Worker Bashing 101
For those people on your Christmas list who think you’re full of hot air when you complain that there has been a concerted attack on workers in the last few decades, here are a few examples of demonizing rhetoric to introduce them to, courtesy of Adrian MacNair: We don’t need no stinkin’ unions | National [...]
Terrorism + Child Abuse Joke = National Post
What do obsessive coverage of terrorism and a joke about how to beat children have in common? As it turns out, it’s today’s National Post. Firstly, everything in the first 5 pages was devoted to the terror suspect arrests, except for one article stoking the idea of staying in Afghanistan, so that’s related. 5 pages. [...]
Might Makes Right: The Reality of International Politics & Why States Cause Wars
“If you kill one person, you’re prosecuted. If you kill ten people, you’re a celebrity; if you kill a quarter-of-a-million people, you’re invited to a peace conference.” – Haris Silajdžić Patient readers will bear with me as I sink into the quagmire of Balkan and, specifically, post-Yugoslav politics to make a broader point about states [...]
For Everyone Saying “I Told You So” About Facebook
Infrastructures via xkcd: Infrastructures. Share the Love: Twitter del.icio.us email RSS Facebook Google Bookmarks Digg LinkedIn StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Buzz
The Government is Storing Your Baby’s DNA: Did You Know/Consent?
New law may create largest DNA database in Canada Recent revelations that B.C.’s health authorities are secretly storing and testing children’s DNA without parental consent, combined with provisions of Bill 11 that allow B.C.’s Minister of Health to gather information like these DNA records without notice or consent, have resulted in a call from the [...]
Unlike Premiers, Drunk Drivers Might Not Be Able to Enter Canada
In doing some research into the emerging Olympic hangover, I found this piece about tourism in Vancouver. A good warning was about tourists with criminal records not necessarily being able to enter the country. If that only applied to BC premiers, Gordon Campbell would have been stuck in Hawaii for the last 7 years and [...]
The Olympics: A Failure of Legitimacy
There are many levels of debate about the value of Olympics: social, economic, cultural, political, etc. But one level seems to undergird them all: moral legitimacy, in which the Olympics is bankrupt. For me it began crystallizing in late September, 1988. Ben Johnson won Olympic gold in the 100m, then lost it just days later [...]
Seeing Social Movement Theory in Christmas Movies
I’m hyper-attuned to building a social movement. In fact, I’m seeing it all over the place, from tight clusters of birds whipping around in their collective unconscious to Christmas movies. Watching Polar Express tonight reminded me of my favourite part of the film near the end. Everyone’s waiting for Santa to come out and play. [...]
Economic Growth is a Cancer: Meet Steady State Economics
For decades I’ve been hearing about and studying how humans are living beyond the planet’s capability of sustaining us…and that we’ve been doing so quite unequally. And what have we done about that? Embraced neoliberal, deregulated free market capitalism: the economic expression of rape and pillage. Reduce, reuse, recycle neglects the real first R: refuse. [...]
The Blue Summit Declaration: A Companion to Copenhagen
I was thrilled to read the Blue Summit Declaration that emerged from last weekend’s Blue Summit in Ottawa celebrating the 10th anniversary of Water Watch. As we head into Copenhagen in a few days, it is critical to assert companion declarations about the sanctity of core elements of life and the symbiotic relationship we must recognize with [...]
Fixing Vancouver’s Homelessness: A Survey With Teeth
Welcome to our Community Consultation Survey on Homeless Solutions and the Howe Shelter via City of Vancouver Homelessness Solutions Survey. In a time where Vancouver city council may or may not have the will to oppose a provincial government they seem to be cozying up with, they issue a survey to see what the citizens [...]
Why the Windsor CUPE Strike Will Inspire You
Read on and enrich your spirit for progressive social change, understand the need to build solidarity on the ground, and learn about the threat of cyber-scabbing! The strike is an instance rare in the current climate of workers’ struggling for a political principle rather than immediate wage demands. As such, it has much to teach [...]
The Sick Government BCers Just Re-Elected
$2m is less than 50 cents/resident of BC. Matt Good’s profound review of contradictions in, around, during and after Woodlands will pummel your soul, but in a good way, unless you’re a heartless misanthropist. And this first bit is just emblematic of how this government views its social responsibilities: In 2005, Stan Hagen, BC’s Children [...]
Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, 5.11.09, an Election Eve Vista Video Podcast
On Monday, May 11, 2009, Politics, Re-Spun met Coop Radio on “The Rational”, a Monday evening issues program. This is the my third visit, on election eve, with the next scheduled for Monday, May 18th, for a debriefing of the BC provincial election. Tonight we were joined by Damien Gillis of SaveOurRivers.ca. Imtiaz Popat talked with Damien [...]
Bill Bennett: King of Plausible Deniability!
The ad reads, “You want someone who pays taxes and is concerned about how the money is being spent,” underneath a photo of Bennett and his family and a slogan that reads, “He’s one of us.” So Kootenay East Liberal Party candidate Bill Bennett did it again. First his campaign planned to host a beer [...]
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