BLOGGING:

MATTERS BLOGISH:

A couple of announcements in this category tonight. First of all, Larry Gambone of the Porkupine Blog continues his 'Self Management in Cuba' with part 3. Here he contrasts the vision of self-management now being debated in Cuba with his own ideas and the history and theory of mutualism as it has developed outside of the Communist dictatorships. Very worthwhile, and not just for the subject of Cuba. A rejoinder to those who might claim that mutualism is "self-managed capitalism". Also a couple of handy references. Pay the Porkupine a visit and see for yourself.

Also....just when the ruling class thought it was safe to go back on the internet. Heeee's back ! The ever irrepressible Eugene Plawiuk seems to be back in good form, after a brief hiatus, at his mega-blog La Revue Gauche. With swipes at 'Obama Embraces Neo-Con Agenda', 'Harper Does Right Wing Talk Shows' and a deja-vu look at this years Oscars, '1930s Oscars' and more Plawiuk proves himself once more a master of the blogging boxing ring. Have a look over there as well.

BLOGGING:

MOLLY MAKES IT TO ROUND TWO:

I followed a link today to somebody who visited this blog and found out something astounding. Molly's Blog has made it to round two in the voting for the Canadian Blog Awards "best political blog". To be honest I never thought I would get there, but I guess that some people like what I do. The other contestants in round 2 include the Calgary Grit (affiliation obvious), the Small Dead Animals (conservative), and two others that I cannot determine any affiliation for: Nunc Scio and Bond Papers. The latter is from a public relations and public policy guy in Newfoundland and Nunc Scio is quite non-partisan. If I wasn't in the running I'd vote for Nunc Scio. As to those who weren't nominated but should have been my vote would have been for Eugene Plawiuk's La Revue Gauche blog, an effort that I actually consider better than my own. Oh horrors- voting against myself !

In any case round two is nhow on, and you can vote once a week. Help a poor little meowing pussycat out and vote for me at the Canadian Blog Awards.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

THRONE SPEECH INSPIRES LITTLE CONFIDENCE:

Yesterday's Speech From the Throne, outlining the soc-called plan of the Harper government to deal with the present economic crisis inspired little confidence amongst anyone. The market today did a large nose dive, dropping over 700 points at last look in Toronto. Others outside of the business community are even less inspired. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), have a very disparaging view of what was proposed. See below for their article. Over at Eugene Plawiuk's La Revue Gauche blog there are two new excellent articles on the Conservatives new plans 'Con Game' and 'The Blue Throne Speech'. Check it out for some very interesting comment about how the Harperites are trying a version of homeopathic medicine ie like cures and like and more of the policies that produced the present mess may "cure" it.

Molly has to say that every time she hears about a "speech from the throne" she is amazed at how the Queen's rep can get through such a thing with a straight face. It's some bizarre trick, to read a lengthy document while pretending all the while that it is one's own thoughts. Knowing full well that you had no hand in preparing it at all, let alone agreeing or disagreeing with its contents. I find the body language in the above photo revealing. Is the GG really leaning as far as possible away from Sneaky Stevie to express her unconscious distance from his ideas that she has to parrot ? Or does Sneaky Stevie have to change his brand of deodorant ?

...................................

Throne speech fails to impress:
A time of economic crisis calls for clear government leadership and a concrete statement on the economy. What Canadians got today is a federal government that appears disinterested in governing at all.

The throne speech shows that the current government has learned almost nothing about what caused the economic crisis we are in, nor have they offered credible solutions to get out of it.

Instead, the speech trotted out the same failed policies that got us into this economic mess: more privatization, deregulation, cuts to public programs, free trade agreements, wage constraints, and neutering of the role of the government through a “Charter of Open Federalism”. And in these turbulent economic times, the government advocates greater investment of public funds in risky public-private partnerships.

There is nothing in this throne speech to protect workers. The economic crisis will produce higher unemployment, yet the EI system has been neglected to the point that only one in four workers qualify for what are now poverty-level benefits. Nor does the speech do anything to protect workers’ pensions that have been decimated by the financial crisis.

The throne speech actually takes more away from workers than it gives. Most egregious is the government’s intention to overturn free collective bargaining by legislating wages of federal public servants. This attack on wages could filter down through the economy and mean cuts and freezes on wages for many other workers.

As the corporate tax cuts continue, workers across Canada will pay the price for the Harper government’s misguided economic policies and fiscal mismanagement. Deep cuts to spending and public sector wages will only worsen and prolong the downturn.

What Canadians needed from this throne speech was strong economic leadership in a bold three part economic plan: Relief (expansion of EI, protection of pensions); Re-investment (economic recovery plan with an ambitious infrastructure program); Re-regulation of the financial industry. The throne speech strikes out on all three.

BLOGGING:

WELCOME BACK EUGENE !:

The bloggers' blogger, Eugene Plawiuk of La Revue Gauche, is back on line after a month of vacation from blogging. For over four years Plawiuk has amused, educated and inspired the blogosphere with his prodigious output. La Revue Gauche is one of the most popular blogging sites around, and Eugene is back at it now. So look out ruling class and state La Revue Gauche rides again. be sure to check it out. His latest includes items of Mayday, Walpurgis Night and the death of Abraham Hoffer. Much more to follow for sure.

PHOTOS AND OTHER LIES:

Eugene Plawiuk of La Revue Gauche (yes he informs me that he has made his blog's name to be grammatically correct due to popular demand) met with Molly over the last weekend. See his blog for a very humourous picture of Molly. Yep, I still have hair these many years after. For those who want to learn about the history of Molly see the photgraph at the left. This is apparently me circa 1970,as per a photo that an old friend recently sent me. The stuff in my left hand is a bundle of the local radical newspaper-'Prairie Fire'- not a bundle of dynamite. Street selling the paper eventually became a learning experience for me, and not just because the local Jehovah's Witness peddler and I used to break for coffee and mutually enlighten each other. It turned out that I was responsible for somewhere between 10% and 15% of the paper's sales. The great and glorious lefties who were pretending to have the solution of the world's problems in their hands- but who were actually preparing themseves for government jobs- wouldn't dirty their "vanguard hands" by actually meeting people on the street except on rare occasions. The whole matter made a lot more sense to me a few years later when I became an anarchist and learned about how the leftists were merely frustrated managers without talent. I hold these opinions to this day. On the other hand the effort was fun for the sort of social butterfly that Molly is. Ain`t nothing like meeting the people that the leftists like to bullshit about.

To get away from polemics...ain`t the guy in the photo above the cutest thing you ever saw ? I still preserve a residue of that cuteness. Goddamn cute if I do say so myself, and I most certainly do.

THE BEST OF THE BLOGS: SATURDAY, APRIL 14TH 2007:

This is this weeks selection on Molly's "best of the blogs" feature. As I have already mentioned Shagya's Blog and Eugene Plawiuk's Le Revue Gauche blogs have been following the pet food recall scandal as I have, though with more attention to the corporate connections. These sites have also been following other matters. A particularly interesting comment is Plawiuk's piece on writer Kurt Vonnegut published in commemoration of his death last Thursday, April 12th. Vonnegut was one of the greatest anti-war writers and a cult figure to many. Also Plawiuk has something to say about 'The Pauline Origins of Social Conservatism' . Shagya also has something to say about conspiracy theory in 'They're Coming to Take Me away...Ha, Ha' and about surveillance cameras in the growing totalitarian state in Britain.

The Porkupine Blog weights In with 'Anarchist Advances in Uruguay and Brazil', a survey of the growth of anarchism in part of SA's southern cone. The Mutualist Blog of Kevin Carson has an article about the statism of copyright law in 'Scott Adams' Cognitive Dissonance', and 'After All' has a theoretical article defending anarcho-capitalism entitled 'The Anti-Authoritarian Anarcho-Capitalist'.not that Molly agrees with it. Then the Amor y Resistencia site has a notice that Oscar Santa Maria Caro has been released by the Mexican government. There's also an article called 'Queensland Sucks' by the New Zealand blogger at Anarchia. these people also publish the zine 'Anarchia Zine'. Finally from the Anarcho Cyclist in BC comes an amusing phone conversation with an outsourced company. Good reason to have a second language or 5.

More on the blogs later,

Molly

POISONED PET FOOD: NEW NEWS AND RESOURCES:

To date the Pet Connection site has registered 4,133 suspicious deaths on the reporting site in their website. Look to this website for a developing debate on the 'Country of Origin' labelling requirement that has been proposed. For what it is worth Molly believes in a more stringent idea ie a "locally produced" label that would refer to either the classic idea of the '100 mile Diet' or a more expansive idea that all ingredients should be produced within a state or province. This would go more than a few steps forward to an ideal situation, where any problems that develop would be localized rather than continent wide. A "made in USA(or Canada)" label is worthless. Components of the food may come from all across the globe. As an anarchist Molly believes that this sort of thing should be the product of action from local groups such as Humane Societies, Farmers' Unions, etc., and that the labelling should be voluntary. The "wake-up call" from this latest scandal should be enough to shift consumer behavior to purchasing pet food that can't be damaging other than possible problems that can be corrected locally much more simply than the process of tracing components from foreign countries has proven to be. The whole 'Eat Locally' movement has become more prominent in recent years(prominent enough to be featured in Time magazine) and Molly has reported it before on this blog. Molly thinks that this would be an opportunity to both expand local self reliance, a cornerstone of a sensible anarchism, and provide an opportunity for the creation of local business and jobs that has been drained from the community by the multinationals. think about it.

Blogs in the political sector that Molly belongs to such as Shagya's Blog and Le Revue Gauche have also paid attention to this issue recently, especially concerning the corporate and state connections surrounding this event. On the (far!) conservative side of the American political spectrum Daniel Sargis has published a post on the Etherzone website (a conservative blog aggregator) that more than slightly questions the abilities and priorities of the US government.

Anyways, to keep up to date regularly on the pet food recall go to the Pet Connection website mentioned above. The Wikipedia website now has an entry about this recall by John Wambaugh. Here's a few more references that people might want to look at (in no particular order):

1) A statement from Dr. Elizabeth Hodkins, an America veterinarian, who testified before the recent Senate hearings on this matter. The reference includes some of her other writings on the subject of pet food.

2)More statements on the affair and pet foods by Dr. Jean Hofve.

3)An extensive report (49 pages) called 'Deconstructing the Regulatory Facade' by lawyer Justine S. Patrick of the Harvard Law School. Molly hopes to report more fully on this document in the future.

4) Dr. Michael W. Fox who has written many books for pet owners has weighed in on this matter. Not that Molly endorses all of his opinions, but I urge people to check his website for some rational recipes for home made diets for pets.

5)Finally there is the website of Robert J. Russell that is coming out with new insights on this matter.

Molly

THE BEST OF THE BLOGS: A MOLLYMEW WEEKLY SURVEY:

Molly has looked over a number of her links this week for significant articles, and she has chosen the following for highlighting. This doesn't imply that Molly agrees with the opinions expressed, just that the entries are interesting.

1) From Le Revue Gauche comes 'Passover Song', a pagan analysis and diatribe about both the Song of Songs in the Bible and various other historical connections. Eugene's contribution to Easter. Also at that site is a more "orthodox" leftist offering on '"Criminal Capitalist Gets Honourary Degree', well worth reading for the concept of "honour" current in our society.

2) From the Porcupine Blog comes a translation of 'Proudhon's Ghost Stalks Venezuela' from an anarcho-communist group in Venezuela that is more (but not entirely- Molly) sympathetic to the government in that country than the majority of anarchist there are. An interesting comment showing the diversity olf anarchist opinion within a "revolutionary" process, though Molly disagrees with it.

3)From Shagyas Blog comes 'What Happened to Dunkirk', a lament on how the British have surrendered their freedom to a new "surveillance society".

4) From Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog comes 'Economic Calculation in the Corporate Commonwealth', a "market anarchist" analysis of how communist societies continued to exist despite the lack of proper economic information.

5)From the local scene Ecology and Participatory Democracy has an article on "collapsing bee colonies", something that has become an item of interest for various people interested in agriculture in the last few months. Also the Vindicated Anarchist has an article entitled ' Blocked Up Like a Festering Boil' on internet censorship (MOLLY NOTE: GO TO INFOSHOP FOR THE ULTIMATE OUTSIDE OF CHINA) . Hopefully the author will eventually see how similar (and undesirable) Maoism is to the "fashion anarchism" that aims to build a little religious cult.

6)Finally, from Social Design Notes comes the 'Food Bill' that lays out the connection between food prices and sustainability. If the authors imagine that they have escaped "economics" they are deluded, but their critique is well worth reading.

Molly

The Best of the Blogs:
Eugene Plawiuk (see the 'Blogs' section of the links on the bottom of this page, especially 'Le Revue Gauche' at http://plawiuk.blogspot.com ) has reposted a couple of his recent essays to the 'Anarkismo' list (see the 'Links' section and http://www.anarkismo.net ) under the heading of 'Other Libertarian Press'.
One of the essays, 'Libertarian Justice' is a defense of the jury system insofar as it actually allows the people to determine legal matters instead of the legal apparatus of the state. Plawiuk notes the following advantages of the jury systems over other methods of trial-
*a jury's power is limited as a jury does not establish precedent because each case is different
*the requirement that all verdicts be unanimous protects minorities from the abuse of majorities
*a jury does not need to be subservient to the legal community or to other minions of the state
*a jury has no vested interests to protect
*a jury views justice from a layman's perspective.

The other essay 'The Era of the Common Man' is an historical tract on the Jacksonian democrats who formed the 'Working Men's Parties' in the USA during the 1830s. Plawiuk shows how these people were the forerunners of American individualist anarchism as well as many other aspects of 19th century American radicalism.

Check out Le Revue Gauche for these and many other (a huge number actually) essays on all topics radical.