RB Bennett was one of Canada’s most popular Prime Ministers, to the point where average Canadians would name their buggies after him. We found out last week that the Harper Conservatives will be leading a review of the way Canadian history is taught in schools. We don’t yet have word
Continue readingTag: history
Chadwick's Blog & Commentary: Waterloo, 200 years later
This June we will be a short two years from the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo*. It is expected to be a large event, especially since the 100th anniversary was not celebrated because it fell in the middle … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Rasputin: Two Perspectives
Perhaps no character stands out in pre-Revolution Russia as much as that of Grigory Rasputin. He was influential, enigmatic, charismatic, secretive, held no office, yet had enormous influence on the events and people of the era. How could a barely … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: The Missing Lines
The National Museum of Iraq – known originally as the Baghdad Archaeological Museum – once housed some of the oldest works of literature in the world. Treasures from the origins of civilization, from the cities of Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria were on … Continue reading →
Continue readingWalking Turcot Yards: Coney Island And The Santa Monica Pier
Two amusement parks on the ocean at each end of America. Must have been weird to drive from one to the other seeing that Elmer Gantry, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Jack Kerouac, Betsy Ross America pass by in the never stopping long winding days and happy/sad boozy neon nights of
Continue readingWalking Turcot Yards: Capitalism efficient? We can do so much better
By Richard Wolff A Madrid woman holds a banner reading ‘Your benefits, Our crisis. Another world is possible’ at the Spanish headquarters of the European Commission. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters What’s efficiency got to do with capitalism? The short answer is little or nothing. Economic and social collapses in Detroit, Cleveland
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: April, the cruellest month
April, wrote T.S. Eliot in his remarkable poem, The Waste Land, is the “cruellest month.”* And not merely because of the inclement and unsettling weather that seems to mix winter with spring in unpredictable doses. Nor for the necessity of … Continue reading →
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Peter Kent Didn’t Age Well
Kent looks the same… but his mind has left him. Amazing CBC coverage of climate change from the early 1980s. Bob McDonald, Peter Kent, and others make appearances: Attention Washington: Peter Kent explains Climate Change (the briefing you won’t see). “The natural preoccupation with the weather tomorrow, the next day,
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Culloden and the Family Tree, 267 Years Later
It doesn’t begin with Culloden. History is seldom so neat and precise that a single event can be identified as the start or end of a thing. Rather, Culloden was a hinge, a point at which events changed direction, when … Continue reading →
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Teaching history to my homeschooled kids
Wow. A letter to the editor in the Nanaimo Times reminds me why teaching history properly is so important. The letter has been removed but a screen shot of it is linked to above. The author of the letter lists of accomplishments he feels the natives failed to meet before
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: homeschooling history
Wow. A letter to the editor in the Nanaimo Times reminds me why teaching history properly is so important. The letter has been removed but a screen shot of it is linked to above. The author of the letter lists of accomplishments he feels the natives failed to meet before
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: religion and politics
I want to write some more thoughts about Christianity, but not assume that everyone is Christian. This isn’t an effort to convert anyone, just an attempt to explore some more of the ideas I’ve been reading about and thinking about. A quote from the book God and Empire, by John
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: religion and politics
I want to write some more thoughts about Christianity, but not assume that everyone is Christian. This isn’t an effort to convert anyone, just an attempt to explore some more of the ideas I’ve been reading about and thinking about. A quote from the book God and Empire, by John
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Forward Together #UofR: Buffy St. Marie – Live Blog
Buffy St. Marie tackled the subject of Aboriginal peoples’ self image. What has been the basis for it? In many cases in popular culture, it’s from philosophers in Europe who never met the First Peoples in their life! #Buffy event at #FNUniv is almost full 10 min to start. http://t.co/TNO8jZ4K0a—
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Nixon Was Scum
Win at any cost. That seems to have been Nixon’s election campaign strategy, and it worked. Had LBJ notified the public of information the FBI illegally gathered from an ambassador using a phone tap, then the future may have been very different. Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson’s telephone calls
Continue readingChristy's Houseful of Chaos politics » Christy's Houseful of Chaos: Homeschooling Topic of the Week: Afghanistan
I noticed the book The Sky of Afghanistan, by Ana A. de Eulate and Sonja Wimmer, with the library’s collection of new kids’ books. The title of the book brought to my mind images of Canadian and American airplanes, but the front cover shows a young girl flying through the air,
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Homeschooling Topic of the Week: Afghanistan
I noticed the book The Sky of Afghanistan, by Ana A. de Eulate and Sonja Wimmer, with the library’s collection of new kids’ books. The title of the book brought to my mind images of Canadian and American airplanes, but the front cover shows a young girl flying through the air,
Continue readingwmtc: and one great read from harper’s: nicholson baker on "why i’m a pacifist: the dangerous myth of the good war"
After finally getting Jill Lepore’s “Lie Factory” posted on this blog, I will go back even further, to something I’ve wanted to post for nearly two years. No matter the date, this piece is timeless, and more relevant with every passing day. This lengthy essay by Nicholson Baker ran in
Continue readingwmtc: two great reads from the new yorker, part 2: jill lepore on political advertising
The current New Yorker stories by Joseph Mitchell has given me an opportunity to post something I’ve been meaning to share for ages. Last September, Jill Lepore unearthed an incredible bit of history, a piece of the American past that is alive with us today, and more dangerous than ever. (I
Continue readingwmtc: ten years ago today, the world said no to war. say no to obama’s wars, too.
Ten years ago today, my partner and I took the day off work, dressed in many layers of clothing, and joined nearly a million people in the streets of New York City. It was February 15, 2003, and the world was saying no to war. The bitter cold didn’t stop
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