1 GOD YOU’D THINK SOMEONE WOULD HAVE GOOGLED THIS BY NOW Because Regina is a minimum of five years behind the times on virtually everything, it should come as no surprise that the Regina-Qu’Appelle Health Region has just released a study saying that Regina is pockmarked with food deserts – food deserts being, of course, those neighbourhoods and communities with no grocery stores within walking distance. According to the report, which also points out that food deserts contribute to such things as obesity, over half of Regina doesn’t have walking-distance access to fresh groceries. Off the top of my head, that means residents in North Central and the Heritage neighbourhood downtown, but also places like University Park (whose nearest grocery is either the Sobey’s by the University or one of the stores on Vic, neither of which are particularly walkable) and Uplands (the Safeway in the Northgate is likely nearest, but also a hell of a walk for some).
2 LAC-MÉGANTIC KEEPS GETTING WORSE Police have confirmed that there are 15 dead in the aftermath of the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, and are considering pressing charges. Meanwhile, the nature of the disaster has made it difficult for forensic anaylsts to even find bodies, and the fires were so intense that they could be seen from space.
3 FLOOD SEASON Yes, Toronto – where an infrastructure debate has sprung up at the same time that many citizens remain without power – but also China, where 360,000 people are estimated to have been affected by flooding in Sichuan province.
4 SURELY THIS WILL HELP DISPEL INDIANA’S “FLYOVER STATE” REPUTATION It is now not just illegal but criminal to attempt to have your gay marriage legally recognized in Indiana, and furthermore, it is criminal to “solemnize the marriage,” meaning that it is also illegal for minsters to perform services marrying gay couples. Where this is especially infuriating is that people on the religious right – people who haven’t the foggiest idea how much gay people have contributed to the life of faith ever since humans stopped worshipping polytheistic rock gods – always howl obnoxiously about how the legalization of gay marriage is the government forcing them to do something, and yet here’s a piece of legislation that is explicitly forbidding people of faith within a religion to do something with an accepted, otherwise legally recognized service that their religion would otherwise permit, and those same hollow freedom-of-religion shitheads are dead silent, because they don’t like it when the knife cuts both ways.
5 IDIOT WAPO WRITER CAN GET BENT “Hurr hurr Canada’s senate is bad” yeah well that may be true at least we don’t have a tumblr dedicated to our senators playing it up like clowns for the camera, you maroon
6 THERE ARE NO WORDS, EXCEPT FOR “MISOGYNIST ASSHOLE(S)” Because rape culture neanderthals can’t get it through their thick, underdeveloped skulls that women shouldn’t be blamed for their own rape, anonymous poster-hanging dingbats have put up posters that counter Edmonton’s successful “Don’t Be That Guy” anti-sexual assault campaign by blaming women for their own rape. Honestly, if your life is at the point where you feel the need to get so defensive about having sex with drunk women and women regretting having sex with you that you’re going to put up posters about it, maybe you should take a weekend off and do some serious self-reflection.
