2003-12-28
Haroon Siddiqui: 'The gap between Bush's words and deeds gets bigger by the day, as does the disparity between his illusions and reality.'
New 'location-aware' mobile technology is being used to spy on employees and family members.
Most Canadians feel the US is 'not justified' in refusing Iraq reconstruction contracts to Canadian companies.
Whose mad cow is this?
2003-12-26
A judge who witnessed the FTAA summit protests in Miami says police conduct that day was a 'disgrace for the community.'
Mike Duncan on unemployment statistics.
High-ranking US officials admit 9/11 could have been prevented.
2003-12-21
Indian women build their own mosque.
Letters the Troops Have Sent Me... by Michael Moore.
2003-12-20
Wesley Clark gets an endorsement from Madonna.
Paul Krugman: 'Our political leaders are doing everything they can to fortify class inequality, while denouncing anyone who complains--or even points out what is happening--as a practitioner of "class warfare."'
2003-12-13
Before and After: The Bush administration on weapons of mass destruction.
A Nashville woman says she was fired because of her religious beliefs: 'The office manager gave her a framed picture of Jesus, the complaint states.'
The trial of anti-abortion terrorist Clayton Waagner 'was remarkable not so much for its verdict as for the near-complete lack of media attention that it attracted.'
New FBI guidelines further erode civil liberties in America.
2003-12-09
Bombay Calling: 'British service-sector jobs are being shifted to the subcontinent at a dramatic rate.'
Focus groups expose US views on Canada.
2003-12-06
Juan Stam: 'It is remarkable how closely Bush's discourse coincides with that of the false prophets of the Old Testament.'
The world is running out of oil - so why do politicians refuse to talk about it?: 'Given a choice between a new set of matching tableware and the survival of humanity, I suspect that most people would choose the tableware.'
A Florida woman is trampled and knocked unconscious in a Christmas shopping frenzy at Wal-Mart.
2003-11-26
Naomi Klein: 'Police violence outside trade summits is not new; what was striking about Miami was how divorced the security response was from anything resembling an actual threat.'
Gag order means press can't speak to troops in 'a visit that was as organized as any presidential campaign stop.'
Spam Rage drives California man to threaten torture.
2003-11-24
A conservative student group has compiled a blacklist of 10 professors guilty of 'using their classrooms to promote personal agendas and "indoctrinate" students.'
2003-11-22
George Soros: 'The supremacist ideology of the Bush Administration stands in opposition to the principles of an open society, which recognize that people have different views and that nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth.'
Extreme beauty: '...an international glamour standard is shaming women around the world into conforming to a skinnier, leggier, and, in many cases, paler standard of attractiveness.'
How Stupid Can An American President Be?
2003-11-15
Iraq to have a sovereign government by June?
Alabama chief justice Roy Moore has been removed from office because of the Ten Commandments monument fiasco.
The Bush administration targets Greenpeace.
Paul Martin wins the Liberal leadership, quelle surprise.
2003-11-12
The term McJob has made it into the dictionary and McDonald's is furious.
A new law being proposed in New York state would define protesters as terrorists.
Billionaire George Soros declares ousting Bush is the central focus of his life: 'America, under Bush, is a danger to the world.'
2003-11-08
Jessica Lynch criticizes the Pentagon for using her as a propaganda tool: 'They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. It's wrong.'
This photo is being called a slap in the face to women.
More than a dozen police officers with guns drawn storm a crowded high school to search for drugs.
2003-11-02
The Episcopal Church today consecrated the first openly gay bishop.
Angry high school girls take revenge on a man who exposed himself to them.
Another security breach that could compromise electronic voting.
Reading: The Effect of Living Backwards - Heidi Julavits
2003-10-29
More US troops have died in Iraq since the war ended than during the war itself. Mission accomplished indeed.
American seniors turn to Canada for affordable prescription drugs. 'When the drug industry talks about safety of Canadian drugs, they're talking about the safety of their profits, not my safety.' - Ben Ezra, 77
2003-10-25
Road to Ruin: Matthew Engel on how America is destroying itself and the planet.
In the village of Xiongqiao, China, almost everyone is dying of AIDS.
More women than ever are choosing not to have kids.
2003-10-20
Though Mother Teresa is now beatified and one step closer to being made a saint, 'doctors who treated Besra insist that the illiterate villager was cured by medicine, not a miracle, and worry that belief in such events will turn poor people away from science when they are ill.'
An American judge raps out a dismissal: 'It is therefore this court's ultimate position, that Eminem is entitled to summary disposition.'
2003-10-18
Osama bin Laden warns the US to get out of Iraq.
The world's largest study on the subject so far has found that prayer has no effect on patients undergoing heart surgery.
Reasons a do-not-spam list probably wouldn't work.
Short people get no respect.
2003-10-11
The Bush administration proposes to conserve endangered species by allowing Americans to hunt, capture and kill them.
Canada gets cool.
2003-10-10
The World Health Organization has accused the Catholic Church of spreading disinformation about condoms and HIV.
The reality of the 'liberation' of Afghan women: 'The few who venture out still wear burqas or black head-to-toe garb. The sizeable Kandahar University still has only six women.'
2003-10-07
David Suzuki: 'In the long run, if we really want stability and security for our grandchildren, we have to reduce our use of fossil fuels.'
A new men's contraceptive with a 100% success rate and no side effects... so far.
New York man misses his pet tiger.
2003-10-03
The Iraq Survey Group reports they've found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
2003-09-28
I am an
Existential Thinker
Existential thinkers:
• Like to spend time thinking about philosophical issues such as "What is the meaning of life?"
• Try to see beyond the 'here and now' and understand deeper meanings
• Consider moral and ethical implications of problems as well as practical solutions
Other Existential Thinkers include: The Buddha, Gandhi, Plato, Socrates, Martin Luther King
Careers which suit Existential Thinkers include: Philosopher, Religious leader, Head of state, Artist, Writer
2003-09-27
Taylor Gunn and other members of Kids Voting Canada work to make voting normal for young people.
Scientists join Buddhist monks in an experiment on meditation and brain patterns.
North Korea calls Donald Rumsfeld an illiterate psychopath.
2003-09-23
Watching the Watchers: Ryan McKinley of the MIT Media Lab developed opengov.us in order to "empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America."
Global warming is blamed for a huge fracture in an Arctic ice shelf.
2003-09-13
A Californian Hummer dealership is vandalized and set on fire. 'Words such as "ELF," "Fat, Lazy Americans" and "I [love] pollution" were painted on the SUVs.'
A safe and inexpensive new drug can prevent transmission of the HIV virus from mothers to their babies.
The RIAA lawsuits are not influencing other music swappers to stop.
2003-09-06
Frustrated environmentalists and animal rights activists turn to violence: 'There is a war against the Earth happening today and we know the government isn't going to solve the problem.'
70% of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9-11 attacks.
Know your street drugs: Researchers admit to using methamphetamine in their experiment on ecstasy and brain damage.
2003-08-24
The Interview Game:
THE RULES
1. Leave me an email, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
[My questions are from Miss Anthropy. Thanks Haidi!]
1. What brings you to this frozen hellhole (Edmonton)?
My parents, against my will when I was 13. Previously we lived in southern Ontario, various parts of Alberta and BC.
2. What qualities does your dream man have?
Intelligence, a great sense of humour, an open mind, and a healthy disdain for the institution of marriage and organized religion in general.
3. If you could be one person in history for one year, who would it be? And what would you do?
Barbara Bush, 1946. I would forget to feed baby George.
4. Dogs or cats?
I like both, but since we currently live in an apartment, dogs are out of the question. At the moment I have one cat, Cassie.
5. What cause(s) would you die for, if any?
Hard to say... There are several causes I think I would be willing to die for, but only if I knew my death was certain to bring about change. Or if I was drunk.
Yet another excuse to drink red wine.
A priest accused of abusing more than 130 children has been killed in prison.
2003-08-18
A document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII and sent to every Bishop in the world orders clergy to stay silent on issues of sexual abuse in the church under penalty of excommunication.
US forces in Iraq accidentally kill an award-winning Reuters cameraman.
A very fair and balanced lawsuit.
2003-08-16
Believe it, or Not: 'Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).' Even scarier: 'Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral.'
2003-08-09
The Canadian government is still fighting over gay marriage.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel's Tips for Talking about President Bush with Your Children: 'What would you do if your child lied to you and when you scolded him or her, he or she replied: "I am not a fact-checker." Or added, "Isn't it time to move on?"'
2003-08-04
Rats in Tanzania are being taught to sniff out landmines.
Harley Sorensen on the Roman Catholic Church: 'These are the people who would tell us what is moral?'
Some 'politically sensitive' figures on US military casualties in Iraq.
2003-08-02
The analogies section is dropped from the SAT in favour of more essay writing and math.
How President Bush combines religion and politics in speech and deed.
Armani dresses Barbie.
2003-07-28
Sir John Houghton, the UK's most eminent climate scientist, accuses Tony Blair of cowardice in standing up to George Bush on global warming and Kyoto.
Electronic voting systems are found to have serious security flaws.
Air Stockings are new spray-on pantyhose made of tiny silk particles.
2003-07-26
Iraqis accuse American soldiers of firing on a crowd of unarmed civilians.
Why fear remains high as crime rates fall.
2003-07-23
The world reacts to the news of Uday and Qusay Hussein's deaths.
Reading: The Visitor - Sheri S Tepper
2003-07-13
More scandal for Bush: '...senior American intelligence analysts accused the administration of trying to justify the war against Iraq by overplaying links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.'
Lizzie Seagle - the next Elle Woods?
Rethinking Objective Journalism: Fear of looking biased 'was a major factor in the coverage of the Florida recount of the 2000 presidential election.'
Reading: Zombie - Joyce Carol Oates
2003-07-12
Madonna's new children's book.
The US and UK still can't find any evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
Bush's war on abortion and its tragic consequences.
2003-06-21
Population Scenario - Debora MacKenzie
Saddam Hussein's personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, says Saddam and his sons are still alive - and that they spent time in Syria after the war.
When in doubt, Ask Adolf.
2003-06-09
The latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary includes the definition of bling-bling. Handy.
US drug companies add $1 million to their lobby against the Canadian healthcare system.
2003-06-08
Arundhati Roy: 'The era of manufacturing consent has given way to the era of manufacturing news.'
2003-06-03
Paul Krugman: '...anyone who talks about an "intelligence failure" is missing the point. The problem lay not with intelligence professionals, but with the Bush and Blair administrations. They wanted a war, so they demanded reports supporting their case, while dismissing contrary evidence.'
Reading: The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
2003-05-24
Uday Hussein's pet lions are transferred to game parks in South Africa.
Naomi Klein on Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie.
2003-05-20
Ken Mondschein: 'Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the first film—it was the metaphysics that bothered me.'
Would You Like to Bomb Iran? A Dr. Suess tribute by Maddox.
2003-05-17
Blowback in Riyadh: 'We went to war in Iraq on a number of flawed and blatantly incorrect premises. There is no fearful arsenal of mass destruction weapons; there is no liberty for the Iraqi people; there were no terrorists, nor was there ever a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.'
2003-05-11
Microsoft admits its Passport service has been vulnerable to hackers for the past seven months.
Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq : 'Survey teams have combed laboratories and munitions plants, bunkers and distilleries, bakeries and vaccine factories, file cabinets and holes in the ground...'
2003-05-10
In yesterday's proposal to the UN security council, the US and Britain asked for control of Iraqi oil revenues.
Although Iraq's interim government is made up of over 250 delegates, so far only six are female.
2003-05-04
Iraqi women are being recruited by terrorist organizations.
A confederacy of amnesiacs: 'Wherever Hussein and bin Laden are, whatever hospitals do or do not get rebuilt, it's important for rich people to have more money. That's one thing the administration will always remember.'
"What good fortune for governments that the people do not think." --Adolph Hitler
2003-05-03
It snowed in Edmonton last night.
Canada places too much emphasis on civil liberties, the US says. [via greenfairy.com]
Scientists find that embryonic stem cells from mice can grow into egg cells.
2003-04-27
The US 'has yet to find weapons of mass destruction at any of the locations that Secretary of State Colin Powell cited in his key presentation to the United Nations Security Council.'
Three boys aged 13 to 15 are being held at Guantanamo.
Test your knowledge of geography.
2003-04-18
So who really did save Private Jessica? 'The rescue of Private Jessica Lynch... was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses.'
Russell Smith: 'The media coverage of this war has been disgusting.'
Clinton blasts US foreign policy: 'Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us. And if they don't, they can go straight to hell.'
2003-04-13
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has issued a challenge to every citizen in the industrialized world: to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by one ton or more.
A former madam opens a school for prostitutes in Amsterdam: 'You could call it sales techniques. You have to sell yourself and it doesn't matter if you sell your body or you sell vacuum cleaners.'
2003-04-12
Around the world people are reacting with anger and disgust to the current looting and chaos in Iraq - and many are accusing the US and the UK of breaking international law... again.
2003-04-06
British troops in Iraq are appalled by American heavy-handedness and provocative rhetoric.
2003-03-30
The Rules of War Apply to Us, Too: 'George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld need to look in the mirror before they start waving the 1949 Convention around crying foul. It is they who relegated this exceptional body of international law to the status of a paper airplane.'
2003-03-27
A Cincinnati trucker who drove his semi into a crowd of anti-war protesters claims he didn't mean to hurt anyone - but accuses the protesters of supporting Saddam Hussein.
The US Air Force is charged with covering up the rapes of dozens of female cadets.
2003-03-23
Rachel Corrie: "Coming here is one of the better things I've ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible."
Do most Americans understand that even as we are launching one of the most devastating air assaults in the history of warfare, private companies are lining up to reap the riches of rebuilding the very structures we're in the process of destroying?
2003-03-20
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has criticized US impatience for war - and voiced his doubts that the US was ever really interested in peace.
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." -- George W. Bush (spoken at a Washington Dinner, March 2001)
2003-03-19
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien confirms that Canada will not take part in the Iraq war: "I have said clearly that it is not justified."
2003-03-14
Does your vote really count when computerized voting machines that leave no paper trail are used for national elections? Especially if said machines are owned by private corporations?
A silicon chip will serve as the first brain prosthesis.
2003-03-09
Terry Jones on the moral argument for taking out Saddam: "it worries me that Mr. Bush says that one of the reasons he wants to kill a lot of Iraqis is because Saddam Hussein has also been killing them. Is there some sort of rivalry here?"