Sept. 29 - Many thanks to David A. Giles for the following link:

Stephen Baskerville, PhD - Fathers and Men's Rights Articles.

There are a number of articles by Dr. Baskerville on the web page; some of them look interesting, some look to be controversial and a few look to be extremely uncomfortable.

Discomfort is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, sometimes it is an extremely health sign that something is wrong and needs fixing.

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Sept. 27 - I had been unable to remember the source, author or name of an article I had read (which turned out to be a book review!) so was unable to link it in my post on Fatherhood and Grandparenthood. I am grateful that reader Andrew P. recognized my brief description and very kindly emailed me the relevant information.

The book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by economist Steven D. Levitt and scientist Stephen J. Dubner was reviewed by Orson Scott Card in Freakonomics Or You Have to Find the Facts Before You Can Face Them. Some of the assertions in the book are controversial and Card touches on one of the hypotheses: that lower crimes rates came about as a result of decriminalizing abortions.

In 1973, Roe v. Wade made abortion permissible throughout the United States. The floodgates opened, and vast numbers of abortions were performed. As a result, vast numbers of children were not born.

Ah, but which children? The vast majority of the abortions were among women who would have been raising their children without a father; substantial numbers of these women were addicts. And even the abortions performed on middle-class women were somewhat more likely to be the result of liaisons in which one partner or the other, or both, had poor impulse control.

In other words, the fetuses that were aborted, had they been born, would have become children who were statistically the most likely group to become criminals. Raised by single mothers, in poverty, with genes that might not provide them with much ability to foresee the longterm consequences of impulsive actions.

The crime rates began falling exactly when that generation of children would have reached adolescence and those with such tendencies would have begun their criminal careers.

It certainly looked as if we killed off much of our criminal class in the womb.

I've only excerpted the portion of the review that fit the blog post I was writing, but the review is about much more than that and addresses one of the biggest problems of this information age: too much specialized knowledge by experts which we can neither ignore nor understand.

I was curious and read about the book at the Freaknomics site and saw something that never fails to get my attention:

[Steven D. Levitt] usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. (Emphasis added)

I need to write (or at least begin) a report on a meeting I attended yesterday evening and then catch some sleep so probably won't post again until tonight.

(Orson Scott Card link via Relapsed Catholic)

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Sept. 27 - Good friend Jack has helped launch a website for OPP IRONMEN, self-described as "two very tough cops giving it their best!" Their best includes going into the dunk tank in order to raise money for Diabetes Canada.

They're also a bit modest, but Jack's profile of them is very informative. [Blogger permalinks seem somewhat skewed today; scroll down to Sept. 26 post "Very Late Update | OPP Ironmen" or run find option (Ctrl + F for IE users) search words "OPP Ironman."]

Welcome to the crazy blogging world, Ironmen!

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Sept. 24 - I read two posts yesterday that really stuck with me. They both concern parenting, or more properly, the lack of full parenting, and raise some disturbing issues.

David has written an outstanding post about The Ultimate Victims of single-parent families and he's backing it up with more than abstract speculation. Some of the figures cited are alarming and point to the need for a sober evaluation of the impact on families without a father's influence.

It's a touchy subject. There are a great many women (and a few men) who are raising children singlely and it is not always by choice. Some were deserted or one of the parents died. Others wisely left abusive or destructive relationships. I doubt anyone would argue that remaining together "for the sake of the children" is a good thing when the kids are forced to endure the fighting, bitterness, and animosity that often arises when a marriage has crumbled. Yet the acceptance of "no-fault divorces" argues that we as a society do accept that marriages can fall apart for a number of reasons that don't cast either spouse as villainous but simply as incompatible.

But somehow there has been a shift whereby dropping the belief that it's best to stay together for the sake of the children has led to assertions that a non-custodial parent, usually the father, is dispensable. Mom can do it all, be both father and mother, and the kids will turn out just fine because ... well, actually, that part is kind of left out. Dad's good for presents and trips to amusement parks, but when it comes to guidance, discipline and that most important parenting tool which we are literally stuck with, setting a good example, he's too often considered inconsequential. Evidently, two heads are not better than one.

The alarming part is that family courts also seem to regard the other parent as superfluous by their reluctance to enforce visitation rights when the custodial parent deliberately (and one might argue maliciously) denies it.

The seeming indifference of the courts when a parent's visitation rights are denied allows for a second injustice: the child's rights have also been violated. Judges and family courts, by inaction, diminish the worth of the love between the child and the non-custodial parent. Although the impact of that has yet to be assessed, one has to wonder how a child will develop emotionally when love for one parent is intentionally thwarted by the other or if the child comes to feel ashamed or disloyal because of that love.

I believe we need to find a way to encourage and support those who are raising children alone without diminishing the very real need for children to have two involved parents because, in this instance, we really do need to think about the children.

Anyone who prefers words like "resilient" and "survivor" over "irreparable" and "victim" will be intrigued by this next post. Raskolnikov evokes the former as he examines a different kind of parenting issue in Gramma's House by looking at the large number of grandparents who have taken on the child-raising of their grandchildren in aboriginal communities. That mirrors what is happening throughout Canada and the U.S.A. but there's a twist: the grandparents who are raising these kids are of the generation that is often viewed as having been so damaged by res-schools that they were rendered incapable of good parenting skills.

Evidently there has been a lack of any noticeable concern exhibited by Tribal Child and Family Service workers and community leaders, which is surprising and perhaps even alarming, but both of the outcomes Raskolnikov suggests contains the hope of healing.

(The comments, by the way, offer some different perspectives and worth the read.)

Sept. 25 - 17:05 - Read Is There Really a Fatherhood Crisis? for more (it's long and I'm still working through it, but it's already pretty hard hitting.) I don't know what to say; it's all very sobering.

I read an article this week (but can't find it now) linking the lowered crime rates in some major American cities with readier access to abortions. That was really a mind-stopper (if you know the one I'm referring to please drop me a line so I can link to it as well.)

Sept. 27 - 07:14 - Many thanks to Andrew P., who remembered that the article was Freakonomics Or You Have to Find the Facts Before You Can Face Them by Orson Scott Card and - bonus - that it had been linked by Kathy at Relapsed Catholic which was how we both came to read it.

21:50 - John Leo is linking Katrina casualties to single-parent families, although I think he may be streching it a bit far. One of the most uplifting things I saw during the early coverage were two men who had delivered their wives and children to the Convention Centre and were heading out to see if anyone else needed help. They had such a matter-of-fact attitude - neither exhibited humility or arrogance - and just said they had done what men need to do. I wish I could remember their exact words.

An honest report on Katrina might well show that a lot of men stood up and, well, acted like men so often do: strong and true.

I enjoy some wine with dinner so I'm going to indulge in some sauce for the gander is good for the goose whimsy: Imagine, if you dare, what would happen if all the men in the world went on strike. [And before you mention Lysistrata, be sure and read the damned play. The women barricaded themselves in the town treasury, which was a bigger problem for the Greek men than doing without sex!]

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Sept. 23 - It's a cleverly disguised PR campaign, I tell you! A lot of people are still mad over last season's lockout and going "meh" over the new season, so perennial boring-campaign organizer Martha Burk has been retained to build the interest in hockey by another stupid whine (Burk shifts energies from Augusta to NHL ads) against the new NHL ad claiming it is - you guessed it - "offensive on many levels." (She's probably not referring to the cost of tickets.)

The response from an NHL spokeswoman is wonderful:

"This ad shows no disrespect for women," [Bernadette] Mansur told The CP. "On the contrary, the woman is the spiritual and physical trainer for the 'Warrior' and is his mentor."

There is some merit to the claim of "mentor," though. Tacitus wrote that the women in Germanic tribes urged the men to battle, baring their breasts and reminding them that their children would be enslaved if they lost to the Romans.

Um, maybe I should stop while I'm ahead. And, you know, "Go Leafs!"

(Via Kathryn Lopez at the Corner.)

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Sept. 23 - This was news I didn't expect to awaken to: the future of New Orleans and, worse, actually contemplating that rebuilding it might not be the best course, received another blow today with a new breach in the levee (Texas Braces for Catastrophe; New Orleans Flooding Again.)

I've always had a pet theory that inviting the newly-American inhabitants of the city to join us in fighting the British - and beating the Recoats soundly - brought New Orleans and Louisiana securely into the American fabric and reduced the abandonment many felt when Napoleon sold them along with the territory. We cannot think of Andrew Jackson without remembering Jean Lafite, and the Battle of New Orleans is remembered with a glory which is scarcely diminished even when we consider that it took place after a treaty had been signed.

Abandoning New Orleans is literally a case of abandoning an important part of our heritage and an integral part of the history of extending our borders from sea to sea.

And then there's the personal. So many of us have wonderful memories of the times we visited there (and sometimes the memories are the more cherished because we can't exactly remember!) furthering the dilemma beyond logic and reason. The cuisine. The music. The people. The mystique. New Orleans is part of the American soul in ways I can feel more than articulate.

I can't even imagine how those who call New Orleans home are feeling today, but maybe it is time to bite the bullet and make some hard calls. It is going to hurt. Deeply. Even thinking about it hurts. Part of me knows that with time we'll do what we've always done: cling to that part of the American spirit that has always held that a new future means a better future, but for now I thinks its permissible to grieve.

18:25 - The news out of New Orleans is getting worse. Thank God the city stayed closed, but spare a thought for the troops there.

Glad to see the President sensibly cancelled his trip to the region. People on the ground there have enough to contend with and don't need the security nightmare.

I finally received word that my Texas friends are safely out of Rita's path. I have to go to work tonight (although I really don't want to leave the storm watch) and I'll be holding my breath even though I know on most levels that we'll weather it.

I can't help thinking that the destruction wrought by the hurricanes have brought us together again. I don't mean the politicians and other Important People but just us, the normal, everyday American whom everyone takes for granted. The press was all a-twitter at the lapses at every level of government but for me, it just reinforced the soundness of the joke "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Say a prayer for Texas. We owe them: the people of Houston electrified the nation when they strode in with a "we can help" attitude and gave refuge to thousands of NO Katrina survivors (and, more importantly, challenged other cities to do the same) and rekindled belief in something that we've seen too rarely in these modern times: neighbourly actions. Southern hospitality and Christian charity have combined to remind us (again) that we are a decent, good people and that we can help and stand by one another.

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1 Yes, they are most definatly in my prayers. It is quite sad really, the poor people there. But I do wonder what the mayor was thinking when he told people that they could go back to New Orleans so soon. I think he has had a bit too much stress... I haven't had the opportunity to visit anywhere around the gulf, though I was hoping to visit some old family friends sometime, who are in Texas. Major prayers from me are going that way. Keep up the good blogging

Posted by: Em at September 23, 2005 09:27 PM (Uagor)

2 This is short but revealing reflection of what a local American thinks of our Celine and a mindset about some of those sloshing around a flooded NO. ================================================ A homemade Salma Hayek would be a Celine Dion! On Larry King she said she didn't understand why G. Bush didn't send kayaks to rescue those poor people carry the 25 pair of jeans they just stole. That was after she "opened" her TV. Some days it is more embarrassing than others to be a Canadian! Neat pic of the dudes with the rifles. I can see the rumors about barefoot ================================================ OK the Fleur de Lys page design for the new site was awful... The fleur de Lys was nice but the layout and the font...eeew. Please take a look now... way better, and the Blog roll toggles open and closed.. nice? http://Anchorpin.Redpin.com That's more like it.. eh? 73s TG

Posted by: TonyGuitar at September 24, 2005 01:56 AM (rmMzv)

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Sept. 22 - I knew I was forgetting something important. I'm a lot late with this, but if you haven't taken the The Great Canadian Blog Survey there's still time!

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Sept. 22 - Today is the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins (by S.R., at least) and it may seem silly (and probably is) to mark the birthdays of fictional characters but two of the most important works during the 60's were Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Yeah, I know somebody's thinking What about Catcher in the Rye and Future Shock and some of the more intellectual books but I ask you, how many times did you re-read Salinger and Toffler and how many times did you re-read Tolkien and Heinlein? which did you re-read most recently? and, most importantly, which brought you joy?

So I'm toasting those worthy hobbits and, as I do every year, thanking them for giving us the Red Book for our birthday present.

(Have no fear, I'm not totally wacko. I hardly even considered the idea of hunting for my "Frodo Lives" button.)

Alas, I'm still struggling through The Fountainhead. And I seriously should have gotten to sleep some hours ago.

Prayers go out to those in Rita's path and for those in our military and the National Guard who are now at risk. It would be responsible for me to be irked at those surfing as the storm approaches but I can't deny that part of me which envies them. (Just wait too long before you leave, okay?)

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Sept. 22 - because I miss really exciting things like Captain Ed attending a conference in Toronto.

(Link via modest attendee Newsbeat1.)

19:50 - Right Girl has more details on the event including a link to a webcast at The Shotgun.

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Sept. 15 - Robert reports that the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists is asking al Qaeda the resistance in Iraq to investigate the killing of journalists by its forces.

Well, maybe not exactly. (He got me good with this one.)

The pity of it is, it should have been true. I'm just sayin'.

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Sept. 15 - Guess who Mugabe's bestest new friend is?

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Sept. 14 - I'm way overdue on updating the blogroll. The additions are Canadian based and I think the sharp increase of blogs up here since Adscam broke continues to defy the "passive Canadian" label.

The Wild Duck
Waking Up on Planet X
BumfOnline
A Voice for Freedom
www.kyid.net
Cannuckistan Chronicles
Right Thinking People
Frost Hits the Rhubarb (new home for News Junkie Canada)
Silence No More (among other things, this is a valuable source on topics about fathers' rights - or the lack thereof. Examining those issues and legal inequities is long overdue.)

I've also added a terrific news source and a site that tracks recent Canadian blog posts:

Newsbeat1 and
The Canadian Bullet.

I've used Newsbeat1 extensively, and The Canadian Bullet is run by Jay Currie, whose new website address has also been updated on the roll.

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Sept. 12 - I haven't been totally inactive this past month. I finally began to read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and it is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read.

No, I'm not going to offer any insightful commentary on it. I've already accepted that I will have to read it twice in order to fully absorb those characters that have left me gasping - especially the sinister Ellsworth Toohey.

Truth is, I've thrown it down a few times fully determined to relegate it back to the "Some Other Day List of Good Intentions," but when so many, like the inestimable Tuning Spork like Shaken, have declared that it had a profound influence on them, I know I have to finish it.

Next job is to figure out exactly why I find it so disturbing!

Sept. 13 - 23:21: Tuning Spork says he did not recommend it, and my apologies for the incorrect attribution. Of course, I still blame him (because that's what friends are for!) and Shaken.

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Sept. 11 - Thank you all so much for your message of sympathy and support. I have been focused on personal things (no surprise) and owe you all letters, but want you to know how much they were appreciated even if I couldn't focus sufficiently to make adequate responses.

[I have no doubt that you all have been thinking of and praying for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans flood and don't need me to encourage you for that.]

Mark did require an angioplasty, and had a mild reaction after it but is firmly in charge of his life again (after he takes all his pills, that is!) and sticking to his diet faithfully. No, he hasn't eaten broccoli or yogurt yet and probably never will, but has discovered that he can live without chocolate and fried foods.

Fear is an odd thing. You do your best to present a cheerful, confident face and then when the imminent danger has passed it's Crash Alert! You're dry-gulched by cold sweats, nightmares, and everything that you put resolutely aside in order to do what it takes to get through a crisis.

I feel several cliches coming on, but then they are old saws precisely because they are so often true.

Again, thank you all for your support. August is not a month I will remember fondly, but maybe it's human nature to resent wake-up calls.

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1 It's nice to see you back Debbye. I missed you. Take care and give my best to Mark.

Posted by: Jack at September 12, 2005 06:09 PM (NXkcH)

2 Debbye, it's good to see that you are posting again. And good to hear that Mark will be OK. Best wishes to you both.

Posted by: Bill Strong at September 13, 2005 04:16 PM (Vdx4N)

3 Believe you me, Mark will eat spinach if my sister made it for him. She has an old recipe of my brother-in-law's mother that's a mix of chopped spinach, eggs, flour and pepper and garlic and stuff, formed into thin patties and pan fried over butter/margarine 'til deep green & golden brown. It's how said b-i-l's mother got her kids to eat spinach. I can get an exact recipe for you if you like. It's no trouble as I've been meaning to get the recipe for myself anyway. Yum!!!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 13, 2005 06:33 PM (CqT+q)

4 Thank you Jack, Bill and T.S. Mark has been genuinely moved by all the good wishes we've received this past month. As I had said previously, the hard part for me (and probably any wife) is to back off and let him be responsible for his own health. His stubborness is working in his favour thus far! T.S., I'd love the recipe because I love spinach! Mark, alas, is still traumatized by eating lettuce (it was in a Tim Horton's sandwich) but I do think that as time goes by he will become more adventurous in his eating. Maybe you should post the recipe to Ted's Carnival of the Recipes!

Posted by: Debbye at September 13, 2005 10:47 PM (0KFV3)

5 Great idea! I'll get the recipe all find out who's hosting this week!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 14, 2005 07:48 PM (yOvlj)

6 Chocolate and Fried Foods are HUGELY overrated. ;-) I'm so glad he's doing better! I can't imagine the scare. And yeah, it's amazing how you do what has to be done at the time of a scare, but after, your body freaks.

Posted by: Boudicca at September 14, 2005 10:48 PM (5JHEt)

7 Welcome back, Debbye! I'm embarrasse to say I'd actually stopped checking your site, but thankfully Kate noted your return.

Posted by: Dave J at September 16, 2005 12:16 AM (8XpMm)

8 Ditto all the above and I did cme back and check a frew times leaving some not too profound comments. Be cheking here to keep up to date on *scoops*. 73s TG

Posted by: TonyGuitar at September 16, 2005 04:59 PM (rmMzv)

9 Good to have you back. I did not know the reason for your absence until reading your recent posts today. All the best to you and to Mark. Mark, I'm tellin' ya, salad is good!

Posted by: keith at September 16, 2005 09:17 PM (4tnEj)

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