test blog #10

You know it's important when I use that many words in a title, right? A massive day of demonstration and resistance is planned for Thursday, October 5 , called World Can't Wait . Sign the call , spread the word, and plan to raise your voice on the 5th of October. (Right now the sign-up form is geared to US addresses. It does accept addresses from other countries, and hopefully organizers will change the form soon.) I found out about World Can't Wait just this morning, through an email from a new reader in New Jersey. I'm reading more about the organization now. The steering committee and advisory board are all people whose work I admire, and who I look to for guidance and leadership. There are also some excellent FAQs about goals, protests in general and the future. Mark your calendars. Spread the word. Plan to be there.

Wmtc needs a new look. I'm sick of looking at this style and colour scheme, and I want an original masthead. How about a renovation to celebrate my first year in Canada? I have good design sense but no design skills, still less time to fuss with it. If you're a budding web designer who'd like to pad your resume with a little freelance work, email me. Maybe we could barter, or simply exchange your time and effort for some nice cold cash.

One year ago today , we drove the World's Fullest Minivan through New York State, and over the border, into our new lives. The year has flown by. I feel much more at home here than I expected to after one year - here, meaning Mississauga, Toronto, and Canada. We also have many more friends, and much more of a social life, than I expected to. That's been perhaps the biggest surprise. Most of that has come through this blog. (We love the internet!) I miss friends and family more than I thought I would, even though I've been able to see many of them during this past year. Many of the people I miss I wouldn't be seeing regularly, even if I were still in New York, because they've moved, too. I remind myself of that. And, of course, one year ago, we were still a pack of four. The memory of moving makes me miss our B . But, horribly, that loss would have happened no matter where we lived. I was grateful that we all moved here together. (Change of subject...) So. One year...

Many of us, adamant about not using the word "president" to describe the man who lives in the White House, use a variety of purposeful expressions instead. The Resident, Current Occupant, W and * are a few of the more respectful terms. (Of course, * was Bush I .) At home, Allan and I call him Moron. We always know who we're talking about. In our house, there is only one Moron with an upper-case M. One expression you'll see, although not often enough, is "the Cheney White House". It's a chillingly accurate and telling expression. In this excellent essay, Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect , explains why - and why we should care. See Dick Run (The Country) Cheney's the real president. It'd be nice if the press noticed. by Robert Kuttner George W. Bush has been faulted in some quarters for taking an extended vacation while the Middle East festers. It doesn't much matter; the man running the country is Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

Travel + Leisure magazine, in their annual World's Best awards , ranked the top 10 U.S. and Canadian destinations. Guess who didn't make the list? From the Star : Vancouver and Victoria have the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. Quebec City and Montreal have history and culture. But what does Toronto have to entice tourists from around the world? Not much, according to the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine. Four Canadian cities ranked in the top 10 U.S. and Canadian destinations in the popular travel publication's annual World's Best awards. Vancouver ranks the highest at Number 6, followed by Quebec City, Victoria and Montreal. But noticeably absent is Canada's biggest city. An associate editor at the magazine says Toronto shouldn't take it personally. But the omission feels like another slight for a city desperately craving "world-class" status. "While Toronto has everything, I don't know that it has any one thing that sort of stand...

I said I was going to post this, but Common Dreams has done it for me. Please read Bush & Katrina: Return to the Scene of the Crime , by Frank Rich. Today, Paul Krugman says similar good things .

Instead of posting anything new today, I'm referring to yesterday's post , the reprint of Egalia 's great essay on the Canadian health care system. Several of you have related personal stories about your experiences with health care in Canada. Think of this post as a call for contributors. I'd like to collect these stories, with an eye to writing about this in the future. I'm not sure what form that will take - possibly an Op-Ed-style essay and I'll quote anonymously from these. Whatever it turns out to be, it would be great to have lots of material to draw from. Stories of positive or negative experiences are welcome. Stories about health care in the US are easy to find - the inequities, the injustices, the insecurity - the poverty and homelessness it has caused, the cruel choices it forces. Then there are the insurance stories, the HMO monster, practicing medicine without a license, forcing forces people to fight for coverage, denying those who can't ...

Egalia, who writes Tennessee Guerilla Women , one of the best progressive feminist blogs out there, used to live in Canada. A few years ago, she wrote an essay about Canada's health care system, and she's given me permission to post it here. This is killer stuff. It deserves to be widely circulated. (Let's do that!) Take It From A Patient: Canada's System Works by Sandy Smith Madsen Although I was born and raised in Tennessee, I was served well by Canada's universal health-care system during the 13 years that I lived in Canada. As a legal resident, I was entitled to the same high level of health-care benefits enjoyed by all Canadian citizens. I was free to go to any doctor, anywhere, anytime. Three of my children were born in Canada. The bill for the birth of my youngest Canadian-born daughter was $3.00. This bill covered excellent prenatal care, delivery, and a private hospital room. It included visits to my home by a nurse and by my doctor, visits that were made...

As you know, this is the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the human-made disaster that followed, the 5th year anniversary of 9/11 is approaching, and our own anniversary of our move to Canada is next week. While the world watched in horror, as yet more proof of the US's disintegration into a third-world country leaked out, Allan and I were completely absorbed in our own stressful, exciting, insane week, which left no time or space for anything else. I caught the Katrina news in bits and pieces, struggling to make sense of it with what little focus I had. Weeks passed before I caught the full impact. Right now many words are being written about both anniversaries, Katrina and 9/11. Many people continue to exploit both events for empire, nationalism and profit. Others are trying to shed light and seek truth. Some are still mourning. I recently read two very good pieces that deal with 9/11 on a very basic, human scale. Ellis Henican, writing for Newsday , highlights a boo...

Eighty-six years ago today, American women won the right to vote, when the 19th Amendment was passed on August 26, 1920. The day is remembered as Equality Day . I wish I could find a picture of the August 26, 1970 protest when a group women climbed the Statue Of Liberty and unfurled a 42-foot banner reading "Women Of The World Unite!". Canadian women gained suffrage in a piecemeal fashion, some before their southern neighbours, others well after. A timeline of women's equality in Canada is here. If you are ever driving through western New York State, treat yourself to a day at the National Women's History Museum in Seneca Falls, in the Finger Lakes region. Don't miss the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , now part of the National Women's Rights Historic Park . We spent a great day there many years ago. At the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention , on July 19 and 20, 1848, when Stanton addressed the delegates , she closed with these words: We do not expec...

I have to write about something that greatly disturbed me. I read this on the blog of someone who posts here. The writer is a new wmtc commenter, and I enjoy her posts, and in no way am I trying to single her out for disapproval or contempt. To that end, I'm not linking back to her post or mentioning her by name. If she wants to do that, she can; I'll just keep it anonymous. Many months ago, I blogged about something similar, after overhearing something at the gym . In this case, the writer was talking about things she now does that she used to be afraid of. One of these is bicycling home from work late at night. If anyone would have told me a few years ago that I would be riding my bicycle home from work at one o'clock in the morning, I would've said, "No way. I'll be raped." But in reality, crime usually happens to criminals. Drug dealers and gang members shooting each other. The cab driver tried to frighten me the other night by telling me that there we...

A friend of ours here in Mississauga is having some scary problems with his heart. The doctors are saying it's not life-threatening - a relief, of course - but on the other hand, they're not releasing him with a clean bill of health, either. He and his family are understandably stressed and upset. How could they not be? But one thing they don't have to stress about is medical care. He was treated immediately and thoroughly by the proper specialists, and he's getting all the proper follow-up care. Because of his profession, our friend would have decent insurance coverage if he lived in the United States, too. But in Canada, the speed and quality of his care doesn't depend on his economic level or professional standing. He has good treatment because he needs it. Americans, please note: he was treated immediately . The "slow-motion health care system" that the New York Times and CNN love to ridicule is nowhere to be seen when there is a problem that needs im...

Earlier this week I thought that movie season - the opposite of baseball season - had come early this year. With the Red Sox's playoff hopes dwindling, I'd just as soon watch more movies and fewer ball games. Now I'm reluctantly being pulled back on board, by the sheer force of my desire to see my team win. Their chances are anorexic, but not dead. If a game is on, I'm watching. As someone at Joy Of Sox recently said, "Sometimes being a fan is a privilege. Other times it's a duty." But not at 1:00 a.m. While my baseball obsession knows few boundaries, Allan's knows none. The Sox are on the west coast now, and he stays up nightly to watch every game. I can't watch more than three innings of a west-coast game, but it does give us more time to watch movies. We saw an interesting and touching film this week, called "OT: Our Town" . It's been compared to "Spellbound" (the spelling-bee movie, not the Hitchcock film) and "Mad...

Half of LWB , that is. Last night we finally met Nick! We had dinner at Allen's, on the Danforth , not far from Nick and Mason's new home. (!!) As I've often mentioned, Nick was the first person to contact me about possibly emigrating to Canada after the 2004 "election". (Last night Nick reminded us that that actually happened through Allan; they were both on DU .) Nick's arrival in T.O. means the next wave of fed-up Americans will now be crossing the border. It's exciting. He told us some funny (well, pathetic) stories about what some people in Colorado asked about Canada. We can maybe forgive them for not knowing that people in Toronto speak English, but sled dogs??? Say it ain't so! Nick's been in Toronto this week, looking for a place for he and Mason to live and taking care of other business. Regarding something we've been chatting about in comments , many rentals said "no dogs" or "no pets". That's disappointing. A...

Here's a different perspective from an American who moved to Canada: "American by birth, Canadian by love" . Before Katrinka moved to Canada to marry a Canadian man, she didn't know much about the country, despite having grown up practically on the border. As she acknowledges: From our vantage point in the GTA we can watch news broadcast from both countries; we can see that US news is remarkable more for what it does not report than what it does and certainly news from the northern neighbor does not make the cut. Why would school curriculum be any different? I don't know that Canadians are all as sweet as the man Katrinka calls "Sweetness" - after all, if he's allowing people to step ahead of him in line, those folks are probably Canadian, too. But when Katrinka sees her Sweetness in his native habitat, she feels she knows from whence his light springs. Katrinka is also a neighbour of mine, somewhere in the wilds of Mississauga. * * * * Meanwhile, th...

My recent story on Dave Kiley is getting more feedback than anything I've written in a long time. Dave emailed yesterday to tell me that the story led to a $5,000 donation to his nonprofit organization, Turning Point. That, to me, is a successful story. He also sent some photos of his wheelchair basketball team - the kids team that he coaches - hanging out with the actor Will Farrell. Farrell's new movie, "Talladega Nights," has a scene where he's playing wheelchair basketball. Kiley and some other players from his area were asked to be in it, and Dave - always thinking of his kids - invited Farrell to a juniors tournament. Farrell attended, and played a little ball with the team. I can imagine the kids were thrilled. Dave sent me a link to the movie's trailer , and sure enough, in a very brief shot of a wheelchair basketball game, I see Kiley gliding by. I would normally never see "Talladega Nights" - not exactly my cup of tea - but now I'll ha...

And two: Wages, Wealth and Politics By Paul Krugman Recently, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, acknowledged that economic inequality is rising in America. In a break with previous administration pronouncements, he also conceded that this might be cause for concern. But he quickly reverted to form, falsely implying that rising inequality is mainly a story about rising wages for the highly educated. And he argued that nothing can be done about this trend, that "it is simply an economic reality, and it is neither fair nor useful to blame any political party." History suggests otherwise. I've been studying the long-term history of inequality in the United States. And it's hard to avoid the sense that it matters a lot which political party, or more accurately, which political ideology rules Washington. Since the 1920's there have been four eras of American inequality: • The Great Compression, 1929-1947: The birth of middle-class America. The real wages of product...

Two great pieces by one of my favourite columnists. One: Tax Farmers, Mercenaries and Viceroys By Paul Krugman Yesterday The New York Times reported that the Internal Revenue Service would outsource collection of unpaid back taxes to private debt collectors, who would receive a share of the proceeds. It's an awful idea. Privatizing tax collection will cost far more than hiring additional I.R.S. agents, raise less revenue and pose obvious risks of abuse. But what's really amazing is the extent to which this plan is a retreat from modern principles of government. I used to say that conservatives want to take us back to the 1920's, but the Bush administration seemingly wants to go back to the 16th century. And privatized tax collection is only part of the great march backward. In the bad old days, government was a haphazard affair. There was no bureaucracy to collect taxes, so the king subcontracted the job to private "tax farmers," who often engaged in extortion. Th...

Since there's so much activity in my post of two days ago , and since I'm very busy with my own work today, I think I'll just let today's post refer to those comments . The subject has changed several times over, and it's open to one and all for further changes. I'll stop in occasionally, too. Thought for the day: If you want to win your division and go to the playoffs, don't get swept in a five-game series against your division rivals. Boy am I glad I'm not living in New York today. I hate baseball.

All I wanted was for the Red Sox to win the division. Just win the division, for fuck sake, the wild card comes from the Central and the Yankees stay home. That's all I wanted last year, and that's all I wanted this year. The Sox were in first place for most of the season, it shouldn't have been too much to ask. Win. The. Division. But no. Apparently Theo Epstein and Terry Francona wanted to make sure that didn't happen, because they did everything they could to prevent it. Apparently Theo and Tito want Red Sox fans to hate them. That job they're doing well. What is she going on about, you ask? Don't ask. We're four games into a five-game series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, a weekend of monumental proportions, a make-or-break, do-or-die, cliche-laden, angst-ridden, stomach-churning series. After the Yankees pounded the Sox on both ends of Friday's double-header, I thought it couldn't get much worse. Shows you what I know. That was only the b...

When someone asks me why I prefer Canada to the US - if they really want to know - I usually list the Big Things : national health insurance, secure abortion rights, same-sex marriage, no death penalty, a more cooperative outlook to the world, greater tolerance of and respect for difference, all relative to the United States. These Big Things, in my opinion, speak of a different concept of society, one based more on community and less on unfettered greed and selfishness - a society that is more humane, less violent, and more oriented towards caring for its members and trying to solve people's problems. And these Big Things express themselves in daily life in myriad small ways. In my Globe & Mail essay , I mentioned two examples from everyday life: the GO train, paid on the honour system, and excellent recycling facilities. A few days ago, Allan and I had dinner with A&S*, another ex-pat couple, here for the same reasons as us. Between the four of us, we have lived in four ...

I visited the Global Village yesterday, the public portion of the 2006 International AIDS Conference . There was a performance stage, a public seminar space, and booths from an enormous array of activist organizations. While I was there, an African vocal group was performing, filling the huge hall with ringing harmonies. I wandered through the booths, where every region on earth and every community affected by AIDS was represented. It was overwhelming, inspiring, and heartbreaking, all at the same time. When I first got there, I saw people selling t-shirts and handicrafts, and it made me uncomfortable. I thought, this isn't a crafts fair, we shouldn't be treating this like another commercial enterprise. I kept my distance from those booths. Later I felt easier about it, realizing that all the organizations are fundraising, and sales is one tool with which to do that. I'm glad I got past that discomfort, or else I would have missed something truly remarkable: BeadforLife . ...

"American By Birth, Canadian By Choice". Hey, someone else shares my tagline! Daniel WBC suggests marching under that banner at next year's Pride Parade. Tom of Canadian Hope has joined our bloggy circle. Tom and his partner Emilio are included in a documentary about the immigration struggles of same-sex couples in the US .

I've just started The Places In Between , an incredible book by Scottish writer Rory Stewart. It's been out in the UK for a few years, but only recently released in paperback in North America. The Places In Between is Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan. Walk. As in, on foot. Across Afghanistan. In winter. And that Afghan crossing was only the final leg in his journey, on foot, across Iran, India, Pakistan and Nepal. I was moved to pick up this book from this run-don't-walk review in the New York Times (still my preferred place for book reviews, conservative columnists notwithstanding). Rory Stewart's first book, "The Places in Between," recounts his journey across Afghanistan in January 2002. Even in mild weather in an Abrams tank, such a trip would be mane-whitening. But Stewart goes in the middle of winter, crossing through some territory still shakily held by the Taliban — and entirely on foot. There are some Medusa-slayingly gutsy trav...

Ah, that good old liberal media, influencing Americans' opinions here in Bizarro World where everything is upside down and backwards. Especially the radically left New York Times . You know, the same newspaper that brought you the White House's case for invading Iraq without so much as running it through a spell-checker? Next time you hear that hogwash about the liberal media, here's a talking point for ya. Esteemed New York Times columnist David Brooks is on record as opposing democracy. David Sirota, writing in Working For Change , pointed this out: Take, for instance, New York Times columnist David Brooks's piece yesterday - it is arguably the most brazen admission of elite disdain for democracy that has ever been printed in a major American newspaper . Before you dismiss that as hyperbole, read the third line of Brooks' piece: "Polarized primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics." Yes, you read that correctly: ...

I recently blogged about L.M.F. , a novel by friend of wtmc Matt Bin . L.M.F. stands for "Lacking Moral Fibre" - a former British military designation for what is now recognized as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Today I see this story: The British government is expected to announce Wednesday that it will seek a group pardon for over 300 First World War soldiers executed for offences such as cowardice and desertion, a list that includes 23 Canadian soldiers. Defence secretary Des Browne is expected to announce the posthumous pardon of 306 soldiers on moral grounds, the Guardian reported. The soldiers were shot for cowardice or desertion, many after court martial hearings that lasted just minutes. Descendants of the soldiers and advocates for the pardon have long argued that many were clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The families of the executed soldiers received no military pensions, in addition to the stigma they suffered. Can you imagine? After people...

What if there was a war, and nobody came? I frequently post about Ehren Watada , the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq. You might be tired of hearing about Watada, or maybe you just skip those posts. Today, I'm urging you to read his words. You can also see video of the speech here , at truthout. Watada recently addressed the Veterans for Peace National Convention. Dahr Jamail, writing for truthout , describes how, "just as Watada took the stage and began to speak, over 50 members of Iraq Veterans Against the War filed in behind him. Watada, surprised by this and obviously taken aback by the symbolic act, turned back to the audience, took some deep breaths, then gave this speech". Thank you everyone. Thank you all for your tremendous support. How honored and delighted I am to be in the same room with you tonight. I am deeply humbled by being in the company of such wonderful speakers. You are all true American patriots. Although long since ou...

The day before we left New York City (August 29, 2005) was, as you might imagine, a little crazy. In addition to picking up the minivan and driving around doing last-minute errands - including some time at the Department of Motor Vehicles, of all places - we had to drive back to the apartment on a regular basis. Buster was on a high dose of Prednisone at the time and had to go out every couple of hours. That same day, we returned our cable TV and internet equipment to Time Warner Cable. Thus begins the saga - one that ended only yesterday. The office where we brought the equipment was a tiny, over-crowded room. You would have thought it was a little mom-and-pop operation, not an office of one of the world's largest media conglomerates. The wait seemed interminable, and it was difficult to have patience on such a busy day. We considered driving downtown to their main office, but were warned the wait there might be just as bad, and NYC traffic being what it is, we'd be that much ...