I took this image by the Eramosa River in Guelph, Ontario. Remember the Lorax? It’s Dr. Seuss.
Category: Spleen
The category, Spleen, is for posts that make us angry.
Experience Survival
I saw this ad on Queen Street: Experience Survival, a Discovery Channel advertisement that shows a young bushman creeping through the grass with a bow and arrow.
Russell Williams and the Reputation of the Canadian Military
Russell Williams, graduate of Upper Canada College, decorated pilot, military academic and strategist, commander of a secretive base in Saudi Arabia providing support to troops in Afghanistan, commander of CFB Trenton, fetishist, cross-dresser, serial rapist and murderer.
Fluff American Style
I saw The Social Network on opening night but didn’t post anything here because after the movie was over I went home and promptly forgot about it.
Security Cameras Still Operating in Toronto after G20
As preparations got underway for the G20 Summit in Toronto, one of the fears critics had expressed was that heightened surveillance would become a permanent situation for residents after the event was over.
It’s been a Banner Week for Censorship
For the practice of censorship, this has been a banner week (so to speak), confirming yet again that after hundreds of years of book burning, muzzling, and downright ham-fistedness, banning remains the preferred method for institutional authorities to regulate behaviour they oppose.
Ghostbusters – a Privatization Propaganda Film?
On planet Dave, there is a special governmental agency called the Department of Epidemiology and Immigration. I’ve come to regard these two disciplines as sub-specialties of the same concern.
Poem: Watermelon
This is a poem about copyright law and my fear (the chilling effect) of quoting other authors (eg. Pigeon & Page). There is something perverse about living in what some describe as the postmodern era, where quotation and mashup are cultural norms, while our laws increasingly operate to suppress these norms.
G20 Protester Chased at Toronto Pride Parade
A protester pretending to be police officer in riot gear ran into the intersection at Charles St. & Yonge. He was carrying a shield with the word “Polite” on it and wore a visor low over his face to mimic the visors the police wore last week while protecting Toronto’s fair citizens from the G20 Summit.
Rally to Demand Inquiry into Actions Concerning G20
I celebrated Canada Day by engaging in the highest form of patriotism which, according to Howard Zinn, is dissent.
Black Bloc McProtest
On Friday June 25, 2010, the day before the G20 Summit, I accompanied my wife to her place of work on the northern limit of the secured zone in Downtown Toronto. I went partly out of concern for her and partly out of curiosity.
G20 Summit Protests in Toronto
We (my wife and I) went down to the planned protests at Queen’s Park. It was moving to witness all the different concerns/causes/stories/sufferings people brought into this public space.
Eternal Flame of Hope Extinguished for Toronto G20
Since my post on Monday, the mood in downtown Toronto has changed. For one thing, it’s empty. The people there are either police officers and security personnel, or they are people like me who have come to gawk. It’s a show. A spectacle. It even has its own posters hung from the street light poles — like Miss Saigon or Legally Blonde.
G20 Bullshit Report
Me and my camera spent yesterday wandering around downtown Toronto to see what we could see of preparations for the G20 summit which will be blessing this fair city on the weekend.
Poem: Magic
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. — Arthur C. Clarke I don’t know how things work.Take lava lamps for example:the rise and fall of globuleslike red corpuscles squeezedin a mysterious rhythm.I’m amazed the lava doesn’t meltthrough the glass. The blobsare real lava, aren’t they? Take the financial markets:the rise and fall of shares,the lifeblood…