Actions speak so much louder than words, especially when it comes to Israel attacking Palestinians. The current invasion of Gaza demonstrates that Israel’s claims to be targeting Hamas but not the Gaza Palestinian population is an outright lie. That much is blatant from the weapons used. What weapons? Try water.
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Politics and its Discontents: Richard Dawkins Says "Mild Pedophilia" Does No Harm
Scientist and atheist campaigner, Richard Dawkins, says it was “no harm, no foul” when a school master pulled young Dawkins onto his lap, shoved his hands down the boy’s pants and fondled him. “Richard Dawkins attempted to defend what he called ‘mild pedophilia,’ which, he says, he personally experienced as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Conspiracy Of One
It’s not uncommon for an RCMP Commissioner to jump through hoops at Stephen Harper’s bequest. We saw that when Zaccardelli gave Harper a leg up to victory by conjuring up an empty scandal about Ralph Goodale in mid-election campaign. Ominously for a country based on the rule of law, Zac
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: About That Invasion Of Gaza
To hear our political leaders tell it – the sorry lot of them – Israel is right to yet again invade Gaza. The Palestinians have it coming. It’s all the doing of Hamas. It’s a convenient and cowardly political posture. Harper probably believes it. Trudeau and Mulcair? Expedience, sheer craven
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: While Harper Fiddles, Canada Burns
There have been so many developments on the climate front of late that, collectively, give us a pretty stark warning and yet the media, the public and our political leadership are tuning out. We seem to be culturally embracing a sort of Andean fatalism that seems to precede abrupt civilizational
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: From The Climate-Change File: The Signs Are Getting Increasingly Ominous
A note from The Mound of Sound with the header, The Tundra’s a poppin’ alerted me to this strange tale from the far north in Siberia, where a giant crater has appeared. Says the Mound: Russian helicopter crews stumbled across what appears to be an 80-metre wide crater in Siberia.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: Climate Change By The Numbers
One of the great malignancies of the 20th century was the spread of neo-classical economics. the macro- and micro-stuff that you probably had to learn in university. I did a good bit of fraud work in my legal career. One of the key ways to unravel a well-crafted fraud was
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Lethal Dysfunction Of The Far Right: A Mound of Sound Guest Post
Problem: you’re already getting hammered by early-onset climate change. Solution: deny it’s happening, look the other way, think happy thoughts. It sounds ridiculously dysfunctional and it is but that is the approach being taken by governments, state and municipal, in parts of the American south. Take North Carolina, for example,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Has Harper Betrayed The West? A Mound Of Sound Guest Post
Recent summer flooding across southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba seems to be bringing the reality of climate change home to the people of the prairies and it’s drawing some unwelcome attention to prime minister Harper. Look, it was bound to happen. You can’t have once-a-century weather disasters arriving every two
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATED: From The Mound Of Sound: A Basis For Optimism
The Mound writes: Hi Lorne. I spotted this article in the ‘comments’ section of The Guardian. It’s been a while since I heard anything this encouraging on the climate change front: It’s something akin to an epidemic. In the Australian state of Queensland, solar power has become cheaper than coal-generated
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Avoiding Another Imbroglio: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post
This note from the Mound of Sound accompanied the post that follows: Some of the course material I’ve been going through lately got me thinking about the conflicts raging in Syria and Iraq. I got thinking about them in the context of water and food security as well as climate
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Guest Post From The Mound Of Sound
Steve Harper and his chums have transformed cognitive dissonance from an affliction into an art form. Harper’s prime directive, his overarching quest, is to get as much Athabasca bitumen as possible to foreign buyers as quickly as pipelines and tanker ports can be built. Now square that single-minded purpose with
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: The Lessons Of Afghanistan
Drawing upon his war studies course, The Mound of Sound offers the following perspective on what went wrong in Afghanistan: Bad leadership, especially when it is political and military, costs lives. Our miserable experience in Afghanistan and its aftermath has exposed just how bad Canada’s military and political leadership has
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post: Libya – We Screwed Up Good, Real Good
Libya, remember that place? That’s where NATO waged a bombing campaign against the forces of the late dictator, Muamar Gaddafi. When Gaddafi was ousted we figured we’d done real good. If you judge our warfighting prowess by the outcomes, Libya ranks right up there with Afghanistan. The country has become
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An F-35 Update From The Mound Of Sound
The Mound of Sound sent along this note, followed by his guest post on the F-35: I thought an update on the F-35 would be appropriate after reading Bill Sweetman’s latest piece in Aviation Week. He writes that this warplane’s Canadian backers are desperate to convince us that we don’t
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Is El Niño Set To Return?
Although he is taking a hiatus from his blog, The Mound of Sound is keeping very active in his research and studies. Those who read him regularly know of his ongoing deep concern with our terrible and heedless treatment of the world and its resources, pursuing lifestyles that cannot be
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: "I’ve Gone To The Dark Side": A Guest Post From The Mound Of Sound
I received this essay from Mound yesterday. He asked me to read it carefully before deciding whether to post it, given its dark, apocalyptic overtones. I acquiesced in the Mound’s request and concluded there was no way I would not put it on my blog, dealing as it does with
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Guest Essay From The Mound Of Sound: From Star Wars Back to Verdun
I’ve been updating my warfare knowledge base lately with a load of independent reading and an online course from the war studies department of King’s College, London. For those who wonder if the 21st century could be as bloody as the 20th was, what with WWI and WWII and all,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Guest Post: The Mound Of Sound On Oligarchy
I am pleased to present to you this second guest post by the Mound of Sound, a.k.a. The Disaffected Lib: When the “Greatest Democracy on Earth” closes up shop and re-opens as an oligarchy every other supposed democracy, including our own, better sit up and take notice. The United States
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Guest Post From The Mound Of Sound
I have missed reading the Mound of Sound since he put his blog, The Disaffected Lib, on hiatus about five weeks ago. A man of wide-ranging interests and passions, his posts on climate change and politics never failed to catch my attention and stimulate my own reading and research. Yesterday
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