Revolutionary thought of the day: Scargill’s got the megaphone and he launces intae one ay his trademark rousin speeches that tingles the back ay ma neck. He talks about the rights ay working people, won through years of struggle, and how if we’re denied the right to strike and organise,
Continue readingTag: history
Dead Wild Roses: Canada Day – Something To Be Proud Of.
“Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Queen City Ex Musical Ride
Here’s an advance preview, if a similar “musical ride” comes to Regina? Kids expecting horses and music from RCMP Musical Ride treated to para-military violence. http://t.co/MSqET5fY0G pic.twitter.com/XHipX4zt4f — CC (@canadiancynic) June 29, 2015
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: fallingwater rising, biography of a building
In the prologue to Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America’s Most Extraordinary House, author Franklin Toker writes, “Put this book down now if you can’t live without the old myths about Fallingwater. But take comfort in the fact that a Fallingwater history shorn of miracles can still
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Pelly Museum Fire
I was last in Pelly in 2007 and never got into the museum there. <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/saskboy/18600893238″ title=”Pelly Museum and caboose panorama 2007 by saskboy, on Flickr”><img src=”https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/527/18600893238_6793b30696_c.jpg” width=”800″ height=”295″ alt=”Pelly Museum and caboose panorama 2007″></a> Today it lost that museum to a fire. I also was outside it in 2006.
Continue readingScripturient: This week’s reading
Going Clear by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright is an expose of the Church of Scientology. Fascinating, scary stuff and it makes you want to keep looking back over your shoulder to see if someone is watching you. A great read, though, and a real eye-opener if you’ve ever wanted
Continue readingThe TRC report and the Langevin Bridge—what’s in a name?
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report has issued a damning condemnation of the Indian residential schools, referring to their history as “cultural genocide.” Reverberations are being felt across the country, including here in Calgary. For example, a question has risen about the Langevin Bridge and Langevin School, and whether or
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Origins of Prostitution
Divide and conquer has always been an effective strategy. Applied against women, it has blossomed into one of tap roots of Foppression. “The feminist historian, Gerda Lerner, showed that prostitution has not always existed. It first arose at the beginning of patriarchy, which was relatively recently in the long history
Continue readingwmtc: truth and reconciliation, past and present: why this matters to all of us
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has just completed its week-long closing event in Ottawa. The Commission was part of the historic settlement between the Canadian Government and the survivors of the former Indian Residential Schools. Its mandate is to inform all Canadians about what happened in Indian Residential
Continue readingPostArctica: Buffy Sainte-Marie
“”You talk about all the foster home kids, some of those parents they grew up without parents. They never knew a parent. How were they supposed to know how a family works? What they learned was how to be a bullying nun, how to be a pedophile priest, that’s what
Continue readingPostArctica: Buffy Sainte-Marie
“”You talk about all the foster home kids, some of those parents they grew up without parents. They never knew a parent. How were they supposed to know how a family works? What they learned was how to be a bullying nun, how to be a pedophile priest, that’s what
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: In Alberta, some things never change
Somewhat ironic, considering Rachel Notley said “spring is here” last night. Filed under: Canada, History, Humour Tagged: #abvote, Irony, Spring
Continue readingWhy the U.S. can’t solve its race problem
Is the Unites States a racist society? This is a question the nation wrestles with as one young black man after another is killed by the police. But the question may in a sense be irrelevant. The current turmoil may be due less to lingering racism than to the ignoring
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Count of Monte Cristo
Many of us grew up on the stories of Alexandre Dumas; from cartoons to comic books, TV series and movies. And, yes, books, albeit often abridged for the young market, with drawings of swordsmen, women in flowing dresses, and the court of kings. Swashbuckling adventures, romances with honour and swordfighting.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Written by God?
I don’t pay as much attention to American politics as I suppose I should, in part because despite the entertaining craziness of some of their politicians, the internal politics seldom affect Canadians, and also in part because the craziness not only baffles me – it scares me. But this week
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Shakespeare Changed Everything
I have been reading an entertaining little book called How Shakespeare Changed Everything, which, as the title suggests, is about the pervasive influence the Bard has had on pretty much everything in our lives ever since he started putting quill to paper. Stephen Marche’s book was described in the NatPost
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatoon Riding the Coattails of History
Acknowledging that an important feature in Saskatoon was constructed by the government, then bragging that construction of a future valued feature (a wind turbine) was avoided by the government instead of an opportunity seized upon, is a repugnant attitude. People like Sandra are not leaving a better world for our
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Wealth Inequality – A Historical Problem.
There has always been a struggle by the people against the gratuitous accumulation of wealth and power. So the inequality we live with today is a problem that humanity has been grappling with since is inception. Tariq Ali explains how in this passage: […] In Sparta in the third
Continue readingwmtc: everything is political: bewitched and "george washington zapped here"
You may recall that my current comedy-before-bed TV sleep aid is a sitcom from my childhood: “Bewitched”. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying watching its ridiculous, predictable humour and sometimes surprising messaging. I was in the middle of the eighth and final season when Netflix pulled the show. (Argh!) But thanks to
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