http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one. (Voltaire) Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:44:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Earlier this month, Conservative MP Jean-Pierre Blackburn mused publicly about eventually re-opening the constitution to accomodate Québec. Whatever strategic motivations were being played out, it sure provoked a slew of reactions in the english language media, including the Liberal blogosphere, where comments ranged from the prudently constructive to the openly ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2008/04/14/casual-quebec-bashing-yet-again-how-bizarre-can-it-really-get/ A bit of federal politics now. Well, believe it or not, I finally decided I would vote for my own party in the next federal election, whenever it happens, although I'm hoping that our usual Québec-bashing factions - here's a typical example but nothing personal here; everybody's entitled to their ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2008/04/01/one-more-vote/ There is much chattering in Québec these days around the idea of a cultural crisis, an idea put forward in particular in a recent book by reasonable accommodation co-commissioner Gérard Bouchard and colleague. My take on it isn't that clear, as usual I guess, but I'm mostly under the impression ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/12/28/three-crises/ Strange times. I must admit I don't understand the reversal of meaning that has happened to the idea that voting is to be done openly - in french we now say "à visage découvert". As far as I know, no one has asked to go back to having shows of ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/10/28/reasonable-accommodations-quebec-style-for-now/ Although it was particularly concerning for us in Quebec and urgent to do away with, our now slightly relaxed post-secondary tuition freeze has not been the sole taboo resulting in good part from the defensive collectivism that is so prevalent in this country, on both sides of the language divide ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/10/12/private-healthcare-for-canadians-bring-it-on/ Here is a Liberal who respectfully disagree with his party leader - and much of the party obviously - on this question, and who remains in the minority of Quebecers supporting the current implication of Canada in Afghanistan. I am not saying that my position is definitive, nor that it ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/10/07/my-dissidence-on-afghanistan/ OK. It's been a while, I've taken a few steps back, and I'm now returning to the program. I must give myself a realistic goal if I want to make something worthwile out of this experiment with blogging: so three paragraphs it will be, four if I really need it. ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/10/06/three-paragraphs-well-four-at-the-most/ Thorstein Veblen, who pioneered the institutionalist school in economics, published a short but classic book more than a century ago, entitled "The theory of the leisure class" (1899). That's where he coined the expression "conspicuous consumption", linking sociology and economics through the study of a type of behaviour, motivated not ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/07/01/conspicuous-ideology-and-left-wing-politics/ Jean Charest's electoral promise of using some of the funds recently transfered from Ottawa, in order to lower provincial income tax - which he finally did - has had way too many people losing their cool, both inside and outside Québec. The criticism has actually been flowing from at least ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/06/07/quebec-tax-cuts-and-the-fiscal-imbalance/ I know, I know. If I'm going to have a blog, I should be blogging. There is just so much thinking to be done these days. The writing can't follow. And then there's work, there's the kids, there's life. Anyway, I'll go for a few thoughts, what the heck. 1. The ... http://yvanstpierre.com/enblog/2007/05/25/a-bit-of-spring-cleaning/