Accepting the surrender of enemy combatants, in a declared state-vs-state war, is not hostage-taking. POW exchanges are as acceptable as anything about war can be. Detaining enemy civilians may sometimes be justified by military necessity, but such detainees must be released without conditions, as soon as military necessity allows. Their release must not be exchanged for anything.

The capture of Israelis and foreigners by Hamas forces is hostage-taking. It has to be dealt with harshly. But I think we should try to use diplomacy to get as many countries as possible to support a severe Israeli response, even if that means convincing Israel to have a response that's less severe than it ought to be.

As saddened as I've been by Israel's most recent government and its turn toward neo-fascism, there are levels of these things, and not all wrongs are created equal. indiscriminate killing and taking civilian hostages is more than a few steps beyond anything the IDF has ever attempted, and something I doubt most of today's palestinians would want to be associated with.

Would everyone benefit from Israel having a more enlightened, less bellicose government? Of course they would. However, there is no possible justification for the actions of Hamas today. And to anyone who would excuse today's attacks based on Israel's wrongs, real or imagined, consider how you'd feel if the shoe were on the other foot.

Everyday is Indigenous Peoples Day for me until Indigenous rights are fully recognized and respected, here in Canada and around the world.

What makes me happy and proud and what is so heartwarming is that Manitoba just became the first Canadian province to elect a First Nations premier!

Canada has such a very long way to go along the path toward justice for First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. While our constitution recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and treaty rights, explicitly in Section 35, most Canadians do not understand the breadth and depth of all that Indigenous, Treaty and land rights entail. The really sad part is that many of us do not wish to understand. That makes progress on these core issues extremely difficult but nevertheless critical for Canada if we truly believe in principles of justice and fairness.

Canada Day has had a big stain on it for me since 1990 when a lone Cree member of the Manitoba legislature, Eligah Harper, single-handedly stopped a national constitutional reform process here to satisfy the aspirations of Quebec that I whole-heartedly supported.

Harper's quiet but determined display of grace and courage in standing up for principles of justice for Aboriginal peoples in Canada compelled me to learn about the issues he spoke of. It didn't take long before I began to feel thankful and grateful for what he did to stop that constitutional reform process that would have shut Aboriginal peoples out of the Canadian constitutional family forever. Because of his actions - and efforts by First Nations, Inuit and Metis leaders across this country before and since - we have made progress on Indigenous rights and justice issues but there is such a long way to go.

I am so looking forward to following newly elected Manitoba premier Wab Kinew and the positive impacts his leadership will have on the province and throughout our country!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Every once in a while, I am reminded why I love David Brooks!

Do you want me to answer that?

Hehehehehehehehehe.

Seriously, why can't she just GO AWAY!??

Instead, this nomination is an impressive display of Gov. Newsom's political instincts. He solved 2 problems:
* By nominating a relative unknown, he avoided "playing favorites" by choosing a person who's already announced his/her candidacy for 2024;
* By moving with lightning speed, he has taken the air out of the chattering class' speculation game.

Since you've decided to mock someone for using three names, instead of for any of the stuff for which she deserves our contempt, do you take the same attitude toward Hillary Rodham Clinton? How about toward Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Indeed. But, good luck with that.

It was a pretty sad political action on his part. Unfortunately, for Biden (as well as the Democratic Party as a whole), immigration is just one of many issues he is weak on. He's even weak on issues he should be strong on but can't seem to make the case.

And, his age isn't the problem. I remember back to 2005 when he was putting the finishing touches on his 'plan for Iraq'. Which was more accurately described as Biden's plan for US policy with regard to Iraq. Anyway, back then he seemed quite unable or just unwilling to take the time to explain what his plan was all about. He didn't fight back nearly as hard as I, myself, did on the Bush administration's efforts to sabotage his efforts and label it as a plan for the partition of Iraq. Consequently, the neo-cons ran with it, virtually unopposed, and convinced the Arab world, more or less, that partition of Iraq is what Biden was all about. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course but, if you can't or won't dispel a false narrative, then the false narrative takes hold.

Ditto for the Dem's failure to "own" economic issues as they continue, decade after decade, to let the Republicans own the narrative that Republicans are the better stewards of the economy. It would be laughable if it wasn't so damn depressing. Bidenomics is slowly becoming a bad four-letter word as the Republicans are beginning to own THAT, too!

What a freakin' mess.

Perhaps Biden and the Dems will get their sad act together before it's too late ... but, this cockeyed optimist ain't too optimistic, these days. :(