Angry, Angry, Angry People

I've been seeing a lot of things lately that made me want to blog on it, but individually, they didn't amount to much. So I thought hey, I'll compile some and just call them Angry People. I don't know what's wrong with people. Sure, I rant. I rant when one of my favourite shows lets me down. I rant when I'm overcharged for something. I rant when I get a tax bill saying my home has been reevaluated and now I have to pay back-taxes for the past 3 years, even though I've only owned the house for two... (stupid Toronto government... I really do have to call them about that one). I rant about a LOT of things.

But there are so many people out there saying stupid things about people, just generalizing everything and everyone, and they come off looking like morons. So let's start with Moron #1.

Looks like his Y chromosome had a bit of stupid attached

Canada's National Post had a column a few days ago about how women are still being paid less than men. So this rocket scientist thought he'd weigh in and let us all know the REAL reason why women aren't paid as much as men. After years of research and argument, thank you thank you Mr. Clark Brown for providing the definitive answer:

Re: Why Men Earn More, editorial, July 23.
The bottom line is that if women want to earn as much as men, they have to behave like men in the employment marketplace. That usually means: work longer hours at intellectually challenging, personally unrewarding careers that offer a poor workplace environment, physical hazards, pay linked to performance, an imposition on nonworking lifestyle choices or some combination of the above. Furthermore,
women would have to take on more responsibilities, make family sacrifices and be more productive in the jobs they have. That's how men do it. Women can do it too, if they so choose. — Clark Brown, Maple Ridge, BC

Well, ladies, I hope we've all learned our lesson. Thank goodness Clark Brown of Maple Ridge, BC has shown us the light. I guess this means men will start having the babies for us. And we need to stop skiving off work at 3pm and sitting in the corner twiddling our thumbs.

Wha? I reed! I reed book alot!

Andrew K%$!n, that guy bloggers love to hate (and won't write his name so he can't google himself), has written an AWESOME study of how the blogosphere is killing mainstream media and is made up of a bunch of stupidheads who don't read books and who can barely think, let alone spell. No offense to newspaper reporters -- I'm married to one, most of my friends are newspaper reporters, and I think there are some amazing ones out there -- but there are a lot of bloggers whose opinions on movies, television, books, etc. I'll take over theirs any day. Anyone read the movie section in the Globe & Mail lately? Maybe if they'd hire a reviewer younger than 75, I might actually listen to their advice.

Boobs are Bad

Now, this might not be for everyone, but having been through the experience (and no doubt will go through it again in a couple of months) I feel for this person. This blogger is posting an email that a friend of hers received from a family member, telling her they can't wait to see her at their daughter's birthday party, BUT... could she not breastfeed in front of anyone, please?

Now, I understand that some people might not be used to the sight of a breastfeeding mother. I remember going to a dinner party once when I was on my first pregnancy, and the mom of 3 suddenly grabbed her infant and pulled her top up and started feeding her while she never missed a beat in the conversation. At the time, everyone tried to avert their eyes, but now that I think about it, what was she supposed to do, leave the table?

I had my share of breastfeeding problems the first time around. It's not an easy task, but it's SO important. Our mothers are from a generation that generally formula-fed, so you won't get much help there, and there's still a stigma in society that breasts are genitalia. I spent the first month or so of motherhood pulling the drapes, locking the doors, and sitting in darkened rooms. And then I thought, to hell with it. I even came into the office one day and did it during a staff meeting. Now, I don't throw up my shirt and sit there topless while carrying on a conversation. If I'm in a swivel chair, I swivel away, latch on the baby, throw a receiving blanket over her, and swivel back. It's not hard, and since nothing is showing, the other person has no reason to feel weird about it. I'd say something in advance and ask if they wanted me to leave, but rarely did anyone say yes.

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, was a whole other ball of wax. She told me it was disgusting, asked me to go upstairs and close the door, told me that she didn't want me doing it in front of other people, told her friends I was starving my child because there's no way a child could be getting enough nourishment that way, and actually started to do things to try to thwart my chances, believe it or not (the worst was one morning when I went to yoga, and she dropped by, found some milk in the fridge, gave it to my daughter, and by the time I got home, with my body telling me to feed that kid NOW or you're going to burst, I was met with a happy, non-hungry baby, and a beaming mother-in-law who bluntly said, "I already fed her, so you don't have to now." Of course, I ALSO had problems pumping, so that milk had taken me 3 days to make so my husband and I could go to our first movie out together that night, and we had to cancel). So I've been through this. I've already been informed by her that I'd better not try that breastfeeding "nonsense" again. This time I'm going to just walk around her house topless, whether I'm feeding him or not. ;)

Is Your Child an Assmonkey?

And I've been meaning to post this one for AGES now. It made me laugh out loud when I read it. I'm not a huge fan of right-wing Jonathan Kay (or worse, his mom's columns) but this was funny nonetheless. Jonathan Kay wrote a piece about going to a restaurant with his kids, and was met with such a fury of hate mail that he had to post a second story about it (this was a few months ago). He got a lot of letters from people objecting to the term "childless" and saying they are "child-free," i.e. free of that horrific thing known as children. His favourite was from the man who wrote this:

"Mr. Kay, I hope we never have the misfortune to have your family ruin a nice restaurant near us, because I could hardly resist the compulsion to empty ice water into the faces of both you and your broodsow of a partner. Attention, Mr. Look-My-Sperm-Works, your job as a parent does not end at ejaculation: Would you please show the rest of us the Get Out of Courtesy card that they gave you when your wife [birthed] your first replicant? Polite parents do not assault diners with their loud brood of assmonkeys."

I must admit, while I laughed out loud at this letter, I have sometimes been walking down the street, belly out-to-there, wondering, "Is anyone looking at me as nothing but a heifer right now?" because according to this guy, I'm a "broodsow."

Does anyone else detect the bitterness and anger here? His reference to Kay as "Mr. Look-My-Sperm-Works" makes me think that maybe his, um, doesn't.

I have absolutely nothing against anyone who decides to go child-free: three people to whom I am closest in this world have made the choice to not have children, and I think it's a wonderful and selfless choice. They've said, hey, I don't have the time for a child, and I've decided to make this decision now, rather than having them and dumping them on a nanny. I think that's a pretty amazing thing to decide. And don't get me wrong -- these are people who love children.

But these people don't deride me for making the choice to have them. The latest barrage lobbed against parents is that we are DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT by having our kids. If everyone would stop having children, these environmentalists argue, then the Earth wouldn't have any burden of population on it.

Yep. And in 80 years, it won't have any population at all.

I have a daughter and will soon have a son, and my daughter is well behaved. I take her to East Side Mario's, and would never go to an upscale Italian restaurant with her, so parents DO need to take responsibility for their children, and not ruin a quiet night out for someone else. But to take it to the length this particular writer has taken it? Is that really necessary?

Why can't we all just get along?