Not given to monomania, I really hope that at some point in the (perhaps distant) future, I will be able to completely move on from commenting about police misdeeds. It’s just that I have a real thing against the abuse of authority, and every time the…
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Politics and its Discontents: Let’s Hope We Never Sink To This Level
While the Harper government is no stranger to fear-mongering, its tactics look both brilliant and subtle compared to the the following two American political ads:Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyser…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Police Embarrassment
I really take no pleasure in reading about police who are charged with crimes. Sadly, that kind of misbehavior, which seems to be alarmingly on the increase, reflects badly on all officers, which is patently unfair. Nonetheless, it is crucial that we …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Voice of Integrity: Munir Sheikh
Those not seduced by the siren call of simplicity promoted by the Harper government will be pleased to learn that Munir Sheikh, the former head of Statistics Canada who resigned his post rather than give his stamp of approval to the Tory elimination of…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Unions’ Self-Inflicted Problems
Allow me to be unequivocal from the start: I am a strong believer in unions as virtually the only effective means of countering the depredations that employers would inflict upon their workers if given the opportunity. However, I also believe that in …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Power of the People
Despite our almost legendary passivity as a people, one small part of Canada is offering an example of what can happen when citizens shed the mantle of political disengagement that our politicians have long cultivated and counted on in order to push t…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What is Mesothelioma? A Question I Am Sure The Harpur Government Well Knows The Answer To
Think of Stephen Harper and his minions when you watch this video. He and his government are directly responsible for cases of this dread disease in developing countries such as India.Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threa…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Forbidden Tory Video Available Here
Thanks to Impolitical for the link to this video:Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Scourge of Phantom Crime
Readers of this blog may know that I place a great deal of stock in critical thinking. Although I am sure that I stray from it on a regular basis, to be a consistent critical thinker is the ideal toward which I strive. It is therefore disheartening, …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Reminder to My MP
I am a great believer in holding our politicians to account. Even though they may prove to be ultimately meaningless gestures, letters to our elected representatives at the very least remind them that their opposition is not simply going to give up an…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Ford Gang Stays True To Form
Although I don’t live in Toronto, it has become an object of fascination for me since the election of Mayor Rob and Doug Ford. Within their fiefdom resides a psychology that provides fascinating examples of and insights into the darker aspects of huma…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Lest We Forget Those Who Die For Canada’s Economy
Although the following video was made to protect B.C. workers, perhaps it could be included as a warning to all the unprotected workers who are exposed to the asbestos that Stephen Harper refuses to stop exporting to countries such as India, insisting …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Taxpayers Versus Citizens
It probably doesn’t take a genius to understand the basic philosophical and fiscal difference between the moderate and the right-wing is that the moderate recognizes the needs of the collective, i.e., the entire society, while the right-wing gives prec…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Score Another One For Rick Salutin
Consistently able to ‘think outside the box’ of the current North American mindset, Rick Salutin, one of my favorite critical thinkers, has a column in today’s Star well-worth perusal. Entitled The sector that dares not speak its name, the thesis of hi…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Willful Ignorance in the Ford Administration
Toronto Mayors Rob and Doug Ford and their minions, like so many of the extreme right, tend not to let facts, reason, and data interfere with the purity of their ideological vision. Someone who describes city employees as ‘the gravy’ and denies that e…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tell People In the Maldives That Climate-Change Is A Hoax
In a story that even the most unthinking extreme right-winger would find hard to refute, The Star today reports that the world’s lowest country is sinking under rising water levels. Entitled People forced to move as world’s lowest country sinks unde…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Memo From Mohawk College On How To Become A Scab
All of my adult life, I have had nothing but absolute contempt for scabs, or, as these more sensitive times refer them, ‘replacement workers’. Whether crossing a picket line to work inside an operation that has been struck to pick up some extra cash, …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What We Can Accomplish When We Work Together
While the gospel of the right-wing extols selfish individualism in which we worry only about our own well-being, this video of a dramatic rescue by a group of ordinary citizens shows up what we can accomplish together:Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Christopher Hume On Ignorance
As usual, The Toronto Star seems replete with thought-provoking articles and ideas. In a column by Christopher Hume entitled, If ignorance is no excuse, how do leaders manage to get elected? published yesterday, Hume reflects on the current crop of p…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Time For A War On Error
Although I rarely reprint items from the newspaper in their entirety on this blog, occasionally someone says something so succinct and insightful that I can’t resist. Roman Haluszka from Newmarket has the lead letter in today’s Star that underscores t…
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