First and biggest news of the week was the upset election of 76 year old Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who interestingly has taken the name Francis I. No sooner was he elected, and leading up to his investiture next week (since 1978, new Popes have refused to
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My journey with AIDS...and more!: Early morning, April 25, 2007
A prompt this week to write about something in a health-care context brought out this story which, despite having been told over and over in my head, had heretofore not made it down in writing. It wasn’t quite 5:30 am and Janice was already waiting for me on the main
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Head Like a Hole
First, I’d like you to go to Netflix and watch a documentary called “Head Games”. It’s about brain damage due to contact sport. It talks about concussions in football, hockey, and boxing. And entertainment wrestling (not greco-roman wrestling). It’s an incredibly interesting and well-done documentary. One of the really good
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Inconvenient Truths for White Men
Men, especially white men, sleep too easily at night while women earn 70 per cent of what we do. Secretly, I think we’d prefer to not have to talk about this much. Sure, March 8 and December 6 are days we set aside for reflecting on this, but, most likely,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: I’d go out on the ocean
The manager of our restaurant is close personal friends with Joe Paopao, the Throwin’ Samoan. He used to come home at lunch bruised and battered from running patterns for him in the street. Our manager drawls his vowels, and flattens them, like the peaks of things threaten him. He lives
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Geography of Emotions, A Conversation with Colin Mills
Saturday night, I spent almost two hours discussing the Geography of Emotions with Colin Mills. We explored the ubiquitousness of emotions, the male crisis around emotions, how emotions relate with cognition, and the betweeness of emotions. It was a fascinating conversation about a topic with wide implications for society, culture,
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Coming out as the end of a beginning
This morning on CTV’s Canada AM Kevin Newman, of Question Period fame, was promoting a very important segment on this weekend’s W5 program (Saturday at 7 p.m. ET) and, in the accompanying online article he wrote, “Coming out is toward the end of the process for our gay children” –
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Who’s the jack booted thug?
This new commercial from Wayne LaPierre of the NRA sets an all-time low. You can be absolutely sure that this ad would not have been made if Obama and his kids were white. I’m showing it here to demonstrate just how low the level of debate has gotten in Washington
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Us Settlers Can Be In Solidarity With #IdleNoMore
Twitter / suzhawkins: As settlers… #idlenomore …. York University’s Suzanne Hawkins is my hero today for showing us all this amazing poster that succinctly describes how us non-indigenous settler folk can stand alongside with the world’s indigenous people seeking redress for generations of racism and discrimination. Solidarity matters! Dialogue matters!
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: "Free to Be" — 40 years on
For what I think will be my last post of the year, I wanted to reflect on something I heard about a couple of weeks ago — the 40th anniversary of Free to Be… You and Me and the impact it had on a generation of kids. Including me, who
Continue readingcentre of the universe: There’s hardly any itch at all
The thing that the Mayans didn’t realize about this whole end of the world thing tomorrow is that today is my and His Nibs’ seven-year anniversary (N.B. We’ve been together for more like 12 years). So I decree that it is impossible for the world to end without my getting
Continue readingcentre of the universe: But sometimes, good things happen
I have been pooping an awful lot on and around social media lately. The truth of the matter is that I haven’t missed effbook at all since we broke up. We still see each other now and then in the grocery store, and while we may not make eye contact,
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: When will Scalia just shut up?
Antonin “Nino” Scalia, the current dean of the US Supreme Court and a very staunch conservative, has always had a way with words especially in the opinions he authors for the majority or in dissent. There is no question he is a champion of free speech and expression — he
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Immigration "reforms" actually regressive
We’re starting to see the fallout from the Con government’s proposed changes to immigration policy. And while I agree that such policies need a reboot every now and then to meet current trends (and to a lesser extent, changes in social morés), what is shaping up to be what we’ll
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: “Female Characters Are Still Sidelined, Stereotyped, and Sexualized in Popular Entertainment Content”
If you think popular media is still chauvinist or even misogynist, but you didn’t know about the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, you should look into them. I found out about their latest research study, Gender Roles & Occupations: A Look at Character Attributes and Job-Related Aspirations in Film and Television, and was not […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: No, Taylor Swift. No.
[Here is what some of us have been wanting to say about Taylor Swift, but didn’t because A. Lynn did it first, and perhaps best, reposted her with her kind permission. Thanks to Jarrah Hodge for pointing us to this piece of brilliance! Enjoy! – seb] I’ve been mentally composing this blog for forever and […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Encouraging Early Political Engagement: I Have the Right to Be a Child
Early political engagement is a hot button topic for a number of us here at Politics ReSpun. As parents and/or political animals, we spend a lot of time contemplating methods of public engagement that would draw youth into political culture, and foster both interest and comprehension of sociopolitical events. Apathy
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Billy Graham: Wrong about gay marriage
Billy Graham, who is into his eighth decade as a minister, is one of the very few people in the States who is so famous that the only address you need to write on an envelope is his or her name only, no box number, no state, no ZIP code — in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Thanksgiving Gift from Baseball
Pat Neshek of the Oakland Athletics looks to the sky as he touches the patch with the letters “GJN” on it after he recorded the final out of the bottom of the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers during Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Comerica Park
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: How the Gov’t Is Saddling Parents with College Loans They Can’t Afford
by Marian Wang | ProPublica More than a decade after Aurora Almendral first set foot on her dream college campus, she and her mother still shoulder the cost of that choice. Almendral had been accepted to New York University in 1998, but even after adding up scholarships, grants, and the max
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