I've been collecting stories from various places over the past few days... it seems to have been an especially stupid news week.

• As Matt mentioned, schools in some places in the States are getting ridiculously restrictive rules for playgrounds - no running, no swings, no merry-go-rounds, no high slides, no fun. No exercise, either. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before this movement towards zero-litigation "playgrounds" makes its way into Canada.
• Hutterites won't have to get pictures taken for their driver's licenses. Uh, you may have the Charter right to freedom of religion, but you don't have a Charter right to a driver's license. That would be a privilege. And now for tinfoil hat time... if this becomes widespread enough that driver's licenses cease to be useful as ID, is the government going to use that to bring in a national ID card with biometrics and the whole bit (or do Hutterites also have religious objections to pictures of their fingerprints, irises, or records of their DNA)? Well, the Conservatives have already dismissed it (thank God), but I'm sure some of the big-government people on the left side of the spectrum would just loooooove it. Think of all the new union members required to run it! I personally can't think of a bigger waste of money. It's not like national ID systems are making our lives any safer anyway... heck, when I came back from my trip to Montana last weekend, they didn't even ask for any ID at the border. I coulda been anyone. So I suppose it doesn't matter if my photo was on my passport or not. Wait, why was I ranting again? Oh yeah... I must be grumpy that they can now use one license for anyone on the colony if they don't all go out at the same time. I wish I could pay a $1 share of a license instead of a $75 one! Not to mention having someone else pass the test for me. Damn, maybe I should stop objecting and just become a Hutterite.
• A Conservative MP was forced to step down for some committee position because he was beaking off about the Supreme Court justices over the weekend and kinda pissed off some people. But I don't know, someone who thinks that what they think should be "right" trumps what the Parliament, the Senate, and, oh, most everyone in the country thinks should be "right"* seems to me to maybe, perhaps, have a wee-bit of a God-complex, no?
• Quote of the week from MostlyFree at Liberty is Good:

  "...I come across an article regarding McGuinty bitching (again) about the fact that Ontario puts more into the equalization transfers than it gets. It's entitled 'We pay for benefits for others.' Well, yeah. That's kind of how socialism works..."

  Beautiful!
• And last, but certainly not least, PM Harper proves once again he has a sense of humour. Faced with a bizarre tin-foil hat question, he responded thusly:

  "Mr. Speaker, I cannot resist answering a question about the vast right wing conspiracy. What I will say is that I will speak to the Minister of National Defence and see if there is any possibility in the budget of a black helicopter, so we can fly the hon. member around to investigate his concerns."

  Ha!

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*And I quote: "The rule of law requires judges to uphold unwritten constitutional norms, even in the face of clearly enacted laws or hostile public opinion." So basically, since they're "unwritten", they're pulling them out of their asses.