A little ditty thata may make you smile: The You Can’t Fight City Hall Blues
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Out of This World – What Does Walt Natynczyk Have That Canada Needs for Space?
In my humble opinion, no Canadian general directly associated with the fiasco of our war in Afghanistan should be a candidate for government perks. That’s certainly true for Rick Hiller who, by all accounts misled then prime minister Martin, into approving Canada’s shoestring Kandahar combat caper. It should likewise hold
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: A Happy Day After Fathers’ Day
Richard Hughes-Fortunate Old Coot Well I am a fortunate old coot in many ways. Yesterday I spent most of the day playing around in the garden. That is always the sign of a good day. My raised beds are all fully planted and so my son Jeff rolled down six
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Wordly Philosopher
This is the title of a recently published biography of Albert Hirschmam by Jeremy Adelman, a Canadian who teaches history at Princeton University. Hirschman’s life as an economist – which spanned so much of the 20th century – is worth learning about for it makes us think hard about what
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: When He’s Not Kissing Ass, He’s Kicking Ass – It’s the Only Game Harper Knows
He used to lambaste the Chinese – before he became Beijing’s bitumen bumboy – but Sideshow Steve Harper has shown he still has game when it comes to Russia and Vlad Putin. On the eve of the G8 summit, Steve has denounced Putin for backing “the thugs of the Assad
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: David Suzuki On Harper’s Contempt For Democracy
David Suzuki has a thought-provoking essay in today’s Globe and Mail that also serves as an excellent precis of some of the things the Harper government would like us to forget, including its promotion of ignorance/contempt for factual data, its demonization of environmentalists, it arrant hypocrisy, and its general contempt
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Chinese Dissident Says We’re Becoming Just Like Them
Chinese artist and persecuted dissident, Ai Weiwei, has an interesting take on the U.S. NSA Prism scandal in today’s Guardian in which he says America is behaving like China. I lived in the United States for 12 years. This abuse of state power goes totally against my understanding of what
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Syria: Showdown time between the West and Putin
High noon at 10 Downing Street Politicians are becoming more graphic in their descriptions of the warring sides in the Syrian civil war, with the latest spat leading to a shortened meeting between Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK and Russia’s Putin: Talks on the crisis in Syria between
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The More Things Change….
Back in the mid-70’s I managed to snag a quick interview with the head prosecutor of the Quebec crime commission while the fellow was in Ottawa. I thought I’d hit him with a “gotcha” question. I mentioned something about how, outside Quebec, Canadians had a perception that Quebec politics were
Continue readingThe Moncton Times@Transcript - Good and Bad: June 17: sometimes, it’s hard to know what to say…
In my early days of TV, I knew a producer at the station who was sent to cover a strike. When he got there, nothing was happening. The strkers were sitting around quietly, having coffee, chatting….. This was not going to make exciting television. So the producer stirred them, got
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Former CPC candidate Saulie Zajdel arrested — what does this say about PMSH?
You remember Bruce Carson, a [former] top adviser to PMSH? And, then there was that $90K cheque from PMSH’s right-hand man, Nigel Wright, to Mike Duffy… Well, now there’s Saulie Zajdel… you remember Saulie Zajdel, right? Saulie Zajdel was arrested this morning by Sûreté de Québec and faces five charges,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Why Canada Should be Wary of U.S. Missile Defence
There has been talk that Ottawa might jump aboard the U.S. missile defence programme out of fear of a rogue missile launch from North Korea. Before we do, let’s make sure it works. There are plenty of dirt cheap reasons to think otherwise. America’s hyper-expensive missile interceptors (does that sound
Continue readingThings Are Good: Organic Farming is Better than Factory Farming for Carbon Capture
It turns out that not only is eating organic food better for you than processed foods, growing organic food is better for everyone. Organic farms (and likely home gardens) are better at capturing and retaining carbon than farms that are focused on mass production. Last year, researchers reexamined all 74
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 6152…Aislin Salutes Applebaum
And, presumably, all past and future mayors of Montreal. WFDS
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canadian Medical Students Condemn Conservatives’ Refugee Health Cuts
The Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) and the Fédération médicale étudiante du Québec (FMEQ), condemn the federal government’s cuts to essential health services for refugees. This press release: OTTAWA, June 17, 2013 – On June 17th, 2013, National Day of Action Against Refugee Health Cuts, the Canadian Federation of Medical Students
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Beer and popcorn boy is heard from
I was up at the cabin all weekend, attending to more important matters. So I didn’t hear about Scott Reid’s attack on Jean Chretien in the Ottawa Citizen until I got back. I won’t link to it. It’s a piece of shit, and what you’d expect. Here, however, is just
Continue readingcartoon life: Blown through
Sometimes, it’s not clear what its about. Pen & Ink app has come out with an update and some new brushes. Filed under: art Tagged: art, Cat, dissolve
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 6151…MTL Tory Gets Busted With Mayor
I am cherry picking from The Globe and Mail this morning but it is being widely reported that Saulie Zajdel, who “…unsuccessfully ran as a Conservative candidate against Liberal Irwin Cotler in the 2011 election…[and]…then acted as a ‘shadow MP’ working to undermine him [Cotler] while he had a job as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Look good and lie a lot: Tory Action Plan.
It is good to hear that some think tanks are taking a hard look at the Conservative government’s Economic Action Plan. They act surprised. What seems to puzzle the academics is that the Conservatives are spending more taxpayers’ money on the advertising than they are on the programs. Those of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Thomas Walkom, Dan Leger and Michael Harris write about the sketchy surveillance programs in place on both sides of the 49th parallel. But there may be an opportunity to make common cause with the 1% in criticizing constant intrusion on personal privacy, as
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