Rick Salutin

It's delightful how change -- of an encouraging sort -- happens. Just when you thought TV was an eternal cesspool, along comes this year's Emmys with its fine array.

What's the real problem with being yourself or "human" as a public figure? Nothing fails like trying to look human or show your human side: it's inhuman to attempt to prove you're human.

Do so-called 'Great Nations' really need organizing principles as Hillary Clinton argues? Rick Salutin thinks a much more down-to-earth mantra is far less destructive.

To the extent that national character exists, what accounts for it? How does the experience of occupying -- or of being occupied -- shape the development of a national personality?

John Graves Simcoe, whose "day" we're celebrating in Toronto, was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. You could say he saw a lot but didn't notice much.

There is a paradoxical category of Progressive People On Everything Except Israel: because Israel is viewed by many leftists as self-evidently right-wing, such individuals embody a contradiction.

Dialogue won't solve the impasse in Gaza; that will require other pressures. But it could, surprisingly, play a crucial role.

Where do bond rating agencies get the nerve? They loom over economic policy like divine oracles, telling lenders how safe to feel when making loans and what interest rates to charge governments.

What to say about former society columnist Rosemary Sexton's book, Home Before Dark, on Wealth and Power in Canada? It's a rambling, riveting, often trivial diary of her life between 1998 and 2002.

Does CBC management really think news is separate from entertainment? Everyone knows news is entertainment, too.