An eye opening moment

I never thought I really cared what people thought of me. I just went along doing whatever I felt like doing and not really worrying about whether someone else would think it was right or not. For example I've been told that I might be more attractive if I lost some weight, but I like to eat and I hate to exercise. So if somebody thought I was fat that's their problem not mine.

Then I went to the library today. I love the library, I'm a read-aholic and they have FREE books! Lately I've been spending a lot of time up on the 4th floor where they house the non-fiction. I've read books about the Clinton impeachment, I've read books about how George Bush should have been impeached. I've read about how the Obama presidency so far resembles Tony Blair's leadership of England, and most recently how the American right has been hijacked by crazies. As you can see it's quite a complex mix.

Well today I was just wandering the stacks for no specific reason when I came across a book about Women and the KKK and I kind of want to read it. I want to read it because often when you see documentaries or movies about supremacists,the women are often portrayed as brain washed by their spouse, partner or male parent. That somehow this isn't their idea but an idea that has been implanted in them by someone else. Now I'm no feminist but I've got to wonder about the accuracy of this portrayal and I'm wondering if this book sheds some light on the issue, or if it's just more of the same.

But getting back to the point here, I didn't borrow it because I was worried what somebody looking at my library record might think of me. I know that's a little bit silly but frankly I've heard enough about conservatives being connected to these kinds of groups to know that someone just might try to make that connection here. And so I'm avoiding my pursuit of knowledge so that I don't look bad... for now.

I am about to propose the most ridiculous thing ever

I don't remember if you guys have heard my rant about strollers on public transit. The essence of the rant is that I don't think people should be allowed strollers on the bus. But I deal with the fact that some people just need to use public transit. I try to do this mostly by assuming that these people actually own a car but it's in the shop or something so they had to take the bus this one time. But today takes the cake, there was not one or two strollers on my bus home today but 4. Four freaking strollers, which means 10 people were unable to sit to accommodate this contraptions.

I've had the stroller argument probably a half dozen times and my basic argument is that if you can't afford a car then you can't afford a baby. To which someone once pointed out that probably 90 percent of pregnancies are unplanned (hopefully this is a gross over estimation because if only 10 percent of children are actually born to parents who intended to have a child then there are some even more serious issues in this world. But here's the thing about unplanned pregnancy, there are options. Now I don't generally agree with the big option, but the fact is that abortion is legal in this country and maybe more people should be using this option. Or you know stepping up their birth control.

Now to my really crazy idea. Remembering that I say this somewhat if not completely tongue in cheek, there should be an economic cutoff for parent hood. If your household income falls below a certain level you should be forced to at least give up for child for adoption. It's for the child's own benefit you just can't provide everything that a child needs. Sorry a kid can't be raised on love it actually costs money. Clearly there should be other considerations for who should be allowed to be a parent, just because you're loaded isn't going to make you a good parent.

I'm kind of getting off topic here and clearly this idea is in the controversial pile. If my blog were more popular I'm sure I'd get all sorts of comments about how elitist this post is. Let me state for the record that I don't come from money, we were amazingly middle-class. I had student loans just like everyone else (still paying them off as a matter of fact). I think I've said it enough times but just in case it comes back to bite me as some point I feel that I need to point out again that this post is just something to think about and does not even receive my own full support. I'm just putting it out there. I also realize that such a policy could and should (probably) never actually be put in place in Canada. It probably violates a number of human rights laws, but I'm not a lawyer so I don't have to worry about that stuff.