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By EclecticLip, on January 28, 2013, at 4:02 pm I welcomed Kathleen Wynne‘s victory in the leadership race for the ruling Ontario Liberal Party this past Saturday, even though I live in faraway British Columbia. And I do mean far away — seriously, the International Space Station is ten times closer to the surface of the earth, than Vancouver is to Toronto. (Though that probably says more about how not-so-far-away the International Space Station is to us.)
Wynne is of course lesbian, and her ascent to the Premiership of Ontario — Canada’s most populous province — is a matter of minor national pride, whatever her
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Wynne-win for Canada! And, is America ready for another white male President?
By EclecticLip, on January 24, 2013, at 12:30 pm (originally written May 21, 2012. Part of Great Upload of 2013.)
Tommy Douglas
I read a bio of Tommy Douglas recently, figuring as a guy with sinister leanings (sinister in the original Latin sense of “left”, that is ) I might as well brush up on the father of Canadian Medicare, and reigning Greatest Canadian.
To me, the biggest surprise was the standing ovation he got from the NDP faithful after his farewell speech at their 1983 convention. Not the fact that he got one, mind you; the fact that it was twenty-three minutes long! Given
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Douglas, Deng and Diocletian
By EclecticLip, on January 22, 2013, at 1:19 pm (originally written Nov 24, 2011. Part of Great Upload of 2013.)
It came to my attention that Naseem Nicholas Taleb, who authored The Black Swan (surprisingly, not about a ballet dancer, but about financial crises) discussed other avians in his book, among them the Thanksgiving turkey. Per the Wikipedia page, he seems to’ve co-opted the idea from a turkey anecdote by philosopher Bertrand Russell, whose atheism doubtless led antagonists to brand him cuckoo.
The abrupt change in the turkey’s situation is part of an argument that it’s ridiculous to project present trends very far into
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: The Black Swan’s Thanksgiving Turkey
By EclecticLip, on January 22, 2013, at 12:39 pm (Originally written March 7, 2012. Part of Great Upload of 2013.)
A colleague once showed me a book by Peter Schiff, in which the author and investment-house CEO purported to explain how the US got into the muddle they’re in.
Like so many textbooks I left it unread, but according to Wikipedia, Schiff believes a lot of the US’s problems would go away if people just saved more money. (Oddly enough, there’s no mention of drastically-higher taxes on high-income earners like himself. Go figure…! ) As is typical for people in the financial
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Sniffs from a Schiff…
By EclecticLip, on January 17, 2013, at 12:40 am (originally written Jan 3, 2012. Part of my Great Upload of 2013.)
Come December’s end, the nervy among us like to review what they got right in the past year. The nervier like to predict what’ll happen in the New Year. Ever the blithe contrarian, I figured I’d visit the Ghost of Predictions Past and see where I got things wrong.**
I do this taking comfort that Great Men, like me, make mistakes sometimes. (Oh, it was tempting to “forget” those commas…!)
Take the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius — he almost ruined his reputation as
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Whatever foresight is, it’s not 20/20…
By EclecticLip, on January 11, 2013, at 1:39 am The doctor diagnosed young son Leo recently with the stomach flu — which is colloquial shorthand for a condition which isn’t the flu, per se. (The most recent editor of the relevant article on the almighty Wiki agrees!)
The Kaopectate Kid
Our medical professional then suggested we give Leo some Kaopectate to soothe his stomach. So, what is the active ingredient in Kaopectate? Clay. Yes, modern medicine’s 21st-century response to our son’s stomach flu … was for him to eat dirt. (Expert biologists will surely argue that clay isn’t dirt per se, but
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Homer (not Simpson) and the Kaopectate Kid
By jtoddring, on December 20, 2012, at 8:37 pm It seems like a lot of people are going to extremes with regards to the Mayan predictions – and I mean the skeptics as well as the fanatics. Some are dismissive of the Mayans altogether, while others are taking a very literal and grossly overly simplistic view, and thinking the world will end on a [...]
By EclecticLip, on November 5, 2012, at 5:33 pm The recent release of Cloud Atlas, piqued my interest in writing some thoughts about sexual identity. As has been fairly well publicized leading to the movie’s opening, Lana Wachowski (born Larry) underwent a gender transition (“sex change”) a few years ago; and from all accounts, seems the happier for it.
The even-more-recent allegations that Joe Simpson (Jessica and Ashlee Simpson’s father) came out to his family as gay, mean I’m going to scratch that itch, even if it might mean this blog gets permanently filtered for “sexual content”.
So, first off, congratulations to these two for being able to
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Lana Wachowski, Joe Simpson and our evolving social mores
By EclecticLip, on October 11, 2012, at 3:30 pm Yves at Naked Capitalism cross-posted a wonderful Alternet piece by Lynn Parramore, eviscerating the idea that Islam is new or alien to America. In truth, the Muslim faith has had a long (if lightly-populated) history in the United States. Islam arrived in America so early, the Puritans hadn’t even burnt their first witch!!
While the 1620 voyage of The Mayflower is deeply mythologized in the American psyche, the 1630 arrival of devout Muslim Anthony Janszoon van Salee in the New Netherlands, gets a lot less attention. Which is a pity, because he seems to’ve been a business
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Muslims in America and other hidden ethnic histories
By EclecticLip, on September 27, 2012, at 4:49 pm Yesterday (Sept 26) we had the pleasure of picking up our new Prius Plug-In, at a local dealership. Apparently it’s the first one sold in British Columbia (not including prototype vehicle testing fleets, which’ve been around a couple years, but weren’t available to the public for purchase). It’s so new, in fact, that Toyota salespeople haven’t been fully trained on it yet! 
It seems like an amazing vehicle — mind you, when your prior car is twenty years old, how could it not? Funnily enough, it took us a few minutes to turn it on the first time,
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: The plug-in has landed!
By EclecticLip, on August 21, 2012, at 4:37 pm (originally written Nov 2010; uploaded Aug 21, 2012 as part of my Great Upload of Musings… for balance, I’ll soon post the follow-up which praises some portions of libertarian philosophy which are very dear to my progressive heart. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and I’m not above shacking up with occasional allies. )
It looks like the Democrats are going to get clobbered in the [2010 midterm] US elections. Economic malaise tends to do this to governing parties, which is one reason currency devaluation is the policy-du-jour: if country A can make its currency cheaper, it
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: How Libertarians brought America Big Religion and Bigger Lawsuits…
By Orangutan, on March 7, 2012, at 11:06 am
Anak-Anak Srikandi/ Children of Srikandi Official Trailer from Srikandi Films on Vimeo.
It is admirable that your film, Children of Srikandi, is the first to address the lives of queer women in Indonesia. You are creative and pioneering.
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