Russ Campbell's Blog (Canadian poltics)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Russ Campbell's Blog

WEB ADDRESS: http://russ-campbell.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: One Canadian’s point of view: essays and commentaries on political and social issues and events.

MY REVIEW: An interesting blog from Canada. The author has ads for Ann Coulter's column in between every post, so I'm assuming that means he's right-wing.

He writes well, is obviously informed on Canadian politics, and has firm opinions. I think a Canadian audience will enjoy this.


Sample post:

According to Newstalk 1010’s John Moore, conservatives don’t know what kids see on the Internet I’m a bit late writing about this, but tax season is upon us and, with the major deadline at hand, it was my main priority this week. On Tuesday, Newstalk 1010 morning host John Moore had an opinion piece1 in the National Post that pretty well condemns Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s decision to shelve the proposed changes to sex-education in our public schools.

It seems to me that there is an influential element in Ontario society, based primarily at Toronto, who believe that teachers and childcare workers are better equipped to teach our children about sex, gender differences and morality. They lobby relentlessly for parents to abdicate their responsibility to educate their children about moral and sexual issues and leave it to strangers to do so.

According to Moore, Premier McGuinty “shelved a perfectly reasonable sex-education pedagogy,” because of “public hysteria fomented by a previously powerless coalition of religious culture warriors.”

So ripe with self-righteous indignation is John Moore that he, apparently, can’t think straight. He concludes his essay with this dire warning:

“When parents truly realize what their kids are up to these days, they may find themselves wishing for the simplicity of an educator who doesn't blush at the word ‘vagina’ working from a professionally developed pedagogy in an old-fashioned class room.”

For a start, Moore insults millions of parents who do, in fact, “truly realize what their kids are up to these days.” Most parents are not idiots and do tailor their answers to children’s questions knowing full well what they are able to find on the Internet. And parents I know do not “blush at the word ‘vagina’,” as is suggested by Mr. Moore.

Moore writes:

“Conservatives are fooling themselves if they think their kids aren’t Twittering and Googling words like ‘anal’, ‘oral’ and ‘masturbation.’ Try it yourself and see what comes up. Then get your computer scrubbed.”

I see, conservatives are self-delusional. Which conservatives? Every single last one of them? Do only progressives like Mr. Moore have the intellectual capacity to know what is available for kids to find on the Internet? Give me a break!

Just because certain information is available on the Internet through Twittering and Googling does not mean—as Moore is suggesting—that it is suitable material to be taught in our public schools. What a silly, simplistic notion.

Among my friends and acquaintances, I number many liberals and others who are not “religious culture warriors”—as Moore labels those opposed to this misguided curriculum change. Many of them agree with me, an agnostic, that there is nothing “perfectly reasonable” about public school teachers teaching little pre-teen children about sexual orientation and identity or about erections, wet dreams and vaginal lubrication. That’s their parents’ job.

Parents know their children and can best decide how and when to introduce such issues to their loved ones. And the state and its teachers should butt out.

1Full text of John Moore’s essay here.

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Ms. Cairo writes three blogs of her own:
Topical Murder and Dated Death
Winged Victory: Women in Aviation
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters