

BY THESE TERMS
“Not every German who bought a copy of Mein Kampf necessarily read it … But it might be argued that had more non-Nazi Germans read it before 1933 and had the foreign statesmen of the world perused it carefully while there was still time, both Germany and the world might have been saved from catastrophe.”
Nov 2, 20238 min read


“BRILLIANT, AMAZING”
How do you make sense of what’s happening? What I’m seeing are officials, news reporters, and protesters alike quick to demand folks draw a strong distinction between Hamas and Palestine, the people of Palestine and the terrorist wing of Hamas. What we have here are “a few bad apples”, or so they say. But notice this proclamation isn’t anything like a principle the folks offering such believe in or run with in other contexts. In fact, they’re perfectly happy painting whole na
Oct 29, 20236 min read


DID YOU KNOW?
You will be delighted to learn I received much push-back on my last submission. Aside from some interesting comments, I was sent several...
Oct 23, 202320 min read


THE SEA WE SWIM IN
I've heard and seen some wild shit this week. (Though I probably shouldn't, I'll leave out the most insane anti-Semitic noise and...
Oct 11, 202316 min read


NO-SEE
No part of the narrative forming around this story even makes sense. That CBC is pushing this silly idea is, well, no surprise. With the...
Sep 29, 20233 min read


A GOOD WAR?
Though I bought " A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency " the moment it came out, back in 2020, only now did I finish reading it. ( You should go buy five copies .) Obviously, as the title suggests, it's a book about transforming our society with a reorientation toward a concern for climate and addressing the problems we face. In spelling out just how all this will work, the author starts by quoting Gramsci. * And, well, it goes downhill fast from there. Am
Sep 28, 20235 min read


IT'S NOTHING LIKE THE RED SCARE
During the Red Scare and adjacent insanity , that terrible decade of right-wing propaganda, paranoia, and political persecution born of...
Sep 19, 20233 min read


FLAME ON
I always like to recount Suzuki's story about smog. How when shooting an episode of The Nature of Things he and his crew went and sat at...
Aug 18, 20234 min read


“THIS IS HOW IT IS”
I imagine that it is as true for you as it is me that almost everything I thought I understood from prior education turned out to be far from the whole story or even entirely wrong. Occasionally this occurrence is innocent and happens because we’ve learned more over time or because the author or teacher felt they needed to simplify for their learners. At other times the person who wrote the book or taught the lesson simply didn’t know what they were talking about or never loo
Aug 16, 20236 min read


(THE COMPLETELY FICTIONAL) CONTEXT FOR A STORY
The hawi derived all their power and influence from inherited privileges. Those privileges largely took the form of ownership of key...
Aug 12, 20233 min read


DON'T!
We moved into a new place. The first strata council meeting eventually arrived. My partner had been anticipating the event for two months, was eager to go, and I was thrilled for her to represent. I was also happy to opt out. She reported back that I was the only one not in attendance, that she explained my absence to the group as “He doesn’t like meetings,” and that the secretary noted this in the Council’s minutes. I thought all of that was funny. I recounted it to friends
Aug 1, 202311 min read


TIME STAMP
Today I was reminded that I had this weird conflict with my friends. We decided we wanted a stamp made to brand some paper bags for our...
Jul 30, 20232 min read


THAT’S WEATHER, NOT CLIMATE
This week, authorities have given us things like: “ July 2023 is set to be the hottest month ever recorded in human history .” “July isn't even over and it's projected to be the hottest month humanity has ever experienced.” “The North Atlantic just reached its highest temperature in recorded history just two days after the Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature in recorded history.” I love this. These folks consistently tell us how passionate they are about precisi
Jul 28, 20237 min read


RÉSUMÉ
T’wi: You should let me look at your resume. Zah: Haven’t I? T’wi: Well that was a long time ago. Zah: Well, if I recall, you were...
Jul 21, 202310 min read


BUSINESS BUSINESS or TALKING WITH FRIENDS
Jean : You should just start a business. Wendal : I don’t think businesses are a thing. Tyson : Oh, here we go. Wendal : What I mean is that I believe in debt and I believe in disposable income but I don’t believe in the organic, money-making, self-sustaining businesses. Never seen it happen. And I’ve been looking. Tyson : What? Wendal : So, we have the numbers. And you know these. They're irrefutable. Things like:
Jul 13, 202311 min read


INDUSTRY STANDARD
I’ve been looking at commercial and residential real estate numbers pretty regularly since 2016. When I was in Calgary at that time and exploring commercial real estate, I kept coming across nonsensical numbers all over the place. As someone new to the city and with no background information the figures were ludicrous. As I started looking into it ("Can that possibly be correct?") I learned a lot, mostly about how rampant and significant the level of fraud seemed to be. Since
Jul 6, 20235 min read


"IF IT'S SO AVAILABLE WHY ARE PEOPLE DYING MORE THAN EVER?"
I saw a “safe supply” rally yesterday in Victoria. And I read this article about it this morning, titled “ BC mother runs across province...
Jun 25, 202312 min read


OBLIGATIONS, PRIORITIES, AND THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY or HOW TO DESTROY TRUST IN OUR INSTITUTIONS
In order to have a civilization we need to have trust in our institutions. I think that’s irrefutable. But are those institutions and the professionals entrusted with sustaining them helping this cause? That’s a question that seems worth asking. At the moment there’s a curious phenomenon of experts vociferously spouting off across the news and social media in defence of their colleagues, the managerial class and the institutions those folks run, and the popular media who also
Jun 15, 202317 min read











































































