test blog 5

Baseball season was painfully short for Red Sox fans this year. When your team wins a grand total of 71 games  it's a chore to watch, and I gave up early. The postseason, on the other hand, was incredible, and I watched (at least until I fell asleep) every night. I was mildly disappointed that the Royals didn't go all the way, but going to Game 7 of the World Series and losing that by only one run is awesome. And the Giants play in one of my favourite cities and ballparks, so it's not like I hate them, either. All in all, a great October. Because the 2014 Red Sox sucked, I've watched more TV and movies than I normally would during the baseball season. But Movie Season started in earnest last night, with Season 3 of The Wire. So what movies did you see and would recommend since this time last year ? If you emailed or Facebooked me with titles, please still feel free to post them here. Movies: always looking for well-made documentaries, quirky indies, suspenseful noir, cr...

Revolutionary thought of the day: ...if there is a reason for social movements to exist, it is not to accept dominant values as fixed and unchangeable but to offer other ways to live - to wage, and win, a battle of cultural worldviews. That means laying out a vision of the world that competes directly with the one on harrowing display at the Heartland conference and in so many other parts of our culture, one that resonates with the majority of the people on the planet because it is true: That we are not apart from nature but of it. That acting collectively for a great good is not suspect, and that such common projects of mutual aid are responsible for our species' greatest accomplishments. That greed must be disciplined and tempered by both rule and example. That poverty amidst plenty is unconscionable. It also means defending those parts of our societies that already express these values outside of capitalism, whether it's an embattled library, a public park, a student movemen...

I've been thinking a lot about Kevin Vickers. By now the world knows Vickers' name: he is the sergeant-at-arms of the Parliament of Canada, and his quick thinking and courage undoubtedly saved lives. Vickers shot killed Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had already killed one person and appeared intent on killing others. Vickers is a hero. But my thoughts of him are filled not with adulation, but with sorrow. Imagine going to work one day, a day like any other, and by the time the day is done, you have taken a human life. You have killed a man at close range. What could that be like? It would not be surprising if Vickers will grapple with flashbacks, night terrors, or other forms of PTSD. Despite Vickers' courage and his new celebrity, I'd bet that few of us would want to stand in his shoes. I've also been thinking of Nathan Cirillo, because it's impossible not to. Although I consume very little mainstream media, a short dip into my Facebook feed is enough: the dog Ciri...

We woke up this morning in a country blessed by love, diversity and peace, and tomorrow we will do the same. These acts were driven by hatred, but also designed to drive us to hate. They will not. Thomas Mulcair I offer my sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of Nathan Cirillo, on the tragic and senseless loss of their loved one. I offer condolences to the family and friends of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. He, too, is gone, and leaves both sorrow and bewilderment behind . I offer my sympathies and condolences to all the survivors in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, and everywhere lives have been lost from terrorism perpetrated by the powerful armies of powerful states. And I offer my energies and whatever abilities I have to help stop Western nations from making war and breeding terrorists.

Continuing on the young-adult fiction theme, it's been about six months since I blathered about my absolute favourite part of my job: teen book club . Our monthly gathering is still going strong, a small but dedicated group of young readers who love books, and love to talk about books. My posters for TBC invite teens to "hang out, eat snacks, talk about books, talk about life," and that pretty much sums up what we do. Every few months, the group votes on the next four titles, chosen from a selection that I gather, as well as their own suggestions. Most young readers gravitate towards either realistic fiction or fantasy fiction, so I try to balance the two. I also include one or two classics on each list of choices, and they are surprisingly popular: this month we are reading S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders ,  Fahrenheit 451  is on the list for early 2015, and the group is clamouring for Catcher in the Rye . Along with those classics, the next titles are: Dooley Takes th...

In June of this year, Slate ran a now-infamous piece called " Against YA ," in which Ruth Graham argued that adults shouldn't read young-adult fiction, and should be embarrassed if they do. A flood of posts and essays were written in response;  my own response is here . In the short term, as far as I can tell, not a single writer agreed with Graham. Despite this lopsided showing, some headline writer ( possibly here ) dubbed this "The Great Y.A. Debate," and the name stuck. There must be people out there who agree with Graham - surely hers was not an original idea - but one cranky article does not a debate make. I did find a few interesting essays that used Graham's piece as a springboard to unpack some interesting ideas and cultural trends. A. O. Scott, in The New York Times Magazine , is one reader who found himself agreeing with Graham, and asking himself why. Scott's The Death of Adulthood in American Culture  joins the crowded field of "things...

A U.S. war resister in Canada writes in this NOW Magazine. Very soon you will begin to hear about Canadian planes sending “humanitarian aid” of food and medical supplies to those affected by the fighting. . . . And now ISIL is touted as the new enemy from the darkness as if their emergence was not foreseeable. In reality, ISIL is just the latest incarnation of a very old xenophobic sect of Islam, the Wahhabi movement, finding new breath in the aftermath of yet another war. Our bombs have only made them stronger, just as they always have. The Harper Conservatives are hoping you are not engaged enough to notice its hopes of attaining a new casus belli for Canada. But if Harper gets his way, you’ll soon be spending money you don’t have on a war that’s making you less safe, not more. And what about the long-term costs for the soldiers who do come home? How will Canada be able to take care of them? Large numbers of Canadian veterans from the war in Afghanistan have already become homeless,...