Dandelions and civilization
Whenever I see a lawn with dandelions, I think, “This is the home of civilized people. This is the home of people who care about the environment and their community.…
Culture
Musings On History: Goths, the Fall of Rome, and the Future of Humanity
I love a good mystery. Who were the Goths? Where did they come from? How did they manage to sack Rome and defeat the most powerful empire the world…
Covid-1984: The Worst Of Both Worlds
With covid-1984, which is a virus that is statistically as dangerous as the common flu, we have taken extreme, draconian, authoritarian measures. In short, we have dangerously and vastly over-reacted,…
The Bridge of Montaigne; and The Roots of Our 21st Century Crisis
What a delightful bridge Montaigne has been, and is: not only between the present modern world and the Renaissance, which is stupendous treasure enough, but also, in another short span,…
The Demoscene Added to UNESCO Cultural Heritage
Here’s something you probably didn’t expect to hear this week form Finland: they’ve added Demoscene to the UNESCO list of intangible cultural artifacts. According the Finnish Heritage Agency Demoscene is…
Rules For Good Communication – Both In Writing, and Verbally, and In The Arts (Along with core points on the philosophy of language, knowledge, perception, consciousness, ontology and epistemology, and the nature of being and reality – and lessons on how not to be long-winded!)
Here are a few thoughts on writing and verbal communication, and all forms of communication. As an author, writer, reader, lover of books, and philosopher, I believe I have some…
Reading History And Social Theory As If People, The Planet, Or The Future Mattered
A Review of Stephen Toulmin’s Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda Of Modernity, and, A Reading List For Thoughtful People Slow to get going, then increasingly fascinating, Toulmin’s Cosmopolis is a…
Big G and Me
One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting between my parents on a warm summer night, on the front seat of the family car, watching a movie through the windshield,…
A Decade of Playing Left-Wing: Sports Heroes of the 2010s
Sports journalism is not immune from the year-end “listicle”, the clickbait content that dominates the Web every December. While I admit to being a sucker for these “best of” exercises,…
Decades, centuries and millennia
January 1 is NOT the start of a new decade. To the CBC and the other arithmetically-challenged media who insist otherwise: it isn’t. You just don’t understand how to count…
Folk Music’s Radical Patron: Remembering Mitch Podolak
Photo courtesy the Winnipeg Folk Festival “Move that over and paint it brown.” I always believed that this famous quote by Mitch Podolak (which he denied making), spoke to the…
Calgary Flames Arena–Have We Got A Deal For You!!!
To paraphrase Jane Jacobs, the majority of Calgary City Council regard Calgarians as “empty-headed young ladies whose main duties were to see that their nails were clean, their curves properly…
Happy Canada Day!
Dear Canada: Happy birthday! With hugs and kisses from Ms Soapbox. PS: You may have heard some silly talk to the effect that Alberta wants to separate from Canada because…
The UCP Addresses Conversion Therapy…”in due course”
By a strange coincidence Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season 11 came to town the same week that Premier Kenney and his Health Minister, Tyler Shandro, explained (sort of) the UCP…
Primitive vs Civilized Societies
As someone born in 1950 and raised and educated in a Eurocentric culture I learned early that civilized societies are intellectually, socially, and technologically superior to primitive societies. This despite…
GSAs…Here we go again
Last Thursday Mr and Ms Soapbox joined hundreds of Calgarians protesting Mr Kenney’s plan to out kids who join gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in schools. The question on everyone’s mind was…
On Milton Acorn, on his birthday, Canada’s People’s Poet
Today was the birthday of Milton Acorn, the People’s Poet, who lived rough, and died before he was eligible for the Old Age Security, even under the old rules. For…
Islamophobia is practically enshrined as public policy in Australia
Cronulla Riots, 2005 • Photo by Wade Laube The worst terror attack in New Zealand’s modern history took place on Friday, and the alleged perpetrator is an Australian. Appropriately, this…
A Little Story About Character
Sometimes it’s the little stories that move us. Last week Mr and Ms Soapbox attended a fundraiser for Rachel Notley. It was hosted by a group of Calgary lawyers at…
Renaissance & Rebirth, or Decline & Decay?
And the demonic take-over continues…. Or so it would seem. Evil rules the political realm, the economic, and increasingly, the cultural as well. An awakening of humanity continues to unfold.…