In the fingerprinting post on Monday, will writes: I’m still not clear on how the police having my fingerprints — or my DNA — on file could be used to oppress me. Abandoning the dire fantasies of totalitarian government – for that is what they largely are – we can find the idea of oppression […]

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Contemporary, jazz and modern dance is the hardest of the three “major genres” in SYTYCD to rank and judge for many reasons. It’s the most widespread form of dance in the show, so there are more options to choose from. Contemporary dance doesn’t have obvious, objective rules for a “good” performance as ballroom or hip-hop […]

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What exactly is the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero, anyhow?

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I know it’s a bit schizophrenic to shove so many dance styles into “ballroom,” because ballroom dance is incredibly varied; a champion salsa dancer can have trouble with a Viennese waltz and vice versa. But even if you remove some of the more obvious outliers (I put West Coast swing, Lindy hop and disco all […]

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The Tories introduced legislation that would allow police to collect fingerprints before a person is charged with a crime and would not require the police to destroy those fingerprints should the person never be charged. The Tories argue that this is about “streamlining” the affairs of police to make them more efficient. But here’s the […]

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My weekly TV column is up at Torontoist. Also, I have a column regarding the SCC’s lengthy delay in deciding R. v. Suberu here. Guess which one has F-bombs in it!

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With So You Think You Can Dance kicking off its fifth season this week, I felt it was an appropriate time to engage in everybody’s favorite pastime: lists! Best-of lists are great! Because you can argue about what should have been on the list and why list item X should not have been on the […]

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You may not have been aware that there was an election in India yesterday, but there was. And here’s the good news: there is good news! Mostly because the BJP, which stands for something in Hindi that I believe translates to “fuck all Muslims everywhere,” got soundly hammered by the Congress party coalition, representing basically […]

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What with both the premiere of the fifth American season, and the fact that the Toronto auditions are this week, which gave me the opportunity to interview Jean-Marc Généreux.

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Some have suggested that this dog is a real-life approximation of Rex the Wonder Dog. However, even if we ignore the fact that this is clearly a training scenario and not an actual hostile takedown (not that this dog knew that, of course), you will note that the crucial difference is that Rex the Wonder […]

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…no. Just… no. NOOOOOOO. Top comment: Even then, if they’re just going for a Jetson-ish “modern” 50s family, they could be disgustingly liberal and accepting. “Oh dear, Brat and Dog have killed another cat. He’s probably just in that rebelling stage. Now go take out the recycling, honey, while I finish paying my taxes and […]

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“Lord Vetinari is subtly training Sam Vimes to be the next Patrician.” versus “Lord Vetinari is subtly training Moist von Lipwig to be the next Patrician.” Discuss. Also: Hobbes. Magic tiger or imaginary friend? Top comment: Wait… Hobbes wrote Leviathan?? Then he IS real!! — Al

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A giant vampire bat might pose problems to certain heroic individuals. After all, giant vampire bats are, let us be honest, usually giant vampires. In bat form. And if you don’t have a crucifix handy, what do you do? Maybe you go old school on that vampire, if your name is Rex the motherfucking Wonder […]

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My weekly TV column is up at Torontoist. But ALSO, I have a point/counterpoint column about the Tamil protests here. And on top of that, my first summer column for thecourt.ca is here, although it’s really just a longer, more serious-sounding rehash of the diversity arguments from last week.

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So yesterday there was a very big protest here in Toronto, as Tamil protestors trying to get Canada to intervene in the Sri Lankan Civil War closed down the Gardiner Expressway for about five hours. The protests were certainly illegal in that they obstructed traffic without a permit, but were almost wholly nonviolent. (The police […]

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