LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Gender Parity

Today is not only Robbie Burns day but it is also the birthday of British author and feminist Virginia Wolfe who was born in 1882.

And she gets forgotten because of all the brouhaha around Burns Day.

Ironic that, if it wasn't another example of unconscious systemic sexism.

A room of one's own

But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what, has that got to do with a room of one’s own? I will try to explain. When you asked me to speak about women and fiction I sat down on the banks of a river and began to wonder what the words meant. They might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Brontës and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple. The title women and fiction might mean, and you may have meant it to mean, women and what they are like, or it might mean women and the fiction that they write; or it might mean women and the fiction that is written about them, or it might mean that somehow all three are inextricably mixed together and you want me to consider them in that light. But when I began to consider the subject in this last way, which seemed the most interesting, I soon saw that it had one fatal drawback. I should never be able to come to a conclusion. I should never be able to fulfil what is, I understand, the first duty of a lecturer to hand you after an hour’s discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks and keep on the mantelpiece for ever. All I could do was to offer you an opinion upon one minor point—a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved.

See

Feminism

Women

authors

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Steve Janke's Yellow Journalism

Stephen Janke, Angry In The Great White North, got twisted all out of shape over my Peter MacKay comment now goes and does it himself. People, glass houses, stones.

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right wing blogs, Canada, Blogging Tories, Angry in the Great White North, Steve Janke,

Hand's In Your Pocket

This is good news for working folks who get ripped off everyday when you use the bank machines. It's a heck of a better political platform than another GST cut or a tax credit. A buck fifty a shot is a heck of alot more than the pennies saved on the GST or the one time tax credit, which is not cash in your pocket but a promise to pay.

TORONTO (CP) — NDP Leader Jack Layton is accusing Canada’s big banks of “gouging” clients by charging ATM fees to access their own cash.
Layton says he wants the practice outlawed.
He says it’s just not fair to force someone to pay $1.50 for withdrawing or depositing $20 or $30 from a bank machine.
Banks had $19 billion in profits last year and Layton says they don’t need the cash.
Layton says bank fees have simply gone too far.

The banks called Layton’s comments “nothing more than political rhetoric” and “bank bashing.”

Bank bashing, I think not. Ask why ING does not charge service charges or ATM charges. It's a bank.

While disgruntled shareholders can sell their stock if they believe their CEO is making too much money, few of us can avoid forking out interest payments and service charges to the big five banks - which in 2005 paid their CEOs an average of nearly $14.9-million, according to a Globe and Mail survey. Cue the NDP leader once more.

"We're working to protect families from outrageous bank service fees and credit card interest rates," Layton told his caucus. "As families open their bank and credit card statements this month, the unfairness of this can't be missed. I want to say very specifically that we will continue to fight for changes that will mean affordability and fairness for the average bank customer."

ATM service charges are the biggest cost you pay over and above monthly service fees the banks charge you.

Wait a minute what the heck are they charging you monthly fees for when they use your money to make more money.

You get charged twice, once at the machine and then again by your own bank! Bank bashing indeed.

And why are they charging you a bank fee for using the ATM which they own jointly as an oligopoly.

Just like they own the Credit Card companies Visa and MasterCard which charge an interest rate only just below what would be called criminal usury.

Why do Hands in My Pocket ads make so much sense in Canada? In Canada, the credit card market is dominated by a powerful oligopoly of 5 major banks. These banks, known as the Big 5, typically price their cards at rates around 20% (much higher than rates seen in the U.S.). As a result, resentment is driving Canadians towards Capital One’s low rate credit cards. In 2004, Capital One launched a 5.99% low rate credit card that was the lowest rate in the country. More interestingly, the rate was 14 percentage points BELOW the typical rate of a Canadian credit card. Accordingly, the Hands in My Pocket campaign is very effective.

And some privatized ATM's are charging as high as $3 in service charges to get your money out.

Luckily that one is at Hudson's on Whyte and the folks that drink there are local business types and Conservative MP's so they get what they deserve, but they probably use their credit cards so they can put it on their expense accounts.

hands in my pockets

See

Service Charges

ATM

Bank Profits

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Trotskyist Cults

The Trotskyist movement is one of full of sectarian splinter groups of all kinds and it has given rise to a prolific number of political movements of both the left and the right.

The movement itself once centred around a broad based left opposition to Stalin called the Fourth International, which soon after being founded became a cult of the Old Man himself, not unlike other Bolshevik Cult of Personalities.

It did so by Trotsky ousting and denouncing other members of the Anti-Stalinist Left like the Spanish POUM and the libertarian-socialist Victor Serge.

Post WWII Trotskyism further dissolved into various political tendencies, icnluding lots of little cults of personalities. It also fragmented because many post WWII leftists included a wide assortment of those who saw the Soviet Union as state capitalist, or as being ruled by a new bueraucratic elite.

The later became hardbitten anti-Soviet liberals during the long cold war, and founding fathers of the neo conservative movement.

And some Trotskyists went even further right as we can see with Lyndon LaRouche. He would feel right at home with these guys.

TROTSKYISTS IN SPACE

Juan R Posadas was no ordinary Trotskyite; socialists from outer space, the benefits of nuclear war and communication with dolphins were all part of his revolutionary programme. Matt Salusbury tells the story of one of the World’s strangest political thinkers.

The word ‘bizarre’ does no justice to the Posadist belief system. While writing this article, I joked to a friend that the Posadists had everything except a Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. Then I came across the January 1964 edition of Red Flag with four pages of closely printed, incomprehensible rant on Why The Pentagon Killed Kennedy, by J Posadas.

Of course Posadas was right about one thing, in order to really achieve colonisation of space we need socialism, as Star Trek proves.

See

UFO

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Victor Serge, POUM, Fourth International, Trotsky, Trotskyists, Trotskyite, Trotskyism, neo-conservatives, Juan R Posadas, Lyndon Larouche, UFO, Dolphins, Kennedy Assassination, Star Trek,

Air Canada Screws Workers, Again

So much for all those worker claw backs in wages, benefits, pension funds, and give backs that allowed Robert Milton to get privatized Air Canada out of bankruptcy. Now that it is making a profit, and has for two years, well time to cut Canadian jobs to make even more filthy lucre.

Air Canada looking to move 700 jobs

The subsidiary of Air Canada does maintenance work for the airline, and 100 other customers. The airline is expected to transfer the work to a newly-purchased firm in El Salvador, where labour costs are cheaper.

Proving once again that when unions concession bargain they screw their members forever.

See

All That Jazz

Criminal Capitalism-WestJet

Globalization=Contracting Out

Privatization Canada's National Rail Disaster

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Manitoba, Doer, Robert Milton, ACE, Air Canada, El Salvador, Maintenance, aircraft, airplane, contracting out, transportation, airlines

Star Dust Dreaming

Variable star V838 Monocerotis lies near the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, about 20,000 light-years from our sun. Still, ever since a sudden outburst was detected in January 2002, this enigmatic star has taken the center of an astronomical stage. As astronomers watch, light from the outburst echoes across pre-existing dust shells around V838 Mon, progressively illuminating ever more distant regions.

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Space

NASA

Hubble

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Happy Burns Day

Radical Robbie Burns, Peoples Poet

A'hae toast ya laddie with a wee dram.

And one of my favorite of his poems; which was used in the original Wickerman.

The Rigs O' Barley
1783
Type: Song
Tune: Corn Rigs are bonie.

It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie;
The time flew by, wi' tentless heed,
Till, 'tween the late and early,
Wi' sma' persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.

Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,
An' corn rigs are bonie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night,
Amang the rigs wi' Annie.

The sky was blue, the wind was still,
The moon was shining clearly;
I set her down, wi' right good will,
Amang the rigs o' barley:
I ken't her heart was a' my ain;
I lov'd her most sincerely;

I kiss'd her owre and owre again,
Amang the rigs o' barley.
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, &c.

I lock'd her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o' barley!
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly!
She aye shall bless that happy night
Amang the rigs o' barley.
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, &c.

I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinking;
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;
I hae been happy thinking:
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,
Tho' three times doubl'd fairly,
That happy night was worth them a',
Amang the rigs o' barley.
Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, &c.

Burns is very much embraced by the men of the establishment and the movers and shakers in the communtiy. With their expensive and exclusive Burns night celebrations, one can be forgiven for thinking that Burns was one of them. Which he was not. A rebel he was and he remains.

No Churchman Am I
1782
Type: Song
Tune: Prepare, my dear Brethren, to the tavern let's fly.

No churchman am I for to rail and to write,
No statesman nor soldier to plot or to fight,
No sly man of business contriving a snare,
For a big-belly'd bottle's the whole of my care.

The peer I don't envy, I give him his bow;
I scorn not the peasant, though ever so low;
But a club of good fellows, like those that are here,
And a bottle like this, are my glory and care.

Here passes the squire on his brother-his horse;
There centum per centum, the cit with his purse;
But see you the Crown how it waves in the air?
There a big-belly'd bottle still eases my care.

The wife of my bosom, alas! she did die;
for sweet consolation to church I did fly;
I found that old Solomon proved it fair,
That a big-belly'd bottle's a cure for all care.

I once was persuaded a venture to make;
A letter inform'd me that all was to wreck;
But the pursy old landlord just waddl'd upstairs,
With a glorious bottle that ended my cares.

"Life's cares they are comforts"-a maxim laid down
By the Bard, what d'ye call him, that wore the black gown;
And faith I agree with th' old prig to a hair,
For a big-belly'd bottle's a heav'n of a care.

And speaking of drinking he wrote this pagan paen of John Barleycorn, the sacrificial god of the fields, which became a big hit for the band Traffic as well.

John Barleycorn: A Ballad
1782
Type: Poem

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

They took a plough and plough'd him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.

But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
And show'rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris'd them all.

The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong;
His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.

The sober Autumn enter'd mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bending joints and drooping head
Show'd he began to fail.

His colour sicken'd more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.

They've taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
Then tied him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.

They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell'd him full sore;
They hung him up before the storm,
And turned him o'er and o'er.

They filled up a darksome pit
With water to the brim;
They heaved in John Barleycorn,
There let him sink or swim.

They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him farther woe;
And still, as signs of life appear'd,
They toss'd him to and fro.

They wasted, o'er a scorching flame,
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us'd him worst of all,
For he crush'd him between two stones.

And they hae taen his very heart's blood,
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood,
'Twill make your courage rise.

'Twill make a man forget his woe;
'Twill heighten all his joy;
'Twill make the widow's heart to sing,
Tho' the tear were in her eye.

Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne'er fail in old Scotland

And he was outspoken on the social issue of his day;

The Slave's Lament
1792
Type: Poem

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

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Just Sign Here

Accidental Deliberations asks a pertinent question about a new Contiental Energy Plan to be done for the Fraser Institute by former premiers Ralph Klein and Brian Tobin;

"whether the report has been completed and ready for the authors' signatures from the moment they agreed to lend their names to the Fraser cause."

After all Klein already got a university degree through plagarism, so we know he will sign his name to anything. And he is the Fraser Institutes Golden Boy.

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Brian Tobin, Energy, gas, oil, Fraser Institute, right wing think tank, Ralph Klein, contientalism, contiental energy policy, petrochemicals,

Rodent Discovered in 1999 Makes News Today

The news reports state that this is a new discovery, impying recent, as in this year or late last year. Yet this little fella was first discovered in 1999. Not to recent. Lets see counting on my fingers that is eight years ago. And it is only making headlines today.

A strikingly unusual animal was recently discovered in the cloud-forests of Peru. The large rodent is about the size of a squirrel and looks a bit like one, except its closest relatives are spiny rats.

This illustration depicts Isothrix barbarabrownae, a newly discovered species of Neotropical rodent, in its arboreal habitat. The strikingly unusual animal has long dense fur, a broad blocky head, thickly furred tail and a blackish crest of fur on the crown, nape and shoulders. It is about the size of a squirrel. (Credit: Illustration by Nancy Halliday, Courtesy of The Field Museum)

Isothrix barbarabrownae, as the new species has been named, is described in the current issue of Mastozoología Neotropical (Neotropical mammalogy), the principal mammalogy journal of South America. A color illustration of the bushy rodent graces the cover of the journal.

The authors of the study found the rodent in 1999 while conducting field research in Peru's Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve Mountains in Southern Peru along the eastern slope of the Andes. Extending from lowland tropical forests in the Amazon Basin to open grasslands above the Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and birds than any equivalently sized area in the world.

This is not the only ancient rodent recently discovered. In fact they are bursting out all over the world. And this may not be a new animal at all but another case of a living fossil.

See

01/25/2007

Photo-report (6 photos)

And along with the Movie don't forget the rock opera; Van Helsing's Curse
and the horror pastiche The Many Faces of Van Helsing;
and of course the comic; Tomb of Dracula.

See:

Vampire

Gothic Capitalism Redux

Pope Embraces Orthodox Church

Goth

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van helsing, Dracula, Russia, Pravda, vampire hunter, vampire kit, movie, history, novel, vampire, comic, books, horror