Men's Rights

That the Men's Rights Organizations that have surfaced to date are largely (insert pejorative adjective) doesn't mean there are no men's rights issues meriting attention. You can't polish a turd. There is discrimination directed against men. 

When I was a grad student at Carleton University decades ago, the campus women's center published plans to debate censoring a piece of painstakingly executed folk art in the tunnels, one that I saw as clever and important social commentary on police duplicity. I attended at the Women's Center and was told I could hang around but I must remain silent during the discussion because I'd "just try to influence the outcome" if I were to speak.

I demanded and was given the part of my fees that supported the women's center back from student council. It was, as I recall, a buck thirty-five.

I am (as often as I have wished I were not) a heterosexual white male; one who has never intentionally discriminated against anyone on the basis of inherent or village of origin rooted personal characteristics. Although admitting the cringe-worthy, clumsy and idiotic vagaries of youth (and my heart excluded,) I am far from young. I say there is discrimination and that it amounts to gender based shaming regardless of which gender it concerns.

I do not blame women for rape.  I do not embrace any of the ideas that so easily provide valid bases for criticizing most extant men's rights groups and the silly-to-dangerous points they bring to the fore.  I am not ashamed because some men are wrong. But, I shall not be moved. There are men's rights issues. What can we do about this in a culture where the term "men's rights" has been demonized? Seriously, what can we do?

Screw gender roles.

Saint Omar the K

Ok, call me stodgy but I think we do well to stop short of canonizing Omar the K. Just sayin' the jury's still out...literally.

I agree with the leader of the greens when she says Omar's got more class than the PC caucus combined. Just sayin' that's not a difficult standard to achieve. I have three ferrets that can do that. Kidding. Nope. Well, maybe. What I mean is I like them better.  Ferrets, that is.

 A just appeal is challenging enough without spin doctors making a media maelstrom funneling away from due process.

There are lots of kids incarcerated at per capita rates that reflect economic and racial biases in the legal process, the mechanism(s) of which are only imperfectly understood. Maybe some attention to all that is in order. Maybe some for the dead medic; I don't recall his/her name or gender being even mentioned. Some directed towards those who profit from these stupid wars. I could go on.

I'm totally convinced Omar's being out on bail is good. And way overdue. Not so much about his becoming a poster child; I have seen posters. Pleural.

Seriously, if one shows up with a halo, I'm gonna hurl.