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Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: STC Bus Shut Down By Callous SaskParty

May

31

2017

Today is a terrible day in Saskatchewan history. The Brad Wall government has ended public transportation to most Saskatchewan communities. There is tomorrow no bus service between Saskatoon and Regina, a sort of event you’d expect after a major natural disaster, not an incompetent government decision poised to directly harm thousands of people, and inconvenience ...

wmtc: what i’m reading: leaving lucy pear

May

26

2017

The year is 1917. A teenage girl from a wealthy family is pregnant, the result of rape — by a man who her mother pushed her to pursue for marriage. Now the girl is being forced to surrender her baby to an orphanage. She has met the person who runs the orphanage, and she cannot ...

Dead Wild Roses: Break the Social Contract – Break the State, and the People.

May

25

2017

This excerpt features Dr. Gus Abu-Sitta and Andre Vltchek discussing the Ecology of war and its effects on people living in war conditions. One of their digressions from the main topic was the idea that sanctions, and other Western initiatives are designed to denude the State of its non-coercive powers i.e utilities, education, and medical ...

centre of the universe: Acting Your Age

May

24

2017

Here’s the thing. We live in a society that values youth over experience, wisdom, ability and knowledge. I’m not sure why we do that, but children are more valuable to us than non-children, which also translates into vilifying people who opt not to breed. There’s a whole bunch going on in this statement, and I…

wmtc: arun gupta’s perfect takedown of food-as-cultural-appropriation

May

22

2017

I read this on Facebook and absolutely love it. The author, Arun Gupta, understands and acknowledges cultural appropriation as a fact and a legitimate concern (as do I). But he also believes the “reactionary left” spreading lists of ethnic restaurants run by white people …essentializes the notion of culture as rooted in the very soil ...

The Political Road Map: Politics in Cinema

May

4

2017

May the fourth be with you and May you enjoy this post and share it throughout the galaxy! To say that cinema has become a favorite past time of people is to greatly under appreciate its impact on our society and our lives. I always find it interesting how the political process is represented in ...

wmtc: what i’m reading: giovanni’s room by james baldwin

Apr

22

2017

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, a landmark in LGBT literature, is one of our library’s current “Raves & Faves”. The 1956 novel takes place in Paris, narrated by a young American man who is trying to come to terms with his sexuality. In the past, this was said to be a “gay novel;” now it is ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: CBC Interviewed a Gunman?

Mar

28

2017

This is a wee bit outrageous. On March 21, 1977, Robert McLagan held 11 employees at Toronto’s Banque Canadienne Nationale hostage for nearly 12 hours. Frum and her producers were able to get McLagan, one of his hostages and a police officer on the line as the situation was unfolding — even giving CBC Radio listeners the chance to hear the beginning of a negotiation that ...

Dead Wild Roses: People Centred Human Rights – Malcolm X

Mar

14

2017

I consider this text a long form of the very basic radical assumption – the Masters’s tools will never dismantle the Master’s house’. That is, working within the bounds of any oppressive system, one can only do so much and the chance of affecting meaningful structural change approaches zero. The People Centred Human rights approach ...

Dead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – For Her Own Good — Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English

Mar

11

2017

Patriarchy at its finest. “In the second half of the century, these fumbling experiments with the female interior gave way to the more decisive technique of surgery—aimed increasingly at the control of female personality disorders. There had been a brief fad of clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris) in the eighteen sixties, following the introduction ...

Dead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky on the High Cheeto-King

Feb

28

2017

Trump level insanity dissected. Filed under: History, Politics Tagged: Al Jazeera, Analysis, Cheeto King, Noam Chomsky

Dead Wild Roses: You Won’t Understand, Unless You’re Female – History and Struggle.

Feb

19

2017

Secondary school, history class. You cover a small amount of information on the suffragettes, and your teacher shows you a video of Emily Wilding Davison getting struck down by Anmer, the King’s horse. Your teacher asks the class, “we’ll never know why she did this” But you know All the girls in your class know, ...

Dead Wild Roses: Media vs Elite Consensus

Feb

4

2017

Professional entertainers cannot be the end of your disatification with the system. Organize, agitate, and make a difference with people who share the same beliefs. It is the only way to change society. Filed under: Media Tagged: History, Media, Solidarity

Dead Wild Roses: A Critique of Post Modernism and Identity Politics

Jan

31

2017

This is a meaty read folks, and much better when put in context of the original article that you should read here. It will need a second and third reading, IMHO. “Identity politics flows logically from this broader censure of universalism. It is derived from the postmodern condition of fragmentation and decentring, ...

Things Are Good: How Early Video Games Expressed Environmentalism

Jan

31

2017

It can be fun to tune out and just play some games, and that’s a good thing. There are games that are obviously educational like Math Blaster and there are games like Carmen Sandiego that celebrate fun over learning while still teaching. Indeed, there are many games being played that entertain and educate at the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Democracy and the Crisis of Confidence – Christopher Lasch

Jan

17

2017

The excerpt is from a great piece by Christopher Lasch writing in the short lived journal “Democracy”. Written in the 80’s, details the systemic problems facing US democracy. The situation described shows the roots of where we are now, and how (unfortunately) we have arrived here. “The centralization of power in the United ...

Scripturient: It’s Not a Wonderful Life

Jan

7

2017

I’m convinced many Americans – Donald Trump among them – think Frank Capra’s famous film, It’s a Wonderful Life, was a documentary, not entertainment. It has all the elements of Trumpist utopia: a white, Christian, unquestionably patriotic, male-dominated, patriarchal culture where the bad guy gets away with stealing from others, and making himself rich at ...

Dead Wild Roses: Female Erasure – Vera Rubin – Astrophysicist Who Discovered Dark Matter.

Jan

7

2017

Yep, still waiting for the chorus of enraged ‘egalitarian’ voices to protest this (continuing) oversight. http://tehbewilderness.tumblr.com/post/155051414744/the-future-now-vera-rubin-the-woman-who Filed under: Feminism, History, Science Tagged: Astrophysics, Female Erasure, History, Institutional Sexism, Nobel Prize Bullshittery, Patriarchy, Radical Feminism

Dead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky – Media Priorities…

Jan

4

2017

Where do elite priorities lie? Follow the coverage. “Q: Moving on, has the media changed landscape since you wrote ‘Manufacturing Consent’ in 1989? Is the media manufacturing consent now? A: Well, we didn’t actually say that media is manufacturing consent; we said that -that is what they are trying to do. We discussed the nature ...

The Sir Robert Bond Papers: On Meaning #nlpoli

Jan

3

2017

Brexit supporter and insurance magnate Arron Banks got into a tussle on Twitter late last year with Cambridge classicist Mary Beard. Banks tweeted that Rome had been done in by immigrants, with the obvious implication that western European countries should be wary of letting all sorts of people cross their borders and settle down. Beard ...

Dead Wild Roses: Inverted Totalitarianism – Sheldon Wolin

Dec

27

2016

Take a look at what’s going on, look at the article. Should we be worried? You tell me. “Resisting the monopolies on left theory by Marxism and on democratic theory by liberalism, Wolin developed a distinctive—even distinctively American—analysis of the political present and of radical democratic possibilities. He was especially prescient in theorizing the ...

Dead Wild Roses: Voting, Citizenship and the Political Process – W.E.B. Du Bois

Dec

22

2016

Can we draw parallels between the political experience of Du Bois and our present time? The situation the Du Bois describes can easily be translated into a commentary of what is happening in 2016 – the message is clear – reputable people cannot abandon the political realm despite what the chattering classes say, as it ...

Dead Wild Roses: Against Tyranny – Timothy Snyder

Dec

14

2016

Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here are 20 lessons from across the fearful 20th century, adapted to the circumstances of today. 1. Do not obey ...

Scripturient: A cup of mao jian

Dec

12

2016

The tea bag is an example of remarkable serendipity; an unexpected, simple invention that changed the world. But it was entirely unintended. Tea, from the camelia sinenis tree, is the most popular beverage in the world after water, and the most popular hot beverage period. Before the tea bag appeared, barely over a century ago, ...

Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The new Canadian $10 Bill

Dec

9

2016

Canada is finally putting a woman on the front of a bank note (other than the Queen, of course). The first will be Viola Desmond, who will replace Sir John A. MacDonald. Extraordinary bravery of Viola Desmond who will now appear on Canada's $10 bill. Via Heritage Minutes. https://t.co/GF4gyCWj8W #MakeItRight — Chris Fisher (@FisherSpeaks) December ...