April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

violence

The Handmaids Tale Dystopia Meets Reality

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This story is both a horrific example of the human trafficking going on in the world and a warning as to what could happen to women should the womb police get their way.

Anyone familiar with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale will recognize this type of scenario;

In its promotional material, the Asia-based operation makes pregnancy sound like an illness. Its symptoms include “loss of intimacy,” growing “out of shape” and, of course, “birth pangs.”

The solution? Fertilize a foreign stranger who will be fed nutritious meals, housed in a Bangkok suburb, monitored around the clock and kept to a precise sleep-wake schedule. “It is quite suitable,” says the agency’s broken-English pitch, “for the women who desire to have kids but no time for pregnancy.”

Sadly this lives not in the pages of a dystopian warning but is a profitable business in Asia. Recent developments of the GOP war on women in the States has many bloggers and tweeters asking if the GOP and their supporters see women as breeding stock, anti abortionists have even caused women to be investigated and arrested simply for thinking about abortion. Some lawmakers are considering investigating women for miscarriages. How long before laws are enforced that require pregnant or pre-pregnant women to adhere to specific types of behaviour very much like this;

This high degree of scrutiny is actually promoted by the company on the Chinese-language portion of its site. Surrogates are “accompanied by hand” while walking around the community, according to the site, which also promises they’ll be woken at 7 a.m., fed at specific times each day and put to bed at 10 p.m.

Tasers Can Kill! Shocking!

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Taser, concerned for liability issues for police officers [note not for the company..] is recommending officers avoid the chest area;

Taser International advised them to stop aiming at the chest because of a slight risk of cardiac arrest when the electrified darts hit there.

The company has advised the police to instead aim for the belly or the back of the legs.

Taser International has always assured police officers that the stun gun can never cause problems with the heart, no matter how many times it is used on someone.

This is apparently resulting in some officers leaving the weapon in their lockers. We can only hope this is the beginning of the end of these devices.

Source

“Give her a Pill”

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This is why I didn’t not blog on IWD. I wanted to. I felt I was letting people down by not blogging. That I was not showing solidarity. And yet there comes a point when one is so satruated with all injustice, ridiculousness and governmental opposition to equality it just seems too big. Unfortunately it isn’t getting any smaller.

of the 9 year old impregnanted by her step father the church proclaims

The accused stepfather is not being excommunicated from the Church. Said ArchbishopJose Cardoso Sobrinho, although the man allegedly committed “a heinous crime … the abortion – the elimination of an innocent life – was more serious.”

Shorter church; stealing a young girls innocence YAWN, saving her life criminal

This disgust and hatred of all things female is not something in which only the catholic church indulges. Our government is pretty good at it too.

I print this in it’s entirety

On March 9th, 2009, the President of the Treasury Board, Vic Toews, mocked me in the House of Commons during question period stating that I was “whining and whining and yelling” while he was answering a question on pay equity.

I was in fact objecting to a statement that the Conservative government’s pay equity legislation reflects the recommendations of the Liberal Task Force report when, in fact, there is absolutely no resemblance between the two.

Later in that same question period, Minister Toews looked directly at my colleague and seatmate, Dr. Hedy Fry, MP, and said “Please give her a pill.”

This kind of chauvinist attitude should not be accepted anywhere in our society, let alone, where we debate the laws of this country. The fact that this was done only one day after International Women’s Day shows this government’s lack of respect for women and women Parliamentarians.

I watched as the entire front bench of the Conservative government could not control their laughter as the Minister told me to take a pill.

The Minister went on to say, “I do not know what the problem is. Maybe someone with other expertise might be able to determine what the problem is.”

Attempting to hold the government to account should not be reason for degrading another Member of Parliament and saying that she is only whining and that she should take a pill.

Over and over again, women MPs have had to listen as this Conservative government has shown a complete lack of respect. I say enough is enough. Why would more women want to be Members of Parliament if this is the kind of behaviour waiting for them in the House of Commons.

I say to this Conservative government, argue policies against policies – do not insult Members of Parliament simply because they are doing their job and holding you to account.

The Minister’s behaviour showed no respect for Parliament or for women.

Hon. Maria Minna, P.C., M.P.
Beaches-East York
Official Opposition Critic for Labour
Chair, National Liberal Women’s Caucus

I urge everyone to contact Vic Toews, Harper and their member of Parliament and demand an apology not only to Ms. Minna and Ms. Fry but also to the women of Canada.

Parliament once erupted in laughter over the issue of violence against women. It appears those sorry days may be returning.

Genocide

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From The Hamilton Spectator

But no militant casualties were seen yesterday by an Associated Press reporter at Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest. Instead, the hospital was overwhelmed with civilians. Bodies were two to a morgue drawer, and the wounded were being treated in hallways because beds were full.

Gaza health officials reported more than 550 Palestinians dead and about 2,500 wounded since Israel began the campaign 10 days ago, including 200 civilians.

Diplomats and European leaders raced around the region in search of a ceasefire, but with Palestinian rocket fire continuing, Israel said it won’t stop its crippling assault until “peace and tranquility” are achieved in southern Israeli towns in the line of fire.

You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon. ~David Lloyd George

Two Year Old Killed Over Child Support

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Ja Shawn Powell
Ja Shawn Powell
My heart goes out to this mother who has lost her child to such cold calculated violence. Danny Platt slashed two year old Ja Shawn Platt’s throat because he was upset at being ordered to pay child support.

“There was an issue, believe it or not, with him (Danny Platt) recently being ordered to pay child support, and he had made some comments that he would he kill either the wife or the child before he paid child support,” said Riley at a press conference Saturday. “He was recently ordered to pay child support. Our understanding is he, for the first time in two years, picked up his son, who he had visitation rights for.”

Though Danny Platt had visitation rights the night of the murder was the first time he had ever come to pick him up according to mother Daniella Powell. She allowed him to take Ja Shawn, however, as he had visitation rights.

“Then he called me back at 11 p.m.,” she said. “And he was like,‘Your son was kidnapped, bye.’ He didn’t even say anything after.”

“I called him back and said, ‘How do you let a two-year-old get kidnapped? What was you doing that he got kidnapped?’” she said. “He said, ‘Why you blaming this on me? Why you blaming this on me? I ain’t got time for this, bye.’”

Powell called Platt back a third time and asked if he called police. “He said, “Yeah, I called the police. As a matter of fact, they’re here right now and I’m about to flag them down.” But Daniella said when she talked to police, they told her the father had not called them.

Because Powell had called police, officers flagged the father down, she said.

News video and more on this tragic story

Couple Assaulted at Son’s School

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Today’s Star carries a horrific story about an assault perpetrated upon two women because they are lesbians. The assault happened at an elementary school as school was letting out and many children, including the couples son, witnessed this hateful and unprovoked attack.

This is the result when fear and ignorance are allowed to run unfettered. No person should worry that their ‘lifestyle’ is going to put them in harms way. I personally do not like fundamentalists, nor do I like the way they whisper their hatreds into their children ears in an effort to raise another generation of people ruled by fear and ignorance, however, I would never assault them.

Mark Scott, 43, of Oshawa has been charged with this crime.

Insp. Brian Osborne, of Durham Regional Police, said last night that the department will investigate the possibility that the assaults could be classified as hate crimes. The decision to pursue those charges is usually made with the Crown attorney’s office, Osborne said.

The Crown must classify this as a hate crime. These women were attacked solely because of their sexual orientation. To not do so would be to give permission for these types of attacks in the future.

My warmest wishes to this family as they heal from this senseless and tragic event.