| The abortion puzzle
THE roughly 4,000 women who sought out abortions in Manitoba over the past year didn't have to face off with large crowds of angry protesters, or pay hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket for the procedure. Caring, or scaring? It's still a battleground But for some, there was a host of other challenges: difficulty getting referrals, problems finding accurate information, and in some cases, lengthy drives from rural towns and flights into Winnipeg from remote northern communities. Twenty years after the Supreme Court struck down the law governing abortion in Canada on Jan. 28, 1988, the environment surrounding abortion rights is significantly tamer. But access to abortion is still limited for many Manitoba women, and getting information about the procedure can be just as challenging.
Kucinich Starts New Impeachment Drive
Well now the list of supporters in Congress is growing, especially as elections are once again nearing, but it's quite telling about their miserable excuses as to why they won't impeach, isn't it? Money, money, money — oil, oil, oil, power, power, power, hegemony, hegemony, hegemony — and the Democratic support. And by the way — Bill Clinton, and then George Bush (U.S. government) supported the war in the Congo so that hundreds of multi-national corporations of many western countries, including the U.S. can profit by raping that country of all its mineral wealth, which is currently claiming teh lives of 45,000 each month, now totaling 4.5 million people. .
Give Europe a chance - Archbishop
The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for a "positive definition" of Europe. Dr Rowan Williams gave a lecture in Liverpool Cathedral during a two-day visit to the city, European Capital of Culture 2008. In the speech, entitled Europe, Faith and Culture, he said that much discussion suggests people are better at saying what Europe is not, rather than identifying what it is. Dr Williams said: "But we need from time to time to try and rescue a positive definition of some sort; which means a bit of history and a bit of political philosophy... "We need to understand some of the most basic things for which the word Europe stands when it is used positively, we need some thinking about religion as well specifically about Christianity. "And if the presence of Europe in the world hasn't been and isn't now exclusively a source of good things, it may be...we find the problems appear in proper perspective only when we've thought harder about these religious issues..." He said that a way forward "from some of our world's most stale and destructive situations" could happen only when such work had been done.
On Native Ground
There is plenty of evidence that interest rates might stay relatively low while the blue-chip equity market starts a new bull leg over the next year or two. As a consumer, a voter, an observer, and an investor, think of the types of industries which will be needed for this next economic cycle. If housing sucked up concrete, copper, lumber, and financing for the past decade, isn't it time for infrastructure to step up to the plate? How many roads have you seen with crumbling shoulders and deepening potholes recently? How many bridges and overpasses look like they are ready to crumble? Perhaps most telling are the projects which take five years to complete that present us with another four or six lanes on the Interstate. The hour the ribbon is cut and the politicians retire for a drink at the bar, the roads are jammed and drivers begin demanding another four lanes.
Town's Mardi Gras fun is fit for king
GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- Mardi Gras celebrations in places such as New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., are well-known. But a Missouri village with French roots has its own pre-Lenten party -- a traditional ball that dates back more than 250 years. On the first Saturday of February, the people of Ste. Genevieve and their out-of-town visitors don French colonial costumes and dance at the annual King's Ball. Dancers of all ages, from little kids and spirited teenagers to those well in their 70s, will crowd the floor on Saturday to dance reels and other old-time line dances. ''Ste. Gen,'' as the locals call it, was settled by the French in the early 1700s, making it one of Missouri's oldest settlements. The town of 4,400 people on the Mississippi River is 64 miles south of St. Louis.
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