Charloween

moar funny pictures

...and the entire city blinks at the sky, tilts a collective head to the side and - as one - says "Buh???"

Like, it's snow? Every November it's the same thing: the first day of the Toronto Winter Cocktail (freezing rain, ice pellets and snow, in one unholy mess) everyone gets caught off guard, gets in accidents and gets their classes cancelled. I don't have screenwriting today, but I do have to go visit three different professors (I has appointments, oh noes) which means I'll have to head up to campus anyway. Ah, well.

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Also on the news today: Halton Region Catholic School Board has decided to pull The Golden Compass from its school libraries 'cause Pullman is an atheist ('cause censorship is awesome*). The Canadian government won't fight for Canadian citizens on death row in foreign countries ('cause it's okay for other people to use the death penalty on our citizens even if it's illegal here). No one was killed in Afghanistan today, so the news from the war zone was about plucky farmers exporting their awesome pomegranates (no, really! they've got some seriously awesome pomegranates! and great grapes, too!). And JKF was shot 44 years ago today. I'm frequently entertained by the variety of CBC news.

*On one hand, I can see the point. It's a book about how religion is stupid, which I can understand may run contrary to a Catholic school board's central focus. Ideologically speaking, it's a far more dangerous book to Christianity and the major religions than the Harry Potter series. The main character is basically the daughter of Lucifer, since her dad is more-or-less leading a second assault on heaven. So I see their underlying motive in banning the book 'cause the author is on record as an atheist and as having written the book to undermine Christianity.

However, I'm highly amused that it's taken them this long to cotton on to why the book may be rather more difficult to explain to questioning young minds than, say, Narnia books. It's been out for over a decade. Thank the gods (I don't care - pick one) that the movie is coming out soon so they've finally bothered to read the book. Oh, wait: according to the media release, they're pulling the book because of something the author said in an interview! It's not about the book at all! *facepalm + /rant*