He’s so pretty! I’m so jealous that you can let his mane and tail grow out. I used to have to pull my old Clyde X mare’s mane for shows—on top of the bleeding hands, I hated that I couldn’t let her go au naturel/enjoy her lux locks. PS - I love his goofy face :)

Braids! Probably something like this, which is so cute I just want to die:

Me too. As dorky as it may sound, putting on nicer clothes to go to work gets me in a good headspace for the day—but maybe that’s because I am all about the sweatpants when I’m not out and about (a look an ex-boyfriend charmingly referred to as “dirt squirrel”).

Good to see Fat Phil is still just as bloated as he was in Toronto. It’s truly astonishing that he is as fast a skater as he is, given that he’s shaped like a cube.

Ontarian here—I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. A big factor in the difference is that the whole religious freedom/free speech thing operates very differently here. If you say or do something horrible/idiotic, especially something racist/sexist/homophobic, you can’t play the “strongly held religious belief”…

I know everyone’s (rightly) focussing on the maternity leave thing, but man oh man, the pet leave lady! I mean, who wouldn’t want paid time off to hang out with their new puppy or kitten or boa constrictor, but it takes some balls (or just plain cluelessness) to bring that up with your boss. My mum had an employee…

Lol I was thinking the same thing. For some reason whenever I’m in a department store, I either get my period and have to rush to the bathroom to head off the red tide, or I have some kind of gastrointestinal seismic event. I don’t know why this tends to happen, but I really wish there was a Target full of these…

I agree with you about treatment, though usually for people with ASD, drugs are only effective for treating symptoms of comorbid mental or physical issues like anxiety or ADHD. The part that makes me leery, and which I think makes people with ASD and parents of kids with ASD leery as well, is when you start talking…

It is true—not least because we know very little about what causes autism (definitely not vaccines, though...) and because it can’t be cured (because it is a developmental disorder). Trying to “cure” autism is like trying to cure Down’s Syndrome: it’s impossible to do without overhauling a person’s entire genetic…

Well, not if that faith entails criminal negligence, injury, or death. You can believe whatever you want, but the second your belief does harm to someone else—especially to a child or someone else in your care—you have to answer to the law just like anyone else.

Even still, they were convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life. That’s a form of abuse, and even if it isn’t directly connected to the child’s death, it definitely precipitated it. I read the court notes too, and the ongoing court reporting in the Alberta papers. From the Edmonton Journal: “Crown…

In Canada, there’s no cost to the individual whatsoever for any kind of medical care, apart from tax, which isn’t that big of a deal. Even if you required major surgery, the only costs (besides those related to time off work for you or your caregivers, if that applied) would be for if you wanted to upgrade to a…

Apparently the ambulance couldn’t intubate the baby because it didn’t have the right equipment, due to budget cuts, and one medical examiner said that that was the cause of death. BUT that was all entered into evidence for the defense and the examiner testified in court, so I don’t know what they’re talking about in…

Agreed. Naturopathy can do a lot for people suffering from chronic pain, allergies, etc., but it should NEVER be a substitute for actual medical care. I’ve been following this case, and it seems the father’s family is involved in shilling some homeopathic remedy for bipolar disorder, of all things. I really can’t…

No, and that’s not the point. When I talk about there being other, parallel historical narratives being overlooked, I mean the perspectives of other people living in America at that time who were not part of the dominant culture—Native Americans, African Americans, etc. All of these historical events impacted them…

Seriously. You also can’t forget that since historical “facts” are involved, he’s coming from an “objective” standpoint. Facts are facts. Except for the fact that history is written by the victors, and the historical facts he’s referring to are just dates and records couched in a nice non-emotional white, male,…

No, feminist logic would take what happened to the OP’s friend as a horrible crime, point blank, in which religion was used to manipulate the victims and cover for the abusers. The reasons why many feminists have problems with Mormonism is because even in the mainstream versions, women are treated as second-class…

No, you’re absolutely right. We’re going through this now in my family, as the parents of a very close family friend (who doesn’t have autism, but has other special needs and can’t live independently) are getting older, and we’re trying to start thinking about where she’ll be living/who will be looking after her when…

I think it’s probably human to feel that at some point. But part of being a parent to ANY child is being able to love them because of and in spite of their strengths and weaknesses, being able to support them and make them feel secure as they grow up, and give them the tools they need to be a decent person and have a…

Amen. Autism can be very difficult to live with and manage, especially at first, but people with autism can live full and happy lives with the right supports. I get that it can be a really tough thing to come to terms with the fact that your child has special needs, but it breaks my heart when parents go hardcore…