WIP

Feminists divide on all sorts of issues, none more than what is intrinsic in male and female gender. Some early feminist writers over 100 years ago, were enthused by the writings of the first generation of anthropologists, who were studying 'wild' hunter/gatherers around the world and 'primitive' horticultural' agrarian societies. With a few exceptions, simple hunter/gatherer bands tended to be strongly egalitarian, while more complex agrarian societies were deemed "matriarchal" by those early anthropologists because their family life was structured around mothers and grandmothers, and not fathers. Part of the reason was that since there is no clear evidence of any clear understanding of paternity before 5000 years ago, men in a family group would not understand paternity and in the modern hunter/gatherer tribes being discovered at the time, still did not understand that one man and one man only fathers each child. That realization seems to have played a big part in leading towards patriarchal systems of "civilization." But, I recall several decades ago, when Gloria Steinem was writing on these subjects, that she was attacked by some other feminists...especially those who subscribed to strict behaviourist theories of psychology that male and female behaviour is completely malleable, and rejected any theories from whatever sources that there was a fundamental human nature that included differences in gender.

So, you're saying Neil Young is inconsistent in his thinking and says a lot of stupid things in his songwriting? I guess there's not enough musicians who study philosophy or political science.

You need to discover the work of Charles Dickens!

No doubt thanks to Harper's experience as strategist for the NCC he is 'brilliant' at misdirection. Most of the rewards would get picked off by the already prosperous and little would fall through for those who need any "rewards." Back to slut-shaming! The open insinuation is invariably these are women who can't keep their legs closed, enjoy sex too much, and won't look after their kids. Rather than depending on "big government" to dispense rewards and penalties".....and I thought conservatives were against intrusive government.....I guess it depends on who the government is intruding on....anyway, the best idea of how to deal with poverty issues is the same one first offered up over 40 years ago: a guaranteed annual income. Sure, the rightwingers are going to spin it as a reward for 'free riders,' but in the few nations that have a guaranteed income, they find very few who just take the money and sit back and do nothing! Most continue working and without the stress and burden of worry about losing the ability to earn an income, there are more people who choose self-employment or start their own businesses when a minimum income system is established. Likely because...just like many blue collar workers wait till retirement to start their dream of having their own business...having that guaranteed income takes away a lot of the risk of failure from making the attempt.

Really! Germany in fact, has a larger and more expansive social safety net than Greece has ever had. In fact, my eldest son decided to go to Germany to finish his education not only to learn German, but more importantly because German university education is free for their citizens and much cheaper for foreign students than the comparable education here in Canada!

They also need their own central bank! I noticed over the weeks, from following the Greek financial crisis occasionally that a lot of Tsipras&Varoufakis critics did not believe that they were serious about refusing the Troika's final offers....mostly because they had not taken any steps towards creating their own currency system. No doubt that any steps along the way would have been noticed by the Greek oligarchs and their foreign friends, who would taken all of what remains of their cash in Greek banks with them to Switzerland or wherever! But, if they intended to reject the continued death spiral of austerity demanded by the EU, they should have realized that it's not really about the money...which is mostly created out of thin air every time the bankers write up new loans. Instead it is becoming clear that Europe itself is faking their way through solvency and is actually bankrupt. Up till now the game of loading up usually third world dictatorial governments with IMF loans that they can't possibly repay has mostly been played out with third world nations , is to drive them into insolvency and demand hard assets from the country to pay for fake virtual assets. All that's new here is that Europe is cannibalizing itself to maintain the values of its banking institutions. Once the IMF, Euro Central Bank and the European Commission were done picking over the bones of Greece, it would be on to the next victim: Spain, Italy, Ireland, England, France....if allowed to continue nonstop, there would be a handful of oligarchs owning all of the real assets in Europe, while most of the populations would be left destitute. Looks like Greece has fired the first shot against the Euro-establishment and the whole thing is likely to fall apart in a few years. It'll be interesting to see what's left. And just as interesting to see what happens when it's realized that all of the fake billions of dollars worth of money have grown to large for the entire global economies to absorb. This has been a system that was destined for failure at least 100 years ago, because as money became detached from real assets and was allowed to grow exponentially, the time when real economies could not extract, manufacture and consume enough to absorb all of the new money would eventually arrive. What to do now? Buy gold (real gold and have it in your possession if possible) or silver or learn how to trade and barter with your neighbours really quickly, because the time when money has no discernible value left is approaching on the horizon. In the meantime, most of the clear-thinking financial advisers I've read on the issue of late, make the point that you should take out as much cash as possible, because all of your bank accounts and assets could be held in some sort of "bail-in" scheme" like the EU already made a test run on in Cyprus.

RATM...you're more radical than I realized! As far as I'm aware, Rage was too political for MSM distribution. Tom Morello (someone look up the proper spelling) is very innovative guitarist. I wasn't paying attention when the hybrid of metal rap was becoming a big thing in the 90's, and I've heard more of their work lately than I did back when they were active. Sinead O'Connor....that's pretty radical too! I never heard that song before, and I think I appreciate her more traditional work and ballads better than Sinead the rocker. She's always been difficult to deal with...as one interview of Roger Waters revealed in an anniversary of that gigantic 1990 Berlin Wall Concert. Basically, he said that of all the artists he invited and gathered together for that concert, she was the only problem they had besides the technical sound and lighting issues. Nevertheless, even her haters had to agree that her lead performance of "Mother" backed by Roger and members of The Band was at least a top five highlight of the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpcvzL2m4nY I like some of Sarah McGlachlan's work, though she's more one of my wife's favourites than mine. Never heard of Susan Tedeschi before, but I like what I heard and will have to look into it more thanks.

If you're referring to Gill Scott Heron, the beat poet who's largely credited with creating the rap genre that exists today, the main reason I posted his most famous recording (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised) was because of content/ not because I listen to the early rap music from 50 years ago. Heron is warning his audience not be distracted and lulled to sleep by TV and pop culture during the pre-internet era, which he regarded as superfluous and ultimately pointless. And, what's striking to me, listening to it closely, is how all of those celebrities, commercials, politicians etc. that were considered so important by television at the time, have disappeared almost without a trace, so that anyone today under 40 or 50 has no idea what he's talking about! I guess that was point made. At some time during the early 80's, when rap went mainstream, rap music that was able to make the crossover and cash in dropped all of its social commentary that was the main focus of those original beat poets, and became just bragging about personal crap. Even thug rap which was condemned by such establishment figures as Pres Clinton, was just a coarser, more belligerent version of the sanitized rap turned into videos and given mainstream airplay. Instead of rapping about problems people were experiencing in depressed, de-industrialized ghettos in major cities, it was 'look at my house, look at my diamonds, look at my fancy cars'

I try not to! Well, as I recall back when all of this sampling crap got started, the only reason why it wasn't classed as copyright infringement was a loophole in the law allowed by new technology of the time. Before programmable keyboards came along, a sample would have been an audio recording of the original. But running it through digital processing somehow makes it something new and different.

Maybe I just hate him for the stupid things he says, or the stupid things his wife says....I don't know! Or that he believes all the stupid hype surrounding him. Once he stops being a marketable celebrity, he'll get tossed into the dustbin of pop history like so many other has-been's! That is after the pop media vulture culture that profits from destroying celebrities decides that nobody cares anymore.

And there are more serious problems than Israel's issues, the non-stop US presidential campaign idiocy, the fate of Greece etc., yet they still deserve attention. In the Omar Khadr case, it looks clear that present and past Canadian governments have been seeking some level of revenge on Omar for the things his mother and sisters have said. What kind of system of justice is that? One that may already be as dodgy and unreliable as US Justice!

The biggest problem with coming to terms with environmental issues as far back as 40 years ago, has been the realization that the environment is a global commons...we all live within the same biosphere regardless of distance or national borders! So, the groups who started advocating stronger international environmental regulations immediately got the attention of everyone who seen international controls as a threat to their economic and political goals. So, Planet Earth has already started a major extinction cycle that threatens to take out our species as well, and the epitaph for anyone left to read it would be something like: too little was done, too late!

Okay folks, as of this instant, No leads by more than 60% to 38% with almost 60% of ballots counted. http://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en#{%22cls%22:%22main%22,%22params%22:{}} All that's left is for the fat lady to warm up and start singing! I don't know whether Syriza will have the balls to reject austerity and deal with Grexit, but a conclusive No vote gives them the leverage they need to do it. So much for western and Greek oligarch-controlled media that were predicting a yes vote and trying to discourage and drive down voting numbers in Greece.

If examined by his economic policies rather than speechifying, Obama has been a disaster for most African Americans....except for his wealthy friends of course! Quick example: bailing out overleveraged Wall Street banks rather than forcing renegotiating misleading and outright fraudulent mortgages has damaged more blacks and whites in America.

I've gone back to my interest in paleo-anthropology recently, and once we wade through the social darwinist crap and blather from the likes of Stephen Pinker and others who curry favour of corporate sponsors, the consensus story in anthropology still tracks along the same lines as what I read 40 years ago...that our hunting and foraging ancestors were highly socially conscious (we're the only primates that share food), were generally peaceful even with dealing with other groups, did not develop hierarchies...even male hierarchies. And since most of our history as a species has developed during our ancestors' experience of hunting/gathering family bands, this would determine what is normal for us on a psychological basis/ not the majority of societies we have developed since civilization began...and certainly not the trends towards radical individualism and self absorption we have had since the TV - internet age began. So, it seems most of what we have today is a sick society, and the levels of physical and mental illness would indicate that most of us are not coping very well with life in our brave new world, and a lot of the reason would be that we've got a lot of cranks who have decided what's bad is really good and we need more of it!

Well, you missed the point I am trying to make that the welfare of our children....all children, not just the ones we have produced ourselves....will have positive or negative impacts on the welfare of the whole society. If poverty increases...more children are raised in poverty....grow up in stressed out dysfunctional families without a proper diet, education, parental and social nurturing etc. etc.. Many of them will fall through the cracks, cost the system because they are prone to addiction, are more likely be chronically depressed or have other psychological issues that make them virtually unemployable....so by allowing social darwinism to take its course, we inevitably end up with greater financial and social burdens in the long run....not to mention the greater likelihood that many of the young men who are 'products of a broken home' will turn to crime as a career goal. So, in the real world even Scrooge ends up paying for society's failings, because if Scrooge goes out without his bodyguard, he'll get cracked over the head or carjacked!

The first problem any unemployed or former on air personality will tell you is that most of the local radio stations are computerized...there's nobody at the station spinning records or even setting up playlists like in the old days. Now a radio conglomerate like Clear Channel in the US sets their stations with 'robot' DJ's that have a list of canned responses and announcements to make the listener think there is actually someone behind the controls at their local radio station. Same trend goes here in Canada - a few major corporations own all of the stations and program from a national commercial perspective. Getting back to Rush, in their bio documentary from a few years back, it's mentioned how one female deejay working at a rock station in Cleveland notices "Working Man" in the pile of vinyl on the counter and puts it on and takes a liking to it...plays it a few more times....listeners call in and request it again and want to know where they can buy a copy (they didn't have a US record label at the time)...and eventually through sheer fate, Rush develops a loyal fan following that will keep them going for years...literally! So, in the new era of corporate-controlled, programmed music, this nice little success story of struggling musicians doesn't happen today...or certainly doesn't happen that way. I've noticed since listening more to public radio...particularly on podcast of shows like NPR's All Songs Considered, that there is always lots of interesting new music out there....that almost never will see the light of day now, but young aspiring musicians keep doing what they like to do and try to find a way to make their little hobby pay for itself. Fewer and fewer are finding ways to actually earn a living from the music they write, play and produce unfortunately.

I already gave my opinion: not really! It should have been left in the can, since they already had a pretty good album released a few years earlier. Rush was never big on releasing singles before Moving Pictures....that's when my wife agreed to listen along when I'd put it on. Since we're 6 years apart in age, at that time when music was changing fast and video was coming in, it was like being a generation apart, even besides the gender differences in tastes. Maybe someone here knows if "Far Cry" was released as a single. It was used as the theme song for a video game, so it got some airplay by being featured in the commercials.

Maybe there's not enough Kanye fans here....including me. I see Kanye and I pass without giving it a listen. Music is a matter of personal tastes, and I don't consider ripping off other people's songs and adding a few rhymes to be music or show any sort of talent! I have more respect for the original rappers who created the genre and wrote rhymes about stuff that mattered, not how big their houses are....their bling.....their cars.....their ho's.....how big their dicks are etc.! For example:

Better to withdraw from the World Bank, IMF, and the WTO - the real world government!

All beside the point. Looking at the aftermath, I think the worst offender in the whole story was Jean Chretien! Because he was the Prime Minister at the time (not Stephen Harper) and was briefed that the U.S. had a minor in custody, accused of throwing a grenade during the roundup and interrogation of suspected Taleban members after a battle with Northern Alliance forces. It was his responsibility to ensure that the US followed proper international protocols if they were going to charge a minor who was a Canadian citizen of murder, and that would obviously include any confessions given as a result of use of torture would be invalid. The delays in going to trial, and the resulting kangaroo court trial in Guantanamo could have all been protested by the Canadian Government...which was aware of what was going on, but they remained silent, and Chretien no doubt calculated the eventual fate of Omar Khadr would be one more problem he could furlough on to a future Prime Minister....sort of similar to how he signed the Kyoto Protocols without any semblance of a plan to develop policies to carry it out! No doubt the Khadr family was a PR problem....jihad warrior father who takes his sons off to wage holy war with him in Afghanistan, and supportive family members like his mother, left behind in Canada. But if he had the courage of principle, rather than Machiavellian political calculation he would have acted on those principles early on.....then again, without the cut n thrust, he never would have been Prime Minister in the first place! So, all we can be thankful for is that this one example of failure of law and moral principles is over I guess.

I see all of the downtrodden, oppressed men are still at it!

Not every American liberal...and certainly no real leftists either, because like Obama, Billie was a centrist sellout to the benefactors who've made him and Hillary rich (100 million since leaving office). Clinton carried out a few liberal social policies (just like Obama), but most of his agenda...the money issues...picked right up where Reagan and Bush 1 left off.

And, I haven't looked at what the numbers are here in Ontario, but I'll assume it's similar and totally moot! Because if you don't accept that a civil society carries shared burdens, and one of the big ones is providing the best possible outcomes for our children...ALL of our children, then we have no common ground to discuss it further. I don't have kids in school anymore, but I still pay for public schools, and I hope we continue to have a decent public school system rather than the defunded mess that the U.S. has made of their education system. Because education is also part of ensuring that the next generation has a good start in life. These are things that should be everyone's responcibility/ NOT just those who are raising children. Because when you retire, you're going to be depending on those children to fund your CPP and subsidize your nursing home if you make it to an advanced age where you are no longer able to look after yourself! In the end, it boils down to what kind of world we want to live in. Personally, I don't want to live in Ayn Rand Universe! Our detour into the world of "selfish egoism" has gone on long enough, and it's time to reverse course before we join all those other species of animals heading for extinction right now.

He was a 15 year old forced to fight in a war zone by his father....does that matter? According to international law he would be designated a child soldier, and U.S. jargon about "illegal combatants" would also not apply. But then again, neither Canada nor the U.S. seems to recognize international law these days.