GregMercer.ca

Michael Ignatieff’s “cotton-pickin’ minute” comment from last week never quite drew the outrage his political opponents hoped it would. The Conservatives said it was a racist slur; the Liberals it came from Bugs Bunny. And we all laughed at how our politicians love to become theatrically offended to gain political points. But a column about the issue by the National Post’s Kelly McParland unintentionally draws attention to how complicated the issue of offence really is today. Replying to McParland’s piece, one anonymous commenter zeroed...
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When food shortages caused people to revolt in Tunisia, then Egypt, we yawned. When the cost of corn, wheat and rice began climbing in the past year because of droughts, floods and a surge in demand from livestock and ethanol plants, we shrugged. But when a global shortage of grain finally hits us where it really hurts – in our beer bellies – we suddenly have to stand up and take notice. There was a horrible story in newspapers this week, hidden somewhere behind...
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I never planned to have four eyes. I was fine with two, unaided eyeballs, squinting into the distance like an overacting extra in a Clint Eastwood movie. But genetics, as always, had other ideas. By the time I was in junior high, it was absolutely clear my eyesight was perfectly normal. The problem was everyone else seemed to have these super-human eyeballs that could read signs that were 20 feet away or more. Show-offs. Until my parents dragged me to an optometrist, I followed...
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For thousands of years, maybe millions even, men have drilled holes in frozen lakes and reeled in the tasty bounty that lies below. Ice fishing, it’s called. It’s a strange pastime practiced by a strange breed of people, and even I from time to time feel its pull. So it was on a recent Sunday afternoon, when your hero found himself standing on top of Lake Simcoe, staring down into a black hole through the ice. Earlier that day, the four of us had...
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The news stings like a fastball in the palm of your hand. The Guelph Royals may hang up their cleats for the 2011 season? Ontario’s Intercounty Baseball League has long dropped and added teams like some teenagers go through boyfriends. Teams have come and gone in Cambridge, St. Thomas, Niagara Falls, Waterloo, Windsor, Stratford and elsewhere. The league has run seasons with as few as five teams and as many as 11. But Guelph is not some upstart expansion team. The Royals were one...
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