Our data establish a detailed profile of motor function in alternating hemiplegia of childhood, argue against the presence of worse motor function in older patients, identify tools helpful in evaluating this population, and identify oropharyngeal function as the more severely affected domain, suggesting that brain areas controlling this function are more affected than others.

While some observers denigrate political speech as mere window dressing and suggest that the real meat of politics is to be found elsewhere, how we talk in politics matters. 1 Arendt famously argues that the very foundation of our democratic politics is speech since for the ancient Greeks, "to be political, to live in a polis meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through force and violence"~Arendt, 1958: 26!. The belief that broad trends in public, political discourse are important factors influencing many political phenomena~whether persuading key constituencies to vote for a specific party or policy, or the much longerterm impact of reinforcing and making "commonsensical" certain patterns of argumentation, broad sets of values, emotional responses and other ideological structures! is shared by diverse group of historical and contemporary political theorists, cognitive scientists, psychologists and public relations scholars and practitioners. 2 Even legal scholars argue that the way we conceptualize and talk about political and legal values can have immense impact on what laws are passed, how they are interpreted and which are upheld or struck down by the courts. 3 In North America, we have spent vast amounts of energy talking and politicking about the issue of abortion over the last 40 years. In the US, it remains as contested an issue as ever. More than 29 of the 50 governors in office at the beginning of 2011 were considered staunchly anti-abortioñ New York Times, 2011a! and in the first eight months of that year, 61 antiabortion laws were enacted, nearly triple the number in all of 2010, and more than double the previous record of 28 set in 1997~New York Times, 2011b!. Since the late 1980s, the situation in Canada has often seemed dormant in comparison. Today, even Canada's current Conservative prime

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This article offers an examination of the discursive significance of the “victim” in the Conservative Party of Canada through a critical discourse analysis of two key pieces of legislation (Bill C-10 and Bill C-36) tabled by the Harper Conservative government. The central argument contends that while all populist arguments may be a form of victim argument, not all conservative victim arguments are populist—particularly ones directed at issues related to women and gender equality. The article finds that, perhaps due to the reactive nature of conservative ideology, conservative politicians in Canada adopt an “ambidextrous” approach to victims—mobilizing two distinct and, at times, contrasting sets of arguments. The article concludes by proposing two possible explanations for this ambidexterity, one stemming from the literature on organizational management and the other from theorizations of the reactive nature of conservative ideology.

Background: Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) is caused by mutations of the ATP1A3 gene which is expressed in brain areas that include structures controling autonomic, gastrointestinal, gut motility and GABAergic functions. We aimed to investigate, in a cohort of 44 consecutive AHC patients, two hypotheses: 1) AHC patients frequently manifest gastrointestinal, particularly motility, problems. 2) These problems are often severe and their severity correlates with neurological impairments. Results: 41/44 (93%) exhibited gastrointestinal symptoms requiring medical attention. For these 41 patients, symptoms included constipation (66%), swallowing problems (63%), vomiting (63%), anorexia (46%), diarrhea (44%), nausea (37%), and abdominal pain (22%). Symptoms indicative of dysmotility occurred in 33 (80%). The most common diagnoses were oropharyngeal dysphagia (63%) and gastroesophageal reflux (63%). 16 (39%) required gastrostomy and two fundoplication. Severity of gastrointestinal symptoms correlated with non-paroxysmal neurological disability index, Gross Motor Function Classification System scores, and with the presence/absence of non-gastrointestinal autonomic dysfunction (p = 0.031, 0.043, Spearman correlations and 0.0166 Cramer's V, respectively) but not with the paroxysmal disability index (p = 0.408). Conclusions: Most AHC patients have gastrointestinal problems. These are usually severe, most commonly are indicative of dysmotility, often require surgical therapies, and their severity correlates with that of non-paroxysmal CNS manifestations. Our findings should help in management-anticipatory guidance of AHC patients. Furthermore, they are consistent with current understandings of the pathophysiology of AHC and of gastrointestinal dysmotility, both of which involve autonomic and GABAergic dysfunction.