Organizations have done such a bad job of explaining Covid to the public over the last almost four years, that it will be difficult to ever get mitigations back in place. Research director with a PhD in education, Dr. Sean Mullen said incredulously, “They said herd immunity would work. Then hybrid
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Before the Fall.
Last Friday (September 22) there was a large picture above the fold of the front page of the Toronto Star. It was captioned: ‘It was a mistake’. It was a picture of a steely-eyed, stony-faced Ontario premier Doug Ford. This was not a picture of a contrite and apologetic premier.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: My latest: kick the Nazi out
They weren’t an army division. They were actually a criminal organization. That was what the Nuremberg Trials called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS: Criminals, not soldiers, who found themself in the spotlight on Parliament Hill on Friday when former 14th Waffen member Yaroslav Hunka was invited to
Continue readingIn This Corner: Grandfatherhood: The final frontier
So, I’ve got big news. I think. I’m going to be a grandfather for the first time. Congratulations, people tell me. Um, sure, I say. Don’t get me wrong. I am delighted that my youngest son and his towering bride (seriously, the girl is at least seven feet tall) have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Bruce Arthur discusses how last week’s rallies for bigotry are reflective of a broader social illness which is being encouraged by right-wing parties and politicians. And Charlie Angus writes about his experience on the receiving end of violent authoritarian rhetoric and personal threats.
Continue readingHalf an Hour: Making AWS S3 Files Publicly Accessible
I stored some images in S3 but couldn’t use them; if I tried to follow the link, I would get ‘permission denied’ errors. AWS documentation is a nightmare, so I’m putting the answer here, so I can find it again. S3 contents are stored in ‘buckets’. Each bucket has a
Continue readingHalf an Hour: Setting Up Auto-Update for Let’s Encrypt
Sometimes when you follow the instructions to set up a web server (for example, a PeerTube installation, or OnlyOffice installation) they show you how to set up Let’s Encrypt so you can get SSL (ie., so your pages run on secure HTTPS) but not how to make sure the SSL
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The $334 Billion Assumption or Why Smith’s APP is a Non-Starter
Well that inspires confidence. When LifeWorks respectfully submitted its report to the Smith government outlining how Alberta could move from CPP to an Alberta Pension Plan, the executive summary was signed by someone who preferred to remain anonymous, hence their signature was “Redacted to protect privacy.” Perhaps Anonymous was
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Legal Tweet of the Day: September 25, 2023
Nebraska Mother Who Gave Abortion Pills to Teen Daughter Gets 2 Years in Prison #law #legal #lawtwitter via @nytimes https://tinyurl.com/mutnf2fw – Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net Visit our website: www.wiselaw.net
Continue readingA Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land: The far right and its enablers are lying to you
It’s pretty clear that a lot of people don’t understand the way that more extreme elements on the right try to build support for their agenda of harm and violence and a base to pursue it by organizing things like the anti-queer/anti-trans actions across the country last week and the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not In A Forgiving Mood
As I wrote in my previous post, I am not in a forgiving mood, now that Doug Ford, in order to desperately try to salvage his and his government’s reputation, has promised to restore and never again touch the Greenbelt. Judging by a flurry of letters appearing in the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government
I have been thinking about what a non-political from of representative government might look like and whether it could be considered democratic or not. One model came to mind, a Council One Hundred that would set policy, provide Cabinet Ministers and oversee the government administration. With 50 peoples representatives chosen
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Organized hate groups on our streets
Gonzaga University is often recognized for basketball, but the 135-year-old Spokane institution is also known for academic initiatives. One is the Journal of Hate Studies, an annual peer-reviewed publication by Gonzaga’s Center for the Study of Hate. Fomenting prejudice or hostility against others is worth attention today after organized hate groups
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Wise Law’s Top 10 Law Tweets for the Week of September 25, 2023
– Garry J. Wise, Toronto Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net Visit our website: www.wiselaw.net
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Dancing To A Madman’s Tune
Donald Trump just skipped the second Republican debate. He figures the nomination is in the bag. E.J. Dionne explains what is happening: Trump wants his foes to stay weak. By not showing up, he reduces them to squabbling bit players trying to bring each other down while the major contenders
Continue readingWise Law Blog: Wise Law’s Legal Headlines for the week of September 25, 2023
Here are our leading legal headlines for the week of September 25, 2023 from Wise Law on Twitter: Recent violence on Toronto transit ‘indicative of something larger’: TTC Ontario court dismisses sex workers’ Charter challenge Calgary pastor gets 60-day sentence for role in Coutts border blockade, but judge gives credit for
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – Eva Kurilova on “Queering Children”
Commonsense at its finest.
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay : Reforming Voting II.
The following item was missed by a large number of our readers who access BabelontheBay.com through Progressive Bloggers. It is a subject on which I would really appreciate some comments. Please have at it. It seems that too often we are looking at voting methods instead of examining the entire
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Rwanda is the ‘Wild West’ and should be removed from the mineral supply chain
Diggers at an entrance to a cassiterite mine in South Kivu, eastern Congo, 2015. Photo by Phil Hatcher-Moore. Mark Twain, who wrote about thieves and conmen in America’s “Wild West,” famously said that a mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top. If there is any
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Known Knowns and Known Unknowns
On May 27, 2022 , we heard the simplest possible explanation of what Covid does to our bodies and how to prevent the spread, but we gave a finger to that information in favour of business as usual. Change is hard. Between the time the CDC told people to unmask
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