Tag Archives: politics

This is my son Griffin, and he may have measles.

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Griffin

On February 9th, I received a phone call from York Region Public Health, informing me that Griffin, alongside my mother and I, was potentially exposed to the measles virus while attending a newborn weigh-in appointment at my doctor’s office in Markham on January 27th.

Griffin was 15 days old at the time.

I was informed that someone who later developed measles sat in the doctor’s waiting room between 1 hour before and 30 minutes before we arrived. I was also informed that measles is regarded as “airborne” and can stay in the air and on surfaces up to 2 hours after the infected person has left.

I was then asked if I had had the measles vaccine. I had.

Griffin. Griffin had not. Can not.

I was advised to not be around small children. If I worked in such an environment I would be written off work. I do work in such an environment; my home. Where I now sit with Griffin and my 3 year old, Aurelia, who has only been able to get one MMR vaccine so far. She is now, technically, exposed too. We are to sit tight and watch for symptoms: fever, cough, runny nose. If we develop any of these we are to call my doctor and arrange to come in under official medical precautions. We are to wait at home, in isolation, until February 17th, after which the 21 days of possible incubation will have passed and we are clear.

So, Griffin is now Schrödinger’s baby. Simultaneously with measles, and without it. Until he develops symptoms, or until a further 7 days pass. One or other.

And I’m angry. Angry as hell.

I won’t get angry at or blame the person in the waiting room. I would have likely done the same thing…you get sick, you go to the doctor. I have no idea what their story is and I will never know. But I do know one thing:

If you have chosen to not vaccinate yourself or your child, I blame you.

I blame you.

You have stood on the shoulders of our collective protection for too long. From that high height, we have given you the PRIVILEGE of our protection, for free. And in return, you gave me this week. A week from hell. Wherein I don’t know if my BABY will develop something that has DEATH as a potential outcome.

DEATH.

Now, let’s unpack this shall we. All out on the table.

You have NO IDEA what this “potential outcome” means. NO IDEA. I do. Unfortunately, I do.

You think you are protecting your children from thimerosal? You aren’t. It’s not in their vaccine.

You think you are protecting them from autism? You aren’t. There is no, none, nada, nothing in science that proves this. If you want to use google instead of science to “prove me wrong” then I am happy to call you an imbecile as well as misinformed.

You think you are protecting them through extracts and homeopathy and positive thoughts and Laws of Attraction and dancing by candlelight on a full moon? You aren’t. I PROTECT YOUR CHILD. We protect your child. By being concerned world citizens who care about ourselves, our fellow man, and our most vulnerable. So we vaccinate ourselves and our children.

You think you are protecting them by letting them eat their shovel full of dirt and reducing antibiotics and eating organic? You aren’t. As an unvaccinated person you are only protected by our good graces. WE LET YOU BE SO PRIVILEGED thanks to our willingness to vaccinate ourselves and our children.

You know what vaccines protect your children from? Pain. Suffering. Irreparable harm. Death.

And you would be the first to line up if you had an inkling of what the death of a child feels like. You would be crawling through the streets on your hands and knees, begging, BEGGING to get that vaccine into your precious babies because that is what I would have done, if I could, to save my daughter.

The fact is, there was no vaccine for her. Not for her illness. And she died. She died at age five and a half, and she is gone.

And I watch these arguments trotted out on Facebook and twitter citing false science and long discredited“studies” that just won’t stop and Jenny McCarthy quotes and “it’s MY choice” to not vaccinate…and I think…what would you have done if your child lay dying? Would you give them a scientifically proven, safe and effective vaccine and risk the minuscule likelihood of a side effect? Or would you let them go, knowing that at least they won’t develop autism (which they wouldn’t even develop anyway because SCIENCE)?

And don’t you DARE tell me that you wouldn’t vaccinate them then. Don’t you dare. You have no idea what it feels like to go through what we went through.

So, look at Griffin. Tell me why he gets to bear the brunt of your stupidity and reckless abuse of our protection? Tell me.

Seven more days until I know that my baby is safe. Seven more days.

How is your week going, anti-vaxxers?

(From Jennifer Hibben-White via Facebook).

On Rape Culture.

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I think you’re misunderstanding the term “rape culture”, Scott. People like you try and dismiss it because they feel like it means women are getting raped in their millions, or there are rape TV shows and rape rape parties where everyone talks about how much they like to rape.

Rape culture actually refers to simple facts. Women are raped at a rate or sexually assaulted at a rate of something like 1 in 4. One in FOUR. Now, you can argue that fact all you like. People don’t like that statistic and challenge it all the time… but what if it’s true? What if it’s LITERALLY FACTUALLY TRUE? What if instead of dismissing and arguing it we thought “Holy fucking fuck that is fucked up and needs to stop.”

Rape culture refers to the fact that if a woman is a victim of rape, she can’t tell anyone. If you tell people your house was broken into, they don’t ask what you were wearing. If you are a victim of rape, everything is suddenly relevant: have you been drinking? Why were you drinking? Had you had too much? Oh, so you DID let him kiss you? So you led him on? What were you wearing?

Rape culture refers to the fact that women who are victims of rape are often victimised a second time by the police. If someone is raped it’s extremely difficult to prosecute. The difference between consent and rape is purely one word against another. Police know this. They know how hard it is to make any case. They also have their own attitudes, that reflect society – that a rapist is a creepy guy in a black van who grabs women. Not a good looking guy on a date who doesn’t think a goodnight kiss is enough.

Rape culture refers to the fact that a when a girl is victimised, gang raped by young men, the media will actually sometimes refer to the boys like they’re victims. “These two young men who had such promising futures — star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their life fell apart,” Note that this was CNN, and they were referring to the RAPISTS, not the victims.

Rape culture refers to the pervasive concept that the bodies of women are something for men to aspire to and that we deserve.

Rape culture refers to the fact that women are wolf-whistled at, cat-called and groped not just regularly but routinely. This might not sound like rape, and it isn’t – it’s part of rape CULTURE. It’s the fact that women’s bodily autonomy isn’t respected. It’s the first step.

Rape culture refers to the fact that everyone is opposed to rape. But lots of men think that it’s ok to pressure a woman, or that a man is owed something if he buys a drink, or that a woman sometimes says no but means yes, or that once you start she gets into it or that it’s not rape if it’s your wife, or that she’s totally down for it when she’s been drinking, or that “rape allegations” are just women having regrets, or that… lots of similar things.

Rape culture isn’t “the culture of rape”. Rape culture is the culture that supports rape. It’s the culture that denies rape is even happening. That it’s even a problem. That it needs to be talked about.

Rape__by_little_pretty

Published with permission from Matt Burgess via Facebook.

An Animal Shelter Manager’s Message

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I saw this timely reminder on Facebook (shared through ARQ Foster page), that our pets are not for Christmas; they are forever.  When I went hunting for it, it took me ages to find, so I’m cross posting it here…  It is a very strong letter written by someone who lives this nightmare every day and it brought tears to my eyes.

Having saved two gorgeous little dogs from a puppy mill, both of whom have some weird arse idiosyncrasies as a result of their less than ideal early puppyhood, I can’t imagine life around here without them.  We shouldn’t buy our pets from unscrupulous breeders – we should adopt them.  We shouldn’t abandon our pets – we should re-home them if necessary.  Let’s not allow these overrun shelters, that have to euthanise, beautiful, perfectly healthy animals, become the norm.
gone

“I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge wake-up call.

As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all – a view from the inside, if you will.

Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know – that puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore.

How would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at – purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays” that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

No shortage of excuses
The most common excuses I hear are:

We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).
Really? Where are you moving to that doesn’t allow pets?

The dog got bigger than we thought it would.
How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?

We don’t have time for her.
Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs!

She’s tearing up our yard.
How about bringing her inside, making her a part of your family?

They always tell me:
We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her. We know she’ll get adopted – she’s a good dog. Odds are your pet won’t get adopted, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is?

Well, let me tell you. Dead pet walking!

Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off, sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy.
If it sniffles, it dies.

Your pet will be confined to a small run / kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it.
If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers that day to take him / her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose.
If your dog is big, black or any of the “bully” breeds (pit bull, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted.
If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.

If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed, it may get a stay of execution, though not for long. Most pets get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment.
If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles, chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

The grim reaper
Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.
First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk – happy, wagging their tails. That is, until they get to “The Room”.

Every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the door. It must smell like death, or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there. It’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk it’s leg. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood, and been deafened by the yelps and screams.

They all don’t just “go to sleep” – sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.
When it all ends, your pet’s corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back, with all of the other animals that were killed, waiting to be picked up like garbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know, and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal, and you can always buy another one, right?

Liberty, freedom and justice for all
I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head. I do everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.
My point to all of this is DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to – the truth hurts and reality is what it is.
I just hope I maybe changed one person’s mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this thing on Facebook and it made me want to adopt”.
That would make it all worth it.”

Author unknown

He is the very model of an LNP Prime Minister

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I am the very model of an LNP Prime Minister
I’ve never had a budget measure passed however sinister;
I’ve backing of the business groups who back me most assuredly;
Especially the ones of them who lately were bankrolling me!
(Especially the ones who lately were bankrolling, rolling he,
Especially the ones who lately were bankrolling, rolling he,
Especially the ones who lately were bank rolling, bank-a-rolling he!)

I’ve scuttled manufacturing ’cause the demographics favoured me;
Encouraged our veterans to clothe and eat responsibly…
I’ve re-arranged my rhet’ric to avoid the taint of honesty;
(inhale.…)
And bought our submarines from overseas because it pleases me!
(He buys the submarines from overseas because it pleases, pleases he!)

We simply cannot compromise on issues of security
Despite the UN signatories glaring at us angrily
We need another fifty-seven jets to fight the war you see,
The war…
(The war?)
What war?…
The war against the people who are brown, and do not look like me!

I tend to ignore history, lest it be cause the black armbands be worn,
For facts of slavery, genocide and abduction can make folks forlorn,
I ignore difficult questions or I just prevaricate endlessly,
Quite sure if there’s an expert then that expert surely must be me.

Common law or common sense, be sure I will disregard these,
Which is kind compared to what I do with international rights treaties,
I know Australia’s world-renowned for being prosperous and free, 
Best I do not wonder why people are looking down at me.

Best I do not wonder why Obama’s looking down at me!
Best I do not wonder why Putin’s looking down at me!
Best I do not wonder why Jinping is looking looking down at me!

Then I can scowl at journalists and say that they have not been informed,
While crapping from great height on my constituents in uniform,
In short when dealing national and international harassment,
I am the very model of a national embarrassment.

I am the very model of a national embarrassment!
I am the very model of a national embarrassment!
I am the very model of a national embarrassment!

In fact, when I know what is meant by “human rights” and “prejudice”,
When I can tell at sight a queue jumper from an exodus,
When such affairs as interviews and debating I’m more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by “Bloody thick arse-hat”

When I have learnt what is meant by intellectual commentary,
When I know more of women than a novice in a seminary,
In short, when people do not laugh at the very mention of my name.
You’ll say no better modern man has ever made a knight or dame.

You’ll say no better modern man has ever made a knight or dame!
You’ll say no better modern man has ever made a knight or dame!
You’ll say no better modern man has ever made a knight or night or dame!

For my political knowledge, though I look great in swimming trunks,
Is the kind of nonsense usually heard from retired, racist bogan drunks,
But still in matters of national and international harassment,

I am the very model of a national embarrassment!

He IS the very model of a national embarrassment!
He IS the very model of a national embarrassment!
He IS the very model of a national embarrassment!!!

iHauLS0
(Lyrics by Ammonia Cogg and James Graewolfe)