journal features

Toronto produces some stupid politicians

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2013.03.27

Today wasn't a day of big accomplishments for Toronto-area politicians. On the federal level, we have this accomplishment: being the only country to pull out (and sneakily at that) of a UN treaty on combating desertification. Meanwhile, the mayor has another proud moment: the school where he insists on coaching the football team is meeting to decide if they want a drunk with a police record, who says insulting things about the school to remain in charge of the team. Unsurprisingly.

rand()m quote

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

—Michael Crichton