May 2012
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Dear followers,
After a lot of late night without sleep, tossing and turning in my bed consideration, I have reluctantly decided to stop tumbler-ing (is that even a word now?). I haven’t decided whether to close the blog altogether, or leave it up for you guys to browse through the archives. I’ll be sure to update you guys on my decision sometime soon. All the best to all of you, I’m sure...
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CLASSE struggle in Quebec →
What began as yet another ordinary student protest against an increase in university tuition fees has finally turned into a full-fledged political battle between the Liberal government (which, in this case, has the support of a majority of Quebeckers) and a coalition of radical students and left-wing activists, with the Parti Québécois discreetly fuelling the fire – although it stopped short of...
April 2012
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Canadian banks got $114B 'bailout' during... →
Canada’s biggest banks accepted tens of billions in government funds during the recession, according to a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Canada’s banking system is often lauded for being one of the world’s safest. But an analysis by CCPA senior economist David Macdonald found that Canada’s major lenders were in a far worse position...
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Violent Montreal student protest nets 17 arrests →
Premier calls social disruption ‘unacceptable’
Riot police used tear gas and concussion grenades on hundreds of students protesting outside Montreal’s Palais des congrès Friday, where Premier Jean Charest was speaking at a symposium on northern development.
The mayhem reached deep inside the convention centre, where Charest’s keynote speech was delayed after a group of...
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CTV cuts Fashion Television →
CTV has cancelled the long-running fashion series, Fashion Television, which covered runway shows and helped launch homegrown stars.
The broadcaster says production was suspended Wednesday but gave no reason for halting the series.
Host Jeanne Beker broke the news on Twitter by saying “This dream is over: After 27 glorious years, FT production ceased today.”
The weekly half-hour...
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Canadians OK with higher taxes to fight inequality... →
Canadians are willing to pay more taxes to help close the growing income gap and want corporations to pay higher tax rates too, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The survey of 2000 Canadians, commissioned by the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, found that 23 per cent are “very willing” and 41 per cent are “somewhat willing” to pay slightly more tax in order to...
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On libertarianism and racism.
I’ve often heard the claim that libertarians can’t be racist because they believe in individualism instead of collectivism, or something like that.
You know what? I call bullshit.
Racism can be done on a collective level, as well as an individual level. A form of collective racism would be state segregation laws. A form of individual racism would be not interacting with someone...
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“If we have such an emotional stake in the answers, if we want badly to believe,...”
– Carl Sagan
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Woman arrested for assault based on Facebook photo... →
Lizz Aston has never been in a fight in her life.
For one thing, she’s hardly a physical threat at 5-foot-2 and 115 pounds.
However, another woman claims Aston beat her last November at The Piston bar on Bloor St. W.
Aston, a 28-year-old artist, was charged two months later based solely on a Facebook photo and a generic description offered to police by the victim’s boyfriend.
Aston laughs...
There are actually people in the world that...
… I thought that was just a myth.
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Today's story:
(Flashback to months ago): Conservatives: We will cut, and cut a lot! So many cuts! Watch out, Canada, we’re going to perform an autopsy, biopsy and colonoscopy. Media: The cuts! The cuts! They will hurt! Draconian! Ooooooooh! They’re coming! (Flashback to last week): Conservatives: Just kidding. No cuts. Happy early April Fool’s, everyone. Media: Oh, LOL, gud 1!
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Ezra Levant: The Harper government missed the... →
Seriously: Out of a $276-billion budget, the Conservatives found only $5 billion in cuts? And only over three years?
That’s like someone who weighs 276 pounds saying they’re going to lose five pounds. Over three years.
Except even that’s not true. Because three years from now, the government’s own budget document says it’s going to be spending
$297 billion.
That’s not cutting. That’s...
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The criminalization of black America →
statehate:
anticapitalist:
There are more African American adults under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that...
March 2012
Do you guys want to hear a joke? Okay, stop me if...
Rick Santorum.
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“How can the rest of us achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is...”
– William Zinsser, On Writing Well (Simplicity)
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“In the ideal socialist state, power will not attract power freaks. People who...”
– David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom
What I've been doing during my Tumblr absence:
I’ve taken a sort of indefinite hiatus from blogging the last few months or so, and during that time, I’ve been connecting and networking with Libertarians and Anarchists in the Ottawa area, and some from all over Canada.
I’ve met so many great people and had the opportunity to attend some amazing conferences and meet-ups.
My life is so amazing right now - I’m actually...
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conza asked: Praise be to the market! Woo! ;D So the blogging blues have passed? ;o
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Paternalism and the Pill →
Virginia Postrel, the American political and cultural writer, has an idea for de-escalating the birth-control controversy that’s sweeping the United States: Sell the Pill over the counter.
After all, that’s the way it works with condoms. Anyone can walk into a drugstore and buy a three-month supply of Trojans for under $30, no questions asked. Nobody argues about who should pay, who’s morally...
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“Sorry, Iranians, but you will simply have to die. I won’t vote for the one...”
– Tom Woods, on “what Anti-Ron Paul “Progressives are really saying”. See also: this video.
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Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling slowly
The most insurmountable ethical dilemma the world...
My housemate has accidentally left her jar of Nutella out on the counter. We have agreed that stuff on the counter is shared. But I know she left it there accidentally.
And now I find myself craving some of that delicious nutty-chocolaty goodness. If I eat some of it, I’m essentially stealing.
But I mean, we did agree that stuff on the counter was shared property.
But it’s still...
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La mafia.
Two men were sitting next to me on the bus today, and they were chatting about which of the most infamous mafia organizations in the world was the worst.
“The Russians, I mean they’re ruthless,” says one guy.
“Nooooo, what are you talking about?” says the other guy, “Have you never heard of the Italian Mob?”
“You’re both wrong,” I...
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Dick Cheney cancels Toronto trip, says Canada is... →
TORONTO — Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has cancelled an April appearance in Toronto citing concerns Canada is too dangerous.
“He felt that in Canada the risk of violent protest was simply too high,” said Ryan Ruppert, president of promotions company Spectre Live Corp., which had booked Mr. Cheney for an April 24 appearance at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
In September, Mr....
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Ew. How gross.
Me: Have you ever had a really, really hot kiss?
Friend: Yea. He’d eaten jalapeno peppers just before.
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“Well, I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie. There is no system....”
– Don Draper
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Border control Ukraine style: Glamorous airport... →
For the first time in history, male football fans will actually WANT to be pulled over at the airport and given a thorough pat down while making their way to Euro 2012 this summer.
The staff checking passports at Ukraine’s Borispol airport, near Kiev, are nothing like the stereotypical border guards that one imagines at an Eastern European checkpoint.
Indeed, they are unlike any border...
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“It’s been easier to convince people to hand over half their income, their...”
– Stefan Molyneux (via ganymede)
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shanemorris asked: Sometimes, blogging sucks.
I've got a bad case of the blogging blues.
I just don’t feel like doing it anymore.