The Stormy Days of March: Dr. George Tiller Gunned Down In Cold Blood

By a fetus fetishist.
I thought they were against murder. Turns out they’re just against women and people who help them live their lives without pain and fear.
It’s time to treat people who claim that “abortion is murder” like the terrorists they are.
UPDATE

*ahem* ALLEGED murderer found out to be a regular poster at Operation Rescue!

Antigone Magazine: And… we’re back! / Dreams for Women Week 27

Greetings, all! Amanda and Kaitlin are away finishing theses and wrapping up loose ends, so I’ll be posting Dreams for Women postcards from now on (because I rock and am awesome [says Amanda]). Here are some long overdue postcards, as promised. Keep them coming!
A special thanks to Anne Prampart, who made us the beautiful envelope [...]

April Reign: Thank you Conservative Party of Canada

Those of us with children know that there are times when they come across bullies. And we often tell them that bullies are people who having such a terrible life, or being inept at things or feeling badly about themselves seek to hurt others in order to make themselves feel good. Never has such [...]

April Reign: Charges dropped against Kopp

I was surprised to read in yesterdays spectator that charges against the radical anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp had been dropped. I wondered at the time if it had to do with the fact that he is currently serving a life sentence in the States. Today’s article would seem to indicate that that is the [...]

Marginal Notes: Pro-Life Campaign Falsely Linking Abortion with Breast Cancer is OK…Or So Says the U of C’s New VP Academic

In October of 2005, Amy Steele – a notable writer in Calgary – wrote the following piece about a pro-life campaign that misled women to believe that an abortion could cause breast cancer: A campaign by a pro-life group to convince women that there’s a link between having an abortion and getting breast cancer doesn’t have any credible scientific basis, says the Canadian Cancer Society. And the executive director of the Calgary Birth Control Association Sexual and Reproductive Centre, Pamela Krause, questions the motivation behind the campaign. (The campaign) could act as a scare tactic and is not really very…

the black ewe: Michaëlle Jean eats seal heart, makes a dishonest point

Yes, I’m sure I could eat raw heart too, and I imagine it would taste much like sushi – i.e. like not much at all. Fresh as it is, I’m sure just a few bites would contain your RDA in iron and B12 vitamin, in addition to all that good animal protein and blood. Probably [...]

the black ewe: An event of historical proportions

Those aren’t my words – those are from Tom Regan himself, one of the Grand Old Men of the animal rights movement. (Actually, he looks and talks as if he were 50 instead of 70.)
The event he was referring to was the colloquium on animals and the law held in Montreal this past [...]

Marginal Notes: Blood Money

I’ve been watching HBO’s ‘True Blood.’ It is dripping with sex, rage and down-and-dirty life. It is a strange show to watch for someone who receives blood infusions. In the narrative, Japan has invented synthetic blood so vampires have ‘come out of their coffins.’ Synthetic blood is commodified and sold as a beverage called Tru Blood so that vamps can subsist without feeding on humans. Likewise, vampire blood which is acquired by violently draining vampires is sold as an illegal drug called V Juice which seems like an ecstasy and acid kinda combo that makes people hyper-sensitive, euphoric and sexed…

April Reign: Can You Dig it Baby?

A New Zealand couple were shocked to learn their 3 year old had bought an £8000 backhoe while they slept.
Sarah Quinlan told the BBC that she had been looking for toys online, and using an automatic log-in to an auction site.
But a shock was in store when she got up the next day.
“When I [...]

April Reign: No Backyard? No Problem!

I just cannot do without my garden backyard or no backyard. This years garden is off to a good start with a couple of pots of tomatoes a couple of pots of cucumbers and various pots of flowers.
I still have a window box I want to plant with herbs and I need a few more [...]

A Secret Chord: Bursting the Bubble

Points to both the Globe and Mail and the University of Saskatchewan (which has always been one of the best institutions in Canada when it comes to Indigenous peoples’ concerns) for this story here.   The quick summary of the situation is that a woman offered to donate a $250,000 scholarship to the University of Saskatchewan [...]

redjenny: It isn’t surprising…

… that ‘Status Indians’ face threat of extinction, since the Indian Act was implemented specifically for the purpose of eradicating indigenous peoples and culture. Indian Status was designed to reduce the Indian population, a neat solution to the “Indian Problem”.

Within a few generations, it was assumed, the Indian population would nearly disappear. This was ensured through the restrictive nature of Indian Status: an indigenous woman who married a white man lost her status, as did her children, plus if you were enfranchised to vote or got a university education you were no longer considered an Indian.

In the past 40 years there have been many changes to the Indian Act, some positive and some negative, but most aboriginals in Canada are unable to access the benefits of the Act, while dealing with many of the negative consequences of their heritage. Canadians often display an incredible degree of racism, particularly towards aboriginal individuals and groups. Don’t believe me? Just read the comments on the Star article, if you can stomach it.

Personally, I can’t imagine if the government was able to decide for me who I am (legally speaking). Imagine they all of a sudden decreed that only those with two Christian parents could be Christian, or that those women who vote were no longer legally women, or that men who go to university are no longer legally men, or if you have a slice of pizza you are now Italian.

Also see How the Indian Act made Indians act like Indian Act Indians

redjenny: ACTION ALERT: Keep Terminator Seed out of Canada

Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.

What is Terminator? Terminator Technology genetically engineers plants to produce sterile seeds at harvest. It was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the US government to prevent farmers from re-planting harvested seed and force farmers to buy seed each season instead. Terminator seeds have not yet been field-tested or commercialized. In 2006, Monsanto bought the company (Delta & Pine Land) that owned Terminator. Terminator is sometimes called Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) – the broad term that refers to the use of an external chemical inducer to control the expression of a plant’s genetic traits.

Member of Parliament Alex Atamanenko (NDP) has reintroduced his Private Members Bill (C-343) to ban the release, sale, importation and use of Terminator technology.

Actions you can take:
1. Send an instant email at http://www.cban.ca/terminatoraction.
2. Organizations can endorse the call for a ban: go to http://www.banterminator.org/endorse
3. Write a personalized letter. Remember: postage is free to your elected officials! You can use your postal code to search for your MP at http://www.parl.gc.ca (Note: The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois already support a Ban on Terminator in Canada.) For more information see http://www.cban.ca/terminator
4. Distribute Ban Terminator postcards in your community! To order postcards email btpostcards@usc-canada.org
5. Donate to support the campaign — the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network implements the Canadian strategy of the International Ban Terminator Campaign http://www.cban.ca/donate
6. Sign up to Ban Terminator news http://www.banterminator.org/subscribe

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext.5
coordinator@cban.ca, www.cban.ca

Learn more about Terminator Technology here

Via Everdale

A Secret Chord: Solidarity, Empathy and Compassion

I was reading through this thread at the Silence of Our Friends the other day, skimming the comments and thinking about what I might want to add, and came to this quote by Fire Fly:
The point of intersectionality is that we have a stake in each others’ liberation, the point is solidarity. And solidarity can’t [...]

Politics'n'Poetry: Inter Pares – Take Back the Day

Inter Pares – Take Back the Day
CELEBRATE Mother’s Day the way her-story intended: with a little peace and justice.
MOTHER’S DAY was born from the dream of a devoted activist and mother who first organized women into public health brigades, and then founded “Mothers Friendship Day” to reconcile communities torn apart by the U.S. Civil War. [...]

The Stormy Days of March: Crock of the Week: Temperature vs Carbon: Lag? Not so much.

A Secret Chord: ‘Sorrow’ and ‘Sorry’ are not the same thing

This is one of those topics about which I have so much to say that I end up feeling like I can’t say anything at all. This was a few weeks ago now, but being as I was only semi-present at that point I didn’t post anything, and also, it’s one of those topics that [...]

A Secret Chord: The Radical Notion of Not Winning

Once upon a time, I was an extremely competitive person. I still can be when it comes to games, as I’ve repeatedly demonstrated with my pathological unwillingness to give up on a Rock Band song before someone else does, but for the most part, I’ve actually come to hate competition. I don’t mean sports or [...]

A Secret Chord: A little bit of navel-gazing, with apologies

For a good chunk of time, I wasn’t writing here or commenting on others’ blogs because there was literally no room in my schedule for the kind of reading, thinking and processing that it would have required. Within the past few months, my schedule has actually opened up substantially, but I still haven’t been writing. [...]