Well, all the leadership of various Canadian Islamic Women's groups have been pretty unanimous in coming out and saying, pretty much, 1) we didn't ask for this, it is someone else's idea entirely, and 2) it is totally reasonable for a woman to unveil in order to vote and we are just fine with that.

So this is just a fight between various brands of mainstream Western political correctnesses, and has nothing to do with anything Canadian women who happen to be Muslim actually want.

You can make all the social arguments you want, but if your audience is strictly limited, it doesn't matter much. I have no idea if he is right or wrong or even interesting.

You can see slide shows of what both women were wearing here:

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/14090043/detail.html

Doesn't look too outrageous to me.

Personally, I don't think that the bullying is specific to clothing; a general culture of bullying has infused the whole airline/airport/security system as a result of the security theatre developed under the "War on Terror." People, including flight crew, are being arbitrarily humiliated and bossed around all the time, and like on a school playground, then pay it forward onto people that they can bully.

I have seen announcements for this kind of service every couple of years for decades now, in the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, etc. The press eats it up like candy. Somehow or other they all seem to fade away pretty quickly. Doesn't seem to be a viable business model after all, perhaps cheaters aren't so well organized and non-spontaneous. Or willing to invest that much money. Or maybe they are just shy. Who knows, its not like you are going to be able to survey them. (To quote Python, most appear to have an overriding interest in "How Not To Be Seen.")

In any case, if you had to get to the point of producing receipts and conference gear to satisfy your spouse about your business trips, it would seem that your marriage ain't in all that great shape anyway, and unlikely to last.

The cheat on your spouse web-sites seem to keep struggling on though, full of listings from male creeps and female hookers. I suppose it is the advantage of web-type business models with low overheads.

I never gave a damn about how I interacted with my own kids in public, and never ever had a problem. Well, not that kind, but like any parents you have to deal with the tantrums in the grocery store and crying jags on airplanes, but people around tend to figure out that the kid is the monster, not you; you are if anything simply ineffectual.

But I've also coached, and I operate child care centres, and that is a different kettle of fish altogether. I am never ever ever alone with children. Ever. In the daycares I will hold their hands when we walk (in a group, always a group, including other adults), but I won't hug them. With the coaching, I will touch kids in the course of instruction, but I will not pat them or hug them or anything like that.

(Not just the kids either, I am also very very conscious of my personal space and contact with women, especially in the workplace; they have to offer to shake hands first, for example.)

It really isn't for fear of the adults and parents so much, as it is for fear of the fear and reaction from the kids, who have often been deeply indoctrinated to fear men (and similarly the fear of women's fear of men).

Overall, it is mostly tiring, always having to keep your wits about you and be conscious of what you are doing and who is with you.

But what really gives me the night sweats are the male staff and volunteers I work with, trying to figure out what I would/should do if an accusation is made. That most terrible of accusations.

OK, I'm a pervert, or a neanderthal throwback, or whatever, but gosh but I like a hairy woman. Run my lips up and down nubbly legs, tickle my cheeks with low-creeping hair-lines, fine down to stroke up and down backs, arms, necks, mmmmm. From my point of view, throw away the goddamn razors and chemicals. But maybe I am just weird.

Why does everyone assume body hair is icky?

Marhaba, can we meet?

Well, no, I'm very happily married to a relatively hairy woman, but I do like to ogle others.

Maybe because I spent so much time in Lebanon in my youth.

Monkey Man

Hand-washing is good, because your hands frequently touch the biggest source of germs on your body: your face. Keeping flu down means frequent hand-washing, but it has nothing to do with bathroom usage. Because flu bugs aren't spread through your genitals. In fact, urine is pretty much sterile; in fact, you'd probably come out cleaner from most public bathrooms by peeing on your hands, and not touching any of the fixtures, gross as that sounds.

But really, its a part of your body your willing to have a sex partner put their mouth in contact with; it can't be all that dirty.

Now not washing your hands after pooping, that is a different matter altogether. As is usual with a instant media release kind of study like this, we don't know if they were tracking hand-washing after which function. Which, in terms of contamination and disease, would be pretty important.

(Oh, and from my time in my youth in the restaurant/bar industry, I can assure you that women's washrooms, by the end of the night, are much much nastier than the men's. It used to be punishment duty, when the boss was mad at you, you had to clean up the ladies'.)

is handing out redstars on this one? A couple of those were pretty ugly; trying to appease the trolls or something?