Republican Brain.jpg In the first round of critical reactions to my book The Republican Brain, there wasn’t much to impress. As I related at AlterNet, the general conservative response to the book was to misrepresent its arguments, rather than to engage them seriously. (The book predicted this, incidentally.) But now that
Continue readingTag: authoritarianism
DeSmogBlog: Let’s Just Say It: When It Comes to Science, The Right is the Problem
polar_House_Means.jpg This weekend in The Washington Post, two deans of the Washington establishment, the Brookings Institution’s Thomas Mann and the American Enterprise Institute’s Norman Ornstein, finally stated what has been increasingly obvious: The problem with U.S. politics is coming from the right, not from “both sides.” In their piece, provocatively
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Peril of the Authoritarian Mind
“They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result…. And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going away.” –
Continue readingTeresa Healy's Blog: Map reading equipment
Early on in my courtship with the man himself we still hadn’t figured out the best way to drive from Eastern Ontario to Western Massachusetts. Mapquest would have us go straight through Montreal but I, familiar with the joy of discovering great secondary roads, was sure that there would be
Continue readingLiberals, NDP, whoever. I don’t care what we call them | #cdnpoli
The Tyee – This Year, Put the Country Ahead of the Party: ” … with the election of Stephen Harper, everything changed. No prime minister in Canadian history has come to power with such a ruthless determination to implement an agenda so at odds with the interests of the country
Continue readingA File with Teh See-Siss
I have a seemingly unanswerable question that’s been giving me brain aches, so I thought I’d throw it out there on this fine Saturday afternoon. Why would an ordinary, if imperfect, citizen have a file with CSIS? The rundown: A friend of mine — and no, I’m not using “friend”
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 readingLt. John Pike, UC Davis Police: Little Eichmann of the Day
Time to revive a dormant feature. Here’s the tough guy, pepper-spraying unarmed students. Can’t help but notice the contrast: students sitting peacefully and silently get pepper-sprayed in the face. Students trashing their campus and destroying vehicles because a child-rapist football coach got fired get … a stern frown? Full story
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Is There a Bias Asymmetry Between Democrats and Republicans?
democrat_and_republican_symbols.jpg
There’s a must read item today at the Huffington Post by Jonathan Weiler, co-author of the excellent book Authoritarianism and Polarization in American P…
Continue readingThe next time
… some screechy, screaming conservative Catholic like Our Lady of the Fetuses or Father Tubesock tries to make the case that conservatives like them are all about “liberty” and “the free market”, point them towards this little item: The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world […]
A Tale of Two Georges
I shouldn’t have to say it, but for the benefit of the cerebrally-deprived I will anyway: I am not a fan of George W Bush — far from it. But this is ridiculous: Next week’s appearance by former U.S. president George W. Bush at an event hosted by a local evangelical Christian university has been […]
The capacity for critical thought – how do we build it?
Just as we wind down the first half of 2011 in preparation for Canada Day, three disparate blog posts are jumping out at me:At Sixth Estate, Government of Canada Issues Statement Opposing the AlphabetAt Politics and its Discontents, Sun News …
Continue reading@LacyMacAuley and my namesake: This is where we juxtapose, redux | #G20
“Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you—that would be the real betrayal.”She thought it over. “They can’t do that,” she said finally. “It’s the one thing they can’t d…
Continue readingOn CBC, a further demonstration of Toronto cops’ contempt for us
On Metro Morning today, Matt Galloway talked to police union boss Mike McCormack about the nameless asshole who broke Dorian Barton’s arm at the G20 last summer, and about the SIU’s investigation coming to a dead end.
Anyone want to guess where Mike m…
Continue readingToronto Police: Unaccountable, uncaring, unbelievable
The Star doesn’t always get it right, but this time it’s taken a centring pass in the slot and buried it in the top corner.
When the provincial Special Investigations Unit threw in the towel and said it couldn’t identify the brutal, cowardly slimeball…
Continue readingMeanwhile, Back In Utopia Democratica …
First Tunisia and now Egypt.
One can only rejoice at seeing people taking their aspirations for civil rights and freedoms into their own hands, courageously claiming these justly as their undeniable birthrights as human beings and steadfastly demandin…
Continue readingCan You Tell Me Where My Country Lies?
Here is the authoritarian mind in action:
1- At the request of a city Chief of police, in anticipation for an international summit in said city where peaceful protesters and demonstrators (and yes, including an inevitable small minority of idiotic ind…
Continue readingYou Know You Are Living In A Corporatocracy …
… when your elected government begs Big Business interests to help them write and/or kill bills:Back there, Transport Minister John Baird (yes – this same John Baird) was caught privately encouraging Canada’s big airlines to step up their lobby campaign in order to kill a proposed "passenger bill of right" while his predecessor, then-Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, publicly supported s…
Continue reading2010 Vs 2011: Same As It Was, Same As It Will Be
The following struck me as the very essence of the (now past) first decade of the 21st century, in effect constituting at the same time a resounding call that will define this second decade that is just beginning (emphasis added):
“If the president …
Continue readingThe Canadian Branch Of The North American Security Surveillance State
Read it and weep, folks (emphasis added):
Canada’s little-known spy agency comes out into the open
At a time when most government agencies are cutting and slashing, a little-known spy agency led by a Rhodes Scholar is the envy of Ottawa for its pla…
Continue reading