Deja vu

We know the fight is coming again.
We know they're not going to stop until they get what they want -- and what they want is a new abortion law in Canada.
But what they don't seem to realize is this: we have watched the Democrats in the US go along with the erosion of abortion rights for the last 20 years. We have seen them appease and give an inch and pander and knuckle under and go along with stupid laws like requiring ultrasounds and waiting periods and counselling and notifications. And all this going along to get along hasn't satisfied the pro-lifers one bit -- they have demonized Planned Parenthood and are targeting contraception and Gardisil treatments.
Could this happen in Canada? Maybe. The Harper Cons are doing whatever they can to quietly mollify their own pro-life base. But I do believe that Canadians realize that any law that gets the state involved again with abortion decisions -- even a supposedly-reasonable limited-impact law that just deals with a tiny number of cases like so-called "late-term" or "partial birth" abortions, nothing to see here just move along -- is the thin edge of the wedge. We are not apologetic or shame-faced about believing in a woman's right to choose.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

Sweetest video ever

"

A red letter day

Circle February 3 on the calendar.
A Virginia Republican listened to a woman's personal abortion story and actually agreed it was her choice to make, not his.:

“I don’t feel like I have the ability to make a decision as difficult as the one that young woman made,” said Republican Sen. Harry Blevins of Chesapeake, whose abstention resulted in the GOP-backed bill dying on a 7-7 party-line vote.

Font rant

Just for fun, here's Mike Lacher's I’m Comic Sans, Asshole.:

You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

The centre isn't holding

Rough beasts, start slouching. I'm starting to think a few things are starting to fall apart for the Harper Cons.
After telling middle-aged Walmart cashiers that MPs are going to force them to stand behind their registers until they're 67, they won't cut their own lavish pensions.
After releasing a batch of embarrassing info about CBC salaries, they won't reveal how many of Harper's staff are also being highly paid.
After Harper perished the thought that he would introduce any anti-abortion legislation, he's losing control of the Conservative backbenchers.

And the courts are slapping down their cruel ideology.

Stay tuned.

Told ya so

I've been considering what to say about Harper's throne speech in Switzerland and the words "told ya so" kept coming to mind -- this type of incompetent, half-baked, mean-spirited governing is exactly what we lefties all knew would happen as soon as Harper got his majority.
Ken Gray sums up The Conservative Death Wish:

So generations of Canadians have been promised pensions under certain conditions and now the ground is being taken out from under them by Harper. Pension reform is just unnecessary yet Harper is not proceeding on logic, but ideology. First Harper caps federal health payments, now he wants to reform promised pensions. The large senior boomer demographic is unlikely to approve.
That allows an opportunity for the Grits and the NDP. “Would you rather have your pensions and health care or a bunch of new fighter jets?”

Here we go again:

From The Bolt via Kinsella

Saturday cartoon (Oscar edition)

I'm out of it today with a cold, but this is the NFB Oscar-nominated short "Wild Life" about a remittance man in the Canadian old west, with the sound done by Twisted Pair of Regina:

Get a grip

I know local radio news always wants to create some excitement, but every time I turned on the radio today I kept hearing about "gunfire in a fifth grade class" and "diamond heist in Saskatoon" .
Well, not so much.

The gunfire turned out to be just an accidental discharge of a gun in a backpack which an 11-year-old kid brought to school for show and tell and it turned out to be loaded. A little scary, yes, but it was just an accident and nobody was hurt.
And the big diamond heist was one (1) ring stolen from a jewelry store.

Slow news day, I guess.

Best lecture ever

I work at a university and so I keep hearing about how dull it is when faculty just lecture all the time.
Well, here's an account of the least dull lecture of all time.
Thanks, Dr. Grumpy.

The oddest website in the world

Is NobodyHere
Go. Explore. Click anywhere, on anything, and see where it takes you.

No contest

Compare this guy


And this guy


No contest.

Popularity contest?

One of the Toronto police officers now being charged for excessive force during the Adam Nobody arrest at the G20 protests is described this way by his lawyer:

This kid has an exemplary record. He's a really good kid, and a good cop.

So is this what it's going to come down to? Is this case of police brutality going to be decided based on whether either Adam Nobody or the police who beat him up are the "good kids"?

Greg Weston does it again

After exposing the gazebo in the middle of nowhere G20 spending debacle, Greg Weston was fired-or-he-quit from Sun media AKA Fox News North.
But he keeps on finding out embarassing stuff about the Harper Cons and letting us know about it through CBC News-- his latest is the millions being spent on an agency that doesn't do anything: EI financing agency spends millions doing nothing:

A federal agency created by the Harper government with great political fanfare in 2008 is costing millions of dollars to achieve pretty much nothing.... the board has no rates to set, no surplus to invest, no contingency fund to manage, and little chance any of that will change in the near future.

The other question they don't seem to want us to ask is, what happened to the $54 billion EI surplus?

Sigh

The Harper Cons say its critical that Canada sell its oil to the States. And they're also saying its critical that Canada sell its oil to Asia.
No wonder the Harper Cons abandoned Kyoto -- our government won't be interested in energy conservation until Canada hasn't got anything more to sell.

The countdown begins

Responding to yesterday's firestorm, the Harper Cons are now saying all same-sex marriages performed in Canada are legal.
Oh, and it's all the Liberals fault.
And they're going to amend the law right away to make sure that gay couples are treated fairly by the courts.

So don't worry, be happy.
But as I commented on another blog, I am done with giving the Harper Cons the benefit of the doubt. I'll believe they'll actually amend the residency requirements law only when I see them bring it to the Commons and whip their caucus to support it.

And if they actually do bring in a piece of legislation to which their base is profoundly opposed, just because its the right thing for a government to do, maybe it would be a sign that the Harper Cons are starting to think of themselves as a government instead of a party.