DancingSamurai.ca

Dr. Dawg weighs in on the recent push to ban burkas in Canada, and he is incredibly eloquent and right on the money:

Summing up Fatah’s arguments, then, if some women in Canada want to walk around in niqab, they are in fact oppressed by a mediaeval, non-religious, misogynist custom, and must be rescued from themselves.

Hard-line feminists have said much the same thing in the past about miniskirts, heels and fishnets, although I don’t recall their demanding government legislation to enforce an alternative norm. Once again, they had a point, but it wasn’t the whole story. Social interaction, indeed the very construction of the “self,” is complex, volatile, always in flux, with numerous contending forces at play.

Well, the blogosphere is abuzz with criticism of the University of Toronto and SickKids for supporting the Autism One / Autism Canada conference – which appears to be loaded with people promoting dubious if not dangerous treatments like homeopathy, and who have a history of blaming autism on vaccines.  Some relevant articles:

• University of Toronto embraces Autism Quackery
• Autism Quackery at the University of Toronto? Say it ain’t so!, followed by SickKidsFoundation supports woo
• Charities, Stakeholders, and Guilt by Association

It’s usually someone at the extremes of age who tells it like it is. I came across this blog post by an 80-something grandmother (yes, she blogs! Amazing!) who nails the troubles south of us on the head:

Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public? I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired, poor, and huddled masses clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon. Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind. And all of them are asking for their America back. I wonder which America that would be?

Would that be the America where the Supreme Court picks your president instead of counting all the votes? Would that be the America where rights to privacy are ignored? Would that be the America where the Vice President shoots his best friend in the face? Or would that be the America where an idiot from Alaska and a college drop-out with a radio show could become the torchbearers for the now illiterate Republican party?

I fear that would not be the America they want back. I fear that the America they want back is the one where black men don’t become President.

[...]

And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother? Are you people honestly that stupid? This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system. [...] [I]f these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand. No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads. By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

(via #1 Dinosaur. I’m appalled at the comments there though.)

An editorial in the CMAJ a few issues back raises the argument for a national cord blood bank. This is consistent with the detailed and well written SOGC guidelines on the subject.

The multitude of commercial companies offering autologous cord blood banking are promising things they can’t deliver… we need a national bank like the blood bank system we have now.

Here are a couple of stories I’ve seen on my RSS feeds (I use Google Reader now), that I keep meaning to write lengthy posts about but I know I’ll never get around to it… so here’s the linkalicious list for any who are interested:

(more…)

Yes, the Nuremberg  Defence.  Covered on CNN of all places:

Human rights organizations reacted angrily Thursday to the Obama administration’s announcement that CIA officials would not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics.

[...]

The attorney general promised that officials who used the controversial interrogation tactics would be in the clear if their actions were consistent with the legal advice from the Justice Department under which they were operating at the time.

Another nail in the hope that Obama would make significant changes… (see previous comments)

(via Dawg’s Blog)

Shadowfax had a brilliant approach to dealing with a patient who presented to the ER with an acute abdomen and refused surgery due to pretty clear denial of his illness: (more commentary by Orac)

“Okay sir, before you go up I’ve just got some paperwork to complete. Do you have a next of kin?”
“Um, yeah, my sister.”
“Great. What’s her phone number? We’ll be needing to call her later. Do you have a mortuary or funeral home selected, or should we just have your sister pick one?”
“Um, I don’t think -”
“No problem, we’ll just have her pick one. Now, in a few hours, you’re not going to be able to breathe any more, and if we’re going to keep you alive, we’ll have to put you on life support. Do you want us to do that, or should we let you suffocate?”
“That sounds bad — I don’t want to suffocate.”
“Right, then, the ventilator it is. But a few hours after that, your blood pressure is going to go really low and your heart will stop. Do you want us to pound on your chest and shock your heart to try to bring you back? It won’t work, of course, but I just need to let the ICU doctor plan how to handle it when the time comes. So should we do CPR or not?”
He gave me a long look. “You really mean it, don’t you?” I said nothing, but let the long silence linger. “You really think I need the surgery?” I nodded. He sighed, and slumped back, resigned,”Well, all right, if you really think I need it…”

Here’s one that’s too astounding to believe.

On second thought, considering the sheer idiocy of the CYA attitude in administrations far and wide in this country, it’s really not that unbelievable.

As discussed widely on the web, some poor mother was scared out of her wits and subjected to a CAS investigation because a teaching aide working with her autistic daughter got a tip that she was being sexually abused. Where did this come from? A psychic she visited!

The school administration took this as ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect child abuse and ran with it to CAS. Luckily, the child in question had a GPS device with audio recording capability to prove she’d never been assaulted.

But, a psychic?! Those charlatans? Come on now, they may be fun in a fair, but an allegation of child abuse is no laughing matter. Why hasn’t this psychic been hunted down? (Obviously the school administration is more to blame here, but still, ‘for entertainment purposes only’ disclaimers – whether explicit or tacit – shoudl only go so far).