Jack Mitchell

A wonderful retrospective by J. Barnes on The Odyssey of Star Wars, five years on. Hard to believe it’s been that long!

@CharlieBerens @RealHughJackman Great video. Is it normal to make them by the half-pint?

Teaching @RealHughJackman about the Brandy Old Fashioned #interview #cocktail

@Jomboy_ You're degreased

what doe Belli and Rice say during their handshake? "you're great" "youre crazy" just noises?

@DaveFromnb69747 @cselley Really, Inuktitut and French are of about the same importance in this country?

@cselley Still the right answer.

"I know there were some controversies with respect to French over the course of the past while, although I will say for [Simon] she spoke an Indigenous language, which I think is fair game in Canada." This government has a death wish. cbc.ca/news/politics/…

@yuanyi_z Nothing will change until lawyers, and judges, and law professors start getting real degrees before they go to law school.

For what it's worth, I have left this comment on his post. Let us see what the moderators say. I am flattered to feature on such a distinguished blog; I am less flattered by Dr Sitota’s description of myself as a ‘populist clown’. Nevertheless, I must admit I find his position puzzling. Dr Sirota’s own position amounts to an acceptance that the Supreme Court of Canada is filled by unprincipled hacks and intellectual lightweights who make stupid decisions, but combined with an unwillingness to do anything that might change things. This is, if I may say so, Andrew Coyne-ism. Dr Sirota has often written, at great length about the foolish doings of their lordships. Have his writings made any difference? Has a single judge taken head of what he said? Will they ever notice, when he is in academic exile, having been blacklisted by most respectable Canadian law faculties? Respect for judicial independence is important. It is not, and should never be a licence for misgovernment. That’s not populism, but a basic requirement for self-government in the truest sense.

Dr Sirota dismisses me as a “populist clown” for thinking that judges who undermine the constitutional order ought to be removed, after writing at length about how the current Supreme Court is filled with hacks. At the end of the day, law professors’ servility die hard.

@BenjaminiteMD @yuanyi_z Une faute que Son Excellence ne commet guère

@yuanyi_z *guerre, mon cher GG

Il me fait grand plaisir d—

@PMCharlesTupper But where is the modern Dostoevsky?

@jackmitchell The Britney Speers window is still open.

A wonderful retrospective by J. Barnes on The Odyssey of Star Wars, five years on. Hard to believe it’s been that long!

@PMCharlesTupper It’s more that I just can’t count on educated readers to get mythological or even historical references anymore. Although I have actually plotted out a WWII poem that would almost work; but that comes up against the difficulty of having antagonists never meet face to face.

@jackmitchell Popular appeal! Tell that to a society working diligently to restore the reputation of Sir Charles Tupper.

It would be interesting to see what you made of the poem in coming to it with no background knowledge. I remember starting on Lattimore’s Iliad in Grade 9 with minimal background and finding it tough going, since e.g. I didn’t know that Agamemnon and “the son of Atreus” referred to the same person.

@PMCharlesTupper I became more of a fanatic once I settled on the theme! There are some great racing scenes in ancient epic (Iliad 23, Aeneid 5) but I don’t know if the background material of cycling sufficient popular appeal to be the foundation of a narrative.

@Chindogg21 @JomboyMedia Yeah but 85 to the temple?

@jackmitchell @JomboyMedia People weren't launching 100+ mph rockets in the era before helmets

Christian Walker's helmet broke from getting hit in the head by a pitch

An illustration of ‹ The poet Homer › (ʾŪmīrūš al-šāʿir) from a 13th cent. Arabic MS, likely drawn in Mosul.

@StephenJack4 @BenWoodfinden "In February 1940, orders were placed for the first corvettes; by the end of that year, 44 had been launched."

@BenWoodfinden So we are currently at the beginning of 1941 share.google/aimode/SdKYRuu…

None of these 15 projects have been approved or are under construction, they have simply been referred to the Major Projects Office. At some point soon we're going to need to start seeing shovels in the ground if "build at speeds not seen since WW2" means anything real.

@KnightLegg *Canadensis

Canada’s Chief Justice Richard Wagner has installed a lifelike bronze bust of himself in our highest court. It should be called ‘Narcissus Canadiannus” - There is no precedent for something this vulgar in the history of the Court. It should be taken down. Richard fancies himself. - Richard also fancies his own opinion on things. He violated legal due process and the Courts reputation by publicly accusing the Convoy - who protested backwards federal Covid policies that were soon dropped of ‘anarchy’ and ‘hostage taking’. Now that the Convoys freedom of speech, assembly and due process rights have been asserted by lower courts the Supreme Court has to consider the appeal of the federal govt and weigh the rights of citizens against the decision of the federal government to impose the Emergencies Act to suspend those rights. Wagners lack of judicial discretion in the first instance makes his recusal from such an important rights-defining case important because it signals not just fairness in the content of the decision but in the way the decision gets reached by the highest Court. He has already shown his bias. Any decision against the convoy poisons the integrity of the Court if he remains present. But Richard - the man with the bust of himself in our Court - doesn’t imagine himself under the law he imposes on others. He hasn’t completed any graduate work in law or published any academic work in law, philosophy or jurisprudence so it’s hard to know how he justifies himself in these matters. Ironically, he has a reputation for warning others - including those far more qualified in formal jurisprudence than he is - not to critique Canadian judges like himself or their (increasingly bizarre and politicized) decisions. But, from the Magna Carta onwards, Richard should know that in law as in politics dissent is democracy. The dissent of the Convoy and the growing critique of Richards own bizarre behaviour and inability to articulate a judicial philosophy is exactly what’s needed to save Canada - and the Court’s reputation as a place where justice - not the ego of the Justices - is at stake. Richard should recuse himself. And remove that vulgar bust from the Supreme Court. #SCC #RuleOfLaw

@TheFIREorg Not just a government, but any society as a whole, using non-state means of repression.

As the United States marks 250 years, some warnings are timeless. Silencing opposition has never led anywhere good.

@tolkienthoughts I took it with me to the opening night of Return of the King (it was a bit of a wait in line!).

I remember I opened Lays of Beleriand and shut it several times as a kid before I was into poetry. When I was 14 our English curriculum got heavy into poetry and I began to understand it a bit. I went back to the book, opened it, and couldn’t put it down.

@WallfacerAG @olivertraldi That's not a non-sequitur—it just doesn't follow.

@olivertraldi One would think that people who so heavily rely on AI for their writing and thinking would be able to avoid obvious non-sequiturs, but apparently not.

If Claude can engage in conversation, but this chocolate cupcake cannot, then the definition of "delicious" is fundamentally useless.

@MitchBannon He'll be signed in no time.

Eloy Jiménez has cleared waivers and elected free agency, the #BlueJays announce.

@PMCharlesTupper @TheHubCanada He’s a phonetically convenient fellow.

@jackmitchell @TheHubCanada Ron?

My poem in @TheHubCanada this weekend is about what makes an empire fail.