My petition is doing great

I have just done the latest tally of all of my 17 petitions- Put Animal Rights in Canada's Constitution and I have well over 6,000 signatures ..I have a grand total of 7,257 signatures..I’m almost at my goal of 10,000 signatures, which is amazing!The link above is to the petition with the most signatures.

As I write this, I can hear the rain poring outside, and thunder starting to grumble far off. I love this weather!!!

I love the sound, feel and smell of rain, it makes everything come alive. I especially love the rain at night, it feels that much cosier. ( Did I spell that right?)

To Believe or not to Believe...

I think it’s funny that people say they are in support of the institution of marriage by saying they “believe in marriage”.

Are these the same people who then also believe in the Easter Bunny, The tooth Fairy and dear old Saint Nick?

Using the word believe to say you support marriage gives a bizarre understanding to the concept of support.

The opposite of believing in marriage would therefore be not believing in it’s existence, like those of us who no longer believe in the big bun, or our beloved magical dental collector.

Why use the word believe is what I want to know, it makes everything so ineffable, flimsy and intangible, which, is cool for me,because , on the whole, I don’t “believe” in it, but I do know it exists. It’s almost like if enough people say they believe in marriage than it will really exist, and even the “non-believers” will be able to see it, much like the illusive unicorn; it shows its self only to those who truly believe in it with their full heart.

So, is the institution of marriage therefore an illusive unicorn; so intangible that even people who believe in it’s value see that it’s still so controversial and misogynist that in order to support it it’s important to use will power, to believe in it to make it more lasting and real?

I don’t know, but I do think it’s odd. Why not say you agree with the institution or are in favour of it, but not believe in.

In other news, the other day in NY the first ever Animal Rights Day event was held. Pretty wicked. Speaking of animal rights and wicked things, here is a link which was sent to me by another blogger( I was about to use the word fellow, to mean another, but, then I stopped myself and realized how inherently sexist that word is) about the harm that is done to horses that are made to pull carriages in cities. We think it’s so romantic, they go blind.

http://anti-calechedefensecoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/help-ban-caleches-in-montreal.html

And, as usual, here is my link to my 2 in one petition; it’s to protest Go Daddy and then there’s a link to my other Animal Rights petition within.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/boycott-GoDaddy/

The ranking system

A car commercial once reminded me of a simple, basic fact, there are no races, just the human race. Very profound shit from a car commercial, but they wanted to sell their car, and clearly didn’t want to alienate even one potential buyer, it’s a good marketing strategy. I didn’t buy their car, but I did buy their message, because it was a refreshing change from the maelstrom of everyday “Us versus Them” paradigms.

The “Us versus Them” paradigm is a product of the ranking system. The ranking system is what patriarchy stands for; it’s the system of divide and conquer. We are so used to ranking things, we just take it for granted that what we are actually doing is saying we agree with colonial patriarchy.

We rank women: body size, shape, height; hair colour, texture, length; breast size and shape.

We rank skin colour.

We rank men: testicle shape, body-shape, size, sexual prowess,

We rank in terms of the highest, the biggest, the fastest, etc.

I would love to climb Mount Everest one day, but not because it’s the highest mountain, or the most daunting, but because it would be amazing to see the view from the top of the world, so high up, and in such sacred land. Though, for most men climbers the two sealing points for them are that they are going to climb the highest and biggest mountain in the world; they focus on these points because they haven’t left kindergarten. In kindergarten boys are taught that to be a man you must rank, and rank everything.

What would the world be like without superlatives or even comparatives? Well, we wouldn’t have systems that tell us one thing is better than another, and that might very well end all idiotic wars, but, as Big Gov oh- so-subtly reminds us, we need wars to keep our economies healthy. Plus, wars are great places for bringing out the big artillery; the big superlatives; the enemy makers.

The ranking system is behind slavery; all forms of hate and racism, all systems that say one group is better and more deserving than another; like think jim crow and apartheid. The ranking system is what was used to ensure women were “seen and not heard”, and were legally regarded as chattel; as property of a male, such as their fathers, or husbands.

The ranking system is war, its’ the sports field which is war’s cousin.

Patriarchy relies heavily on maintaining the ranking system, in ways such as ensuring women stay insecure and “catty” with each other—“dissent among the ranks”, as it were. The more in-fighting among women patriarchal systems can create, the less likelihood of a female overthrow. The motto of patriarchy is “Keep ‘em scared, keep ‘em silent.”

Corporate giants also operate along patriarchal systems. Companies who refuse to unionize their workforce are able get away with not unionizing by leading their workforce to believe that unionizing would be detrimental for various reasons, that it would be costly, and it could even result in job loss. Therefore, the Goliath is able to maintain it’s position of fear and dominance by dropping poison into the water, as it were, and letting it spread, by word of mouth, throughout the ranks, at which point, the execs get to sit back and laugh and breathe a sigh of relief, because they have averted a political overthrow.

All governments, and different forms of governing systems rely 100% on the ranking system, if they didn’t, we would actually be able to experience democracy: from Gk. demokratia "popular government," from demos "common people," originally "district" (see demotic), + kratos "rule, strength" (http://www.etymonline.com/)

Therefore, democracy means, rule by the common people, but it’s anything but that.

Wouldn’t it be great if governments provided its citizens with full disclosure of all their actions, including spending, action plans, lies, fuck ups. If governments stopped pitting people against each other, rich against poor, black against white, …, and actually did their jobs; paved the roads, cleaned the streets, ensure protesters were guaranteed the right to protest safely, the ranking system would start to become more and more superfluous. I’ll harken back to the G20 summit, here in Toronto last year, where people only now are being released from jail. What was their crime? Existing, and not remembering patriarchy’s motto; the protesters at the G20 were not silent and that terrified Big Gov, so it really had no choice, but to “pull rank”, and throw those noise makers in the clinker, that’ll learn them.

The best way to combat patriarchy is to never stay silent—keep speaking, yelling, screaming, laughing, singing!

The rain and Faux Feminsim

I love rainstorms, and I love the way the earth and air smell after the rain.

In other news, I feel unimpressed by singers who try to pass themselves off as feminists, the likes of lady cokehead gaga, and beyonce, aka beyond ok come to mind. Both of these two females assert that they are sticking up for female kind and ergo are feminsts. Just being female doesn't make a femisnist. The fact that they sing about “girl power” type issues, like say, getting proposed to by your ‘man’,and getting a “ring on it”, and wanting love of any kind, including sexual diseases, and all, should be proof enough that these two "monsters", isn't that cokehead's name, are indeed not feminists.

Both of the two “singers” I’ve mentioned actually have heaps in common, lets’ take a look:

1. Cokehead and beyond-ok both have blond hair; both dye it.

2. Both believe in the less-is-more policy when it comes to clothing

3. Both are under 30 years old

4. Neither have more than high school education; why is this important?Because their whole thing is to be empowering role models for young women, but , really what kind of modelling are they truly doing?

5. Both sing songs that are all about sex and “love” and faux empowerment

6. Both rely heavily on their looks to keep working

7. Neither of them have ever addressed real issues, such as poverty and women, rape, patriarchy, menial wages, teenage pregnancy, using condoms, the list could surely go on.

8. Both of them are very skinny, and sadly they both wear their skinniness as a badge of honor or pride.

I’m tired of lady drug addict. The world wouldn’t be even remotely be interested in her if she kept her clothes on, had a lot more weight, and was political, because then she’d truly be dangerous. Right now, she’s an over sexed retard who talks about sleeping with every member of her “band’, as an empowering action. Wow!

I’m equally fed up with beyonce. Her synchro-dance numbers and her jazzy crap about what girls should do to get and keep a man is pathetic. Also, I can’t stand her voice. I read some quote where she said she’s really happy that Oprah’s been such a great role model to black women, did she include herself?

Here are some women who are singers who are worth lauding for their feminist stances: Annie Lennox, Sinead O’Connor, Michelle N’Decello, Madonna -to a degree, P.J Harvey, Lady Saw, Salt-n-Pepa( I had to go to Google for a memory jog), I'm sure there are more, though these are the women that I like, know and remember.

Cokehead and Beyond reinforce the patriarchal attitude of cattiness among women, and that your virtue is in your body; nothing more. These days, young women are wearing less and less and, because their idols model that for them. Sadly, these same idols are not modelling strength, owning your power, political activism.

A shame.

The Royal Wedding, and all that Jazz

So, I did finally get to watch the whole wedding, in it's entirety, even with all the weird shit about giving one's body to your spouse, and other such religious crap, and there was a lot of religious shit. One of the preists asked who was giving her hand away, and her father had to take her arm, and give it to the priest who gave it to William, who then wrapped both their arms witha cloth..to tie the knot. But wholly fucking chattle!
Well the body giving part's already happened, as evidenced by her swollen-ass finger. That was funny!

Al the same, the whole show was pretty nice. She looked beautiful, he looked as boring as ever, but happy. She'll break his heart, and leave him most certainly.

Anyway, Spring is finally here. Beltane or May Day's come and gone, which now leaves us at Election Day..oh my! Yes, a Federal Election, and my choices, 3 white men, woot!

I love the Golden Girls!

I love The Golden Girls! I just saw 2 episodes. I haven't watched the show for years!
Rose says: " I don't want to toot my own gerflergurhugen" and then 'Ma' says, " I can't even reach mine." ! Gold! I laughed so hard.

Have yet to see The Wedding in it's entirety. Hopefully tonight it will be aired again.
Though I did see the part where The Prince struggled quite visibly getting ye old ring onto the about-to-be princess's- finger. I bet she's pregnant, hence her swollen finger and also the reason why everything was so rushed. They sort of out of the blue announced their engagement and then only four months later are married. I find it a bit suspicious...Four months doesn't seem a long time to plan a Royal Wedding.

Please remember the animals, and take a second to sign my petitions.
The Boycott GoDaddy petition has a link to my petition Put Animal Rights in Canada's Constitution. Please sign them both.

Something to sadly rival BP

The acronym BP now stands for one of the biggest oil spill-water-animal-earth murder ever, outside of Exxon Valdez, and their commitment to murder.

Thanks to an incredible doc I watched last night on APTN, I learned a lot.

I learned that in 2006 a ferry, called the Queen of The North, carrying cargo, fuel, cars and people, sank. The ferry was traveling from Prince Rupert back to Vancouver Island and hit a rock and ended up sinking.

I also learned about a small First Nations community located in Hartley Bay, BC, called the Gitga’at.

“From the beginning of time, the Gitga’at people have existed in their Territory on what is now British Columbia's northwest coast. The wellbeing of their people is intricately related to the health of their lands, waters, and resources, and the community continues to work to sustain their abundance and richness. Gitga’at culture is strengthening, and traditional practices continue to shape day to day life in the village.

Opportunities exist for visitors to share cultural, wildlife, and other types of experiences in Gitga’at territory, which is home to some of the most spectacular scenery, captivating wildlife, and rich historical and cultural sites in the world.” (http://www.gitgaat.net/)

The local Gitga’at community came out in full and were able to save all but 2 people aboard the sinking Queen of the North. When the ship sank, everything sank with it, and it has remained 1,300 feet below the water, off the coast of Hartley Bay, the home of the Gitga’at people.

The most disturbing part of the whole story is that previous to 2006, the community of Hartley Bay was pristine . Now not only does it have permanent and continuous toxic leakage from the huge ferry, which the government of BC refuses to move, the government has also told people the toxins are safe and won’t affect them.

The fact that the ship sunk and is still there without even having had it’s fuel and the fuel of the cargo it was carrying drained is both sad and ridiculously insane. The motto for the province of BC is, “The Best Place to Live”, but that seems highly debatable when old growth rain forests, scared land, and waters are seen as commodities and are being destroyed so fast.

Adding more insult to it all, a sacred temperate rain forest we call in English "The Great Bear Rainforest”, which is an old-growth forest on the west coast of BC, is being clear cut at such an alarming rate. It is the home to many threatened species, among which is the Spirit Bear, an all-white bear, which comes from the same family as the black bear.

And , lest we forget that black bears are still under siege as they are here in Ontario; they are allowed to be killed, murdered for “sport”. This barbarism is called 'trophy hunting'. I wish bears carried tek-9s.

To sum up: a once clean, beautiful area is now threatened in many ways, because of the greedy, selfishness of the governments actions or inactions. The Gitga’at people have been living with and off the land for thousands of years, and now they and they beings they share the land with are in grave danger.

Another group of BC First Nations people, called the Haida, who live in the islands called Haida Gwaii, which are just below Alaska, are fighting to maintain their way of life and the beauty of the land they live with. The Government wants to pipe oil to their islands. They are vehemently opposed.

“Alex Rinfret, September 2, 2009, Charlotte Island Observer--Plans by a Calgary company to pipe crude oil to Kitimat, allowing it to be shipped through north coast waters, are "ludicrous" and "unbelievable", and will never be allowed to happen, says Haida Nation president Guujaaw.

Speaking to two top executives from Enbridge Inc. at a public gathering in Skidegate Friday (Aug. 28), Guujaaw said the project would put the entire Haida way of life at risk for nothing more than the chance for investors and company officials to make money.

Guujaaw said islanders learned first-hand from Prince William Sound people who visited Haida Gwaii earlier this year what happens when an oil spill contaminates the ocean and coastline.

"Those people lost their traditional ways, lost their access to food," he said, following the crash of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in 1989, the effects of which are still being felt.

Guujaaw said no one should believe company promises that an oil spill would be immediately contained and that compensation would be paid for any environmental damage.

The Alaskan people are still waiting for compensation, he said. And it would be impossible to move fast enough to contain a spill in the isolated and storm-prone north coast waters.”( http://www.tarsandswatch.org/haida-nation-says-no-way-oil-tanker-traffic)

Remember my petition, please:( by signing this you can also go to my petition asking for federal rights and protections for Canada's animals: Boycott GoDaddy Now!