Covid scepticism gaining legitimacy

 Here's a chap with the temerity to suggest that the Covid pandemic is fake. I know from my travels that there are many such chappies and chapettes, but they normally don't get write-ups at CBC news. What makes this particular chap noteworthy is his position as a chemistry professor at the University of Waterloo.

And if that's not enough succour for the pandemic deniers, note the topics of the last two Munk Debates Podcasts. Last week featured a debate about the merits of the Swedish model (no lockdown, no masks, no cratered economy). This week the discussion was around whether the scientific community has overreacted to the threat of the virus.

The fact that these questions are being debated on an establishment forum like the Munk Debates tells me that the One True God of covid group-think is running into some headwinds. 

May the non-believers thrive and prosper!

Kissinger? Hey, maybe for $100,000.00 we can entice him to the Munk Debates

In some bizarre way I kinda admire the old war criminal.

It's about longevity, not politics.

He's been a happening dude on the world stage since what, the Nixon era?

I've read he's feeding strategic advice to Trump.

He's gotta be at least 100 years old.

I guess killer instincts don't have a stale-date.

And if nothing else, Kissinger was blessed with an abundance of killer instincts.

Good news for war crime fanboys in Toronto

My Globe and Mail informs me this morning that "prominent Toronto philanthropist" Peter Munk has donated five millions in pocket change to ensure that the "Munk debates" outlive him.

This will allow Toronto to survive as a "hub for intellectual discussion." It's not clear if writer Luke Carroll actually spoke with Munk or debate chair Rudyard Griffiths, or if he's just working from a corporate press release, but the thought that Toronto needs Munk's money to foster some vague sense of intellectual maturity is truly beyond hokum.

Munk's money will allow this staged pseudo-intellectual media event to continue paying the speakers fees demanded by "some of the world's most prominent thinkers."

Like Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger?!

Get the f*ck outta here!

The only speech I'd ever want to hear from either of those blood-drenched war criminals will come from the prisoner's docket at the ICC.

Stephen Harper: big sled, no dogs

That was actually one of the wittier moments in this "debate."

It was Justin who nailed Big Steve with that one.

It happened when the moderator steered the conversation north.

One of the more cogent moments came when Rudy asked how those 15 ice-breakers for the Royal Canadian Navy were coming along. Rudy was rude enough to mention that Russia actually has 40 boats in her ice-breaker fleet, whereas Big Steve only has 40 announcements of an imaginary fleet of 15 ice-breakers.

Big Steve replies by pointing out that his government has expanded Nihanni National Park.

A complete non-sequitor.

Or maybe not.

Nihanni National Park is in the Arctic after all.

Peter Munk's Midas touch is but a fading memory

You remember Mr. Munk. The guy who built Clairtone into an international brand and then bailed, leaving the shareholders holding the bag as the company went tits-up.

Munk had a number of resurrections and finally hit a homer with Barrick Gold, now the worlds biggest gold producer.

Also the world's most indebted gold producer. It has invested sums in its Pascua Lama mine in South America that are the equivalent of half the market cap of the company.

Speaking of market cap, it's about half of where it was a year ago.

And twice what it will be a year from now.

The pesky natives down there in South America just keep throwing up one roadblock after another. The latest setback was a $16 million fine levied on the company by the government of Chile, normally considered miner friendly.

You know you're in trouble when the friendlies are screwing you over.

Here on the home front Munk hasn't helped himself by underwriting foolishness like the "Munk Debates." These are the folks, loosely affiliated with the Munk Centre for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, who bring in "public intellectuals" for public debates.

Oddly enough, Toronto is so desperate to be seen as a "world-class city" that they can actually sell out Roy Thompson Hall for these debates.

When they had a debate about God, they hired in Tony Blair to speak for God.

Next week they've got Newt Gingrich coming in.

That's right; the Newtster. Public intellectual.

Stop laughing; tickets are sold out!

The joke is obviously on Toronto... and on Peter Munk.