Today we’re packing and giving final instructions to our friend and dogsitter, the divine Essie Ash, and tonight we fly to London. In London, we’ll see R, who we know from our Brooklyn days, and who we haven’t seen in nearly 15 years, and Mara (of Abortion Support Network fame),
Continue readingknitnut.net: Junk TV in a Hotel Room
I was in Toronto last week for a conference on HIV, pregnancy and mothering. It was an excellent conference, very interesting, with a good mix of researchers, HIV+ mothers, and frontline workers. There were even a few babies, and a toddler who took his mom’s cell phone, placed it on
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Forgotten Deities: Flaccidus, The Roman God of Engineers
Ancient woodcut of a rooster, the favored form of sacrifice to the Roman god, Flaccidus. Flaccidus was a god revered during the time of the Roman Republic. Flaccidus was a kind of angry god, but not in the Mars I’m-going-to-stab-you-with-a-spear … Continue reading →
Continue readingFacing Autism in New Brunswick: Adult Autism Care in New Brunswick: An Open Letter to Premier David Alward
May 6, 2013 Honourable Premier David Alward Respected Cabinet Ministers and Party Leaders Dear Premier Alward I am the Acting President of the Autism Society New Brunswick and a parent that was involved, with many other parents, in the advocacy that led to the establishment of the UNB-CEL autism
Continue readingTrashy's World: Depressing that the new OLP Education Minister…
… is confirming her support for the Ontario’s wasteful and discriminatory duplicate school board system. If there is an election over the Budget, my vote for the Ontario Greens – the only party to say that the system needs a second look – is a lock! (2) Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario NDP gets ‘competing’ advice on Ontario Budget
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has a decision to make soon on whether or not to support the Ontario Liberal government’s budget; failure to support it (or at least an actual vote against versus an abstain) plunges the province back into an election campaign. She’s been given competing advice on
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: 9 per cent of you are fake
…well, over on Twitter, anyway. So sayeth this here Twitter app, which is as existential as it is useless. More than a thousand of my just-about 12,000 followers are fakes! That hurts!
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Ezra Levant And All His Friends
From the Twitter “fake follower” check, which tells you how many of your twitter followers are real: So it looks like someone has been buying Ezra bulk followers. Anyway, compare this with the report you get for a real journalist–Canada’s sweetest little angel, Kady O’Malley: Or even Hairface, from Lethbridge: So
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Why separate? #nlpoli
Last week, the federal Auditor General pointed out many serious problems with the state of offshore search and rescue. Last week, the usual gang grabbed any microphone they could find to call – yet again – for everything from a provincial public inquiry into the state of search and rescue
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Pothole Problem Solved
click to enlarge This pothole has been around on Palmerston Square for a while. Recently someone anonymously filled it in with earth and planted flowers. Neighbourliness and creativity abound. Filed under: Fun
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Terror of terrorism and the Second Amendment: Whatever became of the indomitable American spirit?
The indomitable American spirit personified above. Whatever became of it? Below: Bogie as Philip Marlowe, with gun; the leader of another English-speaking country refusing to knuckle under to the Luftwaffe, also with gun. We have learned, courtesy the news media, that membership in the National Rifle Association has surged past
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Hearing Starts Today on Bell’s New Attempt to Take Over Canada’s Largest Independent Content Company; OpenMedia.ca Available for Comment
Takeover_210x150_120816.png Today is beginning of a week-long hearing to determine whether Bell should be given more control over Canada’s media system WHO: Steve Anderson, Executive Director, OpenMedia.ca Lindsey Pinto, Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca WHAT: The CRTC is holding a public hearing in response to Bell—Canada’s largest telecom and media conglomerate—once again
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Niall Ferguson’s Latest Idiocy
As I discussed in an earlier post, Niall Ferguson, the Harvard historian and author of numerous bad books about economics, is prone to writing and saying completely ignorant things, making one wonder about the intellectual heft of so-called academic “stars” who populate our institutions of higher learning. The latest bit
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Google upgrades to ‘Palestine’: on another note – Schmidty sings Israel’s praises oh and Jerusalem Israel’s ‘capital’ according to GoogleMaps
Google has changed the tagline on its homepage in the occupied territories from “Palestinian Territories” to “Palestine.” A Google spokesperson informed BBC that the company had consulted sources and authorities and was “…following the lead of the UN, Icann [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Hospitals
My dad spent his entire adult life in them, but I hate them.
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 5955…Tories Misplace 3.1 B = Sens On Front Page
This is what passes for priorities in your capital. And, no, it doesn’t make sense unless your name is Nero. Without seeing any of the three dailies in Ottawa I guarantee you that the lead story, the big splash, whatever in The Ottawa Sun, The Ottawa Citizen and Le Droit
Continue readingcmkl: Kemptville, 113km
At 25C and irrepressibly sunny, today was truly summer-like. I drained 2.25 litres of water on this out-and-back trip punctuated by a delicious if excessive for biking lunch at my father in-law’s. There’s a fine line between burping and barfing. At least I didn’t have beer with lunch.
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Vancity & Anti-gentrification CCAP Protests in DTES: When social economy work gets messy
Vancity is a co-operative [2] bank that has been a long time funder of the Carnegie Community Action Project. On April 13th Vancity released a statement on their stance on CCAP Protests in the DTES. After a lengthy non-committal statement about their stance on housing and the gentrification of the
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Gladue reports must be balanced and objective
R. v. Lawson, 2012 BCCA 508 cites R. v. Blanchard, 2011 YKTC 86 holding: [28] Finally, as a form of pre-sentence report, Gladue reports should be subject to the same general requirements of balance and objectivity as conventional pre-sentence reports. Thus, the writer should attempt to remain
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: 30 groups demand removal of Alberta Energy Regulator chair Gerry Protti
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Over 30 environmental, landowner, labour, rights and First Nation groups have written to Alberta Premier Alison Redford demanding the immediate removal of Gerry Protti, the new chair of the Alberta Energy Regulator. The groups argue that Protti “is not an appropriate choice to head the Alberta government’s Provincial energy regulator.”
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