Heh:

The sixth annual report card, released in part by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, found alarming trends for decreased physical activity in younger children.

Most toddlers under the age of two have already spent some time in front of the TV, it said — even though it is recommended they get zero screen time before their second birthday.

One American study used to compile the report found that 89 per cent of time spent at day care was sedentary.

OK, so maybe I’m using a cute excuse to engage in daycare-bashing (it’s a bit of a hobby). It is of course up to parents to help kids develop healthy life habits, no matter where they spend their days. So get to it.

Look, I can see why some people are annoyed that parents would refuse to have the school teach their kids awfully graphic sexual stuff too early. If you believe Ontario sixth graders should know the mechanics of vaginal lubrication, then obviously you’re probably upset right now. Maybe you think those of us who disagree with you are ridiculously prude. Maybe you think we’re hopelessly behind the times. You know, repressed. (That’s OK, we have different words for you.)

But don’t push it, ‘kay?

Oh, look! An excellent oped in today’s Ottawa Citizen by one A. Mrozek, about the new all-day “learning” program being somewhat less flexible than people were led to believe. Here’s the, ah, money quote:

So how exactly is the Ontario Ministry of Education legislating choice out of existence?

For starters, simply by introducing a monolithic taxpayer funded plan — legitimate and regulated child care providers can’t compete. When the government subsidizes a service, it means others are put out of business.

All-day kindergarten also takes five-year-olds out of existing centres. These children are a day-care’s bread and butter. Care of five-year-olds is substantially cheaper than infant care, which runs into the tens of thousands of dollars annually. Since no child-care centre could possibly charge parents the true infant price, they have balanced their businesses by charging less than the real cost for younger kids and more for older ones. The older ones who will now enter the “free” state centres.

Families with a spouse who stays home are, as usual, totally pooched. Their taxes will rise for a service they don’t ever choose to use. Pascal-plan advocates swear up and down the block we can fund the new system, parents at home and everything in between. The problem is they haven’t told anyone where the money tree is growing.

It bears repeating, again and again, just how expensive these programs are. Costed out, the full Pascal plan comes to $6.1 billion annually. All-day kindergarten rings in at a likely $1.8 billion annually. If money spent on all-day kindergarten went to parents instead, it would come out to more than $9,000 per child, annually.

Indeed. But Andrea, you forgot one thing: Parents wouldn’t know what to do with that money. Better let the government manage it.

Fight fire with fire, they say. Outraged by the ridiculous statement from a senior Iranian cleric that “immodestly dressed” women were the cause of earthquakes (I mentioned it a few days ago), one university student decided to stage a “boobquake”:

An Islamic cleric’s suggestion that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes has drawn thousands to join an American student’s busty bid to shake up the world — by revealing cleavage.

Jen McCreight is the creator of Boobquake, an event scheduled for Monday, which has already garnered the support of more than 40,000 people on Facebook.

[…]

“With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake,” she wrote on her blog. “If not, I’m sure Mr. Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn’t rumble.”

I am usually more on the side of modesty, but I think I’ll make an exception in this case. But fear not: You don’t have to bare more than you really want in order to participate:

Ms. McCreight, who describes herself as an liberal, atheist feminist, said women don’t have to show off their cleavage or wear a short skirt to participate.

“The name of the event may be about boobs, but feel free to show an ankle on Monday — that will still be immodest to someone, somewhere,” she said.

Margaret Wente on the new Ontario sex-ed thing:

I do have one objection to the way sex ed is taught in schools. It is so scrupulously gender-neutral that it ignores the fundamental differences between teenage boys and girls. Boys want sex, all the time. Girls want relationships. It’s hardwired into their biology. The more that girls absorb this cruel fact of life, the better off they’ll be. Teenage girls need to learn that having sex as freely as guys do is not necessarily empowering. In fact, it’s a lot more empowering if they don’t.

Darn right! But there’s more: Not only are girls looking for something other than just casual sex 24/7, they are the ones most at risk when it comes to long-term consequences from sexually-transmitted diseases (what a surprise it must be to find out, in your early thirties, that the family you are now ready to start can’t happen because you are sterile), and they’re also the ones who end up having to deal with a pregnancy when, you know, things don’t go quite as planned. As a very predictable result, many girls are made to feel that, should they get pregnant, it’s their “problem” and theirs alone even though it usually takes more than one person to create a baby. That, too, is far from empowering. Go read Unprotected if you don’t believe me.

On an another note, I also agree with this bit from Ms. Wente’s column:

If you’re a parent, it’s not sex ed that deserves to drive you nuts. It’s green ed. Today is Earth Day, as you have surely noticed – the holiest day in the school calendar. All across the land, millions of schoolchildren are being reminded that the glaciers are melting and the polar bears are drowning and the entire planet is in peril. The schools are there to teach them that they are stewards of the Earth (it says so, right in the Ontario curriculum), which can only be saved by turning out the lights and recycling the dryer lint. Time to make them watch An Inconvenient Truth again! Poor kids. Now that’s indoctrination.

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Andrea adds: I guess I read recently that even in marriage a husband knows his wife loves him if she has sex with him, and a wife knows her husband loves her if he talks with her. Not that I’m reading any relationship self-help books, no, no. But people keep sending them to me! (And I’m not above the help, either.)

Local MPP seems surprised that the introduction of full-day school-based daycare will spell the end of that school’s half-day program. I’m not sure how she managed to fail to see that one coming.

Those wacky clerics!

A SENIOR Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

Iran is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric’s unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi said.

Yes indeed. Consequently.

… is that somebody, somewhere, thought it was a good idea to sell padded bikini tops to 7-year-olds.

First I hear of this. Not sure what to think – how do you even begin to enforce it? But in principle, I agree that women should not be coerced into abortions.

Update: Perhaps the least surprising news story of the week…

Get your two minutes of hate here… My favourite part:

It’s sort of a misconception in some circles that ladies who choose pregnancy termination would be interested in adoption, that’s one thing people don’t understand.

Abortion is birth control. Adoption is giving up your child and not accepting your duties as a mother. Most women are not interested in that. It’s only in a religiously-altered mind that that’s a true option.

[h/t]

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Andrea adds: Wow. That’s all I have to say at the moment.