Here's an article by Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council, quoted in full because I don't know how to link to it on Facebook. SHARING WORK AND FOOD CREATES AN UPSIDE TO THE ECONOMIC DOWNBY Wayne RobertsUnlike most people, Thomas Homer-Dixon doesn't think today's world economic crisis is very complicated. He thinks it's very complex, which makes for a world of difference in understanding which government anti-recession programs will fail (most of them) and deciding which ones can help.Homer-Dixon, who chairs a centre for global systems analysis at the University of Waterloo, is one …
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A friend passed this on. She says the BBC believes the average person will only have read 6 books from this list. At least 6 of these I had to read for school. It is definitely a British list but there are several important books on it.1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings X3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series5 To Kill a Mockingbird – X6 The Bible - X (though I may have skimmed the begats)7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X+9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women …
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A friend passed this on. She says the BBC believes the average person will only have read 6 books from this list. At least 6 of these I had to read for school. It is definitely a British list but there are several important books on it.1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings X3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series5 To Kill a Mockingbird – X6 The Bible - X (though I may have skimmed the begats)7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X+9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women …
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Hi friends. Yesterday's clinic was a bit crazy. It gets like that here sometimes. I don't mean that in the sense of how busy it was (or wasn't, or whatever), but more in the sense of there being something in the air.I think it's the weather. We had a huge snow storm at the end of the weekend, and woke up on Monday to what some would call a winter wonderland. And by some, I mean naive assholes who don't have to live in this ridiculous climate. SERIOUSLY! There was a lot of snow. By yesterday (Tuesday) things were back on track in terms of school being back open, and resteraunts and banks and so …
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If there were an annual worst headline award, The Sun would probably win pretty much every year. Today's paper screamed "'Enormous' fraud at City Hall"It makes it sound as though the city council or mayor has been caught doing something corrupt or fraudulent. Reading the article, one finds out there were 9 civil servants (working in social services) who are accused of insurance scams with Manulife, the city's supplier of health insurance. They allegedly made fake claims. This is being investigated, has been turned over to the Toronto Police right now, and the city sent the accused employees …
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If there were an annual worst headline award, The Sun would probably win pretty much every year. Today's paper screamed "'Enormous' fraud at City Hall"It makes it sound as though the city council or mayor has been caught doing something corrupt or fraudulent. Reading the article, one finds out there were 9 civil servants (working in social services) who are accused of insurance scams with Manulife, the city's supplier of health insurance. They allegedly made fake claims. This is being investigated, has been turned over to the Toronto Police right now, and the city sent the accused employees …
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I like this magazine and it seems they are looking for submissions for their upcoming edition "How I learned to stop destroying the planet and love the global recession"What if the economic recession we're presently experiencingis not just a regrettable temporary setback in the never-endingmarch of growth-fuelled prosperity, but the beginning of apainful but ecologically necessary process of scaling backour footprint to a more sustainable level? How would we manage the decline so as to ensure the burdensare shared out equitably? How would we go about reorganizingour society and economy around …
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Hi friends. So I didn't blog last week - sorry about that. I am struggling out of my winter funk right now and trying to get back into the activism swing of things. Last week's clinic was ok; still some very vocal female protesters, which is such a nuisance. This week (ie yesterday) we didn't have clinic, so I can only hope that the protesters were out in vain. Although it isn't that cold so it's no biggie.I went to see Jack Layton speak at the Wu Centre a couple nights ago. It was pretty good. There was a much bigger crowd than had been planned for, which was a bit annoying because no one had …
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Usually the Toronto Star has pretty decent writing, but this was one of the poorest pieces I've seen in a while. There are some good points made, but the headline ("In shrinking workforce, women may surpass men") is misleading, and the writing jumps around without leading to any reasonable conclusion.Perhaps this is nitpicky, but there is some sloppy math here. The article claims "there's a possibility women will soon outnumber men in the job force." The numbers quoted in the same article don't really bear that out, unless you define "soon" as "probably never". According to StatsCan, there …
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Hi, friends. I don't have much to blog about, sadly. Nothing special happened this Tuesday. No word yet on Dr. Morgentaler's standing. The only pro-choice-related news I have is that the Chatelaine article I told you all about many months ago is finally coming out, in the April issue. So keep your eyes open for that.I just thought I would check in and say hi. When I'm not so swamped in my personal life I would like to sit down and blog about the goings-on at the University of Calgary, but not today.I hope you can all forgive me. :) …
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Don Simon, The Herd 2This is from a series called Unnaturalism, which he describes:Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to our cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce, and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems.This series of triptychs depicts scenes resulting from our tragic indifference. They are rendered in a …
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This interesting article reviews some of the main points in When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, a book by Tel Aviv University scholar Shlomo Zand (or Sand)What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same "children of Israel" described in the Old Testament?And what if most modern Israelis aren't descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn't "return" to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state …
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So, the 21st anniversary of R v. Morgentaler. I hope you are all indulging in a mid-week glass of champagne to celebrate, yes? ;) I can't help but think that this time last year I was in Ottawa, meeting amazing pro-choice activists, making new friends, and staying in a hotel room that was bigger than my apartment. And now I am cold. Just...cold.I felt so bad for the volunteer escorts yesterday. The weather was appalling - I was frozen just walking to the clinic in the morning. They got through it though, with a combination of toe warmers and determination. I'm really hoping that it doesn't get …
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Recently I came across this guy named Chris Martenson.  I did his "Crash Course" in Economics, Energy and Environment (The 3 E's).  I highly recommend checking it out.  Everything is spelled out clearly for you regarding important things to think about for our collective future: our economy, monetary system, resource depletion, population growth, peak oil, our environment.  It's very well done.  It's basically set up as a bunch of power point lectures narrarated and animated by Dr. Martenson.  There's a lot of information, but over a few sessions you can take in a lot.  I may even watch …
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40 years ago, on Christmas Eve, 1968, NASA released a photo that was both stunning and inspiring in its beauty. The photo, called Earth Rise, in many ways launched the modern environmental movement. It solidified in our collective mindset what had been known for centuries, but was not popularly appreciated... our place in the solar system. This image was truly conscious-raising, and further ensconced the need to protect the only planet we have. I would assert that a great deal of environmental abuses are exacerbated by our belief that the earth is "too big" for us to possibly have any …
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So I decided to wait until today to blog for the week, because it's Blog for Choice day today. I know it's American (the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade), but I'm feeling somewhat generous of spirit towards America lately so I feel ok about partaking in this.This year's question is: What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?First of all, let me say how awesome it is to be able to write President Obama. Again, I'm not American, but there's no denying that the decisions of the US government affect us, as they do the world. Maybe even more than the decisions of our …
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Israeli troops began their withdrawal from Gaza, today:Israeli soldiers danced on top of a tank and gave "V" for victory signs as they pulled out of Gaza, but the war moved to a close on an ambiguous note.[...] While both sides put their best spin on the conflict's seeming conclusion, noncombatants were the biggest losers. More than half of the 1,259 slain Palestinians were civilians, according to medics, human rights groups and the UN.Aid groups sought to funnel more supplies to hospitals and food distribution sites from Egyptian and Israeli border crossings.At least 13 Israelis, 10 of them …
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Israeli troops began their withdrawal from Gaza, today:Israeli soldiers danced on top of a tank and gave "V" for victory signs as they pulled out of Gaza, but the war moved to a close on an ambiguous note.[...] While both sides put their best spin on the conflict's seeming conclusion, noncombatants were the biggest losers. More than half of the 1,259 slain Palestinians were civilians, according to medics, human rights groups and the UN.Aid groups sought to funnel more supplies to hospitals and food distribution sites from Egyptian and Israeli border crossings.At least 13 Israelis, 10 of them …
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We started this Sunday with a visit to the village square, where once a week a man comes and sells various vegetables suitable for planting as well as tree seedlings. Over the past month or so, Julio and I have been preparing the Earth for tree planting. Today we bought a cherry tree, an olive tree and a lemon tree. Two days ago we also planted a Loquat, something I had never heard of until I moved here. Loquat fruits are very juicy and flavorful, with a hint of tartness. We also planted a little fir tree and some raspberries. The fir tree will suffice as our annual Christmas tree. Spain …
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So yesterday's clinic was a trial run for my new three-shift system for the volunteers. It's just for the cold weather; instead of two shifts lasting an hour and a half each, I've divided it into three one-hour shifts. It means I need more escorts to be available each week, but it also means they don't have to stand out there for as long. And a half hour in the cold makes a big difference.It seemed to work out, although three quarters of my early shift didn't show up so EO was there alone. Which definitely sucks. Unexplained absences come with the territory when coordinating volunteers, and I …
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I get most of my news from "Democracy Now!", a free, independent new organization that cuts through the normal media spin, hype and sensationalism to provide the facts, from a broader point of view than a few media moguls in the US. The most recent podcast that I downloaded features an hour long speech by eminient historian and social activist, Howard Zinn. Howard Zinn has written many books, his most well-known being, "A People's History of the United States". The following talk was his first since the historic win of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. You can't …
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Hey there, everyone! Long time no-see, eh? Yeah...about that...*shuffles feet*I've spent the last nine months working myself stupid. I will spare you the details, but let's just say that the new job has nearly been the death of this here kitteh. But you remember: p/t blogger, f/t DRAAAAAMA queen ;)So...tonight I return from Xmas part III (the Don Mills edition), only to find I've been tagged by skdadl. Tagged, I tellsya! Of all the cheek! And to make matters worse, here I am on my first Xmas-free night of holidayz and I've been asked to recount the whole of my working existence. Srsly! If …
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Hey there, everyone! Long time no-see, eh? Yeah...about that...*shuffles feet*I've spent the last nine months working myself stupid. I will spare you the details, but let's just say that the new job has nearly been the death of this here kitteh. But you remember: p/t blogger, f/t DRAAAAAMA queen ;)So...tonight I return from Xmas part III (the Don Mills edition), only to find I've been tagged by skdadl. Tagged, I tellsya! Of all the cheek! And to make matters worse, here I am on my first Xmas-free night of holidayz and I've been asked to recount the whole of my working existence. Srsly! If …
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I came across a great documentary recently (thanks, Nate!) about social status, or at least, how we perceive our status in society. It's called Status Anxiety and is available on YOUTUBE in low quality. But you can probably find it around in better quality. Basically the film explores the relationship between wealth (real or perceived) and human happiness. The film begins with the statement: "The past 200 years in the West have seen staggering increases in wealth and economic opportunity. And, yet, there have been no comparable increases in our level of happiness. Despite being so much …
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I had intended to write part two of this blog series on The Village about "The Square", the central heart of any village, where people come to meet, a place of playing, relaxing, entertainment and plenty of gossip. But, I'll save that for another time. I was so impressed by what is being done in the garden, the one that I could barely maintain alone, that I thought it appropriate to continue with the same theme.I looked out the window the other day and there was Julio, sowing seeds. One part of the garden that was previously replete with weeds and shrubs and brush, was neatly cleaned off, …
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I would just like to put this link out there for anyone that is tired of mainstream news coverage. It's independent and funded by donations only and is a refreshing look at world affairs not sensationalized by spin and corporate power. Check it out!The Real News NetworkPeace,Grant …
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Who knew? But so what? Life goes on. Thanks to all who kept checking in to see if anything was happening here, even the ones who think I'm an idiot but for some reason were compelled to check here every day anyway. (I check FD daily, so why not.)I've got a new location I've been experimenting with and I'm not sure if it's ready for Prime Time (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's not) but that's the way it goes. So for good or bad or ugly, here it is. …
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A lot of people have been asking me about the apparently low price of oil these days. Some have argued that we are not near peak oil after all, and that the huge price spike seen this year was not something to worry about. In June the price of oil spiked to $147/barrel and it didn't show any signs of letting up. Now, the price of oil is in the 50's, as it was in early 2005. So, we're off the hook right? I don't think so. Peak oil has everything to do with supply, not demand. It's about reaching a point where all the "good stuff" is gone and oil, thus becomes more expensive to extract …
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One thing I really like about living in Catalonia is the concept of "The Village". It's certainly not a new concept, but it is one living arrangement that has stood the test of time. There are not many places I would classify as villages in North America. But, Wakefield, Quebec does come to mind. In the few years I have been living in Spain, I would define the Village as small, densely populated, surrounded by farmland, 100% walkable and with a central street containing the majority of businesses, which are for the most part, family owned and operated "Mom and Pop" type establishments. The …
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I know I said the chorus of exploding right-wingnut heads would be enough to keep me amused for awhile, but really, uh... I lied. It's not enough. I'm tired. For good or ill, this koolade drinker is riding off on her sparkly pink Unicorn of Hope & Change and JoyJoyJoy. Thanks for reading... …
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Looks like the Sarah Palin Saga might be just warming up:"Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations. Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running …
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I'll really miss this kind of batshittery:"NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported." MORE than $150,000? You're shittin' me:"One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy …
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**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!** U.S. ELECTION POST AHEAD!!! For those not interested in the history being made today, that was your chance to exercise your right to click. Please, I want you to. Onward...Apart from the presidential election, there are some important ballot measures being voted on today:Prop 8 (California): This hideous little initiative, backed by a ton of religious right money, would rescind equal marriage in California, thereby protecting the Institution Of Marriage from whatever the fuck it is they think gay people will *do* to it. If it passes, Prop 8 would not only …
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Why was the "Culture War" scenario such an epic failure this election cycle? Whether the GOP wins or loses tomorrow, there's no question that this aspect of their campaign didn't work as well as it has in the past. While Sarah Palin might have electrified the superstitious, anti-intellectual, pro-ignorance, abortion-obsessed nutcase faction of the GOP base, it was reflected in only the briefest of upticks in the polls. The economy could be partly to blame, but could it also be that the whole "culture war" narrative has run its course, and there just aren't enough people who care about that …
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A great article by James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and Geography of Nowhere. This is from his weekly blog.Peace,GrantNovember 3, 2008 A Nervous Nation This is a nervous nation. Though I'm usually allergic to paranoia, something makes me think that there's a back office in the US Treasury that is buying the entire Dow Jones Industrial Index at opportune moments -- like fifteen minutes before the closing bell -- at the direction of Mr. Paulson. He seems to easily spend $50 billion a day on other dubious hand-outs. At that scale, buying the whole Dow would just take …
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