test blog 3

I just got this comment on an early post: I've been wanting to move to Canada. My daughter and grandkids are in Thunder Bay. It just looks like the whole immigration thing is so overwhelming. And that's why i haven't tried. But I am encouraged by your site. And I realize now that it is a possibility. This makes me feel great. It's exactly one of the reasons I started this blog! What applies here is a wonderful cliche: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A long time ago, I quit my career in the nonprofit theatre to see if I was really a writer. I literally rearranged my entire life, bought a new typewriter (yes, I predate home computers!), and thought, holy shit, what do I do now? I typed that little saying on a slip of paper and taped it to the wall above my desk. And started to write a book. I hope the anonymous commenter downloads the application and gets to work.

Naomi Klein recently attended an event honoring Maher Arar, the Canadian man who became the most famous victim of the US torture "renditions". She observed some interesting things about torture - especially what an effective political tool it is. Arar was being honored for his courage by the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, a mainstream advocacy organization. The audience gave him a heartfelt standing ovation, but there was fear mixed in with the celebration. Many of the prominent community leaders kept their distance from Arar, responding to him only tentatively. Some speakers were unable even to mention the honored guest by name, as if he had something they could catch. And perhaps they were right: The tenuous "evidence"--later discredited--that landed Arar in a rat-infested cell was guilt by association. And if that could happen to Arar, a successful software engineer and family man, who is safe? In a rare public speech, Arar addressed this fear di...

Many people are warning me about the (apparently) impending Conservative Canadian government. Where will I go? What will I do? They just don't get it. Is Canada eliminating national health care, and almost all other social programs? Will it suddenly become a huge military power, invading foreign countries to control their natural resources and further their business interests? Will it imprison hundreds (thousands?) of people indefinitely, without charges, without access to the outside world, even counsel? Will a neo-Conservative religious minority suddenly exert enormous influence on legislation and the judicial system? Will abortion suddenly become illegal? Will gay Canadians be demonized as second-class citizens by the very government to whom they pay their taxes? (And don't tell me about Stephen Harper's opposition to same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is already legal in 7 of 10 provinces, is about to become legal in an 8th province, and will eventually be legal feder...

Just now a newcomer to wtmc left a much kinder and more thoughtful (and more sane!) comment . She/he said, among other things: You shouldn't think of it so much as leaving your country, though, for someone else's. After all, Canada (English Canada, anyway), was founded by Americans who left the US for political reasons in the first place. In essense, all you're really doing is continuing that heritage. Canada has always been a safety valve for the United States. Years ago, I had a friend in Seattle who surprised me by saying he hoped Canada would never become a part of the US... he told me it was far too useful the way it was. It provided a few necessary examples of practical alternatives that would vanish if it weren't there, and gave people in the US with unpopular views a means to voice them (Malcolm X, Ralph Nader), or even, if needs be, a familiar place to escape to (draft dodgers). He said something to the effect that 'when the world wants to be free, it moves...

So says a commenter who visited wmtc last night. I'm also a traitor and a conspiracy theorist and I should change my name to - get this! - Jane Fonda . Whoo-hoo! Now if I can have Jane Fonda's body and money, I'll be all set! In another comment, he hopes "the government tags you as terrorists and blocks your mover." Then I guess he realized that wasn't English, and posted "I hope the government tags you on the terror-watch lists and blocks your move to Canada," but didn't bother to remove the first comment. Hey, if the government put me on the terror-watch list, wouldn't they want me to leave the country? Or is "Werner" admitting that the government of the "Great United States of America" (direct quote) puts people with dissenting opinions on the terror-watch list to harass them? Just wondering. Werner also says I am free to criticize the US, but only from "Canuck soil or Mexican soil or any soil that is not a part o...

The great Helen Thomas writes : I am not surprised at the duplicity. But I am astonished at the acceptance of this deception by voters in the United States and the United Kingdom. I've seen two U.S. presidents go down the drain -- Lyndon B. Johnson on Vietnam and Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal -- because they were no longer believed. But times change -- and I guess our values do, too. There are many reasons why the shrinking electorate accepts this bullshit from our elected officials. The lying corporate media, the consumer culture that numbs wills and minds, endless betrayals and scandals that foster cynicism and apathy, the learned helplessness that threatens to engulf us all, among others. Yet still... still... if enough of us cared enough, could this happen? If 90% of Americans voted, could we have this war? If we took to the streets in such massive numbers and so frequently that we couldn't be ignored or dismissed, couldn't we end it? These are hypothetical que...

The country. Paul Krugman on Wal-Mart: In 1968, when General Motors was a widely emulated icon of American business, many of its workers were lifetime employees. On average, they earned about $29,000 a year in today's dollars, a solidly middle-class income at the time. They also had generous health and retirement benefits. Since then, America has grown much richer, but American workers have become far less secure. Today, Wal-Mart is America's largest corporation. Like G.M. in its prime, it has become a widely emulated business icon. But there the resemblance ends. The average full-time Wal-Mart employee is paid only about $17,000 a year. The company's health care plan covers fewer than half of its workers. [Read it here .] The state next door. Connecticut executes someone for the first time in 45 years. This might be considered state-assisted suicide, as the man fought for the right to abandon appeals and be killed. However, had there been no legal death penalty, had he...