Egoless divine pride: the most glorious concept I have ever heard – from Tibetan Buddhism. The Uttara Tantra elaborates: There once was a prince, who lost his memory and forgot who he was. Lost in forgetfulness and confusion, he wandered aimlessly, and became a homeless beggar. Years later, a minister
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CuriosityCat: From My Quotes Cupboard – Teddy Roosevelt
Old Joe Cannon, Speaker of the House, has reservations about Roosevelts methods: “Roosevelt’s all right,” Cannon tells a friend, “but he’s got no more use for the Constitution than a tomcat has for a marriage license.” The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris, New York: Ballantine 1979.
Continue readingPostArctica: Duane Michals
“Who gives a fuck about what he had for breakfast? These are stylistic ticks. The digital has changed the paradigms of photography. I had an opening in Boston and this woman had a little camera with her and kept exclaiming, ‘Everything is a photograph!’ That’s the problem. The bar has
Continue readingwmtc: everything else is either public relations or a misattributed quote
I saw this: and thought: that doesn’t sound like Orwell. I have read almost everything Orwell ever published, and will eventually read everything, including all the published letters. While no one could remember every line from every essay, this just doesn’t sound like our man Eric Blair to me. Orwell
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Revolutionary thought of the day: This war is murder, this conquest is robbery… If this war be called patriotism then blessed be treason. Clarence Darrow, 1898, on the Spanish-American war
Continue readingCalgary Grit: There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand
Stephen Harper has made a huge mistake. I’m not sure if Tom Mulcair has what it takes to be PM, but he’d make a fine Mr. Manager: NDP leader Tom Mulcair was wondering where $3.1 billion in unaccounted anti-terrorism spending went when he uttered this gem: “So the question is,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Where once they stood… #nlpoli
Labour federation boss Lana Payne made an interesting comment on Twitter over the weekend: “there is never a time for austerity.” Never. Ever. You can hear all those Newfoundland politicians from the 1920s applauding her from the grave. Those were the same politicians who spent the government into bankruptcy in
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Revolutionary thought of the day: “Mankind. Ready to kill. I wonder how humanity managed to survive.” “We overcame our instinct for violence.” — Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk, “Spectre of the Gun“, Star Trek, original air date December 31, 1969
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Revolutionary thought of the day: Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Oscar Wildefrom The Soul of Man under Socialism
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Giving the Devil the benefit of the law
A Man for All Seasons (1960) —————————————————————————————————- Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law! More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Roper: I’d cut down every law in England … Continue reading →
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Go Back To Sleep America, At Your Own Peril
I never reprint other people’s writings, no matter how good – but I will make an exception for this. This article is a true must-read. Please, take the time to read it. Then act. Good morning America. It’s time for a new day. Kudos and warm thanks to Jill Dalton
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Revolutionary thought of the day, this one brought to you by one of the world’s more famous revolutionaries.A bayonet is a tool with a worker at both ends.Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
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Revolutionary thought of the day: It is better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don’t want and get it. Eugene V. Debs
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Revolutionary thought of the day: I’d rather go to prison for desertion than kill a child by mistake. Camilo Mejia, US War Resister
Continue readingUnderlooked Stephen Harper quotes P7: Stephen Harper likes Paul Martin and his onslaught and slashing of the public sector.
I’ve decided to add another part to my underlooked Harper series upon reflection with new information in mind. All of the Stephen Harper quotes, unless otherwise noted, are dug up from the leaked Harper database of controversial quotes. I’m covering them because these haven’t gotten the media or blogger attention
Continue readingUnderlooked Stephen Harper quotes P7: Stephen Harper likes Paul Martin and his onslaught and slashing of the public sector.
“Whether I agree with what he’s doing or not, Paul Martin is obviously in the top of his area,” Harper says. “He has good support within his party, he’s very popular with within the cabinet and caucus and he’s just a very good performer as well.” “Those things all make him difficult to attack.”
24/07/1995
Harper had quite an appreciation for Paul Martin, and he made it vocal – and not just once, this isn’t an isolated incidence – there are at least 5 other quotes of fondness towards Paul Martin in the leaked compilation. It wasn’t just Harper, either, it was many on the right who had an admiration of sorts for Paul Martin, then Finance Minister under Jean Chrétien.
“The dirty secret of contempory Canadian politics,” neo-conservative David Frum wrote in 1998, “is that from the point of view of right-of-centre Canadians, the Liberals are running quite a tolerable government.” (1)
The reason for this is most obvious: under Chrétien and Paul Martin, the Liberals persisted, promoted and implemented economic neoliberalism – an assault on the public sector. Privatization, government downsizing, and of course, tax cuts.
If you noticed, Harper, and even David Frum, gave credit to the Liberals and Paul Martin well before he became Prime Minister in 2003. This is because Paul Martin had de-factor control of the economic direction of the federal government under Jean Chrétien.
Ministers and their ministries…effectively went into defensive mode….
In Chrétien’s government, Martin didn’t just decide how much had to be cut from total spending in the critically important 1995 budget; he and his senior officials actually decided how much each department would have to give up…
By allowing Martin and his financial officials to make all decisions, Chretien, in effect, handed the reins of government to his finance minister. (2)
And, boy, was Martin cruel. His budget cuts were incredibly steep. During the build-up to the 1995 budget, Martin and his staff handed sheets to each department minister with expected budget cuts as percent of spending over the next three years, and “the size of the required cuts left the ministers gasping: in many cases, they were all well above 50 per cent [reductions].” (3) For the Department of Industry, Martin expected a 60% reduction, and in conclusion, actually got around 50% budget cuts for two departments (Natural Resource and Transport).
In their 1995 budget the Grits introduced $25 billion in cuts and eliminated 45,000 jobs, approximately fourteen times the spending promises in their election manifesto, the Red Book. By 1997 Chretien’s [and Martin’s] government had downloaded roughly $6 billion to the provincial governments, an overall 30 percent reduction †.(1)
Some cuts were even steeper than Harper’s current expectations (around 30% from most departments – for example, in 2012, CBC is getting slashed 10 percent), a staggering reality*. Overall, though, they match**. Contrast to the expected loss of over 15,000 federal employees in 2012 thanks to the Conservatives.
Paul Martin appeased those on the right because Paul Martin did what those on the right wanted. Economically, there was barely any difference between the Liberal party and the Reform-then-Alliance (predecessor to the current Conservative party). Harper noticed this, too:
Only on some ‘social’ values are the Liberals and the Alliance [successor of the Reform party, predecessor of the CPC] radically different.
20/09/2000
Admitting there are only ‘social’ values that said parties disagreed on obviously means that economically, they’re quite similar, if not identical. Indeed, the economic direction of the Liberal party then is eerily similar to the economic policy of Harper’s government now – and it’s understandable. Martin did what Harper liked.
Harper even once referred to Paul Martin as the “messiah in waiting” for the Liberal party (07/10/2002).
† Some claim it to be as much as a 40 percent reduction (5). Such cuts had dire consequences for the provinces,
Newfounland lost $73 million, the equivalent of more than half of all payment to physician; Nova Scotia lost $118, or twice the provincial spending on mental health services; Quebec saw a $1.1 billion cut, the equivalent of half of all payments for doctors’ services. Ontario took the biggest hit at $1.4 billion – twenty times the amount spent on community health centres – and Manitoba lost $139 million, the amount it takes to operate the provinces sixty-five smaller hospitals.(6)
*Interesting note.
The departments that received the smallest cuts corresponded with what neo-liberals and economic rationalists traditionally saw as the core activities of the state: justice, immigration and foreign affairs and international trade… (4)
Again, very similar to the direction of our current Conservative government.
** Martin would later lighten up on his neoliberal fever for political reasons, similarly to Harper.
(1)Laird, Gordon. Slumming It at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada’s Right-wing Revolution. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998. Page 123-124
(2) Dobbin, Murray. Paul Martin: CEO for Canada? Toronto: James Lorimer &, 2003. Print. Page 67-68
(3) Ibid Page 74
(4) Ibid Page 76
(5) Barlow, Maude, and Bruce Campbell. Straight through the Heart: How the Liberals Abandoned the Just Society and What Canadians Can Do about It. Toronto: HarperPerennial, 1996. Print. Page 150
(6) Dobbin, Murray. Page 78
wmtc: rtod: a town without poverty. it happened in canada.
Revolutionary thought of the day: Initially, the Mincome program was conceived as a labour market experiment. The government wanted to know what would happen if everybody in town received a guaranteed income, and specifically, they wanted to know whether people would still work. It turns out they did. Only two
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Revolutionary thought of the day: That’s a very American value right there: if you screw up in your early 20s, you — and your children — are on your own for life. . . . Why does it seem like a reasonable policy suggestion to tell Jessica she needs a
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Revolutionary thought of the day: It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don’t want and get it. Eugene V. Debs
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Revolutionary thought of the day: Among the peoples of the world the idea of war resistance is growing. You must fearlessly accept the challenge and aggressively spread the idea of war resistance. You must convince the people to take disarmament into their own hands and to declare that they will
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