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Continue readingAuthor: Shawn Whitney
RedBedHead: Israel Blind To Its Own Isolation
I wrote less than two weeks ago that Israel was in an accelerating decline as a result of changed geopolitical realities in the Middle East, most recently and acutely the Arab Spring. That Arab Spring is now in the throes of a 2.0 reawakening and reconstitution of last year’s settlements,
Continue readingRedBedHead: Gaza & The Not So Slow Decline Of Israel
Not alone any more: Egyptian protestors in Tahrir last year In some ways what just went down in Gaza was business as usual. Israel provoked a mini-war with Gaza killing a leading Hamas politician (who was, in fact, the chief negotiator for a long term ceasefire with Israel) after engaging
Continue readingRedBedHead: Canadians Don’t Trust Canada
Sao Paolo, Brazil – 140 people have died in the last two weeks in battles between police and inner-city gangs. Be hard to be held in lower esteem. This was an interesting poll in The Globe and Mail this morning. It seems that out of 26 countries in both hemispheres of the
Continue readingRedBedHead: Joy At Republican Humiliation Shouldn’t Make Us Forget The Choices Sucked
I was in a bar/restaurant near my house on election night, trying to get some work done and watching the results come in. At first it seemed like a nail-biter (though I was convinced that it would be a fairly easy sweep for Obama) and people were texting and Facebooking
Continue readingRedBedHead: Rob Ford Isnt The Mayor, He’s A Reality TV Show
Cue circus music: “It’s the Rob Ford Show” OK, OK, I get the joke now. For most of the last two years I’ve watched in horror as our metropolis was being run like a bingo game for compulsive cheaters. It was bad enough that his raison d’etre seemed to be
Continue readingRedBedHead: Why Are The Tories Pushing Canada Into Recession?
Remember how the Tories are the party you want to vote for in tough economic times because they’re great managers and willing to make the tough decisions? Remember all that stuff? Yeah, well, the Tories are poking holes in the Canadian economy faster than the rest of us can bail.
Continue readingRedBedHead: Arab Revolutions Put Iran Attack On Back Foot
There can be little doubt that the Arab revolutions have already transformed the Middle East and look set to continue and deepen that transformation. Dictators in Tunisia, Yemen and, most spectacularly thus far, Egypt have gotten the boot. In Tunisia and Egypt the working class played a sizeable role in
Continue readingRedBedHead: Obama’s Betrayals Made Romney Credible
Everybody’s biting their nails and holding their breath. What’s going to happen? Who’s going to win? The “Hollywood liberal” machine is out in full force with clever ads by luminaries like Joss Whedon of Avengers, Buffy and Firefly fame and hipster filmmaker Lena Dunham chiming in. There’s no doubt that
Continue readingRedBedHead: Out With Unions, In With Coercive Voting
Way back in the bad old days there was a system of economic organization, particularly amongst rural, isolated resource workers, known as paternalism. The idea was that it was a sort of noblesse oblige, the idea that underlings obeyed their “betters” and the elite treated their workers as their children.
Continue readingRedBedHead: Prometheus: Big Ideas Made Dull
$130 million and all you can come up with is that we were created by muscular white dudes with waxed chests? Let’s keep this quick and painless and cut straight to the point: the $16 I spent to see Prometheus in 3D (and, sorry Andrew, I dragged you into a
Continue readingRedBedHead: Is Gun Control Debate Missing The Point?
The brutal and tragic killing of 12 people in a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado has raised the thorny issue of gun control in an election year. Not surprisingly both Obama and Romney, fearful of being targeted the politically powerful National Rifle Association have dodged the issue and stated that
Continue readingRedBedHead: Spain & The Madness of Europe
There’s a saying that defines madness as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. By that criteria, it’s clear that the European Union’s response to the long and painful crisis unfolding on that continent is utterly and completely mad. With the appearance a few years ago
Continue readingRedBedHead: Mayor Ford Is Mad. Mean Mad. And, Oh Yeah, A Racist.
I’m mad, really mad! Mayor Ford wants to clarify his comments from the other day, following the tragic shooting in Scarborough. Here’s what he said at the time: Asked how he planned to force gangsters out of Toronto, Mr. Ford said: “I don’t know and that’s what I’m going to sit
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Syrian Endgame: Bye Bye Bashar?
Who won’t celebrate the (probably nasty) end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria? This is a regime that has suppressed pretty much all forms of internal dissent and democratic participation and ruled with an iron fist for the better part of the last 40 years. There are no independent trade
Continue readingRedBedHead: Tory Terrorists More Dangerous Than Child Pornographers
The Tories’ “Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act” has more to do with suppressing dissent than with stopping child pornographers. I mean, where is the evidence that child pornography is such a major problem that it requires the introduction of a piece of legislation that is a serious intrusion into
Continue readingRedBedHead: Apple’s $98 Billion Is Blood Money
There’s a lot of hand-waving around Apple’s use of sweat shop labour in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook is offended and outraged by the mere suggestion that Apple engages in poor labour practices. And now they’ve sent the “Fair Labor Association” into Foxconn to perform an “audit” of labour practices
Continue readingRedBedHead: [VIDEO] Egyptian Journalist & Blogger Hossam El-Hamalawy On Workers & Egypt’s Revolution
This is an excellent talk on the role of workers in the ongoing Egyptian revolution and the state of the revolutionary struggle in Egypt today. Fascinating, inspiring – and sobering – stuff.
Continue readingRedBedHead: Arab Dictatorships Want To Kill Syrian Revolution
The first thing that has to be said is that the Syrian people are bravely resisting and suffering under – first and foremost – the brutal Syrian regime. But the second thing that must be added is that they are suffering a second misery, which is to be the pawns
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