If you have any faith in government you’re suffering from an affliction, a potentially dangerous malaise. Writing in this month’s Vanity Fair, Todd Purdom addresses the enormous changes underway, some of them quite possiblycivilization ending, none of which our leaders seem to take seriously. Purdom writes of his United States
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The Disaffected Lib: The King In the Car Park – Richard III Lost No More
The deformed skeleton recently discovered in a Leicester car park is indeed the earthly remains of King Richard III. Not just the identity of the man in the car park with the twisted spine, but the appalling last moments and humiliating treatment of the naked body of Richard III in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Democracy Has Been Hacked
In some circles the preferred term is “captured” but Al Gore chooses to argue that American democracy has been hacked by corporatism. Regardless of terminology, he’s right. And it’s a problem that’s not limited to the U.S. either. Offering a blunt assessment of the extent to which private companies influence
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: We Need to Make Decisions Based on What Is, Not What Was.
Canada took the hook on the F-35 almost the same day Harper unpacked his bags at Sussex Drive. That’s roughly the same day Harper & Co. began paving Joint Strike Fighter boulevard with a thick tarmac of lies. We were told the Liberals had chosen the F-35. We were told
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: One Ad You Won’t Be Seeing During Super Bowl and One You Will
Coca Cola and Pepsi weren’t happy with the SodaStream ad that was to have run during the Super Bowl broadcast. And now it’s gone, pulled. Volkswagen seems to have fared better. Even our own Globe & Mail questioned whether the VW ad was perhaps racist. You judge. VW got taken
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What If Sun TV Gets on the Public Gravy Train?
What if the CRTC allows FOX North Sun TV a reserved seat at the cablevision banquet table? Does that mean a start-up progressive TV outlet would be entitled to the same consideration? If you’re going to indulge a partisan agit-prop outlet for the far right, on what basis should the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Remembering Peter
Here on the coast we’re gearing up to fight the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan bitumen pipeline threats. It’s pretty obvious that, Conservative, New Democrat or Liberal, we’ll be standing against Ottawa on this. The Tar Sands are an abomination to Canada and Alberta in particular and a sad reflection
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Parting Thoughts from Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu
Excerpts from a letter by outgoing Obama energy secretary, Steven Chu, to employees of the Department of Energy. “The average temperature of our planet is rising, with majority of the temperature increase occurring in the last thirty years. During the three decades from 1980 to 2011, the number of violent
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: C’Mon, Show of Hands. Who Watched the Debate?
If being underwhelming would attract votes, the Liberal Party would be in for a huge majority in the next election. Then again, if they could win elections by courting Bay Street instead of Main Street, they would also be a shoo-in. Although I’ve left the Party I actually watched what
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Fractional Prime Minister
Surely any responsible policy making process requires that all relevant circumstances be considered. If you omit an important factor then you might come to a false assessment, perhaps even dangerously wrong. Yet time and again Steve Harper shows that excluding relevant factors is essential to his policy making. There’s a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: In Britain, They’re Betting on Extinction
British betting shop, Ladbrokes, is taking bets on the extinction of certain fish stocks. The gambling company Ladbrokes has been offering odds on the conservation status of various fish species. Earlier in the week it was taking bets on mackerel after it was taken off conservationists’ “fish to eat” list
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: If Only There Was a Way
Imagine how the world would be different today if our political leadership was liable to criminal sanctions for willful dereliction of duty causing harm to the public. We do it for others, why not those who, in our name, are entrusted with the ultimate levers of power? There is a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Would You Like Yourself, Roasted, Toasted, Fried or Grilled?
“And to Monsieur Harper, I Can Only Say This” Oh so conservative head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Legard, says the world is staring down the double barrels of climate change and resource scarcity. She just couldn’t get much more blunt and to the point in her comments at
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Must-Read Posts Today
If you want to understand what we’re up against in resisting the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan plans, you must read Ray Grigg’s expose on Harper in the Common Sense Canadian. The bastard we have as a prime minister is plainly diabolical and ready, willing and able to inflict harm
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Chuck Hagel Knows
Obama’s Republican nominee for Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel, is getting mauled in his confirmation hearings by his former colleagues like Ol’ Grumpy (John McCain). Obama has praised Hagel as a Vietnam combat veteran today’s soldiers can follow. Hagel was an outspoken critic of Bush’s war on Iraq (although he reluctantly
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Today in Sarah Palin News
By now you probably know that Sarah Palin’s 3-year gig at FOX News is over. Seems she’s now been consigned to GlennBeckistan. But luminaries like Palin don’t “just fade away” like old generals. No, their passing is the subject of much observation and reflection. For example, AlterNet did a retrospective
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Mental Illness of Canada’s Parliament
Anyone who believes that selling the world’s most carbon-intensive petroleum is a good thing must embrace certain irrational beliefs or suffer the pangs of cognitive dissonance. They must have some ability to disconnect the impacts of bitumen from the climate change that is already setting in around the world. Would
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: It’s Always the Same Even for the F-35
History is rich with accounts of novel weaponry breakthroughs that changed the battlefield forever, failed miserably, or fell somewhere in between. Regardless of the outcome it seems that, whenever the next big thing comes along, somebody will inevitably take a long bet on it working. The promise routinely seems far
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Israel on Notice – Remove Settlements or Face Justice
The United Nations Human Rights Council has told Israel to remove all settlements from the occupied West Bank or else be prepared to be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for violations of the Geneva Conventions. In other words, get out or stand as an outlaw country, a criminal state.
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