Don’t mess with Czechs here, either! (Just saying.)
Who knew? The Czechs make up a major cultural group in Texas. Very kind friends (who also happen to read PWPL, hence this post) brought back this mug for me. It is a “Dobré Ráno” (good morning) indeed, when you can celebrate Czech culture in Texas, in Ottawa, with a cup of coffee.
My first thought about this fellow who puts on a fin to swim as a merman and now markets fins far and wide: Very strange. My second thought: I’d like to try one.
I remember asking my mom for some rope as a kid once, when we were spending time by a pool. She asked why. I said it was so I could tie my ankles together and be a mermaid in the pool. She said no. Clearly this guy’s mom didn’t say that. And so, I put this to my mother: Imagine the heights I could have reached. Just imagine.
Once ProWomanProLifer Brigitte Pellerin highlights Chantal Hébert’s work at her blog today. I tend to agree with both Chantal and Brigitte’s points:
The Harper coalition is whittling away. There is time to bring these people back. But I wouldn’t bet on it – especially not if the opposition (both parties) behaves better than expected.
A press release from the Liberals:
Canadians must have confidence that the candidates they elect will represent their views in Ottawa, not Ottawa’s views to them,” said Mr. Trudeau. “Our motion is a strong step in the right direction and we hope that all Members of Parliament, regardless of party, will agree to support it.”
I like this idea, so often lost here in Ottawa, that MPs bring the values and views of their constituents to Ottawa, not the reverse.
This video clip is not about abortion. It’s about adoption. But who wants to bet these people are pro-life?
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztYMMhMT2Y]
Back to Life features 25 women walking from Montreal to Ottawa to mourn 25 years since the Morgentaler decision. KC speaks about the pressure on her birth mom to abort. Another good story.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRC4X9JyBX4&feature=player_embedded#!]
I think we can all agree that a story like this ought to be accompanied by a photo.
Three Emiratis have been forcibly removed from an annual culture festival in Saudi Arabia and sent back to the UAE after it was suggested that women might find them irresistible.
Pass me my smelling salts.
It’s the end of M-408. I’m fine with this, for a bunch of reasons I don’t have time to share at this current moment. More soon. Here’s the news item.
Read a short piece about it, here:
For what it’s worth, I do think that those of us on the left have made a decision not to cover this trial because we worry that it’ll compromise abortion rights. Whether you agree with abortion or not, I do think there’s a direct connection between the media’s failure to cover this and our own political commitments on the left. I think it’s a bad idea, I think it’s dangerous, but I think that’s the way it is.”
This relates to not much of anything, except that the author aptly describes how I feel about my reading abilities in our Google-friendly age. I skim so much that I find in the instances where reading deeply is actually critically necessary that I must stop and go back. Suddenly skimming has not saved but rather wasted my time, because I find myself at the end of difficult articles having no sweet clue what it is I actually read:
One of the ways we are adapting to the glut of information at our disposal is to skim, to glance at the thousands of pieces of information to look for the very few bits that are most urgent and relevant. It is a necessary skill if we are to avoid drowning. Yet there is a cost to our skimming. The more we skim, the more we become people who prefer to skim, people who would rather skim than read patiently and deeply.
Help! Help! I’m sure I’m growing dumb and dumber by the second. Tick, tick, tick.