Maybe its an age thing?

Or maybe not.
I sometimes wonder whether people who were born in the Mulroney years or later can actually understand what it meant to Canadian women when, in 1988, the Supreme Court struck down Canada's abortion law, and the decision about whether to have an abortion became a woman's own decision to make.
Not an easy decision, nor a casual one, to be considered profoundly and made with regret -- but always, indisputably, the pregnant woman's own decision to make.
Those of us who DO remember it know that Stephen Woodworth's "let's have a respectful dialogue like reasonable people" approach is really just a backdoor attempt to criminalize abortion again.
And actually, I don't really care whether people who support Woodworth's "discussion" are just too young and naive to realize what is going on here, or if they actually share his goal of outlawing abortion again.
I agree with Orwell's Bastard:

I am not going to "debate" about the notion of fetal rights or when life begins or whether or not women have the right to control their own bodies. That's done. Anything that purports to "reopen" such a question needs to be seen for exactly what it is: a transparent attempt to reassert patriarchal control over women's sexuality and reproductive autonomy.
Anyone who wants to have that "conversation" can go fuck themselves.

Darwin award runner-ups

Naked, drunken trio survive car wash 'typhoon'

The trio had stripped down naked, loaded themselves into the cart, and selected either "typhoon" or "super typhoon" and tried to wash themselves and the buggy.
The Abbotsford police were alerted when neighbours heard screaming.

Whiners and bitchers

They whine to the Harper Cons about how unfair it is that the CBC is a "state broadcaster" and then they bitch when the CBC competes with them to become more self-supporting.
You know, anytime any private broadcaster wants to set up transmission towers and stations to connect all of the people in the netherland reaches of this country that nobody but the CBC has ever cared about or broadcast to, feel free then to complain.
Anytime another broadcaster wants to offer programming in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages in Canada, and nine languages in its international service, and eight languages in its web broadcasts for immigrants, feel free then to complain.
Anytime another broadcaster wants Parliament to pass an act requiring it to "be predominantly and distinctly Canadian ...made available throughout Canada", feel free then to complain.
Until then, please just shut up.

Fiona's story

I saw this last week on Brilliant at Breakfast and have to share it:

Risking it all

Its not often you see a politician, with an insouciant air and a sublime and total confidence in their ability to make their own luck, risk it all.
Remember Hillary downing a shot of whiskey, neat?
Remember Obama making a three-point shot in front of American soldiers in Kuwait?
They would have been laughingstocks if they had sputtered, or choked, or missed.
But they didn't. Instead, they came off as confident, gutsy, in charge.
And now we have Justin Trudeau, winning a boxing match and obviously having great fun doing it.
Canada will never see him in quite the same way again.

There but for the grace of God...

Emergency Blues analyzes the tragic, needless death of Anna Brown who died of in a St. Louis jail of a blood clot because doctors, nurses and police officers wouldn't believe she was sick:

I will let the public in on a little secret. We all do it. Each and every one of us. I don’t exclude myself. We all label patients. It is deeply embedded in the culture of health care to the point where it is an accepted practice. We all call patients drug seeking and crazy and frequent flyers and failures-to-die and failures-to-cope. We laugh at them. Hell, there are whole books devoted to the art of ridiculing patients we have already labelled. (Though when you think about it, there is nothing quite as charming as making fun of human beings who are powerless, is there?)

I wonder what, over the years, they have called me?

Its not you, its me

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last while -- its not you, its me.  I've been dealing with some stuff lately --
First, iliotibial band syndrome complicated by a torn meniscus has been taking its toll. I've been seeing the physio several times a week since the end of January and gradually it might be getting better but it seems to be two steps forward one step back.
This started in November -- following the surgery I had in October to take an old plate off my fibula -- so I basically ignored it for two months, thinking whatever was wrong would improve on its own as I healed from the surgery -- the incision didn't heal as quickly as I had expected. Anyway, I finally realized the pain in my knee wasn't just going to go away on its own, and I did something about it. But its been a lengthy and painful process and I may yet still have to have surgery for it.
Then, our dog Chillou tore his anterior cruciate ligament in February and needed to have surgery for that. He had the TTA surgery, but because we live in a four-level split, keeping him on the main level for two months requires baby gates around the house, plus some furniture rearrangement to make a place for him.  He seems to be recovering well now -- at first, he threw up all the time, probably because of the anesthetic and the antibiotic pills he had to take, and I was very worried about him.  He is 9 years old, and I was not sure about his ability to bounce back.  He never lost his spirit, but he was a sick dog for a while there.  At least this meant he lost some weight, but it took a while to find food he could tolerate and in the meantime I was making him rice and hamburger.  We also had to take a quick trip to the vet to get his stitches resewn when the swelling in his leg split the first ones open.   But the incision is better now, and he is starting to put weight on his leg again -- our son has been doing passive massage and my husband gets Chillou out of the house for drives so he isn't as bored as he was.  He is starting to be able to walk outside again now that the snow is gone.  For the time being we are feeding him canned food and we are gradually going to switch him back to the hard kibble food.  My own physio has a friend who does dog physio so maybe we will both be going to physio together!
This morning, for the first time, he wanted an apple after breakfast -- it was his favourite daily treat before but this was the first time since the surgery that he has wanted one.

Great line of the day

From Boris, talking about the Trudeau-Barazeau dustup:

Better watch that rematch Justin. Cons cheat when they can't win honestly.

Great line of the day

John Cole writes about Rick Santorum's plan to give a foreign policy speech at a jelly bean company as a tribute to Ronald Reagan:

Those weren’t firecrackers you heard...it was the entire staff of The Onion shooting themselves in despair.

Shared sacrifices

As the poorest people in Canada find themselves working at their lousy jobs for two extra years before they can qualify for $500 a month in Old Age Security, I am sure they will be comforted by the hardships that MPs will also be experiencing in the name of austerity:

Members of Parliament will be giving up their first-class tickets on short-haul flights like the popular Ottawa-Toronto leg. Now only flights over two hours will qualify for first-class privileges at taxpayers’ expense. The frequent flyers will also be forced to look for bargains. Except for long flights to their ridings, MPs will only be allowed to purchase flights at Air Canada’s “Tango Plus” fare class, which is the second cheapest of five available options.

Wow, what sacrifice!
The disgusting parsimony of the Harper Conservatives makes me sick and angry.

Starbugs

Crushed bugs in my coffee? Eyuwwee-yuck!

Earl Scruggs

Banjo legend Earl Scruggs dies at 88:

Snooze-fest

So sleepy MP Rob Anders has been booted off the Veterans Affairs Committee and is now a member of the joint Senate-House Scrutiny of Regulations Committee
Well, if he had trouble staying awake before.....

What film industry?

Film tax credit won't return:

Premier Brad Wall says his government will not reinstate the film employment tax credit cut in last week's budget, but it is willing to consider other ideas on how to support the industry.

What the Wall government doesn't seem to understand is this:  without the film tax credit, in a North American market where filmmakers can get such a credit just about anywhere else, Saskatchewan doesn't have a film industry anymore.
So nothing like this will ever be happening here again:

Can Mulcair fight the good fight?

As best I can, I have maintained my amateur status regarding the NDP leadership race by learning very little about any of the candidates.
But I have liked what I did hear about Thomas Mulcair. I gather he can be difficult to get along with sometimes, but I wouldn't be surprised if the NDP party organization needed some new blood and an "outsider" like Mulcair can provide that.
But actually, I don't really care what kind of NDP leader he is.
What I care about is whether he will be a good Leader of the Opposition.
Canadian opposition to Harper's ideological agenda is both widespread and deep. But its disorganized, waiting for a leader to coalesce around.
Will Mulcair take on the role of fighting Harper tooth and nail? Will he fire up Canadians to fight with him?
Will he be able to articulate a coherent anti-Harper strategy, and gather together enough support from across the country to save Old Age Security, keep us out of war with Iran, and prevent new abortion legislation?
Can he fight? That's my question.