December 28, 2005
Get it on
As the holidays wind down and the election starts to pick up steam, interesting things are coming from the grass roots. Take Get Your Vote On, for example. Originally started by a group in B.C. to engage youth in this spring’s provincial election, GYVO has expanded its reach to increase the youth vote on January 23. Non-partisan but full of energy, Get Your Vote On is setting up local committees... [More >>]
December 27, 2005
This National Playlist
You know, it can get too serious around here sometimes. I think it’s time we organized a game. Does anyone pay attention to CBC’s The National Playlist? I kind of like the idea, but I think we could do better. Who would be interested in helping me put together This National Playlist? I propose a 15-song list, compared with the other TNP’s 10-song list. The rest of the details we can... [More >>]
December 22, 2005
Meet the World
Sometimes, spending hours a day reading blogs isn’t a waste of time. Have a look at the art campaign “Meet the World” created by Brazilian artist Icaro Doria. He treats each flag as a graph and breaks down what each colour represents. Brilliant stuff. For example, here’s Angola: [More >>]
December 22, 2005
just one more before the holidays
There will be plenty of time to say Merry this and Happy that on Blog This. Judging by the traffic to most blogs these days, the world is falling into a pre-holiday slumber. As it should be. On the other hand, what the heck is this all about? From The Guardian online: Famed British broadcaster’s bones stolen I admit, I’m most surprised by the news that the City of New York allows people’s... [More >>]
December 21, 2005
the creaky democracy down south
Don’t know if y’all are following the snoopgate story down in the States—the Presidential authorization of domestic wiretapping and spying without a warrant or the oversight of the secret court already in place to facilitate such emergency measures. Now the President and Vice-President claim they are simply restoring powers to the Presidency that should never have been taken away…... [More >>]
December 21, 2005
The (political) science of topic avoidance
Campaign update: Warren Kinsella calls Jack Layton, “one smart friggin’ customer” this morning. Why? Because of this statement from Layton: “If you think Jean Chretien made the right call on Iraq, vote for the NDP that supported him. Not Paul Martin who undermined him as Prime Minister and Liberal leader.” An NDP leader invoking the position of a majority Liberal PM to... [More >>]
December 20, 2005
World Trade Omission
There’s been little said on Blog This, in the daily newspapers, on rabble.ca or most other places I’ve looked recently on what went down at the WTO meetings in Hong Kong last week. A chance bus encounter with The Globe’s Report on Business offered a glimpse, but I hadn’t seen much other than that until I found this site, put together by an English-language paper in Hong Kong... [More >>]
December 20, 2005
Greening Cities with Gas—how innovative
Jack Layton making a major policy announcement this morning outside a Toronto Transit station: New Democrats will increase the Gas Tax Transfer to the full five cents per litre requested by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Right now – year one. No long Liberal phase-in. No time for Paul Martin to break his word once more. Right now – five cents a litre – up from a cent... [More >>]
December 19, 2005
moral purity, political rhetoric, and the lesser evil — Part 2
My preference for where to begin the argument: The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic... [More >>]
December 19, 2005
When a journalist poses as a journalist
The Globe has been following a story since Saturday on a Toronto law professor who is battling Rogers Wireless over charges applied to her cellphone when it was stolen. The interesting part of the story, to me, is that her partner, a technology journalist named Harry Gefen, did some reconnaissance work on her behalf at a cellphone security conference in Toronto in the fall: Mr. Gefen, a technology... [More >>]
