Remember when Barack Obama was elected, how international media declared that racism in the US had been vanquished? How academics and pundits started using the term “post-racial” to describe US culture? Was that before or after the tea-partiers paraded around with pictures of monkeys and openly called for assassination? Before
Continue readingAuthor: laura k
wmtc: update: buddha is certified, fundraising is nearing goal
I have great news. Buddha, the dog adopted by Jeremy and Ashlea Brockway, is now an officially certified PTSD Service Dog! And we have raised slightly more than $6,000 towards our goal of $8,000. Thank you to everyone who made this possible! Jeremy writes this about the certification and adoption.
Continue readingwmtc: now at summerworks in toronto: the hearing of jeremy hinzman
If you’re in Toronto, you have a unique opportunity to hear the voices of war resisters as you have never heard them before. The Foundry Theatre Company has taken the transcripts of Jeremy Hinzman’s hearings before the Immigration and Refugee Board, and statements by members of the War Resisters Support
Continue readingwmtc: deadline to comment on northern gateway pipeline is august 31: add your voice to the opposition
Please watch this beautiful video from Pacific Wild, featuring former NHL goalie (and Hall-of-Famer) Mike Richter, and more importantly, featuring the Spirit Bear Coast. In less than four minutes, you will understand the utter madness of bringing an oil pipeline and supertankers to this area. Madness, that is, unless you’re
Continue readingwmtc: immigration lawyers to jason kenney: your attempt to intimidate us is "reprehensible" and "we will not succumb"
This story is a bit dated, but many people may have missed it. You may recall that a few months back, Conrad Black, a convicted felon who renounced his Canadian citizenship, received a temporary resident permit from the CIC. This allowed Black to enter and live in Canada despite his
Continue readingwmtc: we should all miss gore vidal
I’ve been looking for some fitting tribute to Gore Vidal, who died last week at age 86, to post here. The internet is full of Vidal’s aphorisms and his cutting wit, but those are the easiest and least meaningful tributes. Vidal was a great thinker, and a great writer, with
Continue readingwmtc: montreal and massachusetts, polar opposites on animal welfare: please take action
This post is a classic case of “Which do you want first, the bad news or the good news?” But unfortunately for dogs and the people who love them, this is no joke. Last week, a dog named Wicca was put to death in Montreal. I was too upset to
Continue readingwmtc: we like lists: list # 16: conformity and its discontents
Allan is in the midst of a giant Stephen King reading and writing project, and in honour of that, I’m reading my first ever book by Stephen King. From this post, I was moved to read the novella The Body (which was adapted into the movie “Stand By Me”). Allan’s
Continue readingwmtc: how prisons work, by brian mcfadden
Don’t forget to visit Big Fat Whale for more McFadden funnies. Even better, subscribe to his feed in the New York Times‘ Sunday Review: The Strip.
Continue readingwmtc: please sign daniel ellsberg’s petition to free bradley manning
Daniel Ellsberg, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Bradley Manning Support Network are asking for our help. Please sign the petition to free Bradley Manning, and share it as widely as you can.
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2012 program notes: the 1965 postal workers strike
One of the best talks I attended at this year’s Marxism Conference was given by my friend Pam Johnson. I know little about Canadian labour history; my knowledge of labour struggles is mostly about the US. Learning about the 1965 postal workers strike was thrilling, both in the discovery of
Continue readingwmtc: what is it about love?
I was looking my dogs, thinking about how each came into our lives. How one day a dog is living in a shelter, and that’s its pack and its life, and then one day it is put in a car and taken somewhere else, and now it has a new
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: extremism normalized
Revolutionary thought of the day: Remember when, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, the Patriot Act was controversial, held up as the symbolic face of Bush/Cheney radicalism and widely lamented as a threat to core American liberties and restraints on federal surveillance and detention powers? Yet now, the Patriot
Continue readingwmtc: we like lists: list # 16: five things going on with me
I did this once before – turns out it was about a year ago – and although not many people participated, it made for good conversation and helped me get caught up with some friends. So why not? I still prefer posting about my life here as opposed to Facebook.
Continue readingwmtc: memo to rcmp and csis: it’s not the environmentalists who are radical. it’s the harper government.
CBC reports that a heavily censored, declassified report obtained by the Canadian Press shows that the RCMP (with input from CSIS and the CBSA) have issued warnings about the supposedly growing threat of radical environmentalism in Canada. Isn’t that convenient. With the Harper Government branding everyone who opposes their anti-environment,
Continue readingwmtc: ten years too long: bring omar khadr back to canada
Today marks 10 years since Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, then 15 years old, was picked up in Afghanistan. For an entire decade, he has lived in prison, first in Bagram, then in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. He lives in solitary confinement, which is recognized internationally as a
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: further thoughts on ralph ellison’s invisible man
Before reading Invisible Man, I thought the book’s title referred to the invisibility of black men in white society, but it turns out I was mistaken. Ellison didn’t call his masterpiece “Invisible Men“. The titular Man refers to a man – an individual, a person, a human being with a
Continue readingwmtc: tom davis deanimated at age 59
I’ve just learned of the untimely passing of a very funny man. Those of us old enough to remember the brilliant and subversive “The Franken and Davis Show” bits on the old Saturday Night Live may have sometimes wondered what happened to Al Franken’s less famous partner. Tom Davis died
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: the how to guide for understanding rioting negroes
Revolutionary Thought of the Day: the KFC Double Down is a plot against white America. The Negro Rioting Plan that’s been put in place is a terribly complicated strategy that has taken hundreds of thousands of Negroes to plan and thousands of years to come together. Sleeper agents, technological advances
Continue readingwmtc: olympics. not.
The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics kick off today, with Opening Ceremonies that are supposed to be completely over-the-top. With a £27 million price tag ($42.5 million Canadian) for those three hours alone, they ought to be. We’re told that one billion people worldwide will watch the Opening Ceremonies. I
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