Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Greetings fellow Bizarros:

Traditional family roles have been blurred in recent decades. Single parents have just about become normal. We now have more stay-at-home dads (granted, that is mostly due to unemployment, but still), gay parents and lesbian parents.

But picking out cards for Mother's Day and Father's Day is becoming even more difficult.

A transgendered Canadian man who breastfeeds his baby said he finds the distinction between fatherhood and motherhood to be arbitrary.

Trevor MacDonald, 27, a Winnipeg, Manitoba, a former woman who became a stay-at-home dad, said he breastfeeds the 16-month-old son he gave birth to and belongs to a La Leche League Canada motherhood support group.

MacDonald said he wrote a letter to the LLLC in June to ask about becoming a group leader, but received a rejection letter seven weeks later.

"Since an LLLC leader is a mother who breastfed a baby, a man cannot become an LLLC leader," the organization wrote.

"You told me that you do not identify as a mother. You are your baby's father. According to LLL philosophy the roles of mothers and fathers are not interchangeable. I think that this would make it difficult for you to represent LLL philosophy," the letter read.

MacDonald said he was "disappointed" by the decision. He said he does not agree with the organization's assertion that motherhood and fatherhood are fundamentally different.

"First and foremost I identify as a parent," Trevor said. "I suppose I use the term (fatherhood) because it's what we have going in our society, not because I think it's fantastic or I think it's really accurate."

Bizarrely,
Lewis

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*-- Police: Thief returned unopened beers --*
AKTOBE, Kazakhstan - Police in Kazakhstan said a man facing theft charges allegedly stole a case of beer from a store and later returned several unopened bottles. Investigators in the Aktobe region said the man allegedly stole a 14-pack of beer from a store Saturday and later returned to leave six unopened bottles he had decided not to drink, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday. Police told CA-News officers arrested a 27-year-old man from an adjacent apartment building Monday in connection with the incident. They said the man, whose name was not released, has a prior theft conviction.

*-- Artist puts toilets on the beach --*
HENLEY BEACH, Australia - An Australian artist's beachfront installation employed sharply dressed volunteers to sit on toilets to highlight a local restroom controversy. Andrew Baines said his Saturday installation in Henley Beach, which was titled "Coalition of the Constipated" and involved several volunteers in black suits and bowler hats sitting atop a row of toilets placed at the beach, was inspired by a local debate over whether to put a restroom on the beach, The Advertiser reported Monday. "I've been a long-time resident of Henley and Grange and what I didn't realize, brooding in the background, is there has been an ongoing debate amongst residents, the local council and the cafes about the building of a toilet on the beach-front," Baines said. "Some people want it, some people don't. Hopefully by doing this today, we will highlight the issue and the wider community will come forward and we'll have a solution." Baines said it is his "job as an artist to bring these things to the forefront."

*-- READER COMMENTS --*
What all those complaining women who wrote in should consider is that if they had done it instead, they wouldn't be having morning sickness. And for the woman who said "I don't apreciate being smacked in the face with a penis," it sounds like neither of them is doing it right. -Tom

Lewis, I don't know where you live but here on Long Island you'll never find anyone (including illegals) who are willing to work for $4 an hour, especially when you consider that in NY State you can collect a maximum of $405 a week on unemployment which comes out to $10 an hour. -Tom
[That is why we would make it mandatory. Take countries like Korea or Israel, for example, which require military service. You could either put in 24 months of service in a labor battalion between the ages of 14 and 17, or failing that you would be required to serve two years in the military. Problem solved.]

First, you would have to pay the youths minimum wage - the only group of workers that are legally allowed to be paid less are jurors.
[Wait staff get paid less than minimum wage. Prisoners get paid significantly less than minimum wage. Frequently small business owners don't get paid anything at all (if they are not very good at their small business).]

Like your suggestion about jobs, but include those in jail to clean roadways. Whoops, can't do that - it's degrading. There was a story some years back about a Senator who proposed a bill that offered homeless people an opportunity. He would build and stock shoeshine stands in Washington DC and GIVE them to homeless people who would work them. Many homeless were willing to accept the offer, because that way they could run their own business and be productive. But, Congress rejected the plan because it was degrading to the recipients . Also, we can't use prisoners to do demeaning work, like cleaning work (old chain gangs).

*-- END OF READER COMMENTS --*
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