test blog #10

Revolutionary thought of the day: Remember when, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, the Patriot Act was controversial, held up as the symbolic face of Bush/Cheney radicalism and widely lamented as a threat to core American liberties and restraints on federal surveillance and detention powers? Yet now, the Patriot Act is quietly renewed every four years by overwhelming majorities in both parties (despite substantial evidence of serious abuse), and almost nobody is bothered by it any longer. . . . The idea of flying robots hovering over American soil monitoring what citizens do en masse is yet another one of those ideas that, in the very recent past, seemed too radical and dystopian to entertain, yet is on the road to being quickly mainstreamed. When that happens, it is no longer deemed radical to advocate such things; radicalism is evinced by opposition to them. Glenn Greenwald, "Extremism Normalized"

I did this once before - turns out it was about a year ago - and although not many people participated, it made for good conversation and helped me get caught up with some friends. So why not? I still prefer posting about my life here as opposed to Facebook. From last year's post: This list will answer the burning question: What's up? What's happening in your life? Doing anything interesting? Enjoying doing something mundane? Reading a good book? Working in your garden? Suffering from the heat? Tell us! Elaborate as much or little as you'd like. We'll limit this to five, but less than five is OK. 1. My mom's annual visit is this week; she arrives tomorrow and leaves Friday. I always try to make her visit special - cook a nice dinner, do stuff she'll enjoy, have foods she loves in the house. She is very easy to please, and super appreciative, so it's a pleasure to make the effort. Would you believe this woman turned 81 this year? This photo is from 2010...

CBC reports that a heavily censored, declassified report obtained by the Canadian Press shows that the RCMP (with input from CSIS and the CBSA) have issued warnings about the supposedly growing threat of radical environmentalism in Canada. Isn't that convenient. With the Harper Government branding everyone who opposes their anti-environment, anti-human, profit-over-all agenda as dangerous radicals, we can now hear it direct from the spying-enforcement agencies themselves. Supposedly Greenpeace and other environmental groups are dangerous and might become violent. As Yossi Cadan, campaigns director for Greenpeace Canada, is quoted as saying: There is a difference between breaking the law and criminal activities. . . . It's true that the distance between the government policy and the environmental movement is growing, but I don't think that the movement is getting more radical. The Harper Government TM , on the other hand, is trying to radically remake Canada in its own ima...

Today marks 10 years since Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, then 15 years old, was picked up in Afghanistan. For an entire decade, he has lived in prison, first in Bagram, then in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. He lives in solitary confinement, which is recognized internationally as a form of torture. Just this week, Public Safety [sic] Minister Vic Toews scrambled to find new excuses to not bring Khadr back to Canada. Professional wingnut Ezra Levant launched a new campaign to discredit Khadr and bolster the government's case. We can only hope that, as with most of Levant's ranting, this one will end up backfiring. May I please ask you to do three things? First, if you have not already done so, sign the petition  created by Senator Romeo Dallaire, calling on Toews to bring Khadr back to Canada. Second, please share the petition with everyone you know. And third, read this excellent column by Thomas Walkom. Some are down on Ezra Levant, the prolific conservative gadf...

Before reading Invisible Man , I thought the book's title referred to the invisibility of black men in white society, but it turns out I was mistaken. Ellison didn't call his masterpiece "Invisible Men ". The titular Man refers to a man - an individual, a person, a human being with a unique identity. The man in question realizes he is invisible because he is always seen as a Black Man, always slotted into one of the ways black people are perceived in American society - not just by white people, but by black people, too, and all the time. Indeed, the people most despised by the narrator are not the ignorant Southern rednecks who thrive on humiliating their black neighbours, but the hypocritical, duplicitous black leaders who in public are "a credit to the race," but in private are greedy for power, ready to betray and vanquish any black brother one who stands in their way. As the nameless narrator's world expands, he begins to realize that he has only a...

I've just learned of the untimely passing of a very funny man. Those of us old enough to remember the brilliant and subversive "The Franken and Davis Show" bits on the old Saturday Night Live may have sometimes wondered what happened to Al Franken's less famous partner. Tom Davis died last week at the too-young age of 59. In 2004, contestants on “Jeopardy!” were stumped by the clue “He was the comedy partner of Al Franken.” Tom Davis, that comedy partner, sighed as he watched. He was so inured to playing second fiddle to Mr. Franken, now a Democratic senator from Minnesota, that he called himself Sonny to Mr. Franken’s Cher. But the fact is that Mr. Davis helped shape Mr. Franken’s comedy, and vice versa, from the time they entertained students with rebellious, razor-edged humor at high school assemblies in Minnesota. In 1975, Mr. Davis, brilliant at improvisational comedy, and Mr. Franken, a whiz at plotting funny sequences, became two of the first writers on a new s...

The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics kick off today, with Opening Ceremonies that are supposed to be completely over-the-top. With a £27 million price tag ($42.5 million Canadian) for those three hours alone, they ought to be. We're told that one billion people worldwide will watch the Opening Ceremonies. I won't be one of them. I used to love the Olympics - the competition, the ubiquitous underdog stories, the feats of seemingly superhuman ability. I was able to tune out the nationalism and concentrate on the athletes. In the 1990s, when I started writing about disability sports, I shifted my focus to the Paralympics. I felt that competition best embodied the true spirit of amateur sport, and that helped me block out the increasingly disturbing issues surrounding the Olympic games. These days I can't enjoy the games at all. I get past the corporatism, the nationalism, and the constant blending of the two into a corporate-fascist spectacle. Right now in London, as th...

Revolutionary Thought of the Day: the KFC Double Down is a plot against white America. The Negro Rioting Plan that's been put in place is a terribly complicated strategy that has taken hundreds of thousands of Negroes to plan and thousands of years to come together. Sleeper agents, technological advances and an unwavering patience has been our friend on this path to finally achieving our rioting plans. Only one man has ever come close toppling our years of work to destroy then redistribute good earnest White folks wealth with epic rioting. That man is the brilliant and perceptive Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck has been our arch nemesis for years. His amazing detective skills has outed many of our operatives and leaked several plans to the world. Our only method of battling his spectacular abilities is to paint him as being a fucking crazy person who clearly doesn’t understand ANYTHING and is simply out to profit from fear mongering and race baiting. But we Negroes know the truth. We know ...

Thank you, Bruce! In a long feature story in The New Yorker , Bruce Springsteen reveals he has been in psychotherapy for 30 years, and has at times been depressed to the point of suicidal. I believe that every public figure who comes out about their own mental-health struggles helps break down the stigma of mental illness, a little bit at a time. Every ordinary person who speaks openly about depression, therapy, and medication also helps pave the way for their family, friends, and colleagues. But when a celebrated artist or athlete chooses to be out about depression - or about anything that carries a stigma - I am especially grateful, because they reach so many people. Springsteen relates his "self-loathing" to his creative process, and believes this is a nearly universal feature of the creative drive. From a summary in The Guardian : "My issues weren't as obvious as drugs, " Springsteen explained to Remnick. "They were quieter – just as problematic, but qu...

Assuming I am not the last person on earth to find this site, you might share my enjoyment of Humans of New York, a photo project by Brandon Stanton , documenting a "photographic census of New York City". The Humans of New York website says that updates happen most frequently on Facebook , but I prefer the web version. HONY is also on Tumblr. And it's gotten quite a bit of media coverage . The site was brought to my attention by S, who thought I would appreciate this: “I’m a librarian.” “What’s your favorite part about being a librarian?” “...the books.”

I'm in the middle of reading Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man , now removed from the Famous Books I Haven't Read Yet list. The novel is an exploration of African-American identity in the days of the Jim Crow South and the shifting terrain of the supposedly enlightened North. Written in the late 1940s and published in 1952, Invisible Man was instantly hailed as a Great American Novel. It won the National Book Award the year after its publication, and is number 19 on Modern Library's 100 Best Novels List . Sadly, the book itself became overshadowed by what came next - or what didn't. After huge initial success, Ellison never published anything important again. He ranks as number one on a much sadder list: the famous and prolonged cases of writer's block. Unlike the other two writers who spring to mind as sharing that sad distinction, Ellison didn't have a large body of previously published work (like Joseph Mitchell) and he didn't have a second writing life ...

Menino: "Chick-fil-A would be an insult to the city's long history of expanding freedom." Rob Ford , please take note.

Happy Birthday , Amelia.

Today's Revolutionary Thought of the Day is dedicated to every survivor of sexual abuse or sexual assault who suffers in silence. Here is the thought. Tell someone. It may be the most revolutionary action you ever take. You are not alone. But only you can take that first step. The road ahead is scary, but nowhere near as frightening as what you've already faced. Tell someone. It's the first step on the path to healing, the path to reclaim your own power. No matter how old you are, no matter how long ago it happened, you can still walk that path. Survivors Speak Out Pandora's Project Raising Her Voice Soul Speak Out After Silence Speaking Out About Child Sexual Abuse Violence Unsilenced The Clothesline Project Survivors speak out on YouTube Tell someone.

I spent some time last night reading reaction to the sanctions against Penn State University set out by the NCAA. (I should qualify that: I was reading the reactions of intelligent, compassionate people. I don't need to read anything written by people who care more about football than child sexual abuse.) If you haven't read about the sanctions, this is a good explanation . Many people are upset, feeling that anything short of the so-called "death penalty" - the complete dismantling of Penn State's football program - is a failure of the NCAA. Although I would have preferred to see the end of Penn State football for five or 10 years, I do think the NCAA sanctions are weighty and meaningful. They force the school to continue to play their vaunted sport in greatly diminished form. As my friend Barry Crimmins said on Facebook, they are "forced to be shitty in public" for a certain length of time, an ongoing public humiliation. Certain aspects of the sanctio...

Buddha, the service-dog-in-training, is now living permanently with the Brockways. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this possible. We've now raised $4,150 towards our $8,000 goal. We are brainstorming ideas on how we can expand our fundraising base. If you have any ideas, please email me. And if you want to donate, please click here . * * * * Before Jeremy Brockway started working with Buddha, he rarely left his room. Interaction with his family was limited and very difficult. The transformation is astonishing. Here are some updates. Ashlea, June 11: Buddha is now living with us! Jeremy wakes up early every morning to walk him, and they spend a lot of time playing and working together in the backyard. This means Jeremy spends a lot more time with the family, which is so wonderful! The boys love Buddha. Buddha himself is still adjusting to living with us. He was very anxious and fearful at first, and we were concerned. But he is coming around. I am hopeful that we will soon...

In a dream, you walk into a room, someplace you have been before. Three people are there: a current celebrity, a historical figure, and someone you associate with your childhood. You ask for something to eat and something to drink. Music is playing in the background. Tell us: 1. What is the room? 2. Who is the celebrity? 3. Who is the historical figure? 4. Who is the person or character you associate with your childhood? 5. What are you eating? 6. What are you drinking? 7. What music is playing? There's no trick to this. It's a dream; it doesn't have to make sense. I'm going to withhold my list until later in the thread.

Revolutionary thought of the day: Initially, the Mincome program was conceived as a labour market experiment. The government wanted to know what would happen if everybody in town received a guaranteed income, and specifically, they wanted to know whether people would still work. It turns out they did. Only two segments of Dauphin's labour force worked less as a result of Mincome - new mothers and teenagers. Mothers with newborns stopped working because they wanted to stay at home longer with their babies. And teenagers worked less because they weren't under as much pressure to support their families. The end result was that they spent more time at school and more teenagers graduated. Those who continued to work were given more opportunities to choose what type of work they did. . . . . In the period that Mincome was administered, hospital visits dropped 8.5 per cent. Fewer people went to the hospital with work-related injuries and there were fewer emergency room visits from ca...

I've updated my recent post, onboard the tahrir: 'our course is the conscience of humanity. our final destination is the betterment of mankind.' to correct a few factual errors. I also added this video, which you might want to watch, whether or not you appreciated that post. The sight of the Israeli boats speeding towards the Tahrir sent chills up my spine.

Revolutionary thought of the day: That’s a very American value right there: if you screw up in your early 20s, you — and your children — are on your own for life. . . . Why does it seem like a reasonable policy suggestion to tell Jessica she needs a husband, and pie in the sky to say she needs a union? Or a national day care system like the one in France, where teachers are well-paid, with benefits? Katha Pollitt, "The 'New York Times' Misses the Mark on Inequality, Marriage" , in response to "Two Classes, Divided By 'I Do'" . Newsflash: a woman with a college degree and a solid marriage enjoys better life chances than a college dropout raising three kids alone! Therefore everyone should get married! Read Katha's column here.

I noticed this story yesterday about some fans' extreme reaction to negative reviews of an upcoming movie. As The Dark Knight Rises hits theatres this week, critics posting negative reviews of the Batman film have been flooded with a wave of online abuse and threats sent by fans. The final instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, which officially opens in theatres Friday, is one of the year's most anticipated films. U.S. online film critic Marshall Fine offered the first negative appraisal of the comic-inspired tale on his site Hollywood & Fine and via the popular movie-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. As expected, fans raised a furor in the comments section. Although most were negative, some commenters went so far as to vow to take down his website, while others threatened violence against him — including beating him into a coma or setting him on fire. I find this pretty bizarre, and the story made me wonder... what's going on here? Fine, the critic ma...

Now here's something we don't see every day, although we should, and we could. The police are called to investigate "a vicious pit bull"... and they don't assume the story to be true, don't draw their weapons, don't shoot the animal on sight. In fact, a police officer rescues the dog, first to a shelter, and then to his own home. Here's the story in the officer's own words, written to a blogger called Modified k9 Pit Bull Rescue. Click through for great pics. I'm a Police Officer in Baltimore City. I am originally from Wilkes-Barre, and I am a fan of your organization and Pit Bulls. Today I received a call while on duty about a vicious dog chasing kids. When I came on the scene, I noticed people yelling out their windows at the dog. I followed the dog into an ally to see how it was acting. Going on my own approach, being a dog lover, I got out of my car and called the "vicious dog" over to me. The dog came over with it's tail bet...

Change.org | How to Start a Petition I was surprised and pleased to see Roméo Dallaire's name associated with the campaign to repatriate Omar Khadr. I hope it helps. It's hard to believe Omar Khadr is still being held in Guantanamo Bay. It's hard to believe that the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay still exists. As of today, 168 souls are believed to be interred there. Most have never been charged with any crimes. As for Khadr, this is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's infatuation with the United States at its most disturbing and dangerous. Canadians should never forget that if Stephen Harper had been Prime Minister in 2003, this country would have joined in the invasion of Iraq. To sign the petition, you'll need a Change.org account. Please take the time to create one and sign the petition, if you haven't already.

Revolutionary thought of the day: There are limits to how far a people can be pushed. And if violence continues to be the preferred mechanism for control, if the state refuses to institute rational economic and political reforms to address the growing misery that corporations inflict on the citizens, it will, as at Blair Mountain, engender a violent response. Chris Hedges, "The Battle of Blair Mountain"

A grande dame of American acting died earlier this week. Celeste Holm, New York born and bred, was best known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement *, her memorable (and Oscar-nominated) role alongside Bette Davis in All About Eve , and for originating the role of Ado Annie in Oklahoma! . But her list of stage, film, and television credits was very long indeed, as was her list of husbands. Her last marriage, to a man almost 50 years her junior, was announced at Sardi's, in true New York theatre style. The New York Times obituary is here , but scrolling through Holm's credits on her Wikipedia page is also entertaining. * Gentleman's Agreement was a groundbreaking film, adapted from an equally ground-breaking novel by Laura Z. Hobson. It was the first mainstream work to deal with anti-Semitism in the United States.

Revolutionary thought of the day: It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it. Eugene V. Debs

How can it be that an advertisement is considered controversial because it clearly states the intended use of its product? Strangely, it makes perfect sense, in a world where legislators are banned from their workplaces for uttering the word vagina , where breasts are used to sell everything in creation , but the most basic function of a breast - feeding babies - must be hidden from view . A world where the product in question is itself marketed under a euphemism: feminine hygiene . Thank you, Carefree, for an ad that uses plain language. Thank you, too, to model Cody Condell, who says she is "proud to be part of" the Australian Carefree campaign. Now would everyone else just grow up? How would you describe the substance that comes out of a woman's private parts when she's not menstruating? Let’s just call it what it is: vaginal discharge. That’s what Carefree did in its latest ad for underwear liners, which shows a naked young woman, her body hidden behind wh...

Revolutionary thought of the day: Among the peoples of the world the idea of war resistance is growing. You must fearlessly accept the challenge and aggressively spread the idea of war resistance. You must convince the people to take disarmament into their own hands and to declare that they will have no part in war or in the preparation for war. You must call on the workers of all countries to unite in refusing to become the tools of interests that war upon life. Today, in twelve countries, young men are resisting conscription and refusing military service. They are the pioneers of a warless world. Albert Einstein, 1931 I've posted this before, but I just love it so much. I repeat it to myself, like a prayer.

This post is based on my notes on a talk by David Heap , supplemented by graphics from David's presentation, about his experience as part of the Canadian Boat to Gaza . To see David's presentation in its entirety, go here . It was videoed and put online by Paul S. Graham (with additional footage from Harold Shuster) for Winnipeg Community TV. You can see more of Paul's videos on his Red River Pete YouTube channel. Images in this post courtesy of Tahrir.ca . Illegal, ongoing, and only getting worse The closure of Gaza has been going on for decades. The blockade of international aid is the end of a long process of increasing restrictions of the movement of Palestinians. Israeli journalist Amira Hass reminds us that restriction on movement is a hallmark of apartheid regimes. The inability to move around one's own country, needing passes (often impossible to get and laden with arcane bureaucracy) to visit family or conduct trade, adds humiliation to the constant reminder ...

As I mentioned , I recently had the opportunity to hear my friend and comrade David Heap speak about his experience attempting to bring supplies to the people of Gaza, as part of the Canadian Boat to Gaza . David concluded his talk with a look at a new initiative. I'll begin there. The new project is called "Gaza's Ark / Building Hope" . Its aim is to revitalize the Gazan shipbuilding industry and its export trade - and with that, Gazan autonomy - by breaking the illegal blockade of Gaza from the inside. The Israeli government justifies its blockade of Gaza (as it does all its illegal acts) by invoking security. No one can bring aid to Gaza - no matter who they are or how thoroughly their cargo is inspected - because this is said to compromise Israeli security, although how medical and educational supplies does that, no one can say. Gazans are also prevented from subsistence fishing. If they venture more than three or four miles off the coast, they become IDF targets...