March 31, 2007
Pet zombies and suburban sprawl
This Magazine’s April Film Club Newsletter is now up here. Try to check out Fido while you still can. The fun zombie flick was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. A lot of money has been poured into promoting it — let’s help it break even! Radiant City (see above photo) opens across Canada in early April. Billed as “an entertaining and startling new film on... [More >>]
March 29, 2007
Stand up, Scarborough!
It was with incredible joy that I learned that Scarborough Southwest Liberal MP Tom Wappel is not seeking re-election after his current term. From a progressive perspective, you can’t get much worse than Wappel. When he threw his hat in the ring for a Liberal leadership convention in 1990, he pledged to make abortion a crime punishable by life imprisonment. According to the Toronto Star, he described... [More >>]
March 27, 2007
Mayor Miller vs Movies?
Toronto Mayor David Miller’s proposed “City of Toronto Act” may include sin taxes on items like booze, cigarettes and…movies? While I’m not a fan of paying more for my booze, that’s a sin tax I can wrap my head around. But movies? Going to the cinema is already so expensive, I’m sure people really don’t want to pay another 5%. But if this initiative... [More >>]
March 24, 2007
Thoughts while stuck in traffic
I’ve been spending some time in Seattle lately visiting an ailing grandfather which means I’ve been stuck, bumper to bumper, on the I-5 for literally hours a day. I’m talking about the commute between my grandfather’s house in north Seattle, the hospital and downtown, three places quite close to each other. Just the sheer number of cars that role through Seattle each day,... [More >>]
March 23, 2007
Information Wants to be Free UPDATE
(image courtesy nyc.uncivilservants.org) Maybe this will be the first in a series of postings about our marvelous Internet, and the complicated issues it inspires. The NYTimes reports on a New York City website encouraging regular citizens to rat on municipal employees potentially abusing their parking privileges in the city. Personal information such a license plates are displayed on the website... [More >>]
March 21, 2007
Holy Bottled Water
Does the insanity ever end? This seems like the perfect combination of corporate greed and religious whacknuttery (wow, I just invented that word). Here’s my favourite quote from their website: “WATER IS TWICE AS VALUABLE AS OIL. Now you can import this valuable commodity to your country, already bottled with your own private label or Holy Bottled Water will create an appealing label to... [More >>]
March 21, 2007
It’s spring! … and I love Europe
Is Europe just about the most progressive society in the world today? The Independent thinks so: So, what has Europe ever done for us? Apart from… Hmmmm, it might fall under #40: Human rights legislation has protected the rights of the individual, but I am madly impressed by Europe’s longstanding refusal to accept any country with discriminatory laws against homosexuality. Strangely, the... [More >>]
March 20, 2007
Bottling profit, not altruism
This Thursday is World Water Day, and you may have read the gushing announcement from Starbucks about how the company is planning to donate 5 cents from every bottle of their new Ethos bottled water to “benefit India and Kenya.” Starbucks says its goal is to donate $10 million by 2010 to organizations that “are helping to alleviate the world’s water crisis.” Now, the... [More >>]
March 19, 2007
Web 3.14159 — somewhat rambly thoughts
(photo of Dorothy Day at a draft card burning, courtesy of the Culture of Peace website Here is a poem by THIS mag contributor, Brian Joseph Davis, from his very funny book Portable Altamont (Coach House 2005): Philip Roth I never should have trusted you When you told me that you were David Lee Roth’s brother. Davis has an essay in the latest THIS Magazine about Socialism, Internet Style —... [More >>]
March 18, 2007
Hijib Hijabbery
Should I be shocked by this? That a recent incident at Montreal’s Bordeaux correctional prison barred a recently hired prison guard from wearing her Hijab (a tradiitonal Muslim headscarf) on the job? There are a number interesting political angles here: Muslim religious attire, Quebec multicultural tolerance, employee safety interests. Is this really a Quebec specific issue? Probably not as there... [More >>]
