Shooting the Messenger - Pro-Choice and Freedom of Speech

It has been a while since I've made a post on this blog. However, I felt that something had to be said about an issue that has come to my attention.

Recently, I came across a post on Facebook that basically sums up the problem with the 'free speech' argument in a nutshell. Here it is...

Let's all quit listening to the Drive. They played an anti-abortion commercial today!

No offense to the Facebook user here, but if you're going to quit listening to your local radio station because something you don't like paid to put an advertisement on there, that's kind of like someone who's trying to lose weight no longer listening to radio because they heard a Macdonald's commercial. Its ridiculous.

As someone who works at the radio station in question, we're not going to discriminate on the stances that air on our radio station. That would be like us avoiding to air any comments from the New Democratic Party  and only airing advertisements from the Conservative Party during an election. Looking locally, that would mean avoiding any discussions by Citizens of a Liveable Cranbrook and only airing commercials from the City of Cranbrook itself. Or like airing discussions that are anti-deer cull without talking about the benefits of killing deer in city limits.

When it comes to abortion, Canada is already pro-choice. You are allowed to make your choice of aborting a fetus or seeing a pregnancy through to its end. We all know abortion is legal in Canada. The commercial being talked about here is a call for support on an anti-abortion movement currently before Federal parliament in Canada. And yes, it is a paid commercial, not a public service announcement. Meaning the radio station is paid to air the commercial and it is NOT the radio station's stance as a whole.

All people can make their choice of whether they support abortion or not, but how can you make an informed choice unless you have the information available to you to make that choice? Also, how would you even know that a discussion on abortion was even going on at a federal level of government unless you heard an advertisement like this? Or even a news story about the same issue?

I think the issue here is less about freedom of speech and the right to pro-choice, as it is more about tolerance and open-mindedness. There's been too many times where I have seen facebook posts like this shooting the messenger. In this case, the message coming across is "I hate abortion, so let's stop listening to radio."

Why not find out who put the commercial out there and boycott their products? Why not encourage the creation of a pro-choice commercial to your local pro-choice group? If there isn't a local pro-choice group, then why not create one yourself? All of these are viable options. Not listening to local radio solves nothing. That is the major difference between reacting with anger or having some degree of emotional intelligence, keeping calm and making a clear choice.

But like I said, everything's all about choice. You can choose to listen to your local radio station or not. At least now you can make an informed choice when the next anti-abortion commercial comes along.

By the way, anti-abortion commercials also played at this year's Super Bowl, are you going to stop watching the NFL?

Fitness model Laurie Dickson hits bookshelves in 2013!

(By the Broadcast Center News Team)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Two time world champion fitness model Laurie Dickson is telling the story of her life.

Dickson will be the subject of an biographical novel to be released next year.

Dickson says she's happy to be apart of this exciting project.

"When he started to hear my biography and my background, he really was interested in that aspect of it, in the making of a champion," Dickson says. "Because it was relatable to a lot of people in the public, that it was a single woman and how did I do it and what was my focus and what was my goal."

The local athlete says she originally set out to write a fitness book, but the publisher was hooked on her back story.

"In 2013 will be the release of my bio as an athlete, its called The Making of a Champion," Dickson says. "As a single parent and a single mother, I've gone through a lot in my life and to put everything aside and focus on something for a long term benefit has been where I've been."

The book, Making of a Champion, will be written by Reading Eagle Publishing.

The biography is due out in bookstores in 2013.

Cracking the Case - Risk: Factions

My latest articles is up on http://www.gamentrain.com/. Here's a preview of Cracking the Case - Risk: Factions...

Sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing.

I have been a rabid gamer my entire life. One thing that is constant about my gaming habits is that I will fall hard for a game, play it for about two to three weeks straight and then it will disappear into the ether, until I decide to pick it up again for another go around.

Risk: Factions is a game that managed to buck this trend.

You can find the article in its entirety here - http://gamentrain.com/2012/03/cracking-the-case-risk-factions/

Jeff's Jabs - Cruel and Unusual

My latest article, Jeff's Jabs: Cruel and Unusual, is now up on GameNTrain. Here's a taste of what you can expect --

Most games, there is a clear goal in mind. Save the princess, destroy evil, stop the evil supercomputer from taking over the planet, you usually have some clear cut goal on what you have to accomplish to complete the game.

Typically, your path to the end of your quest keeps you on the straight and narrow. Not once will you break some sort of law or fall out of favour with the powers that be, unless of course you are fighting against the powers that be. In which case, its a different story.

But sometimes, the main goal of the game pales in comparison to what that game allows you to do. Sometimes, there are no limits to what the player can do in the game world, leading to some… unfortunate circumstances.

And the funny thing about this is the game typically rewards you for it.

To view the full article, follow the link provided here - http://gamentrain.com/2012/03/jeffs-jabs-cruel-and-unusual/

An eventful trip to Golden...

Posts on the blog have been a little slow of late. There is a reason for that.

Last Thursday, I was one of four people in a major car crash.

I want to thank everyone for their concern since our crash on Thursday morning. My fiance Shayla and I will live, although we are pretty banged up.

Basically, here's what happened. We were travelling in a one-tonne pick-up truck from Invermere to Golden on our way to Kamloops for a provincial bowling tournament. About twenty minutes outside of Golden, we hit a patch of black ice and lost control, crossing over the centre lane before going off the road and into the ditch. The truck barrel-rolled as we went into the ditch, demolishing the vehicle and leaving us stuck in a swamp with the truck back on its wheels.

There were four of us in the vehicle at the time and all of us were left with various injuries. I won't go into more details here. There is a time and a place for everything and a blog isn't the place to air the health matters of my friends. I'll save that for the bar!

In all seriousness, thank you everyone for thinking of us. It was a scary situation that could have been a lot worse. As we crossed the centre line, an 18-wheeler was coming right at us. Also, if our vehicle had rolled any further, we would have hit a train track only metres away.

Bottom line, we're safe and we're home. That's all that matters.

Cracking the Case - Record of Agarest War

My latest articles is up on GameNTrain today. Here's what you can expect from Cracking the Case: Record of Agarest War

I am possibly going to offend many JRPG fans today.

It’s not because I don’t like role playing games from Japan. I have a collection of RPGS dating back to Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior on the Nintendo. Role playing games from both sides of the pond have found their way into my game systems and onto my television set for nearly two decades.

The reason many fans of Japanese RPGs are likely to come after me in droves is because I am about to open fire on a game that has been applauded by fans of RPGs, strategy games and war stories alike.

Today, I’m Cracking the Case on Record of Agarest War by Aksys Games.

For the full article, follow the link here - http://gamentrain.com/2012/03/cracking-the-case-record-of-agarest-war/

Jeff's Jabs: Rose-Colored Glasses

Latest article of Jeff's Jabs is now up on GameNTrain. Here's a preview of Jeff's Jabs: Rose-Coloured Glasses.

It has been almost two weeks since Mass Effect 3 came out and already, we are seeing a buzz in the Internet community.

While the praise and fortune around ME3 will probably continue for weeks, months, maybe even years, only now are we starting to see the complaints of gamers who have completed the trilogy.

Mass Effect 3 definitely lived up to the hype, but on a complete glance at the game, there are a few things that stand out for leaving gamers around the world feeling a little empty. After all, this is the end of Commander Shepard’s adventure, at least that’s what developers of the game have told us in the past.

You can check out the full article here - http://gamentrain.com/2012/03/jeffs-jabs-rose-coloured-glasses/