Political genius in a bottle…or really, genius generally! So, I must admit to something right off the bat: I’m a whiskey on the rocks drinker. For those of you who are purists you’re saying “Paul, the ice waters down the whiskey!”. Others, perhaps non-whiskey drinkers, are saying “dude, there better
Continue readingTag: history
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The politics of logic and history #nlpoli
“Government does not work on logic,” a wise man once told your humble e-scribbler. “It works on the basis of history.” When faced with a new problem, people tend to do what they did before, not what might make sense in the new circumstances. You can see that the preference
Continue readingPaulitical Satire: The History of Toronto – Movie Monday Goes Back to the Future
So, it’s another Movie Monday and today William (our friend and videographer from www.digitalfootprint.ca) and I have put together something really special for all of you. Will was hunting around for some old photos of the city recently, and once we started looking them over we couldn’t help but feel
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: keynes vs. marx: can capitalism be reformed?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * I was especially interested in this talk, as for much of my life I would have considered myself a reformist in the Keynes mode. I slowly learned that reform can never
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: what would a socialist society look like?
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * These notes are sketchier and rougher than the previous posts, as the talk was very informal. What Would a Socialist Society Look Like?Kim KerridgeMay 28, 2011 This question is both broad
Continue readingwmtc: marxism 2011 program notes: the fight for queer liberation today
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * The Fight for Queer Liberation TodayTim McCaskell and Michelle Robidoux (Michelle not present)May 29, 2011 In this context, “today” means the political juncture we’re living in. The use of the word
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: what is the what by dave eggers
I’m in the middle of reading a pair of books that approach a similar subject in different ways. What Is the What is Dave Eggers’ fictional memoir of the Sudanese refugee who he sponsored and befriended. The full title is What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng,
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Speech in Support of the Abolition of Capital Punishment (House of Commons, June 15th, 1976.)
“I am sure that very few of us consciously contemplated, when we decided to run for public office, that we would find ourselves playing a decisive role in the resolution of a question as awesome as that of life and death. Yet, here we are, with all our individual limitations,
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Studying Cartoon #HarperHistory
The NDP broke up The Beatles and convinced Nickelback to get together. #HarperHistory— Joseph Uranowski (@Uranowski) April 27, 2012 There are many examples on Twitter of people mocking Stephen Harper’s bizarre claim today that the NDP didn’t support fighting Hitler. “How could they?” sane and educated people would ask incredulously,
Continue readingwmtc: happy birthday, fenway park
One hundred years ago today, April 20, 1912, Fenway Park opened to the public. The Boston Red Sox have played their home games there ever since. Fenway is the oldest Major League Ballpark still in use. Until the 1990s, it was one of a trio of historic parks still used
Continue readingbastard.logic: Happy 30th Anniversary, Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms
According to Louise Arbour, Canada’s internationally renowned & universally lauded Charter of Rights & Freedoms (HBD, eh?) “has transformed a country obsessed with the federal-provincial division of powers and enabled it to address its diversity in a substantive, principled way.” Gee. No wonder Harpercon insurrectionists can’t stand the fucking thing.
Continue readingwmtc: the tale of ozzie guillen, fidel castro, free speech, and corporate welfare: a story with irony to spare
Those of you who don’t follow baseball – which I assume is most of you – might never have heard of Ozzie Guillen before this week, or maybe don’t know his name now. Guillen is a Major League Baseball manager and a former player, a guy who is often described
Continue readingwmtc: "the greatest problem is we are afraid to offend our oppressors": john carlos, tommie smith, and a lesson about resistance
This is one of the most iconic photos in sports history: the Olympics, 1968, Mexico City. As the Star Spangled Banner begins to play, gold-medal winner Tommie Smith and bronze-medal winner John Carlos, each wearing a single black glove, raise their fists in a black-power salute. Peter Norman, the silver
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Crap Like This
** Old draft from April 12, 2011 that I’m publishing now, untouched, a bit like a time capsule from Election 41** #wtf LPC proposed AG table report if #hoc dissolved. BQ supported LPC. CPC opposed + NDP weirdly supported CPC: http://goo.gl/4eA26 #elxn41 Mr. Jean-Claude D’Amours: Mr. Chairman, my question is
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Jack Layton: Canada’s Defrauded Prime Minister
Hindsight. It’s a bitch. It’s also bitter and hypothetical at times, so take these particular musings in that context. It’s a “what could’a been”. Jack Layton would have possibly been Prime Minister last year, had a sweeping campaign of election fraud with voter suppression not taken place across the country.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Election and WikiLeaks Link Roundup
**This post is an updated time capsule/link dump from Election 41, 29 Apr 2011 I’ve decided to finally post it to get it off my unfinished drafts list** Vintage Voter – amusing photos from the politicians’ pasts. Non endorsement http://unambig.com/indecision-2011-none-of-the-above/ The Glop and Pail made a lot of people who
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Cremation of Canadian Democracy – RoboScam
Reading poetry is apparently cool; At least as cool as the Maple Leafs are. I hope I did a service for my country in reading this. Service was a pun, sorry about that. – Special thanks to my Green blog buddy, Jim Bobby for the poem adaptation.
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Worst Scandal in Canadian History
We’re in the worst scandal in Canadian history. Stephen Harper was first elected in 2006 because Canadians were outraged over the sponsorship scandal. The Conservatives were not chosen because they were the best, but because the Liberals were the worst. Today opposition parties are focusing on the Robocall scandal, because
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: ‘Losing’ the World:American Decline in Perspective
Seeing history from a different perspective is often an enlightening experience. Noam Chomsky is a excellent guide to a historical narrative that makes sense and fits the facts of the situation, as opposed to what we are told by approved sources. It is a long read, somehow sadly classified as
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Others, a.k.a the Ghost and Mrs. Dunderdale #nlpoli
Regardless of any change in the cost of other forms of energy,… we will have stability in this province that few parts of the world could depend on with the same reliability. Did Premier Kathy Dunderdale say that? During the provincial election last fall, she told The Scope that Muskrat
Continue reading