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Category Archives: Wisdom

How Secular Parenting Stacks Up

Pretty well actually… I could basically cut & paste the whole article as it’s all relevant but here are a few of my favourite sections… The results of such secular child-rearing are encouraging. Studies have found that secular teenagers are far less likely to care what the “cool kids” think, or express a need to […]

¶ Posted 25 January 2015 § Family § SecularSunday ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: atheism, philosophy

Powerful Reddit Thread Reveals How Poor Get By In America

The Washington Post picked up a recent Reddit thread which asked what do insanely poor people buy that ordinary people know nothing about? Absolutely heartbreaking stories.

¶ Posted 14 January 2015 § Internet § Jobs § United States ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: economics, health, unitedstates

Some Resonant, Relevant Quotes on Free Speech and the Charlie Hebdo Massacre From The #MetaFilter Thread #jesuischarlie

So I wrote about the Charlie Hebdo massacre in a rather rambling manner the other day. I’m still thinking about what happened a lot – the conflict between unrestrained freedom of speech defenders (here!) and a sort of “Can’t we all get along/be kind and non-offensive to everyone” reaction which I have some sympathy to but […]

¶ Posted 11 January 2015 § Censorship § Humour § Library § LibrarySchool § Politics ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: freedomtoreadweek, language

#JeSuisCharlie (And Some Tangents About Language, The Nature of Offense and the Unintended Consequences of Trigger Warnings)

Trigger Warning: This essay contains ideas you might not agree with. You’ve probably heard about the terrorist criminal attack today in Paris that targeted journalists and cartoonists with a satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo. Instead of trying to write an essay to capture my thoughts (since The Onion did a pretty good job on that front already), I’ll […]

¶ Posted 07 January 2015 § Censorship § News § Politics § PopCulture ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: atheism, history, language, philosophy

Music Monday – Honoring Our Parents: The Legacy of Residential Schools

There’s a popular story making the rounds on social media to help people in positions of privilege understand exactly what the concept means and what it affords them. The essence of the story is that a high school teacher sets a recycling bin at the front of the room then gives his students wads of paper […]

¶ Posted 05 January 2015 § Canada § Library § MemoryLane § MusicMonday § Saskatchewan § Video § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: history, music, saskatchewan

Mark Zuckerberg Starts Online Book Club – Is He The Internet Generation’s Oprah?

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has started an online book club to help facilitate his annual resolution. Other years, he’s pledged to do everything from study Mandarin to wearing a tie every day to meeting one new person (who doesn’t work for Facebook) each day. This year, he’s aiming to read at least one book every […]

¶ Posted 04 January 2015 § Internet § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, facebook

The True Meaning of Christmas That Everyone Forgets

Someone on my Facebook posted a rather profound article about how the arguments between “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” are misguided. The article points out the fact that our Christmas traditions have well-documented roots back to a pagan time, long ago, when people came together for a festival during the longest night of the year […]

¶ Posted 25 December 2014 § Family § MemoryLane § Sad § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: history, holiday, philosophy

“What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Ridiculous Hypothetical Questions”

¶ Posted 23 December 2014 § Internet § PopCulture § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, science

“I Do Not Believe in Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection”

¶ Posted 17 December 2014 § Humour § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: atheism, science

Why Librarians Defend The Right To Watch Porn at the Library

This is a great article on an important topic but my short answer is this: “Beyond limits set by the existing laws of the land, no one should have right to tell anyone else what they can read/watch/listen to. Period.” To expand on this a bit… I’ve seen patrons watching things that are a lot […]