Here's one blogger's take on the new study that found a "fat gene".
the instructions remain the same: “eat less and exercise more”–less and more, respectively, than your naturally thin friend needs to–because it’s still your responsibility to look like naturally thin people. WTF?
...
This article seems to be working very hard to say, “Don’t think this is any excuse, fatties! You still need to burn those pounds off!” instead of, “Everyone would benefit from eating healthy foods and exercising, regardless of whether they lose weight.”
Fortunately, I haven't had to make the decision about whether abortion would be the right option for me. I have thought about abortion enough to know that every person should have the right to choose whether to carry a child inside their body or not. I believe this is a private, personal, medical issue. I don't believe the embryo is a life. It has the potential for life, but please don't make me talk about how sex is not always for procreation (What happens to the potential for life in the case of a blowjob?)
In Canada, necessary medical procedures are paid for by medicare. So my taxes pay for medical procedures of all types for all people and I don't get to decide if those people are worthy of those procedures, or what procedures should be covered. What makes people think abortion is the exception to this? Get your face out of others private, personal, medical decisions!
Here's how abortion is handled in New Brunswick. The following is excerpted from CBC [bolds mine]:
A law professor at the University of New Brunswick says it's almost impossible for women in the province to receive a medicare-funded abortion under current legislation, and that could be easily changed.
Jula Hughes, who participated in the Silent No More: Speak Out For Choice panel discussion at UNB Fredericton Wednesday evening, said the process New Brunswick women must go through to get an abortion takes too long.
...
Right now, the New Brunswick government doesn't pay for abortions past the 12th week of pregnancy. Hughes said meeting the criteria to qualify, and then getting an appointment, usually takes several weeks.
...
Abortion is the only medical procedure in New Brunswick that requires a second opinion before it can be performed, she said.
...
Because there are only two doctors in the province who perform abortions, women who get the two approvals wait another four to six weeks for the actual operation, said Hughes, who noted a lot of women don't discover their unwanted pregnancies until around the sixth week.
Hughes said changes could easily be made to a provincial regulation to reduce wait times for women.
"Specifically, we need to get rid of the schedule that makes abortions non-funded except in those very limited circumstances," she said, referring to Schedule 2(a.1) of Regulation 84-20 of the Medical Services Payment Act.
The two-doctor certification and the limitation on where government-funded abortions can be performed are stipulated in the schedule.
Hughes said the changes to the act could be made through caucus, without going through the legislature.
"It could be done by next Thursday, if the politicians were so inclined."
Hmm, I can't wait to see how this turns out:
Phone companies flood CRTC with deregulation filings
No really, I can't wait to experience greater value and flexible offers from Aliant. Of course, I don't live in Halifax so I guess this doesn't really apply to me. I just want to reiterate how much I think we are getting shafted by the phone companies.....
Aliant filed for deregulation of markets in the Halifax area.
The flood of applications followed the announcement April 4 by Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that he would open competition in local phone markets where there are at least three different carriers in operation, including cellphone providers.
That overruled a CRTC policy that said the existing phone companies would continue to face restrictions in the local phone market unless their competitors had a 25 per cent share of the market.
Bernier said the new policy, which takes effect April 18, would lead to more choice for consumers and lower prices.
That's certainly what the incumbent phone companies were saying Thursday.
"Local service deregulation in Vancouver and Edmonton will bring the full benefits of competition to these cities," said Telus executive vice-president Janet Yale in a statement.
Aliant said its customers "will experience the full benefits of competition, with greater value through increased choice and flexible offers that can be delivered in a more timely manner."
This one's for Ramble. The Consumerist has posts categorized with a Walmart label. Here's a few tidbits to get you started:
Over a week since a national pet food recall involving over 80 name brands, recalled pet food can still be found on Walmart shelves. The pet food has been linked to several pet deaths, and can cause kidney failure.
Walmart refuses to address the plight of Jason Page, whose hand is paralyzed after a bite from a 1.5 foot-long pygmy rattlesnake. Page is the seventh known victim to suffer a snake bite at a Walmart.
12 weeks after t-shirts bearing Nazi insignia were discovered in Walmart, the retailer has yet to remove them from all their stores, despite initial promises to do so within days.
Here's the real deal on why there was Japaneses cartoon porn on Walmart.com, much of it of the homosexual male, or, as its known to connoisseurs,"yaoi" variety.
I want to respond to a comment I received on my Newfoundland post. Here's the entire comment:
Reality: The image of the whitecoat harp seal is used prominently by seal hunt opponents. This image gives the false impression that vulnerable seal pups are targeted by sealers during the commercial hunt.
The hunting of harp seal pups (whitecoats) and hooded seal pups (bluebacks) is illegal – and has been since 1987. Marine Mammal Regulations prohibit the trade, sale or barter of the fur of these pups. The seals that are hunted are self-reliant, independent animals.
Reality: A 2002 independent veterinarians’ report published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal and numerous reports mentioned by the Malouf Commission (1987) indicate that this is not true.
Sometimes a seal may appear to be moving after it has been killed; however seals have a swimming reflex that is active – even after death. This reflex gives the false impression that the animal is still alive when it is clearly dead – similar to the reflex in chickens.
Reality: Hunting methods were studied by the Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing in Canada and it found that the clubbing of seals, when properly performed, is at least as humane as, and often more humane than, the killing methods used in commercial slaughterhouses, which are accepted by the majority of the public.
A 2002 report published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal found that the club or hakapik is an efficient tool designed to kill the animal quickly and humanely.
Sealers in the Magdalen Islands (Gulf of St. Lawrence) and on Quebec's Lower North Shore, where about 25% of the hunt occurs, use both rifles and hakapiks while sealers on the ice floes on the Front (in the waters east of Newfoundland), where 75% of the hunt occurs, primarily use rifles.
Reality: Several factors have contributed to the lack of recovery of Atlantic cod stocks, such as fishing effort, poor growth and physical condition of the fish, and environmental changes.
In addition, there are many uncertainties in the estimates of the amount of fish consumed by seals. The commercial quota is established on sound conservation principles, not an attempt to assist in the recovery of groundfish stocks.
Reality: Since the 1960s, environmental groups have been saying the seal hunt is unsustainable. In fact, the harp seal population is healthy and abundant. A 2004 survey estimated the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population at approximately 5.8 million animals, nearly triple what it was in the 1970s.
DFO sets quotas at levels that ensure the health and abundance of seal herds. In no way are seals - and harp seals in particular – an “endangered species”.
1. Oogie Boogie's Song - Danny Elfman - The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack
2. What Would U Do - Tha Dogg Pound - Natural Born Killers soundtrack
3. Something To Say - George Michael
4. El Cuarto de Tula - Buena Vista Social Club
5. Dolphin's Cry - Live
6. Crawling King Snake - The Doors
7. What's New - Chris Botti
8. See Right Through Me - Mobile
9. The Rock Show - Blink-182
10. Mr. Vain - Culture Beat
Actual headline at Yahoo "Blind hunters in Texas to use laser sights".
Hunting with any type of light was previously forbidden in Texas but there have never been any restrictions on giving hunting licenses to the blind.
I saw the TMNT movie yesterday. My brother and I were big fans when we were kids so we went together. The artistic style/animation was really good. The characters were good. Story was kind of weak. Overall, not a bad movie. But something in it did really bother me.
Here's April O'Neil then:
and now:
I'm pretty sure her arms are too skinny to lift that sword, not to mention her bust/waist ratio.
It reminds me of another makeover. Here's Strawberry Shortcake then:
and now:
Not quite as bad, I guess.
This would be so cool:
A St. John's MP persuaded fellow parliamentarians to support consideration of a
fixed link that would connect northern Newfoundland to the Canadian
mainland.
"I think it would be good for national unity as well," St. John's
East MP Norm Doyle told the House of Commons during a Tuesday night debate.
Here's a post from Echidne that really makes me mad:
Do you remember the big fuss the media made over the 1999 study by Kawachi and others which found that greater gender equality appeared to be correlated with better health for both sexes in the United States? How about the even bigger media fuss caused by the 2005 study by Chen and others which found that gender equality appeared to be correlated with better mental health for women? And surely you remember the excitement in the media last year when we all learned about the Swedish study which showed that both men and women have better health when roles are shared more equally at home?
You don't recall? Neither do I, because there was no such fuss at all. Studies with those findings are not mentioned in the popular media at all or only fleetingly. But when a Swedish study in 2007 suggests that greater gender equality leads to less health for both sexes, what happens? You guessed it. The media is on the study right away:
Warning: feminism is bad for your health
By Roger Dobson Published: 25 March 2007
From my favourite book ever, The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. This is not my favourite part, just kind of a random part that I thought was funny.
"I'm not coming to get you, do you understand? Go down to the taxi-park. Get a cab and come here. If you're not here in ten minutes I'll worry. Jane?"
"Yes?"
"Can you do it?"
"Clovis! Oh, Clovis, black water's coming out of my eyes!"
"Your mascara is running."
"Oh - yes. I forgot I had any on." I laughed.
"Pull yourself together and get a taxi," he said.
Well, I spent all my time last weekend searching for a specific paragraph in a book, because I wanted to post my favourite Tanith Lee excerpt. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that paragraph, which made me so frustrated I haven't posted anything. But I have been thinking about posts.
I have a few things to take care of at home tonight, then I should be back on track. I may settle for an excerpt that is not my favouritist evuh.
A headline from CBC states "Almost 4 out of 5 Canadians believe in global warming: poll".
...
In Alberta, 69 per cent of respondents said they believed in global warming, while in Quebec, the number soared to 83 per cent.
...
The online survey of about 3,600 people found many Canadians — 30 per cent — believed global warming was the top issue for politicians to address, almost as many as the 31 per cent of Canadians who put health care as the top priority.
...
Only 12 per cent of those surveyed viewed global warming as "junk science" and only two per cent believed global warming isn't happening at all.
While former U.S. vice-president Al Gore was in Washington on Wednesday, speaking about the need for action on world climate change, one of his disciples was in Saint John spreading the same message to high school students.
Peter Corbyn, a Fredericton-based professional engineer who was the only Atlantic Canadian out of 500 people trained by Gore as a "Global Warming Messenger," told students at St. Malachy's High School "we dump about 25 million tonnes a day of carbon dioxide into the oceans."
Some designer has chosen 12 year old Dakota Fanning to model his latest women's line. A few people have blogged about it, some here, here and here. They have done a god job of covering the whole 'sexualization of a child thing' so I'll just excerpt Reverse Paranoia:
...while society doesn’t condone pedophilia in practice, media mavens the world around would nevertheless like the idea of fucking a child to get the Masturbation Pedestal Treatment. Specifically, a girl child, since I haven’t seen anyone try to sell women on the idea of rubbing one out to the vapid image of a pre-pubescent boy in tailor-made Versace pants.
...
But conflating the womanly ideal of beauty with actual childhood is something else. Ads are meant to evoke desire: desire to be, or to be with, depending on the viewer. The object of desire, in this case, is a little girl.
...
Thumbsucking, after all, is only 4,764 steps removed from cocksucking. Which is what uswomengirls do best.
This open letter at McSweeney's is hilarious! Here's an excerpt:
I have been a loyal user of your Always maxi pads for over 20 years, and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core™ or Dri-Weave™ absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.
....
Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: "Have a Happy Period."Are you fucking kidding me?
tee hee hee. Go read it all.
Just in case there is anyone out there who thinks we shouldn't be working for change for the equality of women:
In Canada, "women represent almost half the labour force, own 800,000 companies that contribute more than $18 billion to the economy. Women are responsible for 80% of all household consumption decisions, they contribute more than 50% of tax revenues, retirement savings plans and a variety of mutual funds, they make up half of all the graduates in law, administration, and accounting. More than twice as many women as men are in university. We have the most women entrepreneurs per capita in the industrialized world
(Financial Women's Association of Quebec)."
What proportion of women sit in the House of Commons where important decisions are made directly impacting the quality of life for women and their families? The answer is 20.8%.
Is this what equality looks like?
It's too bad that Canada still allows the annual clubbing of baby seals for their fur. The Humane Society of the U.S. and Humane Society International is currently in Newfoundland to report on this cruel hunt.
www.protectseals.org
~Tyler
April 2, 2007 11:33 AM