Now that Omar Khadr – 26 years old, 11 of those years spent in a concentration camp – is finally in Canada, I find little to say. His mistreatment at the hands of both the US and Canadian governments is horrendous, shameful, and irreversible. Khadr is still in prison, having
Continue readingTag: bigotry
Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ish Theilheimer highlights why the corporate right is so eager to snuff out organized labour – and why progressives need to fight back: Since the 1980s under Reagan, US Republicans have worked to “de-fund the Left,” going after advocacy groups, university student
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Michael Lewis writes a fascinating piece on Barack Obama’s life as president. And I’d think it’s particularly noteworthy to consider Obama’s self-discipline both as a model for self-improvement in theory, and as a risk factor in opening up a perception gap between
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Quebec Shooting and the Hatred that Kills
For a Montrealer like me, who lives and plays happily in both solitudes, and is always trying to bring Quebecers and Canadians together, it was the ultimate nightmare. An old Anglo, in a balaclava …. and a bathrobe … screaming "The English are rising up!!! There's going to be fucking
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: To avoid sex assault, don’t dress “like a whore”: Krista Ford
As Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s niece Krista advises women to avoid sexual assault – by not dressing like “whores” – a recent victim offers a personal response.
Continue readingLeft Over: Justice vs Collective Guilt-What Else is New?
Today in the CBC online media is an article about the quick response to a racist joke or two that appeared in a Legion newsletter; the perpetrator was quickly dismissed from his ‘volunteer’ job on the newsletter after complaints about these offensive jokes regarding First Nations. Much pearl-clutching ensues, and everything
Continue readingwmtc: why is "entitled" a dirty word? some thoughts on what we are all entitled to.
When did “entitled” become a dirty word? Why do we hear “entitled” being used as catch-all slur, a derogatory description to be thrown at progressive people working for change? And why should we permit this word to retain such a heavily negative connotation? Here are some people I have seen
Continue readingLeft Over: Dis-honouring Our Homemade Monsters
Here’s a headline from CBC online today, talking about a sticker campaign to point out the hypocrisy of naming things after history’s deviates. In this case, the target is former Lieutenant Governor of BC Joseph Trutch..someone who purposefully practiced his evil on our First Nations people, for a start…. Sticker
Continue readingwmtc: dispatches from post-racial america: stop-and-frisk on a national level
Remember when Barack Obama was elected, how international media declared that racism in the US had been vanquished? How academics and pundits started using the term “post-racial” to describe US culture? Was that before or after the tea-partiers paraded around with pictures of monkeys and openly called for assassination? Before
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Bigot, the Blowtorch, and the Flaming Cheerios
It must have seemed like a great idea eh? To a bigot as dumb as this one. Show how much you hate General Mills for supporting gay marriage. "We do not believe the proposed constitutional amendment is in the best interests of our employees or our state economy," the company's vice
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: London Olympics 2012: What the racist Swiss soccer player said
By now, most of you are aware that a second athlete from Europe has been ejected from the London Olympics for racism. Swill soccer player Michel Morganella got the boot yesterday for posting a racist message on Twitter insulting South Koreans after his team lost 2-1 to South Korea. But most of
Continue readingwmtc: ten years too long: bring omar khadr back to canada
Today marks 10 years since Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, then 15 years old, was picked up in Afghanistan. For an entire decade, he has lived in prison, first in Bagram, then in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. He lives in solitary confinement, which is recognized internationally as a
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: the how to guide for understanding rioting negroes
Revolutionary Thought of the Day: the KFC Double Down is a plot against white America. The Negro Rioting Plan that’s been put in place is a terribly complicated strategy that has taken hundreds of thousands of Negroes to plan and thousands of years to come together. Sleeper agents, technological advances
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: invisible man meets the zombies of zone one
I’m in the middle of reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, now removed from the Famous Books I Haven’t Read Yet list. The novel is an exploration of African-American identity in the days of the Jim Crow South and the shifting terrain of the supposedly enlightened North. Written in the late
Continue readingwmtc: mayor of boston puts equality before commerce, tells bigoted company to stay out of city
Menino: “Chick-fil-A would be an insult to the city’s long history of expanding freedom.” Rob Ford, please take note.
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper, Rob Ford, and the Deadly Game
It had to be one of the most grotesque photo-ops ever. Rob Ford, the brutish Mayor of Toronto, gripping Stephen Harper's limp wrist in his meaty paw, in a police station. The two Cons carrying on like Laurel and Hardy, belching bullshit, and playing cheap politics with tragedy. Read more »
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Rob Ford: When the Bigot is a Moron
Damn. I've been trying to think of something nice to say about Rob Ford for soooo long. It's the kind of guy I am. Always looking for the good in people. Or the pony in the manure. And besides after calling him an incompetent buffoon, a crass and vulgar redneck,
Continue readingwmtc: onboard the tahrir, now with video
I’ve updated my recent post, “onboard the tahrir: ‘our course is the conscience of humanity. our final destination is the betterment of mankind.’” to correct a few factual errors. I also added this video, which you might want to watch, whether or not you appreciated that post. The sight of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Sun: Demagoguery, Not Critical Thinking
As a contrast to my earlier post about the Star and critical thinking, take a look at this poll and readers’ comments about Omar Khadr from Sun readers. h/t Norm Spector Recommend this Post
Continue readingwmtc: a pit bull, a cop, and a happy ending
Now here’s something we don’t see every day, although we should, and we could. The police are called to investigate “a vicious pit bull”… and they don’t assume the story to be true, don’t draw their weapons, don’t shoot the animal on sight. In fact, a police officer rescues the
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