How China could really undermine Canadian democracy — The buzz in Canadian media in recent weeks has been China’s interference in Canada’s electoral system. For this former political junkie, the details of how the elections were interfered with are kind of sketchy. Maybe more information will come out later. It seems the Conservative Party has been on the…

Connecting these two great literary works to the middle class — In the fall of 2021, I had the opportunity to write a Medium article every day. I thought: “Here is my chance to improve my Medium ratings.” While things did not work out that way, I sure got a lot off my chest. There were many political perspectives that I…

A long list of many flaws — Suppose you were given this challenge: Prepare a list of all the flaws with democracy. I bet you could make a long list! This is my list. While my list would be different than yours, I think you would agree with most of my items. I call my list: “The 12 Limitations of Western Democracy.” It constitutes a big…

A mother looking for her lost child — Bree Michaelson went to bed after supper. She woke up 18 hours later. Her husband and baby were gone. There was no trace of them ever being in the house. Novelist Henya Drescher puts us into a psychological thriller as Bree tries to find her baby. This skilled novelist did…

So what’s the difference? — Chris Snow encouraged me to watch a 2008 documentary by Latvian filmmaker Edvīns Šnore called “The Soviet Story.” It takes about 90 minutes, but it is a worthy investment to understand the source of conflict in the current Russia-Ukraine war. There wasn’t much in this documentary I had not encountered…

Heroes we cannot yet see — Thelma Delgers was raised in a small American town. Her family was of some affluence. After high school, Thelma moved to the big city — and away from her parents’ supervision. Like many young people, Thelma found herself in a party-party culture — and she adopted its values. Failing college…

And my comment, my highlight, my link, and my Medium shekel — After four years on Medium, I have developed some habits as to how I promote other contributors. I will just detail these habits for you. They might be useful to you. Maybe this article might inspire you to write a similar article to tell others of your own Medium habits…

Why academics cannot lead — Medium contributor Walter Rhein encouraged me to read “Manufactured Consent” by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Mr. Rhein may have had good intentions with his recommendation. But I won’t read this lengthy book for a good reason, which I will explain later. Here is a description of the book I…

What people do in their off hours is nobody’s business. — I usually try not to attack the character of political figures in my writing. Our politicians are reflections of us, which means they are not on the leading edge of whatever they are supposed to be leading. For this article, I’m going to make an exception. The American political left…