Although anyone who reads my blog for about three seconds would probably be able to do a pretty good job of pigeonholing me and my politics fairly quickly, there are a few positions where I’m probably not your typical lefty (whatever that is!)
For example, many on the left are seen as proponents of political correctness and “sensitive” language. (My all-time favourite example was when a writer called my office and asked for my boss. “I’m manning the office today” I answered. “Well, maybe you’re womaning the office?” the writer replied. (Actually, I’m sure she would’ve wanted it spelled out “womyning”! 😉 to which all I could reply is “Uhm, no, pretty sure I’m manning the office.”)
Anyhow, I’m generalizing pretty heavily in this post (never a good thing) but I do tend to dislike politically correct language as much as I dislike the offensive, hateful language that PC proponents are trying to eliminate. In my view (echoed by a recent column by Margaret Wente at the G&M), there should be tolerance for all types of language and people should be treated as adults and trusted to make up their own minds as to what to listen to and believe.
It reminds me of how many people were worked up in a lather because Sun-TV (aka Fox News North) was going to be licensed for carriage in Canada. “Hate speech!” “Legalized stupidity!” and so on. Personally, I was all for that channel being allowed into Canada (and from what I’ve seen of it so far, it’s low-budget production values indict the message as much as anything being said on air!)
I don’t know – maybe a post I can expand on during Freedom to Read week in February but I’ve been sitting on that column for awhile and wanted to link to it as it captured much of how I see the debate as well.
I’m planning to post a month of Music Monday Xmas tunes, starting with this great atheist-themed Christmas song originally posted by my friend Cenobyte last year on Facebook or her blog (I don’t think I ended up posting it last year but if I did, it’s worth listening to again!)
Pace had two Christmas parties today – one at his karate club from 1-3pm and one at the library from 2-4pm. Due to good scheduling by all involved, we were able to participate in Santa visits at both locations.
Pace has already been apprised of the fact that Santa, although magical and mystical in all ways, still does not have the power to be in two places at once. So he also has “helpers” who are humans that fill in for him at parades, malls and occasionally Christmas parties (“but don’t say anything about helpers in front of any other kids because some kids don’t know that Santa uses helpers.” Really? “Yep, you’re in on the inside here, kiddo!” Okay!)
Here’s a couple shots of the respective Santa “helpers” we encountered today. Strangely, Pace didn’t glean onto the fact that, you know, one of them brought a whole extra person along for the ride as the big difference between them.
But he did notice that one wore glasses and one didn’t and our repeated explanations that sometimes his mom wore glasses and sometimes wore contacts (dad never wears contacts) didn’t sway him so he knew for certain…well, that at least one of these was a helper. Probably… Maybe… Hmm…
Movember is over and here’s the first and final shot of my ‘stash. (I am so happy to have proved my body produces testosterone!)
Thanks to all of my family, friends, classmates, work colleagues and others who donated (and you still can!)
My modest initial fundraising goal was $100 but after I enter a few extra donations that came in from a last minute push on Facebook and at work, I will have raised over $500!
I don’t know if I’ll do it again next year but Pace now has those funny photos of his dad with a stash, Shea has her 2011 husband back and there’s a bit more money for research for a type of cancer that’s touched my family personally.
Movember is almost over (full details tomorrow) and that’s got me thinking about how generous people can be. My initial fundraising goal was $100 as I had no idea how much people might give (or how many people.) But when all is said and done, I’ll have raised over $500!
Everybody will have a different approach for how they respond to the numerous requests you encounter for donations – some will only give to causes they believe in while others will only give to people they have a personal connection with. Some may not give anything to anyone – either because it can add up so quickly to do so or otherwise. On the other hand, some will try to give something to everyone.
I’m sort of in that last camp but not completely. When the various requests come out at RPL (which is the main place I get hit up for money but obviously not the only one), I try to give $5 or $10 to every request (or buy what’s being sold as long as it’s not much more than $10. That rule applies whether it’s for a farewell gift for a retiring employee or a charitable cause – be it cancer research or someone selling chocolates for their kids. If it’s something where I get the full value of what I’m buying (gift cards, coupon books) or more, I have been known to spend $50 or even $100.
There are two main reasons I do this – as a librarian, I’m one of the highest paid employees at the library and also in a personal financial situation where this isn’t a hardship. It’s also good karma (as perhaps evidenced by the reciprocal support I got with my own request?)
I don’t make judgements (or at least I try not to) about people who don’t donate or follow a similar rule as, like I said, everybody has their own reasons why or why they don’t donate. (One person said they would’ve donated to me but someone else got their Movember donation already. Someone else said their family allots their charitable dollars at the start of the year as part of their family budgetting so they don’t get caught up in all the “little” requests which can leave you with a “big hole”. On the other hand, someone told me they don’t give to all requests but since their family had been touched by cancer, they always gave to cancer charity requests like mine. Someone said they liked that I sent out my request with a humourous message about Pace needing funny pictures of his dad and others found this touching as they had their own fond memories of their dad’s moustaches.)
The reasons are as varied as the people who you know in your life and in the end, it’s all good!
On Reddit, there’s a sub-Reddit called AskReddit where people can ask others in the community pretty much anything and everything. Today, bored in her physics class, one Redditor posed a somewhat risque question asking if there were any otherwise mundane things that made people horny and mentioned that, for maybe it was the time of day, the gender imbalance or the talk of electromagnetic waves but her early morning physics class did this for her.
At this point, you (and I) are probably suspecting this is a set-up – either two friends staging a wild coincidence to gain the worthless yet valued “karma” that Redditors earn by posting cool/unique/interesting/useful information. Or maybe that it’s a couple students in psychology, not physics, doing some sort of online experiment about community, trust and uhm, horniness.
Both have promised to take a photo together when the class next meets on Friday and others, also at Ohio State, have planned an informal Reddit “Meet-up” outside the classroom on that same day!
Agribition is one of the biggest agricultural fairs in the world and therefore, a big part of Saskatchewan life and economy.
Pace’s cousin’s uncles and grandpa were showing cattle at the show so Shea took Pace down to take in the sights (and smells!) Luckily, Pace didn’t scratch his nose and buy a bison like Rick Mercer was worried he might do. Pace did, however, get to shovel some “banure”…
