As a Canadian with family and friends on both sides of the Canada/US border, I don't think that any of the things that you mention are particular to Canada. People in the US go to the emergency room for flus and other similar reasons, resulting in similarly ridiculous wait times. If anything the problem is exacerbated…

It can be definitely be useful for some things - looking for polyps/tumours/other growths, mostly, but also things like fissures or tears; it's also a good occasion to make sure to talk about gastric health more generally. Since it's a good way to detect certain problems early, and is painless (if super awkward), I…

I think that it's such a cheap and simple test, though, and one that can make a huge difference in a person's life (not passing the disease on/getting early treatment) that it shouldn't be given only to people who have sex with people at high risk of having HIV. I mean, monogamous people do catch it from cheating…

MIne did the same thing: anyone sexually active gets asked if they want the test. She would usually ask at the same time as she asked about all of the standard tests that she recommends doing every year/few years, so that asking if I needed to be tested for syphilis was as unproblematic and natural as asking if I…

Yes! I don't get any stomach cramps, but my breasts are filled with dull, constant pain for a week or so beforehand. It gets so painful that I need to bind them before running, and that I can't sleep on my stomach (my position of choice). On the plus side, the pain clears up on the day my period starts, so I have a…

I'm intrigued by the accents, since they add a lot of information about the characters (Haddock is scottish? Tintin English?). Is that choice a standard one that crosses over between the different versions?

Intriguing. Apparently peanut chews (which I had never heard of before) are the bar for me. Peanuts and Molasses? Now to seek some out!

Balancing act is probably the best way of describing it. I really think that in the case of Native appropriation, there are so many things that are wrong with the act, all at the same time/all reinforcing one another, that it perpetuates existing forms of oppression - so I see it as unacceptable in essentially all…

I agree with you: I hate when the debate is made about what people's ancestors did at all.

.

I'm tired, missed the capitalization on 'native appropriation', and found myself rather perplexed that you were being so forward about your love for the practice!

For your two sets of questions below: I think that appropriation in art is more complicated than the Navajo imagery+name story. But art allows for more discussion/debate/contextualization than the sale of a pair of undies would, so it can be rescued from awfulness. For instance, Picasso - the fact that Picasso was in…

For me, the question of whether or not a given person's ancestors had anything to do with historic oppressions/atrocities isn't really relevant, nor is the question of whether their ancestors even could have. Immigrants to settler-nations are profiting from the appropriation of lands, the marginalization of current…

Same motivation here. I'm not seduced by the story or story-telling style, but the clothes are fun. So it's a bit like reading a fashion magazine, I guess, except with the (awesome!) addition of Gellar.

Yeah, I would also guess that that's at least a part of the story. And now that articles like this are making the rounds, academics are probably going to expect autistic children and keep a closer eye out (not necessarily a bad thing, but it will reinforce the pattern!). Which still sucks for the poorer parents'…

You have a good point, I hadn't considered that! But in practice about 15% of births are to women 35 or over ([www.washingtonpost.com]), so the difference isn't as big as what you presented.

Yeah - whatever you decide to do, good luck, and all my sympathies because these are really hard choices to make!

The "test and abort" strategy isn't really risky - the tests have low failure rates. Which is why in practice, the vast majority of children with Down's are born to women under 35 (over 80%). There is nothing wrong with children with Down's (compared to other children, they need a lot more intensive and long-term…

The rates of autism are higher among children of educated parent (see [news.discovery.com] and http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.110/full for instance). Most people don't argue that higher education causes a person's progeny to become autistic, only that there is a correlation between the two things. The…

But how, then, am I supposed to feel superior about my own choices? That would leave me nothing more than a person making uncertain choices in a complicated world!