Hey, Toronto. Time You Went Underground.
In my neighbourhood we don’t have any overhead wires. They’re all buried – phone, cable and electric. You don’t notice it until you pass through a neighbourhood where they’re not…
The Mound of Sound
Bezos, You Bozo, It’s Still Just Another Job-Killing Warehouse
I’m coming to loathe Amazon even if that intrudes on the loathing space I have for WalMart. Amazon, like WalMart, isn’t exactly employment-friendly. It doesn’t create jobs in your community,…
It Doesn’t Sound Crazy Unless You Think About It.
Stephen Harper has this knee-jerk instinct to deregulate just about anything he can. Captain Listeria did a wonderful job handing self-regulation to the meat packing industry. On his watch the…
Peter Essick Chronicles Climate Change in Photo Essay
Here are a few photos taken by NatGeo photog Peter Essick to record climate change impacts We begin in Athabasca with an image of a Tar Sands tailing pond. Don’t…
Science Links Arctic Melt to Our Climate Mayhem
Most of us had this figured out but a team of Chinese and American researchers have inked the link between Arctic snow and ice loss and the devastating heat waves,…
Can Heroes Ever Be Traitors?
Are Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden heroes or traitors? Retired U.S. Army commander turned academic, Andrew J. Bacevich, doesn’t know the answer but has some fascinating insights into how it…
Seriously, I Want You to Read This Book. Yeah, All of You.
I’d like to recommend a book that I think we should all read in the coming year, “Beyond Growth” by former World Bank chief economist, Herman E. Daly. Beyond Growth…
The F-35 – a "Technical Miscalculation"
What do you think the chances are that Canada will get saddled with Lockheed’s F-35 light attack bomber? South Korea is aboard, so is Japan. Norway is buying some along…
Like Peas in a Pod. Harper and Abbott.
There’s a sort of pathology at work in right wingers like Stephen Harper or his new Australian buddy, Tony Abbott. They’ve both got the instincts of a wolverine inside a…
Christmas Eve is not for Hermits
When you’re a hermit by inclination, one or two close friends and a loved one is all it takes to send you to a place you simply dread. That’s why…
Will 2013 Be Remembered as the Year We Discovered the "R" Word?
Looking back, it seems like I heard a lot of the R-word this year. I heard it all the time from Chris Hedges. I heard it from Naomi Klein. I…
Wherein Dusty Takes Down the Whole Damned Mess of Ducks and Their Dynasty
Ordinarily I wouldn’t post a clip with this much vulgarity but that’s what you get from this guy, Dusty, and he does a fine job of plucking the feathers from…
Joe Stiglitz On a People Stripped of Trust
Nobel laureate economist Joe Stiglitz has a thoughtful op-ed in today’s New York Times about the collapse of trust in contemporary America. Stiglitz paints this as the undoing of social…
Christmas Is Always a Time For Family
Maybe not always, at least if it’s the family of North Korea’s new bad boy, Kim Jong-Un. He recently had his uncle topped for, oh who knows, wearing a better…
When You’re Out of the Good Stuff, You Go For the RotGut
It’s amazing what some people will drink when they can’t find anything better. These are usually what we call “problem drinkers.” Bad things come their way sooner or later. When…
Sorry, Israel. You Don’t Get to Bitch When Somebody Spies On You. Now, STFU.
Israeli prime minister Benny Netanyahu is steaming mad at the revelation that the Americans and Brits have been spying on Israel. Really, no seriously, the guy is hot under the…
God Speed, Mikhail
Although I’m a disbeliever it can be fun to imagine how the God we were taught to understand would deal with someone like Mikhail Kalashnikov. MK begat the AK also…
In 1912, Americans Really Waged War on Christmas. The History of SPUG.
A little slice of history of Christmas Past. In 1912, philanthropist August Belmont, created a new club, The Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving, or SPUG. Even a century…
If the Guy at the Chevron Station Looks Ecuadorian, He Might Be Ecuadorian
A Canadian court this week granted a group of Ecuadorian fishermen and farmers the right to seize Chevron assets to enforce an $18-billion judgment they won against the company in…
What If China Had to Compensate Us for Infectious Diseases?
Just about every year there’s some form of influenza outbreak in China. Swine flu, avian flu, Hong Kong flu – it always seems to be something. Over the years there…