Category Archives: News of the World

An Island Overrun with Prisoners and Soldiers

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Barry Pomeroy

When William Golding imagines his feral schoolboys in Lord of the Flies, he thinks that they will inevitably shed the shallow indoctrination of the arbitrary and recently acquired rules of polite society and fall back upon their baser instincts which … Continue reading →

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Pondering the Media During the 2022 Ottawa Trucker Convoy

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Barry Pomeroy

The various media systems of the world are overworked, and in the case of many of them, underpaid. This is exposed by the request, below most online news stories, to report any errors. With editors in short supply, the news … Continue reading →

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Racist Rob and Corrupt Politicians

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Barry Pomeroy

I’d only been teaching a few years when I had a student who was so racist that I was forced to confront several of his statements in class. As anyone knows who has dealt with such behaviour, this demands a … Continue reading →

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Tolerance, Ethics and Conjoined Twins

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Barry Pomeroy

On CBC radio’s The Current this morning, Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed a doctor who was responsible for the multiple surgeries that separated conjoined twins at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston. The story was mostly concerned with the ethical implications … Continue reading →

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The Contamination of Ideas: Truth and Lies in the Internet Age

Posted on December 10, 2017 by Barry Pomeroy

A recent encounter reminds me that notions of knowledge and how it is gained can be subjective. I was told by a young person that a documentary watched by their mother—they didn’t even see the documentary themselves—argued that there was … Continue reading →

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Checking Your Delusions

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Barry Pomeroy

The method for checking our many delusions—that the Harry Potter letter is going to arrive for us any moment, that god is carefully listening to my prayers about the cancer He gave my mother, that the earth is flat, the … Continue reading →

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Waking to News about Maniacs

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Barry Pomeroy

Since I need to be awake by nearly the same time every weekday, I have taken to setting my clock radio for nine in the morning and then listening to the morning news before I actually turn off the clock … Continue reading →

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A Shared Politics of Fear and Hate

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Barry Pomeroy

Although Canadians have little actual stake in the American election, there is much shared sentiment on both sides of the border. Following the lead of the American media, many Canadians declare themselves to be supporters of one candidate or another, … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump and the Conspiracy of Nonsense

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Barry Pomeroy

The internet is so effective at the promulgation of conspiracy theories we almost think it might have been made for that purpose. Marshall McLuhan suggests that each of our technologies simply extend our own abilities, just as a spear extends … Continue reading →

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Marching Against Bill C-51

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I don’t think it’s a secret that Canada is shifting into something other than what most of us expected. We always touted Canada as a country that was less warlike than the US, the neighbour we most like to compare … Continue reading →

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