A Polish opposition party led by Janusz Palikot put on V masks in protest of the ACTA Bill. ACTA being this:
Category Archive: Politics
Jan
20
Megaupload Down
Megaupload has been taken down and its founder arrested on charges of piracy. You can read the indictment here. Just so we’re clear, Blackwater, a mercenary group that has committed war crimes is a private contractor. Megaupload, a website that allows people to store information online and others to download it, are criminals. Blackwater, though …
Dec
28
#Occupy’s First International General Assembly: Jan. 1 2012
From the press release: Occupy Toronto will be working alongside Occupy Hamilton, Occupy London, Occupy St. Catherine’s, Occupy Niagara and Occupy Buffalo, in regards to an action taking place at Niagara Falls’ Rainbow Bridge on January 1st 2012 at NOON for an International General Assembly (GA) in alliance with the UN’s International Day for Peace. We are standing …
Dec
27
São Paulo Five Years After Outdoor Ad Ban
Is a world without billboards possible or good? Just ask the residents of Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. Five years after banning this ‘visual pollution’ 70% of residents find the ban beneficial. Imagine a city of 11 million inhabitants stripped of all its advertising. It’s nearly impossible when the clutter and color of our current urban landscapes …
Dec
24
The Growing Militarisation of Police
This is an interesting conversation on AJE about the growing militarization of the police. Of interest to people in Toronto because the G20 is part of the conversation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has granted $34 billion over the last 10 years to state and local police departments to combat terrorist threats and drug trafficking. But critics …
Dec
07
The next 10 years will be very unlike the last 10 years
I’d say this is a pretty realistic assessment.
Dec
02
Glen Greenwald: Congress endorsing military detention, a new AUMF
You should probably grab yourself a good, stiff drink and read this article. A bill co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin and GOP Sen. John McCain (S. 1867) — included in the pending defense authorization bill — is predictably on its way to passage. It is triggering substantial alarm in many circles, including from the …
Nov
15
Occupy Toronto Live
occupytoronto on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free Today, the city of Toronto served the occupation in St. James Park with eviction notices for midnight tonight. Call the mayor at 416 397 3673 & leave your message of support of the movement & the need to remain.
Nov
15
Occupy Wall Street Live Stream
Occupy Wall Street live. Around 1:00am on Tuesday, November 15th, the NYPD moved in to clear Zuccotti Park of all protestors and equipment. Members of the press, both independent and mainstream, were systematically prevented from covering the story Read about the press suppression here <a href=”http://storify.com/bendoernberg/press-suppression-at-occupy-wall-street-raid” target=”_blank”>View the story “Press Suppression …
Nov
10
Nov
02
Cynical About Cynicism
A good policy: Always be wary of things that confirm rather than challenge your ideas. Another one: When things challenge your ideas, don’t try to turn them into things that confirm them. The #Ocuppy movement is about a month deep. It has confirmed some of my ideas and challenged others. But, the most important effect …
Oct
28
Livestream Ends
An article about what happened in Oakland. Well worth the read. To sum up: the only two mainstream media live-feeds switched off at precisely the same instant—the minute before fifteen police departments working together engulfed a peaceful group of protesters in tear gas. That crucial minute, when the media (whether by accident or in compliance …
Oct
27
Livestream from Occupy SF
Free desktop streaming application by Ustream
Oct
03
Facebook Censoring Occupy DC
If you attempt to post a link to Occupy DC on Facebook, it tells you something went wrong. But it will allow you to post link to hate sites like Stormfront. I tested this and had the same result. It’s worth having a look at for yourself. If you get the same result, I recommend …
Oct
02
Away Mission to the Suburbs
I never turn down an opportunity to travel to the suburbs. While quite a few of my urban cohorts view the regions outside Toronto with disdain, I see them as exotic foreign climes. Perhaps because, unlike a lot of people in Toronto, I’ve never been native to one. I grew up in a village and moved to …
Sep
22
Execution
I’ve posted this before –back in March 2009 — but it bears repeating tonight. “Hanging rituals and other elaborate methods of execution arose alongside the modern state. In medieval Europe justice had been carried out on a private basis: When a person was murdered, his family members sought vengeance upon the killer. That practise held …
Sep
11
10 Years After 9/11
Ten years after the event, it’s impossible to remember how we felt, what we thought and, probably, who we were when those planes hit. I know I’d returned from a camp trip the day before and had quit smoking. When I saw those planes hit the towers, when I heard about the others in the …
Sep
01
Aug
11
Frankencapital Runs Amok in London
VIA towerhamletsalarm And, first off, because this is more important than anything I have to say on the matter . . . Community pulls together, your help asked Tottenham Green Leisure Centre has become a community drop in centre for people who lost everything they have during Saturday night’s riots. Volunteers are donating clothes and …
Jun
24
Popbot Sells Candy
After much debate, it’s recently been revealed that Japanese pop star, Aimi Eguchi, is a digital composite. That is, she’s not human, has never been human and she isn’t even a she but an it. Or, perhaps, some strange combination of the two. Like Dr. Frankenstein plundering graves for spare parts, music producer Yasushi Akimoto, plundered …
Jun
18
My Friend’s Story (Guest Post)
I don’t often allow guest posts here but I was sent this from Bahrain and am satisfied to its truth. For more stories from the ground, I recommend checking out Alive in Bahrain. For a quick primer on the causes of the uprising, this satellite map is a good guide to some of the underlying issues. The …
Jun
16
A Riot Is . . .
A riot is a collective orgasm. It is a sudden and violent release of manufactured tension. For the CBC to get so damn sanctimonious about the riot, after they’ve hyped hockey for my entire life, is like complaining when the person you’re fucking comes.
May
21
Dressing For The Rapture
It’s almost The Rapture. You’ve formed a plan for your atheist pets, deleted your porn stash and got right with Jesus.Either that or you’re shooting heroin with a prostitute while being double penetrated by a goat and Anton LeVey. But whatever you’re doing, there’s only one thing left to figure out. Just what do you wear to The Rapture? …
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
