At the Northside Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia, last night, bartender Cory Gillen was showing off his Atlanta Thrashers tattoo as the Trashers' game with the Florida Panthers played on the TV above. The Thrashers won, 2-1, on a Rich Peverley shootout goal, just in time for the tavern's main act, the gravelly voiced, 69(?)-year-old, Beverly "Guitar" Watkins (below), "a pyrotechnic guitar maven whose searing, ballistic attacks on the guitar have become allegorical tales within the blues community." In the late 'fifties, Watkins played with the band "Dr. Feelgood, The Interns, and The Nurse," who recorded the single called, Right String But The Wrong...

06 December, 2009
Pamela Wilson, Special Needs Children Editor of the Bella Online website, which bills itself as the second-largest women's website in the world, offers a link to Down syndrome advocacy on Twitter, and further thoughts on our discussion of whether Down syndrome needs a "cure."
We really don't know what choices we would make if a safe, effective “cure” was developed for the range of intellectual disability found in most individuals with Down syndrome. Looking at the history of 'treatments' for children with Down syndrome concocted in the past quarter of a century would make any parent hesitant to embrace a new version of what 'scientists' call a cure. The thought of giving pharmaceuticals of any kind to newborns, young babies or children is distressing to most parents, especially since those being considered in current research are known to have serious side effects in teens and adults. Previous treatments with supplements considered helpful by sales representatives have not been shown to be effective. It’s likely that any “cure” will have one or two false starts — as one dad mentioned, these are probably the same folks who once thought LSD was a great treatment for people with schizophrenia. Most parents of individuals with Down syndrome do not share a culture of disability with their sons and daughters.
Continued after the jump
02 December, 2009

Max Headroom: 4.5 metres wasn't quite enough this morning for a pair of Halifax-bound trucks carrying two halves of a windowless metal-clad building: Daylight appears between the Old Enfield Road bridge and the load in this second photo, but that's only because the trailer was detached and resting on the pavement of Highway 102: Feedback: A contrarian Contrarian reader called Jeff writes: Low Bridge? What low bridge? That is an oversized load. Your anti-government bias shows! I am teasing, but, at the same time, I do find it interesting you report it from that perspective.  Am I being too contrarian?...

30 November, 2009

Canadian Press alumnus Dan Badel, who often covered state visits, writes: [W]hichever protocol staff were in charge would always provide reporters with a card describing what she was wearing, whoever "she" happened to be — Princess Diana, the Queen, etc. Those notes covered it all - from the shoes to the hat, which was especially important for the Queen! I rarely included any of that detail in my reports since I felt I was there to cover news, not fashion. However some media — especially social or fashion reporters and many of the photographers — would snatch them up and usually quote...

29 November, 2009

Jeffrey Simpson has a sensible column on NB Power's proposed sale to Quebec Hydro, which he correctly portrays as the latest battle in the decades-old war between Newfoundland and Quebec. That's a war in which Nova Scotia is no innocent bystander. Simpson, who spoke in Baddeck Friday, can't disguise his contempt for Danny Williams, the uppity colonial, but he has the broad strokes of the conflict right. He notes Ottawa's "desperate" reluctance to intervene on behalf of the weaker party, a bit of realpolitik that might cause one to wonder whether Canada really is a country after all....

29 November, 2009

Previous posts questioning the efforts to "cure" Down syndrome begin here and here. Tora Frank of Madison, Wisconsin, whose daughter Asha has Down syndrome, offers a different view: I would be eager to provide my daughter with a medication that could help her to learn more quickly, struggle less with everyday tasks, communicate better with those around her, make her needs known, allow her more independence. No, not eager—I would be *frantic* to do so. But is that assertion a comment about how I value my daughter? Am I somehow saying that I want her to be different—or that...

27 November, 2009
Josh glasses-csThis thread  (starting here and here) questioning efforts to "cure" Down syndrome began with a quick email from Jenn Power, community leader at L'Arche Cape Breton, mother of identical twins with Down syndrome, and—disclosure—Contrarian's daughter-in-law. At Contrarian's request, she has elaborated:
In the end, for me, this all comes back to people. Josh, Jacob, Mary, Cathy, Kate, Janet…these people have Down Syndrome. These people are my family, my friends, my teachers. Without the benefit of that extra chromosome, they would not be who they are. Their intellectual “impairment” gives them an insight and an emotional intelligence and maturity that I can only aspire to. They do not need a needle in their brain to make them more functional, to help them find their car keys. What they need is a society that values what they have to offer. I would like to think that I can be a part of creating that society
Full post after the jump.
27 November, 2009
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