing that he used the word "bullshit" in describing what wouldn't be on his show, but when you go to its website, it says: ... the truth is that CBC Newsworld wanted his “no-BS” attitude. (Hey – it’s the CBC: We can’t swear on a web page!)

Saw this on John Gushue's site: It's a Deaniac explaining her understanding of this blogging payola imbroglio -- and her explanation has Kos calling for a retraction from the Wall Street Journal (see my original posting for details).

The Toronto Star is doing a six-part series on various aspects of life in the U.S. of A. leading up to Dubya taking repeating the presidential oath one last time on Thurdsay.

The Toronto Star's Chantal Hebert does a good job of explaining Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's obstacles to achieving a breakthrough in Quebec.

Some excerpts: