Print Edition: November 13, 2013
Pregnancy always possible
The National Post brought up an interesting question recently: women can have an abortion, so why can’t men opt out of accidental parenthood, too? Men have complained that women told them they were on birth control or were infertile, and that it’s not fair they should have to pay child support for 18 years with no choice in the matter.
It’s true that our current means for handling accidental pregnancy are vulnerable to exploitation from both genders – both men and women are capable of lying.
Sorry – that doesn’t lessen the responsibility of either party. When you have sex, there is a possibility, however minute, that pregnancy will be the result. Condoms aren’t foolproof. Birth control can be ineffective on women with certain health conditions, which they may not even be aware they have.
I’m not pushing abstinence – if you want to have sex, go ahead. Take precautions, be smart about it. But always, always understand that a baby could be the result. In most cases, men do have a choice. Choosing to have sex means accepting the potential consequences.
In the name of The Ford!
Fordisms have had an explosion on the internet. We’ve got Ford memes, mash-ups, remixes, and multiple animated gifs of Ford dancing like Farley in a post-modern reduction of Tommy Boy, which if you didn’t know, is a contemporary version of Hamlet.
Ford, quite frankly, is an addict. He’s not a clown, or a craze, or even a smoke screen that allows the Blue Tories to hack up the senate. Did anyone see British Columbia and Alberta making pipeline deals behind Humpty Dumpty’s crack smoke?
We expect more from a Canadian mayor. Leaders should lead. They should live above deck at higher standards. If The Ford is getting the rewards of leadership, he should pay it back with a truly conservative life.
As much as I want The Ford to be a conspiracy or maybe in an F-350 commercial, in reality The Ford needs to go. His porcine leadership is a story straight out of Animal Farm.
But I do love The Ford. I hope he gets better. Let someone in who represents the poor and not the elite suburbs. Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn said it best: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand one who’s cold?”
Abbotsford needs scented soap
Imagine you have just eaten a delicious sandwich that just so happened to have mustard in it. Now imagine that some mustard got on your fingers. You go to a washroom at the Abbotsford UFV campus and wash it off with soap. But the smell of mustard is still there and you can’t get it off. Why?
Because in Abbotsford, UFV has unscented soap. When the exaggerated H1N1 virus was making its rounds, UFV installed unscented sanitizer soap dispensers. But that craze has come and gone and we still have unscented.
This would mean nothing if Chilliwack didn’t have scented soap. But they do. It smells wonderful.
Why the discrepancy?
Using Purell sanitizer to cover up the smell leads to disastrous results including a really funky smell and irritation of the skin over time. Scented soap should be brought to Abbotsford campus so my hands can be clean and smell great, just like they do at the Chilliwack campus.
Professors, grow up
There’s always been general rivalry between the liberal arts and science departments. At UFV, where both sides are located at the same campus, it’s an ongoing feud. Who gets more money, better rooms, and newer equipment? It’s no surprise the arts will, since they make up more than half of the student population, and have larger departments.
But what happens when that dislike and infighting trickle down from the faculty and end up in the student body?
On more than one occasion I have listened to a professor make snide remarks, or directly insult the other department. I have sat in the front row of an upper level English class and gritted my teeth as the professor told students that math students can’t think abstractly like we could.
A completely different class and a different professor also made the remark that “number-crunchers” have no empathy or soul.
These are not students making these comments. These are professors lecturing to a class of over 20 people.
Financial cuts suck. We get it. But keep in mind: all departments feel it, not just yours.
