test blog 5

I wanted to draw your attention to a new blog, World Community . Started by Rui Rocha , from Portugal, it's a global community, offering varying perspectives from all over the world. It's an interesting mix. Although I was very flattered to be asked, I declined to join. You know me, I'd take the obligation to post in another blog too seriously, and it would become one more thing to stress over. There's still no Maple Leaf on this list , though. I thought maybe one of you would like to fill that spot.

My own, on a small scale. It seems like a very long time since I've been able to take all four of my non-day-job days to myself. Since returning from Peru, I've been swamped with writing assignments, editing work, party preparation, a mom visit. It's been fun, and I'll never complain about having too much writing work - but I'm relieved to have turned in the last of it for a little while. I'm looking forward to some serious relaxing and productive down time. Working three days a week instead of two is really making a difference in my writing life. Our last day-jobs in NYC, which we held for a very long time, were two 12-hour days. Now we both work three 12-hour days (in Allan's case, 13- and 14-hour days). In terms of both energy, time and connection to work, that third day is a real drag. Ah well, we knew we'd never see the likes of those jobs again. Today's favourite search string: Does getting a dual citizenship for Canada cause an American go loo...

I have problems with philanthropy. Certain kinds of philanthropy, anyway. Gazillionaires who give away large sums of money to charitable causes don't make my list of heroes, no matter how many people benefit from their largesse. I'd rather live in a world without gargantuan extremes between have-nots and have-too-muchs. I admire people who try to change the power structure and economic systems that keep so much of the world in various degrees of desperation - not those who, after exploiting the inequities of the system (that is, unchecked capitalism), find themselves with more money than they could ever spend in ten lifetimes, and dump some of it on the deserving poor. I've done some fundraising, both in the arts and in activism. I know full well how important money is to worthwhile projects. People who say we shouldn't "throw money at problems" probably don't care if those problems are addressed or not. Money counts. You can't do much without it. We s...

I've been so busy at work today, and now it's mid-afternoon and I haven't blogged. I'll take the easy way out: I'll let Greg Palast blog for me. Why Democrats Don't Count Lessons from the Un-Gore of Mexico by Greg Palast The Exit polls said he won, but the "official" tally took his victory away. His supporters found they were scrubbed off voter rolls. Violence and intimidation kept even more of his voters away from the polls. Hundreds of thousands of ballots supposedly showed no choice for president -- like ballots with hanging chads. And the officials in charge of this suspect election refused to re-count those votes in public. Everyone knew full well a fair count would certainly change the outcome. You've heard this story before: Gore 2000. Kerry 2004. But Lopez Obrador 2006 is made out of very different stuff than the scarecrow candidates who, oddly, call themselves "Democrats." For six years now, I've had this crazy fantasy in...

Wmtc reader Alex K sent me this: a day worth celebrating . Order your bumper sticker now. NN: a great birthday, eh?

Excellent news from Colorado!

I am often amused at the weird search strings by which some people find this blog. If you use StatCounter or some other tracking service you've probably had the same experience. I've been saving the search strings for a couple of days. These are only searches from search engines - Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, MSN - not people who come to wmtc through a link at another blog or website. And I'm not listing standard ways to find this blog, like "how to move to canada" or "canada immigration". I am often amazed at how many people really don't know how to use a search engine. Here are search strings for the last few days: american girl married canadian in the u.s. wants to move to canada how do i do that Korean schools built by Canadian soldiers i'm from the US and planning to move in Canada, do Canada honor US drivers license what noise do sheep make picard peanuts [this pops up regularly: someone once mentioned it in comments] Italian is similar to Spani...