“Where are you going, Frank, in such a big hurry?” my wife, Ileen, asked me recently. “Dear, I just got a call from the Toronto Police Services Board asking me if I would come down and help them out in an emergency situation.” “I never knew you to be that crazy about the police.” Ileen said. “Oh I am, dear,” I said. “Yeah, right. Watch what you say, Frank. Remember these guys are armed.” “I’ll be ... (Continue reading)
Today people have a tendency to hold their ha nds up and make pretend quotations marks when they use the phrase “family values” as though they’re embarrassed about it and want to qualify or justify what they’re saying. There’s no need. Family values are obvious – as natural as family itself. We can argue the politics, but for once let’s explain it in the personal. A true story about my daughter. She falls down ... (Continue reading)
Esquire magazine’s motto is “man at his best,” but if you only watched movies and television, the last couple of decades would have made it harder for you to figure out just when, particularly, a man could count on hitting his golden years – that plateau where health, wealth and hard-won wisdom combine at a tolerable average. It certainly isn’t the gormless, sullen teen years. Senior citizens on both the big and ... (Continue reading)
Last month I reviewed Marci McDonald’s hideous book The Armageddon Factor. I chose to focus on the numerous errors throughout the book – author Denyse O’Leary has coined the term ‘marcis’ to describe “errors of fact that fact-checking would have prevented.” On TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paiken, McDonald pointed out that her critics have merely pointed out the factual errors in her screed and have not criticized her argument. She ... (Continue reading)
They stopped briefly at a statistical display of female advancement. They were particularly interested in figures that showed how women are catching up to, and even surpassing, men in smoking, drinking, swearing and swindling. Advances in female arson, assault and assassination also caught their attention. “Women have become more assertive,” Molder said, when they had seen enough. “Really?” said Bimson. “They’re doing something positive about spousal abuse.” “That’s good to hear.” “Yes,” Molder said, “they ... (Continue reading)
We’ve all heard it. “You anti-abortion people are obsessed with one issue.” Actually we’re pro-life and it’s you who try to make us monomaniacal by calling us anti-abortion. Mind you, to be opposed to the mass slaughter of the most vulnerable people in society is hardly anything of which to be ashamed and it’s surely activists who obsess about taxes or animals or free trade who are the strange ones, not we ... (Continue reading)
On May 14, a three-judge panel of the Ontario Divisional Court unanimously delivered in Ontario Human Rights Commission v. Christian Horizons another blow to freedom of religion in Canada. This ruling could have a devastating impact on Christian organizations involved in everything from providing disaster relief overseas to operating pregnancy crisis centres here at home. The complainant in this case, Connie Heintz, was a support worker for Christian Horizons, a charitable organization of ... (Continue reading)
I read a wonderful write-up in the Toronto Star recently by Nicole Saute, starting on the front page about a Toronto man reuniting with his birth mother after a 12-year search. You’d swear that Jamie Low had just won a $12 million jackpot. In a way he had. A most enjoyable and an un-buyable occasion occurred when mother and son finally overcame all obstacles and got together. Over 10,000 people – mothers ... (Continue reading)
The scientist Stephen Hawking recently returned to TV screens with a new miniseries, his first since 1997, and like all eager presenters, he took the time to do some interviews to publicize the show. The series, Stephen Hawking’s Into the Universe, is the sort of symphonic, planet-hopping science entertainment that it seems so much easier to produce in an age of flashy computer graphics, and begins and ends with Hawking, frail and ... (Continue reading)
Back in the Fifties boxing used to be criticized for its regular Friday night fights which were called ‘bum of the week’ where it seemed that every washed up fighter who ever lived got a chance to pick up one more pay cheque ending flat on his back in the ring. This farce has only been equaled by the New York Times Book of the Month recommended selections that’s run for ... (Continue reading)
Under intense public pressure, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty may have withdrawn his government’s revised curriculum guidelines on sexual education for a “serious rethink,” but this battle is far from over. Proponents of ever more explicit sexual education for young school children have been quick to mount a concerted counterattack. They commend the revised curriculum for proposing to normalize homosexuality in Grade 3, instruct youngsters on vaginal lubrication in Grade 6 and warn ... (Continue reading)
Sometimes I wonder why the people of Africa do not positively detest Europe and North America. We have exploited, colonized and raped their continent for centuries and continue to sell arms to their dictators whom we have put in place and then condemn them for spending money on wars. We invaded their countries, destroyed their culture and enforced white privilege and now moan that they are corrupt and inefficient. We enslaved them, ... (Continue reading)
On April 1, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had commended the Roman Catholic Church as “the conscience of the nation.” Given the record of the Brown government, informed readers might well have dismissed the story as an April Fools Day prank. Yet the report was accurate. With a general election impending on May 6, Brown told the British magazine Faith Today that “the Catholic communion in particular is ... (Continue reading)
I’ve been reflecting more than usual on writing and books. What got me thinking was a conversation with a fellow author I often meet at the neighbourhood library. “My book is popular in the British Isles,” he said, excited. “You mean your self-published novel that didn’t sell?” “Copies are flying off the shelves.” “Congratulations,” I said. “You must be pleased that readers have discovered your book’s literary value.” “They’re not interested in its literary value,” ... (Continue reading)
“Frank, sit down. What can I do for you?” “Well Millstone, old friend, you are acknowledged as the greatest oracle in the Western world. I come to you for some free advice. What would you do to solve the difficulties facing Pope Benedict today?” “Frank, I’ve never accepted the old bromide that the buck stops here and by that, I mean at the Pope’s door. In an organization of over a billion people ... (Continue reading)
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“Where are you going, Frank, in ...
Today people have a tendency to hold their ha...
Esquire magazine’s motto is “man at ...
Last month I reviewed Marci McDonald’s ...
They stopped briefly at a ...
We’ve all heard it. “You anti-abortion people ...
On May 14, a three-judge panel of ...
I read a wonderful write-up in ...
The scientist Stephen Hawking recently returned ...
Back in the Fifties boxing used ...
Under intense public pressure, Ontario Premier Dalton ...
Sometimes I wonder why the people ...
On April 1, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported ...
I’ve been reflecting more than ...
“Frank, sit down. What can I ...