MF GALAXY

Yup, I'll be there , doing a reading, sitting on a panel and signing books . So come on out and say hi. Some heavy hitters will be there including Joe Haldeman and Robert J. Sawyer . I'm privileged to count Rob as a friend; we got to know each other at NorWesCon in Seattle in 2005 , and have had a great time chatting ever since. Rob even bl urbed my second novel; I greatly admire his work ( Calculating God is one of my favourite books) and the stunning intellect behind it. Joe Haldeman I don't know, but I met him ten years ago last summer in Calgary. I'd loved his work since I was a kid. In fact, one of the first novels I ever read (I think I was in Grade 3) was his Planet of Judgement . I read The Forever War when I was in my early 20s (which was a while ago) and loved the mind-screw of time dilation. So it'll be neat to meet him again... last time a fan, this time a pro. E-Town author Gayleen Froese will be there, and I've read her 3-Day Novel and found ...

CJSR FM88.5 www.cjsr.com 6 PM Mountain Time Shawn Taylor is a complicated man with a remarkable capacity for telling his story and investing it with social and philosophical considerations. Currently living in the San Francisco Bay area, he’s a performance poet, a martial artist, a spiritual seeker, a philosophy grad student, an artist-provocateur, and the author of the memoir Big Black Penis: Misadventures in Race and Masculinity. As the subtitle suggests, Taylor ’s book explores African-American and gendered experience, but in directions not commonly seen as intertwining. In addition to insightful and often hilarious reflections on dating, sexual awakening and marriage, Taylor explores his own complex intellectual and emotional life during the ending of relationships, the origins of his own homophobia and how he’s confronted it, his bizarre foray into the Euro-American men’s movement, his confrontations with violence and death, and even his experiences as a science-fiction an...

Martin Plaut writes: " Thabo Mbeki , although a former member of the South African Communist Party, has used conventional economic policies to drive the country's development agenda. "Tight monetary and budgetary targets have been set and met. The result has been a period of unprecedented economic growth, reaching 5% a year in recent years. "In June 1996 Finance Minister Trevor Manuel introduced a neo-liberal economic strategy known as Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear). "This included commitments to open markets, privatisation and a favourable investment climate. "The ANC is in a formal alliance with two groups on the left, the Communists and the trade union movement, Cosatu. Both were fiercely critical of the strategy and argued that they had been excluded from its development and implementation. "In the report to the Communist Party Congress in July 1998 the Central Committee spelled out their objections to Gear in great detail. "This...

I'm irritated by "internet-ese" expressions such as "LOL." It's rare for people to read material which makes them laugh out loud. That expression should be reserved as high praise for those examples of writing for which it's actually true. Today I want to commend the folks at the Telegraph for this photo essay which, combined with its magnificently sarcastic captions, made me laugh out loud--while I was working against a deadline past midnight--until I had tears in my eyes. And no, I'm not exaggerating. And please don't invent an acronym for that. So please check out that essay by clicking on the above photograph.

Tim Wise , the White social justice activist, writes the following: "For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help. “White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because ‘every family has challenges,’ even as black and Latino families with similar ‘challenges’ are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay. “White privilege is when you can call yourself a ‘fuckin' redneck,’ like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll ‘kick their fuckin' ass,’ and talk about how you like to ‘shoot shit’ for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a t...