Angry in the Great White North has been one of my favorite blogs for some time, as Angry himself is such a level headed and well-thought-out kind of guy.

Without boring you, and making you think that this is a one-trick pony blog, I will once again address the same sex marriage issue.

The legitimacy of a government derives from one thing and one thing only: the power to collect taxes, Democracy, dictatorship, theocracy, oligarchy, kakistocracy, monarchy -- the differences are irrelevant to the question of legitimacy. What matters is that there is one recognized authority that has the power to compel the people living within some defined geographic area to pony up a portion of their wealth, on demand. That power in turn comes from maintaining a monopoly of violence. When that monopoly is employed to generate tax revenue, you have "government".

If the government can no longer collect taxes, or is unwilling or unable to punish those who defy the government's power to levy and collect taxes, the legitimacy of the government is in question. No one is going to care if the government upholds the law on same-sex marriage -- well, not many people, anyway. But everyone is affected by taxes, and if the government is seen to be unable to exercise its power to tax, the government falls.

But our government will not allow that to happen. Power at all costs, after all. Which means they will attempt to employ force (though without a military that will be difficult). Churches will break with the rest of society, the faithful may refuse to pay any taxes at all, and essential services will break down. It sounds insane and far-fetched, but it may come to this.

While I do not want to live in a society that is run wholly by the church (after all, that would turn us into a Christian version of Iran), I am also unwilling to live in a country that does not provide the basic freedom of religion that is so important to democracy. There is nary a democratic country that does not support the tax-exempt status of churches and recognized religions, and if Canada strips that away, it will officially be a communist country. And as we all know, communism doesn't work anywhere but on paper, and it leads to chaos and oppression.

The first lawsuits to challenge the church are coming. Will you stand up for freedom, or lay down for communism?

When I finally calmed down and went to bed last night, this thought popped into my head.

If a homosexual couple subscribes to a particular faith (which some do, be it Judaism, Christianity, or even Islam in the case of a friend of mine), they now currently have, from the Charter:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.

Freedom of conscience and religion is a Fundamental Freedom in the Charter.

Okay. So that couple now wants to get married, which legally (thanks to last night) they can do. They decide to get married in their place of worship, despite the fact that their faith does not condone homosexuality. The church argues that they have the right to refuse to marry the couple. The couple argues that they have a right to practice their faith, and the right to be married.

What happens? Can the couple take the church to court? If so, can they win?

It's all well and good for the government to say they protect the rights of religious institutions (and this government is known for keeping its word, right?), but what if we suddenly see a wave of homosexiuals who have found faith? Or some version of faith, anyway, since very few main religions support that lifestyle? Do these homosexuals have the right to be married in their churh, or do they - as a community - need to create their own religion to suit their needs? Highly unlikely they'd be willing to do that, since they were unwilling to even produce a new word to represent the union of two people of the same gender.

Bush's speech was good. CNN moaned about how there was nothing new. Well, there wasn't supposed to be. The President was coming out to say he wasn't going to change anything, and why. So what did they expect.

Love him or hate him, he stands by what he says.

Gay marriage is now a legal human right in Canada. My country has made a mockery of the foundation of civilization - the union between a man and a woman for the purpose of caring for their offspring.

More devastatingly, the amendment to Bill C-38 which would have given additional protection to religious institutions against being forced to perform gay marraiges some day (and that day will come, mark my words) was voted against. The parliamentarians who voted against that amendment have all but come out (so to speak) and decreed war on religion in Canada.

Because that's what communists do. Imagine no religion...

Joe Comuzzi has left his position as Minister of state for northern Ontario economic development, and now sits on the back bench, in protest over the impending passage of the same sex marriage bill.

Read more, over at The Shotgun.

From the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, (Messrs. George, D’Alessandro, Desmarais, Lamarre, Morgan and Nixon are the chief executives respectively of Suncor Energy Inc., Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., EnCana Corporation and Royal Bank of Canada.)

A flurry of highly publicized corporate scandals in recent years triggered widespread demands for new rules and tougher enforcement. Market forces also have been at work, often driving change further and faster than governments. As business leaders, we are the first to admit that the job of restoring public trust in private enterprise is far from complete. But by working together, governments, regulators, institutional investors, professional bodies, financial markets and the directors and executives of individual companies have within a remarkably short time transformed Canadian corporate governance practices. These practices stand as among the best in the world.

The federal sponsorship scandal has become the symbol of the need for an equally sweeping transformation of public governance. What Prime Minister Paul Martin has called Canada's "democratic deficit" demands action on at least two levels.

First, public governance reforms must mirror those that have taken place within the private sector in strengthening transparency and accountability. In the private sector, CEOs and CFOs are now required to certify that each of our reports fairly reflects the state of our business, that everything in the report is true, that nothing has been left out that might make what is said misleading and that we are aware of all material facts. We would suggest that governments consider comparable ways to strengthen the personal responsibility and accountability of ministers and deputy ministers.

Second, there is an urgent need to reshape the relationships among Canada's governments. The flexibility of a federal governance structure can be a competitive advantage, but inter-governmental relations in Canada have become dominated by an endless argument over the so-called fiscal imbalance: recurring surpluses at the federal level at a time when many provinces are struggling to stay afloat in the face of dramatically rising health care costs. This has led to a tangled web of one-off and asymmetrical deals that has sent public spending skyrocketing while reducing accountability to taxpayers.

Looks like even the Desmarais family has had enough of the shenanigans in our government. The Liberal Party is about power and money. Much of that money is coming from businesses across Canada, and it's a harsh indictment if CEOs of major corporations are coming out to say enough is enough.

Hat tip to Angry.

I found a new blog today. Whee! Check out Aizlynne (you may have seen her around various comment sections on other blogs) on Exposed Agenda. She has a great post here about same sex marriage and it's family ramifications, which is relevent because it looks like we may have it as early as tonight.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Aizlynne. The more the merrier.

I've got those happy feet this morning! Must be a Tuesday. The girls of the Cotillion are all up early, having their hair done. Be sure to tell them they're pretty (especially after they've had a few glasses of punch!).

Hosting this week are Rightwingsparkle, from Texas. Aahhh, I remember Texas fondly. Flat, straight roads with almost no speed limit. Drag racing the boys in the blue pickup truck from gas station to gas station through the state. They didn't know it was a girl behind the wheel - I was going too fast!

Maxed Out Mama (and what mama doesn't feel maxed out at some point?) brings us a real Georgia cotillion. I don't remember Georgia with the same warm nostalgia as I have for Texas. Try staying in Atlanta - where you've never been before, and don't know your way around - and ask for directions you your hotel at the corner of Peachtree and Peachtree! I was weeping two hours later, when I finally found it.

Sondra K is hosting from Knowledge is Power. I decline to comment, because it's far too early for knowledge. Give it an hour, and a couple of cups of coffee!

And Not a Desperate Housewife brings us the remaining gals of the Cotillion. Oh, how we've grown! From about 20-odd (very odd, some more than others) girls getting together to see what would happen if they shook up a boring Tuesday with a party, we've grown to over forty now. I hope there's still enough boys to dance with all of us.

See you at the Cotillion!

It is said that everyone is Irish on March 17th. Does that mean everyone is gay for Pride Weekend? The Toronto Pride festival is in full swing (pun intended), with the parade kicking off in about half an hour. Although, nothing is ever on time. Back in my fag-hag days, I deliberately had to tell the boys to meet me half an hour before I actually intended to show up. There was EST (Eastern Standard Time) and FST (Fag Standard Time), which like Newfoundland, ran about 30 minutes behind everyone else.

I was a regular along the Montreal parade route almost every year. It was a helluva party, with lots of eye candy (if you didn't look to closely at some of the women), and I always had friends who were part of the show. Last year for Pride we met up with some friends who came to Toronto from Montreal. Nice brunch, but we skipped the parade to go to a baseball game. Too bad, too. The parade would have been much more fun (sorry, y'all, but I'm just not into baseball).

This year I'm skipping the parade for two reasons. The main one is purely aesthetic. It's friggin hot out there! I plan to spend the day by the pool, not packed in like sardines along the route downtown. Gay boys wear too much cologne as a rule, and I swear I would pass out in this heat from it.

And I'm staying away because this year there is an air of a political standoff running through this city like an electrical undercurrent. Pride started off 25 years ago as a protest against discrimination. It quickly turned into a festival, open to all who wanted to be a part of it (including me). But this year, it is almost a snubbing of noses, since the participants who come in from all over North America and beyond are mostly here to celebrate the fact that Canada will be swallowing same sex marriage as early as tomorrow. I daresay it will be one of the more bitter things being swallowed this Pride Weekend.

The colourful parade follows yesterday's 10th annual Dyke March, where several lesbian couples took the opportunity to tie the knot.

One of those couples was Ann Hudson and Paula Kruse, both of Denver, Colo., who read their vows in front of throngs of strangers, at a ceremony they could not have in their home country.

The first stop for the newlyweds was the Dyke March.

"We just thought it would be great to get married and then hop right into the Dyke March," Kruse told the Toronto Star.

So on this weekend of Pride, us heterosexual couples who have taken the vows of marriage (civil or religious) will hide in our homes. The tables have turned, and we are now the excluded ones. Men and women have inhernet differences: Men pee standing up, and women can't parallel park. It's a fact of life. Gays and straights have differnces too: You leave my marriage alone, and I'll stay out of your bath house (or group therapy, for the gay ladies among us).

But according to the [Peel District School] board's Issue Paper #6 on Heterosexism, (a discussion paper and resource for teachers and school administrators, which flows from their Fall 2002 policy document, The Future We Want), homophobia is, in common usage, "the fear of having intimate relationships with persons of the same sex."

The paper further expounds, "Many people are not homophobic but have a strong heterosexual bias. The effect on gay/lesbian/bisexuals is similar."

If by "intimate" the paper means physically intimate, I must admit that while not fearful of having such a relationship with another woman, I have no desires in that direction whatsoever. My heterosexual attractions are strong ones. But I had no idea that my sexual preferences were having any effect on gay/lesbian/bisexuals.

So there you have it: I don't sleep with my girlfriends and I've been happily married to the same wonderful guy for almost 20 years. That, apparently, makes me both biased, and a homophobe.

I used to have a t-shirt that said Normal is Boring. Now, apperntly, normal is bad. It's, well, abnormal.

In the words of Issue Paper #6, "we live in a society that deems heterosexuality as the norm." This is a problem, the paper's authors imply, "whether or not most of us consciously recognize it as a problem."

A problem???

I'm one of the ones that missed it. I've always thought heterosexuality was "the norm." The paper even quotes statistics that point to 90 per cent of the population being heterosexual. But now I learn that considering something shared by at least 90 per cent of the population as being "the norm," is problematic.

Pity me. The paper explains homophobia locks folks into rigid gender roles, inhibits their ability to form close relationships with members of their own sex, and limits family relationships.

On second thought; save your pity. For in spite of what the Peel District School Board would have me believe, the relational boundaries I have observed throughout my life have, I think, served me rather well.

I have loving relationships with several close male and female friends even if we're not physically intimate. As for my family, well, they love me too, in spite of my many failings; including the most recently realized one—that I'm a homophobe.

But if you're still tempted to throw rotten tomatoes, please know this; I wouldn't have any objections to you demonstrating tolerance towards me at all. No, none at all.

We're here! We're straight! Get used to it!!

Angry has a good debate going on over same sex marriage on Angry in the Great White North.

I've cleared out the blogroll, and banished June Cleaver (or whoever she is) for the summer. That outfit just looked so warm and wooly, I thought I needed something a little cooler for now. She'll be back in the fall to pack the kids off to school.

The blogroll had so many duplicates to the Cotillion and the Blogging Tories, plus stuff I never read anymore, that I decided it was time to slash and burn. Felt weird, though, deleting links to some of the Cotillion gals, even though I knew I still had them elsewhere.

In other news, I had to walk 4 blocks out of my liberal-indoctrinated neighborhood just to buy a National Post. I never really noticed that before. I read it at work during the week, and usually skip the Saturday paper, because it's nothing but a giant advertisement anyway. But this morning I got up early, Mr. Right still asleep, and wanted to enjoy a paper with my coffee. Four blocks? No matter how much work I do for our local Conservative EDA, we have a slim chance if all the newsstands are selling the propaganda rags like Toronto Star (stay away from it this weekend - it will be completely gay!), and the Globe & Mail.

Oh well, the puppy and I needed the walk.

I received an email from a Major in Iraq this afternoon saying that my first pack of letters has arrived safely.

Tip to the US Postal Service: It is quicker to get a letter to Iraq from Toronto than it is to get one to Ohio from Toronto. You're doing something wrong!

An excellent article, from the Beeb of all places:

The aid business is an industry with its own dynamic.

Much of it is spent in the donor countries in the form of consultancies and goods.

For the recipient it creates dependency, undermines self-reliance and ultimately breeds resentment.

There is no short cut to development. Only Africans themselves can bring change to Africa.

States have to raise taxes and spend them productively in order for their countries to develop.

When state institutions are functioning in support of the people and the economy, there may be a case for helping with specific short term assistance but unless and until the local systems are in place and there is real commitment, aid will be wasted.

At present lack of capacity and corruption prevent even basic services being delivered in most of Africa.

Outsiders can run one-off projects like immunisation programmes but development has to be done by the people themselves.

Bob Geldof has always refused to comment on these theories, that perhaps we've wasted money on Africa, when all that was needed was a change in policy. So instead we'll have concerts. That'll help.

I have posted over on The Shotgun about Canada's meagre contribution to the Live 8 bruhaha.

Of course, tickets were snapped up in record time - 35,000 tickets in 21 minutes. Wow. People are obviously willing to settle for second best. You can see that in our government, can't you? It helps that Live 8 is being held in Toronto (Toronto, centre of the universe. We have a tower that keeps us still while the rest of the world revolves around us.), where those who support mediocrity in government can show their support for mediocrity in music.

Read the whole thing here.

This is brilliant. Finally someone has come right out and challenged the left for that annoying "If you're pro-war, why don't you enlist??" whine they always throw at us.

since you hate this war so much, why don't you do something about it? It doesn't matter how old you are, why aren't you strapping on a belt full of Semtex? Why don’t you drive a car into a crowded restaurant in Baghdad? Chicken?

Why aren't you terrorist sympathizing bleating leftist fucktards strapping suicide belts on your children to be martyrs for the jihad you love so much?

Send your children to die, if you're so brave and we're so chicken, asshats. Personally, I have and will encourage my 7 year old son to join the military to defend his country when he reaches the proper age, too bad you won't send your child to try and destroy it, hard as you're trying with your words.

Why won't you encourage your sons and daughters to join Islamic Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades? You're on their side, you know. I'll bet Zarqawi and Bin Laden would love the help, real help, not the hiding behind the computer help you provide. Die for your cause, Kos.

You call us the 101st Keyboard Kommandos?

That's a hell of a lot better than the Army of Al-Intel.

From one who served, no less. Go read the whole thing.

This is soooo not from Narnia, but I love this story. Gotta run, I'm between workshops today, but this ought to bring a smile to your face.

A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.

The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.

She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.

"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.

From the ladies of the Cotillion...

Today is Steve Baran's 29th birthday. I wish I could call him to give him my birthday blessing, but I seem to have misplaced him. Things like that happen as you get older, and if - like me - you move around every year. We all have friends that we've lost touch with; people we couldn't find today even if we wanted to. There's a whole industry built around things like classmates.com, where the idea is to stalk and find the people you used to hang out with. I've tried it. He wasn't there. He isn't in the phonebook. He isn't on Google. There's no mention of him on the Yahoo group for our high school. And his father's number rings out when I call, and my Christmas card was returned unopened, which leads me to think his father has finally retired and moved out west to be closer to his wife's family. So I Googled his dad, hoping to at least track him down. I found a magazine for firefighters that he writes safety articles for on a regular basis. I contacted them with the request that they pass my details onto him. That was two months ago. Still nothing. Steve has vanished, at least from my sights.

A thousand lifetimes ago, when I was a completely different Right Girl, I had a friend named Steve. We used to say Dawson's Creek was ripping us off, because we actually lived like those two brats. Steve and I became friends the autumn after my mother died. As a matter of fact, Steve-o really put his foot in it the first time he came to our house for dinner:

Steve: So where's your mom?

Jeff (ex-boyfriend - shaking head): Shutup man.

Me: She's dead, Steve.

Steve: Yeah right. Like, you keep her in the freezer or something?

Dad: *snarfs spaghetti through his nostril*

Jeff: No, idiot, she actually is dead.

Steve (Looking toward my father): Oh shit.

That was the first "Dead Parent Joke (DPJ)". In later years, it became necessary to make a DPJ before you could be part of my in-crowd. It meant you were comfortable with who and what I was. You were comfortable with my sad and scary parts. Somehow, from that, a close friendship was formed.

He nursed me through depression that year, when I wouldn't leave my bed for days. He put up with the crying, the anger, the highs & lows. In return I took him shopping when I felt up to it, taught him not to wear white socks with black shoes & pants (what is it about boys that makes them do this??), and dealt with the fallout from his mother's various relationships.

We were inseperable - each finishing each other's unspoken thoughts. Well, perhaps inseperable is the wrong word. Every spring we would have some kind of spat that caused us to spend the summer months apart. It was like clockwork. He said we fought in the spring so that I wouldn't have to buy him a birthday present, and then got back together in September, just in time for my birthday in October. Heh, worked for me.

But then my father died in 1995, and my final shreds of sanity left me - at least for a while. A long while, in fact. Long enough that I didn't notice that while I was falling apart, so was Steve. I was self destructing in my own flamboyant way, while he was sitting quietly in a corner getting high. While I was "someplace" (they always call it "someplace") resting and putting my life back together, he was tooling around in my sportscar, with my credit cards. So when I came back from "someplace", I was mad as hell. How could you? What were you thinking, you fuckin junkie!??

It wasn't till years later, after I had been halfway round the world, sitting quietly in a Glasgow corner getting drunk, that I realized I may have played a part, too. I know I did. What gave me the right to fall apart - again - and not even notice my best friend doing the same? What made me so smug? Why didn't I see what was happening, and how could I be so selfish? If I had at least taken the time to notice what he was doing to himself, then maybe I'd have an argument for what he did to me. But I let it happen. I let him fall and hurt himself, and me in the process.

He'd never let me fall.

I last saw Steve in the summer of 2000, for a short lunch, where we talked about very little. His sister was with us, and neither of us wanted to drag out the dirty laundry in front of her. Then he moved, and we lost track. Next thing you know, I'm in Scotland, holding a bouquet and standing next to a man in a kilt. A man Steve had never even met.

My friend Kris had escorted me to the airport to being my new life with Mr. Right. As I passed through the security gates, not looking back, she walked into the newsagent next to the gates to buy a bottle of water. Steve was standing behind the cash register. So close, and yet so far. That was the last I ever heard of him.

Steve, wherever you are, whatever you're doing (good or bad), I hope you have a great birthday. I never really got to wish you a happy birthday before. Looks like this year isn't any different.

Just this morning, as I stepped into the elevator at my building on the way to work, I read three different notices:

Responsible Pet Ownership, which reminds us to pick up after our dogs, and to keep them on leash at all times.

Reminder: Place a drip-tray under your flower pots and air conditioners on the balcony, so that water doesn't drip onto your neighbor below, and interfere with his/her peaceable enjoyment of their rental space.

Laundry Room Ettiquette, which reminds tenants to remove their laundry from machines in a timely manner so that the next person can use the machine. And please remember to clean the lint tray in the dryers!

Last week was the reminder pushed through the letter slot to make sure nobody throws cigarette buts off the balcony, and please don't feed the birds, because they make messes, and it can interfere with your neighbor's peaceable enjoyment of their rental space. We also received a note telling us to change the batteries on our smoke detector.

Enough already! I'm nearly 30 years old, I have lived in highrises all my life, and I don't need my hand held while I do my laundry! Is this what our building, our city, our country has come to? We need to be told every detail of how to function in daily life, because we're so accustomed to having big brother think for us, we've forgotten how to think for ourselves. It's common sense, people, and you shouldn't need to be reminded to clean the lint tray. No one should have to tell you that your A/C dripping on my balcony is going to piss me off.

I really don't know what annoys me more: the fact that we have all these reminders posted, or that there are people who actually need to be reminded.

Right Thinking Girl has an exclusive with a Gitmo interrogator using the pseaudonym Mr. Smith.

RTG: Can you tell us some of the tactics used on this detainee?

Smith: We keep him standing for long periods of time to induce stress. We play music, as we talked about. The use of disturbing imagery, such as pictures of 9/11, can be used.

RTG: In what way are pictures used?

Smith: They remind the detainee of the horrors of terrorism.

Go read the article. The Dick Durbin remars are addressed, as well as the issue of "humiliating" the detainees.

I have a pimple, and my hair is frizzy, and I feel like I have two left feet today. I'm not going to the Cotillion! Does anyone else ever have those days where they feel like they're an ugly 12-year-old?

Anyway, there's still going to be lots of pretty ladies there for everyone, so check out the main site, or visit Fistful of Fortnights, A Mom and Her Blog, and Crystal Clear.

I'm just going to stay home and be bitter - which will be fun for youall, because it means I'll have lots to say to anyone who'll listen.

Toronto had another spate of shootings over the weekend, and no arrests. I don't see what the problem is. We have a gun registry, so certainly we should be able to find the shooters' names engraved on their bullets or something, and call them up to tell them they've broken the law, and that they should come on down to the cop shop and have the guns taken away for a week or a month or something. This should be easy. I mean, we spent enough money on it, so it must be foolproof.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser confirmed in a letter to Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz her team is following up on the feds to see if they took up the recommendations from her damning December 2002 audit.

In that report, Fraser exposed how the controversial program that was expected to cost $2 million ballooned to a staggering $1-billion or more. The so-called "boondoggle" fuelled cries from Opposition critics like Breitkreuz to demand the program be scrapped.

Scrapped?? Then how will we ever find these guys?

HUNDREDS OF people were nearby when a man was shot in a packed downtown club, but not a single witness has come forward, Toronto Police say.

"It's one of those bizarre things, a crowded nightclub where nobody talks," Staff Sgt. John Martin said. "So we know where he was shot and when, but we don't know who did it or why."

Patrons ducked for cover when the man, in his late 20s, was shot at least twice around 3 a.m. yesterday on the second floor of Club 26 on Lombard St., police said.

Bullets were flying all weekend, with three other men shot in three different shootings early Saturday.

A man was shot in the hand and leg during a home invasion in North York.

Another man was shot in the stomach in the Islington Ave. and Queensway area.

A third man was shot in the chest near Dupont St. and Lansdowne Ave.

I don't understand how this can happen with such a good registry program for our firearms that we're not permitted to carry with us. Ever. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the people we should be worried about are criminals, and therefore don't give a flying you-know-what about registering their firearms.......

It's all in the family, right?

The federal Conservatives and a national group representing Falun Gong devotees expressed concern about Ye's case Friday, citing it as a prime example of Chinese government interference in Canadian affairs.

They accused the Liberals of failing to firmly voice Canada's opposition to harassment and spying by Beijing.

[snip]

As a Falun Gong activist since 1995, Ye expected she and fellow practitioners in Canada were being monitored.

"However, to this extent - this kind of detail - it's a bit shocking."

The report was obtained by the Epoch Times, an independent newspaper based in New York that publishes Chinese, English and French editions in Canada.

The Times made a copy of the report available to The Canadian Press.

I wonder if our erstwhile External Affairs Minister, Pierre (The Hair) Pettigrew will have anything to say to China about this. My guess would be "So, are we going to sign a deal on the Alberta Oil Sands, or what??"

Why should citizens of Canada expect our communist regime to block out the interference of another communist regime? After all, communism is about working together to keep the population on its knees. And clearly, Canada and China are working together here.

You see it in a few places (not nearly enough). Bumper stickers, yellow ribbon magnets, camouflage rubber bracelets.

Here at Girl on the Right, you'll catch glimpses of it as I begin my letters to the troops in the 82nd Airborne. Many of the Cotillion gals are taking part in this campaign of support and appreciation, and I think I might be one of the only - if not the only - Canadian.

I won't be posting entire letters here - either my letters or their responses. Too personla. But I will put up excerpts, and I hope you'll comment and email me with words of encouragement for these men and women in the thick of it. I will be sure to relay any kindnesses to the soldiers and their support staff, including mechanics, administrative, kitchen staff, and ground crew.

David Frum of the National Review is being targeted by our Liberal government under strict Canadian libel laws - even though National Review is published in the United States!

Along with at least four other public commentators, I have recently been served with libel papers by a leading figure in this story. Because National Review is distributed in Canada, and therefore can potentially be reached by Canada's more restrictive libel law, I have to be a little circumspect in what I say here.

I'm going to need some of my American lawyer readers to fill me in on this: will this case stand up? Zumkopf? Princess? Anybody? Does our communist government have a snowball's chance in hell with this?

And more importantly, I want every single one of my Cotillion gals and other American readers who blog to get this story out. It is unacceptable that someone from within a corrupt regime can sue for libels under Canadian law, when an article was published in an American magazine. Canada is now messing with the First Amendment of the Constitution - something the Americans hold very dear - and on their behalf I am outraged.

Hat Tip Kate.

An Indian woman who was allegedly raped by her father-in-law is now being ordered by a Muslim council of community elders to marry him.

The council says under Islamic law the rape has nullified her marriage, according to media reports.

Because, you know, I'd want to marry my rapist. How 'bout you?

In this case, the Muslim council is actually arguing with the Sharia courts. Go figure. I guess maybe Mohammed didn't leave things quite as black and white as the Muslims claim he did...

But a top Muslim body in India has rejected the argument saying it is not valid under Sharia (Islamic) law.

It says the council was not authorised to give such a verdict and added that the alleged rapist should be punished.

Never thought I'd agree with a Sharia court, but I digress.

Reports say the 28-year-old woman was raped when she was alone at home in Charthawal, in the norther Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

When the incident came to the notice of the council, it ordered that she marry her father-in-law and change her relationship with her husband to that between a mother and son.

It also ordered her to leave her home and stay away for seven month and 10 days to become "pure".

So not only was she raped, and is being forced to marry her attacker, but apparently she's a dirty slut, too. Insult to injury. I'm certain she's feeling rather impure, but frankly, that's not her fault, and it shouldn't be up to the council to point it out.

India's National Commission of Women has also asked for a report from the government in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the incident took place.

"We have requested the government to take action against the guilty and also pay compensation to the victim," NCW president Girija Vyas told the BBC.

A representative of a top Muslim body in India, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said the case should be dealt under Islamic law.

"Under the Sharia law, whatever happened with the victim is wrong and if her father-in-law has raped her, he should be sentenced to death," the representative, Zafarab Geelani, said.

No mention of what should happen to her, though. If she was alone, there are no witnesses, and under Sharia law, three witnesses (men) are needed to support a rape claim. If it is found that the woman has been raped, she is often also sentenced to death, because she's used goods, and the husband/family/village will no longer support her.

Which is the lesser of two evils?

Microsoft is under fire for letting the communist powers-that-be in China dictate and censor the internet and blogs. Even while we have people like the Baghdad Blogger, and Free Iraqi, as well as people using the net to read news that wasn't previously available to us under the blanket of the liberal MSM, Microsoft is allowing China to ban words like Freedom, Human Rights, and Democracy.

The world's largest software maker said that its "MSN Spaces" service operated out of China, which allows users to set up their own blogs, or online journals, was acting in accordance with local laws.

"MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates," said Brooke Richardson, MSN lead product manager.

The move comes as the Chinese government attempts to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based domestic web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, the group, Reporters without Borders said, citing Chinese figures.

Why do I think it will still be permissable to input things like "Schoolgirl gangbang" and "nigger" and "make bomb" and "prostitute", but not okay to type former and current leaders' names such as "Mao Zedong" or "Hu Jintao"?

Other blog sites lashed out at Microsoft. Online tech forum Slashdot had user comments calling the censorship a "really really awful thing" and accusing the software giant of trying to appease China's government in the interest of conducting business.

Matt Rosoff, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm in Kirkland, Washington, pointed out that any censorship by Microsoft's online service was relatively minor compared to the broader censorship by the Chinese government over all Internet activity.

With all due respect, Mr Rosoff, just because they're worse doesn't mean you're any better.

Update: Commenter Richard_From_NY sends this link from the Wall Street Journal. The link will not be available for long, so here's an excerpt. and it's pretty sad:

All of these Internet companies make the point that it is better to make a compromise, gain a foothold in China and then offer China's masses the smorgasbord of information that is out there.

That view got backing from none other than Colin Powell, who happened to be in Hong Kong this week as this story was breaking. Microsoft figured it is "best for them and better for Chinese citizens to get 95% of the loaf," the former Secretary of State said at a conference when we asked him what he thought of an American company banning the word "freedom." While acknowledging that "Microsoft, and Google, and other information providers, have had to make a compromise that we wouldn't find acceptable in the United States," Mr. Powell said, "I think it's probably best for them to make that kind of compromise." Mr. Powell added that he thought the Chinese government was fighting a losing battle in thought control over the Internet, at least "if Chinese teenagers are like the teenagers in my family."

Mr Powell, since when was freedom a dirty word? Shame on you - you should know better!

Thanks, Richard.

This puny, perverted, sick, sorry excuse of a man has been caught! Thank God. And he was right here in Madison. He was not in the registered sex offenders database but he will be now. But the scarey part to me is how many more of these deviant sick bastards are out there? My guess is a lot!

You cannot read the following stories and believe that the Women of Islam are going to continue to stand for these outrageous violent crimes. THEY WILL RISE UP. They have begun to rise.

Jane from Armies of Liberation brings us one of her posts from Worldpress.

In the remote country of Yemen, a determined and heroic democracy movement battles an alliance of Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein’s generals, and a corrupt regime that wields all the tools of the state. The terrorists are operating on the proceeds from gunrunning and oil sales. The reformers are operating on pure determination.

You want the truth? Sadie of Fistful of Fortnights says you can't handle the truth! Which is... true. I can't. Math was never my strong subject. But hey, I can look at the pretty pictures - I love the graphics on her blog.

The 'winner' of argument is not determined by the ultimate truth of the conflict. Rather, the stronger rhetorician will establish the truth, and thus rhetoric is the means by which to achieve the power.

Did you get all that? Yeah, me neither.

Darleen of Darleen's Place explains the difference between an "Insurgent" and a bloody terrorist, which is what the soldiers in Iraq are facing. In her words: "Further exploration of just who is in the Iraq "insurgency" and exposing the usual meme of "blame American occupation" when it comes to the motivations of the Islamofascists."

Claire from e-claire/e-biscuit teaches us multiculturalism and tells us about a lovely Saudi couple who kept a slave in the United States.

We have to be seeeensitive to their cuuuultural diveeeersity. Who are we to judge; Thomas Jefferson had slaves! Besides, it’s part of their reliiigion and a cuuustom with 1,400 years of tradiiition. A tradiiition they would never have had to adopt if Amerikkka hadn’t stoooolen the whole world’s economy with eeevil corporations which made everybody into slave chickens!

Janette has been doing some home renovation over at Common Sense Runs Wild, and like many DIY-ers, she seems to have fallen off her ladder, and deleted the whole bloody thing. Therefore, I have no fabulous post to link to, but you can go over there to see her new and improved home. Just be sure to bring her a get well card.

Raven at And Rightly So! is after the union of longshoremen for their sick practice of enrolling their yung'uns in the union to bolster numbers.

Massport’s union longshoremen have been placing kids as young as 2 years old on the payroll in a long-running scheme to give them bogus seniority that fattens the wages they fetch as adult dock-workers years later, investigators contend.

And finally, Crystal Clear, who's been sunning herself in Hawaii, makes sure we don't forget Terri Schiavo just because her name isn't in the news everyday anymore.

Since her murder several weeks ago, the posting and comments on Blogs for Terri has understandably and considerably slowed from its previous pace. As I mentioned previously, I do believe a time of mourning and reflection was appropriate and necessary. At least for myself, that time has drawn to a close. I am ready and prepared to continue on a path towards justice. Yes, I am a dog with a bone and I will not be giving up and I will not be forgetting...

Further dancing, merrimaking, and women who've had too much punch can be found over at Who Tends the Fires and Darleen's Place. And of course, over at the Cotillion!

Phew! I'm pooped. I think I'll sit this one out. Will you fetch me some champagne?

From Right Thinking Girl, in her comments section:

We, the Conservative Girls Who Love To Fuck, do hold these truths to be self-evident: that all conservative girls in America/Canada have a right to embrace our sexuality, that our sexuality does inform our political opinions but does not invalidate our criticisms of deviant sexual practices; and that our conservative opinions support our fucking practices.

The hateful stereotype of the conservative girl who is a cold fish must halt immediately. We ask that the public acknowlege that Conservative Girls are as freaky as the liberal muliebrity. Our love of fucking is exclusive to one man; under no circumstances should our love of fucking be viewed as promiscuous. Our love of fucking is a natural, healthy expression of our sexuality. The time has passed when Conservative Girls Who Love To Fuck have been viewed as abnormal. We ask that the people of the United States and Canada allow Conservive Girls the freedom to fuck without judgement from others, without interference from the government, and without guilt.

On this day we do affirm:

Signed:

RTG

Posted by: RTG June 13, 2005 11:56 AM

Ladies and gentlemen, it gets better: RTG is running for Congress. America will never be the same.

No, not really. But according to some moonbat moosefucker principal in Georgia, well, it could happen.

When Sgt. Richardson returned to the United States he told Matthew Lund that he wanted to come to the Carson Middle School to personally thank the students for their support and letters. Lund filled out and submitted a "Resource Visitor or Guest Speaker Form" and submitted it to Principal Corbett. Lund says he never got the form back from Corbett. He says he asked the Principal about the form, and was told that she was not going to look at it.

According the the post over at Mamamontezz's site, where I found out about this moonbattery,

Not only did the prinicpal refuse to let him speak to the class and offer his thanks for their support, she had him escorted from the building and then had the poor judgement to offer a "Cover Thine Ass" statement that implied that a Marine could not be trusted not to go into a blood rage and hurt a bunch of kids.

Uh huh.

Family, friends and colleagues of Keithroy Maynard bid a final farewell on Saturday to one of the last identified New York City firefighters who died during the Sept. 11 attacks.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, attending the funeral on his daughter's wedding day, thanked Maynard for his "ultimate sacrifice." Maynard was one of 343 firefighters who died at the World Trade Center.

Maynard's remains were first identified in 2003 and the family held a service for him in 2001. But they held out hope more of his remains would turn up, fire department officials said.

Bless him. No one knew when they entered the building that they wouldn't be coming out again. And if they did, they didn't think twice. They just tried to save as many civilians as they could.

Maynard was a second-generation firefighter. His father, Capt. Reynold White, served as a New York firefighter for 30 years.

He is also survived by 10-year-old son Keithroy Maynard II, three brothers, two sisters and a girlfriend, who is the mother of his child.

I hope his son grows up to be proud of his father, and follows in his path.

Mr. Dosanjh strongly rejected his claims.

"This Prime Minister gave $41-billion additional last year, over the next 10 years, to make sure there is strong health care in Canada," he said. "These people on the opposition benches, they've spliced their own history on health care, cut out the fact that they left Canada in a financial basket case, a candidate for the Third World, spliced out the fact that they called for deeper spending cuts, and they're trying to erase the fact that they have been the strongest enemies of the Canada Health Act and the greatest champions of health-care privatization. [emphasis mine - RG]

I think he's getting at something...

Cross posted to The Shotgun

"My husband works for the CBC, where gay marriage isn't just encouraged, it's mandatory!"

- My liberal pal in Montreal.

David MacLean of Fighting for Taxpayers decided to call an American insurance company today, just to get a ballpark figure of how the US system works,and what it costs.

Although the figures seem high when you first look at them, when he compares them to what we are now paying for healthcare in taxes, the results are surprising.

Pakistan's Senior Foreign Ministry official Naeem Khan:

There are no training camps in Pakistan

Well, if he says it, it must be true!

Survey finds some Muslims harassed by security forces
Brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it?

First the PM says he'll take the time to debate and deliberate over the same-sex marriage bill.

Then he said he was going to rush it through before summer break.

First he said that religious groups were protected from the Bill.

Now Irwin Cotler is saying that he can't really protect the religious groups, and that it's up to the provinces.

Can somebody just publish the Cliff's Notes version? Something wiht bullet points would be nice.

I think I've finally figured out how our government works: They keep changing the story till we're so damn confused that we don't care what goes through, so long as they shut up about it.

This morning at 5:26:38 am EST, Girl on the Right received its 20-thousandth visitor. The location of the visitor was unknown, however they are in the GMT time zone. The link was from this post Right Thinking Girl.

Whoever you are, please identify yourself. Perhaps you've won a prize...

The new Cotillion blog post is up for this week, and it's being billed as "The Lilith Fair for the Conservative Blogosphere." I like it; it has a nice ring to it. The difference between us and the original Lilith Fair? We shave.

Hosting this week are The Princess, An American Housewife, and Merri Musings.

I got up early to tell you this, so please go over and have a look.

Small government and less tax. Hardly an original theory, and the basic backbone of any conservative policy. If government is smaller, there is less to pay for. If there is less to pay for, we don't need to be as heavily taxed.

I don't care if my coffee is free-trade. I care that it's good, and that I can afford to buy more than one cup a week. If I'm being charged $7 for a cuppa joe, then you won't be seeing me in your charity-disguised-as-a-coffee-shop very often. Make something affordable and more people will consume it. If there are more consumers, more product gets sold. If more product is sold, everybody wins. what looks like slave wages to us in the spoiled West might be life-saving industrial wages to an impoverished country. Yay free enterprise!

Down with special interest groups! Back in the day, orphans and the poor were looked after by privately funded charities. Were there abuses and corruption? You bet. Is there abuse and corruption under government administration? More than we can keep track of. By letting the government put its finger into the pie of charity and welfare, we have not gained - we have lost. Government will never make do with one person doing a job when they can tax us for twenty people. Give charity back to the churches and philanthropists.

Integration, integration, integration. This doesn't just apply to immigrants, either. Let's refer back to the expensive special interest groups. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union, your work here is done (but at least they're private groups, as opposed to a government cash drain). Thank you for doing such a good job that you have made yourselves obsolete - a goal to be proud of, indeed. Now take a bow and disappear. Whatever happens to black (North) America from now on, the responsibility rests soley with black America. It ain't whitey's fault anymore. Sure, there will still be bigots, but there will never again be what once was. Blacks have been given every opportunity to pull themselves up out of the ghetto and become something. They now have role models unlike any they have ever had - some of them in the highest levels of government. Colin Powel was replaced by Condoleeze Rice, who grew up poor in Alabama in the thick of the equality struggle. She took the opportunities that were presented to her. Does young black America identify with her? No. Who do they choose as role models? Tupac and Snoop Dog. So be it. They've made a choice. Many of these young people have chosen to become criminals, and they will be incarcerated and executed far in excess of anyone else in America - not because of racial bias, but because of the choices of a race. And they've gone and spoiled it for the good ones, who will be looked at with suspicion. The NAACP helped give them a choice, but they can't force their hands. Here in Canada we are kowtowed by the power of the powow. We have thousands of people working in all levels of government who serve no other purpose than to hold the hands of, and write fat checks to, our dwindling aboriginal population. They have been nanny-ed into being completely incapable of looking out for their own individal interests, and not since smallpox hit our shores have they been so bad off. They are given billions of dollars every year to promote... nothing. There is no relevant industry, no skill base. The world has moved on, and they have been paid to sit on the sidelines. The only thing they have in their favor is choice. They could choose to leave their impoverished reservations, get proper educations, and join the rat race with the rest of us. But by doing that, they would lose big. They would lose their tax-free status. They would lose their welfare checks and the ability to sit around doing nothing while their families and communities rot away. They would lose the ability to wallow in pity while extorting guilt money from you and I. In exchange for what? Well, how about a little self respect, for starters? Sure, they got shafted when the settlers came. They were dealt a bad hand. A lot of us get dealt bad hands. And we're given the same opportunity to make a choice: live in the past, or move on and make a future for yourself. Nobody's culture is at risk by putting on a suit and visiting a job center.

Follow your conceince. Your real concenice - not just the one you want people to identify you with. My conscience once told me - when I was broke and nearly homeless - that selling tail was less degrading than applying for welfare. I could make enough money to pay the bills while I looked for a real job. I was young and pretty (and giving it away anyway). It wasn't a career, but it was something I could control. I had no vices like drugs or alcohol or abusive men that could keep me low. I was registered with the top agency in town - known for taking good care of their girls. So I "worked" on and off, for a few months, till I could get off my back and onto my feet. My friends pooh-poohed my choice, but as long as I was healthy and capable, it was better than going on the dole. For me, anyway. It left me with a higher degree of self respect than I would have gained from standing in line at the welfare office with the teenage mothers and drug addicts. I saw myself as entrepreneurial. It never bothered my conscience, and I had no qualms when I faced myself in the bathroom mirror. It's not for everyone, and I don't advocate it to those who feel repulsion in their own consciences toward it, but it was in line with the guiding voice inside me. Better a whore than a loser, it told me. That's why when I hear the left screaming about throwing money at social injustices, blah, blah, and seeing the able-bodied yell on the steps of Queen's Park for higher welfare payments, I shake my head. There but for the grace of a pretty face go I. A pretty face, and a little gumption.

My mother's family was made up of both Aboriginals (paternally) and welfare sponges (maternally). Ironically, my Micmac grandfather was the hardest working of the bunch - fishing in the summer and logging in the spring and fall. Most of his offspring live off the taxes that you and I pay, in the country he fought for in WWI. That is the "ghetto" I came from, and I vowed that I would never be like that. Many of my cousins (my own generation) made the same vow. My cousin was the owner of the successful agency I worked for. Looks like laziness skipped a generation.

Many of you on both sides of the divide will tell me that I should be ashamed. It was my closest liberal friends who had pooh-poohed me. It is my church that will condemn me to hell. Do I feel any guilt? No. Not for that, anyway.

What makes me feel guilty? What wakes me up in the middle of the night, wondering about the choices I've made? Four planes, three buildings, nearly 3,000 people, and $40,ooo I loaned to my boss 10 years ago and never got back. Is there a connection? Late at night, when I can't sleep, I imagine the most horrible things. About my boss's father, who travelled several times each year to Saudi Arabia. Did he take that money with him? Why? What was it spent on? Where is he now? Was it just bad business that kept my boss from ever paying me? Or something more sinister. Who was the Afghani that worked with us, with the startling blue eyes and the scars on his body, from knife wounds and bullet holes? Why was I too stupid to ask myself these questions then, when I could have stopped myself? Am I just imagining things, making things up in my head because I'm angry with a man who stole $40,ooo and took major advantage of a 19 year old orphan who was in love with him? And who can I call to put these fears to rest?

So there you have a brief and abridged insight into Right Girl, and some of the questions you may have asked, including why I'm so hard on welfare and the Religion of Peace. It is that which we fear most in ourselves that we come to hate in others.

You also know why I can't ever run for office!!

Liberal MP Pat O'Brien announced Monday he would be leaving the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent, saying Prime Minister Paul Martin had gone back on his promise to give adequate public consultation on same-sex marriage legislation.

"They're determined to move forward on this issue, and you can see how and what a rush they are [in] to do that," Mr. O'Brien said at a morning press conference on Monday.

"I can't accept that in good conscience, so I leave the party with some regret, but my objective remains (to) defeat Bill C-38. Hopefully I can be more successful as an independent than I was as a Liberal."

Good for you, Mr O'Brien. Nice to know that those with conscience are standing up for themselves and their constituents.


Coss Posted to The Shotgun

Despite highly publicized charges of U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, the head of the Amnesty International USA said on Sunday the group doesn't "know for sure" that the military is running a "gulag."

Well, of course it's not running a gulag. The Americans fought like hell against the Soviets to promote democracy and put an end to gulags.

But Amnesty International had no trouble putting out a report that hurled accusations against the eeeeevil Americans. Are they now backtracking?

Schulz recently dubbed Rumsfeld an "apparent high-level architect of torture" in asserting he approved interrogation methods that violated international law.

"It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea," Schulz told "Fox News Sunday."

Fake but accurate. Same old story.

Schulz said, "We don't know for sure what all is happening at Guantanamo and our whole point is that the United States ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate."

He also said he had "absolutely no idea" whether the International Red Cross had been given access to all prisoners and said the group feared others were being held at secret facilities or locations.

CBS, Newsweek, Amnesty International... the list is growing. The United States strongly believes in freedom of the press, but how much more are they going to tolerate before they finally put their foot down? And what recourse does the government have? Can they even sue for libel? Will it do any good?

And more importantly, why was Reuters the only source I could find for this story? Typical that the majority of the MSM has buried it.

Kate at Small Dead Animals has the latest Carnival of the Newbies up. It also includes advice to new bloggers.

One of the newbies goes by the title of I Hate Hippies And Communists. You just know they'll go far with a title like that!

Oakland California has begun putting images of "Johns" on billboards, as punishment for using prostitutes.

The city of 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco started putting up billboards on Wednesday showing men arrested for soliciting sex. Other signs invite prostitutes to quit by calling a help line.

"This idea came out of just thinking about new ideas, doing something to deal with this increasing problem, especially with the exploitation of underage women," said Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who champions the approach.

Of course, the ACLU moans. They always moan when criminals get their just desserts.

"It doesn't seem to us to be appropriate for Oakland to be using shaming as an additional and extrajudicial punishment to single out this group of offenders," said Alan Schlosser, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union for Northern California. "We don't think this is good public policy."

Why not? Normally the ACLU would complain that prostitutes shouldn't be treated as criminals because they are just trying to make a living, they are being exploited, blame the Johns, blah, blah. So now the Johns are getting blamed, and the ACLU has to pipe up in order to get their name in the paper just one more time this week. I swear that's their mission statement: To Get Our Name In The News Every Day of Every Year! We work harder in leap years!

If you've been by in the last hour, you'll know that the blog wasn't working. In fact it had been replaced with a site I'm currently working on for our local Conservative riding association. Kinda hit the wrong button. Sorry y'all.

Dammit. I've been tagged.

# of books I own:

Not nearly as many as I used to. My husband and I each numbered in the mid-hundreds, but I tend to move a lot, so I've unloaded most of mine. Probably about 80 now.

Last Book I Bought:

The Age of Sacred Terror by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon

5 books that mean(t) a lot to me:

1. Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman
2. Cold Terror by Stewart Bell
3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
4. Mayflower Madam by Sidney Biddle Barrows (I think it's out of print now)
5. My mother's diaries

I'm tagging:

The Exile
Angry
Right Thinking Girl
The Princess
Bill Strong

I know this point has been covered before, but can we really call two men who have a propensity towards promiscuity "married"? I know a lot of homosexual couples in my hometown of Montreal, and many of them have been together for a long time (in gay terms, anything over a year is a lifetime, but some of these guys have been together for decades). But I also know at least three couples of various ages who believe that "if it isn't with the same person habitually, it's not cheating." Which means that raves, bath houses and saunas are free-for-all, and if they happen to get laid there, it's not cheating on their partner. After all, it's anonymous, and they will probably never see the person(s) again. One of my best friends got the clap from "not cheating" on his boyfriend. Gay Pride is a major event in both Montreal and Toronto in the summer, and partnered or not, it's a giant orgy. Especially for the men (I have very few gay female friends, because lesbians tend to be boring, bitter man-haters, so I can't comment on their Pride Weekend habits).

What prompted me to bring this up was an article in the Globe & Mail regarding a new sexually transmitted epidemic that's plaguing the gay community. I read this article the other day, but didn't get a chance to post it till now.

There have been 22 cases of lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) reported in Canada in recent months, all in homosexual and bisexual men with high-risk sexual practices, according to a report published yesterday in the on-line edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

In fact, the way LGV is spreading -- among men who have anonymous sex in bath houses (and the latest variation, encounters arranged via Internet chat groups) -- is eerily similar to the beginnings of the HIV-AIDS epidemic.

Unlike HIV-AIDS, however, LGV, a bacterial infection, is easily treatable with antibiotics. But the symptoms -- small painless lesions on the genitals and swollen glands -- are probably not familiar to most doctors. What's more, an infection with LGV increases the risk of contracting and spreading HIV-AIDS and hepatitis, partly because it creates sores, making it easier for viruses to enter the bloodstream.

Now here's a description of the culture that is spreading this disease. Remember, this is the G&M, where they love homosexuality with all their gay little hearts. It's not like the eeeeevil right wing National Post.

He said the arrival of a new sexually transmitted disease reflects an upsurge in risky sexual behaviour that stems from "safer-sex fatigue," the popularity of party drugs that strip away inhibitions (and often common sense), and the increasingly common practice of anonymous sex.

What distinguishes those who have been infected with LGV is that few of them could identify their recent sexual partners, and their propensity for high-risk sexual activity.

Virtually all the men engaged in "Internet partnering," frequented bath houses, or had sex at rave parties, according to the study.

Half of the infected practised "barebacking" -- anal sex without a condom. They also engaged in "booty bumping" -- ingesting the drug crystal meth anally -- and in fisting.

Dr. Wong said the Public Health Agency of Canada is stepping up surveillance for LGV and will try to educate physicians to spot symptoms early. "This infection could spread to more people," he said. "We're concerned that it could have an impact on the HIV and hepatitis epidemics in the future."

Now, back to my original question: Can people who think anonymous sex isn't cheating on their partner really be considered married? Booty-bumping? Come on, people, how many of you married people booty-bump with strangers with your spouse's permission? Once again for the liberals (and Liberals): Marriage isn't a right, it's a privilege, and (like "alternate lifestyles") a lifestyle decision. To be married is to keep yourself faithful in mind & body. Shouldn't the homosexual community earn the privilege of marriage first, instead of us just handing it over? Let them prove to the rest of us that they can behave as married people should, before they are granted the opportunity to call themselves married?

Marriage means being faithful. Here's another good question: Can those without faith be faithful? It is a secular society that is pushing for same sex marriage in this country, but can you actually be faithful if you have never had faith?

Angry raised some excellent points yesterday regarding the alienation of the Church from secular society:

One of those irrelevent consequences will be that many Canadians and Canadian organizations (like the Roman Catholic Church and associated groups) will begin to detach themselves from society as a whole. Like urban flight, they will abandon the larger society for the social equivalent of a gated community in the suburbs. And just like urban flight, the effect will be a wholesale degradation of the quality of the larger society, and angry feelings between that larger society and these social polders.

Religious tolerance is a two-way street. If society cannot find it in itself to seriously listen to the concerns of, and find a way to accomodate the positions of, religious institutions, society will find that religious institutions will become intolerant of it. Generations of children born to members of these faiths will be raised to believe, not unreasonably, that they are not welcome "out there", and that "those people" are the enemy, not to be befriended or trusted.

A white-flight from secularity & sexuality. So much for our inclusive society.

The other day I asked what was wrong with kids today.

An American Housewife provides this story as the answer:

Some idiotic, perverted woman was indicted, and rightly so, in Westchester County and charged with two counts of rape and several counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

The wretched witch set up the rape of her own daughter and her daughter's friend with an 18 year old boy and 19 year old boy. I call them boys because they actually went through with this horrific act. The 41 year old mother, and I do use that term loosely, provided liquor to her own daughter and her daughter's friend to get them drunk for the ordeal, took them to a hotel room that she paid for and watched as the boys raped the two girls; ages 13 and 14!

The answer: The kids are fine, it's the parents that are insane.

Update: Check out this story from the BBC:

The cruelty started at the beginning of 2003 when a boy told his mother that the girl had been practising witchcraft.

It was an accusation the woman believed.

Jurors were told that the child was cut with a knife and beaten with a belt and shoe to "beat the devil out of her" during her ordeal at a flat in Hackney, east London.

During police interviews, the girl said Kisanga had cornered her in the kitchen and told her "today you die".

The court also heard the girl, now 10, was put into a laundry bag and believed she would be "thrown away" into a river.

Patricia May, prosecuting, said: "This child was treated as a scapegoat by family members, tormented, subjected to all sorts of assaults which must have caused her considerable pain, fear and distress."

I don't use my real name. I have considered it from time to time, especially as my traffic grows. After all, why shouldn't I be proud of my accomplishments here, and want to take credit for them? But I know I'm better this way. Really, if someone wanted to find me, they could, because my tracks are not completely covered, but I'm not about to advertise. After all, I am rather outspoken when it comes to issues surrounding Islam and terror. I make no secret of it. I had issues with those of Middle Eastern descent years before they flew our planes into our buildings, killing our people, and it had nothing to do with international terrorism. They were, shall we say, women's issues. Nearly a decade before Mohammed Atta and his band of sun-addled malcontents flew to Hell, I already knew that these people were bad.

Anyway, I am digressing. The point is that they are allowed to rape us and kill us en masse, but that if we so much as question the tenets of their "peaceful" religion, they will target us, riot, kill, maim, and attempt to destroy us. They call it Jihad, and when it is directed against an individual, they call it Fatwa. Call it whatever you want, they mean business, and they have a list.

Robert Spencer is on that list.

I don't ordinarily publicize threats I receive, and I had not originally planned to post this one. However, I ultimately decided to do so because I thought this one was noteworthy for several reasons: the mention of a "hit list" that is evidently well-known among the posters; the rabid anti-Semitism; the Qur'anic references; the forthright bloodlust; and the casual mixture of piety and murderousness that is common among jihad terrorists.

One poster put up my picture, with this underneath:

ROBERT SPENCER, the director of Jihad Watch, is a writer and researcher... http://www.jihadwatch.org/spencer/
To which one responded:

I believe he's already on the hit list, nothing new..

List? Am I on that list? Are you? What is this list? Is it a Muslim thing in general, or is it an Al Qaeda thing? Was Theo Van Gogh on it?

The day may come when I am willing to come clean about who Right Girl is (a book deal would help me decide!!), but that day is not today. Having said that, I really admire those of you on the right side of the blogosphere who use your real names. You have more guts than I do. And for those of you who don't (some of you I am lucky enough to know the names of regardless), I totally understand where you're coming from. We're not all as big or as high profile as Jihad Watch; then again, that means we're less likely to be missed if they begin picking us off one at a time for insulting their (as Regular Ron calls it) Comic Book Death Cult Religion.

Every day seems to bring another case to light - shootings, rampages, stabbings, gang activity. Is it something in the water? Are we sacrificing our children's sanity in order to make their teeth stronger? Or is it the utter lack of parenting ever since the second income became a necessity?

I have a confession to make: I have always been scared of children. Any horror movie just has to give a child an evil grin for me to be soiling myself. The first time was The Changeling. The worst time was The Ring. But now, even in day to day life, I find myself wondering which kid I see in the street is plucking the wings off flies and kicking neighborhood puppies. I wonder which kid is going to be the next Jamie Bulger murderer.

Who's that, you ask? You don't remember what happened to little 2-year-old Jamie Bulger back in 1993? Well, here's a sampling of what was done to him by Jon Venebles and Robert Thompson, both aged 10.

The youngsters took Bulger on a two-and-a-half-mile walk. At one point they led him to a canal, where James sustained some injuries to his head and face, after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later on in their journey, a witness reported seeing James being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys to encourage him along.

During the entire walk the two boys and James were seen by 38 people, some of whom noticed an injury to the infant's head and later recalled that he seemed distressed. Others reported that James appeared happy and was seen laughing, the boys seemingly alternating between hurting and distracting him. A few members of the public challenged the two older boys but they claimed that they were looking after their younger brother, or that he was lost and that they were taking him to the police station, and were allowed to continue on their way. They eventually led Bulger to a section of railway line near Walton.

At this location, one of the boys threw blue modelling paint on James's face. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22lb (10kg) iron bar. Before they left him, the boys laid James across the train tracks and weighed his head down with rubble. Two days later, on Sunday of the same week, Bulger's body was discovered. A pathologist later testified that James had died before his body was run over by a goods train.

This article doesn't mention the objects that had been inserted into his rectum.

Anyway, I brought this heinous act to your attention because of this article I read today. I doubt I need to point out that something's seriously wrong with the kids in England - where they don't flouridate the water, by the way.

Specially-trained police are interviewing six children about allegations that one of them - a five-year-old boy - was abducted by the others and taken to a busy park where he was left hanging from a tree in a litter-strewn patch of woodland called Devil's Ditch.

Three boys and two girls, aged 11 and 12, spent last night at a police station, being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder because of the scale of the younger child's injuries.

Severe bruising round his neck may have been made by a rope noose, said police in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, potentially corroborating early accounts when the boy was found close to his nearby home dazed and in tears.

A friend of his family called police who later found more bruising on his body, although he was discharged yesterday after overnight treatment at Dewsbury district hospital.

Parents, if your kids turn out like this, there is no one to blame but yourselves. If you have children, try parenting them, instead of using Grand Theft Auto to babysit them. You breed 'em, you're to blame if they screw up.

I just wanted to say a public Thank You to the ladies at Common Sense Runs Wild, MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and Steal the Bandwagon for organizing the first ever Cotillion of conservative female bloggers.

There is a round-up at the Cotillion blog site, where you will find links to where we were mentionned, including CNN's Inside Politics and Michelle Malkin. As a reminder, the Cotillion will be every Tuesday. Girl on the Right will be hosting a portion of the party on June 14th.