The PenOpticon

WikiLeaks is offline at the moment, but they are linking to this John Pilger talk — a powerful critique of modern journalism:

Journalism, Politics, War John Pilger

Blogging has been sporadic for months — hey, I’ve got my reasons! — but I’m going to crank it up again. Feeling inspired tonight after the U.S election (though you wouldn’t know it from the way I’m writing). Feeling inspired but a little rusty. In any case:

Obama’s acceptance speech and McCain’s concession speech were remarkable for different reasons. Obama is always very much aware of the arc of history and he has an uncanny ability to map paths along that arc for both himself and his audience. I envied the crowd in Chicago as tears of joy rolled down their cheeks in concert with his words.  MLK had a dream and now (finally!) Obama is living it and inviting the world to go along. Read more…

Canadian Politics, Politics, Rants, U.S. Politics Obama

 A short, but poignant talk by Mike Nickerson, author of Life, Money and Illusion :

Environment, Politics Books, Green politics, Mike Nickerson

The Ontario Liberal's new environmental "incentive program" was unveiled yesterday. This scheme would allow the province to hand out special eco-licence plates to owners of low-emmision cars such as the Toyota Prius.  The details are still being hammered out, but owners of these special green plates could be entitled to free parking and the right to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Woot!

At first glance, this eco-plate scheme sounds harmless enough: a low-cost, low-impact bit of PR.  Look a little deeper, however, the the scheme is nothing but a minor Liberal tip-of-the-hat to the wealthiest Ontarians who could (if they wanted) purchase an expensive hybrid car.  The plan will do nothing to help alleviate global warming or get cars off congested roads.  And it will do nothing to improve public transit. In fact, the eco-licence will bring additional traffic and demand for parking.

Sorry Dalton, but we need tougher emissions laws now to make it hard for car makers to sell cars that spew carbon.  Your recently announced $650-million fund to develop green cars in Ontario sounds like money wasted on big auto makers.  Why not direct that fund into an Ontario-grown green transit manufacturer.  Put green buses on the roads and help Ontario industry re-tool to build renewable energy products. Then you might get my Green vote.

Environment, Politics Green washing, Ontario Liberals

Rumours are circulating that Paul Wolfowitz may have finally negotiated an exit strategy with World Bank directors. The deal is supposed to "clear" him of conflict of interest breaches in exchange for his hasty departure.  Given Wolfy's penchant for preemptive strikes which he justified by saying "you can't wait until you have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that somebody did something in the past…", it's amazing he has held on to the job as long as he has.  By all accounts he should have been preempted some time ago. Fast-tracking Ali Shaha Rizza into a $190,000 income illustrated Wolfowitz's bad judgment and an attitude of greed and privilege. More worrying, however, are recent allegations that Wolfowitz sought to dismantle the Word Bank's Family Planning policies. In a world of dwindling resources — where every new pair of legs expands our collective carbon footprint — any policy that takes away a person's freedom to control the size of their family, is downright evil. It would be evil in any kind of world. So, no matter how you slice it, Wolfowitz is just another symbol of the ethical bankruptcy that permeates the Bush administration. Let him go now before he does any more damage.

Politics