Magic Statistics

“I accept no responsibility for statistics, which are a form of magic beyond my comprehension.” — Robertson Davies

August 14th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

Canada has same-sex marriage, why not polygamy?

As if to validate the contention of McGill law and ethics professor Margaret Somerville that same-sex marriage has legitimised polygamy, along comes Alan Ferguson, writing in the Vancouver Province.

Having collectively decided that two people of the same gender can be joined in matrimony, on what sound basis could we now decide that people must necessarily restrict themselves to one wife, or one husband, as the case may be?

Polygamy is quietly practised by an unknown number of Muslims in this country, for whom sharia law permits up to four wives — and by others of no religious persuasion at all. And the TV show Big Love proves there is an audience for a polygamy-based storyline.

Some Muslims and a few atheists/agnostics practice polygamy, and an American TV show that whitewashes polygamy has gained an audience, so obviously polygamy is just fine.

h/t: National News Watch

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August 14th, 2007 at 7:52 pm

Polar bear heads for the tropics

On the road to HawaiiScientists say the Arctic is warming up, but this polar bear doesn’t seem to have heard the news.  She walked 300 kilometres south from her home at the Arctic shore.

It was the end of a journey for a surprise visitor that turned heads in Fort McPherson, N.W.T. late last week, after wildlife officers took a wandering polar bear more than 300 kilometres north — back to its home by the Beaufort Sea.

The bear was live-trapped and, at great expense to the taxpayers, flown by helicopter back to the Arctic coast.

"I don't know what's going on in the Arctic Ocean. There's lots of seal out there for him to eat," local elder Neil Colin told CBC News.

"I know that polar bears are supposed to be out there, in the Arctic Ocean, not out here in the Mackenzie Delta, where it's very hot. This is just like Hawaii for him. It's too hot."

Daytime temperatures in Fort McPherson have hovered around 15 C to 20 C. At noon MT Monday, the temperature was 18 C, surpassing the forecasted high of 17 C.

That’s one bear that likes it hot.

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UPDATE (2 Sep.): She's on the road again.

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August 14th, 2007 at 7:14 pm

If she can’t be a doctor, she wants to be a martyr

Smile sweetly and blow 'em upThe photogenic young star of Hamas television’s weekly children’s show Tomorrow’s Pioneers smiles sweetly while telling the kiddies to hate Israelis and seek martyrdom.  How charming.

Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face.

Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can't, the young star of Hamas television’s best-known children’s show said, she'd be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land.
. . .
Asked if she hoped one day to be a martyr, Saraa instinctively nodded her head.

"Of course," Saraa said. "It's something to be proud of. Every Palestinian citizen hopes to be a martyr."

Hmmm.  Doctor or suicide bomber "martyr".  Save lives or murder innocent civilians.  Heal or kill.  Tough choice.

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