Archives for February 2009

“Calgary students union revokes anti-abortion group’s club status“.

John Carpay, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation who is representing the group, said Campus Pro-Life’s charter right to free speech is being violated. “It’s very sad when universities and students unions seem to be disregarding the mission of the university, which is to be a place of open debate and frank discussion and free enquiry,” he said.

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Tanya draws attention to a comment left below this article:

the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to universities”

Wow, I haven’t heard a more telling phrase in years. I ran into this as a lecturer at a post secondary institution here in Edmonton as well, and was forced to resign, effectively ending my career. Such is the price for bucking the establishment. But, I still am perplexed by the logic of the argument being used, since the University of Calgary is almost entirely funded by taxpayer’s money, you would think that the rules of fair play that apply to public institutions would apply. Somehow, these publicly-funded schools are now considered “private property”! Whose, I wonder?”

I first saw Barbara Kay’s article while I was on vacation. I dutifully hid my head in the sand (not literal) and didn’t even read it. (In favour of ice cream on the beach, sorry.) Can’t do that anymore because it’s back to the cold grindstone in Ottawa.

So let me draw your attention to Stephanie Gray’s rebuttal to Barbara Kay.

Where do I stand in a nutshell: Though Gray’s positioning is drastically different from my own, I fully support her. I do not agree with Kay–Gray’s techniques are far from a waste of time. She is not saying abortion is exactly like the Holocaust. Nor is she saying that women are like Hitler (thank you, St. Mary’s students, for this vapid interpretation). She is saying that where we fail to see people as people, atrocities happen.

Nor do I think Gray’s way is the only effective way of combatting abortion.

The other story to hit my inbox while I was away was that of a botched abortion–a woman, outraged at the treatment she received when her baby was actually delivered alive–by accident–in an abortion clinic–subsequently put in a plastic bag and thrown out.

The surprising thing here is not that the baby survived and was subsequently thrown out in a plastic bag–the surprising thing is that this happens every day as a routine course of action. That we as women enjoy the “right and privilege” of going to specially sanctioned centres to kill our children. That this is killing is very, very true (Gray’s main point)–that it is not necessary, not a “right” and that it hurts women is also very, very true (my main points).

So, at risk of sitting on the fence here, I don’t see much of a battle in the pro-life world on this one. Pro-lifers–forge on (in the manner you are comfortable, which will be different for everyone). I remain 100 per cent convinced that we shall win this (and I don’t think that about any other social/cultural battle I am also engaged in). Killing babies is at the heart of abortion. And that is ultimately what is unpopular, with the women who have them, and with just about anyone and everyone out there.

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Rebecca adds: I agree that explicitly suggesting abortion is akin to the Holocaust is potentially offensive, and thus counter-productive (the point is not to get diverted into a discussion of whether the Holocaust was unique and so on), but I also agree that they are both the results of cultures in which the sanctity of human life is diminished. I’m also not sure it’s a genocide in any meaningful way; “genocide” implies a concerted effort to eliminate a specific people, and the babies aborted in Canada come from all different races, religious groups, both sexes, and range from perfectly healthy to profoundly disabled.

The one thing they all have in common is that they’re inconvenient, either for their mothers, or for their fathers or grandparents, who pressure their mothers into aborting. And I truly think we need to emphasize this: the vast majority of aborted babies are terminated because they are inconvenient. Not to save the health of the mother, not because they were conceived in rape, not because they are suffering from conditions that will result in their death anyway. The great majority of babies aborted would be joyfully borne by other women, or by the very same woman a year or two down the road, or in a different relationship.

Since starting this thing, I’ve talked about the tendency of the elite, very much including academics, to assume pro-choice=good and pro-life=anti-choice=very, very bad.

This column is a good one–about how Jojo Ruba was shouted down while giving a talk at St. Mary’s University.

Those who read Orwell’s Animal Farm will recall how discussion on the farm was quickly shut down by animals shouting, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Well, it’s like that, and although the video doesn’t show the whole thing, (mercifully,) it goes on for 35 minutes.

There’s good news here, however. Pro-choice academics have gone unchallenged for quite a while and today across Canada we see plucky pro-life students who aren’t giving up the fight for the sake of degrees or grades. This is more than I can say for myself back in the day–and I’m impressed.

What to do when your kid drives you insane? I find this tip very cute:

THE MONA LISA

Say nothing, show no emotional reaction, and deploy a slightly amused, faintly dismissive expression that says, in effect, “Pretty good for a novice, but nowhere near good enough to get to me.” – Immediate effect The Mona Lisa will de-escalate the child’s behaviour. The child may finish the current diatribe but will probably not go on beyond that. – Long-term effect Decreases slightly the likelihood of future battles. The Mona Lisa shows the child — more effectively than simple ignoring would — that provocative misbehaviour will not get a satisfying rise out of you. – Side effects You’re asking a lot of yourself, in terms of restraint, because you will feel that you have not taught the child a lesson and that you permitted yourself to be abused, but you will have modelled restraint, the very behaviour you wish to teach here.

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Tanya adds: Hey Brigitte… have you ever tried this on an adult? It works rather well!

Jojo Ruba from CCBR was shouted down during a presentation he was giving at Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eulKIaVM9DE]

According to the above YouTube poster:

The small group of Abortion supporters blocked the projector, swore at the presenter, and drowned out attempts at communication for over an hour, until a St. Mary’s Conflict Resolution Official inexplicably chose to order the students (still sitting quietly in their seats) to leave rather than have the unruly mob arrested by police.

Jojo Ruba had this to say:

What looks worse, shutting down a university-approved presentation or arresting people who are unlawfully disrupting that presentation?” asked Ruba, who said he was appalled the university gave in to mob rule. “St. Mary’s should be ashamed of itself for showing students they need only scream when they don’t like something, rather than dialogue respectfully.”

I don’t know where these university students got the idea that it was OK to squelch free speech.  Alright, so maybe I do.

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Andrea adds: Wowee, they sure do have those slogans down. No thinking allowed. You know, I haven’t really missed not seeing/hearing/knowing the news these past ten days all that much. This is just sad.

I enjoyed Juno a great deal, but I couldn’t hum you anything from that soundtrack if my life depended on it. That wasn’t really what I was paying attention to. I guess I missed something good: It just won a Grammy for Best Soundtrack. Yippee-dee-doo!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PQBtyfNZY]

MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism.

This is what happens when feminism goes too far. Men become outraged by one of my favorite cereal commercials. (I do prefer this commercial with the British accents, but I digress…)

I believe in the strength of women. I believe we are capable of more than we know. But when we start claiming we can do anything men can do, men start questioning why we don’t have snow globes thrown at our crotch more often.

Now, “if women are the weaker sex, she shouldn’t be secretary of state. She shouldn’t run for president. She should stay home to bake cookies.”  Okay, so O’Reily’s guest is not the most articulate man, and there’s a whole lot that’s offensive to women infused into this one statement. But he’s a great exmple of the monster over-the-top feminism has helped create.