Horatio Alger mythology is designed to make us leave the 1% alone and shut the fuck up. If you haven’t yet seen John Oliver’s amazing rant about the perils of inequality and how the rich shame us out of talking about it by suggesting we’re trying to invoke class warfare,
Continue readingTag: Morality
Politics, Re-Spun: BC’s Deep Deep Racism, Shhhh!
Shhh, this is uncomfortable. It might make you ashamed. Hopefully it will anger you to action? First Nations burial grounds in BC have less protection than settler cemeteries. Along with desecration at a Musqueam burial site, someone is building their home on top of another burial ground on Grace Islet
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Has Changed the Narrative, But We’re Not Done
Recently, with the WEF spending the last few years acknowledging global income inequality is a problem, I’ve declared a kind of victory for the Occupy Movement: getting the lexicon on the 1% and inequality on the tongues of the sly gazillionaires who rule the world, and into mass consumption. Now
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Tsilhqot’in Land Title Ruling Can Help Kill Enbridge
Watch Pam Palmater’s response to the SCC ruling. Click above. Stephen Harper had about a week to enjoy the glory of his remarkably understated whispery notification that the Enbridge climate killing pipeline will proceed. Yesterday the Supreme Court shut down the prime minister, which they have a tendency to do
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Is Christianity Moral
You can bet your bottom dollar it is not, but let’s allow DarkMatter2525 illustrate yet another putrid facet of the glory of christianity. Mmm…sweet sweet torture symbols for the winz! Filed under: Religion Tagged: christian “morality”, DarkMatter2525, Morality, Religion, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice, Torture
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Let’s Play Cowboys and Indians
Why not? It seems to be working in Washington, DC. And you know what? They’ve got our backs. When ranchers are farmers and tribal communities realize that the tarsands and their toxic pipelines threaten us all, it’s pretty easy to figure out how working together gets things done. They’re even
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop. Obeying. The. Rich. NOW!
Once upon a time, we were taught to envy and respect our “betters,” like the rich. No more. They’re taking our money and throwing us under the bus every day. And it’s not even just the super-rich or those in America, it’s the aspirational rich; they’re just as toxic. This
Continue readingProstitution—keeping the state out of our bedrooms
“There’s no place for the state,” a prime minister once said, “in the bedrooms of the nation.” I hope Justice Minister Peter MacKay and his colleagues keep that sage advice in mind as they draft our new prostitution laws. The state’s primary responsibility, indeed one might almost say the purpose
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Capitalism: Swing Your Sledgehammer
It’s all about vision and hope, in an effort to envision how economics and markets can exist after the toxicity of capitalism is gone, gone gone. Are you up for it? Last night, John Holloway, author of Crack Capitalism, was the SFU Institute for the Humanities‘ guest lecturer, skyped in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Eating the Poor
Do you look up to the 1%? How could you? Come, children, let’s take a look! Fact: The world’s 85 richest people hold the same amount of wealth as its 3.5 billion poorest. Opinion: “It’s fantastic, and this is a great thing because it inspires everybody, gets them motivation to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Cheap T-Shirts Keep Harper in Power
Whenever I read stories about corporations wanting to do the right thing, I never hold my breath. Clothing corporations, the sector where “sweatshops” originates, want us to believe they care. They don’t. Read what nonsense they are trying to peddle to get us off their back for exploiting people so
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Occupy Movement is Enriching People’s Lives
Imagine an eco-community of micro-homes designed as a first step out of homelessness. Housing, easy to get into, if people care. Occupy Madison in Wisconsin has come up with an innovative first step of a solution [see below]. These 96 square foot homes are no long term solution, at all.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ending Homelessness: Easy If You Simply Care
If we are a caring society. If we acknowledge that there are a myriad of reasons why a community’s homeless population is homeless. If we thought we should invest our tax dollars and take advantage of good research, good experience, good pilot projects and professionals to address homelessness and other
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Greed + Government Cuts Erode Society [Bah, Humbug!]
The greedy and selfish among us are NOT on our side. Happy Christmas Eve! I hope you’re all giving lots of money to charities because ’tis the season and all that. But what happens if generally, as a society, we can’t or won’t give so much? Coupled with public sector
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing Cyncial Corporate Media
How to inoculate yourself against cynical corporate media. Corporate news media is not on our side. It is on the side of stoking fear, cynically eroding possibilities of a better, more robust democracy, and scaring us into obedience to corporations and government through sensational stories that undermine our happiness. But
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Morality of Online Poker
For years, I have engaged in a rather profitable side hobby: online poker. Poker is a fascinating game with layers upon layers of complexity, and I love the challenge, the excitement, and the competition of it. It is also very profitable, even for someone like me who doesn’t intend to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Are We Good Allies to First Nations?
This is what solidarity looks like; make sure it’s authentic! Lots of us care about deepening relationships with and social/economic/political justice for first peoples. It’s hard to come in, though, sometimes as a person from an oppressor or settler class. But there is a good checklist to make sure we’re
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop Saying Tax “Haven” and Tax “Burden”
The finance minister and his tax evasion buddy. The latest nonsense of the hyper-rich 1% and their political compradors has reminded us once again, that the rich hide their money from government to avoid paying taxes…because they’re rich and can get their way. Part of how they do that is
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: No more excuses
There is no question: this generation will be held responsible for our actions, and even more, for our inaction. Apathy, complacency and denial are morally unacceptable. In fact, at this time in human history, they are nothing less than complicity in the worst of collective atrocities. We must act now.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: BC’s Child Support Clawback Hurts Kids
British Columbia’s Child Support Clawback for Children of Parents on Government Assistance Hurts Kids When I bring up the issue of the child support clawback in British Columbia affecting single parents on temporary or disability assistance through the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation, most people are completely unaware
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