Category: Opinion

I’ve been listening to a fascinating discussion regarding the death of capitalism on CBC’s “Ideas” program. I’m only about half way through it, but the subject matter is important and somewhat unsettling. Here’s a quote from where I’ve paused in my podcast app. “Democracy was always a problem in a capitalist society. There’s an enormous inherent tension between the two. Democracy is inherently egalitarian because every citizen has one vote. And the rich also have one vote but the rich are only five percent. Whereas in the market, every dollar has a vote. And the capitalist economy in particular functions …

The right to post anonymously is a contentious one, made that much more difficult by the low-life scum whose entire purpose it to sow discord. They are a pox on the Internet and they are, as Rick Mercer rightly points out, ruining it for the rest of us. However, I can understand, and appreciate, that for some people, posting anonymously can be a matter of life and death. That fact makes RIck's rant on the Rick Mercer Report (scroll down for the video) more complicated than it might otherwise be. I do tend to believe that people should be accountable …

This morning,  I  was telling Sally about an xkcd cartoon where the Spirit rover is doing its  work on Mars,  counting down the days until its mission is over. The rover is seen thinking about the day when it can come home, then starts to question what it did wrong as the days and months pass. Eventually, humans return to Mars, long after Spirit had “died”. In the final panel, there’s a domed city on Mars, and Spirit is in the middle of a park dedicated to the little robot. As I told her this, Sally was making fun of …