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And why oh why might that be?

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Girl auctions off virginity for tons of cash, proclaims she is not being taken advantage of, and concludes with amazement that people would bid so high to help her lose it:

She added: “It’s shocking that men will pay so much for someone’s virginity, which isn’t even prized so highly anymore.”

Classy.

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Rebecca wonders: Is it bad that I’m only semi-outraged at this? So many teenagers have so much sex for so many foolish, empty, short-sighted or just daffy reasons – doing it to raise money isn’t any more morally bankrupt or disturbing, in my opinion, than high school orgies, sex with a stranger while massively drunk, or any number of other things (which is to say, very disturbing).

Not that I’m endorsing this at all. It just seems only a little bit surprising and transgressive, given what’s become the norm these days.

The magic eraser

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Whether or not one supports abortion as a course of action involves, more often than not, a clash of world views. Today I stumbled upon this pro-abortion site, which reviews an abortionist’s book, asking the question of why an abortionist does–I’m trying very hard to be polite here–what they do. Here’s one answer given:

The act of abortion is to remove an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. The abortion is to erase the mistake they [the couple] have made together and get on with their lives. 

Now abortion doesn’t achieve that goal. But another problem today is that abortion is not being done “to erase mistakes” but rather as a routine, as birth control, when other methods fail. (Saying so, in particular on air will get you into a special kind of trouble.) But check out this “abortion blog” and you’ll get a sense of how this couple was going through normal life, didn’t make anything they think even approximates a mistake, and will go on doing precisely what they were doing before, after. I’m amazed at the banal and superficial attitude the girl has toward so much (not limited to her unborn baby). 

The clash of world views continues.

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Tanya adds: I’d love to know how people can call it “eras[ing] a mistake.” The “mistake” in this scenario would be the sexual act of which the result was pregnancy. The zygote, fetus, baby, or whatever you want to call this new life is not the mistake. He or she is the natural consequence of a sexual encounter.

And if abortion is such a great “eraser” why do so many women regret having them afterward? What a narrow view on life this abortionist has.

Learning from daytime TV

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Home sick the past couple of days, I’ve been turning on the TV at odd hours, when I normally wouldn’t. (There are some amazing products out there, let me tell you—products that will change my life, make me lose weight, help me clean, make my workouts 97 per cent more effective! Once I get out of the house, I’m going to be a different woman, let me tell you, but that’s not my point right now.) So. Five am, TVO seems to be profiling teachers. It’s “circle time,” and we see a teacher sitting with a group of kids—I’m going to guess their age was about grade three or four. “So we have ageism, sexim, racism,” says the teacher, “classism, faithism? (not sure if I heard that correctly)…” and a couple more “isms”—her list was pretty long. They’re creating a safe environment, together, says she.

Homeschooling, anyone?

Does that mean I have to stop eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts?

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Not sure what this means exactly…

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American’s sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies — just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet “free” can be.

Freedom of choice? These guys are trying to clarify the matter. I hope it’s just a poor, er, choice of words. I like Krispy Kreme doughnuts and would not enjoy boycotting them.

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Tanya adds: I foresee in the very near future a carefully worded public statement on behalf of Krispy Kreme to clarify all of this (as they chasten their marketing department for not catching this double meaning faux pas).

In the meantime, Miami News Times is featuring this opinion:

File this under “Overreactionary Wing Nuts” and another attempt of conservatives to redefine words for their political means (You can try to rewrite the Constitution, but not the dictionary). Of course, the “overreactionary libtard” counter to this is that conservatives want to demonize all choice from America until we’re living under a fundamentalist dictatorship. A fundamentalist dictatorship without doughnuts.”

Perhaps some haven’t yet heard of FOCA.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0__ctD48nfQ]

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Andrea adds: I’ve been “boycotting” Krispy Kreme since they came out. (I never liked them!) So this should be relatively easy for me.

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Tanya updates, Monday: Here’s the carefully worded public statement.

Legal or illegal—still a tragedy

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This story is bleak. Very bleak.

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — In a country where many crimes against women are still swept under the rug, the case of a 14-year-old girl whose baby was allegedly aborted by her mother and brother using a razor blade has outraged doctors and human-rights workers.

The girl is in critical condition in a hospital at a U.S. military base after, officials said, her brother and mother lured her into a backyard shed, used a razor to cut her abdomen and removed the fetus.

But are we to believe the outcome would have been different were abortion “safe and legal”? I really don’t think so. If abortion were legal—nothing would have changed—you would have still had a society sweeping a girl’s problem under the rug, but doing it in a more sanitary fashion. I also can’t get away from the word “lure” in the report. Was the abortion against her will? And that happens in our own sanitary conditions more often than we care to admit. Bottom line: it’s a tragic situation, and that wouldn’t change with the legality of abortion.

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Brigitte is shaking with horror: Good grief. A woman cuts her own daughter’s belly open to remove her own grandchild, probably because the pregnancy was a stain on the family’s honour, and people worry about the occupation?

Revenge!

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I’m very fond of this comic strip…

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Update: Reader Dianne wants to know the name of the strip. It’s called Stone Soup and it’s available here.

News you need

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Temperatures in this here part of Canada have plunged to dramatic levels. Like minus 54202. Rebecca says it’s even colder in Winnipeg and I believe her – last time I was there, in May, it snowed. In May. Winnipeg is in a league of its own. But so, today, is Halifax. Their sewage treatment facility malfunctioned, so they’re advising people to avoid swimming in the harbour.

It’s almost poetic to think that someone, somewhere, believes it’s possible to swim in this weather… outside.

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Andrea adds: Brigitte of all people will know from my pathetic moaning over email that my body went on strike, along with Ottawa’s transit system. It succumbed to some sort of flu Monday night after karate (I wasn’t feeling well in the class, but how was I to know whether it was a virus or the fact that we were practicing “break falls”–an extremely counterintuitive process whereby I am to allow a partner to flip me to the floor, falling “properly” and apparently, with a smile on my face. But I digress.) Since Monday night, I have not really removed myself from the couch, unless it was to transfer to the bed, or back to the couch…you get my point. However, in all this, and the minus 400, I did briefly consider going for a swim in the Halifax Harbour. So this news item does come in handy–news you can really use.

The world is sick

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I have nothing really to add to this article. No snarky remark. No 2 cents. No elucidation. But in case you can’t get around to reading the full column, I’ll highlight this one bit:

In 1998, 12 per cent of PAS patients in Oregon said they chose this irreversible course of action [euthenasia] because they didn’t want to burden their family. That rose to 26 per cent in 1999, 42 per cent in 2005 and 45 per cent in 2007, the last year figures are available. If that were a company’s bottom line, champagne corks would be popping!

In other words, for the infirm and disabled, the right to die quickly becomes the duty to die. Wanting to live despite being frail or ill increasingly is viewed as selfish in places where euthanasia is the law.

That’s not empowerment, it’s coercion, guilt for living, pressure to die.

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Rebecca adds: And so few people discuss this. The percentage of people euthanized in the Netherlands without their own consent or that of their next-of-kin rose along similar lines. And countless young women are pushed into abortions against their own instincts and judgment by pressure from parents (we’ll kick you out of the house, you’ll never be able to get a degree, it’s selfish to have a baby when you’re too young) and boyfriends (I’ll leave you if you don’t abort, I’ll never leave you/love you forever if you will). There is a debate to be had about whether abortion and euthanasia are moral. But even if we were to stipulate that they are entirely morally acceptable, there is a whole different debate about what constitutes informed consent. The standards applied to any other medical decision are waived, when assisted suicide and abortion are the issue.

For Véronique…

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And all the other mothers out there.

[h/t Paul Tuns]

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Rebecca adds: This is wonderful:

This shared challenge — of surviving parenthood together — has brought us closer to you in ways that we could never have imagined. We have entered the trenches of childrearing together and despite all of our complaints, you never bailed on us.

And that is even better than what we had before the kids, which in hindsight seems a tad selfish and much less profound. Now you have seen the best and the worst of us, the patient and the irritated of us, the fat and the thin of us, the rested and the exhausted of us. And still, you put your arms around us at night. At six weeks, six months or six years, that is truly and unmistakably sexy.”

Sunday was our tenth wedding anniversary, so I have been reflecting on how lucky I am to have married a man who is such a wonderful father to our children. Having a baby to save a marriage is of course an awful idea; nonetheless, I think that when you are the parents of the same little person, when you have weathered the bad moments and shared the good (and the good and bad times associated with children seem more vivid and acute than those in the rest of life) the bond between you is not just stronger but thicker and more multi-stranded than it ever was before.

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