Milton Was Wrong
In 1644, the English poet and pamphleteer John Milton wrote an impassioned defence of free speech (or, more factually, against censorship of print and in favour of restriction-free publication) called…
media
Smith, Rock, and the Trivialization of Western Culture
If Neil Postman were alive today, sitting in a bar or café with Chris Hedges, I wonder which one would say “I told you so!” first after seeing social media…
Live Blogged: Progressive (re)Organizing In Sask
A long thread on Twitter of the Twitter Space hosted by Prairie Tara: Tara J suggests 3 options:New party, or change the NDP, or improve the SK Liberals. Joel now…
Plague Update: Moe’s Dropping Numbers
"I am going to stay out of telling them what to do," said Sask. Premier Scott Moe of the ongoing demonstrations in Ottawa, Windsor and Coutts. "It certainly is going…
Plague Update: Clearly Political
There’s a wind blowing in Canada, and it’s blowing away from public health measures that have kept most Canadians healthy and safe from the pandemic’s primary driver, the SARS-CoV2 virus.…
Plague Update: Stupidity With Brain, Not Of Brain
I went to the protest of Scott Moe’s government at the Legislature today. Simultaneously down the blocked-off street there was a #FluTruxKlan protest by the anti-waxxers, and over by the…
Plague Update: #FluTruxKlan rally loses $9M from GoFundMe, and sued for $10M more
GoFundMe has frozen further donations from going to the convoy organizers. This was at the request of the Mayor of Ottawa, among other authorities becoming desperate to end the blockade…
Burning question
Where could Scott Moe have possibly developed the idea he’s entitled to dictate what questions the media is allowed to ask?
Right-wing news outlet “True North” posts misleading vaccination statistics
True North, a conservative-leaning news site, has published a highly misleading article that seems to attempt to undermine vaccine effectiveness. It’s actually kind of shocking how bad it is. Putting…
Not much edification in yesterday’s COVID-19 newser as Premier Kenney and officials ‘filibuster’ the hard questions
There was little informative or edifying about the mostly successful effort by Premier Jason Kenney and three of his senior health care enablers to run out the clock on reporters’…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Nick Dunne interviews Colin Furness about the impact the Omicron COVID variant figures to have in schools – and the need to…
N.W.T. drops Alberta school curriculum, adopts B.C.’s – a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry under Jason Kenney
The news release from the Northwest Territories Government doesn’t even mention Alberta, but just the same it’s a powerful symbol of what’s gone awry in the province to the south…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Mark Lipsitch et al. examine the current state of knowledge about COVID breakthrough infections and the public health measures still needed to avoid…
Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Bruce Arthur writes about the need for governments’ responses to COVID to adapt to the increased risk posed by the Omicron variant.…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Philip Bump discusses how partisan resistance to public health measures is making it harder for the U.S. to count on vaccinations to limit…
Reconciliation is a sham to our political leaders
Our political leaders have a deficient understanding of reconciliation. What they want to reconcile are the contradictory interests between Capital and Indigenous self-determination. Ultimately, our political leaders, embodied by the…
Return of the Talking Head
I appeared on CTV’s News at 5 with Matt Young today, around 24:00 in this show. And of course, there were a few points I didn’t make in the process,…
Does spat between once-simpatico columnist and Jason Kenney signal the end of the road for Alberta’s premier?
Et tu, Brute? Was political columnist Rick Bell’s news conference question yesterday about allegations of cash being funnelled from political action committees to Jason Kenney’s supporters in advance of this…
Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is…