Word: laxer
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...most compelling case for Canada’s little-man complex, however, is its tendency to produce, on occasion, a public intellectual intent on gleefully pointing out the most obvious and shopworn defects of America’s politics and people. The newest excoriation comes from James Laxer, a Canadian political scientist and social commentator who teaches at York University. Laxer was a leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party in the 1970s and in recent years has been a staunch critic of economic globalism. His most recent book, Discovering America—published in Canada as Stalking...
None of these Canadian virtues, however, excuse Laxer for the dud of a critique he has written about the U.S. He visits the Michigan Militia, Republican political rallies, an abortion clinic and the execution of Texas’s prettiest psychopath, Karla Faye Tucker. He is typically Canadian in his incredulity at the American right wing, particularly at its overt courtship of fundamentalist Christians. He mocks the diminutive Christian zealot Gary Bauer, who ran for president in 2000. Executions are rejected as illogical and bloodthirsty; the militia leader is simply psychotic. And he points out a few nonpolitical neuroses...
...course Laxer is right to observe that executions are savage, that some militia members are paranoid menaces and that many burger-munchers are metamorphosing into disgusting human gastropods. But pointing out these follies is a bit like hunting cows with an assault rifle. No one, including most educated Americans, thinks serious gun-nuts are more than a negligible fringe, and in 2001, it’s an awful waste of breath to treat them as if the sanity of their position were an open question. Isn’t this just stating the obvious? Yanks tend to be very...
Cars and trucks are a major source of global warming, as each gallon of gasoline pumps more than 25 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But because of a loophole in the 1975 fuel-economy law, today's trucks are allowed to meet a laxer standard on miles per gallon than cars: 20.7 vs. 27.5 on average. The difference mattered less two decades ago, when light trucks--including sport utes, minivans and pickups--represented less than a fifth of new-car sales. Now they account for nearly half. "The industry was claiming it didn't have the technology...
...vote on this week, does include some disappointments. The Food and Drug Administration will not be permitted to evaluate abortion inducing drugs like RU-486. Internet pornography has been restricted, which is a serious threat to First Amendment rights. In addition, there will be an increase in Alaskan logging, laxer grazing permits and more ozone-depleting pesticides. And despite the IMF funding and promises to the contrary, this year's budget does not come close to settling America's outstanding debt to the United Nations...