Vinny in Vancouver

@Odd.I'm not trying to get any of you in trouble here. But if you believe human life starts at conception, when an abortion happens, what happens to that living human?

@DazzleImho, your views are fairly knowledgeable , but the fact that you mentioned 'masturbation' as potential 'human life' means you are not understanding (yet) the debate of what life is - among biologists in any event. And potentially, that may be why you don't yet feel the gravity of the view of those women who are pro-life. A sperm does not become a full human. An egg cell does not become a full human. As far as I know, I've never met of a man who felt loss when they masturbated. But please talk to some women who have had miscarriages on a planned pregnancy - then you'll know why this topic of abortion is important to them.

@DazzleThere has been a lot of discussion out there on whether a fetus is alive. It's good that you're even considering the question - there are some who don't even care! It's an important question. Does the baby become alive only when it has left the mother's womb? So far, I haven't met a doctor who would agree that one second before the fetus has left the mother's womb that it's not yet alive. Is it when the fetus is viable? Well, I know of triplets who were born at close to 20 weeks - they wouldn't even fit my hand but now, they're teenagers! Is it when the brain's developed enough? Is it when the fetus can feel pain? That's what my women friends who lean on pro-life struggle with.

@DazzleBtw, I'm now following a FB discussion between 2 women friends on this. They are both smart women who have  good careers in science-related fields. Interestingly enough, my friend who is pro-abortion has 2 sons while my friend who is pro-life has 1 daughter. Based on the stereotypes, maybe one would have expected the one who has a daughter to lean on "women's rights"? Based on how the discussion is going so far, I think their views are not the stereotypical pro-life and pro-abortion views and there seems to be a lot of consensus especially on the need to support young mothers. Definitely more pragmatic than idealistic.

@DazzleSince in your view, the fetus is not alive, I completely understand how you would look at this ruling as restricting women's rights. But look at it from the perspective of those who really believe the fetus is alive - if they don't do anything about it, doesn't that make them guilty of being an accomplice to murder? And to your point about people who are anti-women being anti-abortion, for sure, there are those types of people. But the women that I know who are anti-abortion actually find that there's much in the "women's lib movement" that they agree on (equal rights, access to contraceptives, etc.), but they draw the line when it comes to abortion because they believe that the fetus is alive. Unfortunately, they just automatically get negative labels, and that's not fair to them. Many of us seem to have a tendency to label and group people, and that's to our detriment.

Btw, there are actually some other interesting facts around this debate that get conveniently ignored by those who are so trying to stir up the "fight" on each side:

• Abortion post Roe v Wade has actually dropped in numbers.
• Access to contraceptive devices has lowered the rate of unwanted pregnancies. Of course, there are some whose religion states that even contraception is bad, but I digress.
• There's actually a lot of consensus about the allowance of abortion for rape, danger to mother's health, etc.
• There's actually a lot of women on both sides who want to put some restrictions on up to what age a fetus can be before abortion is no longer allowed. 
• Despite the videos showing angry people picketing and pressuring those who are going to abortion clinics, a lot of people who are anti-abortion disapprove of those tactics and actually feel for the women who are considering abortion.
• In the USA, there's not enough financial support being given to prospective parents. I'm talking universal health care, subsidies for daycare, free education, affordable housing. I say that anybody who's pro-life has to fork the money to provide those. 

@DazzleMy Mom had an abortion, and a I believe it was the right thing to do, and I'm glad that it was a safe abortion (which may not have happened in her home country). My view of this is as follows: I believe we each need to answer: is that fetus alive? 

• If a person doesn't believe that it's alive, then that person absolutely has to make sure to give the woman the right to choose what to do with their own body. Because as you said, there are huge implications. In the case of my Mom, if she was denied abortion, the implications would have been pretty bad for my family.
  • A friend did research into incarceration rates and what he found surprised him - more than poverty or education or even race (which is probably near and dear to him because he's not white), it seems like single parenthood was a greater factor.
• If a person believes that the fetus is alive at a particular age, then that person has to ask herself: how would I treat another living human being?
• I believe there should be access to safe abortion. 

My angle above is that there seems to be this caricature of the views of women I know who are pro-life by people who don't seem to want to ask them what their views are.

Here are other anecdotes on abortion - I have a friend who was gave birth here at a later age in life. The doctor said there's a decent chance the baby would have Down Syndrome. But she said she wanted to go ahead with the pregnancy. She actually had a nurse come up to her decrying her choice and accusing her of being an irresponsible mother. Needless to say, she was shocked at a health care worker not respecting her choice. In any event, the baby was born and is completely healthy.

For one of my kids born here in Vancouver, the ultrasound technician absolutely wouldn't tell me the gender of the baby. When I asked my doctor why, the doctor said that it's standard procedure because for some cultures, depending on the gender of the baby, they may want to abort. My kid turned out to be a girl. For my kids who are male, I was able to find out the gender of the baby from the technician. So I guess are health care system is essentially trying to cut down the probability of abortion?

@AngryElfTo those that say that this is just religion, that's also not quite that straightforward. The age of when a fetus is considered alive by scientists is becoming younger and younger and there's actually more and more debate out there. So what do we say to those who did late-term abortions and actually terminated what is now considered a living human? "Oh well, they went with what they were told at the time"?

@c00kiesYou can call them that, but you'd be doing quite a few of them a disservice. I have women friends who are on "both" sides of the debate. One of them who is pro-life was raped and ended up having the kid because she believed that life begins at conception. Needless to say, her life changed because of what happened to her, but to this day, she is still adamantly anti-abortion. I know someone who ended up having an illegal abortion (she didn't want to have the baby because of her career) and almost lost her life. I know someone who ended up having an abortion because of high risk of losing her life, and it was devastating for her to have to make that choice. There are spectrums in this debate as in most debates. There's the risk to the mother's life, adoption option, financial support from the government, financial support from organizations who claim to be pro-life, age at which it can be considered life, reasons for why the fetus should be considered alive (for example, for Christians, before Jesus was born, a fetus in Mary's cousin apparently jumped for joy at the very young fetus in Mary's womb). There are also probably a lot of men who are pro-choice simply because it makes it easy for them to get a woman pregnant and get away with it. Again, not only 2 sides.

There are some Republicans who are anti-abortion, pro gun control, and pro universal health care. In that case, I can understand it better when they claim to be pro-life as opposed to the hypocrisy that is being spread right now. That said, speaking of hypocrisy, there are also Democrats who loudly claim to be pro-environment and yet when it was announced that it makes great environmental sense to build wind turbines in their own neighbourhood, they came up with all sorts of opposition simply because the wind turbines will ruin the view from their homes and hence, their property values.

Flyers hoping to get a free second round pick?  https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/canucks-receive-compensatory-pick-blue-jackets-john-tortorella/

The goal is set at a low bar. Players are satisfied with the status quo. No accountability to each other. Not pissed off when losing.

fwiw, some Oilers fans are saying it's an old video based on mask wearing and tattoos, etc...

What I don't understand is why would JR not mention JT Miller as a core player in addition to Quinn, Demko, Petey and Bo? Is it the age?

Kadri and Forsberg will probably both get salaries over 7M a year. Might as well keep JT.

Other than quarterbacking the power play, what does Tyson Barrie actually do well? 

The question was "Toews equivalent for Hughes". I didn't read that as find a RHD who will score at nearly the same clip as Hughes - that would be a pretty silly question to ask. I read it as a RHD who could be a good complement to Hughes.

Chris Tanev. 

Makar. Apparently, Cale Makar was number 1 on Linden-Benning's overall list with Petey as number 2. That's pretty good scouting given that Makar was ranked number 9 in the NHL Central Scouting's final rankings for North American skaters for that draft.

I know someone who was a good skater and played a pretty good 2-way center. When he got much older and was no longer playing as competitively as before, he would get called upon to play D. He said the biggest challenge is the mental aspect of it, and it's not a trivial challenge. On the O side, you need to be a lot more patient as you're no longer the play driver but instead you're often waiting. On the D side, it's no longer good to just shutdown your man or fill the passing lanes, etc., but instead you need to be aware of everyone's positioning, and you need to always be able to communicate with others. Your motivation also has to change as instead of scoring chances you generate, you need to rejoice on how many times you prevented scoring chances. That last one is not trivial as you often don't get much credit for it; at the end of the day, it's a lot easier to look at the scoresheet and see your name there.

Rumours are that Price is done. Apparently, his body can't take it anymore. As to being in a playoff team and competitiveness, I guess if you want to latch on to a star-studded team just to win a Cup, then sure, go for it. But it may be a good farewell to join your childhood team.

Why not sign with Montreal as he's born in Quebec?