Bruce Guenter's Thoughts

Random musings about stuff that crosses my path.

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Tuesday, October 31st

Incidents grab headlines?


In today's paper, there is yet another article bemoaning Conservative MP Peter MacKay's alleged slur against his ex, Liberal MP Belinda Stronach. In the article, the reporter says that the incident has "grabbed national and international headlines." This statement is somewhat misleading, trying to imply that stories just make themselves up and push themselves onto prime placement in papers and journals.

No, the reality is a journalists have had to write the articles, and editors have had to make decisions about what they think is most important for the public to read about from their newspapers. Evidently, these people have decided that this nearly inaudible comment is worth more attention than (for example) Minister of International Co-operation Josee Verner making a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Amusingly, the article ends with a quote from another Liberal MP judging MacKay's attitude based on this incident and concluding that "Canadians will draw their own conclusions on the basis of [the public record]." Well, apparently the readers of CTV.ca have drawn their conclusion, and decided (mostly) that it should just be ignored:

What do you think of the latest MacKay Stronach dust-up?

Apologize. Sexist behaviour which must be addressed. (32%)
Ignore it. Typical of workplace romance gone bad. (68%)

(The original poll is no longer available, but I've found it reported here and here.)
Bruce on 10.31.06 @ 01:00 PM CST [link] [No Comments]

Thursday, October 26th

Rush Limbaugh and Parkinson's Disease


Rush Limbaugh has recently gone on record deriding Michael J. Fox for exaggerating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. While I strongly disagree with Fox's advocacy of government sponsored embryonic stem cell research, I think Limbaugh is being a real jerk for trying to smear Fox based on his symptoms.

My father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease about 15 years ago, and some of the symptoms likely showed up before that. His father also had it, as did several of his relatives. He is taking a number of advanced medications under the direction of the foremost Parkinson's disease researchers in Canada. Even so, his symptoms swing wildly from hour to hour, completely unpredicably. He doesn't have much shaking, but does sway like Limbaugh saw Fox do, and has severely impaired mobility and speech. When he is good, his speech is as clear as it was 20 years ago. When he is bad, he is in constant motion, and it takes all his concentration to get his words out, and even then it's only slightly better than mumbling.

It's frustrating to watch, sometimes. I wish he could just slow down and stop sometimes. It is impossible to predict, for him and for us, when he will be coherent and when he won't. And as indicated earlier, it can change in as little as a half an hour from one extreme to the other. The only thing we know is that stress frequently makes it worse.

Mr. Limbaugh, given the number of years M. J. Fox has had Parkinson's disease, and that (from what I know) it is progressing fairly rapidly, I can say quite confidently that it is highly unlikely that Fox was faking anything. It really does get that bad, and it really is uncomfortable to watch. You owe him a public apology.
Bruce on 10.26.06 @ 05:49 PM CST [link] [No Comments]

Tuesday, October 3rd

PM Harper shows he has a backbone


Congratulations to Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper for having the resolve to stand against a biased resolution recognizing the suffering of only the Lebanese people in the recent conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. His actions, together with a few other countries resulted in the resolution being fixed. I am quite pleased with the position our government has taken on the recent attacks against the people of Israel. Thank you for taking a firm positive position and standing up for the rights of the victim.
Bruce on 10.03.06 @ 01:45 AM CST [link] [No Comments]