Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 2009, here we come!

Part 2 of the divorces were a great move

As promised, here is the response/debunking to part 2 of Dennis Prager’s most recent column. It follows the same format as part 1. This time, there are 18 paragraphs in Prager’s column.

Daddy Don’t Get Drunk on Christmas Day

Actually, it’s called Happy New Year. But the working title is way better.

Unusual ways to get here

Yesterday, there were two unusual referrals here to the Words on What:

First, a website called alphainventions referred here. That site appears to be a glorified and constantly-updated collection of random blogs and I couldn’t find this blog there.

Second, someone got here by searching for (wait for it): ““patrimoine canadien” or “canadian heritage” or “patrimoine canada” or “james moore” or ”helena guergis” or “gary lunn” or “langues officielles” or “official languages” or “graham fraser”or “crtc” or “covan” or “vanoc” or “vancouver 2010” or “condition feminine” or “status of women”” What possible connections could this miscellany of Canadiana have?

Manitoba MP to re-ignite abortion debate in Canada

Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge (Conservative) is planning re-ignite the abortion debate in Canada, CBC reports. The specific legislation he plans to eventually introduce would be a revival of Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which would have made sentences tougher if a fetus was harmed during the commission of a crime against a pregnant woman. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson attempted to replace it with legislation that would allow judges to consider a victim’s pregnancy, both pieces of legislation died when the recent federal election was called, CBC reported weeks ago. The government has also failed to enforce the Canada Health Act and force New Brunswick to pay for abortions, even though the government is required to do so.

Bruinooge is head of a “secretive” anti-abortion caucus. He has not revealed how many MPs are in it, but claims that it has members of all four parties with seats in the House of Commons. Bruinooge said that Canadians need to educated about Canada’s abortion stance. Currently, there are no laws in Canada restricting abortion. A fetal homicide law would be a backdoor introduction of fetal rights, regardless of what anyone says. Going by the CBC report, introducing a fetal homicide law is as urgent as dealing with the ongoing economic crisis.

Stop funding ignorance-only sex education

A recent study concludes that virginity pledges by teenagers are ineffective in delaying sex, the Washington Post reports. (Hat tip)

The study concluded that making a pledge had no effect on teenager’s sexual behaviour. It found that 82% of pledgers had broken (this includes oral or vaginal sex) their pledge. Indeed, people who pledged were more likely to engage in unsafe sex and not use contraceptives. People had an average of three partners. This shows that they were consciously deciding to have sex, and that it is not the result of “a little mistake”.

This study attempted to control for possible confounding variables that may have obscured any relationship between pledging and sexual activity. The study focused on 289 people who had pledged, and compared them with 645 similar students who had not pledged. All in all, pledgers were more likely to be from conservative families.

I’m glad I don’t have to take a drug test

I had some leftover poppyseed cake today. If I was in Singapore I’d be a criminal.