I am re-reading the diaries of satirist David Sedaris, who is a very sly funny man. Hearing to his trenchant observations on people from the 1990s and 2000s reminded me that social critics never saw themselves at the centre of the culture. While, like Michaelangelo, artists worked for popes and princes, the artistic class revelled in having their best friends in low places.

It was inevitable. The prime minister who wanted to make everyone happy is suddenly finding out that the math of nice is hard. Very hard.

I was walking along a major downtown street in Toronto recently and had to step around a homeless person sleeping on a heat grate. I’ve seen this pathetic sight for many years now in Toronto and always wonder, “Why don’t the cops remove him? Where are the people to care for him? Can’t we do better?”

This week saw a walkout by Liberal members of the Committee on the Status of Women over the nomination of a Conservative pro-life chairwoman. With their prime minister having forbidden pro-life elements from his caucus, discussion of the new chair was more than unwanted. It was unthinkable for Liberals. 

Progressive: You can’t blame a young Latino for something his parents did 20 years ago.

Also Progressive: Whites can never make up for things their ancestors did 200 years ago. 

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul” —George Bernard Shaw

While no one would suggest that Justin Trudeau is a great consumer of Shavian literature— he’s a feelings kind of guy—he has digested at least one morsel of GBS political cynicism. 

As the DACA debate rages in the U.S., which is the greater public complaint with immigration? 

A) The flooding of Europe with millions of undocumented refugees, a southern U.S. border as porous as cheesecloth or the thousands of refugees wandering across the Quebec/ Manitoba border this summer?

Or B) The smug assumptions made long ago by the political and media establishment that created these crises and deceptions?

A judge has thrown out Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against the New York Times. Even though the Times admitted it lied about saying she caused the Gabby Gifford shooting with her talk. Even though the paper admitted its editing process had failed. This judge still figured the Grey Lady had not acted with malicious intent in saying Palin was accessory to a near-murder.

Much of social history of Western world, over past 3 decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.—Thomas Sowell

If you’re just waking up to our little psycho-drama, U.S. president Donald Trump is alternatively a Nazi, a covert KGB agent, a serial sexual abuser, a corrupt businessman, mentally unstable or a guy who wears his ties too long.

Perhaps it’s time for a new awards show for political theatre. David Duke getting best adaptation of a very old script. Mark Ruffalo copping best agitator in a supporting role. Maxine Watters receiving a lifetime achievement award. 

The day following his team’s dramatic 2017 Super Bowl win over the Atlanta, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady tweeted about Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan: “What a loser. Anyone could beat him. The failing Falcons are morons.”

A camel is a horse designed by a committee. And a four-person cluster to replace Peter Mansbridge as the face of CBC’s The National is committee work at its most tortured.

The regrettable public re-emergence of O.J. Simpson the past fortnight is a reminder of a truism that emerged from his 1994 trial (and acquittal) for murdering his wife and a friend. 

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. So goes the timeworn expression. But the cynical wisdom of that phrase endures.

Liberals have a standard line to end debates on their pet projects:  “In a country as rich as Canada/ USA/ Britain, shouldn’t we make sure everyone has (insert your cause)?” The cause may be health care, clean water, low infant mortality, no gun problems, housing, good working wage, winning hockey. 

Since his election in 2015, people have sought to define Justin Trudeau’s leadership. There were the selfies, the slavish media coverage from American liberals suffering from Trump derangement and the philosophy of trying to please everyone using public money.

Back in the innocent 1970s, Coca Cola made uplifting commercials in which their sugary carbonated beverage would “Like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”. The commercials ended with the full rainbow of humanity join hands on a hillside in mutual acceptance. 

Once again, Democrats chose the tuna with good taste over the tuna that tastes good. Chic filmmaker Jon Ossoff, buttressed by $ 25 million in mostly out-of-state money, went down in flames in Georgia against a modest Republican named Karen Handel on Tuesday. With revenge oozing from every pore after last November’s Clinton debacle, Dems burned through their stack of cash to no avail.

The motivation for the shooting of Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice Wednesday remains unclear as yet. Eyewitnesses suggest it could be an escalation of the political conflict going on in the U.S. since Democrats decided Donald Trump was unfit to be president. A gunmen (now deceased) shot up to 100 rounds, wounding, among others, GOP whip Steve Scalise. Early reports indicate a political motive, but details are still developing as the shooter is identified.

Last weekend I was at a book talk with Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise (about the decline in expertise, education and learning). In the process of the session, the moderator, an official with the Literary Review of Canada, tried to explain the issue of appropriation to him.