• The blog …

    ... of itinerant Tofino resident, arts advocate, hobby writer, environmental sedentarist, practicing minimalist and enquiring mind greg blanchette.
    Zing me, baby: aimless1@mailcan.com



    NOW READING:
    • H.P. and the D.H., by She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named. Okay, i'm the only person in the W hemisphere who hasn't read this. I got it for 50 cents at a library sale. Maybe i'll finish it.
    • Player One, by Douglas Coupland -- more listing than reading this 5-part Massey Lecture/novel.
    • Bones of the Master, by George Crane -- an account of a Buddhist monk's harrowing escape from China in 1959, and his strange life thereafter. Buddhist creative fiction ( rare genre)!
    • Darwin's Bastards--Astounding tales from tomorrow, edited by ZsuZsi Gartner -- an uneven but varired and entertaining selection of futurist tales.
    • War & Peace in the Global Village, by Marshall McLuhan] -- almost comprehensible, which is more than i can say about other things i've read by/about McLuhan
    • Walrus Magazine--I'm playing catch-up with a number of back issues. Walrus is an argument for maintaning at least some of the traditional print media: a compendium of good writing that i otherwise would never stumble across on-line.



    NOW WRITING:
    • Letter to ed., in response to an article about the Catface mine that barely mentions environmental concerns
    • Something secret for a market that has just emerged -- secret because it may or may not come off, at this point.
    • The Other Mens' Wives poetry project



    LATEST DOZEN READ:
    • The Gift--Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, by Lewis Hyde
    • Out of our Heads--Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, by Alva Noe
    • The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
    • The Big Bounce, by Elmore Leonard
    • Road's End--Tales of Tofino, by ex-Toffo Shirley Langer
    • Out Stealing Horses, novel by Norwegian author Per Petterson
    • Zen Physics--the Logic of Death and the Science of Reincarnation, by David Darling
    • End-Game, a play by Samuel Beckett
    • Presence -- Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Peter Senge et al
    • Head Trip -- Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness, by Jeff Warren
    • Watchmen, the comic series, by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, John Higgins
    • A Theory of Everything, by Ken Wilber
    • Why Darwin Matters, by Michael Shermer


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An open letter back atcha, Minister

It’s nearly 1 a.m. but i could not resist a short diatribe in response to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver‘s open letter recently published in the Globe & Mail. Give it a read; it’s short, but it’s a remarkable document both in the lines and between them. Ridiculous, unsubstantiated accusations, a transparent wish for concerned citizenry to just get out of the way and let the oil-soaked Conservatives do what they want to do … it boggles the mind. And this is one of our leaders? Heaven help us.

Joe’s email, in case you want to write, is:  joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca. For added spice, i cc’d the message below to my MP James Lunney (Lunney.J@parl.gc.ca) – a medical man, and thus one who clearly must care more about the future of humanity at large than he does about oil companies’ bottom lines. Right?

My rant:

Wow, Minister Oliver. Your recent “open letter” to the people of Canada was, hands down, the most insulting thing i’ve ever read from an elected MP. Your sweeping characterization of me as a helpless dupe being manipulated by shadowy “foreign funders” was truly breathtaking. And here i thought i was a concerned citizen, trying to keep up with many issues, and making my best judgement on each of them, with one eye on legitimate science and another on the sustainable future world i would like to live in and leave for the children around me.

If you want to see someone being manipulated by foreign funders, i daresay you need only look in the mirror each morning when you shave, before heading out to Parliament Hill for another day of mortaging — nay, selling out wholesale — our children’s future to a world laid waste by climate change and the bottomless greed of Big Oil and its blinkered, shameless patsies. Of which it is now abundantly clear that you, sir, are one, in company with your hallowed leader.

In over 20 years, i’ve never written an insulting letter to an MP. But now you, Minister Oliver, have taken the cake. With all due respect — and in my opinion, markedly less is due this week than last — you ought to be stepping down. Your attitude toward public process is clearly warped beyond the bounds of participatory democracy.

Dr. Lunney, you are my MP, and as a constituent i strongly urge you to call for Minister Oliver’s immediate resignation.

Your very truly,
greg blanchette

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One Response

  1. [...] Activist – Greg Blanchett – Read Open Letter Share this:MoreLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Environment [...]

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