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Happy New Year to everyone in the wmtc community - friends and commenters, lurkers and loyal readers. Thank you all for being here. I wish you health, peace, and joy in the coming year. I wish the world continued revolutions.

Few things in life are all good or all bad. Even though I dislike Christmas , I'm happy to enjoy some paid time off, and this year I reaped the benefits of holiday overtime. Sometimes, the negative so grossly outweighs the positive that there's no point in searching for a shred of silver lining. Example: Jason Kenney. And some things are so joyous, that only a fool searches for a blemish. Example: the 2004 World Series. But many things in life are downright contrary in evoking mixed emotions. That's what we're listing today. In the spirit of our last list , this is another create-your-own. Name your five worst and your five best. The only rule is they have to be about the same thing. I think it's better to start with the negative and end on the positive, but that's up to you. In honour of turning 50 six months ago, here are the five worst and five best things about getting older, in the world according to me. Five worst things about aging: 5. I used to have perf

This has been a strange winter break. I've been working at the library, collaborating with Allan on some paid writing work, taking care of the massive number of appointments and personal chores that pile up while I'm in school, seeing a few friends... but also making sure I spend a fair amount of time on the couch either reading or watching DVDs. The one thing I haven't been able to do is any serious writing for wmtc. My brain and my time management somehow doesn't get past scraps of notes and drafts. We leave for Quebec on Sunday, so chances are dwindling. On the other hand, my courses this term may not be too taxing. (I'm being polite. I think they're pure manure.) So I might actually write these posts in January. Here are a few items that don't warrant posts of their own, but might be useful for someone Googling or stimulate conversation or provide a moment of entertainment. 1. How to make hard boiled eggs that peel perfectly. Here's a great way to ma

You know I never comment on US election campaigns, but this was irresistible. Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source. Rick Perry, in Iowa At the rate Stephen Harper is shipping Canadian resources to the US , Perry may be on to something. Thanks to AW1L.

Bradley Manning's pre-court martial hearing ended a few days ago, but for most media and the public, it might as well have never happened. This story in The Nation outlines how the US military denied access to one of the most important cases of our time. All recording devices were banned from the courtroom, no transcript of the proceedings is being made available, media passes were revoked at will and without explanation, the overflow spectator area (where people could take notes on laptops) was closed down, and so on. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Bradley Manning isn't being given a trial, which would imply fairness and a public record. He's being court-martialed. The military makes its own rules, and lives by them when it chooses. Daily notes from the courtroom were posted by diligent supporters who attended the hearing, but as determined and dogged those notetakers were, that is no substitute for media access. You can read the daily proceedings at the Bradley Mann

My friend and comrade David Heap is now blogging . Among other things, David will be writing about his experiences on the Tahrir , the Canadian Boat to Gaza, including his arrest and imprisonment. I am very much looking forward to reading that story and whatever else David writes. You can find him here.

We can say two things about Congress in the wake of the news that Rep. Barney Frank is retiring after this term: It’s about to get a little dumber, and a lot duller. So here, in appreciation for his years of service and entertainment, are some of Frank’s best YouTube-accessible moments Thanks to Ezra Klein, via James. They're short and sweet. Enjoy. (But excuse me, Mr. Frank, you made a boo-boo in that last vid. The US invaded Iraq with your party's enthusiastic blessing, and then continued to occupy that country after your party promised otherwise in 2006. Other than that, thanks for the memories.)

This video of Malalai Joya and Noam Chomsky speaking in Boston is from March of this year, but sadly, is every bit as relevant today. Chomsky's analysis of the situation in south and central Asia is especially enlightening. It's a long video, but maybe some evening you'll want to watch it instead of a movie, or keep it on in the background while you file papers (as I am) or cook or some other task. Canadians, just substitute Canada for United States. It applies to us, too. Chomsky also gives a brilliant historical perspective on the US's GWOT. You know, the one that's being fought since WWII.

The most challenging part of being a library page has been not answering people's questions. Pages are in the stacks, shelving books, so naturally people are going to ask us questions. Plus people always ask me for directions and information, it's a lifelong MO. (That's a story for another post.) But we're not supposed to answer questions. My natural inclination is to be helpful, but I'm not qualified to give good answers. Other library staff are way more qualified, plus if pages answered questions all the time, they'd never get their work done. So the only questions I'm supposed to answer are simple directionals, such as, "Where do I go to check out books?" On the other hand, we're not supposed to just say, "I'm sorry, I don't know" or point people towards the desk. I'm familiar with this concept from my Reference course, and I like it. Many people find it difficult to ask for help. They're embarrassed, they're sh

It's a wmtc tradition: my annual I Hate Christmas post. This year, it's a continuation of what we started here . Feel free to post your list, too, of any length. Hate only, please. If you love Christmas, go off and enjoy it. 10. "Merry Christmas" 9. "It's A Wonderful Life" 8. Ads where people are dressed up as Santa Claus 7. Inane advertising for inane "gift ideas", i.e. products that no one needs and will likely never use 6. Ignorant people bemoaning the loss of traditional Christmas, not realizing that most of these traditions are pagan 5. All talk about whether there will or won't be "a white Christmas" 4. Being forced to listen to my co-workers recite what they are buying for each person on their list 3. People asking me, "Are you ready for Christmas?" 2. Christmas muzak - everyfuckingwhere. 1. The fact that a religious holiday has become a universal holiday that we're all supposed to care about.

Have you heard that 1,100-year-old Maya ruins have been uncovered in the US state of Georgia? Did it seem a bit hard to believe? There's a reason for that. If you haven't heard this, try Googling "Mayan ruins found in Georgia". You will find copious blogs, forums and tweets, all agog at this unlikely revelation. Reading and re-reading the original article posted on Examiner.com , I thought the evidence seemed a bit thin, to put it mildly. Things like this: the earliest maps show the name Itsate... Itsate is what the Itza Mayas called themselves make little sense. Itza is a Maya language , now almost entirely extinct. A soundalike word on a map written in English is not evidence of anything. Another tidbit: Also, among all indigenous peoples of the Americas, only the Itza Mayas and the ancestors of the Creek Indians in Georgia built five-side earthen pyramids as their principal mounds. It was commonplace for the Itza Maya to sculpt a hill into a pentagonal mound. There

I found this in a massive pile of un-read links. It's a conversation between progressive journalist Bill Moyers and Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War , Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism . Bacevich, a former military officer who served in Vietnam, is that rare breed of social critic who is widely published in both left-wing and right-wing venues. He's a truth-teller, and although I don't always agree with his analysis, I absolutely agree with many of his conclusions. In the interview, Bacevich talks about Ronald Reagan as "modern prophet of profligacy, the politician who gave moral sanction to the empire of consumption". To understand the truth about President Reagan is to appreciate the extent to which our politics are misleading and false. Remember, he was the guy who came in and said we need to shrink the size of government. But gov

Another take on Jason Kenney's bigotry, by Andrew Potter of the Ottawa Citizen . It would be a lot easier to debate the tough cases of Canadian multiculturalism if people understood how the system actually works. That includes everyone from taxi drivers and barbers to those who spend their time trolling the comment boards of political blogs or loitering around the virtual water-coolers of social media. It includes radio and television hosts, editorialists and pundits. And it also includes the Citizenship and Immigration minister himself, Jason Kenney, who last week announced that henceforward, anyone who takes the oath of citizenship must do so unveiled and uncovered. Announcing the new policy in Montreal, Kenney said that it is "a matter of pure principle, which lies at the heart of our identity and values with respect to openness and equality." The citizenship ceremony, he went on, "defines who we are as Canadians including our mutual responsibilities to one anoth

This is happening in my hometown. The cops chased us into City Hall Park. They followed us on their motorcycles as we ran into City Hall Park. Please keep in mind, we are a group of twenty people that were walking up the street. The only thing that separates us from anyone else is that we’ve been targeted because we are loud about our politics. Besides being a bit noisy, we were doing nothing illegal. The park was full of unaware bystanders. NYPD is extremely lucky they didn’t sideswipe a kid… I watched in shock as they sped through the park. And was even more dumbfounded when they sped out of the park and up the sidewalk. An old man shouted, “Are there terrorists? I just see kids! What in the hell are they doing?!” Eventually the cops jumped off bikes and tackled two demonstrators. Both were beat up pretty badly. They threw them to the ground and punched them, slammed them into the concrete. Other officers created a “human wall” in an attempt to block press and all photographs of the

So the Harper Government TM finally uttered the words we've been expecting and dreading: health care . We all know what they're up to. It's the standard reactionary playbook on public health care. One, claim we can't afford to maintain publicly funded health care at the present levels. Two, slash funding until the system becomes impossible to maintain. Three, point to the system that they broke, and say, look, it's broken. Then dismantle it, probably by instituting a two-tier system, a privatized system for those who can afford it and a bare-minimum safety net for everyone else. In other words, the Harper Government, in its usual stealthful fashion, wants to destroy what is left of the best of Canada. But, according to this government, we can afford a massively expensive and useless crime bill , and fighter jets with a nearly unlimited price tag . This is truly frightening. Of course, it's not enough to be frightened. We have to be fighting, too. One big piece

The best part of James Gleick's The Information was, for me, his history of communication and information technologies. Here's a terrific article that applies that lens to baseball: "The History of How We Follow Baseball" , by Philip Bump, writing in The Atlantic . In 1912, the Red Sox played the New York Giants in the World Series. Here's how people in Washington watched that game: And here's a close-up of what they were all gathered around to look at: There's lots of cool stuff; definitely not for baseball fans only. Thanks to A, of course.

Two weeks ago, I wrote some impressions of The Information , by James Gleick. (If you read that earlier post, do also read the comments.) I was hoping that the book would not devolve (or advance, depending on your perspective) into scientific concepts that are beyond my understanding. I was confident that Gleick wouldn't "pull a Hawking," and force me to give up on the book the way I did with A Brief History of Time . Now I must qualify this a bit. The Information , true to its subittle "...A History, A Theory, A Flood," divides into three inter-related sections. I highly recommend the first and the third segments, but the middle of the book offered some rough going. I found myself reading about complex math theory well beyond my comprehension. That was I was able to follow this at all is a great credit to Gleick's writing. He is quite brilliant at explaining complex concepts in simple terms, often by employing elegant analogies. I followed along much fart

One of my favourite comedies has always been "The Burns and Allen Show," the old TV vehicle for the comedy team of Gracie Allen and George Burns. The show's entire run (1950-1958) was finished before I was born, but in my days as an insomniac teenager and young adult, I would watch late-night re-runs, and I fell in love with this show. Burns and Allen, who were married, began their act onstage in vaudeville, then moved to radio in the heyday of that medium, then had a popular TV show from the earliest days of television. Gracie was the comedian, playing on her supposedly addle-headed, ditzy, unique way of seeing the world, and George was her straight man. (Interestingly, their stage act originally featured George as the air-head and Gracie as the straight, but Gracie was getting all the laughs, so they switched roles.) One of Burns and Allen's long-running gags was that George would be poor and unknown if it weren't for Gracie. This reflected real-life common wisd

Paging George Orwell : a new US anti-abortion bill is named Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act . Good story plus mostly good comments at the link, too. Thanks to James.

Those who think that the danger of war is past are living in a fool’s paradise. We are faced today with militarism more powerful and more dangerous than that which brought on the World War. That is what the governments have accomplished! But 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, at the meeting of the War Resisters’ International, Lyons, France, August 1-4, 1931 from Einstein On Peace

From NCF, at Bradley Manning's hearing: And what the day it was! Manning's lawyer David Coombs (whose very nice wife is from TO) is a force to be reckoned with! After a half hour of grilling the Investigating Officer (not a judge) about his civilian job as a prosecutor with the Dept. of Justice, plus the fact that the IO only accepted 2 of the 38 witnesses for the defence (and a few other factors) Coombs called for the IO to recuse himself because of bias. And thus there was a recess - for two hours. The IO refused to recuse himself and Coombs asked for a stay of the proceedings, thus another two-hour recess and on it went. So the morning session was full of drama... The afternoon was another series of recesses and then it wrapped up for the day at 3:30 after Manning was read his rights. That was it for day 1. ... Meanwhile, with all the downtime, plus the wait-time to get in in the first place, a community was forming amongst the public - which ranged from a classical music co

The episode of The Daily Show that I mentioned here can be seen here . The part I found hilarious begins at about 6:00. Many thanks to David H for the link! After you enjoy that laugh, please write to Lowe's. Lowe's contact form here Email: WeCare@lowes.com Robert A. Niblock, Chairman and CEO Lowe's Companies, Inc. 1000 Lowes Boulevard Mooresville, NC 28117-8520

Tonight on my way home from work, I had no music with me, and was forced to listen to the radio. To think I was once a radio addict; now I find it an annoying wasteland. In my button-pushing frustration, I stumbled on this. I was utterly mesmerized. It wasn't entirely safe - I was driving! I found this music transporting. Transcendent. Fortunately, the host of the CBC Radio 1 show came back to tell me what it was, and I repeated "Glass House, Glass House, Glass House" all the way home in the hopes I might remember what to Google. I give you: Christina Petrowska Quilico performing Ann Southam's Glass Houses Revisited #5. Thank you, internet!

By now you've probably heard about the "All-American Muslim" TV show vs. Lowe's Home Improvement vs. Florida Family Association craziness. I know "The Daily Show" has been tracking the story (of course the video is not available in Canada). But in case you haven't heard about this particular bit of insanity from TGNOTFOTE TM , this excellent column in The New Yorker 's online edition will fill you in. The Jaafars and their children form one of five Dearborn families featured on “All-American Muslim,” a reality show, on TLC, created by some of the same team behind “Real Housewives of New York.” The show has become the target of an ugly campaign by a group called the Florida Family Association, which calls it “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” That someone, somewhere, would yell at the television when presented with images of Arab-Americans getting married or rea

Today begins the "Article 32" hearing for accused whistleblower Bradley Manning, the first time in 18 months of incarceration that Manning will face a judge. Tonight there's a vigil outside Ft. Meade, Maryland, and tomorrow - Manning's 24th birthday - there will be a big rally in support. The Article 32 hearing will determine whether Manning's case will go to court martial, or be decided by a military judge, or enter some other venue, at the military's discretion. Many people are referring to this as a "pre-trial hearing", and similarly referring to Bradley Manning's "trial". This gives the impression Manning will receive a fair, impartial hearing by an actual system of justice. But this is not the case. Manning is being court-martialed. That is, his accusers, his judge and his jury are one and the same. How can there be justice? A friend of mine from the War Resisters Support Campaign will be at the vigil, rally and hearing, so I'l

Last week I learned citizenship ceremonies now include militarism . This week I learn they also include Islamophobia. I'm grateful I became a citizen before this hateful bullshit started. Face veils banned for citizenship oaths The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their oath of citizenship, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday. The ban takes effect immediately. As a result, Muslim women will have to remove their niqabs or any other face-covering garments, such as burkas, before they can recite the oath of citizenship to become Canadians. Citizenship judges will be directed to enforce the rules at ceremonies over which they preside. It's a "public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly," he said, calling it "frankly, bizarre" that women were allowed to wear face veils while they swear their citizenship oaths. Kenney said he doesn't accept that it&

Lists are back! I was a little disappointed in the turnout for our last list, awesome art . Statcounter and Google Reader tell me that a few hundred people read this blog; I wish more of them would jump in the comment pool. But even if only from the core group of wmtc commenters... we like lists! This list is down to you. It's a list of the ten best. Ten best... you tell me. Ten best baseball players. Ten best reasons to quit your job. Ten best varieties of apples. Ten best places to drink coffee. Whatever you like. The list can be fact-based, objective and debatable, or purely opinion. My list is the ten best feel-good songs, laura k edition. You know what a feel-good song is - the music guaranteed to make you smile. Songs that make me want to grab an air-microphone and dance around the room. 1. Night, Bruce Springsteen 2. Sing, Sing, Sing 3. American Girl, Tom Petty 4. Steppin' Out , Joe Jackson 5. Domino, Van Morrison 6. Awaiting on You All, George Harrison 7. Rock and Roll,

This photo is used in James Gleick's The Information , in which I am currently engrossed. The building is Bell Labs, the hottest of hot spots for engineering and technology for decades, in one of its most famous locations, on the west side of lower Manhattan. (The building is now Westbeth .) The train passing through the Bell Labs building is running on The High Line. You may recall my enthusiastic post about The High Line . Worlds collide. Looking for this photo online, I found a terrific post about The High Line by Phillip Lopate . Lopate is a writer, critic and thinker who writes about (among other things) architecture, city planning and design. I know him best from an anthology he edited, The Art of the Personal Essay . Phillip Lopate's brother is Leonard Lopate, the host of a long-running radio show on WNYC. Lopate's story about The High Line begins: When, in June 2009, the High Line Park opened to the public, it was declared an almost unqualified success. Some archit

Black man. White murder victims. No physical evidence. Sentenced to death despite very compelling doubts about guilt. If this sounds like Troy Davis 2.0, that's because Troy Davis was not an anomaly. His death was business-as-usual in the US's sorry excuse for a justice system. Meet Reggie Clemons. Like Troy Davis was, Clemons has been in prison for 20 years, waiting for the state to end his life. Unfairness has dogged Clemons' case from the beginning. There was no physical evidence. There are allegations of police coercion, prosecutorial misconduct, and a stacked jury. Despite these questions, the state of Missouri plans to murder Reggie Clemons. Two young women were killed, but killing a man who may not be guilty will not bring their families justice. (Killing a man who is guilty won't bring them justice either.) During this year's Write for Rights campaign , Amnesty International is spotlighting 15 priority cases. Each one of these 15 cases - including Reggie Cl

Are you participating in Write for Rights? This annual event is a simple, hands-on way you can stand up for global human rights at least once a year. Be a part of the world's largest human rights event: Write for Rights .

Today is International Human Rights Day , a day to work for and affirm human rights at home and abroad. Today also marks 9 years since Mohamed Harkat, a Canadian citizen, was arrested under a so-called security certificate. Harkat spend 43 months in jail and was eventually released under the harshest bail conditions in Canadian history. Today, he still wears a GPS device on his ankle, one of many restrictions on his movements. Harkat now faces deportation to his native Algeria, where he will be at great risk for imprisonment, torture and death. Harkat has never been charged with a specific crime and has never seen the evidence against him. Harkat came to Canada in 1995, and was granted refugee status in 1997. CSIS claims Harkat is part of a terrorist sleeper cell, an allegation supposedly based on secret evidence that Harkat and his legal defense team have never been allowed to see. Is that the kind of justice system we want in Canada? Harkat's wife, Sophie Harkat, fights tirelessl

From Leadnow.ca : On Monday, Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative MPs voted for the cruel Crime Bill. That night, the NDP, Liberal, Bloc and Green MPs stood together against the bill, and many of them were wearing “Safer, not meaner” buttons in solidarity with our campaign. Now, the struggle for Canadian justice moves to the Senate. The Senate’s job is to provide a “sober second thought.” Senators are appointed for life, and free to make their own choices. They can review the evidence, change the bill, and force another vote. Every day, opposition grows as Canadians learn more about the Crime Bill, but Prime Minister Harper is putting enormous pressure on Senators to rubber-stamp the bill quickly so it can pass before Christmas. There is only one thing that can balance the scales: a massive public outcry from Canadians like you, right now. Click here to send an urgent message to the Senators that represent your province, asking them to rise above partisan politics, look at the evidence

In October, I blogged about my impressions of the BBC nature series "Planet Earth" . I loved the show, but criticized the producers for making it completely apolitical. There was not a single mention of habitat conservation, climate change or any human-caused environmental disruption, which struck me as a terrible missed opportunity. We put down the series for a while (because we got addicted to "The Wire") and just returned to the final three episodes. Now I must retract my criticism and give the series the highest possible marks for its politics, both in form and content. The last three episodes of the Planet Earth series are devoted to humans' impact on the environment, and the debate about what can and should be done about that. The strategy of putting all the environmental content at the end was very interesting and potentially very effective. Had each episode contained environmental messages, many viewers would have turned away. The narration might have b