1 CALGARY AFTER THE FLOOD Up to 12,000 people will be out of their homes “for a long time”. Our thoughts are with them. Meanwhile, a former Environment Canada deputy minister says a lot of Canadian municipalities are unprepared for expensive, climate change related disasters. Details aplenty, here.
2 IT’S GOING TO BE A TERRIBLE WEEKEND If you’re a vampire. The rest of us can look forward to heat and sun. Hooray!
3 NELSON MANDELA SHOWS IMPROVEMENT So says his ex-wife. Also, did you read Gywnne Dyer’s piece on Nelson Mandela’s legacy in the new Prairie Dog? You should! Meanwhile U.S. President Barack Obama might or might not visit the ailing South African icon during his current visit.
4 LOOKING BACK AT A HUGE WEEK IN THE U.S. Here’s a combo recap and update: The United States took a big step toward legal same-sex marriage in every state with a good Supreme Court decision, Texas Republicans escalated a stupid, ignorant and insulting attack on women’s rights and the ability of minorities to actually vote is now threatened after a bad Supreme Court decision. One take away is that Republican politicians remain generally fucking despicable, bigoted, monstrous thugs who oppose women’s rights, LGBT rights and minority rights (and hate poor people and love anyone with a fat wallet). On the bright side, Mr. Sulu wrote a great essay about same-sex marriage:
Whenever one group discriminates against another — keeping its members out of a club, a public facility or an institution — it often boils down to a visceral, negative response to something unfamiliar. I call this the “ick.” Indeed, the “ick” is often at the base of the politics of exclusion. Just this March, for example, a young woman at an anti-same-sex-marriage rally in Washington was asked to write down, in her own words, why she was there. Her answer: “I can’t see myself being with a woman. Eww.” Frankly, as a gay man, I can’t see myself being with one, either. But it’s usually not gays who write the laws. If this woman were in Congress, her personal discomfort might infect her thinking — and her lawmaking. Gays kissing? Ick.
Yay!
5 OOOH, THE BAD, BAD RCMP COLLECTED UNATTENDED GUNS AFTER A FLOOD, HOW TERRIBLE, OFFENSIVE The Prime Minister’s Office apparently thinks the RCMP should worry about people’s safety, not unattended firearms which could NEVER be a threat to anyone. What a bunch of imbeciles. Do these people pay any attention to the contradiction-filled stupidities in their own public statements? I like the RCMP response: “We seized any firearms that were noted that were in plain view. We seized what we saw that could potentially be a hazard. Anything properly stored in gun lockers was left.”
6 SHE’S OUT It looks like celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has left her husband, art collector and documented wife-choker Charles Saatchi. Good.
THERE’S A NEW PIXIES SONG Except there might not be any Kim Deal so it’s kinda not the real Pixies. Oh well. Stupid excellent bands whose key members can’t get along.
