Christmas Wise Men in Bethlehem

No, Jesus is not coming back.We are not waiting for him to be born again this Christmas. Advent is not preparing for his return but it is God waiting for us to live the Beatitudes of mercy, compassion, solidarity, peace making.In a way we prepare for a “fresh birth” in our own lives. As the [...]

Canada and Palestine

On Tuesday December 20 the United Nations almost unanimously voted for the Palestinian people’s right to self determination. Imagine 182 countries voting in favour of what to most of the world is just and long overdue. Longtime Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi thanked the assembly.  “This overwhelming support reaffirms the international community’s commitment to the achievement [...]

Remembering the Owl

Colder than a witch’s tit, it’s the winter of 1956 and with head down with the little PHILCO radio under my arm I make my way up to the Sunday dance at my local parish. I will make about $15.00 checking coats with my friend Barry Diemert.The money will go to buy some vinyl. We [...]

It’s all about us!

Poor Obama.”US Forces finally leaving Iraq.” The only thing missing was Bush’s Infamous “Mission accomplished.” Of course the US will never leave Oil Central. They leave behind the biggest embassy in the world and a broken Iraq.You won’t read this in many American papers. That’s why it’s always safe to go to Britain’s uardian for [...]

Christopher Hitchens, a wasted talent

It was a amazing to read the ubiquitous eulogies in print re the journalist Christopher Hitchens. To me Hitchens was a brilliant bore who trimmed his sails to the official orthodoxy. His support for the calamitous Iraq War finished him in my eyes as a serious commentator.Like the failed comedian Dennis Miller who pulled the [...]

Billy Stock,Vatican ll priest

Billy Stock is being buried today. One of the great Vatican ll priests of those halcyon days Bill never stopped going, carried by a vision he saw betrayed. Like many priests of those years, Bill is being buried outside the walls of the Roman church. And irony of ironies, it is his friend Joanna Manning, [...]

Joanna Manning ordained priest

It was a day when I am sure God smiled and the angels danced. Joanna Manning was ordained priest in the Anglican Church on November 27. This wonderful learned and compassionate woman could find no room to share her abundant gifts in the Church of Rome, a Christian communion which in the words of theologian [...]

Stephen Harper nixes the Tobin Tax

The Tobin Tax, the infinitely realizable miniscule tax first put forward by Nobel Laureate James Tobin in 1972 has been stalemated by the ugly economic triad—Canada, USA and Britain. The idea was simple. Each finacial transaction,easily monotored, would be taxed at a miniscule rate…maybe .5% .This would create billions of revenue to aid infrastructure, poverty [...]

Defend the oil sands! Screw the environment!

That’s right, what did the environment ever do for me? And there’s poor Peter Kent, the Tory MP in Durban, South Africa emabarrassing all Canadians. But he, loyal tooper that he is, is simply taking his orders from PM Harper: Defend the oil sands at all costs! David Suzuki, the Canadian conscience on climate change [...]