On countermovements
Alison is right to highlight the latest right-wing astroturf group in Canada. But we shouldn't assume that mere exposure will meaningfully affect the growth of corporate-owned politics alone.As is typically…
2016
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Hugh MacKenzie reminds us how quickly Canada's richest CEOs will exceed the income of the average Canadian worker on the year's first work day.…
That’s Just Funny
http://www.theguardian.com/It was never going to be easy reforming our electoral syst...
140 Law – Legal Headlines for the Week of January 4, 2016
Happy New Year! Here is our first batch of leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter of 2016:When is a patient dead? It may depend on which doctor makes…
Floating Dam to Capture Waste in the North Sea
The world’s oceans are polluted with massive amounts of waste plastics, so much so that we’ve had to name a grouping of plastic waste because it’s so large. There are…
Michael Harris On Rona Ambrose and the Con War On Electoral Reform
As we all know, Rona Ambrose can on occasion, and even without realizing it, be quite funny.Like the time she found herself agreeing with Australia's Stoner Sloth that marijuana makes…
Fight for BC’s Central Walbran Valley Reignited As Government Allows Old-Growth Logging
This is a guest post by Daniel J. Pierce. The early 1990s was a pivotal time for the forest industry and for forest activism in British Columbia. Massive demonstrations and…
The indestructible Premier Wynne.
Readers of Babel-on-the-Bay have gotten the impression that we do not approve of the Ontario government of Premier Kathleen Wynne. The truth is there is a small possibility that she…
The Bridge to Ottawa #nlpoli
Premier Dwight Ball said everything is on the table to deal with the massive financial problem facing his administration.And then, in a string of year-end interviews, Ball immediately took everything…
2016 in Abstract
On New Year’s Eve around midnight, my two girls and I stuck our heads out the window that’s missing a screen so we could watch the fireworks, and then someone…
This takes guts
Good luck to him and his family.
Five Resolutions for Rachel Notley
Ms Soapbox’s first round of New Year’s resolutions for a politician (Alison Redford) were ignored, but she’s a persistent soul and will try again. This time she’s prepared five resolutions…
A Perfect Explanation for Climate Change Denialism
The dumb are too dumb to know just how dumb they really are. That's seriously dumb, sometimes dangerously dumb. It's "here, hold my beer - now watch this" dumb.There's a…
Dec.3: a very general sort of day…
This is a day of odds and ends with no news that really stands out. As I first watched the American leadership debates, I was struck by the lack of…
A New NATO Charter
It's a problem that afflicts any club. One it starts growing it inevitably lets in some members who are true dickheads. First everything starts going all to hell then rules…
Rafe: Liberals’ broken promises should make for tough election year
The Clark Liberals' broken LNG promises should make for a rough ride this coming election year, says Rafe Mair - but can John Horgan and the NDP capitalize?The post Rafe:…
Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading.- Ian Welsh summarizes why inequality is intrinsically problematic:Even where people’s needs are met, the more unequal a society the more unhealthy everyone is and…
Truth is Like Poetry
... and people fucking hate poetry. It's a line from the excellent film The Big Short, which is brought to us by Adam McKay, the director known for goofball comedies…
Candy Crush VS The News
It would literally be better if people spent their entire day, every day, playing Candy Crush or solitaire, than watching, listening to or reading “the news” – or better, if…