Showtime!

Just getting ready to host Virtually Speaking Sunday:Maple Syrup Edition by drinking a nice piping hot cup of maple syrup. Join Lindsay Stewart and I at 8 EST 5 Pacific


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this week on virtually speaking

Sunday, March 6

5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY; MAPLE SYRUP EDITION

This week host Kevin Wood speaks with blogger and performing artist Lindsay Stewart aka PSA about copyright, the Canadian federal budget and the likelihood of a federal election in Canada this spring. Listen live or check the archives

6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY

The Sunday media panel returns with Marcy EMPTYWHEEL Wheeler and Eve  NYCEVE Gittelson.

Monday March 7

VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUSIE

Two journalists who share a passion for music -- Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News and Charles Pierce of the Boston Globe talk with writer Susie "Suburban Guerilla" Madrak about the ten CDs they would take if they were stranded on a desert island. Be sure to call in with your top 10 desert island discs!

Listen to all the Virtually Speaking shows right here

and find Kevin Rev. Paperboy Wood's chat with Dr. Dawg from two weeks ago here

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this week on Virtually Speaking

MONDAY FEB 21 - 8pm pacific|11pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUSIE
Journalist Susie Madrak blogs at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Tonight, Susie chats with Firedoglake blogger Marcy Wheeler, aka Emptywheel in a conversation about Marcy's provocative post, "Blindspots and The Fear of the Working Class." Listen on BlogTalkRadio

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THURSDAY FEB 24 - 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING WITH JAY ACKROYD - Economist and IT pro Jay Ackroyd chats with a diverse array of informed opinion makers in media, policy, politics, science, technology and law. This week, Jay chats with John Campbell talk about developments the Sudan and Middle East, and about his book, Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink. Listen at BlogTalkRadio

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SATURDAY FEB 26 - 2pm pacific | 5pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING LIBERALLY: WHAT WE BELIEVE - Jay Ackroyd and Stuart Zechman discuss 'this week in Liberalism' illuminating liberal values. Listen at BlogTalkRadio.

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Cryin'

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Maple Syrup Revolution Redux

Join Dr.Dawg and I tonight at 8 pm EST/ 5 pm PST for a hour of discussing Canadian politics. We will have a live virtual audience in Second Life in addition to broadcasting live on Blog Talk Radio (where the program will also be archived for you later listening pleasure)

Following Virtually Speaking Sunday: the Maple Syrup edition, the regular VSS program this week features Susie Madrak and Stuart Zechman. There will be snark; there will be critical thinking. Listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/02/21/virtually-speaking-sundays

Visit Virtually Speaking at: http://virtuallyspeaking.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network




And as if that wasn't enough, tonight the Glorious People's Cinema Project presents The Canadian Conspiracy!





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Starring someone I know very well

Tune in via that little box on the sidebar or join the live virtual audience in Second Life

THURSDAY Feb 17 - 6pm pacific |9 pm eastern

DAHLIA LITHWICK @ VIRTUALLY SPEAKING w/ Jay Ackroyd
Interviews with scholars, authors, pundits and public officials: an eclectic sampling of established and emerging voices representing progressive thought in the contemporary, public conversation. DAHLIA LITHWICK , senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate, writes "Supreme Court Dispatches." She covered the Microsoft trial and other legal issues. Dahlia and Jay talk about Obama health care decisions, and the effect of partisanship on the current Court.

SATURDAY -  Feb 19 - 2pm pacific |5pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Liberally: What We Believe with Jay Ackroyd & Stuart Zechman discuss the nature of modern liberalism. Features include a 'this week in liberalism' segment;  statements of purpose and principle; and conversations about liberalism. 

SUNDAY FEB 20 - 5pm pacific | 8pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAY | MAPLE SYRUP EDITION

Canadian journalist Kevin Wood talks with bloggers, academics and other commentators, bringing a distinctively Northern progressive perspective and more than a little snark to North American and global politics among other topics.

Kevin Wood blogs at the Woodshed and the Galloping Beaver under the pseudonym Rev. Paperboy. A veteran print journalist, recently returned to Canada after a decade working in Tokyo for the world's largest daily newspaper, he has worked in the community press across southern Ontario. Rumours that he is the illegitimate son of Pierre Trudeau are entirely unfounded. His favorite spectator sport is U.S. politics, which is as fast and bloody as hockey or bullfighting, but without the zambonis or tight matador pants.

This week blogger, academic and union activist John Baglow aka Dr. Dawg joins Kevin as they examine the current state of Parliament. Listen on BlogTalkRadio.


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SUNDAY FEB 20 - 6pm pacific | 9pm eastern
VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS - A Counterpoint to the Sunday Morning Talking Heads - The Gasbag atrocities are documented. Various news stories that arise during the Sunday shows are considered. There is often mockery, always passion and compassion.

This week: Susie Madrak and Stuart Zechman. Madrak , a former award-winning journalist, a writer, musician and working-class warrior, blogs at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Stuart "Centrism IS an ideology" Zachman is a provocative member of the blog commentariat, most frequently posting at TIME's Swampland, Firedoglake and Avedon Carol's Other Blog. An entrepreneur and technologist, he brings those perspectives to a New Liberal analysis of policy and politics. Listen on BlogTalkRadio.



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Valentine's Day treat

People sometime ask me why I blog, if there is any money in it, does anyone read this stuff, do I really expect to change anything and just what am I doing here anyways? To which I can only reply "I came for the waters."
Or to twist another phrase, blogging is its own reward.
Yes, I know that in political terms I am preaching to the choir. So what? The choir needs to be preached to from time to time. Put another way, you wouldn't expect the coach to give his rah-rah speech to the opposing team, would you? Okay, so maybe I'm not the coach, maybe I'm more like the fourth line left winger or seventh defenceman who only gets icetime when the score gets lopsided and they don't want to risk the marquee players getting injured, but you get the idea.
Blogging was originally a way of keeping the writing monkey off my back while I did other things for a living. Then it became a way to blow off steam and say things in a public forum that I couldn't say in my day job. As I spent more and more time blogging and reading blogs and cross commenting, I got to know people by what they wrote. We exchanged comments, sometimes even emails. I got invited to contribute to a group blog and got to know the crew there and an even wider circle of online personalities.
Many of these acquaintences became friends, a trend that gathered even more steam when I started podcasting last year. The idea of the podcast, inspired by the excellent and entertaining work of two of my regular reads, Driftglass and Blue Gal, was to chat with like-minded people about Canadian politics, maybe get off a few witty bon mots and put the whole thing online to give us all something to blog about. The tricky part was that I really connected with those like minded people and the intended 30-minute podcasts turned out to be hour-long chunks of three hour conversations that would have gone longer had it not been the wee hours of the morning for one or the other of the people involved. (Flying Spagetti Monster only knows what it will be like when we start doing it with a live virtual audience on Sunday. No, really, we will start up again THIS SUNDAY, live!)
My blogging has been somewhat reduced in length and frequency lately due to work commitments and the need to hunt up a new job, but I like to keep my hand in because its fun and, like I said, sometimes the choir needs preaching to, but also because I miss the blogging gang if I stay away too long and I don't want you all to forget about me, either. The community of the blogiverse is a pretty wonderful thing, despite the trolls and the flamewars and occasional petty disagreements.
So what does this have to do with Valentine's Day?
There is big news in our little on-line community.
Last Friday, I downloaded my usual weekly fix of the Professional Left podcast with the aforementioned Driftglass and Blue Gal and listened to it while puttering in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon. A few minutes in, I got a goofy grin and then I got verklempt and needed a tissue. See, they had a little announcement to make. Many's the time I have rolled my eyes while listening to the two of them flirt and giggle while talking politics and thought to myself "These two don't need to get a radio show, they need to get a room."
Heh, from my interior monologue to Cupid's ear.
Listening to them announce on last week's podcast that they are getting married got me a little misty-eyed.
I've never met either of them, not even talked on the phone. We've exchanged a couple of polite emails. But I  check Blue Gal's site a couple of times a week and read Driftglass on my lunch hour pretty much daily. From reading what they write over a long period of time I get the feeling that I know them better than you know your favorite professor, writer, talk show host, actor, musician or other public figure -- or indeed, most of my neighbors and co-workers. What some people won't do for a killer workshop topic at Netroots Nation. Congratulations to you both. I'm not sure which one is luckier, but I think this is one of those "greater than the sum of its parts" kinda deals.
I don't think I've ever been so happy for two nearly total strangers.
That's the thing about this whole online community shared experience. Like the man said: Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy. (that's a science fiction reference, everybody drink!)

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.


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We have ways of making you talk

The Toronto Star reports that the officer involved here has pleaded guilty to uttering threats. How about armed assault? Abuse of authority? People swept up by the Toronto Police at the G8/G20 were charged with more serious crimes for a whole lot less. If soap bubbles can be considered assault, then how is this revolting threat of torture with a deadly weapon not aggravated assault?
We keep being told that Tasers are supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to guns, but again and again, we see stories of them being used as compliance weapons or torture tools.
As for the officer in question, he will be sentenced in June. Until then, he is on paid suspension and departmental disciplinary measures will not be decided until after the sentencing. As far as I'm concerned, the conviction should see him automatically dismissed from the police force and barred from doing any kind of security work.
The one bright spot I see in this case is that this gross misconduct came to light because another officer who was reviewing the in-car videos on another matter reported the offending officer to the department's professional standards branch, which handed the file over to the courts. Its about time the police started putting professional standards and proper respect for the law ahead of the unofficial thin-blue-line omerta that allows so much abuse to go on.
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This week on Virtually Speaking

THURSDAY Feb 10 - 6pm pacific |9 pm eastern
Virtually Speaking w/ Jay Ackroyd: WILL BUNCH, Pulitzer Prize-winning senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, author of "Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama." Will comes by to talk with Jay about the state of the media and the nation. Listen here


SATURDAY Feb 12 - 2pm pacific |5pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Liberally: What We Believe: Jay Ackroyd,  Stuart Zechman host a program to discuss the nature of modern liberalism,featuring statements of purpose and principle, and conversations about liberalism. Listen here.

SUNDAY Feb 13 - 5pm pacific |8pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Science with Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle and Space Studies Institute's Robin Snelson, aka Rocket Sellers. Alan and Rocket explore the often-volatile landscape of science, politics and policy. This Sunday's guest is Tim Pickens, team leader of the Rocket City Space Pioneers, inventor, innovator and educator - with a successful track record as a space entrepreneur - they discusss the state of government and commercial space programs, as well as Picken's team's bid to win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Listen here

SUNDAY Feb 13 - 6pm pacific |9pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Sundays | Daily Kos Senior Policy Editor Joan McCarter and Majority Report's Sam Seder discuss the news of the week and how it's reported - or not - by 'the village.' Listen here

MONDAY Feb 14 - 8pm pacific  11pm eastern
Virtually Speaking Susie | Host Susie Madrak, former award-winning journalist, musician and working-class warrior, writes at Suburban Guerrilla and Crooks and Liars. Her guest is Spocko: consumer activist and media analyst. Read him at spockosbrain.com and FireDogLake, where he comments extensively.

And don't forget, coming Sunday, February 20 the premiere of Virtually Speaking Sundays: Maple Syrup Edition.

"A progressive political podcast complete with pitchforks, torches and pancakes. Host journalist and blogger Kevin Wood and a stable of top Canadian bloggers, commentators, callers and other personalities smugly discuss UN peacekeeping, snow, hockey, universal health care and why Canadians are superior to Americans in general, eh, bringing a wider perspective to regional and global policy and politics. Live on the 1st & 3rd Sundays @ 5pm pacific|8pm eastern."


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the return of Friday Uke blogging!

hat tip to North Van's Grumps over at the Blog Borg Collective

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the day the music died

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Making our own nightmares come true

It occurs to me, as I'm sure it must have to many people, that if the Western democracies would walk the walk instead of just talking the talk and really supported efforts at democracy in North Africa and the Middle East instead of bankrolling dictators because they provide "stability" we would have a lot less to fear from a democratic North Africa and Middle East. Given that virtually every gun, club, tear gas bomb and armored car being deployed against the huddled masses yearning to breath free in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region comes from the "arsenal of democracy" and given that we have been helping thugs like Mubarak maintain his stranglehold on power, is it any wonder that when the chickens come home to roost, our governments are terrified of the results? What cause to love the West have we given the people of Egypt or Tunisia or Jordan or Syria? Why shouldn't they hate us?
When Castro was still hiding in the hills of Cuba and people were still robbing banks to fund the revolution, Castro approached the United States for help. The U.S. decided to keep propping up the dictator there for the good of the fruit, sugar, rum and organized crime lobbies and so Castro turned to the Russians for help. We know how that one turned out.
The Sandinistas in Nicaragua reached out to the Ford and Carter Administrations for help getting rid of the Somoza dictatorship. Both refused, citing the Roosevelt/Truman doctrine of "He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard." Central America spends 30 years plagued by right wing death squads
 trained at the School of the Americas and proxy wars between "leftists" and military-backed plutocrats.
We backed the Shah's bloody kleptocracy, until Iranians finally got fed up and took to the streets and invited the Ayatollah back just to provide some leadership to the angry mob.
Then, to fight the Ayatollah, the west decided to cultivate a rival power - a military strongman just next door, who did just what we wanted as long as we kept giving him arms and didn't ask too many questions about what he was doing to his own people. Of course, once Saddam Hussien slipped the leash, things got ugly for him fast. 
Now, the realpolitik braintrust in Foggy Bottom and by extention, Whitehall and Ottawa, is worried that if Mubarak falls, the wrong people might end up running Eygpt and that might be bad for Israel and U.S. interests in the region. Maybe they should have thought of that 20 or 30 years ago.
Mubarak and the other despots of the Middle East and North Africa may be "our bastards" instead of "their bastards," but the bottom line is that they are bastards and we are helping them stay in power and teaching their oppressed people to hate us.
The longer we prop up dictators to keep the Islamic world in line, the bigger the potential shitrain we are going to face when those dictators inevitably fall to popular uprisings we've helped them try to suppress.

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Tonight on Virtually Speaking

Tonight at 9 p.m. eastern/6 p.m. Pacific, host and all-around smart and funny guy Jay Ackroyd speaks with Tom Levenson.

TOM LEVENSON teaches science writing at MIT, posts at his own blog, The Inverse Square and at Balloon Juice. He and Jay will talk about science in contemporary politics, and the 17th century origins of the modern economy. To comment and question from the studio audience, join us at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtually%20Speaking/164/111/25

LISTEN on the web at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/01/28/tom-levenson-virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd
More info at http://blog.virtually-speaking.com/ABOUT TOM LEVENSON Professor, Program Head and Director of the Graduate Program, Techniques, forms and traditions of contemporary writing, media and communications.
About Tom's book 'Newton and the Counterfeiter' NEAL STEPHENSON says of Tom's book:
'Newton and the Counterfeiter is both a fascinating read and a meticulously researched historical document: a combination difficult to acheive and arely seen....Recommended for anyone who wants to know the real story behind this astonishing but largely overlooked chapter of scientific history.'
http://bit.ly/i0UMSX


Prof Thomas Levenson is the winner of Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award, Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and the AAAS/Westinghouse award. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, Discover, The Sciences. Winner of the 2005 National Academies Communications Award for Origins. The executive producer of the "Origins" miniseries (NOVA), Tom wrote, produced and directed part four: "Back to the Beginning." The series depicts four areas of cosmic evolution: the formation of the Earth and planets, the rise of life, the search for extraterrestrial life forms and the beginning of the universe.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/program-3114.html
http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/
http://www.balloon-juice.com/
http://www.twitter.com/TomLevenson  
Visit Virtually Speaking at: http://virtuallyspeaking.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
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I know there have been spending cuts,

but surely the Defence Ministry can still afford maps?

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This weekend on Virtually Speaking Sundays

JAN 23, 5pm pacific|8pm eastern

Culture of Truth & Cliff Schecter @ VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS * A REALITY BASED COUNTERPOINT TO SUNDAY MORNING TALKING HEADS *

Webcast and archived on BlogTalkRadio - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2011/01/24/cliff-schecter-and-culture-of-truth-virtually-speaking-sundays

More UP NOW @ http://blog.virtually-speaking.com/

THIS WEEK on VIRTUALLY SPEAKING SUNDAYS : Culture of Truth and Cliff Schecter join us... the Gasbag atrocities are documented. Various news stories that arise during the Sunday shows are considered. There is often mockery. Starting point: http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/

CULTURE OF TRUTH writes the Bobblespeak Translations, political satire wherein he recaps the Sunday morning talk shows and major appearances of national political figures. "What They're Really Saying When They're Saying What They're Saying" just about sums it up. http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/

CLIFF SCHECTER A political commentator, consultant and author, Cliff's first book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him—And Why Independents Shouldn’t was published by Polipoint Press May 1. Schecter is also a political consultant for Libertas LLC, a full-spectrum political and corporate communications firm.
http://www.libertasllc.com/ http://twitter.com/cliffschecter
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Bravo for People for Corporate Tax Cuts

Wow, I have to say my hat is off to the people at OPSEU who put this campaign together. They are doing a marvelous job of keeping a straight faee and keeping up the gag. This was in my inbox at the newspaper this morning.

Good Morning -

Are you wondering how you will come up with $500 to pay your share of the Ontario government's proposed $2.4 billion a year corporate tax cut? Today, People for Corporate Tax Cuts unveiled its province-wide campaign to shares tips on how Ontarians can raise the $500 every household must contribute to pay for the corporate tax cuts. The organization will also educate Ontarians on the important role the cuts play in executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

Examples of how Ontarians can raise $500:
– 15 year old Jimmy Palmatier sold his hockey equipment to help his parents pay their share
– Rahid Gupta vowed to give up his health care benefits so the government could put that money towards the corporate tax cuts


For more information, please visit our website.

NOTE: A press release is included below with additional information.

James Stephen
People for Corporate Tax Cuts



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


PEOPLE FOR CORPORATE TAX CUTS LAUNCHES PRO-CORPORATION CAMPAIGN

(TORONTO) January 20 – People For Corporate Tax Cuts (PFCTC) has launched a province-wide multi-media campaign in support of the Ontario government’s plan to give corporations a $2.4 billion a year tax cut.

“Giving corporations a $2.4 billion income tax cut means that every household in Ontario will have to contribute $500 to pay their share,” announced Nuella Warkworth, PFCTC President, Chair, CEO and COO, at a Niagara Falls press conference held earlier this week. “We’re here to help them do that.”

Through www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca and a media advertising campaign, PFCTC will share tips on how Ontarians can raise $500 to pay their share of the corporate tax cuts.

“The goal of the campaign is to show Ontarians that there are many ways they can come up with their $500 share of the corporate tax cuts,” said Warkworth. “Take Mrs. Muriel Flagle, for example. This 77 year old woman sold her walker to pay her share and is a proud member of PFCTC.”

The organization will also educate all Ontarians on the important role corporate tax cuts play in increasing executive salaries and bonuses, and paying for other vital management incentives.

PFCTC will be giving away $500 prizes to those who submit the best videos or photos showing how they will come up with the money they need to pay for corporate tax cuts. If they are unable to come with the money, entrants may also outline what public services they are personally prepared to give up so that the government can pass the savings on to corporations.

People For Corporate Tax Cuts also wishes to ensure that the Ontario government gets the credit it deserves. Ms Warkworth explained, “Even though Ontario already has about the lowest corporate taxes in North America, our government is proudly determined to cut corporate taxes even further. People For Corporate Tax Cuts recognizes and applauds this well-planned transfer of wealth from the people of Ontario to our corporate friends.”

Nuella Warkworth is a tireless fighter for the rights of corporations and the executives who run them. See her videos at www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca

About People for Corporate Tax Cuts – www.peopleforcorporatetaxcuts.ca:
People For Corporate Tax Cuts is a grassroots organization, founded in 2000 and led by Nuella Warkworth. Headquartered in Toronto with members throughout Ontario, PFCTC’s mission is to advocate for ever more generous corporate tax cuts. The organization has been very successful as Ontario’s corporate tax rates have fallen significantly in the last decade. A 2010 study by the KPMG consulting firm shows that Ontario has much lower business taxes than the United States and our key competitors.

“Pay Your Share” The People For Corporate Tax Cuts Anthem is available on our website.

- 30 -

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"My back still aches when I hear that word"

Like that sculpture? Apparently you are a family values-hating homosexual then, at least according to a bunch of Jesused-up nutcases in Southwestern Ontario.
The Short Version: Exhibit by local artist at the library is featured in the local newspaper. The article happens to mention that some of the artist's previous work focuses on presenting postive images of the gay community. Local Baptists - who haven't seen the exhibit-  throw a hissy fit about how everyone will get gay cooties by looking at some statues because they were made by a homosexual and someone at the library throws a bedsheet over the exhibit  until the higher-ups can discuss the controversy.


I used to work in and around Tillsonburg so I can't really say I'm surprised by the appallingly stupid bigotry involved here -- I know there are some real whackjobs in the neighbourhood. I'm just very disappointed in the lack of spine displayed by the library.

Now, on the plus side, the library board did vote unanimously to uncover the exhibit and most of the comment at the local newspaper about the issue have been along the "what the hell is the big deal?" line, but I cannot believe there even needed to be a discussion about this. There is nothing sexual about the art and those complaining about it should have simply been written off as the crackpots they obviously are.

Seriously, if the title of this sculpture had been "Wrestlers" I'm guessing this dingbat wouldn't have had any problem with it. 

tip of the hat to Slap Upside the Head 





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If you aren't angry, you haven't been paying attention

Ian Welsh lays it out just about right. And David Lindorff further discusses the monsters in our midst.
The Skipper has been criticized by a few under the Godwin's Law argument, but I agree with him and with Welsh that we too often fall into the trap of reasonableness, that by going along to get along we too often normalize extremist opinion and outrageous attitudes by our tacit acceptance.

We grossly overvalue civility when we condemn people for using strong language to describe reprehensible actions and attitudes. Right-wing radio hosts and  tea party activists make horribly racist statements on a regular basis, but somehow calling them racists  is verboten. The American and Canadian government now routinely step all over basic human rights and openly embrace plutocracy, but to call them fascists is somehow considered beyond the pale. Somehow, somewhere along the line it became unacceptable in the mass media to declare the emperor is stark naked.

We, as a society, need to start calling people out and making them take responsibility for the things they say. I'm all for free speech. When someone starts casually talking about murdering people, about 'bombing them back to the stone age," I think everyone else should be free to to call them a monster without being lectured about how its impolite to do so.

Lindorff's example is a classic:

I brought my son and a friend last year to the notorious Army Experience Center, a multi-million state-of-the-art virtual war recruiting wonderland located in a mall in working-class Northeast Philadelphia. Filled with an array of very fast computers and video screens on which kids as young as 14 could blast away in realistic war scenarios, and featuring two darkened rooms that had the real bodies of an armored Humvee and a Blackhawk helicopter where kids could man the guns and operate in a 3-D video environment with surround sound so that you felt like you were moving through hostile territory and had to “take out” the “bad guys” while quickly identifying innocent civilians and avoiding shooting them. My son, his friend and I tried the Humvee out, and at the end of our “mission,” the recruiter, an Iraq vet, congratulated us, saying we were “the best gunners all day!” and that our error rate had been “only 30%.”

I asked him what “error rate” meant, and he said, “Collateral damage--civilians killed.”

“Thirty percent of the peope we just killed were civilians?” I asked, aghast.

“Oh yeah,” he said matter-of-factly. “Don’t feel bad. That’s not a bad percentage.” 

When did it become okay for soldiers to murder civilians? Why is torture, murder  and repression any more acceptable when embraced by Barak Obama than it was when it was done by George W. Bush, or for that matter Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot. How can we as a society decry the use of gangs of armed thugs and secret police to suppress dissent in Iran, while applauding the same tactics in Toronto?

We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!

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Taking over the asylum - an announcement

So, you've finally had it with TV News and big media empire newspapers that exist mainly to satisfy the egos of rich plutocrats and give car dealers and real estate salesmen a place to hawk their wares.
Talk radio either puts you to sleep ("Sure, it's January Canada and your yard has two feet of snow in it, but we're going to spend the next four hours with our gardening expert, taking your calls - hello Gordie from Kapuskasing, you're on the air!") or makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with some people ("Welcome to the red, white, and blue patriot hour , I'm your host -  the greatest living American - Lush Bimbo! Liebrals are stooooopid! Hurrah for Freedom! Eeeek, dusky islamomarxianarchists! I am NOT a racist, now let me tell you some "jokes" about Obama, fried chicken and watermelon!  Blar-har-har! Let's take America back! Fluoridation is a homosexual plot to take America off the gold standard again and make us all have abortions and speak French! Buy my "book"! Hurrah for anyone in uniform, even the UPS guys! USA! USA!").
You are pretty much fed up with most of the editorial page gang of mealy mouthed equivocators, gasbags, faux curmudgeons, half-bright contrarians and the publisher's schoolchums telling you that "both sides do it, sure there's a problem but it's too complicated to fix and ooooh! look shiny object! Shiny Object!!!"

Yeah, I know what you mean. And I work in that industry.

There is an antidote to the inane and insane. Think of it as Our Media Not Theirs.

Look over on the sidebar, under the radio. What, you may ask, is that doohickey? What the heck is Virtually Speaking?

That doohickey is the your ticket out of the commentary ghetto of mass media bloviations.

Once upon a time, a bunch of people who went through what you are going through now, decided that since it would be very bad form and probably illegal to actually fill the Meet the Press studio from floor to ceiling with real horse manure during a broadcast, no matter how good it might feel,  and so they really wanted an alternative. They wanted a talk show, just like the ones on the TV networks, but with smart, funny, interesting people willing to express an actual opinion and take part in a discussion about ideas instead of meat puppets burping up sound bites at each other. Where would they find these smart, funny, interesting people? It was a puzzlement. Then, one day, a couple of smart, funny, interesting people were doing what they usually did - reading blogs - and it dawned on them that there were lots of other smart, funny, interesting people reading and writing blogs and doing journalism on the internet or even in traditional media outside the Washington Beltway Village and hey, wouldn't it be great if you could get a few of them together to be smart, funny and interesting in real time instead of having them type everything and crosspost and link and html the life out of the discussion. Besides which, most bloggers are attention whores who will do anything if they think it means people will listen to them always willing to work for free for a good cause.
And thus Virtually Speaking was born.
A live audience in the Second Life cartoon universe sits and watches the aforementioned smart, funny, interesting people talk to each other over the Internet, while chatting among themselves and sending in questions. Other people listen to the show broadcast live over the Internet on Blogtalk Radio and some of them call in with questions or comments on the telephone. Still more people download the recorded shows as podcasts or listen to them on the Virtually Speaking webpage. And it doesn't cost anything and Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black, Pierre Karl Peladeau and Richard Melon Scaife don't make a single cent off of it.

And those smart, funny, interesting people - just who are they anyways? Well, a partial list would include:

• • Adam Lambert
  • Alan Boyle
  • Alison Pugh
  • Andrew Hoppin
  • Andrew Maynard
  • Anthony Romero
  • Brandon Friedman
  • Bruce Schneier
  • Chris Mooney
  • Dan Froomkin
  • Darcy Burner
  • Dave Niewert
  • Dave Pollard
  • David Brin
  • David Harris
  • David Sirota
  • David Waldman/KagroX
  • Dean Baker
  • Delia Lake
  • Dorion Sagan
  • Eric Boehlert
  • Eve Pell
  • George Lakoff
  • Glenn Greenwald
  • Glenn W Smith
  • Gloria Feldt
  • Greg Dworkin/DemFromCT
  • Greg Mitchell
  • Ian Welsh
  • Ilona Meagher
  • James Fallows
  • James Poterba
  • Janine Benyus
  • Jason Starr
  • Jay Rosen
  • Jeff Sharlet
  • Jeffrey Feldman
  • Jeffrey Kaye
  • Jessica Valenti
  • John Dean
  • Jon Henke
  • Jon Henke
  • Josh Knauer
  • Joshua Rubenstein
  • Juan Cole
  • Justin Krebs
  • Karen Tumulty
  • Katie Halper
  • Katie Halper
  • Lev Grossman
  • Lynn Harris
  • Lynn Margulis
  • Maegan Carberry
  • Margo Baldwin
  • Marion Nestle
  • Markos Moulitsas
  • Marshall Thompson
  • Marty Klein
  • Mason Tvert
  • Matt Stoller
  • Matthew Rothschild
  • Max Blumenthal
  • Max Blumenthal
  • Mike Connery
  • Mike Lux
  • Ned Lamont
  • Olivier Knox
  • PZ Myers
  • Rick Perlstein
  • Riki Ott
  • Sam Seder
  • Shelby Knox
  • Spocko
  • Stirling Newberry
  • Terry Bisson
  • Tim Wu
  • Tom Boellstorff
  • Will Bunch

and of course the regular Sunday panel of bloggers, which includes in various combinations:

• Avedon Carol
• Chris Kendrick
• Cliff Schecter
• Culture of Truth
• David Dayen
• Digby
• Eve Gittelson/nyceve
• Joan McCarter
• Marcy Wheeler
• Stuart Zechmanhttp://kevinswoodshed.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-am-radical-marxist-lennonist-radio.html
• Susie Madrak
• Watertiger

And it was good. Everybody had fun, issues were discussed and snark was shared. The Second Life thing is admittedly a bit geeky, but so what? As some of you may know, my secret shame is that I am one of "those people" who spend perfectly good free time I could be spending shopping, golfing,  reading Ayn Rand, or hammering roofing nails into my forehead hanging out with a bunch of weirdos from around the world in cartoon form in my little virtual tree fort, known to the hip comrades and cool cadres of the Second Life Marxist-Lennonist Party as the Red Zeppelin.

In fact, the Red Zeppelin has been the official home of the post shop wrap party on Sundays for the better part of a year now, which means that list of smart, funny, interesting people sometimes even come by and hang out after the show and see what the cartooniverse is all about. I play music, blather a tiny bit and then we all go catch a movie off YouTube and generally make a night of it. We have fun and I've made lots of friends -- but I digress.

Why am I carrying on so about Virtually Speaking? I mean, sure, it's a great, free, progressive forum where smart people talk about important stuff in insightful ways and all, but so what, right? They are mostly Americans, talking about American politics, which, while it is my favorite spectator sport and has a huge influence on us over here on the mouse's side of the bed, doesn't have the same immediate influence on our lives as our own politics has. We muddle along with the CBC and Globe and Mail and Power & Politics and The House and our own little corner of the blogosphere and we do okay, right?
But, as with Wayne Gretzky, William Shatner, socialized medicine and the Quebec Nordique, those demon Yankees  couldn't just let us have anything nice for ourselves without taking it and getting their filthy paws all over it. Eventually, the brain trust at Virtually Speaking turned its collective gaze northward and decided that Canadians are really just liberal-ish Americans or something and maybe they could learn something from a country that was a lot like theirs, but with government health care and a lot fewer handguns. And so they decided they needed a Canadian edition in the burgeoning line up of Virtually Speaking shows.

Remember those smart, funny, interesting people? Well, I guess they ran out of them. Everyone always said I had a great face for radio, so they've asked me to host a show.

To which I could only respond "Vive la revolution de sirop d'erable!" which confused them considerably since they want the show done in "American, not whatever they speak in Europe"

The first episode of Virtually Speaking Sundays:Maple Syrup Edition will be Feb. 20. Stay tuned for further details.

I know, I know...but by the time they figure it out it will be too late. I figure the first episode will be about whether to ban the polar bear hunt in Toronto.






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Attention political strategists

This is how a new media campaign is run. This is how you make a political point in a memorable way. I don't know who the brains are behind this. I'll be amazed if it is something that the provincial NDP came up with, since it lacks their usual earnestness, but if I were in charge of any of the media stuff for any of the parties, I'd be hiring these people yesterday, if not sooner.


UPDATE: This is who commissioned the whole campaign.

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