Big Fat Hairy Living

Commenter Andrew Jeanes in reply to a post in Steve Munro’s Toronto Transit blog:

For decades, engineers have been conditioned to believe in their own exceptionalism and taught to hold all non-engineers in contempt. Right from their first year of undergraduate study, when they are issued their hard hats and boiler suits and taught their derogatory chants about “artsies,” engineers start learning to dismiss the views of others. Then they graduate and are expected to turn around and take guidance from politicians and the general public in making professional decisions? Never happen.

We need engineers for the skill set but culturally engineering is a corrupted profession. Until something is done to teach engineers a little humility, public transit advocates without that little iron ring will face an uphill fight every time.

Yes.

The Seattle Times on Canada’s Human Rights Code, which forbids “hate speech”:

Canada, which has made “hate speech” against the law, now struggles to balance political correctness with freedom.

We do not envy the Canadians. They have entrusted to their government a power Americans never would, and they follow it into foolishness. In the week of June 2, a body of bureaucrats called the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will call on the carpet author Mark Steyn.

Blah, blah, blah. No, Americans would never entrust to their government the power to punish people for exercising their right to free speech.

The American government doesn’t waste time censoring racist newspaper columnists or neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers—there asses and tits on television! But that’s all right—it doesn’t touch political discourse.

New Glasses
Originally uploaded by thickslab

Mark and I spent some time outdoors enjoying the sun today.

I got some new glasses on Thursday. Mark thinks they’re cute, but he thinks everything I wear is cute.

Baby, just bend over and spread that fat, hairy ass and I’ll show you homosexuality is so very, very RIGHT.

For those of you who aren’t aware, employees of the Toronto Transit Commission went on strike at midnight last Saturday, leaving many people without their usual way of getting around the city. The provincial legislature passed a law on Sunday afternoon sending TTC employees back to work right away, and everything was up and running again by Sunday evening.

The strike came as a very unwelcome surprise to most people, as the union had previously promised to give 48 hours’ notice. The head of the union put out a statement a little more than an hour before the strike began claiming that he called for an immediate walkout because he was concerned about passengers assaulting drivers. Nobody believed him.

The reaction from many people was disappointing, but not surprising. The response from most people has been to curse the union for inconveniencing them and to complain that TTC employees make good money and should be content with what they have, given that people don’t make nearly as much as them. Some people have called for the province to declare transit an essential service, thereby removing the workers’ right to strike. Let me get this straight: you make minimum wage and TTC employees make two to three times minimum wage. So instead of trying to gain for yourself the rights that got the TTC employees that money, you want to take it away from them? How does that make sense exactly?

One of the books that has influenced my thinking about the way our society is structured is With Downcast Gays. It made me think about oppression, and about the ultimate oppression: self oppression. The ultimate oppression occurs when we internalize our oppressors’ views of what is good and bad. We no longer need to be told that being gay is bad or that unions are bad; we do it ourselves. The right wing, pro-business, anti-labour mindset is so ingrained in most people that their response when their weekend is disrupted by a union exercising its democratic right to strike is to demand that the right be taken away.

Oh, and that weekend that the TTC disrupted because of their strike? Thank unions that you have a weekend at all.

The man behind the counter at the Pita Pan on Church Street just asked Mark and me, “Are you two brothers?” Nope. “Cousins?” Nope. “Because you both have…” — chin-rubbing gesture to indicate facial hair — “one black and one white!”

I just saw Colin and Justin at Super Fresh Mart. I will never wash my eyeballs again.

I’ll take the bearded one on the left, thanks.

Barack Obama on vaccines and autism:

We’ve seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.

The science is actually pretty damn conclusive: vaccines do not cause autism.

My boss at my previous workplace refused to get his daughter immunized because he and his wife didn’t want her to get autism. It’s a shame that children should be exposed to unecessary risk because their parents are idiots.