best of wmtc, 2010 edition

Looking through wmtc posts for the annual best-of, I was amazed at how much happened in Canada and in the world last year. Another prorogation, and the anti-prorogue protests. The Collateral Murder video and the explosion of WikiLeaks. G20 government madness and police brutality. The Gaza Flotilla massacre. The demise of Bill C-440.

The following is best of wmtc 2010, the long list.

on becoming a writer, part four, final, for now

the harper attack on canadian democracy, the long version (I didn't write most of this, but it's a very important post!)

where is the outrage? and other thoughts on canadian disengagement

save a little outrage for the real criminals (vancouver)

intellectual freedom in the library: part 1 and part 2

a simple lesson: how to tell the difference between hatred of a people and criticism of a nation's policies

therapists needed to treat quebecers' fear of headscarves

"discover canada": the harper government's vision of canada and of immigrants

report on george galloway in federal court: part 1, part 2, and part 3

we will not stfu: another look at nancy ruth, reproductive rights and the harper agenda

thoughts on george rekers: rent-boys, homophobia and self-hatred

choosing canada: how can self-imposed exile not be seen as resistance?

thoughts on her majesty's loyal opposition, such as it is

on giving up, believing, and what it means to be a fan

becoming canadian: today we take the final step

an all-or-nothing trap: the impossibility of moral purity

reproductive justice and the limits of polls: part 1 and part 2, women speak the fuck up

not all crimes are equal: humans and our rights are more valuable than windows (toronto)

open letter to g20 survivor: there is such a thing as being a victim

july 20 1985

"they didn't build a wall": is israel an apartheid state? a south african perspective: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5

once upon a baseball game: the corporate takeover of our brains continues

thoughts on roger ebert and transcending circumstance

it is so time to be over 9/11

science proves that men and women are from the same planet

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public service announcement: troll alert

If you're reading this at Progressive Bloggers, please recommend this post so as many people can see it as possible. Thank you!

The boy who posts as Magnolia or Magnolia_2000 is a troll. He is not my friend. He does not contribute to the conversation or debate in any possible way. He exists solely to make trouble.

I know some bloggers make it a policy to allow all comments, no matter what, but if you won't reject or delete Magnolia's comments, please, at least avoid engaging with him.

I banned Magnolia from wmtc almost four years ago, yet he still leaves comments, even though they never appear on the blog. It's bizarre - and sad. I never even see most of Mags' comments. Allan and I both have moderation privileges for each other's blogs, and Allan will just tell me, "Mags was around yesterday," or "Guess whose comments I rejected last night?"

Right now Mags is visiting blogs of people who comment on wmtc, or blogs that I link to, for the sole purpose of attempting to create trouble. Loathsome as it is to give this boy the attention he craves, this post seemed like the best way to alert the blogosphere to his presence.

For more on Mags, see my essay The Trolls Among Us at The Mark.

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canadian weblog awards winners announced

The winners of the the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards have been announced.

I am pleased to note that wmtc was honoured with second place in the political category. Congratulations to my blog-friend Tornwordo, whose Sticky Crows won third place in the LGBTQ category.

Although I'm quite certain wmtc is not the second-best political blog in Canada, or anything even close, I do appreciate the recognition and all the hard work Schmutzie and the other Ninjamatics put into the awards. Thank you very much, and congratulations to all the nominees and winners.

The full list of winners is here.

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wmtc redesign is complete: goodbye L-girl

For anyone interested, the wmtc redesign is complete. All the tabs (static pages) along the top are now written.

Tonight at midnight, "L-girl" will be retired and "laura k" will take her place.

I've used the name L-girl since I first got online in the late 1990s, as part of a bisexual women's community. I feel a bit sad saying goodbye to that name. But it's time.

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name change, or not

In this thread, there is some discussion about a possible name-change: L-girl becoming laura k. I thought I would try "laura k (aka L-girl)" for a while, then drop the parenthetical.

But now I see that if I change my blogging name, it changes on all posts on the entire blog. I should have realized that, since the new, more stable Blogger templates also appear on all posts - meaning, from the beginning of the blog until the current post.

I like the idea of being laura k in the present and future, but I don't want to erase L-girl from the past. I may change back.

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wmtc redesign

I've wanted to do this for a very long time! It was the one thing on my summer to-do list that didn't get crossed out. So now at last... the new look. I think it's clean, readable, simple but with a bit of a personal look, and kind of classy.

As you can see, I've retired the artwork in the masthead. I've also officially changed the blog's name to wmtc, since that's what I call it, and I've kept "we move to canada" as the subtitle.

I'll be populating the tabs over the next few days and weeks. Most of what was in the sidebar will now be in tabs.

I'm also considering retiring the name "L-girl," which has been my name since I first got online in 1996. The alternative would be "laura k," which I also post under. I have mixed feelings about letting L-girl go. But it might be time.

Two CSS questions for you experts out there. How do I change the titles on the sidebar to all lower case? (Got it!) And how can I reduce the space between the blog name (wmtc) and the "blog description" (we move to canada) in the header?

Update. Done and done. Figured one out myself and got the other from a helpful reader.

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wmtc is canadian weblog award top-five finalist

Well, this is a surprise. Wmtc is a top-five finalist in the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards, in two categories: Political and LGBTQ.

Schmutzie, who coordinates this effort, uses some kind of jury system, not an online vote. Details here.

It's nice to see blogs listed that aren't the usual suspects. However - with much respect to my friend Tornwordo, whose excellent blog Sticky Crows also made the top five - for my money, the best Canadian LGBTQ blog can only be Slap Upside The Head.

In any case, many thanks to Schmutzie and company for the honours.

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memo to easydns: i'm proud to support you. please continue to host wikileaks.ch.

I've just learned that the company that hosts my domain - wmtc.ca - is involved with WikiLeaks. It sounds like they're struggling to do the right thing in an extremely challenging situation. I received this email, which is also available on their blog.

It is not very often we send out an all-member email blast, so when we do, it's usually pretty important.

First and foremost, everything is ok. Please read the information that follows carefully but understand that we would never do anything that we thought put our members at risk.

The Basic Background:

On Friday, Dec 6th, easyDNS was mistakenly identified in various online channels as the DNS provider who revoked DNS Services for the controversial website Wikileaks, and a large internet backlash ensued against us.

In fact, the Wikileaks DNS provider was a free DNS provider in New Hampshire called "EveryDNS.net". At some point this was mistakenly reported as "easyDNS", and it gathered momentum from there. The problem was compounded on Saturday, Dec 7th when the New York Times picked up the story, also incorrectly identifying us as the party who "unplugged" Wikileaks. The U.K based Guardian did the same thing again on Tuesday, December 7th.

A timeline of events has been posted here.

And our original rebuttal to the misinformation was posted here.

easyDNS Added To WikiLeaks.ch:

On Sunday, Dec 5th, we were approached by a group acting on behalf of Wikileaks and asked to provide DNS for their fallback domain WikiLeaks.ch.

We agreed to this on several conditions.

We did not take this decision lightly, and whichever side of the fence you fall regarding what Wikileaks is doing, after being falsely accused of unplugging Wikileaks and taking an enormous amount of backlash for doing so, we felt we did not have much choice in the matter but to forge ahead and take on this challenge.

We actually consider this part of the situation to be well in hand.

Tonight the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail ran a story about this bizarre sequence of events and we expect it to run in the print edition (possibly as the cover story) on Thursday, Dec 10.

That story is here.

However, and this is large part of the motivation for this email, the Globe story concluded with the following quotation, which we feel sends the wrong message, as I misspoke when I said the following:

"Our lawyers have basically told us that if they want to shut us down they'll show up with an injunction and we'll have to follow it and then try and have it overturned later,"

This may connote that we think we, as a company, may be shut down. We do NOT think this is going to happen at all.

What I meant to convey in the quote is:

"If they want US (easyDNS) to shut THEM (WikiLeaks) down, they'll show up with an injunction, and we'll have to follow it," etc etc.

And if that happened, we would be terminating service to wikileaks alone.

Further information about this clarification is here.

We wanted to let you know as an easyDNS member, that we are taking every measure to ensure that this situation does not disrupt the continuity of your domain services at all.

In conclusion, we believe we have taken the course of action that fits who we are as a company.

If you've been dealing with us for any amount of time then hopefully you know what kind of company that is. I also hope you agree that, regardless of your opinion of Wikileaks itself, we are playing the hand we've been dealt in accordance with who we are as a company.

In short, we think this is the right thing to do, and that is why we're doing it.

easyDNS blog

easyDNS on Twitter

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browsing the internet just got easier

[redsock: laura asked me to copy this jos post here]

About Google Content Blocker

What is Google Content Blocker?

Google's mission is to organize the world's advertising for maximum exposure to Web users. Unfortunately, annoying Web content often overwhelms the page, causing many users to become distracted and overlook the ads. That's where Google Content Blocker comes in. It effectively blocks all Web site content, leaving only the advertisements.

How does Google Content Blocker work?

After you install Google Content Block, just surf the Web as you normally do. When we find a site that has content, we will block that content so you see only the ads. It all happens automatically, with no effort on your part. ...

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does Google Content Blocker work?

You're probably too dumb to understand the technicalities, but we'll tell you anyway. We install special top-secret proprietary software on your system. When you browser to a Web site, this software examines the document. Ads are displayed, and everything else is hidden.3. What type of Web content is blocked?

How many times do we have to tell you? Everything is blocked except the ads. It's not rocket science. One more time. Repeat after me: If it's an ad, it's not blocked. If it's not an ad, it's blocked. Got that? ...

5. What if I click on a page that has no ads?

A Web site with no ads? What do you think this is, 1991? The chances of that happening are very small. In such a case, we will insert some randomly selected Google AdSense ads so you'll have something to read. ...

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welcome to canada, welcome to the blogosphere

I haven't done a "welcome to Canada, welcome to the blogosphere" post in a long time.

Many years ago, this kind of post was a wmtc staple. Folks who had found this blog and each other during their emigration process would start blogs, and we'd all cheer each other on as the months and years of waiting dragged on . . . then finally we'd welcome each other to Canada. Some of those folks have become mainstays of the progressive blogosphere, but most have moved on.

I'm very pleased to introduce a new moving-to-Canada blog, written by friend-of-wmtc Northern Girl. NG and her family escaped the hell of Florida, first for the limbo of Ohio, and now, at last, for the freedom they hope to find in Guelph. That's one more family to help make Canada the country we want it to be. You can welcome Northern Girl and follow her family's progress at Moving to Ontario.

Another USian defector introduced himself to me recently. He and his family moved to Canada - also from the US south - around the same time Allan and I did. They're the second US ex-pats we've met with that coincidence of dates. Charles, who lives in New Brunswick, contacted me asking how he could help the war resisters campaign. He doesn't blog, but he's written an essay on why he moved to Canada. It may surprise you.

And finally, a friend and comrade of mine has started an excellent new progressive blog: "your heart's on the left", musings on health and politics. I love the title, especially as the blogger is a physician.

Dr. J is the first socialist doctor I'd ever met, the first doctor I've known who doesn't introduce himself with his title. He's a committed activist and an excellent writer, and this is his first foray into blogging. I'm glad to tune in from the beginning, so I can read everything he posts. Check it out.

One of the items on my to-do list this past summer - one of the few things I didn't accomplish - was to re-design the look of wmtc. I'm already looking ahead to my winter break for the renovation. I'm totally sick of looking at this blog in its current form. I'm thinking of going stripped-down, minimalist. So one day I'll surprise you.

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open letter to a reader who hates me

Dear deviantART guy who posts in Naruto Fan forum and other similar places:

Could you please contact me to tell me why you read this blog?

Since you claim to hate me and everything I believe in, yet you continue to read my blog, and continue to post links to it on a regular basis, you are in the perfect position to answer a question I puzzle over.

You have more than a passing knowledge of wmtc; you are a frequent visitor and are familiar with all its central themes. You post links to wmtc as non-sequitirs in random, unrelated threads. Yet you claim, "Every time I force myself to read her, I RAGE HARD."

Why do you force yourself?

Is "raging hard" - a recurrent theme of yours on your various forums and message boards - something you enjoy? An entertainment? I have enough rage at all the injustice in the world, so I don't seek out excuses to rage. But maybe your life is so placid and passionless that you need to find rage, just to know you're still alive. Is that it?

Is there, as Chrissie says, "a thin line between love and hate," and you actually adore me?

Or are you more like the virulent homophobes who are actually deeply closeted queers? Is that it - you're a closet socialist?

All I am asking is: why?

Of course I'd love to know who you are and how you know my blog, to confirm whether my suspicions are correct, or if your New England location, your right-wing politics and my partner's lefty Red Sox blog are unrelated and coincidental.

But I know someone who travels the net under so many different aliases, never using a real-life identity, will not have the courage to reveal himself.

So can you just answer this one question: if you hate me and everything I write about, why do you read this blog? Perhaps you will do that in return for all the entertaining rage I provide.

Your faithful correspondent,

Laura K a/k/a L-girl a/k/a "that chubby bitch from Mississauga"

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