(no subject)

A parent has launched a challenge with Toronto's school board to take A Handmaid's Tale off the school reading list. He's naturally playing the religious persecution card.

Of course, I can't imagine an age where it's more vital to read this book. After all, the number of extreme fundamentalist Christians in our government has been growing -- there were 70 there before last election just in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 124-member caucus, and it's no accident that Harper removed the word "equality" from the Status of Women's mandate, or that his party tried to sneak in the idea of a fetus-as-a-person in through the back door.

It's also no accident that Harper led the fight against same-sex marriage, and that he tried to re-open the debate. It's no accident that he tried to cut funding to all films he doesn't personally agree with.

I think this novel needs to be taught in every school. I think it needs to be read by every adult. The fact that there's once again a push to have it banned shows how necessary the book is. Everyone should set aside the time to re-read this book this year.

(no subject)

John Ralston Saul, my favourite philosopher, was on CBC's Q this morning saying that Canadians were right to feel envious of the US -- not because of any specific policies, but because unlike any prime minister we've had in more than two decades, he knows how to use language and knows its value.

(To Saul, democracy is about words and language and argument, and the victory of language and argument over brute force. It's hard to overstate the concept of peaceful transfers of power actually is, and how radical it was when democracy first started to spread.)

It's surprising how simple the actual swearing is. All he does is but his hand on a Bible, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." It is tradition, but not required, to add "so help me God."

Obviously, some presidents take that stuff about the constitution more seriously than others. I strongly suspect that George Walker Bush just tapped that Bible with an old stick and said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."