Safe: Child’s play. Dangerous, may warrant police raids. Conservative priorities are out of whack with reality: according to them, there’s money for fighter jets and prisons we don’t need, but cutting valuable staff from Environment Canada is okay… because there is not enough money? I guess Harper was worried that
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Vic Toews responds to Vikileaks in letter to his riding
Vic Toews is totally right that his personal life ought not to be used for political advantage. And he is totally (even more) right that threats of violence (which I hadn't heard of before his letter) are wrong. Privacy and the knowledge that you have a zone of autonomy in
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: If Stephen Harper Was Still a Libertarian he Would Hate Stephen Harper
There is a great site called 404 Systems Error, that functions much like Wikileaks, though with Canadian content. They have recently posted an old fundraising letter of Stephen Harper’s from 2001, when he was heading up the corporate funded activist group: the National Citizens Coalition. The NCC has always painted themselves
Continue readingFar and Wide: Trust The Media
Some really fascinating discussions coming out of the whole Vic Toews story. What we know or don’t know, what is discussed or buried, seems to boil down to judgement calls, ethical considerations, standards, a whole series of arbitrary decisions based on a pre-determined set of values, which are particular and
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Ford And Facts
Word on the street is that Gary Webster is about to lose his job. His mistake was to cross mayor Rob Ford. Ford is smarting, after city council scuttled his plan to expand Toronto’s subway. Royson James writes in the Toronto Star: Denzil Minnan-Wong. Cesar Palacio. Norm Kelly. Frank Di
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Fascism Spreads To Toronto
Although Canada will likely never see executions for wrong-thinking, the career equivalent of such is very much evident in Toronto, under the benighted ‘leadership’ of Rob Ford and his cabal of retrogressive ‘thinkers’ and Ford loyalists (aka TTC Commissioners Norm Kelly, Vince Crisanti, Frank Di Giorgio, Denzil Minnan-Wong and Cesar
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: A matter of Privilege.
“It’s becoming increasingly evidentthat the Harper Conservatives dislike public accountability,”saidElizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the GreenParty. “They are alreadylimitingdebate in the House on a regular basis, and nowthey intend to make committee business secret. “With their majority muscle, theConservatives can already pass whatever they want in committees. Theyare
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – Christianity Fails at Objective and Moraility
By far the most awesome depiction of christian moral values/struggle – featuring oversimplification, binary thinking and mythical figures . For a group that so often harps on (and on and on) about having access to an – pardon me, “the” – objective moral standard, christians have some pretty outrageous double
Continue readingTrashy's World: Uncle Tony’s…
Parry Sound constituency office. No sign of the greaseball himself, however. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Our government exposes itself
“We will purchase the F-35. We’re on record. We’re part of the crusade. We’re not backing down.” — Julian Fantino, associate minister of national defence, Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 8, 2011. Read more by Michael Byers Critics of a bill that would give law enforcement new powers to access Canadians’
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Skeena Queen Charlotte Says NO To Northern Gateway
They don’t no dirty oil from Alta. befouling their waters. Meanwhile, Enbridge considers a route change. But, as the article suggests, it probably won’t help much. Just a different group of people laying down in front of the tractors. If this thing gets approved, incidentally, I’m may fly out West and chaining myself
Continue readingThe Happy Wanderer: And So Goes the Base!
Romney in 2008 had one very strong allies. That ally was his home state called Michigan he won it by 9%. Granted it wasn’t a complete landslide, but it was one of the only states he did win. Which means that in a race where Romney is the front runner one would assume Michigan would
Continue reading350 or bust: Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
When asked at colleges if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t have the correct data. If you meet the people in this unnamed
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Why Vic Toews Laws are Worse Than Gun Laws
Stephen Harper’s Spying Laws will collect way more info than the Gun Registry ever did. And on ALL Canadians (not just the gun nuts).
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Postmedia, Vikileaks30, and the “Liberal” Media ho
If you doubted the political proclivities of the Postmedia chain, you need look no further for proof than their scurrilous and indefensible coverage of the Vikileaks30 saga. Someone — perhaps an NDP staffer, maybe a Liberal staffer, maybe even (and I favour this explanation) a Conservative one who doesn’t like
Continue readingMusic for a Sunday: Right from the start
I don’t know which is more incredible: the fact that this song is now 30 years old, or that it sounds even better live than it did when I first bought it on vinyl. It’s note-perfect here, and I la-la-la-love it still.
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Bonehead Family Values
Sometimes, we wonder how the boneheads we focus on in this blog can live with the cognitive dissonance that runs throughout their lives? Bill Noble and a case of arrested development. How many diaperswould that guitar have purchased, Bill? Earlier this week, Bill Noble wrote an editorial for what he
Continue readingCathiefromCanada: The stupid, it burns
Who is this incredibly stupid man? …his understanding of the bill is that police can only request information from the ISPs where they are conducting “a specific criminal investigation.”But Section 17 of the ‘Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act’ outlines “exceptional circumstances” under which “any police officer” can ask an
Continue readingThe World Famous Dan Shields: 4245…Lin Sanity Meet Lin Stupidity
In a story first reported by Outsports.com it turns out that the geniuses at ESPN do make the odd mistake. The top sports network in the world dropped a story Friday night about the New York Knick’s Asian sensation Jeremy Lin falling to earth. No problem there. They used the
Continue readingkirbycairo: First Chapter of A Book I wrote. . . .
I am posting chapters from my short, autobiographical novel concerning a year of my childhood in Santa Monica California. They are all very short chapters that can be read in a few minutes. It may be interesting to some, boringly self-indulgent to
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