Bring Out Yer Band! *clang* Bring Out Yer Band! *clang*
When you learn music, your hemispheres fire off together, and since you’re not just sitting there listening to a lecture, you’re also doing some fine motor function (and/or gross motor…
politics
On Track for Privatization
A couple weeks ago, Texas came very close to passing a bill defunding public education: a “school choice” bill that would provide vouchers for parents to be able to “use…
Social Identity and Narratives
From Alan Levinoitz: A lot of politics can be explained by ignoring Maslow’s hierarchy and realizing that people care as much about symbolic meaning, a sense of dignity, narratives in…
Pandemic Historic Ties to Fascism
I’m very concerned with the public largely ignoring Covid despite a growing shift to get kids to replace workers who are lost to Covid deaths or disability after convincing us…
Dear Health Authority Without The Infection Control
To follow up my Dear Premier letter, Dear Saskatchewan Health Authority: Your capable employees had booked me for a routine appointment at a hospital in Regina. To get to my…
Kids Today!
A letter has been circulating and in the news complaining about kids today. Things have changed in the last few years, but I don’t think it’s as dramatic a shift…
Why Ranked Ballots Make Sense
I believe that WRDSB has a committee formed to determine the process to appoint two new trustees. I’ve been actively avoiding following the news on all this, but I do…
Saskatoon Hate
2 Catholic school administrators did damage to their city’s reputation by discouraging teachers and then parents from allowing their kids to attend a welcoming and inclusive space at a corporate…
Fires? What Fires?
It’s funny. Also sad, because it’s so believable. thebeaverton.com/2023/05/ucp-promises-to-build-giant-gas-powered-fans-to-clear-alberta-skies/ Smoke over Calgary and Regina. pic.twitter.com/a0lFKFh3Vs — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) May 22, 2023
The Need to Grow
When I taught civics and we discussed Canada’s immigration policy, that we typically take in about 250,000 newcomers each year, but over 600,000 apply, many students would suggest we need…
How Did We Get Here
Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament and all Canadians. While we…
How Did We Get Here
Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament and all Canadians. While we…
The Manufactured Taboo around Covid Protections
A twitter thread by spheniscus demersus (African penguin) explains the political/public health comms fiasco and our collective denialism so nicely that I want to save it here. (It’s tidied up…
On Late-Stage Capitalism’s Slide into Authoritarianism
A bit from former American journalist Nate Bear: The almost universal desire to return to normal in a pandemic, despite normal being bad for most people, is one of the…
On Grief and the WHO and Culpability
I wonder to what extent the desire, or even the ability, to kill one another has been affected by being surrounded by leaders who are looking the other way while…
Quiet Comprehending
A pretty song for our times form Bo Burnham: Female Colonel Sanders, easy answer, civil warThe whole world is at your fingertips, the ocean at your doorThe live-action Lion King,…
Plague Update: What Victims Look Forward To
If you’re not among the millions killed outright by a SARS-CoV2 infection, your arteries have been stiffened. From a video by Dr. Rae Duncan at Newcastle University: 18/ Dr Duncan…
Chris Hedges on Our Current State of Paralysis
Hedges writes on Substack now, if you haven’t been able to find him lately, and his piece today is excellent. He starts by pointing out the growing rich-poor divide that…
Earth Day #53: Simple Solutions
As a social science teacher talking about climate change, I’d often get students who raise the fact that there are just 100 companies, worldwide, producing over 70% of all GHGs.…
Alberta’s latest economic threat: Thanks to China, Saudi Arabia and Iran are beginning to normalise relations
It might seem odd for an Albertan to point to Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Middle East and say that it has an effect on us. However, it does. History…