The Hungover Pundit

Pride 2019

As anyone who’s bothered to read the About The Author section of this blog knows, I’m an LGBTQ person. Specifically, I’m a bisexual man, albeit a married and monogamous one (the frustrating and insulting issue of bi erasure is going to be the subject of a future post) so June is always an interesting time for me — because it’s Pride Month.

Now, way back when I was a baby queer, I remember Pride as being a single long weekend. Lots of music and dancing on Church Street in Toronto, a big long march down Yonge Street, drinking back at the Village and so forth. The parade floats were shabby, most people walked (well, danced), the rainbow banners and whatnot were all homemade or self-funded or put up by businesses, not the city. It was generally regarded as a counter-culture event and there was an intoxicating sense of defiance in the air: Pride wasn’t just about being proud, it was about having the audacity not to be ashamed.

Working Out My Posting Schedule

So, after the first couple of weeks of trying to get this blog underway, I’ve come to a decision. I’d originally intended to write shorter posts — perhaps a thousand words each, maximum, three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Then the reality of my Mondays and Wednesdays kicked in, so I realized I needed to publish Tuesdays, Thursdays and, as a compromise, Saturdays. This is turning out to be sub-optimal.

To complicate matters, I seem unable to limit myself to a thousand words. Most of my posts are averaging about three thousand words, except for the one on abortion which I’m super unhappy with — I feel like I only barely scratched the surface. (I’ll almost certainly revisit the topic later.)

The problem with a three-thousand word post is that it’s the functional equivalent of a ten-page essay. Doing three ten-pages essays a week, every single week, isn’t sustainable in the long run; it’s like crunch week at college, but permanently. And I’m not doing that permanently. As it is I’m getting some serious anxiety about meeting my self-imposed deadlines.

So, here’s my latest compromise — I’ll stick with the longer posts, but I’m going to publish only twice a week instead of three times. Let’s call it Tuesdays and Fridays, which gives me a weekend and lets me meet my Monday obligations.

We’ll see how it all plays out. Tomorrow’s post, which I’m already working on, is going to be on the recent attacks and threats against LGBTQ events both here in Canada and in the US. I’ll try and get it up in good time tomorrow afternoon.

Core Concepts 2 – Abortion Rights and Bodily Autonomy

Let’s start this with a caveat — I’m a man. I’m a white man. I’m a white cisgendered man in full control of his own reproductive system and with a substantial amount of legally-recognized bodily autonomy. So of course what the world’s been waiting for is for me, as a white cis-man, to bring forth my opinion on this controversial and fraught conversation about abortion and a woman’s right to choose.

I would like to see fewer abortions. I would like the overall number of abortions every year — whatever that number actually is — go down. Ideally we would live in a world where not a single abortion ever had to be performed, except in cases of medical necessity, and I’d like to see medical technology progress to the point where medical necessity was is vanishingly rare.

No Post Today

When I started this blog I was hoping to post three times per week. Sadly, life has decided, with the sublime and subtle timing of the great teacher, to kick me solidly in the crotch.

We’ve had intermittent internet issues all week, with our ISP insisting there’s nothing wrong. I’m currently waiting for a technician from our new ISP to come out to the house and install our new fiber optic internet connection. This is going to take up the bulk of the next six to ten hours, so no post today. I’ll try and make it up to you all later.

Why I’m Anti-Fascist

I had planned on getting this blog started slowly — a couple of weeks of “core concepts” posts just to get my feet under me, and then moving into the chunkier stuff, political theory, social critiques and current events.

Instead, current events got ahead of me: On Saturday, June 1st, “Yellow Vest” alt-right protesters in Hamilton attacked a smaller group of anti-fascist counter-protesters in full view of the Hamilton police. The police did nothing. A number of anti-fascists were injured and one woman was hospitalized. The press, either local or national, has not bothered to report on this incident.