Ludicrous

Universities have become uninclusive places of non-learning, the opposite of what they were designed to be.  I attribute this to the paranoia of visible minority and female students who see every opinion they don't hold as a threat to their identities. 

The latest is the dis-invitation issued Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield to be the keynote speaker at Concordia's 40th anniversary celebrations.  Why was he banned?  Because he wrote a book entitled 'Manliness', in which he describes it as evident in "the person who likes to be in charge of situations of risk.  He has a take-charge attitude.  Most manly persons are men, but not all," wrote the 50-year veteran of teaching at Harvard. 

Wow!  What a concept!  Manly men are usually men!  Amazing!  But apparently, a "diversity of voices among the university's alumni" was behind the decision to cancel the keynote speech and in the end the gala itself!  You know what "diversity of voices" means, don't you.  It means women who don't like the idea of men being manly.  At least, that's what it says to me.

I suspect many of the students against Mansfield's appearance were also "people of colour" who are usually offended by everything -- especially at a university.  Remember when the Middle Eastern students at Ottawa U had Ann Coulter's appearance cancelled by yelling loudly and waving placards at president Alan Rock who promptly caved?  Another example of chicken-sh-t behaviour.

But if anyone says anything like I have here, he/she is vilified and termed a racist.  Frankly, it's the visible minorities who have become the racists.  "The invitation was a surprise, the rejection less of a one, because I am a white male conservative professor," wrote Mansfield in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.  A respected professor and author for his scholarship on political philosophy, Mansfield is also considered a world-class expert on Machiavelli.  But he also writes on gender and culture and his 'Manliness' book is considered by the protestors outdated and demeaning.  By the way, he also criticizes the panic around the so-called "rape culture" which many hysterics declare is rampant on today's university campuses. 

Absolutely a crock.  But apparently, if you are a white, male professor you are automatically a rabid racist.  It's all so ludicrous, but lines up perfectly with what Concordia has become.  We were planning to go to Montreal last Fall for homecoming, but they made it into a "Queer Homecoming" celebration, to which I objected.  When I wrote to tell them we would not be attending because of how they were going to celebrate it, I received an email telling me that this was because Concordia was so "inclusive".

How can a "Queer Homecoming" be inclusive?  It's completely exclusive.  Guess the people who organized it didn't understand the difference between "inclusive" and "exclusive".

Universities are now the thought and word police where no can say anything that's not politically correct.  Sad.     

"Look....."

...says Climate Barbie to every question she is ever asked.  Just saw her on 'Power Play' and that was her answer to everything.  "Look, climate change, a price on pollution, look, climate change, a price on pollution, look, climate change, a price on pollution...."  And on and on and on.  The "look" translates into "....you dummy."  I find her very offensive on every level and a disgrace to her gender.

Last night we went to a Fourth Degree Knights of Columbia dinner touted as "Ladies Appreciation Night".  They have one every year, but the appalling thing is that the wives have to prepare the food every year!  Not I, but some of the doormat wives actually do this.  How can this "appreciate" ladies when they have to do the schlepping?! 

For a couple of years, B organized proper dinners for the ladies when we went to The Palliser Hotel or The Ranchmen's Club, but now it's back to the church basement, soup and chicken.  Ugh!  I thought the Knights were a disaster in Ottawa, but in Calgary they are rock bottom.   

Where's the money?

You probably know what file I am going to rip into when I talk about money.  Correct, the natives.  This time it is about the plight of the residents of the godforsaken Kashechewan reserve in northern Ontario.  You know, the one that gets flooded out every year forcing the evacuation of its 2,500 beleaguered souls.

That, my friends, costs you and me $20 million.  Every year.  Yep, every year.  Do you know what this band gets EVERY YEAR from the taxpayer over and above the flood money?  $22 million.  "This is a significant amount of money for a community the size of Kashechewan," noted the author of a 2006 report on this sorry state of affairs.  As at the end of March, 2018, the band fund sat at $33 million.  FOR 2,500 PEOPLE.  That's considerably more than $1 million each!  And still they get the flood money! 

It's completely insane!  The leaders say everything is the responsibility of the government and the government says, "That's what you get the money for."  So there you have it.  The people in need get nothing, while those who run the place slap it into a fund and demand more.  "The resulting perpetration of inadequate services and facilities in Kashechewan lies at the heart of the current crisis," said the report's author.  BACK IN 2006!

The answer is to move, but the good, old Indian Act is how the money flows, so they won't.  And why should they?  Heck, the money comes in by the truck load! 

It just enrages me.  Read Christie Blatchford today in 'The National Post'.  She lays it all out, but sadly, even Ms. Blatchford blames the government.  People need to wake up, but they won't. 

Phil wants to talk to you

That's what my old friend JR said when I called him this evening.  I have known JR since he dated and married my late cousin in the sixties.  Every now and then I call him and we re-connect as if no time had passed.  This time, when I called, Phil happened to be over for dinner, so he got on the phone.  Haven't talked to him for years, but we chatted like we were still dating.

Fabulous.

Phil was my boyfriend when we were at Lisgar in grades 11 and 12.  A scratch golfer, he said, "I don't want to talk about Tiger, when I asked him what he thought about the Masters, I want to know what you're up to."  I was sixteen and seventeen when we dated so innocently, but he's still the great guy I knew then.  And funny!  Still.

Isn't it marvelous when you haven't talked to someone in 50 years and you pick up exactly where you had left off.  We reminisced about our dates and the dances we had gone to, the double dates we had had with Mike and John and their dates.  Actually, all Phil and I used to do was a little necking at his house when his parents were out.  This evening, I talked to JR for an hour and Phil for an hour.  Wonder what their wives thought of my interrupting their dinner!? 

As my runway gets shorter, I have decided that when I think of an old friend, I am going to pick up the phone instead of just thinking of them.  It seems they welcome the call.  In fact, couldn't get John off the phone!

I am blessed to have my old friends at the other end of the line.      

They're still surprised?

Yet another study shows that there are still fewer women in the executive and CEO ranks of Canadian business.  What escapes people about this?  I remember saying to then DuPont of Canada president Bob Richardson waaaaaaay back in 1972 that women were basically penalized for having the biological function of bearing children. 

Like a lunatic, I then tried to make a case for on-site daycare.  This pitch was decidedly unsuccessful, as you can imagine.  With a stay-at-home wife who did his laundry and made his bed, he scoffed, derided my views, turned on his heel and walked off.  At the time, I was contemplating a family and knew that would be the end of my career.  Yep, women paid -- and continue to pay -- a big penalty for having kids. 

Several successful women have recently collectively written a book entitled, 'The Collective Wisdom of high-Performing Women'.  In 2018, only 15.8 percent of executive officer positions in Canada were held by women according to stats from the TSE -- barely changed from 2014.  Actually, it's barely changed from 1972, when I first began to ponder combining a career with a husband and kids.  Bizarrely, they claim there may now be an opening to push for substantive change.  Unless men start to bear children, I don't see how?

Business is not the meritocracy they were promised.  No, it isn't.  Tough, that's life. 

Nevertheless, I still believe women should keep working after taking up an expensive seat in an institute of higher learning.  In fact, I think women have an obligation to keep working if they've started a career and I have to confess -- though you already know this -- I do not respect women who sit on their a--es and allow a man to support them.  We're not in the Middle East here.

I personally "bought the ranch", as the saying goes.  Had two kids of my own, lost my job, got a job back after maternity leave and kept going.  Just to ice the cake, I actually re-married after my divorce (caused mainly by my then-husband's inability to earn a living).  And who did I marry?  Yep, a guy with two kids of his own and an ass-sitting ex who rifled our pockets with enduring and enthusiastic fervour!  For years. 

As I always say, women really can't have it both ways.  Support yourselves, girls and have a little self-respect. 




 

$300,000

That's the seed money the government of BC is going to put into buying tampons and pads for all provincial high school girls. 

Insanity.

"We want this so we will be equal," said one idiotic grade 11 female student.  Really?  Are you saying that the province is currently paying for condoms for male students, or are you saying that the province pays for them to buy tampons and condoms?

It's completely insane!  Why would taxpayers pay for a girl to buy tampons??!!

Welcome to the world of the NDP.     

My kind of style

These women know how to put together several necklaces for a fabulous look.  I do it too and it's very effective.