One of the key themes of my Health Sciences course at Queen’s, “Drug Wars and Drug Cultures” (Health 239) was the danger posed to the general population–on many fronts–by pharmaceutical corporations seeking to direct market (sic) their wares to the consuming public. Creating diseases where none before existed, taking venal problems and construing them as [...]
Several years ago I tought a health studies history seminar course, “The Price of Sex: Postmodern views of sexually transmitted diseases since the 1880s.” The class enrolled fifteen students, all women (leading to a question on the final exam, “where are the men?”), and proved that, first, students want and need to talk about these [...]
TONNES OF DOLLARS (I LOVE THAT SPELLING OF TONNES!) LOST IN IRAQ; TONNES MORE LOST TO FRAUDULENT CLAIMS IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE KATRINA–AND ALL ONE CAN SAY, HEY, A YALE MBA! GOD SAVE US! AND THIS IS THE PARTY OF FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY? OH GIVE ME A BREAK……HERE IS AN INTERESTING VIEW FROM A DIFFERENT [...]
A CALL TO CONSCIENCE ON THE WAR IN IRAQ (INDEED THE ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST INITIATIVE)…….THE TIME HAS COME, THE WALRUS SAID, TO SPEAK OF MANY THINGS… NOT JUST CABBAGES AND KINGS….. PEACE TOO, PEACE NOW! A CALL TO CONSCIENCE: Report from the Citizens’ Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq A [...]
BIG QUESTIONS THESE DAYS ABOUT ANYONE WHO QUESTIONS ISRAEL’S FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICIES. ISRAEL AND THE U.S. SEEM JOINED AT THE HIP–IS THAT ANTI-SEMITIC? NO, JUST ANTI-BUSH. CAN ONE BE CRITICAL OF ISRAEL IN ITS DEALING WITH PALESTINIANS AND THE BIG QUESTIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST WITHOUT BEING ANTI-SEMITIC???? HELLUVA QUESTION. WHAT DO YOU THINK? [...]
A FINE LETTER IN THE LOCAL PAPER THIS MORNING, POINTING OUT IN MICROCOSM THE SHAME OF CANADA’S DAY-CARE SYSTEM. IN A POLITICAL ECONOMY DRIVEN BY PERFORMANCE AND THE NEED FOR MOMS AND DADS (OF WHATEVER NUMBER) TO WORK TO SURVIVE, THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT “FAMILY VALUES” ESPOUSED ESPECIALLY BY SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES COMES ACROSS TO YOUNG [...]
WHAT WE NEED TO DO WITH THE FOLLOWING IS TO REACH SOME CONCLUSIONS ON WHY THE MURDERS LISTED BELOW HAPPEN THE WAY THEY DO. A COUPLE OF GROUND RULES: THINK OF CONTEXT, AND PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT BLAME THE VICTIMS. OR, FOR THAT MATTER, THE PERPETRATORS. READERS, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK LIES BEHIND ALL [...]