PEREGRINE PULP

The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. — Elie Wiesel Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find. — Philip K. Dick If you’re Canadian and you haven’t yet heard about Chief Aaron Pete or his Nuanced podcast, I hope you check out his stuff soon. Not only does this young man have an interesting backstory and a great trajectory but he’s currently having some of the most interesting and important public conversations in the country — one

The comedy is unrelenting. Everyone’s favourite politician, Donald J. Trump, halfway through is final term, delivered a speech to the public about all the vulnerabilities associated with state and federal elections as identified by the country’s intelligence community. Deviating from prior pronouncements, the President did not explicitly say that his own or any other elections had been affected or even so much as one vote altered. Instead, he made public formerly classified U

When attempting to write about the city of Victoria I couldn’t help but delve into the history of the place. Doing so inevitably resulted in diving into who arrived here and from where they came, something far more messy and complicated than you might imagine. Then, far enough down the road into discussions of ships from Spain and Russia (with crews from Asia, Oceana, the Americas, and Africa) plying the west coast of North America, it seemed worth mentioning the history of t

All in the same week: The public learned that America's hatemongers were, for decades, being financially supported by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And they learned specifically that the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville (which resulted in dozens of injuries, three fatalities, and millions in damages) an event that looks like the cornerstone of the Democrat and their supporters' playbook for the last decade) was likely staged, or at least made possible and amplified

A couple of months ago I was noticing how it looked like both Republican candidates in the California governor race seemed far more popular than any of the legion of Democrats they were up against. The leading Democrat candidate to this point was a fellow who made a previous presidential run: Eric Swalwell. Swalwell, a former prosecutor and current Congressman for California, since 2013, was endorsed by Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Hakeem Jefferies, and 20 other members of cong

In their ongoing attempt at self-immolation, the once-relevant press is at it again. WHAT HAPPENED On March 7th, aspiring killers (two young men, US citizens living at home with their parents in the leafy suburbs of Pennsylvania) deployed a pair of IEDs (containing materials that would have them designated as weapons of mass destruction) at a public gathering on the street in front of the home of the New York City mayor. The gathering was overwhelmingly attended not by protes

I keep reading about proposals for more pipelines to the BC coast from Alberta. Not only is all of this politics getting pretty interesting but I actually studied Alberta's oil and gas industry a little in college (and even held bitumen in my hand) and have also lived in Alberta, too, among the office towers of the oil giants. So, what comes to mind for me when there’s any talk of pipelines is what isn't commonly mentioned. That's just the little bit of history and economics

I keep being sent, and encountering in the wilds of the internet, essays from social commentator and professor of American history Heather Cox Richardson. She has a Substack with millions of subscribers, titled Letters from an American, a daily newsletter, and the requisite podcast, too. All those deliver her scholarly, history-informed take on current events to a nations-worth of inboxes and feeds. My first real encounter with the professor was some years ago when I was comp

You know this phenomenon, this optical illusion, that occurs when you stare too long at something and fatigue your photoreceptors? When you close your eyes you get what is called "retinal inertia", where those burned out receptors don't stop responding even in the absence of light. What you see then, with your eyes shut, is a "negative afterimage" that is the inverse of the light intensity and colours you were just looking at with your eyes open. Yeah. Now imagine that but wi