The things that go through my head

I am still going crazy planning this rally on Saturday. In the meantime, enjoy this election ad.

Date: Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Location: Civic Square at City Hall, 222 3rd Avenue North

Concerned individuals are hosting Neil Magnuson of the Freedom Tour 2008

Neil Magnuson will be in Saskatoon Saturday, September 20 on the Saskatoon leg of his Freedom Tour 2008. Neil is rollerblading from Vancouver to Ottawa, celebrating what he recognizes as a new human right: the right of access to hemp in all its forms.
The goal of the Freedom Tour is to expose the dangers of prohibition and the criminal abuses of power by public servants. Prohibition is supposed to prevent the abuse of cannabis by limiting access to this plant, however this strategy results in increased use and abuse and wastes billions of tax and taxable dollars while creating and supporting crime.
Racists, moralists and industrialists use the prohibition of cannabis to further their agendas. Successful lobbying of our politicians has resulted in their interests being protected at the expense of our basic rights and freedoms. Police, lawyers, courts, a myriad of public bureaucrats and prohibition profiteers are paying their mortgages on the backs of cannabis criminals.

In the U.S., private, for-profit prison corporations are raking in billions of dollars filling contracts using prison labour supplied by the justice system at taxpayers expense (yet another hidden subsidy).

The reefer-madness of the 1900’s continues today with misinformation and horror stories. If we were really concerned about harms caused by drug abuse, we would encourage the use of cannabis as a safer and saner alternative to really deadly drugs like tobacco and alcohol.

The truth is that many people use cannabis. If you don’t know many people who use cannabis, then you have lived a sheltered life. Recent surveys report that more than 16% of Canadians admit to a stranger that they use cannabis. Cannabis, however, is neither bad nor good: if used properly, it can provide some individuals with great benefits and at worst is a waste of time for those who use it improperly. The fact that the great majority of people can make this decision wisely is reflected by the fact that by every measure – educational success, intelligence, monetary achievement, longevity, and health – cannabis users are indistinguishable from the rest of the population.

Legislation passed first reading in the recently dissolved parliament to introduce mandatory minimum jail sentences for cannabis-related crimes. If these laws are reintroduced, then we are in for a U.S. Style war on drugs with many more people in prison and many more people hurt.

Don’t let it be said:

When they came for the pot smokers,
I did not speak out …

see http://freedomtour.ca

Kelly Block’s office is right next to Skunk Funk Emporium, a very fine head shop located on 22nd street and avenue G. I highly approve. I found this out yesterday when I was there dropping off fliers to promote the Freedom Tour, which is coming to town on Saturday, September 20th. We are having a political rally. I will post more about this after school.Here is the poster.

I have done a terrible job at blogging but don’t worry! I am in the middle of putting together a political rally on Saturday and that is sucking up all the time that I would ordinarily spend blogging and standing on my internet soapbox. But don’t worry, I will be back and I will tell you all about it. I am so pumped!

This might be the greatest thing that Saturday Night Live has ever done.

I will be posting my thoughts on this federal election over at Democratic Space. I have to admit that the idea of blogging the election scares the crap out of me. There are so many smart people over there with such impressive biographies. I wonder if anybody cares what I have to say. I am just a simple horsey mom who does not participate in elections, outside of complaining about the lack of real choices. Anyway, I hope that somebody finds my thoughts interesting and that this will give me an opportunity to get more exposure for my blog, because let’s be honest here. All bloggers are desperate for attention and I am no exception. It drives me insane to watch teevee and not hear my views expressed anywhere. Why else would I bloviate on the internet?

I found this show on youtube yesterday and I have to say I really like it.  It’s not often that I will post on this blog to say that I like something because I hate most things.  Most television shows are vapid, horrible garbage that will rot your brain.  However, this show is clever and funny and it brings up many issues close to the hearts of many modern teenagers.

I love the plotlines running through the show.  All the teenagers are given abstinence only education but few practice it in real life.  The beautiful, blonde, christian, all-American teenage girl has taken off her promise ring.  What could this possibly mean?  Will Amy have sex and turn into a whore?  Will she get pregnant?  Will she enjoy it?  All the adults are running around saying “Just say no!” and all the kids are either doing it or thinking about doing it.  The guys that have sex are dangerous lotharios that trick the poor innocent young foolish girls into having sex.  The boys are studs and the girls are sluts.  Just like in the real world, sex turns everybody into moronic, raving lunatics.   I notice that none of the guys in the show wear promise rings but the girls do.  The slut-shaming about sex and the hypocrisy of all the adults absolutely kills me.

I absolutely love the scene in this show where the over-bearing father tries to control his young teenage daughter that he does not know because he has spent no time with her and did nothing to parent her while she was growing up.  He has made some life choices that he does not approve of and he feels that he needs to step in and set the young lass straight.  A young teenage girl can not make the choice to use birth control and have safer sex for her own pleasure.  No!  She needs her Daddy to tell her that she doesn’t need to have sex and to send her off to an all-girl school.  Sex is always degrading to a girl, after all.  She may think she is having sex for her own pleasure but she is wrong, wrong, wrong.  Teenage girls can’t possibly have sex without consequences.  It really hit home with me because control of female sexuality is a cornerstone of female oppression.  Here is a perfect example of it.  What young woman has ever felt free of male judgment for exercising her free will and agency, especially when it comes to her sexuality?  When she tells her Dad to get out of her life, Adrian spoke for any young woman who wants to have sex without being judged for it.

Here is episode 11. It is posted in five parts, which I have taken the liberty of posting here for your viewing pleasure.

I wonder if it was a white person that wrote this card. Found via Drug War Rant, Social Memory Complex and Post Secret.

The damn thing is broken in two places. First of all, the thing that holds the screen up is broken, so I have to prop it up against a chair. So it can’t really be considered a laptop, since I can’t have it on my lap, can it? Also, the fan is broken, so it continually overheats. When it gets too hot, it shuts down. It loves to do that in the middle of blog posts and emails. Since it takes an hour for it to cool off again after it shuts off, I always forget what I was doing when my computer quits. Which means my computer is full of half-written emails and incomplete blog posts. @%^#%^%# I suppose I could finish them but it’s hard to get back into it once it’s “gone”.

My nerdy boyfriend just bought another desktop computer, so I may have to use that for all my nerdular intertubular needs. But I love my laptop and the screensaver and the background and the way my email program is set up. *SOB* I can’t handle change!

Did you know that there are now more computers in my house than people? True story.

I better hit submit before my computer crashes again.

I was bored yesterday evening so I drove around the neighborhood looking for election signs. So far, all I have seen are signs for Kelly Block of the Conservative Party and Nettie Wiebe of the NDP. I did not see any Liberal or Green Party signs. Stay tuned for me to rant about the “issues” this weekend.