How much would you give to protect your own religious freedom? Probably a lot, from money, to political action, to perhaps your life. I suspect you would give comparably to protect that freedom of another Canadian. Now what would you give to protect the religious freedom of only people in
Continue readingTag: International
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: The war machine grinds on
Marines promoted inflated story for Medal of Honor winner, By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers, Dec. 14, 2011 “WASHINGTON — With Dakota Meyer standing at attention in his dress uniform, sweat glistening on his forehead under the television lights, President Barack Obama extolled the former Marine corporal for the “extraordinary
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Credit where it’s due: Conservatives speak out against Nigeria’s anti-same-sex marriage bill.
The Stephen Harper Conservatives have spoken out against a proposal in Nigeria to further criminalize gays and lesbians, and — at least as significantly — those who would ally, advocate for or even just silently tolerate their existence. Yup, you heard that right. If you’ve read my other writings about
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Aarchive: Anti-Abortion Lobby Dances on the Graves
(This post previously appeared at The Bilerico Project) Recently, leaders of Commonwealth nations met to discuss pressing international issues, and leaders from the U.K., Canada and others pressed for human rights reforms for LGBT people. British Prime Minister David Cameron went so far as to threaten to cut off aid
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: A message from Amnesty International
Shell: Own Up and Pay Up to Clean Up the Niger Delta Dear Supporter, There used to be life and hope in the Niger Delta town of Bodo, a village filled with thriving fish ponds and mangrove trees. Then in 2008, two oil spills changed everything — twice, nearby Shell
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: What will you tell us next?
More sleaze reports: Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes? Federal Judge Pimp-Slaps the SEC Over Citigroup Settlement Congressional perks: Lawmakers’ most surprising benefits Super-PACs and Dark Money: ProPublica’s Guide to the New World of Campaign Finance More Money Can Beat Big Money
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Akaash Maharaj – Globe and Mail: Eric Lamaze and the Death of Hickstead
All horsemen know the proverb that for every rider there is one horse, and for every horse there is one rider. The death of Hickstead, the Canadian Equestrian Team’s Olympic gold medallist stallion, has cast a pall not only over our team’s prospects at the 2012 games, but more importantly
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Willing to help with the oil resource curse
Aljazeera, US troops to help Uganda fight rebels
“US President Barack Obama has announced he is deploying 100 “combat-equipped” troops to Uganda to help efforts against rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who have been accused of grievous human…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Taking action when business is slow…
“The FBI has received substantial criticism over the past decade — much of it valid — but nobody can deny its record of excellence in thwarting its own Terrorist plots.
“Time and again, the FBI concocts a Terrorist attack, infiltrates Muslim com…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Killing machines have no conscience
In there irony in America’s rush to deploy drones and remote controlled weaponry around the world?
From Joseph Nevins at the Boston Review, Robocop:
In September 2010 the House Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Caucus held a technology fair. In the …
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Fueling jihadist sentiment
The Terrorism Issue That Wasn’t Discussed
by Gareth Porter, CommonDreams.org
In the commentary on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the news and infotainment media have predictably framed the discussion by the question of how successful the CIA and t…
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Guest Post: Beth Elliott’s Rebuttal of the Brennan-Hungerford Submission
Beth Elliott is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, musician and lesbian activist. The first transsexual woman to transition to be an out lesbian, she served a year’s term as Vice President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (1971-72), but was purged from the organization three months later. She was one 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Less Than Woman, Less Than Human
Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford have tendered a paper to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, in response to a query regarding the current international status of women. From this exercise, the Commission will be working to “identify emerging trends and patterns of injustice and discriminatory practices against women 
Dented Blue Mercedes: The Facts About India’s Infant “Sex Changes”
Canadian and international press outlets reported last month that in India, the preference to have male children is so strong that parents are having their female infants surgically assigned (a.k.a. “sex changes”) to male. There were all sorts of problems with this story, but some of the verdicts have come in. Here are the facts 
antigonemagazine.wordpress.com: Women’s Worlds 2011
Women’s Worlds 2011 has blasted through barriers and has broken new ground over the last four days that it has taken place in Ottawa. I have had the privilege to be a part of it as a participant, a presenter and as the BC Network Leader for the non-profit participation part of the conference.
Continue readingPolygonic: Some summit perspective
G8 times are here again! And France gets its day in the sun as host, which clearly heralds the ascent of a new French Order in Europe and the world. It will inevitably send their newspapers and TV chat hosts into a month-long tizzy of neurotic self-congratulation and overblown patriotism. Nicolas Sarkozy will almost certainly […]
Death By Trolley: Why Japanese Healthcare is More Efficient Than Canadian and US Healthcare
A recently published report by the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit economics and policy research organization, indicates that Canadians are spending more on their healthcare and getting less than most advanced nations. Canada spend more annually per capita on healthcare – $4100/person, or 10% of GDP – than all but three advanced nations, but […]
Death By Trolley: The Wall Street Triple-Penetration
The Young Turks have ran a number of stories on how major investment banks have gamed the US and global economic systems. In the video presented below, they discuss how major investment bankers (e.g., Goldman Sachs) have effectively triple penetrated their investors and the global oil market, which affects all of us by driving up […]
The Progressive Right: Portugal — Drug Experiment
Portugal must be a social conservative’s worst nightmare.
For one, they decriminalized possession of narcotics ten years ago, increased treatment for addiction and targeted their criminal prosecution efforts solely on distribution and trafficking. [D…
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Akaash Maharaj – Globe and Mail: Unashamed to Own the Podium
Reflecting on my own experiences representing Canada in international sport, I argue that good sportsmanship and the virtues of sport are inextricably bound-up with the determined pursuit of sporting excellence, despite the scattered carping over the O…
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