Books: Our Malady by Timothy D. Snyder
May. 10th, 2023 08:58 amYes, the same guy who wrote On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom.
This booklet - as near as I can tell - is an argument for taking what the UK's been doing with the NHS and Canada with Medicare and running with it as far and as fast as possible, from the position that such a course would maximise the freedom of most, if not all, citizens.
I hope to have more to say after I finish reading it.
Related note, discovered via Mastodon: Finnish insurance companies seem to have a pattern of making trouble for people dealing with ADHD. I wonder how much along similar lines is happening in Canada. Also, remembering one of the plotlines of Robert J. Sawyer's novel Frameshift...
This booklet - as near as I can tell - is an argument for taking what the UK's been doing with the NHS and Canada with Medicare and running with it as far and as fast as possible, from the position that such a course would maximise the freedom of most, if not all, citizens.
I hope to have more to say after I finish reading it.
Related note, discovered via Mastodon: Finnish insurance companies seem to have a pattern of making trouble for people dealing with ADHD. I wonder how much along similar lines is happening in Canada. Also, remembering one of the plotlines of Robert J. Sawyer's novel Frameshift...
(no subject)
Dec. 21st, 2022 09:00 am1. Someone sees the work of the Guardian as a threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/21/guardian-hit-by-serious-it-incident-believed-to-be-ransomware-attack
2. If you're trying to get in or out of metropolitan Vancouver, Canada, you'll need more patience than usual:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/winter-weather-flight-cancellations-1.6693294
3. Same for Ottawa-Gatineau.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/don-t-travel-this-weekend-if-you-don-t-need-to-opp-says-1.6692802
4. Mon-Fri 9-5 may be over for many, but what's taking its place in the federal civil service may be problematic in other ways for the staff as much as for the public. Especially in Ottawa-Gatineau where we don't have mask rules back in place yet.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/federal-departments-hybrid-directive-responses-1.6692401
5. The Convoy Siege of Ottawa continues to have consequences for a lot of people living here.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/zexi-li-freedom-convoy-year-in-review-1.6205324
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/21/guardian-hit-by-serious-it-incident-believed-to-be-ransomware-attack
2. If you're trying to get in or out of metropolitan Vancouver, Canada, you'll need more patience than usual:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/winter-weather-flight-cancellations-1.6693294
3. Same for Ottawa-Gatineau.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/don-t-travel-this-weekend-if-you-don-t-need-to-opp-says-1.6692802
4. Mon-Fri 9-5 may be over for many, but what's taking its place in the federal civil service may be problematic in other ways for the staff as much as for the public. Especially in Ottawa-Gatineau where we don't have mask rules back in place yet.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/federal-departments-hybrid-directive-responses-1.6692401
5. The Convoy Siege of Ottawa continues to have consequences for a lot of people living here.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/zexi-li-freedom-convoy-year-in-review-1.6205324
(no subject)
Jun. 19th, 2022 05:41 pm1. Charlie Angus, on Being an MP in the Age of Conspiracy, Theoretical and Not:
https://www.policymagazine.ca/being-an-mp-in-the-age-of-conspiracy-theoretical-and-not/
2. Carole Cadwalladr gets a victory, finally:
https://t.co/Zj0TzN9W6x
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/19/the-observer-view-on-carole-cadwalladr-victory-public-service-journalism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
More on other topics as they occur to me...
https://www.policymagazine.ca/being-an-mp-in-the-age-of-conspiracy-theoretical-and-not/
2. Carole Cadwalladr gets a victory, finally:
https://t.co/Zj0TzN9W6x
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/19/the-observer-view-on-carole-cadwalladr-victory-public-service-journalism?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
More on other topics as they occur to me...
From Ottawa and London
Apr. 2nd, 2022 03:36 pmOn the nature and preparation of the Ottawa Siege:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-convoy-protesters-communication-1.6405434
Carole Cadwalladr, on having faced libel trial at the High Court despite having her facts straight:
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1509612965011804162
I want a better accounting of so many things.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-convoy-protesters-communication-1.6405434
Carole Cadwalladr, on having faced libel trial at the High Court despite having her facts straight:
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1509612965011804162
I want a better accounting of so many things.
So David Tennant went on record in defense of the English National Health Service.
(Noting
autopope's corrective reminder that the component nations of the UK each have their own NHS with thanks.)
That report got me thinking. Again.
I have had days where I felt that Canada ought to federalise health care. The policies of the various provinces and territories vary, and then there's the Crown-Indigenous treaty arrangements. I wonder how dangerous that territorial division is to Canadians and our Indigenous relations alike sometimes.
(Noting
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
That report got me thinking. Again.
I have had days where I felt that Canada ought to federalise health care. The policies of the various provinces and territories vary, and then there's the Crown-Indigenous treaty arrangements. I wonder how dangerous that territorial division is to Canadians and our Indigenous relations alike sometimes.
SPLC vs. ALEC
Dec. 13th, 2021 05:22 pmGood that they've gotten around to ALEC...
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/12/07/leading-free-market-policy-network-enabling-anti-lgbtq-hate
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/12/07/leading-free-market-policy-network-enabling-anti-lgbtq-hate
As someone interested in passenger rail, graphic design and where the two intersect, this gets my attention:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/22/british-rail-logo-designer-appalled-by-green-makeover-mess
I do think Mr. Barney is correct about the idea of re-nationalising the passenger rail system(s) of the UK to whatever degree practical and possible, but I've lived in the land of VIA Rail here in Canada all my life. CP and CN had their own passenger services when I was born, but VIA has been around so long that I can't quite imagine the idea of each rail line running its own passenger lines along with the freight services.
Getting back to watching Ottawa City Council discussing motions re: the O-Train in particular and OC Transpo public transit service in general...
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/22/british-rail-logo-designer-appalled-by-green-makeover-mess
I do think Mr. Barney is correct about the idea of re-nationalising the passenger rail system(s) of the UK to whatever degree practical and possible, but I've lived in the land of VIA Rail here in Canada all my life. CP and CN had their own passenger services when I was born, but VIA has been around so long that I can't quite imagine the idea of each rail line running its own passenger lines along with the freight services.
Getting back to watching Ottawa City Council discussing motions re: the O-Train in particular and OC Transpo public transit service in general...
Land, Freedom and Equity
Aug. 21st, 2021 04:35 pmThread begun on Twitter by Laurie Penny:
https://twitter.com/PennyRed/status/1429145164984078336
Lest we forget the consequences of our ancestors' choices.
More on other topics later...
https://twitter.com/PennyRed/status/1429145164984078336
Lest we forget the consequences of our ancestors' choices.
More on other topics later...
RIP Diana Rigg
Sep. 10th, 2020 09:57 amFrom my childhood watching of re-runs that were already "old" to me...
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/diana-rigg-dead-82-dies-avengers-game-of-thrones-1234765209/
My mother is currently the same age.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/diana-rigg-dead-82-dies-avengers-game-of-thrones-1234765209/
My mother is currently the same age.
More Notes on the Xi Regime
Jul. 9th, 2020 04:03 pmhttps://www.justsecurity.org/71087/a-rejoinder-to-chinas-response-to-un-human-rights-experts/
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/07/09/1422241/uk-universities-comply-with-chinas-internet-restrictions
https://www.lawfareblog.com/days-after-retrospective-chinese-and-indian-media-coverage-june-16-border-conflict
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/07/09/1422241/uk-universities-comply-with-chinas-internet-restrictions
https://www.lawfareblog.com/days-after-retrospective-chinese-and-indian-media-coverage-june-16-border-conflict
(no subject)
Jun. 26th, 2020 07:30 pmThanks to
twistedchick for pointing this essay out to me:
https://longreads.com/2020/06/18/the-long-con-of-britishness/
Good on Laurie Penny for this. She's been good for sometimes brutal honesty about the worlds we live in - real and fictional - for a few years now. This is another aspect of that work of hers.
And this comes to mind in particular:
"If you love your country and don’t own its difficulties and its violence, you don’t actually love your country. You’re just catcalling it as it goes by."
Canada's existence in its present form is another consequence of that long con, and the people living here are dealing with being consequences of that as well. Consequences for each other. We are a mess right now. We can do better. We can be better.
Whether we end up with balkanization back into what the Indigenous nations had before first contact with the European nations whose leaders wanted empires built upon the burned bones and spilled blood of the locals; into a mix of Indigenous and Settler holdings; the next conquest of the American Trumpist fascism if that survives this November upcoming; or something else hopefully unified by freely made choice and better for its struggles to accept our own ugly truths and better angels...?
I don't know yet.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
https://longreads.com/2020/06/18/the-long-con-of-britishness/
Good on Laurie Penny for this. She's been good for sometimes brutal honesty about the worlds we live in - real and fictional - for a few years now. This is another aspect of that work of hers.
And this comes to mind in particular:
"If you love your country and don’t own its difficulties and its violence, you don’t actually love your country. You’re just catcalling it as it goes by."
Canada's existence in its present form is another consequence of that long con, and the people living here are dealing with being consequences of that as well. Consequences for each other. We are a mess right now. We can do better. We can be better.
Whether we end up with balkanization back into what the Indigenous nations had before first contact with the European nations whose leaders wanted empires built upon the burned bones and spilled blood of the locals; into a mix of Indigenous and Settler holdings; the next conquest of the American Trumpist fascism if that survives this November upcoming; or something else hopefully unified by freely made choice and better for its struggles to accept our own ugly truths and better angels...?
I don't know yet.
The Goats of Llandudno
Apr. 1st, 2020 08:38 amSome of you may have already seen this.
The Goats of Llandudno...presented by BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-52103967
The Goats of Llandudno...presented by BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-52103967
Regarding the Upcoming UK Elections
Dec. 11th, 2019 05:57 amIf you're eligible to vote in this one, please do.
Also, when you do, please vote as best you can to specifically frustrate the ambitions of the local branches of the new fascist international in your respective home ridings. (Yes, I do think Johnson, Farage, Rees-Mogg, etc. qualify for the ranks of that gang.)
Also, when you do, please vote as best you can to specifically frustrate the ambitions of the local branches of the new fascist international in your respective home ridings. (Yes, I do think Johnson, Farage, Rees-Mogg, etc. qualify for the ranks of that gang.)