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Oh Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Listen and watch this – this – is what good public broadcasting is like. Germaine Greer rocks the Sidney Opera house laying the smack down on Hitchens repeatedly throughout the program. Q&A is a joy to watch, and a feature that needs to be replicated on the CBC.
Oh and Peter Hitchens is an utter douche. :)
Remembrance Day is a conflicted day for me, I have had the absolute luxury of never having to fight in an armed conflict and for that I am grateful.
Conversely, the application of military power is always the sign of the failure of the human spirit when we must resort to destroying nations and people for what is purported to be what is “right”. We must remember all of those who gave their lives and have had their lives taken from them. John Pilgers quote speaks to the merciless nature of war.
During World War One, 10% of all casualties were civilians.
During World War Two, the number of civilian deaths rose to 50%.
During the Vietnam War, 70% of all casualties were civilians.
In the war in Iraq, civilians account for up to 90% of all deaths.
Sobering figures to say the least.
Speaking of participating in Remembrance Day activities, I had a concert yesterday and my choir, called Soldiers Cry. It was special as Roland Majeau came to sing his song with us, he brought his guitar and accompanied us while he sang the solo line. The song is rhythmically very challenging. As you’re sitting there listening, clap your hands softly to find the pulse of the music. Notice that all the lyrics start when your hands are apart. This piece of music has syncopation in spades, making it just a bear to learn.
The second challenge for me is not to think of the damn video while singing, because becoming emotional/getting misty does bad things to your vocal instrument. :/
I’ll apologize now for the disjointed nature of this post. Days like today do much to stir the emotional pot as they raise many conflicting feelings about how we treat the past, and which parts we choose to focus on. Our history contains a staggering amount of violence , every day could be like November 11th for all the people who have unjustly lost their lives during conflict.
I hope that on days like today people understand, even for just a short while. the importance of history and how the past makes our future. Understanding what we have done, and why, is vital in constructing a coherent view of the world.
I’m not sure how many people really get the horror of war and the terrible price we all pay being party to it, but if Remembrance Day awakens a twinge of empathy, a stirring of consideration, even a feeling of “I don’t want that”, then days like this should be considered to valuable and worth continuing.
Update: The concert went very well, we played to a full house and managed to get an encore out of the proceedings. :)
“One of the most pervasive and undisputed gender stereotypes is that men are more aggressive than women. However, this stereotype has, until recently, led researchers to conclude that women are nonaggressive and, therefore, to ignore the topic of female aggression as a distinct phenomenon. The basis of the myth, factors supporting its maintenance, and theories of female aggression are examined. A feminist reinterpretation of aggression that views women’s and men’s aggressive behavior within social structural arrangements that create and sustain differential power relations is presented.”
From the article on Reality Check.
“Abortion is often framed as a mercy bestowed upon a woman who has committed the “crime” of having had sex. Mercy is something that someone else grants you, however, and not something you can simply decide for yourself that you deserve. That’s what people are stabbing at when they say they don’t want women to use abortion “as birth control.” The fear is that a woman might get an abortion without feeling remorseful or may, gasp, even feel like she’s entitled to it without having to apologize or grovel. Basically, people are uneasy with leaving the decision of whether or not an abortion is deserved to the woman seeking it herself. What a lot of people in the gray area between pro- and anti-choice want is for women to have to justify themselves in order to get abortions, even if it’s something as simple as making women feel ashamed of themselves for what they supposedly did wrong.
The problem with that, beyond the inherent sexism of it, is that there’s no real legal way to make women justify themselves, besides maybe making them sign a piece of paper that says, “I’m sorry I was a naughty girl who had sex. Can I please have my abortion now?” Roe v Wade sets things like time limits and Planned Parenthood v Casey says that there can be no “undue burden” to access, but the court decisions that shape abortion law don’t speak to “good” vs. “bad” reasons to have abortions, and for good reason. Abortion is medical treatment. It goes against basic medical ethics to require a patient to argue their moral worth before they are permitted access to health care they require.”
The more I hear about math post schooling, the more interesting it becomes. As a teacher, I’m a bit perplexed as throughout my checkered math learning career all of this cool stuff remained unmentioned. All I remember is the misery and frustration of learning largely esoteric shite, that once ‘mastered’ was quickly purged once test time was over. Anyhow, latent math anxiety aside, enjoy this clip about the weirdness of fractals. :)
Home run…’nuff said.
“FreeXXXpics”.
It’s a search I get all the time, and each and every time it pops up on sitemeter
I want to scream at the top of my lungs.
A few weeks ago I was sitting at my desk sipping gingerly on my hot cup of coffee. I popped into sitemeter to log the searches and there it was again, “FreeXXXpics” my hand trembled and my smile turned into a frown of wrath and fury. What was it about this particular phrase that sent shockwaves through me?
I very nearly threw my coffee cup at the wall that day, so enraged was I by the search. Clearly, this shit was getting to me. Several days later, I took my burnout time but now I’m back again and the phrase is still haunting me. So, this morning amidst the chaos of homeschooling, networking for the rape campaign, researching and so on…
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It is nice every once and awhile see how religious thinking, in this case, opposing contraception (let’s not mention abortion because women in control of their reproductive destinies really is just satanic) looks like if we follow through on the policy.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…