Two interesting, perhaps ominous developments on the “will they bomb Iran” front: On March 11, Admiral William Fallon resigned as head of the U.S. Central Command. Fallon opposed a military strike on Iran and the word in the halls of power is that his exit may indicate an intention on behalf of Bush and Co. […] More »

The Guardian gives a list of the 50 most powerful blogs in the world. These blogs are SO powerful they can overthrow nations (probably not), change the economy (highly unlikely) and uhm, kill lots of your free time (yep). 40 years ago Robert Kennedy gave a speech which outlined flaws with the idea of the […] More »

Every year a gaggle of Chicagoans run the Chiditarod, a shopping cart race around downtown Chicago geared at raising money and collecting goods for the food bank. The ACLU reports that there are almost a million names on the U.S. terror watch list. That’s one terrorist for every 300 Americans. The group also points some […] More »

The Dalai Lama – I am sooo sick of this guy. Commenting on the recent protests in Tibet, the Dalai Lama criticized the Chinese government for, among other things, the “politicization of religious issues.” Really?! This, coming from a man who is revered as a God-King, who once technically legally owned everything and every person […] More »

To continue with Derek’s theme of Afghanistan this week, here is a statement by Malalai Joya, an Afghan MP currently appealing her suspension from parliament. “After 9/11, unfortunately the United States and its allies like Canada pushed us from the frying pan into the fire,” she states, calling on Canada to act independently from the […] More »

On December 5, 2002, Dilawar, a young Afghan taxi driver, was arrested, handed over to US troops and taken to Bagram Air Force Base for interrogation. 5 days later he was dead. In his five days in that dungeon, he was hooded, chained to the ceiling of his cell, and beaten repeatedly. His legs were […] More »

I am caged in this corner full of melancholy and sorrow … my wings are closed and I cannot fly … I am an Afghan woman and so must wail. – Nadia Anjuman, Afghan poet, murdered by her husband in 2005. One hundred and sixty-five. That’s how many Afghan women set themselves on fire in […] More »

I’m extremely jealous at anyone who got to attend the TED conference in California this week. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference started in the 1980s that brings some heavy-hitting thinkers into the same building and lets them chat. Think the Nobel prize with fewer Swedes (not that there’s anything wrong with Swedes). This […] More »

Bob Lovelace, an ex-chief and negotiator for Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, is facing six months in prison and was fined $25,000 for participating in an ongoing protest over uranium exploration on Algonquin land, in and around Sharbot Lake, Ontario. He was charged with contempt of court. The protest was in response to a license the […] More »

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation has created an amazing map that plots out some of this continent’s environmental hotspots. The map has tons of layers and features and a cartography junkie could spend a lot of time with it. Canada looks pretty healthy, that is if you don’t look at Alberta. Sigh. The Harper government […] More »

For the past twenty years, the Chinese state has been luring foreign capital to their country with the promise of cheap wages, abundant natural resources, good infrastructure, and a massive internal market. The hope is that the flows of foreign cash will spur development that will vault China into developed-country-status by 2050. The problem, as […] More »