Happy Fourth of July!

To all my American friends out there, enjoy this day to celebrate your country and its ideals.

Some Days . . .

It's only 7:17am and there is a lot wrong with the world this morning. First, we have this response to Warren Kinsella's recent Post article about the sex trade and those who advertise it:

"We see no contradiction in supporting women's rights while allowing women to advertise sexual services."

There's a pretty blatantly inherent contradiction between claiming to be supporting womens' rights and supporting an industry that systemically denies and represses womens' rights. I have a really hard time reconciling that statement, is there anybody who can plausibly and legitimately argue that womens' rights are advanced by prostitution? Hint: don't bother trying, because you can't.

Second, I'm waiting at the bus stop because at 6am my legs are tired from walking to the hospital and I just don't have the energy to walk back home. So I'm sitting there and there's some large dude standing there singing along to his DiscMan about "the land of the gang-bangers." I now know what my brain looks like because my eyes rolled that far back into my head.

Third, we have this. My heart literally sank when I read this story. Is there really such a lack of appreciation, respect, and national pride amongst our people that someone--three someones--would actually urinate on a memorial to the Canadians that gave their lives in foreign wars? Did they think it was humourous to piss on the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of young men and women who gave their lives so that these little pricks could live in freedom? The Post also has a story on this, featuring the following excerpt with which I completely agree:

David McGuinty, the MP for Ottawa South, did not mince words on the appropriate punishment for those caught urinating, whom he called “the worst of the worst that society has to offer.”
“You want to grab them by the hair or by the ears and walk them through the War Museum, to understand just how despicable and disrespectful that kind of conduct is,” he said, adding, “You cannot attribute this to drunkenness.”

Here's my recommendation for what should happen when these ungrateful people (and I use the term loosely) are tried: make them spend two weeks in military training so that they have a little more respect for what Canadian soldiers do. I'm sure that current Forces trainers would see to it that these young men emerge with a little more appreciation for those who came before us.

I haven't even had breakfast yet and that's three things that really just make me wonder. Maybe I should just write this one off and go back to bed.

Update: in another display of "great minds think alike," Joanne (True Blue) has also posted on this topic. We're in the midst of haggling over who did first, though. :)