Sunk costs
I once owned a car that my family had driven almost 400,000 km. The engine was becoming unreliable, down on power while dripping and burning oil. We enjoyed the car…
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Toward a Better World
That is the well chosen title of a marvelous new book by Gerry Helleiner, sub-titled Memoirs of a Life in International and Development Economics. Helleiner, from his home base at…
It’s been one of those days…
Ms Soapbox’s plane got in late last night. It got wedged behind another plane in Victoria and was blocked from the gate by a giant snowbank in Calgary. On the…
SK NDP Chasing Fossils
This was sent to me, and the person asked it be published anonymously: Tonight while scrolling though Facebook I noticed a statement from you about the pipeline in BC. I…
Bitcoin, Crypto-Currencies and Global Trends — Tipping Points Approaching Fast
Question: Cryptos — Which ones, and when? Answer: Two, and right now Waiting for the (painfully slow) transfer of funds from one Bitcoin wallet to another — both my own, in order to be…
Do This Before Confronting Affirmative Action, Oluo 8/18
Chapter 7 of Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race focuses on ideas and experiences surrounding affirmative action. This awesome chapter has helped me consolidate a few ideas…
Inactivity will continue
I hope to resume online participation soon but illness continues to be a problem. I regret not having had a flu shot this season because I’ve experienced the worst case…
Why Do We March?
Of the 120,000 people who attended the Women’s March in Canada, 10,000 marched in Alberta and 3,500 marched in Calgary. They were repeatedly asked, “Why do you march?” They replied…
Your Sunday Sermon: Maybe this Trump fellow isn’t so bad after all
Last year, I wrote that one of my resolutions for 2018 was to deTrump myself. No more reading about the insane clown president. No more all-Trump, all-the-time monologues from the…
Thank You Alberta Party!
When Greg Clark stepped down as the leader of the Alberta Party Ms Soapbox wondered whether the party had lost its mind. When Rick Fraser and Stephen Mandel, two former…
Your Sunday Sermon: Exclusive sneak peak at Trudeau tell-all book!
For the past few months, writer C. Ellsworth Stubbins has been granted unrestricted access to the inner workings of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office. Although not as explosive as Fire…
TransLink, another victim of inertia
Malcolm Johnston, a private citizen, has studied and written about rail transit for years. He does not have a lucrative consulting contract to promote Sky Train, the ourdated and costly…
Welcome to our Gripes of Wrath.
It makes sense to save up our complaints and just share them periodically. There is no need to write too much about them. We should see if we can give…
The Clarkson Story up until Now and the Uncertain Future of The WTO
Stephen Clarkson The following is a contribution in the blog series on the exceptional contribution of Stephen Clarkson to Canada. Stephen Clarkson died in 2016. The substantial work he undertook…
Your Sunday Sermon: You call THIS cold?
Edmonton, the city I have called home since birth, has a love-hate relationship with winter. One the one hand, we hate it. It’s cold, it’s dark 15 hours of the…
I Didn’t Blog in December
I was distracted by things more awesome than blogging. What could that be? I’ll tell you some day. For now, I’m back, complaining about litter. Everyone is focusing on a…
Media get it wrong on Bank of Canada minimum wage study
Over a million workers in Ontario just got a big raise thanks to tireless, bottom-up orgainizing, but if you look to the media it’s a bad news story. The same,…
The Return of Stuff Happens, week 52: RIP
As the last blog of 2017 – and the last in the Stuff Happens series of blogs – let’s look at the names we lost in 2017. January Mary Tyler…
Something is Seriously Wrong
How fitting. The UCP will close 2017 with yet another bozo eruption. Bozo eruptions were mildly entertaining in the past, but they’re occurring with increasing regularity and have taken on…
2017 and the curious demise of Europe’s centre-left
2017 and the curious demise of Europe’s centre-left https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/dec/29/2017-and-the-curious-demise-of-europes-centre-left?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress Filed under: Uncategorized