"Canada Today Is Like Owning an Apartment Above a Meth Lab"

"When American friends ask for an explanation, I encourage them to reflect on the last time they bought groceries at their neighborhood Safeway. In the U.S. there is almost always a racial, economic, cultural, and educational chasm between the consumer and the check-out staff that is difficult if not impossible to bridge. In Canada, the experience is quite different. One interacts if not as peers, certainly as members of a wider community. The reason for this is very simple. The checkout person may not share your level of affluence, but they know that you know that they are getting a living wage because of the unions. And they know that you know that their kids and yours most probably go to the same neighborhood public school. Third, and most essential, they know that you know that if their children get sick, they will get exactly the same level of medical care not only of your children but of those of the prime minister. These three strands woven together become the fabric of Canadian social democracy."

At Rolling Stone, Wade Davis discusses "The Unraveling of America."

"Reliable, Trustworthy, On Time"

"That's why the Olympics should relocate to a city that won't just relieve the rest of the world of hosting duties for the Summer Games but of the Winter Games, too. It would have to be a place with the right climate. It would have to be a place that could afford it. It should possess something of an international flavor. It should have a proven track record. It should be located in a democratic country but not a hegemonic one."

Jonathan L. Fischer argues in Slate that the Olympics should always be in Vancouver.

"A Tahrir Moment"

"But if pithy slogans are particularly good at rallying a broad base of support, they are less adept at instilling a coherent program of action among their adherents. It’s as if, having succeeded in planting the seed of desire in activists’ minds, Adbusters was always more interested in watching it take off than in fixing it to a particular program or cause. In the marketing world, the concept might be said to have gone 'viral'—an achievement of which any of Lasn’s former adman colleagues would be exceptionally proud."

Thomas Stackpole at The New Republic depicts how Adbusters magazine inspired Occupy Wall Street.