test blog 5

In the town of Brattleboro, Vermont, this petition received enough votes to advance to a town-wide vote on March 4. Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them? The town's website has been besieged by wingnuts , so if you'd like to post a message of support, go here and click on "Your Comments". The petition has no legal standing, of course. It's just a great idea. And while we're in the nation of my birth, I'll break my self-imposed silence on the electoral goings...

A study of Taser stun guns done in Chicago in 2006 refutes the manufacturer's about the weapons' safety. From CBC: The team of doctors and scientists at the trauma centre in Chicago's Cook County hospital stunned 11 pigs with Taser guns in 2006, hitting their chests with 40-second jolts of electricity, pausing for 10 to 15 seconds, then hitting them for 40 more seconds. When the jolts ended, every animal was left with heart rhythm problems, the researchers said. Two of the animals died from cardiac arrest, one three minutes after receiving a shock. . . . Bob Walker, one of the lead researchers on the Chicago study, said the fact that one of the pigs died three minutes after being stunned is significant. "It says that the effect of the Taser shot can last beyond the time when it's being delivered," he said. "So, after the Taser shock ends, there can still be effects that can be evoked and you can still see cardiac effects." This is also significant b...

Thank you very much to Bow. James Bow. for choosing wmtc for Best Progressive Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards . It's not exactly a run-don't-walk endorsement, but I very much appreciate the mention. Today is the last day to vote.

I haven't had a chance to blog about The Omnivore's Dilemma , by Michael Pollan , which I wrote about here , and finished last week. It's a fascinating book, remarkable in many ways. Think about food. Brainstorm every aspect of food in our lives, and that's what this book is about: the political, moral, ethical, philosophical, environmental, social, cultural, and even spiritual aspects of the entire food chain. Pollan touches on anthropology, biology, nutrition and human health, human psychology, animal behaviour, cultural norms, humans' relationship to nature and the animal world (both over time and across cultures), philosophy, cooking, and undoubtedly several disciplines that I haven't named. The book is often described as being about "everything in the world," and now I can understand why. Pollan is saying, in a sense, that how we get our nourishment - the choices we make, both individually and as a society - is intimately connected to everything i...

Have you seen this yet? "In the U.S. south, is Canadian a new racial slur?" It's not anti-Canadian: it's a new racist code word. People discuss its possible origins here. Thanks to my researcher-in-chief . (Please don't forget to vote for Joy of Sox !) ( And wmtc , while you're at it!)

One year ago, we brought Tala home. Tala started out life in Tennessee, then was taken by a rescue group to Ohio. Next she was adopted by Husky Savers in western New York State. From there, it was only a short drive to Mississauga. Tennessee to Ohio to New York to Canada: she was on the Underground Railroad! For a long time after we lost Buster, we didn't want another dog. Our six years with our emotionally damaged and physically frail pit-mix left us exhausted and bereft. His death left a tremendous void, but it was also liberating (something I was loathe to admit at the time). Our life was suddenly so much easier, and we were in no rush to change that. Then one day, about a year later, I felt our family just wasn't complete. When I mentioned this to Allan, he told me he had been thinking the same thing. We made the leap, and it's been even more rewarding that we imagined. It had been such a long time since we had a healthy, young dog! Buster was never that, and Cody was ...

Wmtc readers, once again, I ask for your help. You helped me find my way in my new country when I thought Canadian Tire sold only tires and a Green P was a choice of side dish. You taught me strange expressions like Meech Lake Accord and Arrogant Worms. You comforted us when we lost our dearest Buster, and cheered for us when we found jobs. You helped me fashion my comment policy and keep this blog free of trolls. You're an intelligent lot, with a strong moral compass and finely tuned bullshit detectors. So once again, I ask you to explain something to me. A person claims to oppose the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. He (I'll use "he" for argument's sake) claims to "100% oppose" the Resident and the current US agenda. He claims to want peace. Yet he also says, "Soldiers sign contracts, and they have to do what they're told. It's up to civilians to end the war. But until it ends, if soldiers refuse orders, they must pay the consequences, ...

Yesterday's event was awesomely fabulous! As one Campaigner said: we kicked out the jams. The plan was fairly complicated, but everyone played their parts perfectly, and the whole thing ran very smoothly. The Bloor Street United Church was packed with supporters, and best of all, most of them were new faces. All but a small handful of people stayed until the end. The speakers were in turn moving, inspiring and uplifting. I won't try to list them all, because I'll surely leave someone out. But I think the crowd was especially affected by hearing war resisters themselves speak. Their stories are so moving, you feel awed by their presence. Sara Marlowe , a singer and songwriter who is a central Campaigner, was the emcee, and she did an amazing job of pulling everything together and keeping the event moving briskly. When the speeches concluded, Jamine Aponte, one of our incredible organizers (who is married to a war resister ), announced the letter writing. As she got the crowd...

Common Dreams ran my piece about the war resisters . I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to reach a wider audience on this issue. If you've come here through Common Dreams, welcome. No new post today, as I can't think about anything but today's event . Don't forget to write your letters! Thank you.

A final reminder: today in the U.S., and tomorrow in Canada, there are important events in support of Iraq War resisters in Canada. In the US, Courage to Resist , Iraq Veterans Against the War , Military Families Speak Out , and the thousands of peace groups belonging to United for Peace and Justice will hold vigils and demonstrations outside Canadian Consulates in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas. In Canada, there will be events in : Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Marathon, Ottawa, Grand Forks, Nelson, Victoria. If you can't attend any of these, you can still help the resisters. We need you to do one thing, and to do it now: write to Stéphane Dion . Make it a handwritten letter. It doesn't have to be lengthy or especially eloquent. Tell Mr Dion that you support US war resisters in Canada. Tell him you want an immediate end to deportation proceedings against all war resisters and conscientious ...

There was an AP story this week , picked up by many news outlets, about the lies the Cheney Administration disseminated in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. The original study, by the Center for Public Integrity , deserves a deeper look. The study is called "The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War" . This is the best kind of investigative journalism, work that methodically quantifies and proves . The liars can try to wriggle off the hook, but they have been skewered by facts. All power tries to rewrite history. The more total the power, the more pervasive the rewrite. In our times the airbrushes appear with Orwellian speed, trying to tell us that what we know, really isn't so. That's why we need to constantly document the truth, and save it, cling to it, insist upon it. From the overview: President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, a...

... And second, health columnist André Picard writes about the state of reproductive freedom in Canada. Although abortion remains legal here, access is questionable - or nonexistent - for many Canadian women. Women in Eastern Canada, and especially rural women all over Canada, face a shortage of abortion services, as they do shortages of health providers in general. On Saturday night in Toronto and at a number of events across the country in coming days, women will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the momentous Morgentaler decision. And celebrate they should, all the while remembering that much remains to be done to ensure that reproductive choice exists in this country. On Jan. 28, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country's abortion law and ended the prosecution (or rather state-sanctioned persecution) of Montreal doctor Henry Morgentaler. As the late Madam Justice Bertha Wilson wrote in the judgment, a woman has a right to continue or terminate a pregnancy, free...

I'm trying to write something for publication about this weekend's War Resister Support Campaign events , so I must neglect the blog for a bit. In lieu of thinking too much, I'll pass along two good pieces I saw in today's Globe and Mail . First, Gary Mason, who writes consistently and strongly against police abuse, has an excellent column on Willow Kinloch, the teenage girl who was brutalized while held in a Victoria jail cell three years ago, when she was 15 years old. In some ways, it's even more disturbing than the video of a defenceless Robert Dziekanski being tasered to death. Except Willow Kinloch is alive to talk about it. All I can say is the just-released video of what happened to then-15-year-old Ms. Kinloch in a Victoria jail cell three years ago sickens me still. And I can't believe most right-minded Canadians won't feel the same way once they see it. The back story is as follows: Ms. Kinloch was drinking with friends in a Victoria-area park one...

A few nights ago, Allan and I attended "I Object: Three Generations of War Resisters Speak Out". The panel, organized by a Toronto community peace group, featured Frank Showler, a conscientious objector from World War II, Tom Riley, a draft resister from the Vietnam War (now a organizer with the War Resisters Support Campaign), and Phil McDowell, a current war resister seeking refuge in Canada. It was a fascinating evening, and a hopeful one, as everyone in the room in some way or another was a person who stands for peace. I was especially interested in Mr Showler's story. Showler was moved by his Christian faith to seek alternative service when Canada entered World War II. As a conscientious objector, he joined Mennonites, Brethren, Quakers and other "peace-churchers" throughout Canada, but he himself worshipped with the United Church of Canada, the mainstream church. Showler said when war first erupted in Europe, the United Church was opposed to Canada enterin...

We saw " Superbad " last night, perhaps the last people in Canada to see the movie. The writers are Canadians, and famously began writing a script together when they were 13, which eventually turned into Superbad. As the movie was hyped out of all proportion here, and I was prepared to be disappointed - but I loved it. (We both did.) It was hilarious, sweet, and very well written and well acted. Superbad is created from a classic mold - our heroes go out into the big scary world to have adventures, and find their way home safely, lessons learned. The characters are believable and appealing; even when they're acting horribly, you only cringe for their innocence and naivete, you never dislike them. I love good teenage movies, and I find so few that really work for me, and this did. Now the teenage movie that everyone in Canada is talking about is "Juno". Ellen Page, the young star who was just nominated for an Academy Award, grew up in Halifax, and Michael Cera, o...

Thank you! Wmtc readers have made this blog a finalist in the Canadian Blog Awards , in the Best Progressive Blog category. Honestly, I didn't think it would get that far. I'm very pleased, and more than a little surprised, to be in the company of such Canadian heavyweights as Calgary Grit, Daveberta, Stageleft and Uncorrected Proofs. Allan , of course, is a finalist for Best Sports Blog. He tells me this was never in doubt. I feel as if I've already won an unexpected measure of recognition. I'm not expecting to win the award, and won't be at all disappointed when I don't. But if you did vote for wmtc, thank you very much. Very cool.

Today is the 35th anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade . I went back to see what I wrote for last year's Blog For Choice efforts, and decided I would post it again. I am pro-choice because I am a human being. I am pro-choice because I deserve control over my body. I am pro-choice because without reproductive freedom, women are slaves. I am pro-choice because I know the difference between a human being and a blob of cells. I am pro-choice because no government has the right of absolute control. The government's rights stop where my body begins. "A woman's right to choose" has become the euphemism for abortion, but choice is much more than the right to terminate a pregnancy. Choice is bodily integrity. Bodily integrity means freedom from rape, freedom from unwanted pregnancies, from forced or coerced sterilization. It means freedom to love and create families with whom we choose. Choice - bodily integrity - is the very bedrock of freedom. In Canada, the equiva...

...round one voting ends tonight at 11:59. Wmtc nominations are in the sidebar, plus please vote for Joy of Sox !

Ezra Levant has a piece in today's Globe and Mail online edition. An excerpt: A few days ago, I was interrogated for 90 minutes by Shirlene McGovern, an officer of the government of Alberta. I have been accused of hurting people's feelings because, two years ago, I published the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the Western Standard magazine. Ms. McGovern's business card said she was a "Human Rights Officer." What a perfectly Orwellian title. Early in her interrogation, she said "I always ask people... what was your intent and purpose of your article?" It wasn't even a question about what we had published in the magazine. It was a question about my private thoughts. I asked her why my private feelings were of interest to the government. She said, very calmly, that they would be a factor taken into account by the government in determining whether or not I was guilty. While much of the progressive Canadian blogosphere chants, "It's not a crimin...

Steve, his husband and their two sons live in Pennsylvania. They're disgusted with the US and are contemplating the Great Move North. The men were married in Toronto, but while they like Canada's largest city, they're looking for something different when it comes to a home. Steve writes: We'd like to find a small-to-medium-sized city, say anywhere in the range of 30,000 to 100,000 people. It could be a satellite of a larger metropolitan core. The key thing we're looking for is open space within easy reach - trees, water, and wildlife in its natural state rather than a cultivated park. A library and a bookstore. A grocery store that stocks some specialty foods - we have a wheat allergy in the family and need some access to gluten-free foods, though this is not too critical since you can order just about anything online these days. A place to ride a bike. A lake where the kids can skip stones. Good schools. Access to a concert hall for the occasional parents-night-out...

I don't share all of this man's beliefs. I'm not worried about "political Islam" taking over the West, and I doubt the women on the Human Rights Commission will be wearing head scarfs anytime soon. But I love his defence of freedom of expression, and his rejection of the overly elastic definition of human rights. He and I may not subscribe to the same checklist of values, or even align in the same quadrant of the political compass. But this rant is excellent. I wholeheartedly agree with his robust defence of freedom of expression, and why we need it. Thanks, as always, to James .

Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," apologized on-air for his sexist comments about Hillary Clinton. The National Organization for Women uses the word apology in quotes . Media Matters has the full text and clip of Matthews's statement. My post about Matthews's sexism here.

Have you seen this? You know how I feel about the omnipresence of advertising. If I were a parent and saw this, I would go ballistic. More power to the folks in Needham, Massachusetts who protested this latest invasion. Many thanks to James .

One of the reasons we stopped getting the Toronto Star home-delivered was its over-attention to random crime and accidents, and the inevitable fear-stoking that went with it. Star editors must see one of their paper's principal functions as increasing public fear and anxiety over unlikely events - stabbings, shootings, high-speed traffic accidents. All bad things, no doubt, all things we'd surely be better off without. But the front-page placement, screaming headlines, and random quotes from nervous neighbours (of course they're nervous, there was a shooting in their neighbourhood an hour ago) seem designed to plant the belief that crime is rampant and to keep the public on edge. Today the Star took a time-out from blotter news to run a reality check. As long as there have been cities, there has been fear. Fear of violence, fear of death, fear of anonymous, big-city crime. High-profile cases of random crime – like the recent shootings of John O'Keefe and Hou Chang M...

One of the categories in the Canadian Blog Awards is "Best Blogosphere Citizen". That interesting idea made me think about what it means to be a good blog citizen. In trying to define that, I naturally thought of what a bad blog citizen looks like, and the various blog-related behaviours that I don't like. Because I have a comment policy , and don't allow all comments at all times, many people would think I'm a bad blogosphere citizen - not to mention a hypocrite, as I'm a staunch proponent of free speech. But I'm comfortable with the rules here, which enhance the experience of this blog both for myself and most readers, and which I derived over time through trial and error. We once had a very good discussion here about controlling comments, and it helped reinforce my views. Nevertheless, to some potential commenters, my comment policy makes me full of shit. Two of my own least favourite examples of blog behaviour showed up recently in comments. First, a...

I have a short letter in today's Globe and Mail . Since letters to the editor are a paid subscription page, I'll reprint it here. Your article 72-Hour Party People (Travel, Jan. 16) asks, "Who has the time and freedom to take a two-week vacation any more?" Anyone who can't rearrange his or her life to take two consecutive weeks of vacation should think seriously about reorganizing their priorities. No outrage, just a thought. Our own vacation plans just increased from ten days to a full two weeks. Newfoundland is so big, the distances are so great, that ten days would have meant leaving too much out.

Plans for the January 25 and 26 Days of Action in support of US war resisters in Canada continue apace. Unfortunately, so do the deportation proceedings. Four resisters now face deportation, including two families with young children. I'll resort to cliche: it's a race against time. Will the united opposition adopt a proposal to Let Them Stay (as recommended by the Committee on Citizenship and Immigration ) before the final deportation orders come down? In the US, on January 25, Courage to Resist , Iraq Veterans Against the War , Military Families Speak Out and other peace groups will hold vigils and demonstrations outside Canadian Consulates in several cities . You can join them in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC or New York, and possibly some other places. Details here. In Canada, January 26 events are being added all the time, including Joshua Key, of The Deserter's Tale , speaking in Saskatoon, and a letter-writing campaign in Thunder Bay. The Toronto event now ...

I have a letter in today's Toronto Star about this. Just a short version of yesterday's blog post . They edited my "30 years" to say "a good many years". Let's just say many, many, many.

The fifth Iraq Moratorium is this Friday, January 18. Today is a good day to think about how you can make visible your opposition to the US war on and occupation of Iraq. In the US, more than 80 events are planned. They include: The Raging Grannies of Mountain View, California will visit US Armed Forces recruiters. Their message: Killing( or Dying) is not a Career! A vigil at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Maryland will call for money to be spent helping wounded veterans, not the war. A peace march in Brattleboro, Vermont will feature drummers, horns, bagpipes, and dancers. A public forum in Duluth, Minnesota will feature Native American and African American leaders speaking against the war. A candlelight vigil in San Mateo, California will honor the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and incorporate his words against war. To see a list of actions, go here and click "80 Iraq Moratorium Day #5 Events: Find one near you!". * * * * The Iraq Moratorium is an ongoing effort t...

About six years ago, flipping channels late one night, Allan and I stumbled on " Black Books " on Comedy Central, the US comedy channel. This British comedy, starring and co-written by Irish comedian Dylan Moran , was one of the funniest shows we had ever seen. The Comedy Network never promoted it, and they never re-ran it. It disappeared. Allan found some episodes online and downloaded them, and kept a look-out for a possible DVD set. Meanwhile, the show became a legend in our world: something glimpsed once, then cruelly snatched from our grasp. That was the state of Black Books in our world for the past six years. Then, last December, Allan learned Black Books was out on DVD: a boxed set of three seasons. I didn't even know there was a third season! He ordered a set, and we waited. Then we saw "Shaun of the Dead" [corrected: previously said "Hot Fuzz", my mistake], and were amazed to see Dylan Moran in a small role. We had never seen him in anything...