Bill 44

Oh, God love Alberta. Alberta, like my sister and her country music, "brings the hick" to this place.

So, after staying up, like, WAY past their bedtime, the members of the Alberta legislature voted in, by a wide majority, Bill 44. Its mandate? To require teachers to notify parents, in writing, of upcoming lessons that will involve information about sex, sexual orientation, or religion. Then, if parents feel the content is objectionable, they are free to withdraw their children from that lesson.

...What the hell?

And, as a real kicker, this was all done under the auspices of the provincial charter of Human Rights. As in, parents have a human right to pull their kid from school. What kind of human right is that?

It was the Conservatives (big shocker right there) who pushed the bill through, so, naturally, it's the right-wing Christians who are largely its backer. They're afraid of controversy, of new information diluting their children's beliefs; their solution is to remove controversy from the curriculum by ensuring their precious children never have to hear anything that might shake the foundations of what "universal truths" mommy and daddy have already sown in their fertile young minds.

This is ridiculous, and I say that as a Christian. Christians have never been shy about controversy. The man we follow and call Saviour was nailed to a cross! Our whole religion is founded on controversy, so what's with the sudden revolt against it?

Some parents are happy about the bill for reasons other than their religious beliefs. They believe it is their responsibility to teach kids about sex, morality, etc. Frankly, they're wrong:
Teachers are held accountable for what they say. They follow a series of guiding principles, created by the Board, detailing what is and is not appropriate to say. If they do say something inappropriate, they say it to twenty-five sets of little ears, and you can bet some of those kids go home and yell, "Mom, guess what the teacher said today!" That's why teachers who want to keep their jobs can't say things like, "Jewish people are bad" or "Gays should burn in hell" or "All Christians are right-wing nutjobs". Parents, on the other hand, have no such check or balance in place against them. They may say even, fair-minded things to their kids anyway, but for the sake of children whose parents might tell them things I can't even say in a public forum, let's leave some of the teaching of these touchy subjects to a civil servant who won't be instructing their children on picketing funerals or denying the Holocaust.

Ignorance--it's the gift that keeps on giving!

I was watching some videos on YouTube and came across one of a live version of "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry at the European VMAs. There were all kinds of comments below it like "Katy can't sing live!" or "She sounds like a man!" or "WTF? Bad singing!" Listen, if you thought Katy Perry's song was famous because she had a good voice, you completely missed the point of the video. Katy's voice sounds weird on her CD, never mind live, but that's not at all why she was so popular this summer.

Also. While we're talking about kissing girls and YouTube, I came across some "Yes on Prop 8" videos that I kind of thought were hilarious.
According to one video's comments, "98% of all homosexuals in prison admitted to being attracted to children". What? Does anyone actually believe these kinds of figures? 98% of all CHILD MOLESTERS in prison admitted to being attracted to children--that I would believe. I mean, that's what got them put in jail in the first place. But homosexuals? I don't think so.

My favourite part, I think, is the underlying assumption is that child molestation only happens between men and young boys. That's ridiculous. There are hundreds of convicted felons in jail right now because they were men with a preference for little girls. Since when is a man liking young girls suddenly gay? Is homosexuality the new catch-all for any sexual behaviour that lies outside the interactions between one man and one woman?

More YouTube hilarity:
A comment on a video of someone painting the Mona Lisa using MS Paint:
"ur the living picasso! or who ever painted the original".
Uh, can anyone say WE NEED MORE ART EDUCATION IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS?