TODAY IN HISTORY: ANNIVERSARY OF ‘THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES’ ********** It was today in 1859 that Charles Darwin published ‘The Origin Of Species’. It can be argued that this has been the most influential book of the modern age. Today pretty well anybody involved in the sciences is a “Darwinist”.
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Impolitical: November 22, 1963
Yesterday was the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. This short video by acclaimed film maker Errol Morris is at the New York Times’ site as part of their commemoration of the day: “The Umbrella Man.” It’s the story behind the man holding the black umbrella on that sunny fateful day in
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Conservative Entitlement Whinge – Oh how the wealthy suffer!
Tim Wise has many things to say on the topic of racism in America. His analysis is deft and competent, I reprint the introduction to his essay “Getting What We Deserve? Wealth, Race and Entitlement in America” for the benefit of the education of my readership. Educational purposes aside, many
Continue readingwmtc: who wrote shakespeare? eric idle knows.
A while back, wmtc had a discussion about the supposed controversy of the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, after I read the book Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare, by James Shapiro. Now a movie is out, telling a fictional, imaginative story of how Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, wrote the
Continue readingwmtc: nyc reflections part 4: know the past, find the future, nypl centennial free book
Roy Blount contemplates the original Winnie-the-PoohI have one last snippet to share from our recent, brief trip to New York City. My friend NN, who writes this blog, surprised me with a wonderful gift. To celebrate its centennial, the New York Public …
Continue readingwmtc: fisk: "heaven be thanked that the soldiers cannot return to discover how their sacrifice has been turned into fashion appendage"
It’s that time of year again, the week when no one dares show their face on Canadian television, or indeed in any public place in Canada, without a red poppy symbol dutifully stuck on his or her lapel. What was once (supposedly) a remembrance of the ho…
Continue readingwmtc: "she is my family" and other revelations of humanity: s. brian willson in toronto
Guest post: Allan reports on “An Evening with S. Brian Willson”, a benefit for the War Resisters Support Campaign, Monday, November 7, 2011.(Willson speaking at a church in San Francisco, July 2011)Brian Willson’s life changed forever on one afternoon …
Continue readingwmtc: monday in toronto: "my own government labeled me a terrorist and attempted to murder me"
My own government labeled me a terrorist and attempted to murder me. My story is strongly relevant for activists today in this climate of an unending ‘war on terror.’S. Brian Willson, Vietnam War veteran and peace activistS. Brian Willson, a Vietnam Wa…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Linked To Earthquakes In The U.S.
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On the heels of yesterday’s report detailing Cuadrilla Resource’s admission that their fracking practices were responsible for small earthquakes in the U.K., new report…
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Nation Maker
Richard Gwyn talks about his new book Nation Maker, the second volume about the life and times of Sir. John A. Macdonald covering the period from Confederation until his death in 1891. Not that they likely give much thought to … Continue reading →
Red Tory v.3.0.3: Tale of the Norden Bombsight
Malcom Gladwell spins a fascinating story about the strange origins and ultimately twisted fate of a fabulously complicated yet practically hapless bomb-sighting device developed at extraordinary expense for the U.S. military in WWII.
It’s a wonder…
Continue readingwmtc: life, by keith richards, canadian content alert
This post – like its subject – is old but still relevant.Over the summer I read Life, Keith Richards’ memoirs. When I blogged about it here, I was loving it, but the book didn’t turn out to be as fascinating and excellent as that post implies. The best…
Continue readingwmtc: howard zinn on not predicting the future
There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion …
Continue readingwmtc: next weekend in toronto: conference on war resisters in north america
If you’re interested in the issue of war resistance and the history of war resisters in both Canada and the US, you’ll want to be at the Steelworkers Hall in Toronto next weekend, September 23 and 24. A major conference is taking place, organized by Hi…
Continue readingwmtc: this just in: racism in the u.s. now less obvious
Landmark Civil Rights Act Made Racism Slightly Less Overt (Season 1: Ep 3 on IFC)
Continue readingwmtc: 9.11.11: an anti-remembrance
Ten years on. Ten years of Islamophobia, endless war, the open rationalization of torture and massacre. Ten years of surveillance, insidiously creeping police state, witch hunts, shredding of personal freedoms. Nine years of torture, medical experiment…
Continue readingwmtc: you can look it up
“Can anyone on Capital [sic] Hill read?” demanded a sign held by a protester at one of the first Tea Party rallies, back in February of 2009.”If so read the ConstitutionAs Americans we do not have the right:To a houseTo a carTo an educationAmericans …
Continue readingwmtc: "we work to buy things that are built to die so that we must work to buy more things that will break"
Two weeks ago, my coffee maker broke. It was a electric percolator (I wrote about my preference for it here), made by Cuisinart. It’s the third such percolator I’ve had in a six-year span. One day they just stop working.I purchased this particular coff…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Much Ado About The Wrong Thing – Canadian Forces DisIntegration
As a political scientist and somewhat of a historian I prefer our system of government based on a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. I also appreciate the role that our historical links to the United Kingdom play in our multicultural …
Continue readingwmtc: heroic white people, "i am not a racist," and other thoughts on some old news
I recently read a few unrelated items that dealt with racism, equality and civil rights in the US, which raised some thoughts I want to share. This time I’m purposely burying the lede, putting the easy stuff up front.In this essay and review, author an…
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