I spent the last week touring around Alberta. Gull Lake Campground, Dinosaur Provincial Park then Drumheller. Stettler, Camrose, Wetaskawin’s Reynolds Museum, and WEM.
Continue readingTag: Alberta
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Melisa Foster points out why millennials should be strongly interested in a national pharmacare program:Today, young Canadians are searching for jobs in an economy with high levels of precarious employment, unemploym…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- David Dayen highlights the treatment of workers as the most fundamental difference between Scandinavian countries which have achieved both prosperity and social justice, and the U.S. and others which have sacrif…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: How to Solve a Problem like Internal Trade Barriers?
The updated agreement on internal trade, which had been moving along nicely, has hit a snag. Negotiators had wanted to open up all government procurement (meaning, not allowing any preferential treatment for local contractors). Alberta has asked to be allowed to require 20% local employment in government procurement. The other feature that is particularly troublesome is […]
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: What President Obama said about Canada, Alberta and Climate Change
During his address to the Canadian Parliament on June 29, 2016, United States President Barack Obama singled out Alberta as a leader in the fight against climate change. Here is the excerpt from his speech where he spoke about climate change:… Conti…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Andrew Leach’s after-the-fact addendum to his review of Alberta’s climate change policy offers an important reminder as to the costs of inaction on climate change – and the message is one which applies equall…
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bishops and Reality
Seldom do Alberta’s Bishops allow reality to interfere with their preconceived ideas. In fact, where Calgary’s Bishop Henry is concerned, the idea of reality seems to exist in another dimension entirely where LGBT rights are concerned. In his latest tirade, carrying the grandiose title “TOTALITARIANISM IN ALBERTA IV“, is so
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bishops and Reality
Despite the differing signage, ranging from “Flush Bill 10” to “Everyone Can Pee,” the issues are not just about bathrooms, plumbing and urination, parental rights, safety of children, how people feel, GSAs and an imperfect Bill 10. What is at stake is the very order of creation. (emphasis added)
Apparently, protecting LGBT youth in Alberta schools is now such a profound threat to the Bishop that it now represents an existential threat to the world itself! Wow … I had no idea that LGBT, and in particular Trans, kids were so powerful.
Mr. Eggen’s guiding principle for best practices is: “self-identification is the sole measure of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” This foundational statement is simply assumed to be true and no evidence is offered to substantiate the claim.
Such subjectivity is ever expansive and morally problematic. LGBT has now swelled to LGBTTQQIAAP2S. … The newest addition is the “2S” which denotes being two-spirited, a term used for one who does not fit into the male/female binary. Some have even added “BDSM” for those into bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism.
Oh yes, the dreaded “slippery slope” argument. Of course recognizing that human sexuality and expression is far more diverse than the simple male/female missionary model that the Bishop seems so hung up on would collapse – a reality that most of us have figured out the hard way.
However, facts, not ideology, determine reality. On April 6, 2016, the American College of Pediatricians, representing more than a hundred pediatricians, issued an important statement concerning gender ideology … The College’s statement meshes perfectly with biblical and theological truths.
Let’s look at this for a moment. “Biblical and theological truths” is a key phrase in here. Let me be abundantly clear about something. In spite of the Bishop’s protestations, we are not talking about biblical or theological notions of truth here. Bill 10 and the guidelines that came down earlier this year are not about those issues at all – they are about protecting children and creating a safe environment for them. For all that the Bishop may wish to blather on about “biblical truth”, the fact is that he is miles offside here, because there is clear evidence that providing safe, secure environments that acknowledge the realities of LGBT youth provide better outcomes for their education. (There’s a lot more like this) From the pulpit, the Bishop is free to spout whatever he wishes, but when it comes to objective realities, the facts contradict everything he is saying.
Pope Francis, “the who am I to judge” Pope, has not minced his words: “the gender ideology is demonic.” He includes gender theory among the fundamental dangers of our era, with the same threatening potential as nuclear weapons and gene manipulation and describes it as an attitude with which man creates a new sin that is directed against God the Creator.
I love this. The political right wing has started to use the language of “gender ideology” in its attacks on gender minorities. Seriously? Lovely attempt at trying to obfuscate the discussion by inventing terminology. Rather than admitting that they are objecting to equality rights for transgender people (which means you have to admit that you are advocating for discriminatory practices), the Bishop borrows a meaningless piece of verbiage and uses it hoping that we won’t notice the sleight of hand.
“Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension to cancel out sexual differences because one no longer know how to deal with it.”
Really? I wonder if either the Bishop or the Pope realize that most transgender people experience significant levels of dysphoria from the outset? That for some, the only option for a viable life is to transition? Many spend years trying desperately to “accept” the lot that they have been given, only to find that they are perpetually unable to do so. It isn’t merely “accepting their bodies”, most have struggled for years to achieve that, and failed.
Bishop Henry might want to actually get to know the realities that transgender people face, the struggles of their lives and how his hostility to them affects their lives before making grandiose pronouncements about how they should be “treated” in his judgment.
The Cracked Crystal Ball II: Bishops and Reality
Seldom do Alberta’s Bishops allow reality to interfere with their preconceived ideas. In fact, where Calgary’s Bishop Henry is concerned, the idea of reality seems to exist in another dimension entirely where LGBT rights are concerned. In h…
Continue readingKudos to Wildrose (the Fildebrandt story, part two)
In my last post I criticized Wildrose financial critic Derek Fildebrandt for his boorish insulting of visiting Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in the Alberta legislature on Thursday. I concluded by suggesting the Wildrose leader should have a talk with his loutish colleague. Well, I give Wildrose credit, they took action.
Continue readingKudos to Wildrose (the Fildebrandt story, part two)
In my last post I criticized Wildrose financial critic Derek Fildebrandt for his boorish insulting of visiting Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in the Alberta legislature on Thursday. I concluded by suggesting the Wildrose leader should have a talk with …
Continue readingKudos to Wildrose (the Fildebrandt story, part two)
In my last post I criticized Wildrose financial critic Derek Fildebrandt for his boorish insulting of visiting Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne in the Alberta legislature on Thursday. I concluded by suggesting the Wildrose leader should have a talk with …
Continue readingDerek Fildebrandt outdoes his usual boorish self
That all too many of our politicians all too often behave boorishly in our legislatures is an unfortunate fact of life and politics. A recent incident in the House of Commons focused international attention on the antics of its members. Not to be outdone by his federal counterparts, Wildrose financial
Continue readingDerek Fildebrandt outdoes his usual boorish self
That all too many of our politicians all too often behave boorishly in our legislatures is an unfortunate fact of life and politics. A recent incident in the House of Commons focused international attention on the antics of its members. Not to be out…
Continue readingDerek Fildebrandt outdoes his usual boorish self
That all too many of our politicians all too often behave boorishly in our legislatures is an unfortunate fact of life and politics. A recent incident in the House of Commons focused international attention on the antics of its members. Not to be out…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Alberta’s Bill 10 – The protest, the needed revision.
The debate over respecting the boundaries of females has spilled over the border and has galvanized protests at the Alberta legislature. “Both were there as participants in two similar, yet very different, rallies scheduled only an hour apart. The crux of both protests was the controversial Bill 10. The first one took place to support trans rights while the second was organized […]
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Is Stephen Harper Preparing To Return From The Dead?
I seems hard to believe it could happen with Stephen Harper in such a dilapidated condition.But a strange story has been circulating in the political cemetery where the Cons hang out these days.And it would have Stephen Harper rising from the dead.And …
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Double Standards
Eeeevil Lefties: ‘This is a disaster. We should aim to prevent future disasters. What went so wrong?’ Rawlco: “it will be positive and it will go a long way to mitigating Alberta’s downturn.” He’s a story about how people survived north of the Fort Mac wildfire. 39. They can safely evacuate 25,000 people from a […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Head In The Tarsand
When an out of control fire roars toward you, it’s totally fine to stick your head (and the rest of you) into the sand, in a fireproof shelter preferably. After the fire passes, you’ve got to come out and ask what the heck happened, and why. Facebook has been bustling with people talking about the […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Trudeau on Forest Fire Tragedy
The Prime Minister spoke about forest fires’ connection to climate change at a community affected by a massive evacuation due in part to climate change. “The reality of climate change is that we’re going to see more and more extreme weather events and we need to make sure that as a country we’re properly equipped […]
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