Archive for March, 2008
A bizarre cult
Just stumbled across this article on “reborn babies”. Reborn dolls look, feel and smell just like real babies. They look so realistic, in fact, that they are often mistaken for the real thing. Every aspect of their anatomy has been carefully constructed to imitate the experience of looking at and holding a baby. The [...]
Read More..>>The right to ask
Two stories this morning (one here, one here) about access to information and whether Canadian citizens have the right, and the ability, to get information from their government. It would seem like a no-brainer, really. But apparently, things aren’t so simple: Is information really free and accessible? The people using the Access to Information Act [...]
Read More..>>Meanwhile in the UK
While we have issues in Ottawa with legal entities within other legal entities, over in Britain there seems to be an almost unprecedented level of co-operation among pro-life MPs from all parties to lower the abortion limit to 20 weeks from the current 24. Of particular interest in that news story is this: John Hayes, a Conservative [...]
Read More..>>‘An exercise in futility’
According to this front-page story in the Ottawa Citizen: It is among the most fundamental pieces of information in a democracy: The record of how an elected representative votes on behalf of constituents. But most Canadians would have to struggle to find a list showing how their MP voted on legislation before the House of [...]
Read More..>>Now that’s what I call a dilemma
Say you approve of Earth Hour. But say you also like hockey. What do you do? An ethical question: Is a television set tuned to the Canadiens-Maple Leafs game an essential appliance? This will be the conundrum facing Montrealers who want to be green and participate in Earth Hour tomorrow night, but don’t want to [...]
Read More..>>The androgynous ideal
On the cover of the New Republic: The merged faces of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I gather it’s to illustrate how so many Democratic party members are having trouble picking one candidate over the other. Which is a reasonably common problem in partisan politics; how often have you wished you could get a little [...]
Read More..>>How crass
The federal Conservative party encourages supporters to express themselves on the radio, going so far as to offer prepared scripts and talking points. The Conservatives describe the practice as state-of-the-art politicking. A party spokesman said the practice offers enhanced transparency, and is used elsewhere in the world. “This is part of campaigning in the Internet [...]
Read More..>>When progressives want to restrict choice
Interesting piece about private daycare operators in various parts of the country… who are being targeted by the Left for being bad ugly people who use children to make a profit. Or something; it’s hard to understand exactly what it is that the NDP’s Olivia Chow objects to, since even state-sanctioned not-for-profit daycare centres employ people who [...]
Read More..>>Do these hors d’oeuvres make me look fat?
No, just clueless and callous. OTTAWA — Brenda Martin languished in a Mexican prison while the member of Parliament then handling her file mingled with Canadian expatriates at a private reception nearby, The Canadian Press has learned. Conservative MP Helena Guergis rubbed elbows in late January with Guadalajara’s Canadian diaspora as they nibbled on hors [...]
Read More..>>One thing you can’t do to your children…
Found this in my morning’s Wall Street Journal: A California court ruled this month that parents cannot “home school” their children without government certification. No teaching credential, no teaching. Parents “do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” wrote California appellate Justice Walter Croskey. […] The case was initiated by the Los [...]
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