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Former Prime Minister (and, most recently, the Progressive Conservative Party Opposition leader), The Honourable Joe Clark, came out this week and endorsed sitting Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, saying he was “less dangerous to the country” than current Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper. Mr. Martin is expected to call a federal election in the near future.
“To see beyond their own little world and get a sense of what’s really going on, journalists and readers need to get out of their pajamas,” says George Packer in the upcoming issue of Mother Jones magazine.
First, a confession: I hate blogs. I’m also addicted to them. Hours dissolve into nothing when I suit up and dematerialize into the political blogosphere … beaming myself outward along rays of pixelated light to dozens of satellites … until I’m light-years from the point of departure and can rescue myself only by summoning the will to disconnect … landing with a jolt in front of my computer. Before long, though, I’ll venture forth again to see what’s new out there — because the blogosphere changes from instant to instant.
As Packer says, “blogs are addictive — that is, both pleasurable and destructive: They’re so easy to consume, and so endlessly available.”
Blogs are all about unvarnished opinion, yours and mine and everyone else’s, a manifestation of the old art of political pamphleteering — offering a constellation of opinion.
In an age when the corporate media’s idea of journalism is meant to lead us to the belief that journalism is all about objective reporting, we know that self-serving suggestion to be nothing more than yet another corporate lie we’re told, designed to keep us misinformed and alienated from political action that would better the conditions of our lives.
Long live blogging. Keep yourself informed: click on a blog to your right.
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The Work Less Party of British Columbia was founded because modern Western culture’s work ethic — the idea that the worth of a human being depends on the work that he or she does — no longer serves our society well.
With vast increases in productivity over the past centuries, the Work Less Party believes that we no longer require every single person’s efforts to be directed towards our survival. And yet, the party says, it does not question the work ethic that drives many of us to work long hours at jobs that we don’t like, that provides us with little personal and professional satisfaction, that harms our health, that takes our precious time in exchange for mere consumer goods, that drives the economic engines of over consumption, and that ultimately leaves our planet barren.
The Work Less Party stands for the idea that a human being’s worth is inherent and not dependent on a job. The party believes that working less can, indeed, lead to making a positive contribution to society.
And working less, as if you didn’t already know this, is definitely a more way fun way to live your life!
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Ten unions representing 43,000 B.C. hospital and long-term care workers began job action on Sunday with a ban on overtime, escalating to a full strike on Monday. The 10 unions represent X-ray and ECG technicians, biomedical engineers, trades, housekeepers, dietary staff, lab assistants, orderlies, licensed practical nurses, unit coordinators, clerical staff like medical transcriptionists and booking clerks, and group home workers.
The escalating job action comes as health employers continue to privatize health functions after unions refused deep concession demands. Health employers and the B.C. Liberal government continue in their refusal to put layoffs on hold during province-wide talks and move off their massive wage concession demands worth $900 million over three years.
For full background on the dispute (something you’re unlikely to see made available anywhere else, outside of VanRamblings or rabble.ca), watch this web video address from HEU Secretary-Business Manager Chris Allnutt from last Thursday’s press conference giving 72-hour strike notice.