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Editor’s Notebook

© by John Arkelian

The best of writing, photography, art, and argument – on everything from film to foreign policy.

“Ever dreamed of subscribing to a cultural magazine that doesn’t seem to be eating out of the hand of half a dozen media magnates? Something pluricultural and unassuming but nonetheless covering everything worth seeing, reading, doing or listening to for a season? Well, it exists, and in Canada to boot!”

“There is no on-line version or web site, which either makes John a dinosaur or a man of character. (I opt for the second, since the editorial team occasionally has a kind word for me.)”

John Howe — Canadian artist and co-conceptual designer on all three “The Lord of the Rings” motion pictures.

* Editor’s Note: The age of the dinosaurs has at last come to an end — with the arrival of this website!

Narcotic Follies: The perversity of normalizing recreational drug use

On October 24, 2018

© By John Arkelian

Is it just us, or is anyone else sick to death of the endless ballyhoo being made over the utterly perverse legalization of marijuana in Canada on October 17th? We say perverse because normalizing the recreational use of a narcotic, by giving it an official stamp of […]

Case Studies in Contempt:  Ford; Trump; & the Saudi Autocrats

On September 12, 2018

© By John Arkelian

I. Contempt for Courts

It is appalling that the freshly-minted new government of Ontario abruptly decreed that Toronto city hall had too many elected representatives and arbitrarily cut their numbers nearly in half – in the middle of a municipal election campaign – throwing existing campaigns into […]

Worth Repeating

On September 7, 2018

As citizens of free and democratic West – each of whose member nations, in its own way, is an aspirational Republic of Virtue – here are words we ought to take to heart. JA

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“When the government says something, you only have one question: ‘Is it true?’”

From the film […]

An Alarming Inability to Distinguish America’s Friends from its Mortal Foes

On July 8, 2018

© By John Arkelian

Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia since 1999, brazenly circumventing

“Donald Trump’s Axis of Evil” editorial cartoon © 2018 by Michael de Adder.

term limits by serving variously as prime minister and as president – and making sure that key executive powers moved with him to […]

A Tale of Two Terrible Presidents

On July 8, 2018

© By John Arkelian

On Trump

Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the vital interests of the United States. As a private citizen, he could be happily ignored as the petulant, grandstanding egotist that he is; but, as the nation’s chief executive, he poses a very real threat […]

Bumpkin of the Week

On May 29, 2018

A political ‘platform’ in ten words or less, from the bumpkin of the week (in the current Ontario election campaign): “You know me, folks. I’m for the little guy.” Moral of the story: If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then ‘getting tough on crime’ takes second place in […]