“The word ‘brutalize’ is now employed quite wrongly to mean harsh or cruel treatment meted out by the strong to the weak…but in fact it means something subtler, namely the coarsening effect that this exercise of cruelty produces in the strong.” – Christopher Hitchens In his book, Why Orwell
Continue readingTag: george orwell
Alberta Politics: The clocks are striking thirteen and there’s something in the air – Albertans seem to be reading George Orwell’s 1984 again
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, May 23, 2021. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. As I’ve said in this
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corrupt language corrupts minds: Police are civilians, under control of civilians
One of the bees in my bonnet has long been the misuse of the term civilian to describe people who are not sworn police officers. I wrote the post below almost a decade ago — as the startling appearance of the then-sitting prime minister in the text as if he
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Words, Words, And More Words
I haven’t been writing much these days, in part due to a stubborn bug I’ve been battling, and in part because I often wonder if there really is much more to say that I haven’t already said over the years. However, today I read an article that seems particularly germane
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Patriot Games
“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.” Mark Twain Last week Mr Kenney joined the patriot squad. On August 4 and August 7 he released two odious videos on social media. Let’s call them “Patriot Games One” and “Patriot Games Two.” Patriot
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Corporate Mapping Project names top fossil-fuel emitters, enablers and legitimators, unlocks online database
“The fossil fuel industry … is the biggest obstacle to real action on climate change today,” says the co-director of the Corporate Mapping Project, which this morning published an eye-opening list of the 50 most influential players in the industry and a publicly accessible database with information on more than
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Alberta Separatism Rears its Goofy Head
Ms Soapbox was thinking about the fog of words when she received a mass mailout letter from someone she’ll call Mr X urging her to join him and thousands of others (who shall remain nameless because their names were not provided) in an effort to motivate Canadians to make the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Meghan Murphy Banned From Twitter – Because Women with Opinions Are Dangerous
MALES CANNOT BECOME WOMEN. (This statement of material reality is now a ban worthy offence on Twitter and here on Word Press.). Let’s just get that out of the way upfront. If this blog goes dark, you’ll know why. Silencing women and stifling free speech is the order of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Political Discourse in Alberta: Seen through Orwell’s Lens
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”—George Orwell It was fascinating to consider Jason Kenney’s comments on two issues that arose this week in the context of George Orwell’s commentary on political discourse. George Orwell
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pipeline politics in Canada circa 2018: Destroying the rule of law in order to save it
Obviously, we have to destroy the rule of law in order to save it! With Kinder Morgan Inc.’s do-or-drop-it deadline set to arrive on Thursday, that seems to be the idea behind the argument advanced by the increasingly furious Canadian pipeline lobby that the Trans Mountain Expansion project must be
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Trans Ideology, Some Orwell at his Finest…
http://auntiewanda.tumblr.com/post/171759530161/warmheartwitch-oceanlesbian-besha-98-the Need a pithy pull quote? Try this: “overall trans activism seems tie into a massive program of social engineering for a post-truth male supremacist society in the face of increased female empowerment (real empowerment) and feminist consciousness. so erasing the public knowledge and acknowledgment of biological sex is a
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada needs more Jeremy Corbyn, less Justin Trudeau, 21st annual Parkland Institute conference is advised
PHOTOS: Guardian journalist Martin Lukacs, moments before his remarks to the 21st annual Parkland Institute Conference in Edmonton yesterday morning. Below: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn and Prime Minister Theresa May (U.K. Photos: Wikimedia Commons); and bestselling Canadian author Linda McQuaig before her keynote
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Political Shakespeare?
Looking back at the pleasure I always took in teaching Shakespeare’s tragedies, I realize my attraction to The Bard had a great deal to do with his eerily penetrating insights into human nature, arrived at long before the advent of modern psychology. Similarly, for a non-fiction titan, I have long
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Deconstructing political discourse in Alberta: Doublethink is alive and well in recessionary Wild Rose Country
PHOTOS: Parson Manning spreads the Gospel of Market Fundamentalism in his days as leader of the Reform Party of Alberta. The actual neoliberal preacher-men of Confederation may not appear exactly as illustrated. Photo grabbed from Elmer Gantry, the mov…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Our Diversions
This is one of those days when I haven’t felt like writing anything. And George Orwell said just about everything better, anyway. H/t Mint Press News Recommend this Post
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ten Questions about the Harper Government’s embrace of war with ISIS-ISIL-IS
Ready, Aye, Ready! Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird whips up the War Party in the House of Commons. Below: Stephen Harper, the prime minister, and Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn. Stephen Harper, John Baird, Laurie Hawn and the rest of the boys yesterday finally got the war in Iraq they’ve
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Message From Orwell: "I Warned You" – A Mound Of Sound Guest Post
You don’t have to dig very deep to get a pretty clear picture of the decline of today’s global civilization. The good times are gone, over, finished. We’re out of stuff, plain and simple. The game today is for one select group of people to employ its considerable advantages to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Food For Thought
I am still working on my flooring, and as someone to whom the term handyman has little application, I am working very slowly. Therefore, in lieu of a post, I offer this wisdom from George Orwell: Recommend this Post
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Progressive Conservatives Prepare for War–Really!
“Our organization cannot lose the grassroots donation battle to our opposition if we hope to win the war in 2016.”—Ron Renaud, PC Chief Financial Officer Win the war in 2016??? The “war” metaphor Before we get sucked into the “war” metaphor let’s pause and consider what George Orwell taught us—thought
Continue reading