It is amazing how this subject has grown with the many twists and turns taken as it made its journey through the Courts of both the USA and Canada. I believe the final ruling was predicated on the “Right to Privacy” as opposed to the right to live or to be terminated. Let me throw a few arguments out the window before I comment on this subject. First the feminists argue that, as a man, I shouldn’t have a say in this debate. This is baloney as the last time I looked it still took two to tango and the DNA of every baby contains that of the father as well as the mother. Using this thought process we would have to segregate all major decisions into gender pools based on the subject matter and who it may seem to affect the most. Perhaps women shouldn’t be on juries listening to charges against any males etc. The second is the argument that women should have the sole say and responsibility for an unborn baby because it is being carried in her body. This is also bogus because this child should be the responsibility of both parents from the moment of conception. The fathers of every child under the law must take responsibility to support their children up to age 18 whether they want to or not and yet are supposed to be excluded from decision making process until the child is actually out of the womb. Logically this makes no sense. So after justifying why I can have a viable opinion on the subject I will now offer my musings. I do not believe that any unborn child should take precedence over the life of an expectant mother. To me this is very much common sense and is a right we all should have to control any life or death decisions affecting our own person. I also believe in personal responsibility and accountability over those things that you can control. In the case of pregnancy caused by rape or sexual assault the woman obviously lost the control of her own body and therefore bears no responsibility or accountability for the life inside her and should have the clear, undeniable and sole decision making power in this circumstance. After these two sets of circumstances I have a real problem with many of the other reasons for terminating pregnancies in our current day society. As a birth control method it stinks. Think about it. With the multitude of products and methodologies available today people still want to have the right to terminate the child after it has become a living entity. Let’s not get into the stupid argument about when life begins because the reality is that being pregnant means you are “with child” and this happens after the egg and a sperm connect... period. Next comes the moral argument over terminating living babies when it is discovered prior to birth they are defective. What is the defect? How bad is it? Can it be corrected? What will it cost for this child’s care both short term and long term? These are some of the questions facing the soon to be parents and I have a problem providing them or just the mother with the decision making power over that babies life. The soon to be mother may not be capable of understanding any of the information before her or she may not have the resources to care for the child and yet for these reasons we will let her decide to kill a baby because it is abnormal. In the wild, herds of animals have defective offspring all the time and the law of the jungle is that the strong survive and the weak die. Does it make sense that a civilized society should put morals aside and shift back to the law of the jungle when the issue of a defective child arises? Finally the most chilling effect of "abortion on demand" is the fact that our race will be extinct in 100 years or so due to this “it’s all about me” mentality. Controversial as it is, this subject must be addressed by the entire group of people that make up our society, not just politicians, radicals or judges who think they know best. What is the fear of having a referendum on the subject? Could it be that there is a chance that "privacy and inconvienience" would not trump "life" at the ballot box?

I wish I had the patience to be a teacher. I once dabbled in it hoping i would find a passion/talent for it...those summers off really appealled to me! I was a youth worker for a youth agency and I was the worker who went in to the classroom with the kids from our agency. I worked side by side with the teacher.
Although I enjoyed the experience, I realized very quickly that it would drive me completely mad to try to teach someone elses children day in and day out.
It also gave me a very sincere appreciation for the wonderful work that good teachers do.
(ok, all you teachers out there, go ahead and diss me for ending that sentence with a preposition!!!yet another reason i shouldn't be a teacher!)
ok, so its clear that, like Oprah, I totally respect teachers..........but....you knew there was a but coming....
teachers are human.
Despite the fact that any human service worker is trained to be unbiased and open to all personalities, there have to be times when some teacher meets a kid that they just don't like.
It's human nature.
I've heard parents say 'the teacher just does not like my kid.'
It's easy to pass off such a remark as a rationalization for the trouble their child gets into.
But ya know, I've got to admit that I've met people in my lifetime that just rub me the wrong way. I don't hate them...they just bug me. And despite best efforts, it must come across in the way I communicate with them.
So its safe to assume that sometimes a teacher will have a kid in their class that just rubs them the wrong way....for whatever reason. The reason doesn't even really matter.
What does a person do when they just know that their kid's teacher just doesn't like them?
Luckily, in my own experience, that only happened once and it was a long time ago.
The good thing about most teachers is that most can remember what it was like to be a kid. Kids can be annoying sometimes.
As a parent that can be really difficult to know that your child is spending the day being educated by someone who doesn't like them.
As much as such a situation would be tough for the teacher, its equally, if not more difficult for the child and the parent.
The relationship has to be monitored carefully......at what point does a parent step in and say that this is negatively affecting their child's learning experience.
Or do you step in at all and just chalk it up to human nature and life?

I love buskers. Some are extremely talented and in fact travel around the world to busker festivals. I guess you'd call these people professional buskers.
Then there are the amateur buskers who are also often very talented. I know of the man you speak of who plays his guitar outside the LCBO.
It's worth my change for the smile he puts on my face.
Some people don't have an instrument or any musical talent, but they find ways to make people smile or as you say 'work' for there money.
I once gave five bucks to a guy who recited a poem to me while I was stopped at a Toronto stop light.
In a much smaller town, I made my sons father pull over in the parking lot of a busy plaza....he was giving out his business cards 'will do odd jobs for cash or food'....hand written on a carefully cut out piece of a cigarette pack.
Assuming these buskers are in business for themselves, I have to say I give them a lot of credit.
But have you ever been to Atlantic city? I wonder if the 4 or 5 year old children I saw dancing and singing beside ghetto blasters were there own bosses?
Have you seen the movie "August Rush". Robin Williams plays a very Fagan like character (from Charles Dickens' 'Oliver').
Now, Fagan was the 'pimp' so to speak of a group of very young kids who pick pocketed. They would pick pockets, bring him what they stole and get a small percentage.
In August Rush, the kids were all talented musicians who used the Robin Williams character's instruments to busk the city streets and bring him their earnings.
Hmmm....makes ya wonder who the money is going to when you toss a few coins in the guitar case.
That said, the busker who makes me smile deserves to be paid.
As for those with no talent to share....everyone's got a story. I think its really sad to assume that you can glance at someone and assume to know whether they deserve your help or not.
Here's a story ....a well known street outreach worker in Toronto spent a few weeks earning the trust of a very quiet and wary street kid. One day he sat with the kid on a bench where homeless people often sat. The kid wasnt begging...he was sitting on the bench with one hand pushed deep into his coat pocket. Someone walking by started to berate the kid, telling him he was worthless and to get a job. Little did that person know that that kid came from a home that was pretty decent to all outward appearances. He went to school, got three meals a day.
He also went to bed every night in fear because the uncle who lived with the family sexually tortured him nightly. He keeps his hand thrust deep in his pocket because when once he tried to repel the uncle, he got all of his fingers severed off.
To everyone else he looks like a perfectly capable teenage kid who should probably be working at McDonalds. Everyone doesnt see the hell he went through.
In his eyes, its safer for him to live on the streets of Toronto than to go back home.
That's got to be pretty bad.
I know what you'll say Dave....you'll say, that's one story. Well,everyone's got a story Dave....some would break your heart....but you'd never see that at a glance.