Emitting carbon to reduce carbon emissions??

Harry Shannon Some years ago, McDonald’s in Canada had an ad campaign using the line: “There’s a little McDonald’s in everyone.” Meaningless, of course, but I assume it worked to sell their food (or, as some people would argue, their ‘food’). Then the Toronto Star ran an article about how the population is getting too fat becau…

Israeli apartheid?

Harry Shannon A few weeks ago, Amnesty International (AI) issued a report that concluded that Israel is guilty of apartheid in its treatment of Palestinians. Of course, the term apartheid is loaded, and you can agree or disagree with AI’s conclusion. Notably, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli NGO B’Tselem have also accused Israel of aparth…

No, I don’t have all the answers

Harry Shannon My cousin Henry told me about an online talk last week by David Rooney, a British historian. Rooney has just written a book called “About time: A history of civilization in twelve clocks.” The talk was very nicely done; I enjoyed it a lot. Rooney used each clock to illustrate a one-word theme – e.g., order, virtue, empires, …

Horror-scopes?

My latest letter to the Hamilton Spectator Harry Shannon The letter wasn’t published, but others making some similar points were. It followed a column by the Toronto Star’s public editor, Bruce Campion-Smith. (Torstar owns the Star and the Spec and the two papers print the same horoscopes.) Campion-Smith noted that the astrologer who wro…

My latest letter in the Toronto Star

Harry Shannon Background: We are hearing a lot from political leaders urging us to follow social (physical) distancing guidelines.  On Thursday morning (April 2) I heard Toronto mayor John Tory on CBC radio’s morning show doing just that.  Unfortunately, his style of talking is to speak very fast, barely pausing for breath, so interviewers …