Why my alma mater is the University of Awesome

There aren't too many schools that can boast having arguably the world's most famous academic in residence. From yesterday's Daily Bulletin at the University of Waterloo:

Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, probably the world's best-known physicist, has been named a "Distinguished Research Chair" at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and will be spending time in Waterloo regularly, with the first visit scheduled for next summer.

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Plus, he's been on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Simpsons.

Cool news, and congrats to the Perimeter Institute, which is one of the many things that didn't exist on campus when I graduated in 1997. Almost makes me want to go back and study science. Almost.

This Christmas, give the gift of abortion

Planned Parenthood, possibly the world's most profitable non-profit organization, has come up with a brilliant new marketing strategy:

Planned Parenthood of Indiana has announced just in time for Christmas that it will begin selling gift certificates at its clinics and online, which can be used for all PP services, including payment for birth control, STD testing, and abortions.

The Planned Parenthood of Indiana website says the gift cards can be used for "services or the recipient’s choice of birth control method," and poses the question "Why not buy a loved one a gift this holiday season that they really need"?

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You have got to be kidding me. What bunch of drugged-out marketroids thought this was a good idea? And under what circumstances would such a "gift" ever be considered appropriate? "Say, why don't I drive you up to the clinic on the way to work so you can get tested for chlamydia? What's that, honey? Oh, no reason. Merry Christmas!"

(H/T: ProWomanProLife).

Meanwhile, over at the University of Calgary, Campus Pro-Life's Genocide Awareness Project display goes into its second day. So far, it looks like the university blinked.

Meanwhile, on a completely different university campus . . .

Over at the University of Calgary, the campus pro-life group is defying warnings that if they display their Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) signs, they risk sanctions including arrest or expulsion:

Just before the noon hour Wednesday, campus security took down the names and addresses of protestors and told them to turn their posters of the aborted fetuses inward, or face the consequences. But the display remained up and although police arrived, no arrests have been made.

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CUSA: The gift that just keeps on giving

Just when you think student governments couldn't get any stupider, the Carleton University Students Association (CUSA) steps up to the plate. This isn't my first time ranting about CUSA dimbulbery. But that was two years ago, and the nitwits who voted to ban political speech they didn't agree with are gone, replaced with a new generation of nitwits. It's just one more piece of evidence that Last Chance U.'s student body is indeed governed by people who couldn't get accepted to other universities.

Here's the idiocy du jour from the CUSA goofs, passed at a meeting Monday night:

Motion to Drop Shinerama Fundraising Campaign from Orientation Week

Whereas Orientation week strives to be inclusive [sic] as possible;

Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their [sic] diverse communities;

And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only [sic] affect white people, and primarily men . . .

Be it resolved that the CUSA representatives on the incoming Orientation Supervisory Board work to select a new broad reaching [sic] charity for orientation week [sic].

Moved: Donnie Northrup
Seconded: Meera Chander

Yes, you read that right: CUSA has deep-sixed participation in the successful and popular annual Shinerama fundraising campaign, because cystic fibrosis isn't diverse enough. No, really.

The fact that the motion passed 17-2 isn't the most extraordinary thing about this. It's that Donnie Northrup, who is the science faculty representative, proposed it. You would think that a science student would have done a little science research: while CF is a genetic disorder that primarily affects Caucasians (not white people specifically), it can affect someone of any race, and both sexes are equally susceptible. Nonetheless, since apparently the wording of the motion could not be changed (CUSA apparently being ignorant of the concept of "amendment"), science student Northrup is now permanently on record for being scientifically ignorant.

Meanwhile, the hunt for a more inclusive disease is on. I'm guessing that Tay-Sachs disease, sickle-cell anemia, and breast cancer aren't on the short list.