Too many questions

...not enough answers.

Too often, my head is full of what-if's and how-come's. There've been so many lately, I haven't been able to bring myself to write a simple post.

We've had such a string of sunny days lately, I've wondered why we don't see ads for solar power set-ups. Why there don't seem to be any subsidies to encourage us to go in that direction. Why, when we know that oil is a finite resource, we aren't at least starting to explore other options.

I've also noticed that for the duration of the Olympics, the CBC isn't permitted to offer podcasts of the news. Oh, I know it all has to do with the sweeping corporate powers protecting all things Olympic (I probably wasn't even supposed to type that word without previous clearance). Still, I wonder what the next corporate power will be that is able to enact similar restrictions, especially where changes to our Elections Act appear to take so much power away from the body that's always been there to protect voters.

And now, my questions are more difficult. A very dear friend has informed me that she has cancer. The word I can't get out of my head is the one she used, inoperable. So the thousand-and-one questions that are in my head today are ones that truly don't have any answers.

Private. Keep out.

As if. Still, that idea is probably the reason any kid builds a treefort, or finds a hole in a shrubbery somewhere she thinks she can call her own. Just a space for thinking, a spot for some privacy.

The hero of the day (the week, month, year?) has to be whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The Guardian ran an interview with him today (worth clicking on and reading).

Weird the way he has the same name as such an important character in Catch-22. Snowden was the bombardier who'd been shot and kept saying he was cold. He serves as the transformative force in the novel which shifts Yossarian's thinking.

Today's Snowden seems to be serving a similar purpose: shifting our thinking so we'll look harder at the matter of our privacy -- where it's gone, how can we retrieve any shreds of it.

They're watching. We know they are. Sifting among the raccoons and elks and bunnies or whatever we might choose to write about, hoping for weasel words to light up their scorecards.

I suppose I should throw in some weasel words tonight. 

How many might fit into one sentence? Hmmm... How about this. 

Stephen Harper’s speech bombed at the G8 Summit.  

That should get a whole raft of buzzer-bots zinging.

Let's not go back

This week our Members of Parliament take on the almighty task of determining the moment when life begins. If you think that sounds presumptive, maybe even Godlike, I’m with you.

Yet our mostly Conservative Parliamentarians seem to believe that they, unlike the rest of us, have a hotline to Truth.

The physicians of Canada have suggested that the would-be legislation opens a back door to the recriminalization of abortion, an action that would leave Canadian women amongst the only women in what we like to think of as the ‘free world’ without the right to a safe abortion.

Remember, current laws don’t make abortion a procedure a woman must choose. Still, if someone determines the need for one, she is assured the security of a medical facility and doesn’t need to risk the horrors of back-room hotel room scrapings so many women were forced to endure less than 50 years ago.

If you’re brave enough to watch our elected officials parade their arrogance, tune in to the ongoing broadcast.

And if you haven’t already, please write to your MP, suggesting they get off this current high-horse and come back to where there’s plenty of down-to-Earth work that needs doing. 

Small victories -- Round One

They're heeeere!

Today was the day the 'smart-meter' installers appeared in our neighbourhood. I'd gone through the proper channels and jumped through all of BC Hydro's hoops, so they passed by our house -- at least this time.

I have to give the Corix workers credit for following procedure. They

knocked on each door before doing the installation (of course, most people seemed to be gone to work or otherwise not at home).

So, why does this make me think of Passover? Although this event clearly has nothing to do with anything so drastic as reaping one's first-born, this particular 'passing over' coincides with spring. For me, at least, it also corresponds to the meaning, 'Time of Our Freedom' which I will take while I can.

It will be interesting to see how (and when) Round Two occurs.

Who says there's no such thing as a time machine?

Apparently they've got one in South Dakota. And it sounds like they're planning to use it so they can take South Dakotans back more than thirty years.

That state's legislators are working on a law that would challenge 1973's Roe v. Wade decision. That's the Supreme Court decision that made medically safe abortions possible.

Ironically, the bill's main sponsor is a woman, Senator Julie Bartling.

As might be expected, the bill has been presented to 'save lives.' Yet the current bill won't even allow abortions in instances that threaten the mother's health.

But shouldn't an already existing life be worthy of protection? Isn't this supposed to be a place that values Mom (and apple pie) right up there with their flag?

The capital of South Dakota is Pierre. But folks there don't pronounce it like the French name. They say 'peer.'

Or, as women facing unwanted pregnancies might be thinking, 'pier.' As in something to jump off of.