On Remembrance Day we do our duty by wearing our poppy, attending a special service and paying homage to all veterans and those serving in the Armed Forces. Little else can generate such passion, as witnessed every November 11. Politicians of all stripes often exploit this emotion, especially when garnering support for war,
Continue readingBarbaric cultural practices
I leave it to readers to determine which side of the bars the savages are on. This book looks like good supplementary study material. [H/t]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Why It’s Better to Know
If you wonder why it’s better to be smart, these smart people spell it out for you in an easy to watch hour and a half of jokes and scientific wonder. Colbert and Tyson banter about everything from Titanic the movie, to how the titanic universe moves.
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Maybe the lack of French acronym was intentional?
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.Hanlon’s Razor I wonder if the lack of a French acronym for the RCAF is not mere incompetence but is intentional. Quebec, where most Canadian French speakers live, is (despite a history of valiant members of the Forces) not very
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Economics, Media and Mass Manipulation
Change is inevitable when the cards are stacked against so many people.
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Which One Of These People Is Unreal?
Put it another way, perhaps: which one has been photoshopped in over the figure of a hapless (and now professionally defunct) Theo Caldwell?
Continue readingknitnut.net: Meet the other Zoom
My sister, Mudmama, is a farmer in Nova Scotia. She and her partner are raising goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits, in addition to children, dogs and cats. And now – insert drum roll here – she has added two sheep to her flock! Not only that, but she named one
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Margaret Wente Does Statistics
…but rather poorly, I’m afraid: If the Justice Bureau’s figures are “the best,” and good enough for Pinker, why does Wente cast doubt on them when a women’s group cites them? She fails to recognize that the data on the AAUW’s website are taken from the Justice Bureau at all…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Missing deadlines #nlpoli
Nalcor and Emera announced on Tuesday that they would miss the November 30 deadline to reach an agreement on building an electricity line between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. They will now take until the end of January 2012 to get it done. But that’s not the only significant deadline they’ve
Continue readingDemocracy costs money
And so it comes to this – amidst talk that we are likely going to get 30 new MPs in the next electoral cycle, the government is talking about cutting MPs budgets to somehow make up for it. But that’s the very last thing that needs to happen. MP office budgets are
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Four Years
Yes, we have been kicking around, and have been kicked around in some circles, for four years now. We know. We’re just as surprised as you are. We plan on spending our birthday eating cake after a nice dinner with friends. Sadly, not everyone’s birthday will be as happy as
Continue readingFive of Five: Alberta Legislature: Scumbags, Holodomor and Property Rights
There was a debate in the Legislature today (29 Nov 2011) regarding landowner property rights. There is no doubt that at least 4 of the bills passed in the Stelmach era went too far by removing basic landowner rights, eliminating public consultation and removing the appeal process. Wildrose MLA Paul
Continue readingAnti-Racist Canada: The ARC Collective: Hey, Want to be Creeped Out?
Sometimes, we just have to share. No lead in really necessary: That’s right ladies. Fugitive Craig Cobb is single and ready to mingle. And, if you aren’t ready for a commitment, Craig appears ready to rent love for a while. We can only assume that he upgraded to a three
Continue readingDavid Climenhaga's Alberta Diary: The Annals of Politics in St. Albert: Hold Page 1! Big city newspaper mocks local Conservative MP!
Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgaber wonders why Rick Mercer got the job, or something. Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Brent Rathgeber as he really appears; Globe founder George Brown. St. ALBERT, Alberta There’s an old saying in politics that goes, “it doesn’t matter what they say
Continue readingCathiefromCanada: Smashy smashy
As disappointed as I was to find out that some of the leading G20 protest leaders I had defended for the last year actually did endorse the juvenile and pointless Black Bloc “smashy smashy” that undermined the credibility of the whole G20 protest movement, I still can also understand why
Continue readingLawrence Martin on Harper’s proto-fascism | #cdnpoli
Under this PM, the state is everywhere – The Globe and Mail: ‘via Blog this’ It doesn’t make up for the fact that it still publishes Wente, but every now and then the Globe manages to do something worthwhile. My only quibble with Martin, other than that he still hasn’t
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Emphasizing neutrality with respect to the progressive/regressive spectrum
Deficit neutral bills are a stalwart tool of the savvy politician. They allow for the sidestepping of the often raucous and partisan debates about the size of government and the size of deficits. With deficit neutral bills, there is a sense to which the policy can be considered on its
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Congress in Action!
While the U.S. economy is verging on the brink of another recession, unemployment is mired at 9% (the actual rate being much higher), multiple wars are still being waged around the world costing billions of dollars per day, and with a national debt of $14 trillion looming ever more forebodingly
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Snoozing, slothful syndicate of political poodles…
At the Rafe Mair birthday celebration last week, we got to hear Rafe tell an anecdote about writing for Ryerson School of Journalism a piece that celebrated free speech, one Ryerson refused to publish. I suspect Rafe got more than a few requests to write the story for the website
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