A Back-To-School Wishlist for Society
Simply, two things. Let’s make sure our public school system recognizes two things: Our children are priceless individuals with immense capacity to excel, not standardized, interchangeable commodities who can be warehoused in assembly line learning factories. Thinking matters, not just filling up heads with data. A week before the new school year starts is a [...]
The New Normal and the End of the World?
“This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.” – T.S. Eliot An Apocalyptical Cliché Large swaths of Pakistan are in ruins. The same is still true of Haiti, to say nothing of the long-standing devastation [...]
The Queen, G20 Abuses and Canada’s Future
It has been a couple weeks and I still can’t get this out of my head. I was going to write something quite venomous on Canada Day about the queen’s characterization of Canada, but decided to let it slide. But I can’t: The Queen said she has witnessed more than half of Canada’s national history [...]
Canadian Authoritarianism: Then and Now
Something has been rotting in the State of Canada for a long, long time.
More Despinning the Spin and Chill Around Israel
Ten points to Mark Hasiuk for not just agreeing with my perspective on the chill and spin involved with Libby Davies and Israel. The ten points go for calling out corporate media as dropping its diligence in reporting on that and two other stories. Nothing new with that trend, but one thing refreshing about this [...]
The “Kids” in the Black: Reflections on Modern Anarchist Activism
I’m an anarchist. I’ll wait while you replace your monocle as it has surely dropped into your Beluga caviar at this point. Now then, seriously: I am an anarchist. As Toronto prepares to host the G20 Summit in a few days time, the media has been abuzz once more with the salacious prospect of street [...]
BC Premier’s Office Spends as Much as Watchdogs
I want a government that is transparent and accountable to citizens: taxation WITH representation. I want a culture of openness and commitment to public service, that the citizens are the politicians’ employers. It’s hard to see that happening when the public bodies that hold political mechanisms to account have just barely as much money to work with than, say, the premier’s office.
The Thing About Israel
OK, here’s the thing about Israel, OK, one thing: there is no greater concentration of political spin in all of human history than around the issues relating to Israel. And the spin has the [likely intended] consequence of creating a chill factor to keep people from trying to reasonably discuss issues on any side of [...]
Teddy Bear Catapults and Corporate Overlords
Creative resistance to global corporate overlords and their comprador governments will hopefully move to a new level next month during the G8/G20 meetings in Ontario. I know the stakes are high as at least one group [or agent provocateur] has asserted its tone with the RBC firebombing. I’m reading of rebel clowns, watching a video [...]
Our Civil Demand: From Petty to Profound
In thinking about pettiness in the political arena, it’s easy to see it show up in the daily headlines. But what we really need are people who catalyze our culture to places of greatness and even just the expectation of greatness. CNN showed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from August 1963 on [...]
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 [...]
CBC Treats VANOC Like a Crazy Drunk with a Gun
Regardless of whether CBC should have put its logo on something that also had the Canadian flag, VANOC pulled out its big Tonya Harding stick and hit the CBC on the kneecap because people were taking the flags into the brand-sterile Olympic venues. “But we know that VANOC is very vigilant about anything related to [...]
Understanding Violent Olympic Protests
Friday’s anti-Olympics rally and march was a virtually fully peaceful event with some clear, powerful and coherent messages inserted into the global communication stream. But then Saturday turned violent. But it is really not that simple. Friday was the Olympics 2010 Welcoming Committee. Saturday was the 2010 Heart Attack, designed to stab the core of [...]
VANOC, the Party-Poopers
Once upon a time, VANOC’s idiocy was relatively new to us. Five years ago, they tried to prevent others from using the number 2010. You can read about its brush with the law here. VANOC is like the host of a party that you never meet. You have no say in how they plan the [...]
CBC’s Annoying Olympics Boosterism
Yesterday, the CBC’s annoying Olympics boosterism was complemented with weak reporting on agents provocateurs and missing an opportunity to nail the IOC on rule of law hypocrisy. I have only slightly more ability to tolerate the CBC over corporate media when it comes to promoting the Afghan occupation and how amazingly, incredibly awesome the Olympics [...]
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