Merry Christmas or April Fool?

Stephen Harper has been named chair of the new maternal health panel. The joke is on us.

There's not much more to say about that, but definitely have a look at Dammit Janet's take on it.

Who will help those mother's who don't conform to Mr. Harper's odd ideas of what women are (babymakers) and what justifies giving health supports (babymaking)? What about the women who don't want to be mothers, at least not right now? Mr. Harper commits the logical flaw conflating women and mothers. And if you don't know why that's a problem, do some reading for goodness sakes. I recommend Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.

Maybe I should do what Yann Martel does and give Mr. Harper a bi-weekly feminist reading. I'm sure that would elicit a similar response that Mr. Martel has received, which is stony silence.

What was Ban Ki-moon thinking?