seryan

Really, just...think before you speak. Unless you know someplace that just started hiring and you want to tell me about it, I've probably heard it before.

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The local transit service has been talking about going on strike since March. They promised to give ten day's notice before striking. This morning, the city locked them out 'indefinitely', but were promising to pick up the cab fare of anyone 'stranded at a bus stop'. Of course, you had to read either their Twitter or the news entry on CBC (possibly canadaeast.com as well - everything's behind a paywall now) to find that out before you left the house. It may have been on the cancellation notices that were put up in the bus shelters - I don't think they were at just the plain stops, only the shelters, or at least I didn't see any on signposts on my cab ride in - but I didn't get as far as the bus-stop-with-shelter I usually use to read it. Steve called me to tell me about it before I left the house, and I just called a cab on my own.

I checked their Twitter and there is an entry there mentioning that they're setting up a taxi chit system to subsidize travel costs. Their site just suggests things like walking or biking (well, if you can do either of those things...), carpooling with coworkers (can be hard on people who work shifts), or using ride sharing websites (I - would not want to give my info to a stranger online like that).  They're also encouraging employers to consider letting employees work from home, have flexible hours, etc. Yeah, well...I don't have a whole lot of faith in that, honestly. I can't help feeling that the people hit hardest by this will be the ones whose employers pretty much say "yeah, you're replaceable". Happened during the Halifax bus strike. I'm fortunate in that I can either ride in with Steve in the morning or walk.

I'm not sure who to be more annoyed with here, the transit union or the city. I think I'll settle on being evenly annoyed with both.

When searching for a name on a wall plaque, Ctrl+F will not help you no matter how many times you make the motion in the air. *facepalm*

Likewise, Ctrl+Z won't undo that thing you just wrote down, on paper, with a pen.

Dr. Seuss book banned from class for being too 'political'

A BC school board had the Dr. Seuss book Yertle the Turtle banned after a teacher displayed a quote from the book. The horrible, political, divisive quote in question? 

"I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here on the bottom, we, too, should have rights."

One, I doubt kids are reading that deeply into a Dr. Seuss book: kids are smart - they're little learning machines - but how often have you picked up something you read as a child and gone "Wow, I so did not see that as a kid"? Even if they do, what the hell is the problem with enforcing the idea of equal rights from a young age? I must be 'too political' because I don't think there is one.

I suppose the teacher should just be grateful she didn't choose something from "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins". I mean, that book is all about defying authority, right?

Should charities lose their status for protesting? - Your Community
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I don't even have anything coherent to say about such a blatant attempt at muzzling. I'm just too disgusted. PLEASE can we have another election now, and a not-Harper government?!

Petition to oppose HB 1 and HB 426 in Virginia, the personhood and  forced ultrasound amendments respectively.

One thing I conjectured in my last post on this was that women would be required to pay for the ultrasound. I was, unfortunately but not unsurprisingly, correct. Even more disgusting, it doesn't require your consent: if you choose abortion, you must have an unnecessary and invasive procedure performed, whether you consent to it or not.

State-Sanctioned Rape: Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Laws in Virginia, Texas, and Iowa | RH Reality Check

I can't even begin to think what purpose this could possibly serve. To make a woman realize she's pregnant? I think requesting an abortion is proof she's quite aware of that. Out of some misguided belief that the request for an abortion is a matter of - in the repellent words of Republican State Delegate Todd Gilbert - "lifestyle convenience"? Are all women requesting abortions then women who just want their lives to be easier? I hardly think so. Or out of the equally misguided belief that once the woman sees the fetus she'll want to  carry it to term? I doubt it's occurred to the proponents of this bill that it may not be a matter of desire or lack of desire, but of the realization that you are not willing, stable enough, or able for a variety of reasons to carry a pregnancy to term or to raise a child. 

Every single one of these points ties back into what is really at the root of the anti-choice movement: the belief that women are not equal, that we cannot make rational decisions for ourselves, and instead we must be guided. Actually, let's be completely honest and us a stronger word: we must be controlled. 

This law will not, of course, affect women who have the means and ability to go out of state to obtain their abortions. Poor women likely will not have that option. 

I couldn't find anything that says whether or not women will have to pay for these ultrasounds, or if they will be covered by the state. Let's assume the former, as that's likely what's going to happen. Rape victims who have conceived and chosen to abort will be violated again. Poor women will not be able to afford abortions, thus raising their children in poverty if they do not give them up for adoption and enforcing the cycle of poverty.

Here again we see the core of the anti-choice movement: punishment. "You were a bad girl* and got pregnant when you shouldn't have. Should have kept your legs closed/not asked for it. Now you have to pay."

*I use the word 'girl' because laws such as this are so purely infantalizing I refuse to believe its proponents think of adult human females as 'women'.

If the anti-choice movement were as pro-life as it claims, there are dozens of other routes it could take: improving accessibility to affordable, effective birth control; working for pay parity and pay equity to increase women's economic standing; comprehensive contraceptive education; lobbying for subsidized daycare and social programs to help low-income families and single parents, and more. They do not do this, and it puts the lie to their 'pro-life' rhetoric in big red letters all the world should see.

This isn't about life. It never was, and it never has been. This is about control, and punishment. No more, no less.

Straight Goods - NB stalls pay equity


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More information on pay equity in New Brunswick is available at: http://www.equite-equity.com/home.cfm

I'm hardly surprised at this, especially after the current government cut funding to the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Pay equity was promised years ago, and only Dieppe has actually implemented it. Not only is this unjust and grossly unfair to child care, home support, transition house, and community residence workers, etc., the fact that these are areas traditionally staffed by women gives the government's continued stalling a nasty taste of "there there, dear, of course we'll look after your little problem." All that's missing is the pat on the head.

I don't mean Addams. I mean the actual day. Lessee...

Woke up over an hour before the alarm because something was making a noise. A soft beeping, every few minutes. It took me a moment to realize it was the low battery alarm on my cell phone. I get up and go to turn the fool thing off, fumbling around in my bag in the dark because Morning Brain doesn't cope well with, well, mornings. Pull it out to see the keyboard lock is off, and the thing has self-dialed 666. In shades of red, no less. I mutter something at it, and shut it off because the charger is in the bedroom and I'd have to turn the light on to find it, before stumbling back to bed.

Never did get it plugged in to charge, nor did I remember to bring the charger with me. So I have no cell phone. Which would normally be fine, as it rings so seldom I don't actually recognize what the noise is when it does. But today would probably be the day, and it'd probably be something I needed to know right away. (Or, you know, the caller thinks it is. Whichever.)

Later, I hear an awful cracking/crashing sound coming from the bathroom. Steve dropped the soap dispenser, and the impact broke a chunk out of the already cracked sink. It has been cracked for sometime, but home repairs are one area where the whole marriage thing goes from co-op into versus. (I say "'X' is damaged, we should repair/replace it." He says "It'll be fine so long as you use it carefully/jury-rig it in some way that is more time intensive than an actual replacement/do a dance to appease the spirits beforehand." Okay, maybe that last is exaggeration. Not by much, though.) Of course, he can't just say "we have to replace the sink", preferably with a "you were right" in there somewhere. No. There is a lengthy diatribe about how it'll be expensive, and we might have to hire a plumber (no, I'm pretty sure I can connect up pipes and taps) and oh, we also have to replace my nice ceramic soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, etc. with plastic so this doesn't keep happening. 

You know. Instead of him being careful with the ones we have. Or, maybe, not buying the cheapest sink on the market (thanks, previous homeowners!) Or some combination of both. Note that the ceramic soap dispenser is still in one quite solid piece.

I go out to catch the bus. Oh look, Almost Winter* is here! I can tell because instead of just raining, it's cold and raining with a driving wind that makes umbrellas useless. Forget colorful trees in bright sunshine and happy crunching through piles of leaves. Fall in Atlantic Canada is RAIN. And the bus is slightly late. Thankfully, there is a shelter. Thankfully, I don't have to walk to work in all weather, like it or not, because I'm too broke to afford the bus/the bus doesn't actually conveniently go near where I need to be at a sensible time. And I didn't get stuck in traffic for half an hour like one of my coworkers did.

*There are four seasons in Canada: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.

So yeah, it could be a lot worse. I've certainly had worse days. But still. It's not starting out well. 

I've known intravox for years - well over a decade, actually. I've known about the Flying Spaghetti Monster since 2006 at least.

Somehow, I never told her about it. She only found out about it today.

I just - what? How did I miss doing that? I mean, if she were a particularly devout follower of any religion or belief system, I can see how I might have avoided bringing it up so as not to offend her. But she has roughly the same outlook on religion I do. It's exactly the kind of thing you'd think I'd tell her about at the first opportunity.

The only thing I can think of is that it came to my attention during one of the times we were out of contact (because we go through phases of being terrible at keeping in touch) or it was difficult to make contact (work schedules, computer issues, time differences - while my perpetually broke-ass self stays put, my friends travel the world and bring me presents! ^_^). Because otherwise, seriously self, what the hell?