Everyone's favourite jive-talking carnivore, it's...
T H E J U I C E A N D G I N
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Term XL, Issue 10 (#187)
Weather outlook:
The light at the end of this crappy tunnel.
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* Contents *
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- Editor's Blurb
- Ongoing Events
- Greg's DTK
- Humour
- General Info
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* Editor's Blurb *
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Hey all
Is there any way for these introductions not to start sounding
repetitive since there seems to not be that much in the way of new
information? Apparently not, since *some* of my readers(*) seem to
take joy in pointing out the fact that there really ain't no content
here. Well, bucko, that's what you get for an all-volunteer newsletter.
That, and all the cursing around the offices during late-night editing
sprees. Wa-hee.
(*) And oh, I know who you are -- mostly because you keep sending in emails.
Until next time,
My vision is impaired! I cannot see!
Michael (mailto:nutsinfo$yahoo.ca)
And now, the rest of the story...
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* Ongoing Events *
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[See the Event Calendar on the web site for full descriptions.
--Ed.]
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Pool League
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Mondays
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/events/index.html#Monday
Contact: Dave and Michael (pool$solutionsatsource.com)
View the current players' statistics at:
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/events/pool/index.html
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Indoor Rock Climbing
====================
Thursdays
Contact: Andrew (akpallek$hotmail.com)
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* Greg's Deep Thought Korner *
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I had trouble deciding what to write this week.
Some knobs in South Dakota want to make abortion illegal, even for rape
and incest victims. I've always been adamantly in favour of keeping
abortions legal. It isn't my business to control someone else's body.
Besides that, you can't stop it by making it illegal, you can only make
it dangerous. I hate to make it that simple, but it really is.
Then there was Ralph Klein and his attempt at creating ways for rich
people to get better medical service. As if the government of Alberta
couldn't afford to give everyone good medical service at this point.
Damn. That was pretty simple too.
Then came the kid who wanted to wear his kirpan to school. There's meat
there. On the one side, he claims (and I have no way to dispute) that
his religion requires him to wear a kirpan, a device which Sikh
literature refers to as a "miniature sword." If we refuse him the right
to wear it in school, he will be unable to attend. The charge is that
we would be refusing him the right to receive a public education on the
basis of his religion. Ergo, he is not receiving his freedom of religion.
The Supreme Court declared that the school board is required to
"minimally infringe" on the young man's religious freedom. The
compromise that was initially reached, and later refused, was that he
seal the knife (which, for religious reasons, must be metal) in a wooden
sheathe, which is then sewn inside a cloth container, always kept inside
his clothing and never misplaced. (How does he do Phys Ed?) Anyway,
the other side of the coin is that... well... he's carrying a *knife*
inside a *school*. No one else is allowed to carry a knife inside a
school, so why does someone's religion allow him to break this rule?
The Supreme Court also pointed out that a kirpan has never been used in
a violent assault in a Canadian school, although they did allow that
waiting for such a thing to happen wasn't required if there was a risk
of danger. They felt, however, that the risk of danger was low given
the safety precautions. I wonder if the Supreme Court understands the
nature of bullying. While most children aren't bullies, some children
are and, someday, one of them might be allowed to carry a kirpan and
threaten others with it. A Sikh child, raised in a Sikh community, will
not behave the same way as a Sikh child raised in our society.
Do I foresee kirpan stabbings in public schools? Frankly, no, I do not.
That's not really what troubles me about this ruling.
I'm not fond of organized religion. Any reader of this column will have
figured this out a long, long time ago. Organized religion, as far as I
can tell, has, historically, been a good way to get a lot of people
killed. It may yet do us all in. On top of that, trying to suppress a
religion (usually a tactic used by other religions) is a good way to
make it stronger. Anything suppressed becomes, automatically, romantic.
Think Romeo and Juliet, British laws against speaking French in early
Canada, or Northern Ireland. So, as one in favour of education over
dogma, I never want to suppress religion.
The troubling bit about this ruling is that it's a case of allowing a
religious rule to trump a civil rule. We said, quite simply, "no
weapons in school." And you can read web page after web page, like the
one below, that details how non-weaponly the kirpan is, and how it is
symbolic rather than literal.
http://allaboutsikhs.com/basics/sikhsymbols.htm
But, all in all, it's still a knife. And it's still being permitted in
schools because of a religion.
It seems odd to me, raised in a country of predominantly Christian
religions, that people take their religion so seriously as to carry it
with them every day in their lives. My upbringing didn't bring me in to
contact with people like that. Most I've seen go to church, do the
Jesus-thing, and forget about it for the other 6.5 days of their lives.
Maybe that's the issue here. We can't fathom that someone could be so
hooked on his religion that he can't just put it aside for the 6 hours
and 11 minutes he's in a public school building, five days a week.
Still, I don't like where this is headed. Although the ruling, linked
below, was well and thoroughly hedged so it applied to almost nothing
other than kirpans in public schools, it's still pointing us down a
disturbingly slippery slope where religion can overrule and interfere
with the operation of our government.
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/2006scc006.wpd.html
That, more than the highly unlikely chance of a kirpan assault, is what
worries me.
Greg.
[Send responses to DTKs or new Editorials to nutsinfo$yahoo.ca]
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* Humour *
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[Forward any good jokes or interesting web sites you see to
nutsinfo$yahoo.ca]
[Disclaimer: The Humour Section may contain content that includes dirty
words, adult situations and jokes that make fun of politicians. Viewer
discretion is advised. --Ed.]
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Calvin And Hobbes Searchable Database
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Thanks to Greg G. @ Alcatel
In case you ever wanted to know all the times when Calvin said "monkey"
or Hobbes talked about how cool you could be by wearing a Sombrero.
http://www.transmogrifier.org/ch/comics/search.cgi
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Senior Driving
==============
Thanks to Linda G.'s Neverending Comedy Trough
Two elderly women were out driving in a large car -- both could barely
see over the dashboard. As they were cruising along, they came to an
intersection. The stoplight was red, but they just went on through.
The woman in the passenger seat thought to herself "I must be losing
it. I could have sworn we just went through a red light."
After a few more minutes, they came to another intersection and the
light was red again. Again, they went right through. The woman in the
passenger seat was almost sure that the light had been red but was
really concerned that she was losing it. She was getting nervous. At
the next intersection, sure enough, the light was red and they went on
through.
So, she turned to the other woman and said, "Mildred, did you know that
we just ran through three red lights in a row? You could have killed us
both!"
Mildred turned to her and said, "Oh! Am I driving?"
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* General Info *
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Contact the NUTS Committee:
nutsinfo$yahoo.ca
The NUTS Website is:
http://nutsevents.topcities.com/
http://torpedo.ca.newbridge.com/mirror/ (for people within Alcatel)
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