Absolute *dream* to be able to attend these talks and learn from such a brilliant array of writers. While I keep checking my lottery ticket, if you find your self in Beal Feirste the first week of June, please treat yourself to this incredible opportunity.
I have an essay in @dauntbookspub.bsky.social's Over the Water: Essays on Islands. It features real, imaginary and islands from art; Sylvia Plath's on Inisbofin, Napoleon and how working with Alice Maher had a spooky echo of Hagstone.
New substack about it here: open.substack.com/pub/momentso...
Comhghairdeas! Félicitations et chapeau!
A picture of a rather dilapidated copy of "The picture of Dorian Gray" There is visible water damage to the cover and the plastic cover is yellowing. Obviously, not evident from the picture but there is a truly foul musty smell emanating from it!
Last week, a gentleman returned this rather dilapidated copy of this famous book to us after 50 years. He had found it in his attic!
Presumably this means there is a pristine copy somewhere in our libraries....
Do you want to work at @policyalternatives.ca ? We've partnered with the School for Moral Ambition to offer an incredible Tax Fairness Fellowship. Its a 6 month paid position to put you on the front line of the debate. Apply now: www.moralambition.org/fellowships/...
‘Bill 11’s ambitions are anything but modest. It will “fundamentally reshape the AB health care system,” massively opening the scope of private health insurance & for-profit health care in ways no other province has yet tried’ @alonghurst.bsky.social @poliscirish.bsky.social @policyalternatives.ca
The door to 2-tier healthcare is open, the horses are racing through it, and no one in the UCP government has any intention of bolting the door.
It's been almost 4 months since the tragic WR death at the GNH, and over a week since a stabbing in the RAH WR... and nothing is improving.
There has been a lot of talk, but no action.
A thread🧵:
1/10
Green-filtered photo of an MRI machine with the text: "Private-Pay Diagnostics Will Only Make Wait Times Worse for Majority of Albertans. Read FOM's response: friendsofmedicare.org/news"
Albertans deserve health care based on need, NOT ability to pay.
But the government's new scheme will let people pay out of pocket for diagnostic services. Put simply: it's legislated queue jumping that puts private profits over patients' care needs.
www.friendsofmedicare.org/privatepay_d...
Red graphic with a fingerprint in the shape of Alberta, and a hovering cursor point. White and black text reads: "Virtual townhall. An Urgent Conversation with Friends of Medicare & Dr. Paul Parks: Your voice. Your community. Your health care. April 19 | 5:00 pm MT | Zoom. Register: freindsofmedicare.org/VirtualTownhall."
FOM & @pfparks.bsky.social have been touring Alberta with our Urgent Conversation townhalls. We've talked to THOUSANDS of Albertans in 19 communities about our public health care—and we want to talk to YOU too!
Join us for our ONLINE townhall this April 19!
www.friendsofmedicare.org/virtualtownh...
Waits get longer for everyone else, staffing pressures increase, quality of care suffers. We know this - the evidence hasn't changed. If you value public healthcare, for yourself, loved ones, your community, vulnerable people, you have to be willing to fight for it *for everyone*. No exceptions. 2/
Albertans, we rejected this under Ralph Klein. We pushed back. We protested in the streets and at the Ledge. We knew then that two-tier health care creates a priority lane for those who can afford it - and it came only do so by siphoning staff and resources away from the public system. 1/
😂😭
Orbanned. Orbannished.
Thank you, dash. One student was taken to hospital with fairly serious injuries, but no one else was hurt and everyone made it safely out of the school approx 3 hours later.
A text exchange sent today at 12:05pm S: unscheduled lockdown Mom: Drill? S: No Mom: Stay safe, keep phone silent. We love you A: Please don't worry, I'm a little scared but it'll be okay Love you Someone got stabbed in period one Mom: My god.
My eldest child texted me today from beneath a desk in a random classroom at their school, telling me they were on lockdown and there was a student with a weapon. There are places where this is a frequent occurrence. Here it just felt surreal. Already the fearful demanding to securitize our schools.
It is hard to capture what a sweeping strategic defeat the war in Iran has been for the United States. I’m going to thread here some of the posts today that try to capture those effects. Here’s the first:
Today we are all haunted by portents, threats, and what-ifs. Don't let this moment become normalized. Fight to hold onto the possibility of a better world.
Disaster Fascism: two frames for considering Trump's threat to annihilate Iran. open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake," said Stephen Dedalus. And now the present is a collective nightmare from which we cannot.
A reminder of why Alberta's approach to COVID vaccination fails everyone:
www.parklandinstitute.ca/sabotaging_p...
Conveniently, the USA is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and doesn't recognize the authority of the ICC.
SCOOP: Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery curtailed Elections Alberta's power to penalize when Sam Mraiche was under investigation.
www.theglobeandmail.com/appview/cana... w @tomcardoso.bsky.social
Did anyone else read this morning's headline threatening civilizational annihilation and feel hollowed out by a bone-deep sense of grief for the world we thought we lived in? Just me?
Today's haunting, as the last hours of Easter Monday run out the clock:
"The memory of the Easter Rising [...] has long been haunted by an anxious question: is it over yet?”
(Fintan O’Toole 2016)
It's the constituency in Calgary where the event is being held - named in order to evoke a Premier who was good at cultivating a legend that was more popular than he actually was.
With a PhD on the commemorative echoes of the Easter Rising, I can never pass Easter without a little nerdery. GRMA for this fascinating perspective on the ways anti-colonial movements have engaged with each other, woven elements of other struggles into their own narratives - as example or warning.
“attendees included a number of right-wing think tanks and groups involved in a campaign to “conservatize” Alberta school boards, as well as private and religious school associations.”
#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
theijf.org/article/albe...
Today's haunting:
If I should fall down
Under stars I can’t call out
Get me back to my home ground
Let me add to
the weight of the woods
Tether my bones tight
In view of that coastline
And bury this soul of mine
Give it back to
the weight of the woods
youtu.be/rrw2WGmLL2s?...
