Here is the definitive piece on why the NFL team in Washington DC must change its name, written by – who else – Dave Zirin: Enough: An Open Letter to Enough Dan Snyder, at Grantland. Please go and read it.
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This and that for your Thursday reading. - Mike Fancie offers this year’s definitive response to the the misguided concept of “tax freedom”: The Fraser Institute’s math on income and taxation has been roundly criticized, including by a former Assistant Chief Statistician and by our Andrew Jackson for skewing numbers to make a point. But while we take issue with the Fraser Institute’s numbers, and setting aside the bias inherent in their tax calculator’s $150,000 income ceiling, the more important discussion lies in appreciating why we pay taxes in the first place. Our tax dollars, far from disappearing into a (Read more…) At the recent Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, where another (better) world of incredibly inspiring, provocative and boundary-pushing art and media is on display each year, I stumbled upon Eloisa Aquino and her wares – a series of zines on awesome butch dykes, appropriately called The Life and Times of Butch Dykes. The teeny books are what every great zine should be, for me: oozing with the love and devotion the creator, as well as political, punchy, fun, informative, and accessible. It’s a fantastic series—eight and counting—that brings to life the lives of important butch dykes from herstory. Soon after the Bookfair (Read more…) If you don’t care who gets the credit for something, you can accomplish more. That works in both directions. You can pass an idea along without asking for anything in return, or someone can steal an idea and not give desired credit. @JohnKleinRegina thanks! didn't know about this … will make amend— marc weisblott (@scroll) June 04, 2013 When asked whose idea it was, representatives from the Pennsylvania snack-maker cited James S. Herr — who founded the company in 1946 and died in April 2012 — was fond of quoting President Harry Truman, even if he probably didn’t (Read more…) She was a great actor, a brilliant comedian, and the warm heart of one of the most memorable television shows of all time. “All in the Family” was a pioneering show, and she was an integral part of what it made it shine. She created a character that entire generations will never forget. The New York Times obituary notes: Jean Stapleton, the character actress whose portrayal of a slow-witted, big-hearted and submissive — up to a point — housewife on the groundbreaking series “All in the Family” made her, along with Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur, not only one (Read more…) I almost forgot to mention, we had some interesting news from home. Everything is fine now, but Essie had her hands full for a while! I warned Essie about the danger of skunks in our backyard after dark: absolutely never, ever let the dogs run out into the backyard after dark!! I’ve lost track of how many times our dogs have been skunked, and I’m determined to make sure it never happens again. But there’s no accounting for early-morning skunks! Maybe this skunk was an early riser or maybe he was staggering home from an all-nighter, but either way, a (Read more…) We’ve had another outstanding day of seeing cave paintings, an entirely different experience that complemented the other two cave tours. We left Santillana del Mar early and drove on back-country roads to the town of Puente Viesgo, to see the caves known as El Castillo and Las Monedas. The countryside here is beautiful – lush green hills dotted with red-roofed stone houses, groups of cows and sheep and horses grazing here and there. The rural routes wind through little town centres with the usual shops. I know Spain is suffering under severe unemployment, but we see no evidence of it. (Read more…) Today we fulfilled a travel wish we’ve harboured for many, many years. We saw two sets of paleolithic cave paintings. * * * * The day started out a bit interesting, with an early-morning phone call that appeared to be from our dogsitter, scaring me (although it turned out to be a mistake), and a non-working shower. While we ate breakfast, the desk clerk wanted to tell us the shower was fixed, so she wrote this on a scrap of paper: “The bath this one are repaired. Forgives the inconvenience.” I have no doubt my Spanish sounds equally amusing. (Read more…) Getting out of Madrid was a whole lot easier than getting in. We found our way to the highway easily, and had a short drive to the town of Segovia, to see its famous Roman aqueduct. It’s pretty amazing to see a gigantic, completely intact stone aqueduct right in the middle of a town: see here. It’s about 32 kilometres (20 miles) long, 28.5 metres (93.5 feet) tall at its highest point, and made of more than 20,000 stones, and not a drop of mortar. Years ago, we saw the Pont du Gard, a famous three-tiered Roman (Read more…) If history is any guide, some amount of subterfuge and/or bribery will probably be required By: Lee Tunstall | Troy Media Sick of the senators? And by senators I do not mean the ones on skates, although admittedly the other ones are skating on pretty thin ice right now. Given the recent antics in the Canadian Senate, [...] The post How the scandal-plagued Canadian Senate can be abolished appeared first on The Canadian Progressive. Another accidental fire in Lafleche last night, this one attributed initially to careless smoking (is there any other kind?). The Flying Goose Inn, the only bar and hotel in town, burned to the ground. Months ago, M.O.M, the bus station, also burned. The hotel, a few weeks ago, in April. Adding a little heartache to this story, it’s Lafleche’s 100th anniversary as a town, and Canada Day weekend is the celebration. Now there are fewer places for visitors to stay and visit in town, and there’s just another burned out lot. Main St. On January 10, (Read more…) Harper hurried out of the country, and who could blame him? He had angry professional journalists on his tail, asking him questions that have no other true answer than to admit that a crime took place in the Prime Minister’s Office. His old friend Nigel Wright was under the CPC Bus, and Stephen Harper remained at the wheel, driving it over Mike “Loose Lips” Duffy at the same time Wright was hanging onto the front bumper before resigning himself to be chewed under the heavy Harper wheels of staffer sacrifice. The non-existent Office of Public Prosecutions was busy not (Read more…) Here’s Stephen Harper giving a description of the Canadian federal political system. It’s obvious that his blubbering since about not understanding something about how the Prime Minister has unchecked power, is a charade. His “coup” talk during the coalition agreement of 2008, was bogus, he knows Parliament selects the Prime Minister, not citizen voters. Now he’s ordering unpaid checks, and is a political imbalance. Do you think he knew about Wright’s cheque to Duffy, the Senator “buddy” and “fundraiser” he appointed? On the surface, you can make a comparison between our political system and yours [America]. We have an (Read more…) My article in the Huffington Post: Recently, work took me to Istanbul to meet with the Syrian resistance. We discussed options for the international community to help bring an end to the Syrian war, by destroying the financial networks that enable the Assad regime to purchase weapons and finance assaults against civilians. By: Crysbel Tejada and Betsy Catlin | First published by Waging Nonviolence on May 8, 2013: On cloudy days, heavy smoke fills the air of Ponca City, Okla., with grey smog that camouflages itself into the sky. The ConocoPhillips oil refinery that makes its home there uses overcast days as a disguise to release more [...] The post Indigenous resistance grows strong in Keystone XL pipeline battle appeared first on The Canadian Progressive. Chicago politicians understand that people in their city commute sustainably via bicycles and that this is a great component to their transit planning. What’s more is that by building proper infrastructure for cyclists they can draw people to the city and show the world what the future looks like – again. Over at Roads Were Not Built For Cars they provide a very interesting historical perspective on the bicycle in Chicago and how it relates to cities today. “Bicycling is an integral part of Chicago’s transportation system. Every day, thousands of people bike on our streets, whether it is to (Read more…) RB Bennett was one of Canada’s most popular Prime Ministers, to the point where average Canadians would name their buggies after him. We found out last week that the Harper Conservatives will be leading a review of the way Canadian history is taught in schools. We don’t yet have word on whether this review will include teaching students that education is a provincial responsibility under the constitution, but I have been able to procure a leaked curriculum draft, which I have posted below. Canadian History: Recommended Course Outline Unit 1: The Conservative Party Founds Canada (19th Century) Key Date: 1871 (Read more…) This June we will be a short two years from the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo*. It is expected to be a large event, especially since the 100th anniversary was not celebrated because it fell in the middle … Continue reading → Perhaps no character stands out in pre-Revolution Russia as much as that of Grigory Rasputin. He was influential, enigmatic, charismatic, secretive, held no office, yet had enormous influence on the events and people of the era. How could a barely … Continue reading → The National Museum of Iraq – known originally as the Baghdad Archaeological Museum – once housed some of the oldest works of literature in the world. Treasures from the origins of civilization, from the cities of Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria were on … Continue reading → Two amusement parks on the ocean at each end of America. Must have been weird to drive from one to the other seeing that Elmer Gantry, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Jack Kerouac, Betsy Ross America pass by in the never stopping long winding days and happy/sad boozy neon nights of all of America in between. 1952-Coney-Island-by-Margaret-Bourke-W Photo by Mitch JamesBuilt in 1939, the bridge connecting Ocean Avenue to the Santa Monica Pier is nearing the end of its useful life and will be replaced. For some people The Santa Monica Pier is the “actual” end of Route 66, and (Read more…). Coney Island The Santa Monica Pier
. . . → Read More: Walking Turcot Yards: Coney Island And The Santa Monica Pier By Richard Wolff A Madrid woman holds a banner reading ‘Your benefits, Our crisis. Another world is possible’ at the Spanish headquarters of the European Commission. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters What’s efficiency got to do with capitalism? The short answer is little or nothing. Economic and social collapses in Detroit, Cleveland and many other US cities did not happen because production was inefficient there. Efficiency problems did not cause the longer-term economic declines troubling the US and western Europe. Capitalist corporations decided to relocate production: first, away from such cities, and now, away from those regions. It has done so to (Read more…) April, wrote T.S. Eliot in his remarkable poem, The Waste Land, is the “cruellest month.”* And not merely because of the inclement and unsettling weather that seems to mix winter with spring in unpredictable doses. Nor for the necessity of … Continue reading → Kent looks the same… but his mind has left him. Amazing CBC coverage of climate change from the early 1980s. Bob McDonald, Peter Kent, and others make appearances: Attention Washington: Peter Kent explains Climate Change (the briefing you won’t see). “The natural preoccupation with the weather tomorrow, the next day, or even Thursday, has distracted public attention from the longer term implications of the Greenhouse Effect.” – Peter Kent, 1984 on CBC “The Greenhouse Effect must be considered as the world’s most serious environmental concern.” Now he’s the nation’s Environment Minister, and he acts like a POS. What . . . → Read More: Saskboy’s Abandoned Stuff: Peter Kent Didn’t Age Well It doesn’t begin with Culloden. History is seldom so neat and precise that a single event can be identified as the start or end of a thing. Rather, Culloden was a hinge, a point at which events changed direction, when … Continue reading → |
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