Roxanne Tellier – Who Really Won the War on Terror?

In 2001, I had a small eBay business that was doing pretty well. I had five people that worked with me to expedite the collectibles that I shipped around the world. About 90% of my business income came from American buyers. 

That summer had been slow, as summers were, but as we headed into September, and with the holiday season approaching, I wasn’t worried about ramping back up to pay my staff. In fact, in preparation for the busy season, my husband and I had planned a well-earned vacation to Western Canada, to see my family there. We would be flying out on September 13^th.  

Roxanne Tellier – Talking Points and Party Lines

During the trump years, it was a staple of reporting; when asked for their opinion on something the Administration had done, all the top Republican Senators either brushed off reporters with a breezy, “hadn’t heard anything about that yet,”  or stopped just long enough to run whatever party line Mitch McConnell had broadcast to them earlier that day, into the microphone.

It was so common that comedy shows often ran clips of the beleaguered Senators, or of Conservative media talking heads, mouthing in lock stop whatever nonsense they’d been fed.

Roxanne Tellier – There’s A Riot Going On

Ahead of the mob violence on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, there had been weeks of incendiary rhetoric and planning in plain sight, on Facebook, Twitter, and on far-right websites like Parler, Gab, TheDonald, and MeWe.  There had been a virtual landslide of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and lies about fraudulent voting, often coming directly from the POTUS and his favoured minions.

Prior to the insurrection, Advance Democracy had found more than 1,480 posts on Twitter from QAnon-related accounts, promoting violence. When it became clear that VP Pence was unable to overturn the results of the election, and unwilling to ‘try’ to do so, right-wing extremists began to plan the murder by hanging of Pence, whom they believed to be committing a traitorous refusal to act.

Roxanne Tellier – Just A Little Respect

The last Monday of May is when America celebrates Memorial Day, a federal holiday which honours and mourns the military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Patriots observe both this holiday, and the other day of note, Remembrance Day, to signify their appreciation and respect for past and present members of the military. These are America’s heroes.

This year, however, that holiday coincides with something that only a tiny percent of a percent of Americans, if any, have ever seen before – the sudden death of nearly 100,000 citizens in just two months, by the novel coronavirus known as COVID 19.

North Americans have been spoiled for the last hundred years. Sure, there were two World Wars, and a Great Depression, but few under the age of 50 even remember those days, let alone recognize the impact these events had on people. As peacekeepers, Canada felt even less of the sting of loss.

Roxanne Tellier – How Much for Your Soul?

On the day after 4 million students from all around the world marched to protest their respective governments’ lack of decisive action on climate change, Bob Lefsetz noted that the photos and the chatter had already been pushed off the pages of both terrestrial and online press sites.

Roxanne Tellier – It Was 20 Years Ago Today

When you are smack dab in the middle of massive change, it’s nearly impossible to parse what is going on all around you.

Baby boomers have been there a few times. The chaos of the sixties, when the world suddenly went from belonging to your parents, to belonging to you and your like-minded friends – remember that?

Pat Blythe – Women of The “Traps” – Part Three with The Captain, a Play and Some Music….

It’s been a rather entertaining week. Out with friends and seeing friends. Toronto is slowly waking up to spring and the sunny, warmer days are helping. Not to say Mother Nature won’t send us into another ice age as the grand finale but we are indeed edging ever closer to spring….then summer…and all those glorious music festivals. Canadian Music Week (CMW) starts us off every year, this time May 7-13 followed by Lift Cannabis Expo May 25-27. Two excellent reasons to get out, enjoy the music and inhale that spring ayre……deeply.

Roxanne Tellier – Think of the Children!

I ‘get away’ so rarely that I hadn’t realized how proscribed most lives had become –  when you only leave your house for short jaunts into civilization,  interact with a select few, and then hurry back home on the last bus, people-watching changes from being a relaxing pastime to a zoological behavioral study.

It was both fun and frightening to leave our stuffy bungalow for a jaunt up to Musselman’s Lake, in the Stouffville vicinity.  Our daughter recently bought a trailer, which is parked in the Cedar Beach resort.

Roxanne Tellier – It Is To Laugh!

In a Salon.com article this week, Steve Almond accused Comedy Central of having “squandered Jon Stewart’s legacy” by appointing South African comedian Trevor Noah as host, over the then-incumbent Samantha Bee.

Roxanne Tellier: Slave to the Machine

My name is Roxanne Tellier and I am addicted to computing. There, I said it, in front whatever cosmic element you call your deity, and everyone.  I am hooked on electronic media and the Internet.

I likely wouldn’t have known the depth of my addiction if my main computer had not suddenly died on me a few days ago. Even those horrendous days off the grid during the Ice Storm hadn’t upset me as much as this week’s loss of contact with the world. Okay, it was just for a few hours until I got my little netbook up and running, but even those few hours were excruciating.