Is it time to abolish the UN?

March 11, 2009 — xanthippa

This year, the UN plans to make its ‘Blasphemy Resolution’ BINDING on ALL ITS MEMBER STATES!!!!!!!!!

When the League of Nations became irrelevant, it was abolished.

For those of you cursed with a ‘recent’ North American education, here is a very brief explanation:

Following ‘The Great War’ (WWI), people decided that wars were a bad thing that should – and could – be prevented.  So, they set up this organization whose purpose was to do exactly that by providing a supranational governance structure and a forum for a negotiated conflict resolution.  They called it the League of Nations.

Promptly, the new ‘world government’ set about defining The Rights of Man, and other unarguably worthy things.  Collectivists of the world unite, and all that…

Yet, the League of Nations was singularly bad at actually accomplishing any of the things it had claimed it wanted to do.  For example, when the LoN tried to give a stern talking to the likes of Mussolini and Hitler, Mussolini told them that ‘human rights’ don’t apply to ‘Ethiopians’ because they are ‘not fully human’ (!) and Hitler told them they had no right to interfere in Germany’s internal policies (you know, the Holocaust).

It was at roughly this point in time that people realized that the League of Nations was not actually doing what it thought it was doing, and pulled the plug on it.

Following WWII, people decided that wars were a bad thing that should – and could – be prevented.  So, they set up this organization whose purpose was to do exactly that by providing a supranational governance structure and a forum for a negotiated conflict resolution.  They called it the United Nations.

Promptly, the new ‘world government’ set about making the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other unarguably worthy things.  Collectivists of the world unite, and all that…

Sound familiar?

Except that, the UN was LoN.2:  an upgraded release, with much more functionality and much wider reaching ambitions.

Now, the UN does not only want to ‘prevent war’ by providing a supranational governance structure, or to resolve international conflicts peacefully.  Now, it had taken upon itself the role of a ‘World Busybody’:  from the environment to our internal laws, nothing is outside of the UN’s scope of interest.

Don’t believe me just how intrusive the UN plans to be into the economic and social development of sovereign states?  Read it yourself – and you WILL weep!

Look at something as simple as the ages-old concept:  freedom of the seas!

Contrary to some modern claims that this is a new idea, the concept that the seas were not anyone’s sovereign property and that all have the right to travel them freely was a concept that has been around since (at least) the time of Cicero.  Yet, the UN has – criminally, in my never-humble-opinion – chosen to abort the ‘Freedom of the Seas’ and replace it with ‘Law of the Seas’!

Now, in this post, I don’t intend to delve too deeply into the L.O.S.T.:  this would take at least 1000 words, and most of them expletive.  Let it suffice to point out that under this ‘law’, the UN would have to protect all the seas:  so, anything that might affect them would be under their jurisdiction – including all the watersheds!  Want to build a city?  Is it in a watershed that drains to some sea somewhere?  Then the UN has the right to say when and how you can do it:  it has to protect the waters, you see.

Yes:  L.O.S.T. gives the UN the power over all the water on Earth!!!  And, the right – nay, the DUTY – to regulate EVERYTHING which might ‘affect water’.

Am I exaggerating?  Check it out.  Please!  I would very much like to be wrong on this one.  I may be presenting the extreme to which the letter of this ‘convention’ may be applied – I will grant this easily.  Yet, when have humans who want power have ‘established’ something, history shows us that they WILL push things ALL THE WAY to the extremes.  Therefore, it is only prudent that we examine what COULD be permitted under a law – because, eventually, it WILL be.

You see, replacing ‘Freedom’ with ‘Law’ is something the UN loves to do.  And, gaining more and more power over its member nations – being more and more intrusive in their internal policies – well, that is part of the observable pattern of the UN behaviour.

Please, consider this latest little ‘drop in the bucket’.

We are all aware that for several years in a row, the UN has submitted to pressures from ‘religious groups’ and has declared that the human right to freedom of speech MUST be limited in order to protect religious sensibilities.  Most of us refer to this as ‘The Blasphemy Law’.

What this means – in practice – is the re-criminalization of blasphemy against any religion in general, and Islam in particular.

By – yet again submitting – the UN has turned the clock of our civilization to back before the time of the Renaissance!!!

IT GETS WORSE!!!

This year, the UN plans to make its ‘Blasphemy Resolution’ BINDING on ALL ITS MEMBER STATES!!!!!!!!!

HOW DARE THEY!!!

Frankly, I don’t care WHICH religion:  I WILL BLASPHEME THEM ALL!!!

I suppose I am an ‘equalist’ when it comes to BLASPHEMY!

Why?

Because while I respect each person’s individual spirituality, I regard EACH and EVERY religion to be a manipulation of this very human spiritual dimension, sub-verted into the hands of powerhungry individuals in order to coerce obedience from the rest of us.

If THIS is what the UN wants to impose, I say it is time to abolish it!

What do YOU say?

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Posted in freedoms, ignosticism, opression, philosophy, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

Khamisa Sawadi: yet another victim of Sharia!

March 10, 2009 — xanthippa

Khamisa Sawadi is a 75-year-old woman – and a widow.

Since she is, under Saudi law, allowed to leave her house without a male guardian (who must be a close relative), she had often asked neighbours to help her get food.  This time, she had asked her nephew, Fahd al-Anzi, for help.

Fahd al-Anzi and his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein did indeed bring several loaves of bread – Khamisa Sawadi’s one week’s supply of food (!!!) to the old woman.  Most normal people would consider this to be a good act, demonstrating kindness and respect to one’s elders.  Right?

Well, not according to all people.

Someone in the neighbourhood saw the two young men enter the old woman’s presence – and dissapproved.  This busybody then went and reported to the ‘religious police’ (what a concept, eh?  ‘religious police’!!!), properly called ‘Commission for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice’, who promptly arrested the young men…

It seems that the young man’s father, brother of the widow’s late husband, had also complained to the police that his sister-in-law is ‘corrupting’ his son!

Here is where things get a little sketchy:  the woman was her nephew’s ‘milk-mother’ (being a child’s wet-nurse, under Sharia, gives a woman an equivalent status to that of its ‘mother’, when defining ‘close male relatives’) and should therefore, under strict Sharia interpretation, be innocent of any wrongdoing.  Yet, the AP news report cryptically states:

“Because she said she doesn’t have a husband and because she is not a Saudi [Sawadi was born in Syria], conviction of the defendants of illegal mingling has been confirmed,” the court verdict read.

So, a woman’s marital status and place of birth are the determining factors of her guilt???

And, what was the punishment the court ordered for this 75 year old woman for asking her surrogate son to bring her food?

40 LASHES, 4 months in prison and deportation!!!

Both young men will also be lashed…

I cannot wrap my brain around this!  Truly:  I got a bad headache when I first heard of it, and it has been getting worse all day.  I really, really get worked up about these types of things!  Do you know why?  Here is a picture of ‘whipping’ as administered in Saudi Arabia…

Can a 75-year-old woman survive this?  And then, 4 months in prison (instead of hospitalization)?

But of course, that is not of interest to the very people who have made up – and now enforce – these laws!  After all, they would have been perfectly willing to see her starve to death – which is why the ‘religious police’ got ‘tipped off’ by someone in the neighbourhood that this ‘immoral act’ of bringing an old widow her weekly supply of food is happening!

That is pretty scary!!!

Yet, there is hope:  the AP article reports that unjust and downright ridiculous rulings such as this one are alienating some of the population.

“Others have also spoken out against the case against Sawadi, accusing the religious police of going too far”

And, if this Saudi woman rights activist, Wajiha Al-Huweidar is correct, there is indeed hope.  Not in the near future, but hope!

“Look, the early signs that a wrong ideology is dying  are fanaticism and extremism.  This is obvious.

Have you ever seen a dead body that is soft?  When the body dies, it goes rigid.  Similarly, this ideology will become increasingly rigid, and will reach the height of fanaticism, but it is constantly in the process of dying.

Take a look at history.

Let’s examine what happened to the Church in Europe.  It became rigid and persecuted ideologies, killing and burning scientists, until people rebelled against it and this led to its collapse.

History tells us this holds true for all ideologies…”

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Posted in human nature. Tags: , , , , , , , . 5 Comments »

Who will dominate the emerging cultural hegemony?

March 9, 2009 — xanthippa

Recently, I have been re-reading a book by Eduard Storch called ‘Minehava’: in it, the history teacher/anthropologist turned author explores how and why early European tribal peoples turned from matrilinear societies into patrilinear ones.  Since his books targeted about the same age-group as Lois Lowry’s ‘The Giver, the explanations are a ‘little simplified’.  But, the basics are there:  population growth leads to greater population density, more ‘intercultural contact’ leads to increased need for resources, assuring survival of the culture more willing to assert its dominance…

It got me started thinking about just how great a societal uphaval the change must have been.  The adjustment to the expectations of the new social order must have been significant.

Now, we are also going through a bit of ‘societal upheaval’.

Of course, things are more complex now:  the larger a human society is, the more complex ‘running it’ becomes.  And, the ‘societal upheaval’ we are undergoing now is also much more complex.  Yet, deep down we know that it is nothing less than the beginnings of the integration of all humans into one, global culture.

Let’s face it – that is what is happening.  Whether we jump on the bandwagon quickly and work towards an integrated political system (world government) or not, the ease and speed of communication and immigration means that human societies throughout the world are indeed in the early stages of global cultural integration.  (The economic bit had started quite a while ago…)

So, how will this play out?

Will the ‘best’ values and cultural practices ‘win’?

We could have a long and heated debate on what ARE the ‘best’ values and cultural practices – and not come to an agreement. (Actually, a brawl is a more likely outcome…over the internet, a vitrual brawl, but brawl none-the-less!)  Yet, that debate would be mute.  Because THAT is not the deciding factor for selecting the dominant factors in our emerging cultural hegemony…

Throughout human history, we have seen that it is not the ‘wise’ whose opinions are followed – perhaps for a little while, but not in the long run.  Nor is it the ‘numerous’. And, let’s not even raise ‘the voice of reason’:  it only alienates the ‘unreasonable majority’!

Instead, it is those who are the ‘loudest’ whose voices dictate the course of human history!

Those who are the most stubborn, uncompromising and who are willing to drown-out all competing voices (regardless of how ruthlessly) – THOSE are the voices which always (eventually) come to dominate any dialogue – and it is THEY who eventually succeed in having their own values and practices imposed on the whole of society as the cultural ‘norms’.  Just look around!

Can we do anything to ensure that our voice – the voice of those who espouse freedoms of thought and speech, the voice which respects each individual – can we do anything to make sure that THAT voice is not drowned out?  That it is not silenced forever, destined to be nothing more than a footnote in the histry about ‘extinct cultures’?

I don’t know.

It may be too late.

And even if it were NOT too late, I don’t know if this voice would even stand a chance.  After all, when one’s very principles require one to treat others as equals – only to be treated (according to thier principals) back as an inferior – that tends to limit one’s ability to achieve ‘things’ (like, say, the survival of one’s ideas and ideals).

(I know I am expressing this poorly, sorry – I just don’t know how to say it better!  What I mean is that just like a person who will not use violence, even in self-defense, does not stand a chance of survival against a gang of those intent to do violence to her, so the voice which will not silence others will have little chance to be heard over the noise raised by its opponents who have no such scruples.  And, losing these ‘scruples’ would be to stop being that voice…)

So, what CAN we do?

Very little.

Aside from shouting as loudly as we can, without inhibbiting anyone else’s ability to shout, the only thing we can – and MUST – do is to teach people, especially young people, to question.

To question EVERYTHING.

Yes, it is not much.  And, it can be trying (yes, I AM raising a teenager!).  But teaching people to question everything:  from political correctness to their own views – secular, religious or whatever… from science to cultural practices, from teachers and parents to their friends – that is what will teach them to evaluate for themselves which ideas and ideals are worthy of keeping, and which are not.

And THAT is teaching them to exercise the freedom of thought!

I cannot think of any weapon that would be more powerful.

Which brings me to my last question:  can we arm enough young people with this weapon to make a difference?

I don’t know….  But, I’ll die trying!

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Posted in freedoms, human nature, opression, philosophy, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , , , . 7 Comments »

Victory for Ontario Conservatives!

March 6, 2009 — xanthippa

UPDATE: John Tory has announced he is stepping down!

It was stunning!

Big thanks to all voters in the Ontario riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock!

John Tory was a millstone around the neck of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.  Now, they can ditch him without being disloyal!  FINALLY!!!

For those of you not familiar with the story…

Ontario used to be an economic stronghold.  Then, the McGuinty Liberals came to power.  Sad times came to Ontario.  One is tempted to reffer to Dalton McGuinty as ‘Bodymaster McGuinty’ – but that would not be nice towards that character from the Sherlock Holmes story ‘Valley of Fear’…

Anyhow, during McGuinty’s first term in office, he became very unpopular.  And, he would have been turfed out during the last election – had Mr. Tory not been the leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario.  Mr. Tory singlehandedly returned the McGuinty gang back into office – failing to even get himself elected into the legislature.

Unless you follow Ontario politics, it is difficult to imagine just how hard Mr. Tory had to work to return the hated McGuinty and his Liberals into power.  Let it suffice to say that Boss McGuinty employed Warren Kinsella as his spin-meister during the election – and Tory handed him the victory despite this!  Hard to imagine!

Most politicians (perhaps excepting the likes of Mr. Dion) would have ‘got the message’, done ‘the honourable thing’ and resigned.  But, not Mr. Tory – his arrogance far surpassed his common sense, and he stayed on as leader, eventually forcing one of his MPPs to ‘voluntarily’ step down and let him try to win her seat (the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock) in a by-election. Anyone who did not like it (and said so) got unceremoniously kicked out of the party…

Yesterday, the by-election took place!  And, predictably, Mr. Tory went down in a spectacular defeat!

Later today, Mr. Tory has a press conference.  Gee, I wonder what he’ll say…

Thank you, all you wonderful people in the riding of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock!!!

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Mischief or malice: laser attacks on airplanes

March 5, 2009 — xanthippa

Lasers are awesome!

While we are all familiar with red laser pointers, there is a new generation of easily available, green lasers.  Their beam penetrates much farther and they are much brighter than the tired old red ones.

For example, even this little green laser pointer has a range of over two and a half kilometers (about 2 miles).

And, this ad for a green laser claims it is 60x brighter than the ‘old’ red laser pointers.

And that does not even take into account the fact that the human eye is much more sensitive to light in the blue-green wavelengths than to light in the red end of the spectrum.

All of this, put together, should not be a bad thing,  ‘should’ being the operative word here….

It turns out that some people – for whatever reasons – are using good things for bad purposes.  Surprised?

With the easy availability of long-range, powerful green lasers, some people are shining them into the cockpits of airplanes trying to land at airports.

If this is done by silly people as a prank, it’s not funny.  Airplanes are not LOL cats!

Yet, this is an ‘easy’ form of sabotaging airplanes for any group of people who deem themselves above the laws of our society and callous enough to take human lives to further their ends.  Especially in heavily concentrated urban areas – like ones where many airports are located in – the potential for destruction is enormous.

Which begs the question:  what are we going to do about this?

And, please, don’t say ‘ban the lasers’ – banning things is just not a solution to anything.  It is a band-aid at best, because it ignores the underlying problem.  We have got to stop kidding ourselves that addressing the symptoms of a problem, without solving the underlying problem, will fix ‘stuff’.

Than always makes things worse in the long run.

Posted in society, technology. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »

Islamist Khaled Mouammar got to select Canada’s immigrants

March 4, 2009 — xanthippa

In today’s National Post, John Ivison has an interesting piece of information:

It’s well known that the president of the Canadian Arab Federation recently called Jason Kenney, the Minister of Immigration, a “professional whore” for supporting Israel and criticizing the presence of Hamas and Hezbollah flags at a recent protest, prompting Mr. Kenney to say he would review the CAF’s federal funding.

But it is less well known that Mr. Mouammar spent the 11 years prior to February, 2005, sitting as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, deciding whether refugee claimants from such North African countries as Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Somalia should be allowed to stay in Canada.

Is this true?

If so, we are in deeper trouble than we realized.  I’d like to write more right now, but – I am speechless!!!

(P.S. – ‘Islamist’ does not equal ‘Muslim’. Mr. Mouammar may be an ‘Orthodox Christian’, yet he supports and actively works to promote the interests of militant, political interpretation of Islam:  that makes him an Islamist.)

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Posted in freedoms, immigrants, opression, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , . 5 Comments »

A glimpse at Ignatieff’s senior advisor

March 2, 2009 — xanthippa

Warren Kinsella is an interesting figure in Canadian politics – especially these days.

He became  somewhat known when Paul Martin ended the Chretien reign over Canada:  most of us first heard his name when Judge Gomery’s enquiry into the ‘Sponsorship Scandal’, aka ‘Ad-Scam’, (where millions of taxpayer dosslars were channeled for ‘promotional work’ to some very specific ‘advertizing firms’), liberally used his name in the report, especially when he talked about ‘inappropriate behaviour’.  Yet, most people (the political junkies excepted) never bothered to remember his name – he was just a shadowy figure of the Chretien regime.

Needless to say, the Martin Liberals tried to distance themselves from Ad-Scam and any people tainted by it.  The rivalry between the ‘Chretien camp’ and ‘Martin camp’ was large and deep – and it ripped the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC) apart.  Though it happened years ago, some of the effects of this deep split are still shaping the internal politics of the LPC.

Mr. Kinsella dissappeared from the federal scene at about the time Mr. Martin’s people began to displace some of the Chretien loyalists – which, co-incidentally, is also when Mr. Martin began purging the LPC of any people tainted by several of the more serious Chretien-era scandals.  Mr. Kinsella was heard from only when criticizing the Martin Liberals.

Mr. Kinsella next reappeared on the Ontario provincial scene.  He got quite a bit of press attention when, as an advisor to the Ontario Liberals,  he suggested that Lisa MacLeod – who was running as a Conservative for a seat in the Ontario 2007 election – would be better off baking cookies…  How ‘liberated’ a view of women this guy has!

That was when his name became more widely known – at least, among Ontarians.

The Liberals won that election.  Though, I doubt that this was due to any strategizing by Mr. Kinsella.  Rather, it would be more accurate to say that the Conservatives lost the election – despite the Liberals and their record.  The Conservative leader, Mr. Tory, had demonstrated beyond any doubt that he is either too stupid or too corrupt to be a leader of Ontario.  Even I could not vote for any party headed by that bafoon – and I never will.

(Aside:  Mr. Tory failed to win his own seat in the 2007 election and is only now running in a by-election to win one.  I hope he looses, because if he wins, it will mean that the Ontario Liberals will continue their destructive reign.  And, as long as she continues to support Mr. Tory, I cannot, in good conscience, cast my vote in favour of my MPP, Lisa MacLeod… even though I rather like her otherwise!)

Now that Mr. Ignatieff (Iggy) has become the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), it looks like some of the Chretien folks are back ‘in’.  This includes Mr. Kinsella, who is said to have been specifically selected to ‘run Mr. Ignatieff’s war room’.  Whatever the title of his position, Mr. Kinsella is said to be in a position of influence, that he ‘has Iggy’s ear’.

Either as part of his political life, or in a separate role, Mr. Kinsella has been very active in other ways, as well.  He has started his own blog. Unfortunatelly, his blog is a continuous source of embarassment to the LPC.  Not that long ago, Mr. Kinsella was forced to issue a SECOND appology – after the snarky tone of his first ‘apology’ created an international incident – for referring to Chinese food as ‘barbecued cat and rice’…

And, watching the ‘Question Period’ today (2nd of March, 2009), I just heard a question which implied that Mr. Kinsella had now criticized Native Canadians and their traditional way of life!  Is there no minority group in Canada safe from this man’s bigotry?

Yet, in my never-humble-opinion, Mr. Kinsella may have a skin too thin to happily survive in the blogosphere.  It is a bit of an open secret that Mr. Kinsella has a vendetta against Kathy Shaidle – the ‘grande dame’ of Canadian conservative blogosphere (whatever her faults may be – that is what she is).

Ms. Shaidle is everything Mr. Kinsella is not.

So, aside from the numerous lawfare actions Mr. Kinsella has taken against members of what he perceives as the conservative blogosphere, Mr. Kinsella has paid special attention to Ms. Shaidle.  So fierce is his pursual of her, one might wonder is he is a rejected suitor…

For example,when TVO’s star program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin had invited Ms. Shaidle to be a guest on their show regarding ‘The Atheist Bus Campaign’, Mr. Kinsella had greatly embarassed himself by sending emails which appear to contain threats against ‘The Agenda’ and Mr. Paikin should they fail to ‘uninvite’ Ms. Shaidle…

Another example:  when the Canadian Jewish Congress had recently invited Ms. Shaidle to participate in a tour of Israel (along with another blogger, Kate MacMillan), Mr. Kinsella has so publically opposed it, he has harmed his relationship with the CJC.  Blazing Catfur has the scoop on this one: and her sourses have, in the past, been highly reliable!

These are emails said to be between Mr. Kinsella and a member of the CJC (Bernie Farber is said to be copied on this email exchange).  These emails closely resemble Mr. Kinsella’s ’email style’ – and would appear to have some rather direct threats against the CJC should they ‘uninvite’ Ms. Shaidle and Ms. MacMillan from the proposed tour of Israel.  Powerful stuff!!!

I recommend that you read the email exchange yourself – here – and judge for yourself.

Explosive stuff!

Which begs the question:  Mr. Kinsella does not appear to use ‘veiled threats’ – or, very direct ones (he threatened to sue 2 Conservative MP’s in just the last week)…. so, exactly what DOES he know that is preventing the Ignatieff people from ridding themselves of this liability?

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“All depressions are caused by government interference.”

March 1, 2009 — xanthippa

A piece of pie to everyone who knows who said this!

Here is a clue:  she called for the separation of The State and The Economy.

And, her words – spoken in 1959 – are applicable today.  Please, sit back and enjoy this Mike Wallace interview with Ayn Rand:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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Posted in debate, freedoms, human nature, opression, philosophy, politics, society. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

“…she should sue Angelina Jolie!”

February 26, 2009 — xanthippa

OK, so this video has absolutely nothing to do with my post – I just thought it was funny.  Yet, perhaps… it DOES set the ‘right mood’!

It is not often that I mention ‘tabloid stuff’ here, but – well, this one just bewilders me.

Now, some people think I am just a little bit opinionated.  Hard to believe, I know, but, some people…  I do, however, have some very strong opinions about ‘babies’, children and that whole parental responsibility to ensure the best possible chance of success for their kids.

And, I do – at times – get a little ‘worked up’ when I see people doing patently stupid stuff that will damage their kids for ever.  Possessing an industrial dose of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I did what anyone who intended to reproduce does (or, perhaps I should say ‘ought to do’):  I read anything and everything possible to make sure I did things ‘right’.

Perhaps that is why I now know that my opinions are right!!!

For example, I did not partake of alcohol (except once, with a non-drinker recording my reactions for my reference…it is important to know one’s own reaction to a potentially addictive substance) at all before I had my kids – and, of course, while pregnant and nursing.  There were not too many studies on this, but – since alcohol decreases the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, this could potentially affect the development of my eggs long before I ever got pregnant.  Therefore, I chose to avoid that risk.

I paid close attention to my choice of husband:  he had to have complementary genetic traits to mine, high intelligence, good looks (the kids had to get THAT from ONE of us), and he had to come from an affectionate family so that his nurturing instincts would be properly developed for potential parenthood.  Selecting the best potential father for one’s kids is not an easy task, but I got lucky – I found the perfect one!

I read research, read texts and articles, searched through statistics for such things as ‘age of mother vs. mean IQ’, nutrition (depriving an infant of breastmilk will reduce a person’s potential highest IQ by about 10 points – and LaLeche League volunteers will share their breastmilk with mothers who cannot breastfeed), early developmental needs, amount of skin-on-skin contact, stimulus levels… well, the list is rather long.  Anything I could think of  or that I learned could be a factor, I educated myself on.  You get the picture…

And this is just simple ‘due diligence’!  Something I thought every potential parent did – perhaps not as obsessively as I had, but, did none the less.  Get educated, establish a stable social unit with sufficient economic security, get the nest ready – and only when things are ready, bring a child into this world!

Today, I went grocery-shopping with my older son.  Yes, we both get a kick out of packing the groceries into the cart in the most space-efficient manner, then from organizing the groceries on the belt that leads to the cashier ‘just right’ – and today, we got told off for ‘overloading’ it… too much of a good thing, I guess.  As we hung our heads in shame, we could not help seeing this  Octomom’s picture all over the tabloids near the cash…

Just thinking about what this creature is doing to her children floods my blood with dangerously high levels of adrenaline!!!

OK, so she had 6 kids at once.  There is no way these 6 babies got sufficient room/nutrition in the womb to reach their fullest developmental potential.  It’s a simple matter of demand being greater than a single womb can supply!  But, well, these things CAN happen… and, though I do not agree with artificially setting up a pregnancy like this, I also understand that IF this happens to someone – they simply cannot harm the fetuses, and so they carry through.  I get it.

But, looking after 6 little ones is hard!  It would be a full-time job for several adults!

Then, to go and do it AGAIN???  With 8 more babies???

Yet, this is not the worst of it.  Not only did she do nothing to ‘prepare the nest’, this creature spent tens of thousands of dollars on breast implants (so much for nursing!) and plastic surgeries to make her face look more like Angelina Jolie’s!  That has to be some unhealthy obsession this scary woman has…

My son watched my fury at her irresponsibility, then laughed and (mock seriously) said:

“I’m surprised she has not started to think that she should sue Angelina Jolie!  Obviously, all this only happened because Angelina Jolie is so beautiful, successful – and an excellent mom.  She’s too perfect!  If she weren’t so awesome, this poor woman would not need to go to these lengths in order to stop feeling inferior!  So, you see, in the end, this is all Angelina Jolie’s fault!”

This would be way more funny… if it was not actually likely to happen!

Posted in Humour, society. Tags: , . 2 Comments »

Stray thoughts…

February 25, 2009 — xanthippa

This is a bit of an unusual post for me… I would like to simply put forth a few ‘stray thoughts’ which have been occurring to me, yet none of which is really significant enough for a separate post of its own. I don’t necessarily have a formed opinion on them – answers, if you will – but that does not mean that the thoughts are going away.

If you can add something to them, please, do so – I will welcome any ‘food for thought’!

***

In the little clip of the ‘Harper Fox interview’ which I heard this morning, Mr. Harper described Canada as having ‘universal health insurance’. This, of course, is not the same thing as having ‘universal health care’. Is this a signal that things are going to get better in our health care delivery?

***

After all, things could not get much worse…

This morning, Ottawa’s ‘Medical Officer of Health’, Dr. Kushman, was interviewed on the radio station CFRA regarding the ‘long waits for MRI’s in Ottawa.  While in the Ottawa region, the average wait for a diagnostic MRI is ‘only’ somewhere around 270 days, at The Ottawa Hospital, this wait is a full 360 days.

This means that if you have a medical problem serious enough for your family doctor or your specialist to requisition an MRI, it will take about a week short of a year for you to actually get one.  This includes the times when your doctor thinks you may have had a stroke, or a malignant tumour – as well as serious injuries to your back, neck or just about any other reason an MRI would be ordered.  The only way to shorten the wait time is – according to my family doctor – to go to the emergency room while experiencing externally visible symptoms (like of a stroke).  And, while the wait times in some emergency rooms in Ottawa are currently as long as 30 hours, this is better than dying on a waiting list.  (This is, of course, assuming that you could survive in the waiting room for that long.  People have been known to die of heart attacks, miscariages and appendicitis while in The Ottawa Hospital emergency waiting rooms.  But, that is not the point here….)

And, getting the test is just first step… about a year ago, I had a test (not MRI) done at The Ottawa Hospital.  It took eight and a half months after the test was done for me (and my doctor) to actually receive any results of the test from them…

My point here is the response Dr. Kushman gave during the interview:  big part of the problem, he said, lies with doctors who just rely on MRI’s as their diagnostic tool (sic!).  He specifically said that for many musculo-skeletal injuries, the treatment consists of time, anti-inflammatory drugs and physiotherapy.  Yet, he lamented, many physicians persist on sending their patients for an MRI to be diagnosed for the type of musculo-skeletal injury they had suffered, thus overloading the system.

His implication was clear – the backlog is caused by the abuse of the system by physicians who send people to be tested ‘frivolously’.  You know, with back problems and whiplash and such…

Now, let me re-iterate what he said:  MANY of the …..injuries….CAN be treated….

The point is clear:  NOT ALL!!!  SOME injuries will be untreatable using the ‘standard’ method – and not treating them properly right away will result in permanent disability.  (Ask any MD – I did!)

Yet, without the diagnostic capability of the MRI, the doctors cannot tell which injuries fall into the ‘many’ category, treatable by the ‘standard’ method, and which are serious enough to require other interventions.

I present to you that while the ‘good’ Dr. Kushman did speak the literal truth (i.e. ‘MANY of the musculo-skeletal injuries are easily treated in the ‘standard’ way’), he implied the opposite of the truth in his conclusion:  instead of commending the MDs who use a diagnostic tool in order to separate the injuries treatable by the ‘standard’ method from the ones that need other, immediate attention, he implied that taking proper medical precautions is, in some way, an abuse of the system … and the direct cause of the backlog in the wait for an MRI!

Frankly, I find his attitude outrageous, offensive – and very dangerous.  To my health – and to that of all us poor souls within his jurisdiction!

How come he was still the ‘Medical Officer of Health’ by the end of the day???

***

OK – an unrelated thing…

When America’s President, Mr. Obama, was in Ottawa last week, he had a little chat with our Governor General (GG), Mikael Jean.  The head of the government of the United States of America and the head of the State of Canada speaking together:  very statesman-like, even if they did look like they giggled.

Did not Mr. Obama come out saying he would like to offer help to HAITI???  What?  How about talking about CANADA and the USA?

Can someone please explain THAT one to me?

***

And while on the subject of Obama’s visit to Ottawa last week…

The guy had admitted to ‘using’ Cocaine in his youth.  So, now he walks about ‘The Market’ – THE spot in Ottawa for buying drugs – and asks “where does one buy a ‘SNOW-GLOBE’ around here?”!!!  Is the guy nuts (or are these the type of effects past drug users must live with)?

First, I would like to know what his handlers have to say about this, then I’d like to know how come the media is not having a feast with this juicy line!  (OK, perhaps most of the members of the media are suffering through brain damage of their own…most HAVE shopped for ‘snow-globes’ of their own in the past.)

***

OK, these are not ‘complete’ and ‘finished’ thoughts in themselves.  But, are these not things to wonder about?

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