There’s a hilarious piece in today’s National Post by Dean Beeby, who cleverly used an access to information request to ferret out a copy of the training manual they use for the summer students who guide tourists around Parliament Hill. Anticipating critical questions about the role of the Senate in our
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 6154…Doug Ferrari’s Show Biz Rules
THE SHOW BIZ RULES1. You are not a failure until you quit. 2. Better a has-been than a never-was. 3. Always carry your wallet onstage. 4. Never work with children or animals.5. Remember no matter who you are you will never be considered a normal human. Boarding houses during vaudeville had signs: NO
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 6153…Death By Stiletto
Sounds like the title of a Mickey Spillane novel, doesn’t it?But it is real, so real and CNN affilate KTRK in Houston had the story last week. 44 year old Ana Lilia Trujillo stands accused of murdering University of Houston professor Alf Stefan Andersson with a stiletto.When Houston’s finest arrived the very, very,
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Deep Municipal Scandals
When we thought Toronto’s crack Mayor Rob Ford was about to take the national scandal prize, Montreal’s replacement Mayor Michael Appelbaum rides (in a police car) to the rescue with corruption charges. What major city mayor is next to implode? Are Canadian municipal elections selecting the best political candidate they
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Have Canadians Won the Man-Powered Helicopter Challenge?
The Canadian team, AeroVelo, may have won the prize for the first, man-powered helicopter flight. Here’s the tweet they sent yesterday: “Hit 3.3 metres & 65 sec on our flight. Submitted the flight to the American Helicopter Society; waiting for validation before commenting.“ The competition requires helicopter flight, solely human-powered,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Who Is Fracking With California?
California has become the newest battleground state in the fracking fight that is already being waged in states like Pennsylvania and New York. Why? The short answer is the Monterey Shale. It’s a massive oil deposit that is trapped in the shale formations underneath Los Angeles and most of California’s
Continue readingThe Wingnuterer: #RobFordLooksAtThings – 0010
Rob Looks at an owl, owl looks for a way out. Rob Ford looks at an owl MORE RobFordLooksAtThings
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Social determinants more than cost of care key to sustainability
Critics of Medicare often point to Canada’s dubious population health record as evidence of the need for system reform, but seldom do these critics spend much time looking at the social determinants of health or actions by increasingly right-wing governments that … Continue reading →
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: U.S. Foreign Intelligence: From carte blanche surveillance to weak domestic protections
This article has been co-authored by Tamir Israel, Staff Lawyer at CIPPIC, Katitza Rodriguez, EFF International Rights Director and Mark Rumold, EFF Staff Attorney. The Spies Without Borders posts are looking into how the information disclosed in the NSA leaks affect Internet users around the world whose private information is stored in U.S. servers, or whose data travels across U.S. networks. read more
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Conor Recovery … For Dad … Means Walking On The Trail Again
We have been very happy with the excellent care Conor received after his adverse drug reaction. Everyone involved, from our family doctor who saw us very quickly after our concerns arose, immediately advised cutting back on Conor’s meds and was at the ICU and pediatric wards as part of his
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The Fight Against FIPA
Monday, June 17, 2013 “We stand together! We stand together! We stand together!” On June 5th, 2013, West Coast Environmental Law’s Executive Director Jessica Clogg and three legal interns joined the hundreds of voices chanting “We stand together!” outside the Federal Court in downtown Vancouver. The crowd was gathered to
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: The Fight Against FIPA
Monday, June 17, 2013 “We stand together! We stand together! We stand together!” On June 5th, 2013, West Coast Environmental Law’s Executive Director Jessica Clogg and three legal interns joined the hundreds of voices chanting “We stand together!” outside the Federal Court in downtown Vancouver. The crowd was gathered to
Continue readingRecreating Eden: On a Day When Canada’s Two Biggest Cities Appear to Have Crooks as Mayor…
A little ditty thata may make you smile: The You Can’t Fight City Hall Blues
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Out of This World – What Does Walt Natynczyk Have That Canada Needs for Space?
In my humble opinion, no Canadian general directly associated with the fiasco of our war in Afghanistan should be a candidate for government perks. That’s certainly true for Rick Hiller who, by all accounts misled then prime minister Martin, into approving Canada’s shoestring Kandahar combat caper. It should likewise hold
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: A Happy Day After Fathers’ Day
Richard Hughes-Fortunate Old Coot Well I am a fortunate old coot in many ways. Yesterday I spent most of the day playing around in the garden. That is always the sign of a good day. My raised beds are all fully planted and so my son Jeff rolled down six
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Wordly Philosopher
This is the title of a recently published biography of Albert Hirschmam by Jeremy Adelman, a Canadian who teaches history at Princeton University. Hirschman’s life as an economist – which spanned so much of the 20th century – is worth learning about for it makes us think hard about what
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When He’s Not Kissing Ass, He’s Kicking Ass – It’s the Only Game Harper Knows
He used to lambaste the Chinese – before he became Beijing’s bitumen bumboy – but Sideshow Steve Harper has shown he still has game when it comes to Russia and Vlad Putin. On the eve of the G8 summit, Steve has denounced Putin for backing “the thugs of the Assad
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: David Suzuki On Harper’s Contempt For Democracy
David Suzuki has a thought-provoking essay in today’s Globe and Mail that also serves as an excellent precis of some of the things the Harper government would like us to forget, including its promotion of ignorance/contempt for factual data, its demonization of environmentalists, it arrant hypocrisy, and its general contempt
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Chinese Dissident Says We’re Becoming Just Like Them
Chinese artist and persecuted dissident, Ai Weiwei, has an interesting take on the U.S. NSA Prism scandal in today’s Guardian in which he says America is behaving like China. I lived in the United States for 12 years. This abuse of state power goes totally against my understanding of what
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Syria: Showdown time between the West and Putin
High noon at 10 Downing Street Politicians are becoming more graphic in their descriptions of the warring sides in the Syrian civil war, with the latest spat leading to a shortened meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK and Russia’s Putin: Talks on the crisis in Syria between
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