Remind Stephen Harper that we live in a democracy! A decisive majority believes that American Iraq-war resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada. A majority in the House of Commons voted to allow them to stay as well. And Harper said himself (on April 13, 2005), “The Prime Minister
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read. Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises: 1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.2 – It
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read. Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises: 1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.2 – It
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read.
Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises:
1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.
2 – It is neither possible, nor desirable, to return to a pre-civilized state of being.
3 – It is therefore desirable to imagine and enact a post-civilized culture.
I certainly don’t agree with the whole thing but I do like its spirit: “We are for an ecologically-focused green anarchism and we are for mutual aid, free association, and self-determination.”
Download it here (small PDF file), or try Post-Civ!, a deeper exploration for more detail.
Continue readingredjenny: ‘Tent cities’ of homeless on the rise across the US
Homeless encampments dubbed “tent cities” are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report.
Homelessness, car camps and tent cities are certainly not new, but they are growing rapidly. 
In Reno, Nevada, the state with the nation’s highest repossessions rate, a tent city recently sprung up on the city’s outskirts and quickly filled up with about 150 people. Many, such as Sylvia Flynn, 51, who came from northern California, ended up homeless after losing their jobs and home.
Officials say they do not know how many homeless the city has. “But we do know that the soup kitchens are serving hundreds more meals a day and that we have more people who are homeless than we can remember,” Jodi Royal-Goodwin, the city’s redevelopment agency director, said.
In California, the upmarket city of Santa Barbara is housing homeless people who live in their cars in city car parks while Fresno, has several tent cities. Others have sprung up in Portland in Oregon, and Seattle, where homeless activists have set up mock tent cities at city hall to draw attention to the problem.
Meanwhile, new encampments have appeared, or existing ones grown, in San Diego, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio.Story>
Some quick internet searching uncovered many others, in Dallas, Olympia, L.A., Athens, Georgia, Columbus. Others, like Tenessee and St. Petersburg have been shut down.
MSNBC has a photo essay on a large tent city in Sacramento, juxtaposing it with the Sacramento tent city of the Great Depression.
There are homes sitting empty, while people have no place to live. Excess supply coexisting with excess demand. The invisible hand has failed these people.
Continue readingredjenny: ‘Tent cities’ of homeless on the rise across the US
Homeless encampments dubbed “tent cities” are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report. Homelessness, car camps and tent cities are certainly not new, but they are growing rapidly. In Reno, Nevada, the state
Continue readingredjenny: ‘Tent cities’ of homeless on the rise across the US
Homeless encampments dubbed “tent cities” are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report. Homelessness, car camps and tent cities are certainly not new, but they are growing rapidly. In Reno, Nevada, the state
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP Convention: 3rd ballot – Horwath wins
Third Ballot Andrea Horwath 6732.34 (60.4%) Peter Tabuns 4420.66 (39.6%)
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP convention: second ballot
Second ballot results horwath 5259.06 votes – 43.6% tabuns 3819.82 votes – 31.7 % Bisson 2988.12 votes 24.8%
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP convention: First ballot results
total weighted vote and percentHorwath 4625.29 votes, 37.1%Tabuns 3437.93 votes, 27.6%Bisson 2954.23 votes, 23.7%Prue 1438.44 votes, 11.5% Prue just went to Bisson
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP Convention (5): Horwath
Marie Kelly from Steel nominates Horwath. Andrea understands how important it is to stand up for working people and keep good jobs in Ontario. Now more than ever we need a strong leader who can protect the interests of working people and the right to join a union, who will
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP Convention (3): Prue
Video presentation – shots of Regent Park with voiceover by Prue on growing up in a poor neighbourhood and the importance of making sure children have opportunity. Talks about his success as mayor of East York, building community centres and daycare, paying down the debt without raising taxes. I’m a
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP convention 2 Bisson speech
Bisson is being nominated by France Gelinas and by a spokesperson for UFCW Canada. Third nominator is an activist for an anti-homelessness group – missed her name, but she’s emphasizing that Bisson has raised the most money of any of the candidates (and thus can raise money for the party)
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP convention
Liveblogging from the NDP convention. Bisson has raised the most amount of money followed by Tabuns, Horwath and Prue. We’ll see the relationship between money and votes soon. My prediction is that Horwath will win since her significant lead in the labour vote will give her a boost overall. Steel
Continue readingAndy Lehrer: NDP convention (4): Tabuns
Cheri DiNovo introduces Tabuns, mentioned “democratic socialism” in her review of party history. Tabuns represents the best of the NDP’s traditition. he has an industrial economic vision, zeal for a prosperous province, represents new direction and our founding values, feminist, unionist, environmentalist, democratic socialist Peter Tabuns. Ravi Joshi: I support
Continue readinglocal values trump john tory ambitions
Yesterday’s by-election has demonstrated the power and the importance of local and grassroots politics. Unlike the former riding of Dufferin-Grey-Wellington-Peel (now Dufferin-Caledon), which has been used in the past by many Conservative leaders (incl…
Continue readingredjenny: Great Depression Cooking with Clara
Celebrity cooking is HOT and, lately, so is the Great Depression. 93 year old Clara reminisces about the Depression while showcasing cheap, nourishing food. I love this online cooking show. Maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of history, food, frugality, …
Continue readingMy Canada Includes Justice: I hate you all.
Yes, that’s me at the wheel of a Hummer. And if you look closely, I am showing you some disrespect with a hand gesture. Not that it’s needed! By driving one of these things, you are basically saying, “Fuck the environment, and fuck YOU”.Who the hell drives these things? It’s
Continue readingMy Canada Includes Justice: I hate you all.
Yes, that’s me at the wheel of a Hummer. And if you look closely, I am showing you some disrespect with a hand gesture. Not that it’s needed! By driving one of these things, you are basically saying, “Fuck the environment, and fuck YOU”.Who the hell drives these things? It’s
Continue readingMy Canada Includes Justice: I hate you all.
Yes, that’s me at the wheel of a Hummer. And if you look closely, I am showing you some disrespect with a hand gesture. Not that it’s needed! By driving one of these things, you are basically saying, "Fuck the environment, and fuck YOU".Who the hell drives these things? It’s 2009. There’s talk about whether it might be too late to reverse the damage we’ve done to the environment. There was
Continue reading