Library Manifesto

Friday, January 8th, 2010 Posted in Civil Liberties, Humanities, Intellectual Property | No Comments »

A friend of mine is a librarian, specifically a law librarian.  She posted a link on Facebook to an article about appreciating librarians.  It spawned a pro-librarian rant from me that I thought I would blog about ( and include ...

The Value of Liberal Arts in a Recession

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 Posted in Civil Liberties, Humanities | 3 Comments »

The New York Times recently published an article, "In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," by Patricia Cohen.  I was told about this article by McMaster University English and Cultural Studies Professor, Dr. Sarah Brophy. NYT Article at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/books/25human.html There ...

Remembrance Day – Poems by Wilfred Owen

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 Posted in Humanities | No Comments »

I wrote a paper on these two poems a number of years ago.  I found them much more powerful than In Flanders Fields. Wilfred Owen was a British soldier who died a week before the Armistice that ended World War ...

Leadership Qualifications in a Democracy

Monday, October 13th, 2008 Posted in Humanities, Legal Explorations | 1 Comment »

Power to the people, right?  That's the rallying cry of democracy. A government of peers, the message of Gov. Sarah Palin, is not a new message.  Stephen Harper rode that message to the Prime Minister's Office here not long ago, his ...

George Carlin, free speech advocate, gone at 71

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 Posted in Civil Liberties, Humanities | No Comments »

I was talking to my father-in-law on Sunday morning about which show George Carlin ws likely to bring to his upcoming night at the River Rock.  Would it be the silly and hilarious poke at absurdity that generates his funniest ...

Servamus – Fearing the Image of the Vancouver Police

Monday, June 9th, 2008 Posted in Civil Liberties, Humanities, Legal Explorations | 3 Comments »

Servamus. It is often said that in an armed law enforcement agency - be it military, paramilitary, or police - that exists within a democracy, the highest rank is civilian. That democratic hierarchy of rank is evident in the motto ...

Where are you, Bobby Kennedy? The Mindless Menace Continues

Thursday, June 5th, 2008 Posted in Humanities, Legal Explorations | 3 Comments »

I was listening to CBC Radio 2 tonight on my way home, and they played Senator Robert Kennedy's speech, "On the Mindless Menace of Violence," about the plague of violence that was making the United States sick, in his view. ...

Of Mortar and Wine: A Passover Lesson in Law

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 Posted in Humanities, Legal Explorations | No Comments »

Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the emergence of the Jewish People as a free nation under Mosaic Law, is now upon us. The tradition of the Passover seder, the traditional feast ...

What did Fairmont pay for my “protected” view?

Monday, March 17th, 2008 Posted in Humanities, Legal Explorations | No Comments »

I wrote in an earlier series of posts that laws exist as a combination of policy and imperative, operating either to curb antisocial behaviour that can damage the fabric of society or that can alter it. We have some laws, like ...

Nine Inch Nails in the RIAA’s Coffin

Thursday, March 13th, 2008 Posted in Humanities, Information Technology, Intellectual Property | No Comments »

According to Prof. Larry Lessig, Nine Inch Nails' latest album has been released under Creative Commons. Kudos to Trent Reznor! http://lessig.org/blog/2008/03/nin_goes_cc.html I tried to comment but Prof. Lessig's blog is giving me some sort of SQL error. Here is my ...