Category Archives: Politics

Friday Fun Link – Tag Clouds for US Presidential Debates (May 4, 2007)

Oh yeah, and it's Friday so time for the weekly FFL (I almost forgot!) Tag-clouds for the first debates of the Democratic and Republican primaries. (via MetaFilter)

Friday Fun Link – "Don't Mind Me, I'm Dead" – How The Public Library Became Heartbreak Hotel (April 6, 2007)

I've addressed this before but my readership has grown quite a bit since the last time I talked about it so I'll give some background on the FFL's again.  My “Friday Fun Links” started as a way to provide regular content when I set up a listserv for the Writers Guild of Alberta.  When I […]

Your Next NDP Candidate in the Souris-Moose Mountain Constituency Is…

A couple months ago, I wrote about how I attended the local NDP association's AGM with Shea's uncle who's big with the NDP (he ran in the 2000 Federal election) during a visit to Weyburn.  During the meeting, one old-timer had leaned over and asked if I might be interested in running.  I told him […]

Tommy Douglas on Librarians

One of the books I've got on the go right now is an oral history of Tommy Douglas called “Touched By Tommy: Stories of Hope and Humour About Canada's Most Loved Political Leader, T.C. Douglas”I thought this anecdote about librarians was funny:“Everyone was saying nice things about John Archer.  He was leaving the Legislative Library […]

Petition to Stop Climate Change

I don’t post every petition I come across on here but this one is from a solid organization and it looks like it has some potential to at least get a legitimate hearing from top decision makers. So why not add your name to support this message? — Dear friend, This Thursday, the environment ministers […]

Stephen Lewis To Speak at U of R

I've heard from multiple people that the free David Suzuki lecture a couple weeks ago at U of R was awesome.  I missed that but I'm not going to miss this one – I saw Stephen Lewis speak at CLA in Ottawa last summer and it was amazing.  Here's the official blurb:As you may or […]

The Impact of Having a Librarian Doing Your Reader's Advisory…

Bush's wife is a librarian for anybody who doesn't know.  (Now if she could just teach him to pronounce “eclectic”…)Oh, and I'm tagging this with “humour” but really, it's about as far from funny as it gets.  I think it was better when Bush admitted that all he read was Sports Illustrated and summaries of […]

Myths of the Developing World

“With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks a few myths about the “developing” world. Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:35) – More TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com” […]

FTRW 2007 – A Couple Last Notes on Freedom to Read Week

When I uploaded my FTRW interview to YouSendIt a couple days ago, I didn't realise they now required you to set-up an account before downloading files (boo!)  Quinn has very generously agreed to host the file for those of who who may have found this a barrier for whatever reason.  To save the file to […]

"Perhaps You Will Become A Saint For A Child To Meet"

“A sappy woman sent me a letter a few years back. She knew I was sappy, too, which is to say a lifelong northern Democrat in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt mode, a friend of the working stiffs. She was about to have a baby, not mine, and wished to know if it was a bad […]