Mathew Ingram's "blog" is a collection of brief items - from the interesting to the unusual, and occasionally the outright laughable. Feel free to e-mail your suggestions and/or comments.
Check - or maybe checkmate: Offering official refuge to a known criminal, particularly one who is well known for his anti-U.S. and anti-Semitic views, seems like not such a great idea - especially for a tiny little country like Iceland. But what if that fugitive crank is chess genius Bobby Fischer? Iceland has extended its hand to the reclusive chess master, offering him official residency, even though he is currently in detention in Japan for travelling on an invalid passport. Mr. Fischer put Iceland on the map in 1972 with his historic chess match against the legendary Boris Spassky. After winning, Mr. Fischer didn't play again for 20 years, when he won a match in the former Yugoslavia - a bout which ran afoul of U.S. laws against dealing with the former corrupt regime. Iceland says it just wants to recognize a former hero, but others wonder about the wisdom of angering the U.S., not to mention giving shelter to someone with Mr. Fischer's extreme views (he has written favourably about the terrorist attacks of September 11).
Will Emperor Norton get a bridge?: You probably didn't learn about him in history class, but Emperor Norton I may be about to have a bridge in San Francisco named after him, if a motion by city council is approved. The idea got a push from a local comic strip and a city councillor took up the torch. And who was Emperor Norton I? He was a businessman who came to San Francisco in 1849 and later lost his fortune - and his mental stability, according to local historians. He declared himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, walked the streets with a plume in his hat and a sword in his hand, and for the next two decades issued various proclamations and even issued his own currency. In 1872, he ordered that "a bridge be built from Oakland Point to Goat Island and thence to Telegraph Hill." Now that there is such a bridge (the Bay Bridge), some supporters figure Emperor Norton should get his due.
Taking nostalgia a little too far: I know 1980s nostalgia is all the rage now, what with Duran Duran back on the charts and even Donald Trump making a comeback, but does that mean we have to revive our misguided 1980s industrial policy as well? Apparently. Industry Minister David Emerson seems to think that it's a good idea to hand out a billion or two to the aerospace industry (for that, read "Bombardier") in hopes that this will encourage all kinds of job creation in various regions of the country. In fact, Ottawa said it would give Bombardier a $300-million line of credit before the company even asked for any money. Now that's a Christmas bonus. Here's a tip for Mr. Emerson, who I'm sure means well: Take a look at how that whole Liberal policy worked in the late 1970s and '80s. In a nutshell, it didn't - unless turning Bombardier into a perennial cap-in-hand, government-cash addict was what the government had in mind. Remember, Dave: Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
Update: A reader named Dino Morson writes to say that he did his undergraduate thesis on the aerospace industry in 1982 and came to the conclusion that had the government not stepped in, de Havilland and Canadair would have been closed and "effectively removed Canada's aerospace industry from the face of the earth." Thanks, Dino. The only question, of course, is whether Canada needs an aerospace industry so badly that one has to be subsidized.
