The things that go through my head

For those of you that doubt the existence of the patriarchy, I bring you this horrifically painful article from CNN. It is written by an expectant mother who is disappointed to find out that she is having a girl after having two boys.  Because boys and girls are sooooo completely different.  Boys are rough and tumble and it’s appropriate to spend time with them looking through magazines and mocking all things traditionally related to the female gender.  It’s just fine and dandy to train your boys that pink girl things are absolutely terrible.  Reinforcing patriarchal gender roles and the second class status of us little girls is normal parenting behavior.

I want to judge this article writer for being a tool of the patriarchy for writing and publishing this tripe.  But I really do feel sorry for her.  She has obviously absorbed too many brain-washing toxins from living in a culture that absolutely hates women.  How is it possible for anybody to give a piece of their writing such an atrocious title:  Why I didn’t want a girl.  I just honestly can’t believe it.  Not only that, she must really hate herself if she really feels that way about having a girl.

You have to understand that I underwent a little awakening many, many years ago.  Something strange, new and awesome dawned on me as I was sitting with my abusive ex watching episodes of Oprah, Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer.  I realized that all these shows are the same.  They teach people to hate and judge others for being different or better yet at a disadvantage.  Mocking dysfunctional people as they throw chairs at each other made me feel good about myself. So do you want to know what I did?

I turned off the TV and quit watching that crap.  Humans, including myself, are programmable sheep and TV is a great form of brain-washing.  If you are looking for it, you will find that most media is designed to make you hate yourself.  You are too fat or your eyelashes are too thin so you need some over-priced goop to be lovable.

The other day a friend of mine asked me to explain feminism to him.  I had no idea how to respond to that.  I can not speak for anyone but myself.  My views are that we live in an oppressive patriarchy and your indoctrination begins the minute your mother answers the question: “Is it a boy or is it a girl?”  Cute pink sleepers for her, rough and tumble boyish blue for him.

I have just finished reading another excellent George Orwell book, Animal Farm.   Once again I read it completely online.  Either I would read it on my blackberry or I would use my laptop.  My Blackberry makes a terrible kindle.  The text is too small and if somebody texts you while you are reading and you go read the text message, you will find that you have lost your place in the book.  But who care about that?  Animal Farm was a great book which totally conforms to my personal worldview in regards to government.  The book has everything, an animal uprising that results in all the oppressive human beings being driven off the farm.  The animals run their own affairs and everything is honky-dory for all the animals, at least for a little while.  They manage to do a better job than Jones and his men at bringing in the crops and dividing up the spoils.  The animals have better living conditions, at least for a little while.  But of course, the evil, power-hungry jerks in society (the pigs) take over and ruin everything.  And isn’t that exactly what happens in every society?  Isn’t that what is happening to all of our governments and institutions?  Greedy power-hungry pigs take it over from the well-meaning revolutions to the detriment of everybody else?  How depressing!

If I had half a brain cell working I would have at least put up an amazon link and hoped somebody would click on it.

Since this blog has been all pot all the time for the last little while, so reviving my Friday 4:20 series seems rather pointless but I’m doing it anyway.  All I have is this excellent article from cannabis crusader Marc Emery, imploring everybody to vote for the BC Greens in the upcoming provincial election.  He does a good job of explaining, once again, why prohibition kills and why we need a better drug policy and less drug enforcement.

I hope everybody has a great weekend.   As I write this post, it’s snowing outside.  Stupid snow! The kids and I have to trudge through the snow to deliver the flyers.

I may indulge in a barley sandwich.  Then again, maybe I won’t.

Just ask Stewey and Brian.  They will sing you a song all about it.

Thanks to Pete at Drugwarrant I finally get to see this clip.  I read about this song all over the intertubes but this is the first time I actually watched it.

How did they accomplish this task? Easy, by putting a really stupid headline on this article: Grow-op produced medicine, not pot, Appeal Court hears.

First of all, pot is medicine. There are reams of information out there that proves this indisputable fact. The federal government was forced to recognize the medical efficacy of pot, thanks to hard-won court battles.  As a result, Canada has a terribly run medical marijuana program.  There are currently 2812 Canadians that have permission from the federal government to consume marijuana for their medical conditions.  The idea that there are only 2812 people in Canada that benefit from medicinal cannabis makes me laugh.  As if.  You should be able to get medical pot for your menstrual cramps or headache or just because you feel like it.

Then we have the issue of the reefer madness term grow-op.  It’s a weaselly bit of propaganda to call a greenhouse full of plants a grow-op and completely ridiculous.  The headline should have read: Greenhouse produced medicinal cannabis,  growers face jailtime, taxpayers foot the bill.  It would have been a little more honest.  But I don’t expect honesty from the Star Phoenix.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again.  Nobody should go to jail for smoking, growing or selling the wrong plants.

Happy 420 everybody!

I rather enjoyed this 420 ad campaign that was launched today.

Via Pete at Drugwarrant I found this delightful movie about marijuana that I will be watching tonight if I ever get any time! It’s only free today so I better get in gear.

First the teabaggers and now 2M4M? They make making fun of them soooo easy.

Go onto the internet and find other people that are more miserable and cranky than you are. I highly recommend hatebook. No matter how mean and rotten and petty and stupid you might be feeling, there are other people out there who feel even worse. I am not alone in my hatred of staying inside on a sunny day. I am not the only one who has scorned fellow women for being a bad mommy. That rant about bad moms on the internet made me feel slightly guilty, as I have felt that way before. Luckily I have smartened up. I can remember judging other women for needing time to themselves and a life outside of their children. Then I realized that I wanted a life of my own and time away from my kids.

Of course, then I read the rants from people living in really difficult situations and I feel so bad for them. Like the girl who lives in Libya and wants to leave the house and can’t do it. That would be terrible. I can’t imagine a worse fate than a total loss of my personal autonomy.

Look at the beautiful new baby foal and her momma Jackie! Isn’t she the cutest thing you have ever seen? I love her so much.

This cute moment brought to you courtesy of Sargent’s holiday farm and my blackberry. Too bad the camera function is so terrible.

Here is a nice fuzzy deer pic. I see so many of these hopping meat patties in my jaunts to rural Saskatchewan, it always gives me the warm fuzzies when I can get a real live pic, even if it kind of sucks.

Earlier this week Tammy Roberts, the woman who became famous for shaming women for having the audacity to breastfeed their children in a public venue, posted a picture essay displaying all the needles in local Saskatoon parks. There is no question in my mind that this is a public safety issue, as children becoming infected by diseases from used needles is undoubtedly a danger everybody wants to avoid. However, the conclusions drawn by the poo-flingers in the comment section denigrating “junkies” demanded a blog post from yours truly.

Many commenters are demanding that the health region stop handing out clean needles and feel that this would solve the drug problem. This is an absurd notion. Even if it put an end to needles in the parks, it would do nothing to help people that are suffering from addictions issues. But let’s be realistic here. None of these people screaming for the health region to quit handing out needles cares even the slightest bit about the people that are addicted to drugs. They don’t care at all, they just want the problem to disappear. They don’t mind reading an article in the newspaper about the escalating STI and AIDS rates because it doesn’t touch their lives at all. But the minute that they see evidence in their community of needles, concrete evidence that society has a huge drug problem, they get angry. They prefer the drug problems out of sight and out of mind.

What I would like to see are some real concrete practical solutions to these issues. How about a discussion of the root causes of drug addiction? How about a discussion about poverty in our inner city? It’s an indisputable fact that poverty is the root cause of a lot of issues facing people in the inner city.

I would also like to point out that Tammy Roberts could have done an excellent photo essay on broken beer bottles in the parks. While these aren’t a vector for disease in the same way that broken needles are, they are dangerous to small children. When my kids were little I can’t count the number of times I walked around and picked up all the broken beer bottles to prevent the children from cutting themselves on them. So where is the moral panic about beer drinkers? This panic about condoms is even more pathetic. They are gross, just like the take-out food wrappers and old plastic bags I clean out of my yard every year after the snow melts, but they aren’t dangerous. Why the moral panic? Let me tell you. People see real evidence that people have sex and do drugs and they get all worked up. It’s much ado about nothing. Just an excuse to marginalize people that lead different lives than they do.

Thanks to Saskboy for bringing this to my attention.