Monday morning digest

- First up, congratulations to the Carleton Ravens men's basketball team for winning their fourth consecutive national title yesterday.

- Ottawa's panhandlers are trying to form a union. This is downtown socialism at its best (or worst, if you like). Who would actually sit down to collectively bargain with them? (Actually, with Alex Munter being the front runner in the mayoral race so far, that's not hard to answer.) What would a panhandler work-to-rule campaign look like? "We are only going to take up space and harass and intimidate passersby between the hours of 9 and 5"? Ridiculous.

- It was great to see Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Stephane Dion COMPLETELY wipe the floor with NDP critic Alexa McDonough on the issue of Afghanistan on CTV's Question Period this past weekend. He was unapologetic about Canada's troops being there, he was unequivocal about Canada's responsibilities, and finally, he played the gender card on McDonough perfectly (as in, "surely for the sake of Afghani women we should be there, Alexa?") It was also nice to see Dion totally contradict former Dipper and Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh's wishy-washy position on the troops being there. I have always liked Dion. I don't know what his economics are but he is a staunch federalist and is also obviously a hawk on security, which is good. Perhaps he'd make a strong Liberal leader.

- This writer makes an excellent point: if Saddam Hussein was removed in 1999 immediately after the UN was kicked out of Iraq, it wouldn't be nearly as difficult to actually do something about Iran's rush to acquire nukes. I totally agree. Getting rid of Hussein should have been done long ago and with even more firepower. Now, because of strategic mistakes, the US and its allies have their hands tied when it comes to taking pre-emptove action against any other threat, in effect, leaving the West neutered.

- One week from today, Israel goes to the polls. Here's a great piece which discusses the prospects for each of the leaders of the major parties. I myself am rooting for Netanyahu, but I expect that Ehud Olmert's Kadima will win the highest number of seats.

- It has always struck me as unfair that when a man gets a woman pregnant, he has no choice in the future of the pregnancy even if he wants the kid because it is seen as the mother's decision alone. However, if and when the mother decides she wants to deliver the baby, even if he doesn't want to be a father, he'll be on the hook for child support for life.

Here, Cathy Young of the Boston Globe takes a good look at this issue. I've known a few guys who were trapped into continuing relationships that they wanted to end with women because - guess what? - the woman got pregnant. (In one case, the woman kept it a secret from him till after the first trimester.) I don't think it's fair that women hold 100% of the legal cards when it comes to determining the future of a pregnancy.

- Speaking of kids, I've been blogging a lot lately about day care. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people who are bitching about the high cost of having someone look after your kid are not suffering too much in other areas - two-storey houses, new and bigger cars, and Italian furniture, for example. This article makes some good points about how our generation just doesn't seem to know how to prioritize financially with the end result being that we don't know how to make tough choices and live with 'em.