Only 92 Minutes of Exercise needed to Extend Life
Researcchers have done something great for us lazy people: figured out the bare minimum amount of exercise needed to extend your life. The short answer is 92 minutes per week…
August 2011
Money Runners for Marx
On Bloomberg today is a piece by George Magnus, senior economic advisor at UBS, on the relevance of Marxian ideas. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-29/give-marx-a-chance-to-save-the-world-economy-commentary-by-george-magnus.html Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World…
Will Olivia run for the top NDP job?
It would be interesting -- she could certainly keep some of the good will we've seen towards Jack Layton. That said, over the next four years (a little less) the…
And Now, Let the Leadership Race Games Begin…But Before That, Let’s View The Quebec Challenge
Speculation regarding Jack Layton’s successor had already begun within days following his death. Personally, I thought it was in poor taste. Kind of predatorial, really. I mean, couldn’t we bury…
HST Referendum Result Explained…
Data?WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'Data!ConventionalWisdomVille ...Those With Less Income Feel Regressive Consumption Tax The Most. The graph above was put together by Iglika Ivanova of the progressive 'Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' think-tank thi...
Has Libya Already Fallen to al-Qaeda?
According to Asia Times, the Libyan rebel commander now in charge in Tripoli and his colleagues elsewhere throughout the country are al-Qaeda assets.His name is Abdelhakim Belhaj. Some in the…
Québec Solidaire: A Québécois Approach to Building a Broad Left Party (Part I)
The following article is scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal Alternate Routes. It is an expanded and updated version of a presentation to the third annual…
Change We Can All Believe In
I give you the PCPO's new campaign slogan: "Change Tim Hudak". Works for me.PS. Its from the front of their new bus.
The Canadian Manifesto 4: God’s Army of Child Soldiers
"There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate. The Christian is not to take the law into his own hands and become a law unto himself.…
There can be no shortcuts for the Liberal Party
The Liberal Party of Canada's summer caucus meetings begin today in Ottawa, and I've already heard some rumblings and musings from those quarters that give me pause, and cause for…
US Presidency: Rick, George and Mitt
Rick Perry would be a dramatically different president than George Bush Junior was, if he lives up to his stated intentions. Unlike most recent Republican presidents, who have hypocritically preached…
Our fiscal Conservatives. Now it’s $750 for new military trucks.
As we spend our way into an elite military, Harper makes cuts to everything else that matters. Who cares if the military is shiny and buff when the rest of…
Is This Harper’s Plan for Athabasca?
The Australian government is moving to protect steelworkers' jobs against the impacts of its own carbon pricing regime at a cost of $36,000 per year per worker.In a report to…
Kapitalism = Capitalism – Regulation
Karl Marx had a theory of capitalism that few of us have managed to understand and fewer still accept. We wrote him off as a communist agitator, an enemy of…
Random notes on television comedy
August 11, 2011 On July 29, an article titled “Curb Your Racism” appeared on the widely read Mondoweiss, a blog devoted to “the war of ideas in the Middle East”.…
Steve Jobs’ Biggest Success: Sweatshops & Fat Salaries
The other day I mused on the simultaneous outpourings of sadness and loss over Jack Layton & Steve Jobs and what each of them represented. As I noted at the…
Christy Clark Dabbles in Tea Party Rhetoric
It’s one thing to lose a referendum on a regressive tax that came in on a lie, that was a tax shift from businesses to real human beings, and that…
The Stop Mulcair Movement
Just so everyone knows, I think it exists. It exists in all parties, when the supposed "front-runner" of a leadership battle who tends to be the opposite of what the…
I’m awake…
if what you're reading here grips you, holds you, fascinates you, provokes you, emboldens you, pushes you, galvanizes you, discomfits you, tickles you, enrages you so much that you find…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous content to start your week. - Ian Welsh reminds us of the golden rule that should govern politics and everyday interactions alike: To paraphrase many of the greatest religious…