america

Be careful what you wish for

05/14/2007 by Debra

Conrad Black had some interesting opinions on Canada

a few days after his induction into the British House of Lords and new permanent residence in London, at a November 2001 speech to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute: “[Leaving Canada has been] my gesture against the condition Irving Layton described 35 years ago as the Canadian political and intellectual communities’ tendency to regard ‘cowardice as wisdom, philistinism as Olympian serenity and the spitefulness of the weak as moral indignation. Surely we, or as I must now say, with some regret, you, can do better than this.”
On the anti-Americanism of the Canadian media (ibid): “Canada’s media should have done a more efficient job than they have of informing Canadians of [the Americans’) exemplary competitive performance. Instead, Canadian media have tended to focus excessively on perceived American shortcomings.”

Get violence off the streets and back in children’s organizations

05/11/2007 by Debra

james cartman Don’t let your kid learn about guns from just any gang, have them learn from one which is well established and has lots of street cred.

From The Star;

Cale Northey went to a Scouts Canada camp to learn about gun safety. He came back with a “licence to kill.”
That’s how his parents view the badge the 11-year-old brought home from a target shooting event in Oshawa last weekend.
The badge features an Agent 007-type figure pointing a gun with a red target over his heart.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Cale’s mother, Jane Northey. “We’ve got kids shooting up everyone these days. What kind of message are we sending them? This badge is a licence to kill sponsored by Scouts Canada.”
The event for Whitby Scouts involved a target-shooting competition using pellet guns and included instruction on safety.
“It was exciting because my mom never lets me use guns,” said Cale, who’s been a Cub for three years. “We learned you have to be really safe with them and not point them anywhere else besides the target, and that they’re very dangerous.”
Northey, a teacher, said she wrestled with the decision to let Cale attend but relented so he could learn “just how dangerous these weapons really are.” She was shocked when she saw the badge.
When she complained to Debra Yeomans, Whitby-area commissioner for Scouts Canada’s White Pine Council, she was told the badge was voted on by leaders who perceived it as something “cool” the youngsters would love.

The national office has asked for the badges to be returned, however, the gun training is still part of the program. The good news is they will have already received some training to go fight America’s wars!

Mothers

05/09/2007 by Debra

An interesting article at Women’s Enews on mothering and the value placed on it. While much lip service is given to the undertaking, little is done to actually support those choosing to have children.

(WOMENSENEWS)–The news media loves stories about highly educated mothers opting out of rewarding careers to stay at home with their young children.
Anecdotal evidence unsupported by serious research is also constantly drumming home the idea that women consider themselves the best providers of child care. For example, a 2006 Salary.com survey of what mothers do “on the job” leads with the headline “Dream Job: Stay at Home Mom.” Although the survey claims that equal numbers of working and stay-at-home mothers participated, quotes from the happy, at-home mothers dominate the report.
For instance, working mothers are “horrified” at the thought of hiring strangers to care for their children, they believe that mother’s care is “priceless” and that motherhood is the “greatest job in the world.” It’s easy to stay on message: Women must choose between work and family.
But the opposite message is sent to low-income mothers.
The recent debate over the welfare-to-work provisions of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families–or welfare–captures this difference. Congress did not debate the best means to provide even minimally adequate day care to the children of single parents. Instead they wondered whether or not the required hours of paid work should be increased!
Why does popular sentiment portray some mothers as virtuous when they drop out of the labor force to care for their families, while others are responsible only if they work for pay outside the home?

With Mothers Day coming up and the usual platitudes running rampant trying to get you to spend spend spend to show mom how much you love her, and with the forced pregnancy folks all creamed up about Bushie and company and their anti choice stance, I thought it might be interesting to see just how much mothers are valued once those sacred womb contents are born. [Read more…] about Mothers

Plows and other gyn procedures

04/29/2007 by Debra

Ah Pat…never one to engage brain before opening mouth. On the subject of the Women on the Waves ship Pat had this to say;

“Just think of having rocking waves while you’re getting your insides plowed into by some doctor. That doesn’t sound like fun to me…”

Now since they are handing out Mifepristone –a PILL– one wonders exactly how Pat ingests his multivitamin.

Also from the story is a must read link to an article about doctors reaction to the new abortion ban;

Dr. Christopher Estes shared a story with PRCH about a patient he treated last year. In an op-ed he wrote for The Daily News, Dr. Estes recalls treating a woman he calls Lisa. She was pregnant with her third child, and suffering from a heart condition that developed during her last delivery.
“Her condition had worsened substantially within the last week, and we were not sure how much longer her heart could withstand the strain of her pregnancy,” he says. Dr. Estes believed the safest treatment for Lisa was an abortion using the method Congress has banned. “I will have to think long and hard about what I will do the next time I take care of a patient like Lisa. What am I supposed to say to her? ‘I’m sorry, but you’re part of the small fraction of women our laws ignore?'”

further;

The Supreme Court’s decision asserts many things that are simply not true. For instance, the ruling contends that because some women might regret having an abortion if they knew what was involved, the state should anticipate that and protect them. Essentially, this ruling says that untrained politicians can make medical decisions for all of America—even when doctors vehemently disagree with Congress’ supposed findings.

Interestingly many women regret their pregnancies, I hope the Daddies on the Supreme Court are planning to ensure that pregnancy is therefore similarly regulated.

Have a good day a school, don’t die.

04/17/2007 by Debra

These stories are hard to take as a parent. You worry about a lot of things when you send your kids to school. Will they have friends, get good grades, have a good teacher. One thing you don’t generally think about is will they die.

All levels of school have been targeted, and the “reasons” have varied.

Some are blaming video games, but then before video games were so popular they blamed D&D, or bad parenting or………

Some have rushed in to protect the guns as if they were an endangered species, even going so far as to recommend that all students be armed.

How can you watch the trauma on these young peoples’ faces and in their voices, think of the parents and friends and families of the students and professors killed and rush in to champion more death? What kind of mindset is that?

What a lovely picture your local school also now the setting for the showdown at the ok corral.

Another aspect of this that has me wondering is the constant reference to we thought it was “just a domestic incident”. Just???? Just two people dead, nothing to see here folks.

If “domestic violence” were taken more seriously perhaps a greater effort may have been put into dealing with the situation and other lives may have been spared.

My thoughts go out to those who have lost someone, and those who went through the ordeal.

May we all find the ability to rise above the petty and mundane and treasure each other.

Scattered Scribblings

04/14/2007 by Debra

A May/Dion romance:

An interesting way to do politics. Deprive people of the right to vote for all parties. Work out backroom deals in the front room thereby pretending it is something other than what it is. Pretend it is visionary and slur all detractors with the indefensible partisan label. While the thing itself smacks of all that is wrong with politics, the spin is genius. [Read more…] about Scattered Scribblings