So Cary is bothered by the Golden Gate swim claim - for me it was this line that made me cringe:

"Drove from Tijuana to Vancouver and back in a banged-up Ford Galaxy with a trunkful of weed."

So where was the weed from and where was it going? Weed from Tijuana going to Vancouver? Never happens (we've got our own highly-prized weed here thank you very much). Crossing both or either of those borders into the US with a trunk full of weed - ridiculously unlikely - particularly as the car is described as "banged up".... and besides that, why would a silicon valley success story risk getting arrested on US drug charges? It couldn't have been for the money.... was he really just seeking a hunter-s-thompson-like thrill? Or is he just a fake?

I say, fake.

You couldn't run a restaurant to save yourself so you thought to try your hand at writing? Although this piece has some witty moments, the flow is altogether bizarre and not in an artistic way. I really expect a bit more quality from writing in Salon - what is up with pieces like this?

Oy. I went to SFU during this scandal and while it's true that the women's organizations on campus came to support Marsden for one period of time, a lot of radical women (such as myself) veered from discussing or engaging with the case because even from the beginning something about it didn't seem quite right. Marsden *never* identified with feminism or feminist groups, even in her wailing for support period, and always seemed concerned only with her own situation - never commenting on the campus situation - even though just a year before the situation with Donnelly erupted, there had been a pornography scandal involving members of the Simon Fraser Student Society.

But all that aside, her craziness, her stalking - how can anyone construe a known and proven liar as someone who has enough integrity to be considered a journalist? I know we are talking FOX News here - but still - it's a little disingenuous for any organization to claim that a past involving criminal dishonesty shouldn't be something taken into account when hiring people in the journalistic profession.

And - to the person who questioned Rebecca's claim that SFU was considered progressive because of the "Simon Fraser Institute" - I will jump to her defense here and say that SFU was founded on very open and radical goals and in the late sixties, early seventies was *the* hotbed of radicalism in Vancouver at that time (until the big purge of Marxist professors in the late 70s). Even now that it has gotten more conservative (as all Canadian universities have), it is still seen as a more progressive institution with more working class students than its Vancouver counterpart UBC. And there is no "Simon Fraser Institute" - it's the Fraser Institute and it has no affiliation with the University - nor has it ever. (And what prominent Canadian conservatives went to SFU other than a few BC Liberal Party members? I'm curious. It certainly isn't celebrated in any of the university's literature).

...what the answer is here because while the police response to this does seem over the top... we had a terrible tragedy in my BC community a couple of years ago when a couple got out of their vehicle parked by the government dock in Howe Sound and their toddler son left inside managed to not only lock the doors of the vehicle but shifted gear out of park while playing. You can perhaps imagine the horror of watching your vehicle lurch into the water with your toddler inside. And those parents were right there!

The father made three dives and was not able to rescue his son.

I dunno. It's your kid, the stakes are pretty high if one small thing does go wrong. Maybe we need to work on restructuring a society that has mom trying to do 18 million things in a day so that she is forced to rush in and out of her car rather than arresting her.

You know, this culture just creeps me out more and more. It may sound cruel - but one can always hope that a few years of severe economic crisis will shake things up to the degree that all the yummy mummies and their pretty offspring out there will be forced to deal with life's real priorities - food, shelter, family, community... This society has gotten far too frivolous while the rest of the world starves. It would be nice to see the tables turned just a little bit.

Doppelganger:

Lobelia did call it child abuse - and I'm assuming lobelia is a female handle? I also titled my post Abusive and frivolous - and commented on the women who do this to their children - and I'm female as well. Do you really think that because we are women we just stand by all other women without criticism no matter how self-absorbed and screwed up they are? That's ridiculous - you must know that.

Hm. So a woman is more likely to be happy single than in a poor to mediocre relationship? Stop the presses :) While the buzzword is crappy, the demographic certainly exists - those of us who have chosen not to settle for someone because "they'll do". I don't think it means that given the choice between singledom and optimal relationship that being single would win out... But it does mean that we're looking for a lot more compatibility in our mates, in addition to someone who doesn't get in the way of the life we have lead as single women who support ourselves for so long.

That should have read "single women who have supported ourselves for so long"