What Are We Teaching Our Little Girls????

A couple of things jumped out at me this week online...I found them quite disturbing for a multitude of reasons and could probably type for days on the matter but instead find myself quite speechless at the moment. This is just outrageous and unacceptable in today's society...or any society, for that matter! As a female who has always relied on her intelligence and has always travelled in circles of other females who do the same, I am just floored. Appalled, disgusted, shocked, you name it. Wow. WHY would anyone want to propagate these negative, moronic messages? Don't girls have enough crap to face growing up as it is???

First, there was the JCPenney issue, which Emma Waverman writes about here (I spotted it on my MSN homepage a few days ago and had to have a peek), and then I noticed a friend of mine had posted this on facebook, which notified me of the Toddlers and Tiaras issue. I'm just thankful I'm not the only one who is upset about this...

How Can This Happen?

I was browsing through news articles this morning (something I - shockingly - rarely do) and the headline "State had been warned about abused dead girl, injured boy found in truck" caught my attention. So I read the article. And it is very disturbing.

I don't understand how people could possess so much cruelty within them - and to inflict it upon children is even more despicable. I also don't understand how it is that these children, sadly, continue to slip through the cracks and suffer neglect and abuse for so long with no one the wiser - or with people being aware of it and no one doing anything to stop it, which is even worse. I can't believe that the people in a position to put an end to these children's misery failed to do their job and a little girl lost her life because of it.

Granted, there are two (or three, depending on how you look at it) sides to every story. There is the possibility that child welfare workers are overwhelmed with their workload or any number of other contributing factors that may make it more difficult to do their job efficiently. However, if that is the case, then obviously the root problems need to be addressed.

The Continuing Plight of the Cod

While perusing the web today, I happened to find myself at Our Place in Canada - The Newfoundland Experiment. As I scrolled down the page, this post caught my attention. Now, I am the first to admit that I do not follow the news regularly and have not been diligently keeping tabs on the cod stocks or their management by any stretch of the imagination. So, my first reaction to "The Cod are Back! (But it's not ours anymore)" was "What? You must be joking!"...then I followed the link at the end of the post, which lead me to this. Again, my reaction was along the lines of "You're kidding...You have to be." I am just dumbfounded that our government could be so....for lack of a better word...DUMB (wait, scratch that...I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering some of the other harebrained schemes they have hatched and followed through on)! Anyway, this information (while probably not news to most Newfoundlanders, Labradorians and ex-pats, is new to me and) has me truly choked (and also motivated to re-educate myself about the whole issue). So, rather than say too much about that which I know relatively little at the moment, I urge all of you to check it out for yourselves and make your voices heard if it is not already too late.