Recent polls show that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are tied in this very early stage of the 2024 presidential race. Each has just over 40 percent support of registered voters. To many liberals everywhere this is a puzzlement. Joe Biden is a decent man who has restored sanity to
Continue readingTag: authoritarianism
Dead Wild Roses: The Importance of Tolerance in Our Society – Practicing Safe Sects
Wear the Jersey or not, to bake the cake or not. In a free society these choices must remain with the individual. To be forced down one road another is authoritarianism, and the route we most definitely do not want to take. “Note that neither Phillips nor Provorov is going
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ann Mallen offers a personal account of the effect of the continued COVID threat on people who are already immunocompromised, while Richard Woodbury talks to Nova Scotia seniors at risk who are rightly concerned that pandemic denialism amounts to a loss of recognition
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Xue Cao et al. find that infection with COVID-19 produces accelerated physical aging among its other alarming effects, while Jan Hennigs et al. discuss the development of respiratory muscle dysfunction as a product of long COVID. Which means – as noted by Moira Wyton
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The authoritarian Americans
Why are Americans so much more authoritarian than Canadians? According to a survey by American business intelligence company Morning Consult, the U.S. has twice as many right-wing authoritarians as Canada and more yet than other Western countries. The table on the right shows the survey results for low and high
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Rohan Smith reports on new research showing how little of the coronavirus needs to be passed from one person to another to result in infection, while CBC News reports on Quebec’s belated but needed decision to hold off on lifting mask mandates. And
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Know Your Rights, And Exercise Them, Now – Or We Will Lose Them All
Here are some important documents you might want to read, reflect on, save to USB, and share. The Magna Carta – the foundation of Western law and all constitutional rights, signed 800 years ago, and being burned now https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-english-translation# The US Constitution and Bill of Rights – shredded by the
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: If You Are Going To Vote, Read This
Things are changing rapidly in the world, but as of this moment, we can say a few things about the major political parties of the Western world, with reasonable certainty. It is now undeniable, that by their actions, the major parties of the Western world, including the Democratic party of
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Kafkaesque?
It might be called Kafkaesque, that this talk focuses on bureaucracy and its tyrranical absurdities, while Kafka’s most important contribution was, not simply to highlight the tyrrany of bureaucracy, but the horrors of authoritarianism. So much for relying on intelligent talks coming from Ted. But then again, fascism has swept
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Gurney questions how it is that Ontario (like other provinces) is continuing to avoid any meaningful planning in its pandemic response, with the problem now being a lack of guidance or direction in distributing second doses of vaccines. – Stephanie Taylor reports
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Freedom, Democracy & Education
If you value compassion or human decency, then you should value education – not indoctrination. And if you value education, then you must value truth above comforting illusions or denial, and you must value freedom, diversity, individuality, curiosity and creativity, because education becomes indoctrination without them, and freedom becomes tyranny,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Seven Virtues To Liberate and Heal The World
The following is a seed thought, a note to myself, for further elaboration in the future, and it is a note I will share with others, because it is a seed thought which is powerful, healing, and liberating. I will not go into any lengthy discussion, meditation or exposition of
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Sliding Into Irrelevance: Pro-Censorship Stance Obliterates Careers – and Minds
The once-great Naomi Klein. I had great respect for her until she burned her very considerable credibility to the ground, by publicly and viciously attacking Glenn Greenwald recently – after he quit The Intercept, for not agreeing to their new policy of enforced censorship, saying Glenn had “lost the thread”.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: They Want It All
“You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.” So says Davos founder and oligarch-in-chief, what’s his name….Vlad the Impaler? No, wait…Klaus Schwabb. In any event, you’ll own nothing, while the billionaires own everything – including the governments, the economy, the media, the communications systems, all the major resources, and all the
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Medieval Society – Then and Now
“You’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”- John Lennon Great short video, linked below, but the view of medieval peasant life is too one-sided – as is typical. Oh the smugness of modern society. Medieval peasants had little freedom, and were bonded to the landowner class. But
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Definition Of A Warrior
Here is a good working definition of a warrior. Chogyam Trungpa, or the 13th Dalai Lama, can explain it better. I am just a student. (See, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, and The Bodhisattva Warrior) Nevertheless, I think the following thoughts are worthy of reflection. A true warrior
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Freedom of Speech vs Fascism
If free speech bothers you, get a soother. Fascism and Maoism are not acceptable here. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand the black liberation movement, which is based in the principle of freedom, as well as equality; you don’t understand liberation movements generally; and you don’t understand
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Genocide Ahead
I don’t enjoy bringing bad news, but I feel a duty to help others, and to protect them when I can, which includes warning them of danger, as well as pointing out the ways to better health, happiness, freedom, peace and joy, and a better world for all. The signs
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Never Surrender
I pray the more pessimistic among us, who have warned us, such as Orwell and Huxley and many others, are wrong. We must, in any event, do everything in our power to avert the darkly dystopian future that is now rapidly being created for us, and change course. Freedom and
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Is Alberta “slipping into authoritarianism”?
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), sees a disturbing trend in the province. He suggests that, under the rule of Jason Kenney and his UCP, “We are “slipping into authoritarianism.” Mr. Smith and his union are miffed at the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (Bill 1)
Continue reading