This morning I listened to a Naomi Klein interview from this week about her very different type of book, while reading a prescient Geroge Monbiot article that he reposted from last March. There’s a striking amount of overlap. Both are about the new right-wing alliances being formed, and the furthest
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A Puff of Absurdity: On Expertise
We’ve grown to develop an anti-expertise view in society. I imagine it might have something to do with a do-it-yourself mentality born of individualism and capitalism. I can work harder to figure out how to do it myself and then I don’t need anyone else’s help. I get that. About eight
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On McQuaig’s Sport and Prey
Linda McQuaig’s newest book, The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth, is a fast read full of local history and written as history should be written, as colourful stories about fascinating people! But, in order to try to remember any of it, I’ve whittled
Continue readingScripturient: Travels with Epicurus
I’m sure it’s not just me who feels this way, but these days I find increasing wisdom and solace in the words of the classical authors: Seneca, Cicero, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, Horace, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Epictetus, Diogenes, Plato. The writers of classical Greece and Rome mostly attract my attention right now,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Norway Shines a Light We Don’t Care to See
Little Norway and it’s big sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, are once again leading the way, this time by plunging into alternative clean energy investment. Not for the first time Norway is demonstrating how screwed up Canadian energy policy has become and will continue to be until we get
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Question Worth Asking – Has Canada Been Captured?
As analysis and reports stack up laying bare how much we know and everything we don’t know about dilbit and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, it is looking like this has nothing to do with the “national interest” as claimed by prime minister Trudeau. Instead it looks as though Trudeau
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Monbiot’s Out of the Wreckage
The book cover says the book “provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.” Well, he certainly tries. He’s got a plan of action that’s possible, but I didn’t get the requisite hope necessary to be spurred to action. It’s a bit of an overview of many ideas
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Requiem for the American Dream
This is Chomsky’s last long-form documentary. It came out in January, but I hadn’t heard about it until recently. I paraphrased/transcribed the 72 minute video liberally with links to further readings below. It’s about the American Dream: the idea that you can be born poor but work hard enough for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Requiem for the American Dream
This is Chomsky’s last long-form documentary. It came out in January, but I hadn’t heard about it until recently. I paraphrased the 72 minute video liberally with links to further readings below. It’s about the American Dream: the idea that you can be born poor but work hard enough for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: How to Let Go of the World
I was really looking forward to seeing the latest Josh Fox film on fracking. I liked Gasland, and then Chris Hedges gave this film a nod, which means a lot to me. And then one reviewer wrote that the film will “restore your faith that we, as a people, have the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Helping People Get Outraged
John Oliver’s show about surveillance is a must see: Amazing, right!?! But what sticks with me most, as a teacher and an environmentalist, is this line: “Is this a conversation we [American citizens] have a capacity to have?” Bingo. When intelligent people speak passionately about what they think is most
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Heather Mallick Lowers the Boom
Is this blunt enough for you? “The planet is headed for a climate catastrophe, and soon. Make that now. Your reaction will be either a quick calculation as to whether you’ll be able to die in time to skip the whole thing, or an appalled realization that your children are
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Wente’s "It Girl" Article
It’s curious that Margaret Wente is so clear about the errors Klein commits in her new book, when it appears from Wente’s article today, “The It Girl of climate change doesn’t get it,” that she’s looked at “every interview, excerpt and review,” but hasn’t actually read the book. It reminds
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Naomi Klein’s Climate Change Battle
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times So far, I’ve just dipped into This Changes Everything, but the introduction alone is a compelling read. I made my way through Shock Doctrine several summers ago, and it broadened how I think of the world. This should be an interesting trip where even the
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Politically Correct Alberta Isn’t Alberta
When it comes to women, immigrants, and religion, Alberta isn’t known for its political correctness, but when it comes to Alberta’s oil, that’s a different story. It’s not a slight against Albertans to say for the most part they pride themselves on not being politically correct. Western Canada has been
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