I wrote the following specifically for a conversation in a Facebook group, but I suspect that conversation might be deleted and I thought I’d like to share these thoughts here: The Yellow Vest mission statement there and the conversation here has gotten me thinking about coded language. When do words
Continue readingAuthor: Christy Knockleby
politics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Reflections on reading a book about Richard the Lionheart
Whenever I read a book, I try to spend a bit of time reflecting on it. I try to choose the most important details of it to retell to myself, so I remember them. I try to think of what I’ve learned from it. Today I’m reflecting on the book
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Today’s Personal Epistemological Crisis
Today I’m having my own little epistemological crisis. My inspiration for these thoughts are a New York Times article talking about a theory on the recent pipe bombs sent to Democrats. The New York Times reported on this theory: The bombs, this theory went, were not actually part of a
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Searching for Justice and Equality in Ancient Times
One of the classes I’m teaching these days is a secular Bible study class. I treat the Bible like a work of literature. We discuss the different historical periods and the theologies within the Bible, but I’m not trying to convert them. I use the textbooks I had from university
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Terrorist Activities Sanctions Act – or how to pick a fight with Trudeau and put Ontario health care at risk?
All citizens and permanent residents in Canada are entitled to health care, as set out by the Canada Health Care Act. Now the Conservative Provincial government in Ontario wants to pick a fight with Trudeau by having a bill tabled that would strip such rights away from the least desirable
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Thoughts on Terri-Lynne McClintic being transfered to a healing lodge
There is a fair amount in the news these days about human trafficking, and how it doesn’t always look like someone being grabbed on the street and handcuffed. Most of the time there is grooming involved, where vulnerable women get seduced by older men and then pressured into bad actions.
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: A Slap in the Face
Brett Kavanaugh was right in saying that the whole investigation into him is a national disgrace. He’s wrong about why it is a national disgrace. It is a national disgrace that they didn’t abandon him long ago and find someone else. Surely there are other judges with similar political views they
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Nellie McClung and the challenge of history
Up until a few weeks ago, if I was asked my impression of Nellie McClung I probably would have said “oh, she was that suffragette, right? The one people say was racist and supported eugenics?” I started reading about Nellie McClung this past few weeks. I’ll still a newcomer to
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: more reflections on free speech
I’m still slowly reading a big book about 17th century arguments for and against religious tolerance. It is called John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture by John Marshall. I’m really not used to being stuck in the middle of one book for this long, but it seems like the
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: free speech and fair play
I’ve been fascinated by discussions of free speech recently. Now even a right-wing American group has decided to uninvite a horrid right-wing troll from speaking at their event. The topic of his speech was supposed free speech and how the left is trying to curtail it, but apparently since it
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: recognizing racism in Northern Ontario
So there’s a story around here about a company promoting ice huts that said in their ad: “Please no status card users! You are not welcome in our huts. Equality for all or you will not get the time of day from us and will lose any deposit paid to
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: December 6th – day of mourning for victims of men’s violence against women.
Today is December 6th. In Canada we remember the women killed this year in a massacre at École Polytechnique. Women were killed because they were women seeking training and jobs in a field that a deranged man considered to be the territory of men. I think about when I was
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: responding to those who voted for Trump
I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions of what it means to vote for Trump and who the Trump supporters are. I’ve seen lots of posts about how Trump won because he spoke to the working class, and the working class wants change and human dignity. There are some
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Optimism vs Hope
I’m thinking about the difference between optimism and hope. One can be optimistic because one believes things will go well. In some cases optimism is good and natural. However optimism can also be due to a lack of information about the potential problems or because one deliberately rejects the facts that
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: the day after the American election
I started blogging right after Stephen Harper was re-elected. Back then my blog was called “Another Step to Take…” I was sitting in shock, staring at election results, and feeling horrified that Canada could re-elect someone so blatantly bad. I had been out knocking on doors during the election. I
Continue readingpolitics – Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Gretta Vosper and the atheist church
Gretta Vosper is a minister in the United Church of Canada, at least for now. A committee in Toronto has recommended that she not be allowed to continue as a minister, given her statements that she does not believe in God or call herself a Christian. The United Church, of which I am a part, is a church that recognizes that people’s understanding of theology changes. When someone says they don’t believe in God, the reaction is not necessarily shock as much as the question “what God is it you don’t believe in?” There is space a lot of space between believing Continue reading →
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Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos » politics: politics in Gulliver’s Travels
I’m reading Gulliver’s Travels again right now and wanted to share this excerpt from when Gulliver is explaining about British government to the king of the giants: He then desired to know, what Arts were practiced in electing those whom I called Commoners. Whether, a Stranger with a strong Purse might not influence the vulgar Voters to chuse him before their own Landlord, or the most considerable Gentlemen in the Neighborhood. How it came to pass, that People were so violently bent upon getting into this assembly, which I allowed to be a great Trouble and Expense, often to the Continue reading →
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Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos » politics: reading 18th century history, reflecting on today
I’ve been reading about various wars in North America during the 1700s. Several things stand out to me. One is the idea that the governments were not able to control their people. Native elders were not able to prevent individual or small groups of native warriors from going off and killing colonists, and the colonists were unable to prevent individuals from going off and killing natives. The acts of individuals were then used to justify the acts of more individuals and of governments. The second thing is that the elites were manipulating everyone into war. Before the American Revolution, the Continue reading →
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Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos » politics: staying involved in activism while focusing on the homeschooling
The election is over and I am trying to think again about how I can be involved in making change in the world. I would like to be involved in one of the local organizations but I cannot see that happening right now. I withdrew from the anti-poverty organization I
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos » politics: PMOs office vetting refugees – not a good idea.
(The following is a guest post by my husband, James. –Christy) When I first heard this morning about the PMOs office “vetting” refugee claimants from Syria, I was struck by how much of their information was being passed around the bureaucracy, as indicated by the Globe and Mail story. “The
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