test blog #10

I've just finished reading Man's Search for Meaning , a classic written by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl in 1959, republished with various forewords and epilogues in 1984, 1992, and 2006. It's a book I had long wanted to read but had forgotten about, until I saw it on the Mississauga Library System's " Raves and Faves " display, adult nonfiction division. Frankl , who died in 1997, was a neurologist, a psychiatrist, and a therapist. He was also a Holocaust survivor whose entire family perished in the Nazi death camps. The original German title of Man's Search for Meaning is translated into English as Nevertheless, Say "Yes" to Life: A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp . * * * * Man's Search for Meaning is divided into two parts. In the first part, Frankl recounts some memories of his own experience in Nazi concentration camps. There, he became a keen observer of how people survived - in the differences between who survived and who did...

Today, September 28, women all over the world are taking action to demand the right to accessible, safe, and legal abortion. Women and our allies in more than 50 countries have formed a global mobilization that seeks to decriminalize abortion, provide access to safe and affordable abortion services, and end the stigma and discrimination against women who choose to have an abortion. This campaign, which started more than 20 years ago in Latin America and the Caribbean, has become a global day of action, as we recognize that women are the world continue to be denied access to safe and legal abortion. Unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, accounting to 47,000 deaths every year, or 13% of maternal deaths worldwide. Nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, 98% of which occur in developing countries where poor women have the least resources and access to family planning - which must include safe abortion. All efforts to curb the high rates of maternal ...

This is from the US, but it concerns every Canadian along with every USian. From The Nation , emphasis mine. The Nation’s interactive database of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is an attempt to compile as complete a list as possible of all known civilian deaths that have occurred in the country as a result of war-related actions by the United States, its allies and Afghan government forces, from the invasion in October of 2001 through the end of 2012. See a summary of the database here , and the interactive database itself here .

Thanks for your service, soldier. Now shut up, and that's an order. Canada’s wounded soldiers are being required to sign a form agreeing not to criticize their superiors on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, the Ottawa Citizen reported Friday. The form reportedly also asks injured soldiers not to disclose “your views on any military subject” or post anything that could “discourage” others in the military. The document, first obtained by the Citizen, was reportedly created in March and handed to military personnel who transfer to the Joint Personnel Support Unit, which was designed to help mentally and physically wounded soldiers. The JPSU confirmed the form exists but said its purpose is “to educate our members and personnel on what constitutes the appropriate and inappropriate use of social media and the possible ramifications for a CAF member.” A Canadian Forces email sent to the newspaper explained that each unit has a different way of communicating the so...

Last night, I heard author, journalist, and activist Chris Hedges speak at the Bloor Street United Church in Toronto, sponsored by the excellent Canadian Dimension . Hedges is a radical intellectual, in the Chomsky vein, also compassionate and fearless, in the mode of Howard Zinn. He touched on many subjects - and credited the work and thoughts of many others. I can only hope to impart a few snippets of the many threads Hedges wove. "A seismic moment" Hedges called the recent US debate on Syria a "seismic moment". The Obama administration pulled out all the familiar mechanisms used to sell wars to the public: the ruthless dictator, the weapons of mass destruction, the atrocities. It invoked the Normandy invasion, the liberation of Europe. It did the usual war dance... but none of it worked. The ploys, usually so effective, failed both internationally and domestically, blindsiding the Obama administration. Hedges compared the distaste for war on Syria to the turning...

One month ago, something happened that should trouble us gravely. Something happened that people who believe in democracy and free speech and an independent media and civil liberties and human rights should find appalling and unacceptable. It's old news by now; anything that occurs one month ago is ancient history. I wasn't able to blog about it at the time, and in a way that is good. Events of great significance occur - our rights continue to shrink, governmental powers continue to expand, fascism and police states continue to be normalized - and we rarely have a moment to process one slippery step before we slide into another. On August 18, 2013, a man named David Miranda was taken into custody at London's Heathrow Airport. Miranda is the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald. And Greenwald, you'll recall, is one of the two people with whom Edward Snowden entrusted his evidence of the massive domestic spy campaign being perpetrated by the US government, with the help...

Dear Richard Dawkins, If the sexual abuse you experienced as a child did not leave you with lasting scars , that's very fortunate for you. However, you have no right to speak for anyone but yourself. Your insensitive remarks may cause survivors of sexual abuse great pain and they may confirm perpetrators' rationalizations of their own abuse. So do us all a favour and shut the fuck up. Signed, A survivor in solidarity with all survivors everywhere

Today marks four years since Iraq War resister Rodney Watson requested sanctuary from the First United Church in Vancouver. Watson has been in sanctuary ever since. We can honour Watson's sacrifice and his commitment to peace by renewing our demand that the Canadian government allow Watson and all war resisters to live freely in Canada.

I haven't been writing much lately, so it's good to know loyal wmtc readers are still reading every post. Well, one is, anyway. Yes folks, a full seven years after first appearing in comments on this blog in the guise of a female fan, the freak we call Mags is still spewing his bile on a regular basis. We delete most of the comments without reading, but once in a while, it's good to share. For the record, I regard every one of those (nearly) 3,000 victims of September 11, 2001, and their loved ones, among the extremely long list of victims of US imperialism. I have mourned them all. Not a one deserved their fate. I merely recognize that their numbers are dwarfed by the millions of unacknowledged victims of US imperialism and other wars the world over. And I've had my fill (and then some) of the US exceptionalism and UScentrism that fetishizes the event. I know you all know that. But some things just need to be said, even if it brings attention to the class clown that we...

For many people in the world, especially people in South America, the date September 11 was significant long before 2001. On that date in 1973, Augusto Pinochet, with the help of the United States government, overthrew the democratically elected, socialist government of Salvador Allende. Allende was either murdered or forced into suicide. Pinochet then installed a military dictatorship that ruled Chile until 1990, and was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, tortures, and disappearances, along with right-wing economic policies that were equally brutal. I often think of the Chilean overthrow, as I do about another CIA overthrow 12 years earlier, of the equally democratically-elected and similarly leftist government of Patrice Lumumba, of the Republic of Congo. Lumumba was also assassinated. I think about the blinding frustration, the anger - no, the rage - I would feel if this had happened in my own country. If a people's candidate, a champion of the working class, had ri...

I think The Onion has outdone itself this time. From the Structural Steel Melt on Tower 7–Grain bread to the Twin Chowers cold cut combo with Ground Zero–Carb vinaigrette on a Let’s Whole Wheat Roll, we’ve got something for everybody this Subtember 11. Click here.

We've moved! We're renting a much larger, newer, and more comfortable house in central Mississauga. We've lost the huge backyard of our old rental home, but the backyard here is still a decent size, the largest of any house we saw that we'd want to live in. (The choices were huge backyards with old, un-maintained, falling-apart houses, beautiful new townhouses with either no backyard or a tiny square of cement, or this place!) We have more space - way more space - in this house on two floors than we had in the old place on three floors. And after two major floods, we're pretty happy not to have a basement! The basement of the current house is a separate apartment, and those tenants do not share the yard. One of the big differences in this house is that our landlord and his family used to live here, so everything is new and well-maintained. It is by far the nicest place either of us have ever lived in. It will be a while until we're all set up, but I've deci...

This week, port truckers went on strike in California , and fast-food workers in more than 60 cities walked off their jobs . Today in the US, Labor Day is Walmart's last day to respond before Walmart workers intensify their nationwide actions on September 5. In Toronto, hotel workers won a huge victory through their union, the United Steelworkers, ending their 13-week strike by winning a contract without the huge concessions their employer was demanding. Labour rights are human rights. And this is how change happens: enjoy this pics from the fast-food workers' national campaign.

If you're enjoying a long weekend, take a moment to acknowledge the blood, sweat, and tears of the women and men who made that possible. This page from a regional AFL-CIO affiliate has a partial list of what we enjoy thanks to organizing labour. 36 Reasons Why You Should Thank a Union Weekends All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks Paid Vacation FMLA Sick Leave Social Security Minimum Wage Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination) 8-Hour Work Day Overtime Pay Child Labor Laws Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) 40 Hour Work Week Worker's Compensation (Worker's Comp) Unemployment Insurance Pensions Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations Employer Health Care Insurance Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees Wrongful Termination Laws Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 Whistleblower Protection Laws Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee) Veteran's Employment and ...