Word of Mouth blog

Seems it is students who are being taught now that if they oppose the government when they are young they will be branded as "terrorists" for the rest of their lives for even thinking those thoughts. Orwell rolls over in his grave…again!- Phil
from "The Progressive"
by Matthew Rothschild
You probably know that the Pentagon has been spying [...]

Hm… this article begs the question, is it evidence of the existence of God, or is it global warming? More from the inimitable Garrison Keillor…- Phee
from A Prairie Home Companionby Garrison Keillor
GLACIER BAY, Alaska – I am aboard a cruise ship gliding slowly between snow-capped mountains that remind me of the art my parents hung [...]

The attitude of many Canadians toward the plight of the many Lebanese-Canadians who find themselves trapped in the war zone is profoundly disturbing to me. I recently received an internet forward from my mom who felt equally disturbed by the veiled racism and condemnatory judgments exhibited by those who should know better. Apparently she’s received [...]

from Harpers.org
Israel insisted it had no immediate plans for a large-scale ground invasion of Lebanon, although it seized two Lebanese towns, called up 10,000 troops to the border, and called thousands of reservists to active duty. Almost 400 people (362 Lebanese, 37 Israelis) have been killed so far in the conflict. European governments debated the [...]

From American examples but still true here.- phil
from AlterNet.org
From food prices to auto insurance, when did poverty get so expensive?
There are people, concentrated in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills, who still confuse poverty with the simple life. No cable TV, no altercations with the maid, no summer home maintenance issues — just the basics like [...]

This is very interesting stuff, and makes sense (just about the first thing I’ve read that does!) of why violence tends to escalate into war…- phee
from the NYTimes websiteBy DANIEL GILBERT
LONG before seat belts or common sense were particularly widespread, my family made annual trips to New York in our 1963 Valiant station wagon. Mom [...]

Seems we are taking Afganistan back in time with our military "nation building", as our armed forces here has called it.- phil
by Christina Lamb
Afghanistan’s notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working to wearing nail varnish [...]

I’m listening to a report on CBC Radio right now about the fire on Galiano. Scary! 120 folks evacuated from their homes, wildfires raging out of control on 61 hectares of land; they’ve got the helicopter water bombs out and so forth. The island has rallied as islands will, and everybody has a place to [...]

The world used to look at America for an example of democratic freedoms. Those days are long gone! Sad but true.- Phil
from CommonDreams.org
Iraq’s parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, pictured on the left, bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq, accusing them of "butchery" and demanded that they pull out of the country. (AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)
Iraq’s parliament speaker Mahmud [...]

from CBC News
—A man stabbed a black bear to death with a 15-cm hunting knife, saying he knew he would otherwise become "lunch" after it attacked him and his dog on a canoeing portage in northern Ontario.
Tom Tilley, a 55-year-old from Waterloo, Ont., said his American Staffordshire dog growled a warning, then rushed to his defence [...]