The Age of Reason – Cancelled Due to Lack of Interest
For more than three centuries we’ve basked in the warm glow of the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Well, according to Australian prof, Clive Hamilton, for the Age of Reason…
The Mound of Sound
Canada Should Stall on Climate Change Deal – Jim Prentice
Former Harper cabinet minister, now CIBC veep, Jim Prentice thinks Canada should postpone negotiating a continental pact on climate change until after Barack Obama has left the White House. Prentice,…
Das Auto Pushes Back in Tennessee
You’ve got a car plant and your workers there may want to organize a union. You could fight back in all sorts of ways but, no, you say “it’s your…
Reflections on Living Under a Secrecy-Obsessed Government
One of the most odious aspects of Stephen Harper’s nature is his penchant for secrecy and the suppression of information. We’ve become almost acclimated to it. far too much so.…
About that "Hiatus" in Surface Warming
Climate change denialists have latched fiercely on research showing an apparent hiatus in global surface temperature warming. They spin it to claim that global warming is over or never was…
America’s Rex Murphy
Not that I would wish someone like Rex Murphy on any country, even America. That said, there are eerie parallels to be drawn between our man’s slide into neo-conservatism and…
2015 – Will Britain Have to Endure a Year Without War?
There’s a real prospect that next year could break a streak of more than 100-consecutive years in which Britain’s military has engaged in some form of armed conflict. Today’s lead…
Making Sense of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death
The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman elicited a range of powerful emotions. Some expressed empathy and sorrow. Others were incredibly dismissive and hostile. It made me realize how removed most…
Could We, You and Me, Become Democratically Damaged Goods?
We Canadians live in a significantly authoritarian state. Ours is becoming something of a Surveillance State. We have secret police agencies that include the state security apparatus and that liase…
Crusty Clark’s Throne Speech – Barf
We’ve got nobody to blame for it but ourselves. Well, ourselves and that dork who led the NDP in the last provincial election. “It” was Crusty Clark’s throne speech delivered…
Even Lockheed Can Do the Right Thing When They Put Their Minds To It.
Lockheed Martin, yes that Lockheed Martin, is about to create the world’s largest wave-energy project off the coast of Victoria, Australia. For about the cost of a brace of its…
Pope Francis, the "Che Guevara" of the Palestinians?
The Israeli government will be keeping a sharp eye on Pope Francis to ensure he stays in line during his upcoming visit. An Argentinian rabbi and member of that country’s…
Corporatism Rides Roughshod Over Tennessee. You Wonder Where Harper Gets It.
Since he came to power, Steve Harper has shown himself to be staunchly anti-labour. The mere hint of collective bargaining turns him apoplectic. He runs into the public square, yells…
One Fact that Puts Iran in a Different Perspective
The Israeli lobby and their rightwing stooges in governments in North America keep feeding us images of a nuclear-armed, Dark Ages Iran, steeped in Sharia law and bloodlust. Look at…
So Much Cheaper When You Spy On Everyone
Volume, volume, volume. When you’re a surveillance state there are real economies of scale to spying on everyone. America’s security apparatus is said to keep tabs on about 315-million people.…
They Could Have Been Speaking of Stephen Harper
As I pored over these observations on tyranny, I thought each of these men and women could have easily been speaking of Stephen Harper. “Withholding information is the essence of…
Obamacare Chuckle
The rabid Right has made much of a Congressional Budget Office analysis that upwards of 2-million Americans might give up their jobs due to Obamacare. The Right depicted it as…
Marine Migration is the Bellweather of Climate Change
For the past couple of years I’ve been noticing the arrival of newcomers to our local waters. Humboldt squid, the denizens of the Sea of Cortez, washing up in their…
Have Humans Become a Climate Change "Feedback Mechanism"?
In case you’re wondering, we’re considered a “positive feedback” From Australia to California, Atlanta to London, climate change has settled in as a more or less permanent fixture. Australia is…
Yeah, It’s Despotic. Ask the Council of Canadians
As usual, count on The Council of Canadians to call out the Harper government while the opposition cowers in corners.