To end the year on a fittingly sardonic note, here’s Charlie Brooker’s brilliant take on the past twelve months as darkly viewed through the pop culture lens of a jaded media critic: If nothing else, you can just skip about half way through the video to enjoy a short documentary
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Red Tory v.3.0.3: Rex Murphy’s Year Ender
CBC’s professional curmudgeon offers up his patented barnacle encrusted summary of the year’s events: If you had hypothetically slept through the entire year like Rip Van Winkle and suddenly awoken to watch that demoralizing re-cap, might you not have been quite glad to have missed the whole demoralizing affair in
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Rainbow Pipeline Leak — Eight Months Later…
It has been 8 months since Plains Midstream Canada reported that there had been a Rainbow Pipeline leak, 100 km NE of Peace River, Alberta. As of December 2, 2011, there have been no updates made to the Plains Midstream Canada web site. [ Web Updates ] The largest Alberta
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How You Can Support the Gitxsan Blockade
Photo courtesy of Gitxsan Against Enbridge website. Despite very public chest thumping, trumpeting and proclamations by Enbridge, mainstream media and Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick, the song remains the same: the Northern Gateway Project is unwelcome in Northern B.C. As the angry, indignant and brave members of the Gitxsan Nation
Continue readingExcited Delirium: Global Research ’2011 Year of the Dupe’: An Awesome Read
Read ‘2011 Year of the Dupe’ by Global Research. You’ll enjoy it and appreciate some truth for a change.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On sure signs
I’d think Don Martin would have dealt with political actors enough to know when he’s being spun. But since his latest post suggests otherwise, let’s offer up what looks to be a sorely-needed hint. When partisan spinners declare that they can’t lose, it isn’t evidence of cleverness or insight. Instead,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Book Review: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans
“I think Hannah Arendt did say somewhere in The Origins of Totalitarianism that the thesis of the modern state is: ‘Everyone should die.’” –Suffled How it Gush (pg. 74) I have joked with my partner that I have a certain amount of angst regarding my future as any sort of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Taxing Capital Gains
The following also appears in The Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab: Earlier this week, Kevin Milligan questioned proposals “to increase the tax on capital gains.” Currently, Canadian income tax applies to only 50 per cent of capital gains. Milligan argues that light personal taxation is justified for income that has
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Liberal News Media? – Capitalism is Trampling on Journalism.
People still cling to the idea that we have a liberal news bias in the media – Let’s look to the problem of global warming in an example from Media Lens. “[…] Equally disturbing is the variation in media performance across the globe. A wide-ranging Reuters study on the prevalence
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Conservative Health Transfers
During the federal election, I noted in a Toronto Star op-ed that the federal Conservative platform entails significant fiscal costs for provincial governments. I accepted the Conservatives’ promise to continue the 6% escalator for the Canada Health Transfer, but worried that they might cut other transfers of similar value. Today,
Continue readingArt Threat: Volkswagen bends to critique, pulls sexist ad
Still from the Volkswagen Passat television ad in question. Volkswagen Canada has pulled the 2011 Passat TV ad “It pretty much sells itself” from its official YouTube channel and from TV rotation, including a prominent pre-roll spot on CBC News. Judging from Volkswagen Canada’s official Twitter account, the decision to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On reasonable standards
A quick thought on how Canadian pundits may want to evaluate how political parties do their jobs – which looks to be particularly relevant given the entirely justified criticisms being levelled at the Harper Cons. In evaluating how a party handles any given issue, it might be worth taking a
Continue readingeaves.ca: Not Brain Candy: A Review of The Information Diet by Clay Johnson
My body no longer kills me when I come back from the gym. However, I had a moment of total humiliation today: theoretically my ideal body weight is 172 pounds and I weigh 153 Ibs. The woman at the gym calibrated my fat/water/meat/bone ratios, made an inward gasp and
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: What’s in YOUR drinking water? In Hamilton it could be Scotchgard ™
Several months ago, back in the spring of this year, Radio Canada ran an investigative report regarding the run-off of chemicals from John Munro International Airport at Mount Hope, the highest point in Hamilton. This was prompted after a lot of fish and turtles were turning up dead downstream in
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Kyoto backlash
It’s been over a week since my last post. Too much has been going on but I did want to talk about Peter Kent announcing Canada is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, or rather forcing the world to pull out of Canada so we don’t get fucked with $14
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Bruce Campbell comments on the link between rising inequality and declining democracy, while Rachel Mendleson notes that the erosion of workplace democracy and the labour movement is a key factor in both. – Meanwhile, Erin points out that while decades of corporatist policy
Continue readingTerahertz: Daily Split interview on assisted suicide
Last week I did an interview for the show The Daily Split. The shows plays on VisionTV and this episode played last night. My interview starts at 7:15 (which should be set in the embed below) and the host, Brian discusses assisted suicide further in his closing remarks “House of
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Iowa ABC GOP Nomination Debate Analysis
The following is an assortment of unordered commentary on the people, politics and policies from the Iowa ABC/Yahoo GOP nomination debate. Gingrich vs Romney et al: This was the first debate where Gingrich was now a clear front runner and it showed by many people going after him much as
Continue readingGo figure …
Via Pulse Some got it right though … See also here and here [via Media Lens]
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