Friday, January 27, 2012 The record level of public engagement shown in the recent BC government consultations on cosmetic pesticides (8,700 people) shows that democracy is alive and well in BC. Whether you were one of the thousands of people who made their views known in that consultation or not,
Continue readingBuckdog: "Good Bye Charlie Brown"
“Intergenerational tension has yet to erupt into open warfare in Canada, but politicians are keenly aware of the dangers of segmenting the electorate into warring age cohorts. Mention the name Solange Denis in Ottawa, and finance department officials are likely to wince. She is the feisty senior who ambushed Brian
Continue readingRecreating Eden: Love Prevails: Photographs of a Heroic Couple Who Fought Anti-Miscegenation Laws in the US
If discussed Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes with six book clubs now, and one thing that cmes up every time is the astonishment tht marriage between people of African and European descent were forbidden in several US states until the 1960s. The archaic rules have little to do with
Continue readingFestive Left Friday Blogging: Two million and counting!
Ahem. Make that two and a HALF million… And now, the story from Aporrea: At 10:06 this morning, and three months shy of his second anniversary on Twitter, President Hugo Chávez made history as the most-followed head of state on the social network, with two and a half million followers.
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night unplugged
It’s a low key, acoustic set this evening. The opening clip is from Peter Seeger’s Rainbow Quest — Brownie McGhee performing solo on Don’t Pity Me. Lyle Lovett takes the lead on My Baby Don’t Tolerate with backup by John Hiatt, Guy Clark and Joe Ely. At the break, Hiatt
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Friday Night Flicks: The Super List
A surprisingly creepy little film, if you have twelve minutes and thirty seconds to spare. Filed under: Friday Night Flicks Tagged: short films
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Harper’s Pension Bomb
Hey, wasn’t it fun learning the other day from a speech Stephen Harper delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that unspecified “major transformations” are coming to our national pension system? Naïve citizens might have thought a significant issue of this nature affecting the retirement incomes of just
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Mr. Prime Minister, We Are ALL Approaching Retirement Age
On Friday, talking points coming from the Prime Minister’s Office stated that any proposed cuts were still several years away, and wouldn’t affect any Canadians currently approaching retirement age. I guess the question now is–what’s the cut-off date? How old do you have to be today to not get screwed
Continue readingShorter Father Raymond J. de Souza
“Atheist Christopher Hitchens was a nasty man who currently resides in Hell. Pedophile enabler Joe Paterno is now among the angels, and why did everyone pick on him?” If there is a Hell, I hope de Souza is assigned to the warmest corner of it. The look of sheer bewilderment
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: Abuse Reports Culminate In Hair-Raising Assault By Red Onion State Prison Guards
In the following report, Rashid details a vicious racist attack on his person by guards at Red Onion State Prison, which occurred on December 12, 2011. Since this report was written, Rashid’s situation has gotten even worse, as earlier this week he was transferred to Wallens Ridge State Prison (Virginia’s
Continue readingMr.Blue reacts
to 4 days of Obama .gif at top of her pet human’s blog:
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Dan Gardner Sees Hitler In The Swirling Clouds Of Rhetoric
Well, here’s the quote. I think Bob Rae was thinking more along these lines–you know, an Alpine perch being a high place from which one might look down upon the roiling mob and occasionally swoop low and destroy a few of them. Like this, for example. I don’t think Bob had this
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The old nothing could be further from the truth ploy #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Ed Martin from Nalcor and Chris Huskilson from Emera held a news conference in St. John’s on Friday to announce that they will not have a deal on Muskrat Falls finished by the January 31 deadline. They issued a short, joint statement in addition to holding a news conference. Ed
Continue readingkirbycairo: Something is wrong. . . .
I don’t think one needs to be particularly intelligent or insightful to know that something is desperately wrong with capitalist democracy. The system is ailing, there is no doubt about it. Not only is the international capitalist system suffering from problems but
Continue readingArt Threat: Historical truth is in the outtakes – Friday Film Pick: A Film Unfinished
A Film Unfinished (2010, Germany-Israel) had so much festival hype that when I couldn’t get my hands on a screener, I feverishly pre-ordered the film from Amazon – a practice I seldom initiate. When the handsomely designed DVD package arrived I watched it instantly, and as soon as the film
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The old victim ploy #nlpoli #cdnpoli
In a scrum on Friday, Premier Kathy Dunderdale decided to attack the Telegram’s editorial writer. She attacked the paper for things the Friday editorial did not say. For good measure she claimed that she would now suffer further attacks from the newspaper in retaliation for her comments. For anyone who
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Should Representative Plaintiffs Receive More?
A. INTRODUCTION Under the Ontario Class Proceedings Act, 1992 (“CPA”) [1], the Representative Plaintiff (“RP”) is a member of the class that in most instances commits to a bigger responsibility than all other class members. Under section 5(e) of the CPA: (e) there is a representative plaintiff or defendant who,
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Hour of Darkness
Well he said he wanted to change Canada beyond recognition, so I suppose nobody should be surprised. Except he said that long ago, and during the last election campaign he posed as a moderate, so this is outrageous. How dare that twisted little man interpret his mini-majority as a mandate
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Davos Speech
The Prime Minister’s speech at Davos was, I would bet, written by Stephen Harper himself. It bore the stamp of his long standing contempt for the European welfare state. He all but said that the Europeans had brought the crisis on themselves through trying to live beyond their fiscal means: As I
Continue readingImpolitical: The Scottish secession referendum question
Isn’t this a light Friday afternoon blog post? Well, we can’t help what we are interested in and when. Yes, the Scots are having one, in case you have missed this development. It’s a few years away, incredibly, but things are taking shape now. Polly Curtis at the Guardian does
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