You and, admittedly, a couple dozen million Canadians besides. The government decided not to mess with the national anthem. A couple of people are unhappy, including the senator who reportedly came up with the daffy idea. Here’s what she had to say:

If it’s been pulled, it’s an example of how much violence I think there is against women. This is such a relatively small thing to do.”

And you, Nancy Ruth of Ontario, are an example of why people don’t take feminists seriously.

_____________________

Andrea adds: “Me, and a couple dozen million Canadians.” But mostly me, I’m quite sure.

Oh look. More ACORN employees cleared of wrongdoing. Who would have thought?

NEW YORK – A prosecutor’s office says it has found no criminal wrongdoing on the part of three employees of the community organizers group ACORN caught on video advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend.

The news story fails to mention that the prostitute in question was ostensibly posing as a minor. Small detail, that.

(Time for Brigitte to put her crusty old goat hat on again.)

I’m not even that old yet (really, I’m not), and I remember when people thought school should teach kids things like reading, writing, geography, math, history, physics, that sort of thing. Well, pfft. That’s too dull. Now they want to teach the kids how to change the world.

Toronto District School Board students will be expected to contribute more to their communities under a new ”social justice action plan” unveiled yesterday by education director Chris Spence.

The initiative will see every school in the board take on one local and one global social justice issue — such as poverty, equity and environmentalism — in order to “create awareness of how students can be empowered through their leadership to make a difference in their world,” according to Mr. Spence.

“When I visit schools and talk to kids and staff, they’re all engaged in this kind of work. Now we’re raising the bar in terms of expectation and saying this is part of what we want to stand for as an organization,” he said in an interview with the National Post. “When you put these kinds of issues in front of kids, they will run with it and go places.”

That will make for fun dinner conversations, no?

If there is something more annoying than a random bag of milk rupturing and slowly leaking inside your fridge, what is it?

Yikes:

Almost 6 percent of American women, that’s 7.5 million adult women, report using prescription medicines for a boost of energy, a dose of calm or other non-medical reasons, according to the latest numbers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“Many may not consider what they’re doing abuse because they’re using a prescribed drug,” says Susan R.B. Weiss, chief of NIDA’s Science Policy Branch. “Many of these medications are being taken as performance-enhancers.”

[…]

To blame may be what some are calling the superwoman syndrome. Overworked, overwhelmed and overscheduled women juggling families, friends and careers are turning to stimulants, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds to help launch them through endless to-do lists.

I have no idea whether that’s true or not – I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons people take drugs, and they probably don’t all have to do with trying to do too much. But hey. If you find yourself so overwhelmed that you need anti-anxiety meds, maybe what you need is a break instead. Take it from someone who’s gone through a few burn-outs and has learned this lesson the very (very) hard way: Less is almost always more.

Seriously: I haven’t watched five minutes of Olympics coverage (one, I don’t have television, two, I don’t have time these days to watch anything, and three, the limited time I get for athleticism I spend in my dojo). But I’m enjoying stories like this, and this:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Even after nearly 20 years of skating and traveling the world with his ice dance partner Isabelle Delobel, Olivier Schoenfelder was never expecting the phone call he received from her last winter.

The good news: Delobel was pregnant. The bad news: Delobel was pregnant and the Winter Olympics were in little more than a year.

[…]

The petite, dark-haired Delobel and the tall, blond Schoenfelder, both from France, were world champions in 2008 and were looking like favorites for the gold medal in Vancouver after climbing the ranks for many years, an ice dance prerequisite, and finishing fourth in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

But a shoulder injury that Delobel sustained in December 2008 during an exhibition interrupted their season, and it was during her injury layoff that she became pregnant.

“I was still convinced we’d make it to the Olympics,” said Delobel, 31, in an interview after the compulsory dance Friday night in Vancouver.

The reaction from their rivals is a blend of admiration for Delobel’s ability to return so quickly and of sympathy for Schoenfelder.

[…]

Though Delobel continued to train and skate deep into her pregnancy, even suffering the occasional fall in practice, she left the ice in late July, giving birth on Oct. 1 to a son, Loïs, and then returning to practice in late October at their longtime training base in Lyon, France. She began three-a-day sessions and intense physical training in November.

“You better believe it was tough,” said Delobel, who had gained close to 20 pounds during pregnancy. “It was really a physical challenge, but I’m proud to have managed it.”

And she has every right to be. Well done!

I wish I could say we’re making this up:

Anti-smoking porn?  Only in France.

And you thought the lap-dancing teachers in Winnipeg were setting a bad example… Apparently we Canadians have nothing on the French.  Here comes news of a new anti-smoking ad that is causing quite a stir in France.  You can judge for yourself, but the porn-inspired photos leave little to the imagination.

Right here in Canada, I mean.

OTTAWA ­- Infant mortality rates are up for the first time in Canada since 1982, according to new numbers released by Statistics Canada Tuesday.

The infant mortality rate rose slightly from 2006 to 2007, up to 5.1 from 5.0 per 1,000 live births, a 6.2% increase from 2006 to 2007.

That’s the first increase in the infant mortality rate since 1982, when the rate was at 9.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Boy and girl death rates increased at the same rate.

The story does not offer anything by way of explanation, and I must admit I don’t have time to go looking for one (workworkwork you know). Anyone with more info, please send it in.

This post features a video outlining the rights of pro-life clubs on campus. In the U.S., that is – not everything in there can be of use in Canada. But some of it might.

Identify and explain five (5) elements of gender architecture and how they apply to your everyday life.

Failing that, read this amusing piece by Tasha Kheiriddin and chuckle to your little heart’s content.