Choice Words for Anti-Choice-ers

I understand that it takes every kind of people to make the world go round (thank you, Robert Palmer), and I also understand that disagreements on emotionally-charged issues are bound to happen between said people. I can also always see both sides of arguments, and can usually control my feelings of rage.

However, when I read this article, and saw that 3 Conservative MPs from my area and one former Liberal MP (all men, of course) were present at this particular rally, I was fuming mad.

First of all, I must attempt at correcting something... "Pro-life" is an inaccurate moniker for those who think abortion should be illegal. As a rational human being, I can guarantee you that no woman WANTS to have an abortion (if they do, there is some strange, separate problem going on in her brain that has zero to do with legal abortions). No female in this world wakes up in the morning and thinks "Today feels like an excellent day to get an abortion!". Pretending that any woman or man who believes in the right to choose is a murderer is ridiculous and incorrect. So really, the two sides are pro-choice and anti-choice. That's what it boils down to.

Okay, so... I am not a sexist person, but in this particular debate, I am utterly at a loss for an explanation as to why men are involved at all. I understand that they help sow the seeds that reside in the wombs of women that are key in this particular debate, but if those seeds were correctly planted every time - respectfully, lovingly and purposefully - ABORTIONS WOULD NEVER EVEN HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED.

This wouldn't be a question or a debate if men had even the slightest chance of mistakenly becoming impregnated. Seriously, it wouldn't. Luckily for those of you who are not penile-challenged, you do not have to worry about whether you want to carry the result of a rape/assault/molestation in you for 9 months, completely altering your already altered life. Once adulthood is reached, becoming the victim of sexual assault/rape/molestation doesn't even have to cross the mind of males (children are a whole other separate subset of victims).

I also understand that women get abortions simply due to an ill-timed/unwanted pregnancy. This screams of irresponsibility in my opinion, but it's her body, and it's her life - I'm not going to an anti-choice rally to make abortions illegal because she made choices I might not necessarily make.

This is also a simple matter of healthcare. If abortions are illegal, they become unregulated, unchecked procedures outside of the realm of safety. Women die as a result.

It is never an easy choice for any woman, but it should always be a choice. You can never anticipate the countless scenarios in which an abortion of a pregnancy may be an option or a necessity.

I plan on spending part of my afternoon writing to each MP that was present at the rally. They have no right pointing fingers and wagging tongues at an issue that they cannot even begin to comprehend.

No quote on this one. I just want you all to think about the wombs in your life, be they your own or belonging to those you love. Back alley hack jobs with coat hangers have no business near the wombs of desperate women.

Tomorrow: Get off of your rat's ass and vote!

... is what I say to you folks who "don't give a rat's ass" about this election. That's RIGHT!

Honestly, this is all I can say. Please, please, please vote. Go and refuse your ballot if you don't know who to vote for. They will record that ballot, it will still count in the long run!

"Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society..."

- Stephen Harper

Yes... he actually said this... Keep it in mind tomorrow! Do you really want him running your country? If you vote for your local Conservative, you are voting for him - he has ensured his MPs are all puppets.

"Not voting is a vote for the guy you don't want to win."

- Bob Moore

My father has been saying this for years. I finally get it.

Happy voting!

Crying Shame

True, true... in oh so many ways...

* If you don't feel like reading this highly entertaining, well thought-out piece of literature,

just click here and do yo' thang. Pretty please with maple syrup on top? :P

Youth seem to scare the bejeebuz out of our current government. I laughed out loud when I heard about this story. To sum up: a communications director (Michael Sona) for a Conservative candidate (Marty Burke) tried to put the kibosh on student votes cast last Wednesday at an on-campus polling station.

So not only are Conservatives shaking in their penny loafers (no doubt, someone in that party wears 'em), but they are also a hugely petty bunch.

I can never shake the image of all of the politicians as children in a schoolyard. It's quite disturbing, really (in a creepy-disturbing way... not sad-disturbing... seriously, imagine Harper's head on a childs body!).

In this particular case, the Conservative party is represented by the snot-nosed brat who is on the verge of being sent to his room without dessert. Of course, a temper tantrum ensues. Trying to grab at things, whining, complaining, crying (I bet Mr Sona cried... I BET YOU), and stomping off with some type of warning.

Mr Sona followed his tantrum by contacting Elections Canada and whining. After it all got sorted, the ballots were considered legally obtained and will indeed be counted come May 2nd. No problem then, right?

WRONG!

Elections Canada has now put their own kibosh on special polling stations located at university campuses. They will no longer happen. The damage is done, thanks to an over zealous Conservative campaign helper.

What an utter and total pile of moose turds!

It is common sense to have special polling stations at universities/colleges. The people who reside on these campuses are NOT AT HOME to vote in their HOME riding. If they had this at my post-secondary institutions, many young people would have voted who in the end did not. I understand that it's not the hardest thing ever to vote away from your home riding, but when I was a student at a small town college with no mode of transportation, poor, tired all of the time, etc etc, voting was a chore EVEN FOR ME! That says something, people!

PLEASE! Sign this petition! This is a travesty, an utter crying shame. We need to turn it around - it can be done!

So can getting rid of Harper and his awful, snot-nosed cronies! I have hope!

"All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field."

- Albert Einstein

"Ocean Pearl" - Not what 54-40 had in mind

"II-I-I-IIII got an ocean pearl..." Ha! How 'bout some Lake Ontario pearls?

*Disclaimer*: If you have issues with "female products", you may have issues with this post. But really, get over it. :)

I'd like to find out who thought creating Tampax Pearl and other plastic-applicator tampons was a good idea. I truly would. Aside from it being a bad idea to put plastic in your vag (even briefly), guess where the applicators end up?

On the shores of Lake Ontario! And in oceans, of course. Five... FIVE! in just one tiny little spot on Sandbanks Beach last weekend.

*Ladies!* Whatever you stick up your hoo-haw is your own business, but it becomes the world's business when the remnants end up in our water system. PLEASE, choose cardboard applicators if you use tampons! They biodegrade. Simple little decisions we make everyday have tremendous impacts later on. The proof is in the pudding... or on the beach.

The island of garbage and plastic in the Pacific Ocean (the North Pacific Gyre) is a giant, albeit not often talked about, problem. Well folks, the problem is also right in your backyard, on our beloved beaches.

Ugh, guess I'll have to take some garbage bags next time...

Two quotes from Mr Jacques Cousteau for this posting. They are both so relevant, I couldn't pick just one.

"Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans."

"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."

Sex, Love & Mutiny

Whilst riding the bliss that came in on wave after wave of democratic revolutions overseas, I realized two things; 1) when I'm not angry, I am not inspired to blog, and 2) due to this, I am a terrible blogger...

Not only do I ignore my own blog, but I submit things to other blogs instead of my own. However, once you witness the site I speak of, you will understand.

A talented young man by the name of Christopher Palmer is the mind behind the blogzine entitled Sex, Love & Mutiny. He has skillfully built an informative and intense web-based 'zine that deals with everything from art and culture to socio-political commentary. Not surprisingly, one can read about sex and love as well (there's some really juicy stuff there... go!).

Blogzines such as SL&M create important forums for discussion and creativity - necessities for looking outside of our own little bubbles. It's what I hope I contribute to whenever I post something on here (that sounds so ick, but I'm serious, haha).

So go... read it, take it in, enjoy. *Shameless plug alert* You can also find some poetical contributions from myself on SL&M. Thank you to Chris for unleashing my more creative side to the interweb.

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."

- Albert Einstein

Story of Bottled Water

I'm so thrilled about the Story of Stuff Project! Their first video was simply entitled "The Story of Stuff" but has since branched out into more specific 'stuff-iness'. I recommend them all, and will most likely share them when my brain is shot (for instance, right now).

Bottled water stinks. (click me!)

Enjoy!

"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."

- Jacques Cousteau

Every Day is New

I know that some folks do not recognize January 1st as the beginning of a new year. Some celebrate later in January (example, the Tamils - their calendar restarts on the first day of the month of Thai), some even in June (the Kutchi people who follow the Hindu calendar).

But whoever you are and whatever you believe, and whichever calendar you choose to follow, it is a created-by-us, written account of seasonal, lunar and solar change - and it has a beginning and an end. This has significance in our lives, whether we like it or not.

So, since I am an avid follower of the Gregorian calendar (whose order of months of January-December have been in place since 700BC), I rang in a new year a week ago today.

This blog was never meant to be a look into my life, but it may just go down that route this year. My intention in creating it was to post about things I care about, therefore think everyone should care about, but I didn't intend on it being focussed on me - just the issue at hand.

However, starting a new year of blogging by breaking tradition seems almost fitting.

I won't start a list of 2010 disappointments, or moments looking back, but instead, I will share with you my look into the future. I do not make grandiose plans, months in advance, but I do create intentions. I also don't think all can be accomplished in the span of 12 months. That being said, this 2011th year, I intend on continuing my life intentions by doing the following:

• Changing my attitudes towards many things
• Becoming a healthier person; spiritually, physically and mentally
• De-cluttering life
• Becoming my true self
• Blogging (haha, not the highest priority on this deep list)

It all sounds rather hippie-dippy, but I wish that all of these things happen for you, too - honestly. I figure if everyone can strive for the above, the world would end up being a better place for all. *cue the violins*

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

- Hal Borland

(no, not the guy from Home Improvement)

Democracy in Action/Inaction

Photo By

0NAU

Pfft, I say! Democracy schemocracy. We are currently living in nothing less than a thinly veiled dictatorship. What I've heard some refer to as a "Harperocracy". Excellent word. *If you disagree with my first word - dictatorship - feel free to comment. I will explain. :)

Well I'm pissed off about it. Not only were civil liberties stripped from thousands of people in downtown Toronto in late June, 2010, and democracy was bashed with batons, pepper sprayed and pushed to the ground, but it's once again being stomped on. Our system seems to be broken. Law breakers are a-okay for this prime minister and his cronies!

Part of me wishes I had been in Toronto for the G20 demonstrations. I wish I had been there, standing beside fellow Canadians, speaking out for something I believe in - truly, I very well could have been amongst any of the many groups that were there demonstrating peacefully.

Most of all, I feel that maybe I could have done something about the injustices that happened that day. Injustices done to many youths who were exercising their social activism muscles for the first time; injustices to hard working freedom fighters of groups such as Amnesty International; injustices done to mothers and fathers, who spent the weekend terrified because they hadn't heard from their democratically-minded children for over 24hrs; injustices done to our forefathers who had a vision of our country that included the right to gather in public spaces as a people with a common goal; the disgusting joke of a temporary prison that INNOCENT PEOPLE were treated worse than loathed animals in; injustices done to the smaller store owners downtown due to residual vandalism from the small group of people the police AVOIDED arresting...

That weekend was an injustice to all Canadians. Yeah, you too. As I keep saying - if it's happening to anyone, it could happen to you. You know... the whole Common Fate thing?

*Tell me honestly... what would you have done? This image impacts me

tremendously. It's the infamous blockage of passage on Queen and Spadina.

These people were eventually rushed by the police and arrested. Really...

what would you have done? Comment, please.

It wouldn't have mattered if I had been down there, I'd just be more frustrated, enraged and hurt than I already am. We all got Conservatively screwed that day. I bring in the political party because it was in their hands to host this bullshit meeting in the first place. They got it WRONG.

Anyway, this news story is something we should all be up in arms over. Though from other things I've heard, two officers were charged with something? I could be wrong... but two out of 10 000 police officers seems only slightly laughable. Especially since only 6 out of the 1 100 demonstrators arrested have ACTUALLY BEEN CHARGED! Grrrrrrr...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/11/25/siu-officers-injuries352.html#socialcomments

But COME ON! As IF they have the audacity to cite the excuse that they can't identify the officers... HELLO!?!?! A lot of them had no identifying markers on them!! How about you charge the people who allowed hundreds of officers to go out into the streets without badges or name tags on?

Someone needs to learn a lesson. I have nothing against police officers in general, but I have something against a politically created mob mentality within the police forces that were present that weekend - and the heavy handedness that ran rampant.

I *rarely* pull this card... like extremely rarely... but it's true, so:

We have people we love over seas that are there specifically to deliver our democratic values to the populations of the oppressed and war-torn. How the fuck can we be so pious?

I have to start writing e-mails, I can feel ulcers forming.

I know you all love JFK, so here are wondrous words of wisdom from the man:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable."

- John F. Kennedy

These people look like the comic revolution types, ha! Sorry if you're afraid of clowns.

I don't think the cops were. :P