The Lesser Evil

I've been spending less time than I normally feel is adequate listening to the 7-11pm CBC Radio 1 line up. When I do keep up my listening habits, I feel that the empty container on my shoulders (head) is filled up with the brains of many-many other smart people, and over the course of a normal day it drains out of my mouth in the form of witty remarks about current events and bits and pieces of sometimes useful arcana.

But, like I said, I've not been attending to my intellectual care and feeding, my mind is sluggish - I've lost track of the top 10 world affairs that are on-going - why are all those Ukrainians wearing orange? But, like all things there is an ebb and flow to this as well, and so I've started to work my way through a book titled The Lesser Evil by Michael Ignatieff.

Tangentially related was a discussion about Canadian Foreign Policy on Ideas (CBC1, 9pm EST) that took these themes to a direct and personal level. One of the speakers featured (who?) made the point that we have a strange disconnect when it comes to ethics and what we will tolerate on a personal level vs. that of a political level. This exact point is also brought up by Ignatieff - I guess it is a pretty cool meme floating around the Political Scientist memepool right now. It's understandable that people like to poke and prod the delineation between me and us.
Anyway, this is all a work in progress.