Nick Hanauer, inequity and TED

I just read this really great article written by Nick Hanauer for Politico.com. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. In my view, it’s a great argument by an extremely wealthy entrepreneur with the aim of convincing other entrepreneurs that social inequity is not only bad, but dangerous and self-defeating for plutocrats like himself. Apparently, I was hiding under a rock in 2012 when Hanauer created waves because his TED talk (see below) was not put online and promoted on TED’s website. Chris Anderson defended the exclusion of this video in a blog post, stating some of TED’s primary reasons for excluding this video were because it was “explicitly partisan” and “included a number of arguments that were unconvincing”. Anderson and TED did finally put up the video to presumably “spark a magnificent debate”, but only on YouTube and not in TED’s official channel. While I agreed with […]... Read More

Dear voters, Please stay home.

As unpopular as this view might be to some, I will not be encouraging people to show up and vote. I think the arguments behind encouraging a greater voter turnout are flawed and unsound. Disclaimer: It’s no secret to most of my friends, that I am not a huge fan of democracy. This doesn’t make me a communist, nor does it mean that I support some other authoritarian or tyrannical government. For the moment, I would still say that democracy is our best option but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I just dislike it less than the other options. In my view, the biggest problem with democracy is not the concept of democracy itself, in fact, like many forms of government, it would probably be fantastic for Utopia. (An interesting aside on Sir Thomas More’s invention of the term Utopia — the word comes from the Greek: […]... Read More

PQ ‘secularism’ statement

So, the PQ says that they want to ban overt religious signs in public service. Now, generally, I’m all for government staying completely out of any sort of religion in any and every way, shape or form. However, I strongly suspect that this is just the PQ showing their xenophobia once again. I submit this as evidence: I think what they really meant to say is that they wanted to block any religious symbols by those other religions (you know, the ones that the brown people les ethniques follow). Clearly this is the PQ trying to cater to the Quebec rednecks, letting them know that they will stick up and protect the French White Catholic tradition culture. Update: One doesn’t have to go very far for evidence of the PQ’s xenophobia, other than the infamous ‘votes ethniques‘ statement by Jacques The Bigot Parizeau himself. Here’s a recent Montreal Gazette article […]... Read More

Cher SPVM/Dear SPVM,

(English text follows the French) Chers membres du SPVM, En 2008, il vous en souvient peut-être, à l’invitation de votre estimée Fraternité déçue de l’offre salariale de la Ville de Montréal, vous protestiez en portant un jean et une casquette de base-ball rouge… Nous, nous en avons gardé un souvenir très précis. Même si vous exigiez alors une plus grande part de nos impôts, nous n’avons pas répondu : en vous aspergeant violemment de poivre en vous pourchassant comme des chauffards avec nos voitures, au risque de vous renverser; en vous attaquant alors que vous étiez attablés à la terrasse d’un bar. Même si une infime minorité d’entre nous avait agi ainsi (il y a toujours quelques pommes pourries…), la dernière chose qu’il nous viendrait à l’esprit serait de défendre un comportement si honteux et d’en rejeter le blâme sur vous! Alors, soit vous n’éprouvez aucune honte, ou vous croyez […]... Read More

Montreal under siege (video)

An uprising against law 78, a law that requires protesters submit their protest plans 8 hours in advance to the authorities. A law that is considered by many to be draconian (French only) and over reaching (including the Quebec Bar Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers). [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMXzsbaMY9g] A couple of things were painfully obvious here: the police were not in control of this situation a small group of troublemakers were responsible for most of the violence the crowd (wrongly in my view) allowed these troublemakers to take control of the situation although this was clearly a very difficult and dangerous situation for them, the police behaved very unprofessionally. They were overly aggressive and were taunting and mocking the protesters, further instigating violence. This is sowing disrespect for authority and the law. The people hired to protect us are becoming the enemy, which is toxic to the fabric […]... Read More