This is a cute video put together for The Tyee, an independent online zine with a focus on western Canadian news. 

They are currently looking to expose themselves to new people, so take a minute to check out what they are saying.

http://joinus.thetyee.ca/

One of the few times I really wish I was living in Toronto is when I read about IdeaCity.  This annual event brings together such an interesting, engaging mix of Artists, Politicians, Architects, Entrepreneurs, Nobel Laureates, Professors, experts in their fields and they come together for a three day event to talk about the world of ideas. The potential for a meeting like this is huge.

This is such a great idea it really makes me jealous for people living in Toronto.  The best speakers on a myriad of subjects.  Hopefully this idea will make it to Vancouver one day.

From the website:

“ideaCity, also known as ‘Canada’s Premiere
Meeting of the Minds’, is an eclectic gathering of artists,
adventurers, authors, cosmologists, doctors, designers, entertainers,
filmmakers, inventors, magicians, musicians, scientists and
technologists. Fifty of the planet’s brightest minds converge on
Toronto each June to speak to a highly engaged audience. Only 497 are
privileged to attend.

Produced and presented by Moses Znaimer, ideaCity
is not themed around any one topic, issue or business. There are no
scripted speeches or, breakout or parallel sessions. Rather, everyone
is in one place and in on the same narrative. With extra-long schmooze
breaks between sessions, and legendary parties each night, attendees
have an unprecedented opportunity to mingle with such notable speakers
as Conrad Black, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Ignatieff, Douglas Coupland,
Pamela Wallin, Pete Seeger, Robert Kennedy Jr., John Ralston Saul,
Daniel Libeskind, Clayton Ruby, Romeo Dallaire and the late Peter
Jennings.”

Here, Bullet

“I hope….that mankind will at length, as they call themselves responsible creatures, have the reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats…” – Benjamin Franklin

“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.” – Marie Beyle

“I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.” – Mary Roberts Rinehart

“The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault.” – Major Ralph Peters, US Military

“Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.” – Noam Chomsky

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.” – Thomas Paine

“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” – Albert Camus

“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

UPDATE

Apparently the Green party has decided to distance themselves from Kevin and have dropped him as a candidate.

Its a real shame the Green party has done this, I know Kevins story has really ticked off a lot of people, had it only been written a little differently none of this would have happened but he has a right to publish his article, remember his frustration comes from the fact that the western world all but ignores atrocities around the world.

The timing of this smear campaign is very suspect, as you may be aware just last week the Liberals and Greens agreed to a “non-aggression deal” which means the Liberals will not run a candidate in Green Party Leader, Elizabeth Mays, riding (Nova Scotia Central).  This deal has the potential to bring the Green party onto the real political stage in Canada and it brings the Liberals a lot of credibility on the environment, something they need with the conservatives launching several smear campaigns against the Liberals.

I want to point out that the Conservatives are the absolute worst regarding their plans for the environment, Conservative members in the past have said they do not believe in global warming.

http://www.emersoncampaign.ca

The riding that Kevin Potvin was planning on running in is currently held by the universally despised David Emerson, see the link above for the Emerson story. 

David Emerson is a conservative and had Kevin run in the riding he had a very good chance of winning. With the new deal between Greens and Liberals, the fact that this five year old article is now being pulled out and manipulated this all really smells of slimy conservative political tactics.

Kevin answers several of the questions I posed to him in an article he wrote in response to his losing the Green candidacy. I still look forward to hearing from him later next week.

Article about Kevin losing his candidacy from Public Eye -  http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/002343.html

Kevins response to the recent craziness surrounding his earlier article – http://republic-news.org/archive/161-repub/161_response.htm

ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY – ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY – ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY

Stay Tuned …

September 11^th 2001 has come to symbolize many things to many people and nothing in modern memory can stir the same range of emotions in people.  To some 9/11 was seen as Gods divine will, to some it was seen as an unwarranted attack and for some it was seen as the cost for sins of an empire.

A week after the attack I was in a local coffee shop. I found myself in a conversation with a group of people about the events of 9/11.  Feeling comfortable with the group I decided to ask them “What do you think was the reason for the attacks exactly?â€?, instantly I was given less than approving looks from around the table, we were quiet for a second and someone asked “You don’t think they deserved this do you?â€? I was on the defensive for the rest of our short discussion.

This week, coinciding with the new Liberal and Green party partnership, one of the Green parties’ potential Vancouver candidates, Kevin Potvin, has been dragged into the media, selectively quoted and painted as an evil Canadian who advocates the 9/11 attacks. I don’t believe this is true.

Tonight I sent off an email to Kevin with several questions.

Question 1:
How would you describe yourself politically for people that aren’t familiar with you?

Question 2:
Your article was written in 2002, why has it taken this length of time to come to light? Do we know who brought this story to the media?

Question 3:
In your article you admit that your confession is “revolting” and you explain that your frustration comes from the fact that the west ignores atrocities that regularly happen around the world. Does the fact that this point is ignored by the media further your disappointment in people and will you censor yourself in the future?

Question 4:
With the recent partnership between the Greens and the Liberal party do you see this as part of a bigger political push to smear the Green and Liberal parties?

Question 5:
We understand you stand by your article but is there anything you want Canadians or Americans to know after reading your article and the exposure it has recently received?

Kevin responded back with:

Hi “The Lazy Populist�.

I’ll answer the questions as best I can, just not at the moment, maybe a couple of days. IN addition to the obvious stress of what happened today, and tomorrow, too, I am also taking a step up and back to try to analyse and understand the whole event, because it is an interesting study in what happens when someone speaks their truth in such a society as ours–supposedly free. AS Chomsky takes such pains to describe, sometimes the fetters in a nominally free society, being more subtle and hidden than the obvious chains of tyranny, are all the more tight around our throats.

STay in touch, and also, prompt me again in a bit of time, I am inundated, I want to correspond, but I will surely forget unless reminded!

Kevin

I will be contacting Kevin again later next week and I look forward to bringing you his side of the story.

Kevin Potvin: “A Revolting Confession”

Canada.com Article

Kevin Potvin lives in Vancouver and runs the magazine “The Republic of East Vancouver”, a publication summed up on their website.

http://republic-news.org

The Republic of East Vancouver supports no party, advocates for no cause, represents no group, serves no master, and considers problems with no preconceived notions. We hope to afflict the comfortable, both materially and intellectually, and comfort the afflicted—of both kinds as well, and we are trying to do both things at the same time.

Stay Tuned …

A week ago or so I watched an interview with Donald Trump that actually made me have the slightest shred of respect for the man, he called the Bush administration on everything I am constantly fucking outraged over and for once I couldnt say he said a single thing wrong. (See video below).

Today I just read some snippets from Lee Iacoccas new book “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” and I have to say the traditional conservatives are jumping from the sinking ship like rats, they see america sinking into the depths and there is a large small c, none neo-con, group out there that is fed up with the bullshit lies of the neo-cons, my friends I really really hope this is the end of the neo-con movement, the total destruction of neo-conservative ideologies would make the world better for all of us, lets work towards that goal, its honourable.

Apparently Lee knows the score and knows what needs to be done, check out these paragraphs.

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

He goes on to further say …

someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you? I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.

Reality has made Lee Iaccoca an activist and I for one welcome him with open arms!

Donald Trump Interview Video:

Kurt Vonnegut is dead at 84.

Vonnegut wrote 14 novels. He had fallen several weeks ago and received brain injuries.

I feel like I should say more but why dont I just recommend checking out one of his books at your local library.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/LOCAL/704110581/-1/LOCAL17

http://amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-9181831-3056815?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kurt+vonnegut&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism is a small chapbook compendium of
statistics and short essays put together by Vancouver musician and
artist David Lester, that could just as easily have been called Some
Gruesome Facts of Capitalism. Taken as a whole (admittedly a small,
112-page whole), Lester’s book (recently reissued) is an extreme
example of the current trend to reduce ideas into disconnected, random
factoids that are easy to consume but lead to more noise than
understanding — becoming, instead, a barrage of unrelated, atomized
and decontextualized snippets. Whatever its shortcomings, its heart is
certainly in the right place, and with royalties going to the Canadian
Centre for Victims of Torture, there are certainly worse ways to spend
11 bucks. But substituting free-floating facts for real discourse is no
small thing.

http://www.thetyee.ca/Books/2007/02/23/SmatterOfFact/