July 2011 archive

The Illegality of Assisted Suicide

Let’s say assisted suicide is illegal because it’s often a tragic, premature, perhaps even ill-informed, death. But so is unassisted suicide. And there are alternatives to assisted suicide – better pain management, for example, or counselling. Same goes for unassisted suicide. Assisted suicide violates our social values, our respect for life. Yeah, well. And yet …

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Some sports are just too dangerous

‘Some sports are just too dangerous for women. They might get hurt.’ Oh please. This from the sex that makes beating someone senseless part of the game. And has its reproductive vitals hanging by a thread at bull’s-eye of the body with nary a half-inch layer of fat for protection. (What’s next in the evolution …

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The Gender of Business

Business is male. Make no mistake. Everything about it smacks of the male mentality. First, the obsession with competition. You have to be #1, you have to outcompete your competition. So hierarchy, rank, is everything. As is an adversarial attitude. It doesn’t have to be that way. Business could be a huge network of co-operative …

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An Open Letter to Summer People Everywhere

This is not “a recreational paradise” or “a summer playground”. This is our neighbourhood. Those labels are marketing ploys used by real estate agents and business owners eager to make money on sales. They do not speak for us. We live here; they do not. Many of us have lived here for five, ten, twenty …

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