Is American gun culture ruining Canada?

According to the American network CNN, Canada blames U.S. for gun violence. The blame is deserved, yet the reasoning is simplistic.
America is the world's great gun culture. Its love of guns was born in a time when a gun was a tool often needed for survival in the wilderness. That time has passed, but the love of guns continues.
In some segments of American society, having a gun is equated with being strong and self reliant. Folks without guns are weak. Men without guns are unmanly.
These attitudes have crept into Canadian society because we live next to the world's predominant media provider. We see, hear, and read American gun culture 24/7.
But Canada has always been next door to American gun culture and has always been tuned in to American culture. So why is the situation deteriorating now?
The gun culture is a huge contributing factor, but the real source of evil is another American import: right wing fiscal conservatism. Over the last decade, Canadian social programs have been cut back severely to match a free enterprise driven, lower the taxes mentality that politicians have imported from south of the border. Children in poorer urban neighbourhoods, most of which are populated by recent immigrants, have fewer educational and job opportunities. Programs which helped them have been cut back. They see the images of wealth on TV and know they don't have much of a chance of attaining that wealth. They feel powerless; they reach out for what a source of power. They get a gun.
Right now Canada is in the midst of a national election campaign and a proposed change to gun laws is one of the big issues. I support the Liberals' proposed tightening of controls over gun ownership. But if our politicians truly want to stop gun violence they also need to restore social programs that support poor people and give the young a fighting chance in life.

Technorati Tags: Canada, commentary, culture, gun control, Paul Martin, poverty, Liberal party, United States

Censorship or management rights?

The ever excellent Blog of a Bookslut reports on a blogger who was fired by Sur la Table for something he wrote. You can look at his posting here. I'm not sure that there is anything in it that justifies his being fired. You be the judge.
The fact that the firing of a blogger is now the subject of further blogging is, as they say, a sign of the times. It used to be that people had freedom of speech, in theory, but less so in practice. What I mean is that most people can't get their opinions on CNN, or even in the letters to the editor section of a major newspaper, without someone's editorial approval. With blogs, the words go straight out to the world. As has the story of the employer's reaction.
The fired blogger probably feels vulnerable, but now that the story is loose in the blogosphere it's the corporation that could end up feeling the heat. Their customer service page gives contact information.

Technorati Tags: blogging, censorship

Asian Mixed Marriage in BC, Canada

Thetyee.ca has an excellent article on trends in Asian mixed marriage in British Columbia. Marriage between whites and Asians is very common in and around Vancouver, but it still presents problems. Particularly interesting is the profile of a Jewish/Chinese marriage.

Technorati Tags: British Columbia, Canada, British Columbia, puppy

Let me make this perfectly clear

In a Boxing Bay article in the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz reports on how US President Bush has summoned newspaper editors to the White House to urge them not to publish stories which he feels are harmful to national security.
The real issue, of course, is the independence of the American press, balanced against its duty to operate within the law. The real, real issue is the danger of the government using its power to censor stories that cause it political embarrassment.

Technorati Tags: censorship, George W. Bush, Howard Kurtz, United States

Writer fined for 'Turkish insult'

BBC NEWS has a report on Turkish writer Zulkuf Kisanak who was sentenced to five months in jail for "insulting" the Turkish nation with a book, Lost Villages, that described the forced evacuations of Kurdish villages. The sentence was later reduced to a fine. Kisanak maintains that he was merely reporting fact and is not guilty of breaking any law. About 60 Turkish writers are facing similar charges for alledgedly insulting their country. The BBC article has a sidebar with links to other stories about the prosecution of Turkish writers.

Technorati Tags: books, censorship, literature, Turkey

When God is the master of ceremonies

SPIEGEL has a lengthy and thoughtful interview with philosopher Daniel Dennett on the subject of "intelligent design". Dennett goes beyond denying that the idea has any validity to asserting that its adherents are socially irresponsible.
A remarkably cool discussion of a hot button topic.

Technorati Tags: culture, Darwin, ideas, creationism, intelligent design, Spiegel, religion, United States

What is the NY Times Saying about Blogs?

Today's NY Times has an essay titled What Are the Blogs Saying About Me. In it, Pamela Paul comments on how being "blogged" affects various writers. The Times also publishes a companion article on the most blogged about books of 2005, with links to selected blog postings.
These Times articles have closed a loop of some kind, with bloggers' postings drawing commentary from the most mainstream of all publications, that refers readers back to the blogs. Where is the margin? Where is the center?

Technorati Tags: blogs, commentary, culture, New York Times

That Mona Lisa Smile

New Scientist has an article claiming that Software decodes Mona Lisa's smile. Using emotion decoding software, Dutch scientists claim to have identified the feelings behind the smile. Click on the link to see what they came up with.
Come on, we all know her smile signals relief because she's just barely made it to the bathroom on time.

Technorati Tags: culture, Mona Lisa, da Vinci, technology

OpinionJournal Interviews Orhan Pamuk

On the day before his trial, Orhan Pamuk, author of the novel Snow, is interviewed by The Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal. The piece is a serious one, but its placement in the "Arts and Leisure" section trivializes the man and his predicament.

Technorati Tags: books, censorship, commentary, culture, Turkey

Sometimes We Should Repeat History

The Oxford University Press blog has an interesting article on Roger Williams & Church-State Separation. Williams was the seventeenth century founder of Maryland. He had been ousted from Massachusetts by the Puritans because he advocated religious freedom. They, by contrast, advocated theocracy.
Author Edwin S. Gaustad makes the point that American is experiencing a similar conflict today and argues for the wisdom of Williiams' position.

Technorati Tags: commentary, history, ideas, religion

This is why I'm proud to be a Canadian!

Canada's most prestigious medical journal has just published Refrigerator blindness: selective loss of visual acuity in association with a common foraging behaviour
Apparently we men can't help it: staring into the fridge in a kind of stupor is a natural male behaviour. I'm glad my tax dollars are being well spent.

Technorati Tags: health, men, Canada

Pinter's Nobel Acceptance Speech

Harold Pinter has used his Nobel acceptance speech as an occasion to blast US foreign policy. Although the speech is outspoken, it is nowhere near as audacious as his 1966 interview with The Paris Review:

• The other night I watched some politicians on television talking about Vietnam. I wanted very much to burst through the screen with a flamethrower and burn their eyes out and their balls off and then inquire from them how they would assess this action from a political point of view.

Here's a link to the latest news coverage of the speech Google Search: pinter "nobel speech"

Update:You can hear Pinter's speech on the Nobel prize site.

Technorati Tags: arts, books, drama, nobel prize

You can't go wrong listening to poetry

Poetry Archive has a huge collection of sound files of poets reading from their works. Search for a favourite or click "Lucky Dip" and hear let the software choose one at random. I got Charles Causley
on my second try. Not bad.

Technorati Tags: books, culture, poetry

Fresh news doesn't pay the bills

Sydney H. Schanberg, writing in The Village Voice, claims that something he calls "fresh news" is what "keeps citizens feeling connected to the decisions and events that alter their lives". And that blogs won't be able to provide it. Oh, really?
When the London underground was bombed it was videobloggers who gave us the first pictures because they and not the newspapers who were there. Bloggers give us the real stuff, direct from the scene. Print and television news outlets are increasingly controlled by large media conglomerates. The news increasingly reflects corporate agendas. The phenomenon is especially visible in TV news channels like CNN and Fox. In place of investigative reporting they give us powder puff portraits of business "leaders" whose companies advertise with them. In place of honest reviews they deliver plugs for movies and TV shows made by production companies owned by their parent corporation.

Technorati Tags: blogs, commentary, newspaper

Feeble logic in support of Wal-Mart

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial explaining why unions would be bad for Wal-Mart. The logic is that Wal-Mart sells to poor people; unionization would raise prices; unionization would hurt poor people. Huh? Aren't a lot of Walmart workers poor people? In fact, about 1% of the American workforce, according to the Journal, is employed by Wal-Mart. Wouldn't it help the economy, and create jobs, if suddenly 1% of the workforce (plus their spouses and dependents) were to have more money to spend on consumer goods?
There have been a couple of popular books out attacking the marketing giant lately. Check out How Walmart is Destroying America
and The Case Against Wal-Mart
.

Technorati Tags: business, Wall Street Journal, United States