This holiday season, give a gift that entertains, educates, and informs – all for free. I am happy to announce – back by popular demand – another season of “Give Library”. Your favourite library branch has beautifully packaged library cards ready for you to pick up. Vancouver Island Regional Library
Continue readingTag: mental health
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – As affordability takes a central place in most Canadian election campaigns, Kofi Hope and Katrina Miller propose a definition based on public health: Health is the great equalizer. No matter where we’re from, what our values are, what our age or our political
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Abby Innes writes that the UK’s general election reflects a decision point as to whether to discard neoliberalism to serve the public, or democracy for the benefit of plutocrats. And Trish Hennessy looks at Cleveland’s move to ensure a democratic economic system, including
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: 18 HOURS
A Guest Post From a Tired Caregiver With a short break for sleep, my teenaged daughter Lily has screamed, shouted, ranted and thrown household objects for 18 hours straight. She follows me outside and from room to room inside. If I lock a door, she pounds on it and shouts.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here (via PressReader), on how the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that Canadian voters can choose substantial social and environmental progress that’s well within our means – even if the two main parties are determined to offer far less. For further reading…– Jeffrey Brooke wrote here about the origins of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The L.A. Times’ editorial board comments on the need for everybody to pitch in toward a just transition which preserves a habitable planet – including by moving away from reliance on fossil fuels. But Natalie Hanman interviews Naomi Klein about what instead looks
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Krugman weighs in on the scam that is trickle-down economics, particularly in the form of tax-free zones which encourage domestic tax evasion. – Timothy Taylor writes about the changing nature of work – while highlighting that workers who value secure and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Cannings comments on the need for governments to collect a fair share of revenue from wealthy individuals and corporations. And Erin Weir argues that Canada’s federal government shouldn’t subsidize Jason Kenney’s corporate tax giveaway with abatements on federal taxes. – Meanwhile, Paul
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Cancer and Lymphedema: Two Year Update
In the span of one year, from August 2016 to July 2017, I was told I had three tumours in my left breast which led to three surgeries, which provoked lymphedema, and my dad died, and both my adult kids moved back home in the winter, one at the end of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mike Pearl discusses the climate despair of people understandably having difficulty working toward a longer term which is utterly neglected in our most important social decisions. But Macleans’ feature on climate change includes both Alanna Mitchell’s take on what a zero-emission future might
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Joanne Light and Cathy Orlando point out that we don’t have any more time to waste in reining in a climate breakdown in progress. And Justin Ling writes that we should be far more concerned about Canada’s massive and increasing deficit in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Sigal Samuel reports on Gary Bloch’s work in prescribing secure incomes to address health problems arising out of poverty. And Murtada Haizer and Stephen Moranis point out the massive social and economic returns on investments in community housing. – D.C. Fraser reports on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ethan Cox reports on the massive public support in Canada for a wealth tax. David Hetherington writes that the wealthy few go out of their way to avoid any personal interaction with the realities of economic inequality – making it absurd to accept
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Seligman’s Hope Circuit
Martin Seligman is famous for a learned helplessness study I wrote about a few years back: In a famous experiment, dogs were put in a compartment and trained to jump a barrier when given an electric shock. After one or two tries, the dogs jumped the barrier immediately after being
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jason Hickel challenges the spin that poverty and inequality are being meaningfully reduced around the world as our global economy is currently structured. Sarah Marsh reports on the reemergence of “Dickensian diseases” as a result of cuts to social supports in the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Continuums: ASD, OCD, ADHD, Alzheimers, and Allergies
Since the Aspergers designation was excluded from the DSM V, many people were, and are, outraged that all cases fall under the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) instead of the separate categories of Autism and Aspergers. There is a world of difference between someone who has some mild problems understanding social
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Linda Solomon Wood writes that Canadians need to be wary of fake news being propagated in our midst: (W)e face a continuous, deliberate, planned assault on the truth. Not just on the facts themselves, but on truth as an idea. On truth
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Trish Garner comments on the need to acknowledge the humanity of people living in poverty – which leads to the inescapable need to use readily-available resources to ensure a reasonable standard of living. And Arindrajit Dube studies the effect of an increased minimum
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Guardian’s editorial board writes that stagnating and even declining life expectancies and nother indications of declining social health are the result of purely political choices: In 2010 a government-commissioned review looking at the relationship between health and wealth – only the
Continue readingwmtc: i need a canada for my subconscious: the kavanaugh hearings and we go on
I avoided the Kavanaugh hearings as long as I could. I used to take a special interest whenever survivors go public. I’d read everything I could, write letters to newspapers, speak out on social media. Send a note of support to the woman. Find the sisterhood, share the pain. This
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