A recent story on New Scientist gives a glimmer of hope for those of us who bemoan the swelling tsunami of claptrap and codswallop that fills the internet: THE internet is stuffed with garbage. Anti-vaccination websites make the front page of Google, and fact-free “news” stories spread like wildfire. Google
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Dead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – The Judge and the Hijab
I’m always impressed with La Belle Province and her ability to serve up controversy. Recently a judge in Quebec decided that a hijab was considered not to be suitable attire for her courtroom and dismissed a case when the litigant refused to comply with her request. The judge’s words courtesy
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Marx, Darwin and Machiavelli
What do these three men – three of the world’s greatest thinkers – have in common? Science? Economics? Politics? Their impact on culture and society? Their foresight or insight? Their importance to the development of modern thought? Their continued relevance today? The depth and breadth of their wisdom? The quality
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Pornography Is What the End of the World Looks Like’
Bacchanal with a wine vat (c. 1475) by Andrea Mantegna BOSTON—Fifty Shades of Grey, the book and the movie, is a celebration of the sadism that dominates nearly every aspect of American culture and lies at the core of pornography and global capitalism. It glorifies our dehumanization of women. It
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: “We the North” and the “Marketing of Blackness”
The Raptors are hot. Toronto’s professional basketball team sits atop the Eastern Conference and are arguably the NBA’s most exciting team to watch. But on-court swagger has been paired with slick re-branding, the centerpiece of which is the “We The North” campaign. The campaign’s lead commercial intersperses Raptors’ highlight-reel dunks
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Happy Talk
A recent study proved an old notion – the Pollyanna Hypothesis – that there is a “universal human tendency to ‘look on and talk about the bright side of life’” according to a team of scientists at the University of Vermont. The story was reported on Science Daily recently. Reading through newspapers,
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Weaponized Aryan Jesus?
The term “weaponized Jesus” comes from an article I read on politicsusa.com, from November 2013, titled “The Religious Right With Their Weaponized Jesus Are Not Christians.” It’s worth a read, if you enjoy the political-religious debate. I eventually traced the phrase back to a 2010 story in Mother Jones. It’s a
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Internet TV and Roku
I picked up a ROKU streaming stick this weekend at the local Staples store to get access to some internet TV. The box advertises 500+ channels, while the boxes for the upscale models 2 and 3 offer 450+ and 1,000+, respectively. However, the official webpage for Roku says you can get more than
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Heart of Whiteness – 2015 Oscars
I usually don’t pay attention to the Oscars and other such award shoes. Playing League of Legends, tweezing my eyebrows, cleaning the tiles in the bathroom all are significantly higher on my to do list that giving a frack about the Oscars. This story caught my attention though, provocatively
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Art Has to Fight for Justice
Alberto Bruzzone, oil on canvas, 1976 • Located in Mar Del Plata (Buenos Aires) It was 30th May, deep autumn in Argentina. The streetlights had been turned on an hour earlier, just as I was entering the house/museum. Now inside, it was dark, silent, warm and cozy. Magda Konopacka de
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Revised CPLUG Ukulele Song Book
I spent the past couple of weeks diligently working on updating and expanding our Collingwood Public Library Ukulele Group (CPLUG) songbook. I’m happy to announce it is completed – and that I can get back to my regular blogging. I had put together two smaller songbooks previously for group use, as
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Charlie Hebdo murders show some speakers are freer than others
Image from the Office of War Information The shocking murder of nine journalists and three others in a brazen, coordinated attack in the offices of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo demands sympathy for the victims’ families and has provided a chilling reminder to many writers, editors and satirists who challenge
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Book List Game
In a recent story titled “Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read,” the eminent astrophysicist listed his top eight book titles – from a Reddit conversation that was going on back in December, 2011. Here are the books he chose back then
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Snow Seasonal Things Considered: Clean Sidewalks
I know what you’re thinking. “Fascinating subject Arb, do tell us more!” Okay, perhaps not as gripping the other newsy bits we we have around here but none the less a subject that shouldn’t be casually swept aside. Living in Alberta means that for three to five months of the
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: 47 Ronin Reviewed
This week, after watching the 2013 film, 47 Ronin, starring Keanu Reeves, I had to wonder why Hollywood felt it necessary to take a powerful story, a great historical drama, and mess with it. And, of course, why they would put Keanu Reeves into a film about 18th century Japanese
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness can be a difficult read. Not just for its brooding setting and the sense of morbid inevitability. Conrad’s semi-autobiographical 1899 novel is replete with racism and breezy colonialism: the insufferable superiority of white, Western culture. The casual ability of so-called civilized men to commit savagery in the name of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Dialectics of Santa Claus by Karl Marx
Image from United States Library of Congress An undiscovered text by Karl Marx. titled, Dialectics of Santa Claus: Critique of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Here is Marx’s analysis of Santa using materialist dialectics: A review of Hegel’s Science of Logic teaches us to go beyond mere appearances, to
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Quotes from The Politics of Heroin – Alfred W. Mcoy
The so called war on drugs contains so much irony, we’ll need a new solar system to keep it in check. “As long as demand and prices remain at current levels in wealthy drug-consuming nations, traders will enter almost any potential production area with wads of currency to elicit supply
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Popular Front: An Alternative “Year in Review” of Pop Culture
Photo by TampAGS Most “Year in Review” lists of popular culture are pretty predictable. Such lists are jam-packed with consensus contenders for big industry awards such as the Oscars and Grammys and they tend to be reflections of what is “popular” as defined by sales. Indeed, the typical “Year in
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Falling Skies: Aliens as Metaphor
We watched the last of Season Two of the Falling Skies series last night. After a bit of research this morning, I learned I have two more seasons to watch and a fifth season has been scheduled. Something to look forward to. I wasn’t sure about how it would turn
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