Progress is relative

It’s a fine day. The spending debacle in the Senate – the House of Sober Second Thought, as we’re regularly reminded –  is the gift that keeps on giving. Another (formerly respected) on air journalist from the CBC is fired for profiting from his position. Does anyone besides me see the perversity in this? I’m not saying what Evan Solomon did was right – it was, in fact, stupidity or cupidity and a shameful lack of common sense. Still, unelected Senators misbehave and rip us off but because they make the rules, they get to hang around with their hands so deep in our pockets they should be charged with groping.

Last night, we dodged tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. Watching the Weather Network when there’s an advisory felt like watching a silverfish circling the drain – much frantic movement repeated every few seconds until – whomp, it was over. Nothing to see here. Back to our regular programming. Out in the field, there were intrepid reporters clad in rubber suits pressing microphones against their lips as wind-blown rain slashed at them. Hub poured us a celebratory glass of red wine then we took our dinner plates out to the deck and ate under a brilliant blue sky.

Then there’s Nobel laureate Tim Hunt who has resigned after making comments that science labs should be segregated because of trouble with those pesky girl scientists who distract the boys and cause all sorts of trouble like falling in love with the men or getting the men to fall in love with them and not being stoic when criticized.

The doddering old fool’s brain is addled – he’s been sniffing too many chemicals. Misogyny lives, and not only in rap music lyrics or low-end movies. Good lord, but I thought the days of ‘stiff upper lip’ and inequality went out (or at least underground) with chastity belts and hobble skirts. The veneer of civility and tolerance is still very thin. Feminists and other forward-thinkers must despair.

Then there’s the anti-sex education update folks who keep marching on Queen’s Park chanting about ‘our child, our choice’ when it comes to discussing in class what kids in grade two talk about in the school yard or see on television. Uh, people, when you have ten-year-old babies having babies, a growing problem with sexually transmitted diseases, young girls being coerced into schoolyard fellatio by boys who convince them it’s an act of ‘friendship’ that will make them ‘popular’, then absolutely the kids have to know truth from fiction.

When I was young, there were still parents who said ‘the stork brought you’. In high school, we received little booklets called, ‘You’re a young lady now’. We were encouraged to be discreet, wear crisp clothing, refresh our low spirits with a nap and to keep ourselves ‘sweet and clean’. Talk about double meanings.

Today, sex is everywhere. Look at what you read and what you watch on television. When the weather gets hot, check out the clothing (or lack of) on the streets. Young people see the same things we do, but they don’t have enough positive life experience or wisdom to be able to distinguish truth (it is okay to say no) from lies (Kim’s silicone-enhanced butt).