It’s good, it’s very good. It hits all key points that it needs to, and there’s little in there I can find fault with. I especially like the primaries idea. It’s a tad idealistic but, hey, that’s the business we’re in.However, Paper Dynamite Online’s P…
Continue readingDr Vandana Shiva: No More Food Dictatorships
Dr Shiva speaking on food labelling at the Right To Know rally in front of the White House on October 16 World Food Day: "The onus just can’t be on the organic movement,it must be on the polluters,contaminators, and toxic drug pushers in our food system" I couldn’t agree more but then I seldom if ever disagree with Dr. Shiva
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Hints of the Rae Revolution in Bob’s comments
Finally, a breath of fresh air seems to be blowing through the Liberal Party. With one speech, Bob Rae has thrown down the gauntlet to our party, daring us to think outside the nine dots, and to prune where pruning is needed, and open our arms wide to …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chris Hedges’ Indictment of Goldman Sachs
Prior to his arrest the other day for sitting on the sidewalk in front of Goldman Sachs, Chris Hedges issued the following indictment of the investment banking and securities firm:Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds t…
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Did Fracking Cause Sparks Quake?
A record 5.6 magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma. And fracking has been shown to cause at least small ones. In fact, a number earlier Okla. quakes may have been caused by the process. Here’s a graph showing the recent up-tick in seismic fo…
Continue readingMusic for a Sunday: Only to twist again…
Dreamy, low-key gorgeousness. Shot in Scotland, where the landscape comes with moodiness built right in.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Rick Salutin nicely describes what’s behind the “charity” model of top-end wish fulfillment that the Cons are pitching in place of actual social programs:The Old Philanthropy, aside from a few big foundations…
Continue readingLeDaro: Stephen Harper’s concept of education
Build more prisons. He must have heard that prisons are universities for criminals. If young people with minor insurrection are imprisoned for fair length of time they learn from the hardened criminals how to commit more crimes. Punishment and vindicti…
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sunshine and Skating
I know that Sunday isn’t the best time to post but I’m too happy to care. There is sun and blue sky today, and there was sun and blue sky yesterday. I skated with my family this morning and I walked with A yesterday, just the two of us, hand in hand, for 3 hours. […]
Political opportunism in Vancouver
Gregor Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, has found just the excuse he needs to put down the #Occupy movement in his town with violence. It’s a election year. The unfortunate death of a tent city resident, apparently from a…
Continue readingChris Hedges Arrested in Front of Goldman Sachs – via Truthdig | #OWS #classwarfare #uspoli
Chris Hedges made this statement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning during the People’s Hearing on Goldman Sachs, which he chaired with Dr. Cornel West. The activist and Truthdig columnist then joined a marc…
Continue readingPaper Dynamite Online: "Competing Ambitions And Warring Factions": Bob Rae And The Permanent Leadership
Yesterday, in front of a crowd of Liberal faithful, Bob Rae lamented the "competing ambitions and warring factions" that have plagued the party.Shortly afterward, Postmedia News reported that:Rae would not say whether he would run for leadership should a new executive change its policy on preventing interim leaders to run for official leadership.“The executive would clearly have to make a
Continue readingThe Skwib: Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em
Untitled, a photo by Foxtongue on Flickr. This cocky little duo signifies that The Skwib will be re-running good stuff from the archives for the next few weeks, while I attempt, once again, to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I have been successful once, but the fact that I’m already about 8,000 […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Post-Secondary Education Act
Last month, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) released a document entitled Public Education for the Public Good: A National Vision for Canada’s Post-Secondary Education System. I found the document to be quite informative, filled with a lot of useful statistics. For example: -Enrolment is rising in colleges and universities across Canada. Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment has […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On virtuous choices
Margaret Wente’s latest isn’t that far off of my criticism of most of her reactionary pablum. And the fact-checking of her column is entirely deserved. But she does manage to highlight an important choice, even if she rhetorically assumes exactly the w…
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Eid Mubarak!
On this religious holiday, Muslims around will commemorate Abraham's trials and tribulations with their own sacrifices and acts of charity.
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Pride
Hotel rooms make me think weird. Never mind the bloody *crippling* anxiety/panic attack I had yesterday for absolutely no reason (I was absolutely convinced that I was dying and ought to have called 911 so that His Nibs, returning from … Continue…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Will Bell Media snap up NHL rights in 2014?
With the big pockets to outbid the CBC, columnist wonders how long it will be before Bell Media aquires the rights to Hockey Night in Canada.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Problem of Political Courage
Chantal Hebert argues in today’s Toronto Star that the repatriation of the Constitution in 1981 unleashed a tide of populism which has paralyzed Canada’s parliamentary institutions:
In the three decades since the patriation conference, the parties and the
politicians who have espoused the new culture of populism have thrived;
those who clung to the old ways have wilted. Canada’s