A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement by Wesley J. Smith (Encounter Books, $32.95, 312 pages) Wesley Smith is well known to Interim readers. He is a leading authority on euthanasia and bioethics, having written extensively on both topics, and spoken about related issues. He has now turned his attention to the animal rights movement, which is animated and motivated by ... (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)
The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald (Random House, $32, 419 pages) If you deliberately set out to write a bad book you would have a hard time outdoing Marci McDonald, whose The Armageddon Factor is so comprehensively awful that there is no reason whatsoever to ever read it. The long-time journalist has set her sights on exposing the rise of the Religious Right in Canada and its ... (Continue reading)
Notably, social issues absent from negotiations between two left-of-center parties How We Almost Gave the Tories the Boot (The Inside Story Behind the Coalition) by Brian Topp (Lorimer, $24.95, 192 pp.) The coalition that almost usurped power from the Conservatives in the fall of 2008 seems like a distant memory in the spring of 2010, but How We Almost Gave the Tories the Boot (The Inside Story Behind the Coalition), the political memoir of one ... (Continue reading)
As I See It by Michael Coren (Freedom Press, $21.95 paperback, 306 pages) When I went to university in the United States, I stopped following Canadian news, but I did continue reading a few Canadian columnists on the internet. One of those columnists was Michael Coren. There are many reasons why I should not have read him. He supports more government intervention than I, an economist, would like. He has what ... (Continue reading)
Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values by Brian Lee Crowley (Key Porter, $34.95, 360 pages) In an important new book, Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values, Brian Lee Crowley persuasively argues that the future prosperity of Canada depends on a revival of marriage and the family. For Crowley, this is a new understanding. Until last year, he was living in a casual, common-law relationship. ... (Continue reading)
Harley Price reviews William Gairdners’ recent works, which seek to defend universals in a relativistic age. (Continue reading)
Editor's Note: On Sept. 22, Interim Publishing released The Tyranny of Nice: How Canada Crushes Freedom in the Name of Human Rights (and Why It Matters to Americans) as an e-book (electronic book) and two weeks later as a paperback (see advertisement on page 7). Internationally reknowned columnist Mark Steyn wrote the introduction. Interim editor Paul Tuns interviewed the ... (Continue reading)
Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again by David Frum (Doubleday, $29.95, 224 pages) David Frum, the Canadian speechwriter to George Bush during his first term, gained international notoriety as the originator of the phrase, “Axis of Evil.” Prior to that, he was known primarily as a journalist and writer, in particular ... (Continue reading)
Nation of Bastards: Essays on the End of Marriage by Douglas Farrow (BPS Books, $15.95, 116 pages) In one of the more haunting passages in Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville writes: “Thus, not only does democracy make each man forget his ancestors, but it hides ... (Continue reading)
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming by Bjorn Lomborg (Knopf, $27, 253 pages) Bjorn Lomborg is a professor at the Copenhagen Business School and initiator of the Copenhagen Consensus (a think tank that tackles world problems), but is probably best known as the skeptical environmentalist. In his most recent ... (Continue reading)
Darwin Day in America; How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science by John G. West (ISI Books, $26.95, 450 pages) The success of modern science in providing us with all sorts of material goods, medical wonders and solutions for an array of societal problems has granted it well-deserved respect in the minds of ... (Continue reading)
Out From Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting by Dawn Stefanowicz (Annotation Press, $14.95, 245 pages) It was while I was reading Dawn Stefanowicz’s new book that I came upon a review in the Toronto Sunby critic Jim Slotek of the recent movie, For theBible Tells Me So that was headlined, “A serious ... (Continue reading)
Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament by Randall Balmer (Basic Books, $19.50, 242 pp.) In 1925, Dayton’s town fathers saw an opportunity to bring national attention to their little burg in east Tennessee. They met with John Scopes, a supply teacher, to obtain his co-operation in challenging the ... (Continue reading)
The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World By John O'Sullivan (Regnery, 334 pages $34.95) Be not afraid! - John Paul II, 1978 You turn ... (Continue reading)