While many the US were celebrating seemingly positive job numbers yesterday, for London, Ontario residents such news was caustic, rock salt poured into a gaping wound.
WSWS:
Caterpillar subsidiary Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) has announced that it is transforming the lockout at its London, Ontario diesel-locomotive manufacturing facility into a plant closure.
Six weeks ago, Caterpillar locked out the 465 production workers at its London plant after they overwhelmingly rejected the company’s demands for a 55 percent wage cut, the elimination of their pension plan, and other sweeping …
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bastard.logic: The New 1% Doctrine in Action (Electro-Motive Diesel Edition)
February 4, 2012 by
bastard.logic: A Giraffe Hunter in a Ditch is Worth Two in the Bush. Or Something.
December 24, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Newt teh Perfessor outdoes himself on the future of gender in an excerpt from a mid-90s lecture:
Traditionally, he said, “if combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days, because they get infections and they don’t have upper body strength.” On the other hand, in the space age, “if combat means being on an Aegis class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets,” a female may be better equipped than a restless male, who is “biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”
One …
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bastard.logic: …and Michael Moore is FAT!
December 15, 2011 by
Terry Glavin, last True Leftist™ in Canada, finds the late, lamented Kyoto treaty (and environmentalism in general) wanting — and apparently it’s all Al Gore’s fault.
No, really:
Kyoto could have been an instrument to force technological innovation in the world’s advanced economies in such a way as to clear a path for eventual and meaningful global reductions in greenhouse gases. But it didn’t turn out that way, and since nobody’s being especially parsimonious in the apportionment of blame for this, while we’re at it, there’s no good reason to …
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bastard.logic: Priorities. They Can Has.
November 27, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Noted w/o comment:
Time Magazine covers – December 5, 2011
h/t …
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bastard.logic: The Troubling Truth About Naomi Wolf’s DHS/OWS Hype UPDATE: Original Source Walks Back teh BS
November 27, 2011 by
by matttbastard
It’s total bullshit (not to mention batshit).
AlterNet’s Josh Holland for teh Fisk:
Wolf …offers a classic example of trying to shoe-horn reality into a theory with no factual basis. She set out to write a column indicting Congress for a nationwide crack-down that hasn’t actually been unearthed and, in order to do so, she needs to hopelessly muddle the chain of command…
For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own …
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bastard.logic: Johann Hari Vs. Johann Hari On The Ethics Of Making Sh!t Up
September 15, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Johann Hari, September 2011:
“If I had asked the many experienced colleagues I have here at The Independent… they would have explained just how wrong I was. It was arrogant and stupid of me not to ask.”
Indeed it was — or was it…?
Johann Hari, June 2011:
“I called round…other interviewers for British newspapers and they said what I did was normal practice and they had done it themselves.”
Either way, at the end of the day the purple-prosed, narcissistic little shit-stain gets to keep his plum position as UK …
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bastard.logic: Looking Backward in the Year 2011
September 9, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Der Spiegel runs down W’s “tragic legacy” in the long, long, looooong decade of U.S. decline that followed 9/11:
America was trapped in Iraq for years, where a victory was a long time coming and was never a real one. It is currently trapped in Afghanistan, where victory no longer even seems possible. And it is trapped in an embrace with his its ally Pakistan, which it does not trust and yet cannot release.
These are costly defeats for America and the rest of the world. According to a conservative estimate of Brown University, there have been almost 140,000 …
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bastard.logic: Full Disclosure: Biased. Socialist. Bastard.
September 3, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Yeah, so, once again I’m officially a member of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
(If you’re not part of the solution, etc etc.)
In my defence, this blog does not in any way represent or align with our dread State Broadcaster (eek!!1) — so don’t fret about your PRECIOUS TAX DOLLARS!!11 subsidizing this 7-Up* Socialist endeavour, Sun Meida [sic] sycophants. Also, my undies have always been stained pink, so rejoining Canada’s resident pinko party makes sense. Anyway, don’t expect me to go easy on the Dippers out of reflexive partisan …
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bastard.logic: Ezra Levant Is Ethically Outraged Over Jack Layton’s Final Farewell
August 30, 2011 by
by matttbastard
In the midst of his double-fainting couch freakout over Jack Layton’s outrageously socialist state funeral, flesh & blood cartoon QMI columnist Ezra Levant claims the late NDP leader “clearly did not meet the standard of a state funeral” because he was “a hyper-partisan politician whose largest achievement was becoming the leader of the opposition”. According to Levant, a state funeral should be reserved for “someone whose successes transcend our national divides.”
Yeah, I mean, it’s not like Layton slew the BQ and brought …
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bastard.logic: Why I’m Not Jumping On Board The Google+ Bandwagon
August 26, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Jillian C. York on why the current corporate backlash against online pseudonymity is misguided:
There are myriad reasons why an individual may feel safer identifying under a name other than their birth name. Teenagers who identify as members of the LGBT community, for example, are regularly harassed online and may prefer to identify online using a pseudonym. Individuals whose spouses or partners work for the government or are well known often wish to conceal aspects of their own lifestyle and may feel more comfortable operating under a different name online. Survivors of …
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bastard.logic: How I Met Your Moammar
August 25, 2011 by
by matttbastard
PhotoBlog:
State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland called the photo book of Condoleezza Rice found in Gadhafi’s compound “bizarre” and “creepy” even though she hasn’t seen pictures of it. “I think I don’t need to see the photos, but bizarre and creepy are good adjectives to describe much of Gadhafi’s behavior,” Nuland said and went on to say, “It doesn’t surprise me. It’s deeply bizarre and deeply creepy, though, if it is as you described.”
Resolved: Moammar Gadhafi is the Barney Stinson of post-colonial despots. …
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bastard.logic: Greatly Exaggerated Rumours, Jack Layton Edition
August 25, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Michael Valpy addresses the current conventional wisdom that without Jack Layton, the NDP — and Canada’s left — is now doomed, doomed, DOOMED!
Ahem. Sorry ’bout that. Now, where were we?
Oh! Right.
Valpy:
When polls from the past federal election are closely analyzed, what shows up is that Mr. Harper’s Conservatives were elected by a lot of old people — people over the age of 45 whose electoral participation rate is between 60 and 80 per cent, climbing higher as they climb to meet their Maker. People under the age of 45 were powerfully …
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bastard.logic: How Dare Jack Layton Make Canadians Feel Hopeful Again!
August 25, 2011 by
by matttbastard
David J. Climenhaga, responding to National Post columnist Christie Blatchford’s now-infamous cranky, contrarian reaction to Canada’s outpouring of love and admiration for Socialist cur Taliban Jack Layton (HISSSSSSS!):
[T]he offending column is far from the worst piece Blatchford has written, and it makes a good point that many of us who loved and respected Layton can surely agree with, or at least concede contains some truth. Its other arguments would better be dismissed with a shrug than with obscenity and imprecation.
I bothered to read this piece only …
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bastard.logic: RIP Jack Layton: His Death Is Only The Beginning
August 22, 2011 by
by matttbastard
In the end, we should have known it was fanciful, even selfish, to expect Jack Layton to make it back to Parliament in the Fall.
The man who, weeks ago, stood before a stunned nation to announce he was stepping aside (temporarily, it was insisted) to once again battle cancer, gaunt and wholly drained of the vigour that defined his upbeat, energetic campaign style, was not the same one who, just one short month prior, had almost single-handedly carried the NDP to its best electoral finish in party history.
This was someone who, if not at Death’s door, was certainly on …
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bastard.logic: “The Frankenstein monster you created/Has turned against you, now you’re hated.”
August 13, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Mary Riddell:
London’s riots are not the Tupperware troubles of Greece or Spain, where the middle classes lash out against their day of reckoning. They are the proof that a section of young Britain – the stabbers, shooters, looters, chancers and their frightened acolytes – has fallen off the cliff-edge of a crumbling nation.
The failure of the markets goes hand in hand with human blight. Meanwhile, the view is gaining ground that social democracy, with its safety nets, its costly education and health care for all, is unsustainable in the bleak times ahead. The reality is …
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bastard.logic: Um, To Be Brainwashed, I Believe One First Has To Have A BRAIN.
August 10, 2011 by
by matttbastard
If Toronto City Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti wasn’t real, some enterprising young sketch comedian would have to invent him (and subsequently cash in on the character with a marginally enjoyable initial feature length smash, followed by a lackluster sequel):
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has launched a Facebook site designed, he says, to give voice to the silent majority of working-class Torontonians who don’t have time to speak out at all-night City Hall meetings alongside layabouts and “communists.
[...]
“I don’t want to hear from communists,” he said. “I …
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bastard.logic: Facts vs. Narrative, Utoya Edition
August 8, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Norwegian journalist Magnus Nome was in the good ol’ US of A when self-styled counterjihadist crusader Anders Breivik decided to escalate his murderous fantasies about Eurabian conquest from Outer Wingnuttia into the real world. Thankfully, CNN, Fox News et al were ready to provide informed, accurate, up-to-the-minute coverage of events on the ground:
The news coverage over the following days taught me a lot of interesting new ‘facts’ about the innocent nation of Norway.
1. Apparently we don’t lock our doors at night. Wrong. We do.
2. There is no public debate …
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bastard.logic: You Said You Said You Said This Time Was Gonna Be Different.
August 4, 2011 by
by matttbastard
Don’t. Lose. Hope. …
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bastard.logic: RIP Bruce McDonald, Progressive Blogger
December 6, 2010 by
Just heard the devastating news about the recent untimely passing of Bruce McDonald of Canuck Attitude. Brucie was a mensch, pure and simple. The fact that his passion and warmth were snuffed out by his own hand…well, I’m no mind reader, so we’ll leave aside speculation.
Right now, I’m going to post one of my favourite Warner Bros cartoon features in tribute.
And maybe a stiff drink.
Recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers …
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bastard.logic: Montreal Massacre: “Remember, then organize.”
December 6, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Record snowfall may have forced the cancellation of local commemorative events, but the memories of December 6th, 1989 remain fresh, regardless of where we wrestle with them. Though we take time today to reflect on the untimely murders of 18 women (for the heinous crime of being women), all-too-immediate events demand that we not simply remember the past, but also resolve to continue the fight for justice in the struggle for women’s equality. Eileen Morrow, coordinator, Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, notes in a Toronto Star op-ed how …
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bastard.logic: Bruyea, Veterans Affairs, and Canadian Democracy: Time to Go “Batsh!t Crazy”
September 23, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Tuesday’s revelation that Sean Bruyea, a vocal critic of Veterans Affairs had his private medical records deliberately compromised by bureacrats in a brazen attempt to discredit his legitimate, extensive complaints about systemic deficiencies within the department has struck a nerve among Canadians across the nation. Rick Mercer’s tweet from yesterday morning succinctly sums up the outrage:
“Bat-shit crazy”? Canadians should be spitting mad — and appropriately chastened by the sobering realization that what happened to Bruyea could happen to any one of us. Add …
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bastard.logic: (Long) Guns and Butter, Meet Fox News North
August 24, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Over at his humble pad, Progressive Bloggers head honcho Scott Tribe warns NDP leader Jack Layton that his party may face electoral consequences if his maddeningly milquetoast stance on Canada’s Long Gun Registry leads to its repeal:
Rather then whining in the papers that the voters who support keeping the long-gun registry should not be blaming the NDP if the registry gets killed, Jack should stop being naive and realize the Harper government is playing the NDP for suckers. The NDP has always claimed it is the party that stands up the most against the Harper agenda in …
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bastard.logic: G20 Aftermath Shakes Canadian Democracy: Public Inquiry NOW.
June 30, 2010 by
(Originally posted at Comments From Left Field)
At this past weekend’s G20 Summit, Toronto the Good was transformed into Toronto the Garrisoned.
Almost from the moment the summit began, 25,000 mostly-peaceful protesters faced a riot gear clad phalanx of security forces — 19,000 police officers in total, almost 20 times the number of Canadian troops currently serving in Kandahar. Yet it was a small group of agitators determined to make a statement through senseless violence who (in concert with officials eager to delegitimize peaceful assembly and popular dissent) got to drive the media …
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bastard.logic: Two Minutes Hate for Turkey (Hiss! Spit!)
June 3, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Via John Cole: The Murdoch Street Journal sounds the battle cry as Outer Wingnuttia declares war on the declining Turkish Republic (the biggest BFF breakup since Paris & Nicole deleted each other from their respective Sidekicks):
Israeli special forces and their commanders were apparently shocked to find their boarding attempt on the Mavi (“Blue”) Marmara met with violence. They should not have been. I have no doubt that the Turkish “peace activists” aboard the ship regarded Israeli troops as something akin to the second coming of Hitler’s SS.
To follow Turkish …
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bastard.logic: Quote of the Day: Bartlett 1, Libertarianism 0.
May 21, 2010 by
by matttbastard
As we know from history, the free market did not lead to a breakdown of segregation. Indeed, it got much worse, not just because it was enforced by law but because it was mandated by self-reinforcing societal pressure. Any store owner in the South who chose to serve blacks would certainly have lost far more business among whites than he gained. There is no reason to believe that this system wouldn’t have perpetuated itself absent outside pressure for change.
In short, the libertarian philosophy of Rand Paul and the Supreme Court of the 1880s and 1890s gave us almost 100 …
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bastard.logic: Rand Paul Parties Like It’s 1964
May 20, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Belated congratulations to newly-minted Kentucky GOP Senate candidate and latest Tea Party ubermensch of the moment Rand ‘Son of Ron’ Paul, for defeating the establishment candidate with Chuck Norris round-house kicks a well-fought insurgent primary campaign.
Why, It’s enough to make those who should know better prove once again, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no, they really don’t know any better.
Regardless, it’s nice to see that, after 40 long years, the pro-pot/anti-choice hater of all things federal (hissssss) has bravely …
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bastard.logic: Rima Fakih’s Trojan Bikini
May 17, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Sometimes it takes well over a thousand words to highlight the absurdity of the viral xenophobia that periodically sweeps over the more Islamophobic denziens of Outer Wingnuttia.
This time it would (at first) appear that a mere picture will suffice:
Of course, as Echidne points out, the rush to silently refute the ridiculously simplistic racism expressed by Pipes, Schlussel, et al with a li’l bit o’ SEO-friendly T&A and some progressive leering pretty much ignores the broader issues surrounding beauty pageants, their continued place in Western culture, …
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bastard.logic: Reanimation
May 2, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Huh. Whoda thunk that one’s traffic would grind to a screeching halt (even Google-friendly Ann Coulter links) if one only posts once or twice in a single month?
Clearly this calls for more one-line squibs and embedded flash vids courtesy 3rd party sources (lazy bloggers luv ya).
Yep, in the coming weeks expect to see actual daily(ish) content being provided by your bastardly host(s? bastard.logic is a groop…?) The rumours of our death have been greatly exaggerated (even ones that yours truly may or may not have started).
Um, we realize this isn’t the …
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bastard.logic: Cameron Tories Quietly Castigate Single Mothers: J.K. Rowling Brings Teh Pwn
April 14, 2010 by
by matttbastard
A kinder, gentler Conservative Party (UK)? That’s certainly the image Conservative leader David Cameron has been desperate to project ever since he took the reigns of the so-called ’nasty party’. But Harry Potter impresario (and single parent) J.K. Rowling isn’t buying the Tory’s New Labour Lite makeover. Rowling notes that despite the fuzzy rhetoric, Cameron’s Tories exhibit the same naked contempt for the poor they did during Maggie T’s tenure — especially towards poor women:
Yesterday’s Conservative manifesto makes …
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bastard.logic: B’nai Brith Canada Hearts Free Speech (Except When It Doesn’t.)
March 26, 2010 by
by matttbastard
Free speech for ye:
B’nai Brith Canada condemns free speech double standard on campus as Coulter talk is cancelled in Ottawa
TORONTO, March 24, 2010 – B’nai Brith Canada has condemned the free speech double standard that exists on university campuses across Canada and has resulted in the cancellation of recent events due to safety concerns emanating from campus radicals.
Not thee:
B’nai Brith Canada calls for removal of anti-Israel propaganda from recommended reading list for school children
TORONTO, March 25, 2010 – B’nai Brith Canada has called for the removal of …
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bastard.logic: The Last Post I Will Ever Write About Ann Coulter (Except for Cynical SEO Purposes)
March 25, 2010 by
by matttbastard
(Photo: Rockinon2009, Flickr)
Well, well, well (h/t Sabina Becker):
First, contrary to what Coulter seems to suggest in a brief phone interview with Macleans.ca scribe Colby Cosh, it was not the police who “shut it down.” I spoke with Ottawa Police Services media relations officer Alain Boucher this morning, and he told me, in no uncertain terms, that it was her security team that made the decision to call off the event. “We gave her options” — including, he said, to “find a bigger venue” — but “they opted to cancel …
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bastard.logic: Ann Coulter in Canada: Of Fire Alarms and Flaming Hyperbole
March 24, 2010 by
by matttbastard
(Photo: Jimbo Wales, flickr)
Aw, poopsie:
After protesters at the University of Ottawa prevented Ann Coulter from giving a speech on Tuesday night, the American conservative writer said it proved the point she came to make – free speech in Canada leaves much to be desired.
Then she said what she really thought of the student protesters who surrounded Marion Hall, making it to unsafe, in the view of her bodyguard, for the pundit to attempt entry.
“The University of Ottawa is really easy to get into, isn’t it?” she said in an interview after the cancelled …
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bastard.logic: Red Meat Straight Outta Ann Coulter’s Rider
March 23, 2010 by
by matttbastard
No, just…no:
Even before she opened her mouth for the first of three speeches this week on Canadian soil, American right-wing antagonist Ann Coulter had already scored a victory of sorts.
Coulter, who spoke to an audience of about 800 at the University of Western Ontario on Monday night, received a pre-emptive and private caution about the limits of free speech in Canada from the provost of the University of Ottawa, where she appears Tuesday.
The letter was immediately leaked to select conservative news organizations, with Coulter telling one that the university was …
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