Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

I am pro-choice, always have been, always will.

But the documentary Lake of Fire still really shook me up. It’s a really balanced look into abortion– pro and against– in America. It’s shot in black and white, and boy, was I ever grateful for that. You know those fetus pictures that the pro-lifers shove in your face? That’s nothing compared to some of the things they show you here. But all the rude yelling and shrill condemnation that turns so many people off is absent, letting you really make up your own mind. The pro-life argument, stripped of the ugly bigotry of its most vocal practitioners, is pretty convincing.

But as graphic as the dead babies are, you have to also see the carcasses of dead abortion doctors, shot dead in parking lots and– more horrible of all– in their own living rooms, in front of their families. Ranking right up there with fetus pictures is one of a botched coathanger abortion. If the pro-choicers wanted to do with pro-life tactics, this is what they’d use.

So this film also makes me sure of my own beliefs, too. And meeting Stacey, a woman who goes through with her decision to have an abortion says it all– she’s very sure of her decision, she’s relived that she did it, and she sobs once it’s done.

Is abortion killing a baby? Maybe. Is murdering a doctor to save those babies justified? No. So we’re at an impasse, basically. Terminating a pregnancy is a very sad thing. We all hope that being pregnant is good news. But sometimes it isn’t, and that should be bad enough. In a perfect world, an unwanted pregnancy would be a blessing– a chance for an adoptive family to take over after the pregnancy, or a surprise for a woman who decides to give motherhood a chance.

But it’s not that easy. In America (and in Canada, for that matter) makes it close to impossible for a woman to raise a baby on her own. Having a baby, even within the context of a financially stable marriage, still usually means someone has to give up her career. And being pregnant on its own isn’t easy either. You need healthy foods, good medical care, and a lot of social support. That’s out of reach for so many young women who have to finish school or work full-time or more. And asking for someone to carry a baby to term only to give it up is asking A LOT.

I’m with Hillary on this one. Abortion is a woman’s choice, and it’s absolutely necessary that it’s available and affordable for those who need one. But it sucks that anyone would have to.

In four minutes, it will be Earth Hour. This is when people around the world have agreed to turn off their lights for an hour, to raise interest in climate change.

Just out of curiosity, I checked in on the World Wildlife Fund’s Good Life page to see how I’m doing in reducing my carbon dioxide emissions. You can tick off what you’ve done and what you’ll promise to do and they will calculate your CO2 savings.

I am around 5 tonnes. Not bad, I think.

I love CBC reality TV! Of course I had to watch.

It’s an interesting look at what the young folks are thinking of these days, too. Two of them were conservative (Rahim and Kevin) and two progressive (Alika and Pam). Rahim was South Asian, and Alika Aboriginal. Kim Campbell, Paul Martin, John Turner and the premier of Newfoundland were on a question panel, but it was up to the audience to give the final results. Let’s see how it went down:

Alika took an early lead with his idea of another level of Parliament for First Nations, giving the example of the poor fellow who got drunk whose two daughters died on the reserve a few months ago. If decisions could have moved faster rather than through Indian Affairs, the town would have been dry and that tragedy could have been avoided.

Pam made a plea for universal post-secondary education, and came in second. Rahim’s idea had to do with free trade with developing nations, and Kevin presented his idea for business incentives for innovation. Kim Campbell shot those last two down. I kind of love Kim Campbell: sharp as a tack, and hilarious.

A question about encouraging underrespresented minorities provoked some great discussion. Rahim played the “no quotas” card, Kevin echoed. Pam pointed out that access to resources and connections prevent minorities from participating, but the big touche came from Alika who said, “Treating unequal people equally is inequality.”

Each candidate was also presented with random, worst-case scenarios. Kevin stepped in it when he said he would rat on his own wife for a crime she committed years ago. I mean, not even letting her turn herself in? There’s a guy who’s not going on too many dates from now on. Rahim stumbled too, choosing to do nothing with a hijacked plane. Alika chose to grant independence to a Quebec referendum with barely a 51% majority– what was he thinking? But Pam nailed her answer, deferring to the UN and a multilateral force rather than join the Americans in Iran. Rahim got eliminated, but that’s no surprise: he placed last in the polls, usually with less than 5% of the audience vote all night.

The final round gave each of then final arguments. Kevin did the best he could, going in with something like 3% of the audience vote. But Pam! After acing the entire show, she stumbled. Merely reiterating her opening remarks, not making eye contact and appearing to have lost her mojo– what happened?Alika gave the best argument of the night with a plea for diversity and political participation to come up with the best ideas for the best Canada. He won.

I wonder if there’s an age limit? It looks pretty fun.