by Jonathan McLeod on April 5, 2012
Stumbling through the Canadian blogosphere today, I found this post by Maclean’s Jaime Weinman, responding to Rose’s post arguing that Classic TV is Bad TV. A trailer:
The TV drama era that started with Twin Peaks and culminated in The Sopranos really did bring a lot of viewers to TV, viewers who previously found TV too limited, corny, slapdash and beholden to advertisers. Even the greatest pre-Sopranos TV shows are obviously compromised, and you have to make allowances for that. (Homicide, for example, is obviously a more compromised show than The Wire – not to say that The Wire is necessarily better in an absolute sense, just that the bargains Homicide made with advertisers, network executives and ratings are right there on the screen for everyone to see.) Trying to argue for the classic status of an obviously compromised commercial product is not impossible, but it’s tricky.
On a completely unrelated note, I think I went to high school with Mr. Weinman.
by Jonathan McLeod on April 3, 2012
Following up on Murali’s post from last week, Jenna Talackova is (potentially) back in the Miss Canada competition:
Beauty queen Jenna Talackova, who was kicked out the Miss Universe Canada competition last month, will be allowed to compete after all, the organization announced Monday — if she can prove she meets the “legal gender recognition requirements of Canada” and other international competitions.
OK, I don’t really know what the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada are, but on the surface, it looks like good has triumphed over evil.
Well, maybe that’s an overstatement. We’re still talking about a competition that judges women like sacks of meat, but progress is progress, I guess.
by Jonathan McLeod on April 1, 2012
Dan Gardner disects a recent Team Obama video, The Road We’ve Travelled, and suggests its core message is unlikey to resonate:
The strategy here is not to say “maybe things aren’t so good but they’re better than they were.” That’s the sort of thing Jimmy Carter would say. It doesn’t work.
The strategy is to remind people of that white-knuckle moment when the whole world was plunging. We didn’t fear a recession. We feared the collapse of Wall Street, of the car industry, of the middle class. We feared a second Great Depression.
But that didn’t happen. And for that, the Obama campaign is saying, you can thank the leadership of Barack Obama.
This is an unusual strategy, to say the least. And a difficult one to pull off, thanks to some basic psychology.
by Jonathan McLeod on March 30, 2012
I was sad to read today of the death of William Sampson, a dual Canadian-British citizen who, from December 2000 to August 2003, was held in a Saudi prison for a crime he did not commit (and a crime for which there was no evidence he did commit), during which he was repeatedly tortured.
His story was tragic, but, in places, inspiring. As he told CBC’s Peter Mansbridge:
I wasn’t married, I’d had good innings, and if I could set myself up to be the fall guy, if I could set myself up to be the one that they take out, then I was fairly certain that my friends would be pardoned as a show of their generosity, as a show of the Saudi generosity. I thought to myself it might as well be me. I’ll make myself as unpalatable to them as possible, I’ll commit whatever I can which lines me up for whatever they want to throw at me. And I’ll give them as much stress back as they’ve caused me in the process.
That really began to happen in August of 2001 and, as I said, it wasn’t an overnight process, so that by the end of 2002, for instance, I was sleeping on a blanket on a concrete floor.
As much as he was broken, in his resistence, Mr. Sampson found strength in fighting back. Again, from that CBC interview: [click to continue…]
by Jonathan McLeod on March 28, 2012
Such is the vision of David Moscrop:
If true equality is to be achieved between men and women, men are going to have to enlist as feminists. This begins with men realizing that being a “man” is complicated, variable, and has nothing to do with sports, worn jokes, and preserving unjust and unearned privilege. It proceeds when men realize that they are bound up in those social structures that obscure, oppress, and abuse many women. But the pursuit of equality never ends. Instead it remains active as a constant and critical reflection about how we engage with one another as gendered human beings and action toward remedies.
I’m not sure that every man should be a feminist. Personally, I’ve toyed with the idea of being a feminist here and here. Nonetheless, I think Mr. Moscrop’s piece is pretty on the ball. [click to continue…]
by Jonathan McLeod on March 26, 2012
Sort of:
Commencing next year, a five-judge panel said unanimously, prostitutes in any part of the province can work legally in brothels that will be operated like ordinary businesses.
As of April 25, they can engage bodyguards or security staff.
The court left intact just one of three key provisions that had been challenged by three current or former prostitutes. It said that communicating for the purposes of prostitution will remain illegal.
This will, no doubt, got to the Supreme Court, so it’s far from a settled manner.
Consider this an open thread on prostitution. I’d comment more, but I have… umm… someplace to be.
by Jonathan McLeod on March 26, 2012
The other day, Russell launched a discussion about whether or not doctors should shame fat people (well, no, that wasn’t quite the discussion, but whatever). Today at Maclean’s, Jessica Allen argues in favour of more shaming (well, not exactly, but whatever):
Two years ago my doctor told me I was overweight—not in a Karl Lagerfeld to Adele sort of way—but in the privacy of his office, during an annual physical, and in a sensitive manner. The result? After calling him terrible names in my head, I lost 20 lbs over the course of five months. And the next year, I weighed in just about right. It’s been the most effective weight-loss tool I’ve ever encountered because every year I know I have to get back on that medical scale, and I don’t want to disappoint the doctor, or myself.
But recent results from a national survey published in the journal Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada show that few of our doctors (one in three) are advising obese patients to lose weight. But if 59 per cent of Canadians are either overweight or obese, and being fat causes God knows how many health problems, and our doctors aren’t measuring waistlines (fewer than one in five of the survey’s participants, the journal reports) and 40 per cent of overweight or obese Canadians describe themselves as just, “about right,” than that’s a fat problem. If we can’t count on our doctors to call the kettle fat, then who can we count on?
I’m undecided on the appropriateness of the stink eye as medical treatment.
by Jonathan McLeod on March 25, 2012
Want to hear something outrageous? In order to get a liquor license, a Montreal bar had to promise not to book any Hip Hop acts. According to the bar, the licensing regulator required that they sign such an agreement, at the behest of the police. The cops are firing back that they’d never make such a demand, as it would be illegal (and we all know that Sûreté du Québec would never do anything illegal).
Sadly, this, of course, means that some prominent Canadian acts aren’t welcome in Montreal, due to their gang affiliations. [click to continue…]
by Jonathan McLeod on March 23, 2012
Years back, Scott caught some flak when discussing American culture, violence and guns. As an outsider (like Scott), it was quite interesting to see an apparent defensive stance by the generally rational and clear-headed community here at the League. From my perspective, Scott’s thesis was not particularly controversial, though many of his points were debatable.
It wasn’t until today that I began following the Trayvon Martin story. I had missed Ethan’s excellent post, and had not seen any other news coverage of it. Thinking about the tragedy, I remembered Scott’s post, for one of my first thoughts was about the ridiculous level of violence in America, and the associated gun culture of which I am so glad to have no part. [click to continue…]
by Jonathan McLeod on March 21, 2012
In response to Mike’s recent post in support of farm subsidies, I offer this recent column by Kate Heartfield:
But the question that should be keeping us all up at night isn’t whether the planet can grow enough food. The real question is whether every human being will be able to access that food. That’s what’s really difficult — and that’s where the natural inclinations of democratic governments might work against humanity’s interests. Funding agricultural research is important, but it’s a relatively easy political sell. Opening up markets and reforming institutions so food can flow freely — that takes courage.
Castillo, a cattle farmer from Uruguay, also has a long background in trade negotiations. He predicts that there will be more trade in food in the coming years as domestic supplies become inadequate, and that agricultural trade will become a bigger policy priority for governments.
My opinion would be closer to Ms. Heartfield’s than to Mike’s. Plus, she gets bonus points for use of the term, ‘scuba rice’.
Living in Ottawa, Jonathan McLeod is a Fellow with the Canadian Council for Democracy, and an editor and contributor for the CCD's blog, 
