The limits of gossip… the possibilities of statistics The news that Premier Rodney MacDonald and his wife of 12 years are splitting up is one of those sad, icky stories where, as a journalist, you can’t win. By commenting on it, even to suggest it is a private matter, you help keep it alive in […]

When in doubt, call a professional I confess I had occasionally pictured this scene in my head — the climactic movie-moment when the world-weary paterfamilias — who would, of course, be played by me — passes on his lifetime’s worth of hard-won wisdom to the next generation. In the image that played in my head, […]

Past time for debating Afghanistan mission “He was a professional…” “He died doing what he loved to do…” “He wanted to make the world a better place…” “We must support our soldiers…” “We should not cut and run…” At some level, I agree with those heartfelt sentiments, which inevitably get trotted out each time another […]

One person’s root cause is another’s yesterday They say the first casualty of war is truth. Context is usually a close second. In the bomb-blasted echo chamber that is the modern 24-hour news cycle, certain phrases bounce from politicians, to anchors, to pundits, to us, and then back round again, quickly assuming a truth of […]

A dream deferred Will former Africville residents finally get their church rebuilt? An apology would be nice too. Stephen Kimber reports. by Stephen Kimber Irvine Carvery has reason to be cautious. And he is. But he could be cynical too. And he isn’t. Since 1976, when the birth of his first son taught him the […]

Arab Holy War meets Israeli Apocalypse On the evening of June 3, 1967, shortly before the beginning of that Arab-Israeli war, United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk sent an “eyes-only” cable to his Arab-based ambassadors describing a situation “as complex and as dangerous as any we have faced,” and asking them “to put your […]

Health department’s proposed bylaws make bad situation worse It is hard to imagine at first blush, but the department of health’s belated, half-hearted attempt to head off future embarrassments like the still-ongoing Gabrielle Horne affair may only end up making the situation worse. Horne, of course, is the cardiac research specialist whose promising career was […]

Do we need a little more MAD? Mutual Assured Destruction. MAD. The idea is simple. If you have a nuclear bomb and I have a nuclear bomb, you’d better not try to use yours on me or I’ll fire mine at you, and we’ll both be dead. World ends. Game over. For a good chunk […]

MacDonald makes bad law worse To tell the truth, and I sometimes do, I could care less whether I am allowed to shop ’til I drop on Sundays. I have no vested, or even unvested, interest in the outcome of this tiresome debate. I don’t, thank God, work in the retail business. If there is […]

Our school board’s sorry for … everything Geoff Cainen, the coordinator of education quality and accountability (whatever that may be) at the Halifax Regional School Board, clearly believes in inclusion. As he groveled to reporters last week: “If this question in any way has offended anyone with a Muslim background, or Canadian Forces, or anyone […]