June 2011
Fixing America’s Economy In Under 2:15
I know this is beginning to sound like a broken record but, as Robert Reich explains in under 2 minutes, 15 seconds, America's economic future depends on restoring that country's…
NDP Convention Question #1
Would it not make more sense to have all of Canada orange on that nice mural, instead of just the parts of Canada that supported you? The deeper question here…
Which Side Are You On Boy
Which side are you on? The zeitgeist is shifting. People are starting to question our owners. Maybe, just maybe, we can head off a lot of needless suffering.
A Housing Benefit for Ontario: An Affordable Plan To Help Alleviate Hunger and Homelessness
Anyone who has read this blog knows that the issues of poverty,hunger and homelessness are of particular interest to me, so when I come across a plan to help alleviate…
Kulchur
For those who think that the word “culture” applies to something pure and “authentic,” I found this account of the destruction of a sweat lodge in the Cree village of…
Weekly Round-Up: June 12 to June 18
Sunday, June 12 | National Post - First Nations ‘seeking clarity’ in a new name “Only a couple weeks into the Harper majority government, Aboriginal relations already seem off to…
You Teach People How To Treat You
The choice is yours.That's right, it's cryptic message day here at PDO.
Casting an Open Net in Ottawa
OpenMedia.ca met with eleven pro-Internet Members of Parliament Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa to discuss our community-crafted research report, Casting An Open Net, and to highlight to lawmakers that Canadians…
When the Con Party Animals Go Wild
Lardy. Bean me with a bacon bit...or a Vienna sausage. They don't call them Con hogs for nothing eh? But who knew they were such party animals? Prime Minister Stephen…
Autism and Haircuts: Conor Has A Great Haircut Treat Adventure
Above: Conor after this morning's haircut. Below: Conor before this morning's haircut. Conor has full blown Autistic Disorder with profound developmental delays. Haircuts were a real challenge at one time.…
Favourite Poems XXXIX
The story of how Coleridge came to write this famous poem is probably too well known to bear repeating (but nonetheless is found here, for example.) I have sometimes wondered…
NDP can see the road ahead and it leads to the Government benches
I wish I were in Vancouver for the NDP's convention. Too bad I have too work at a regular job! The next best thing to being in Vancouver is the…
Obama is a centrist president.
The left has given up him, calling him far too empathetic to the right. Meanwhile, the right continues to paint Obama as a Marxist Socialist Muslim with the most savage…
Still Progressive and family friendly: evaluating Québec’s income tax policy
University of Sherbrooke economist and fiscal specialist Luc Godbout with Suzie St-Cerny and Michaël Robert-Angers has just published a timely research paper evaluating the net fiscal impact on households of…
Orwell as Nostradamus
George Orwell, 1984: “She had without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a…
Media Misses New Report from Information Commissioner: Nearly Half of Information Requests Processed Illegally
Appallingly, all but CTV appears to have missed this week’s tabling of the annual report of the Information Commissioner, which makes for disturbing if characteristically dry reading. I’ll admit, I…
Rustling the branches of my old family tree
You’ve probably seen the advertisements for Ancestry.ca (or dot-com elsewhere). A few weeks ago I decided to give it a test-drive and I must say I’m hooked! The program isn’t…
Gaddafi — Israeli agent?
It's interesting that the street artists for the rebels in Libya decide to paint pictures of Gaddafi with a Star of David. I suppose it is not seen as anything…