Step 1: Teenage girl sends naked picture of herself to a boy she likes. Or she sends it to a boy she doesn’t like so he will stop harassing her.

Step 2: Bullies forward the picture to all of their friends. Bullies call the girl names like slut, whore and porn queen. They may dump food on her in the cafeteria. They generally humiliate the girl and make her life a living hell.

Step 3: The school administration gets involved. Dun dun dun (as the young people would say.)

Step 4: The girl is punished for sending a naked picture of herself. Punishments include groundings, revocation of responsibilities or school suspensions.

Step 5: Parents discuss ways to prevent teenage girls from sending naked pictures of themselves. Ineptitude follows.

In the case of Hope Witsell, she killed herself.

Do you see what is wrong with this picture? No? Then let me break it down for you. Teenage girls are not human garbage that deserve to be bullied, mocked and humiliated by their peers. Teenage boys should not be rewarded for being bullies. Why were the perpetrators not punished? I can tell you right now that if I was the parent of a teenage boy that used a cell phone to harass a classmate, I would run it over with a car while he watched. What the hell is wrong with our society when we perpetually let these bullies off the hook like that? I can’t remember a news story that pissed me off so much.

The worst part is how everybody acts like a naked picture from a teenage girl will lead to the downfall of society. Oh Puh-leeze. It’s a pair of boobs. Grow up. That picture was not intended to be seen by everybody at school. The act of using that picture to harm that girl was a despicable act and should be dealt with. I would raise hell if that were my kid I tell you what.

If you ever question the existence of patriarchy or rank misogyny, just re-read that article and it should come through loud and clear.

You have to understand that Saskatoon is swarming with Mormons lately. Every year, a new batch comes up from Salt Lake City, eager to impart their Christian values on a gullible populace. I have had many conversations with them over the years and I have to give them credit for persistence. I am stubborn, loud-mouthed and opinionated and they have successfully worn me down many times. If you say “How do you explain the dinosaurs?” they come back with some scripture quotations about testing your faith or something. It’s far too confusing for my puny brain to sort out. They sure do know how to talk in circles without saying anything. It never fails to amaze me.

The two young fellows were sizing me up and giving me compliments for getting my kid to work. Praising your kids is the oldest trick in the book. They probably think I am a single mom. Mormons always go for the single moms because they are all poor, single and desperate for a man and therefore vulnerable to brainwashing. Since I left my home unattended by a man I must be single. They also petted my dog and told me he is cute. I was talking to them and being polite while I was waiting for Katy to get finished dropping off her papers. I was hoping they would go away after she came back and I started walking away but they just kept talking and talking. Oh jeez, they were determined to talk to me, no matter how uninterested I tried to be. They kept up with the fake politeness until they successfully introduced themselves and shook hands with me. Great. Now I have no choice but to engage on religion and I got nothing witty or funny to say. This sucks. Anyway, he pulls his business card out of his pocket and hands it to me. I explain to him that it is no use because I don’t believe in any of it. I know there is no God. There is absolutely no proof of his existence anywhere. He seemed incredulous that I would say such a thing and asked me if I was sure of that. I told him “I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life. Take care!” And we walked away. They finally took the hint.

This is what I should have said:

“I feel sorry for you because you have been successfully brain-washed into propagating a dangerous cult. The only reason you are here right now trying to convince me that you have all the answers was a coincidence of birth. If you had been born in a different part of the world with different parents and a different upbringing, you would be a different kind of Christian or you might be a Buddhist, Muslim or a Jew. There is no God, accept it and move on with your life!”

The thought occurs to me that Mormons use the same tactics as salespeople to win your trust. Compliments and praise, being nice to your kid and your dog. There must be a handbook that these people use.

Then she gave Jenny McCarthy a show. Ay-yi-yi! But enough out of my big yap. Just go ahead and read Newsweek. Then turn off the television, with all its’ Oprah Winfreys, Bill O’Reilly’s, Maury Povich’s and Fox news. You don’t need it!

If all copies and records of ‘Father Ted’ were somehow wiped, I would find it impossible to summon up the affection with which Arthur and I initially wrote the show. Somehow, these days, The Irish Catholic Church seems a lot less cuddly.

I would go further and say that no religion anywhere is warm and cuddly. Nobody needs it. It’s just like that tupperware container full of moldy green food festering in the back of the refrigerator.

Throw that shit out!

If you check out the link you will see testimony from a victim of catholicism. I am quite impressed with his bravery. I think I could live a thousand years and still cringe at the thought of confronting certain people in my life.

This morning at school I saw The Globe and Mail cover story about Obama’s pretend attempts to close the Guantanamo Bay jail. It was a fine piece of propaganda, with Obama promising to protect the public from the “terrorists”. I might have to cut it out and frame it for History class. Apparently, the people incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay must be jailed indefinitely despite the fact that it is seemingly impossible to find any actual crimes to charge them with. We know that they are terrorists because Obama, the rider of unicorns and kisser of babies, said so. He gives pretty, meaningless speeches and then does whatever is politically expedient, just like every other politician. At least when Bush did the same thing, people got angry and made fun of him on the teevee. But when Obama does it? Nothing. Oh sure, there are a few Glenn Greenwald’s and Dr. Violet Socks’ ringing the alarm bells. For the most part, I am not seeing appropriate levels of outrage.

After eight years of the Bush Republicans and all of those cheerleaders demanding that the terrorists be punished, Republican voters are supportive of non-stop warfare. Many people were just fine with America invading other countries and building military bases while so many of their own people went without healthcare and proper education. Bush got elected. Now the so-called “progressive” community is going to be singing the praises of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. Maybe they will insist that a President needs to be able to incarcerate people indefinitely without charging them with a crime. It’s OK if the government rifles through your computers’ hard drive. Habeus Corpus? Who needs it? Give the Wall Street crooks a pile of money. Who cares? Obama says it’s a good thing so it must be true.

If this were a fair or sane world, this would result in a butt-kicking by the boys’ parents for violating the trust of his former girlfriend and generally being a meanypants for no good reason. But we don’t live in TanyaLand, we live in a patriarchy.

It seems that the general consensus is this: these terrible girls that send these pictures must be punished! Criminal charges must be laid. Being labeled a sex offender will learn the young’uns good. Pervy old school administrators must confiscate the phones, look through the pictures and give those girls a firm talking to. They do this for the girls’ own good.

Luckily these girls have advocates on their side. A caring “leading authority on cyber-crime” Parry Aftab, is campaigning to have the girls’ charges reduced from child pornography to a misdemeanor. This is apparently the best that anybody can do. Except in Vermont. At least Vermont seems to have the right idea. There is currently a bill to legalize the consensual exchange of pictures between young people.

But no word on whether boys send out pictures of their penises, and if they do, what punishments they should receive. Males can do no wrong.

This blog post inspired by something I read at I Blame the Patriarchy.

Who needs beauty pageants?  What are they good for?  They are good for reinforcing patriarchal gender roles.  They reinforce the idea that women should aspire to be pretty, obedient, meek and good instead of brave, strong, smart and determined.  They should look like sexy hotties but they should never act on it unless they have permission.

Down with beauty pageants.

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

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.

But why didn’t the headline read “Should your husband have girl-friends?” I suppose no woman anywhere would or could have a problem with their husbands’ friends because we fragile girl-creatures need different rules to get by. Anyway, I just absolutely loved the advice at the end of the article. They give those great bullet points at the end to summarize the interesting bits with advice on navigating the bumpy world of platonic opposite sex friendships. It reminds me of Jerry Springer. After he entertained the crowd by mediating between warring couples throwing chairs at each other, he would give his FINAL THOUGHT and all would be right in the world. Well, CNN does the same thing. Just check out these awesome pointers:

• Don’t make ultimatums. “Trying to control another person’s behavior never works,” Jacobson says. “Try to understand the friendship, and what it’s all about.”

• Be honest. “Never lie about the time you spend with your friend,” Sabatini says. “If you don’t feel comfortable telling your husband you’re going to hang out, then maybe he has a reason to worry.”

• Socialize as a group. “Spend time with both your significant other and your friend,” Sabatini says. “And acknowledge your love for your spouse in front of your friend.”

• Set boundaries. “If you feel the friend is crossing a line, say something,” Rabhan says. “Open communication with your significant other is crucial.”

• If you feel threatened, be honest about it. “Talk to both your significant other and their friend face-to-face,” Jacobson says. “Tell them you feel left out. Don’t be accusatory or yell, just be open and honest.”

• Think positive. “As long as everybody’s on the same page, opposite-sex friends can be fantastic for a couple,” Jacobson says. “If you make your relationship too exclusive, it can become claustrophobic. I’m sure plenty of husbands would love another man to take his wife shopping or to the movies. It’s less pressure on him.”

Really? Ultimatums are bad? “Dump that guy-friend or else!” Why would your wife-property object to that? Here is a better one. Anytime anybody tries to change you, run for the hills.

And be honest? What if you are in an emotionally abusive relationship with a jealous jackass that sees nothing wrong with judging you for wanting to spend time with your friends, so you respond by not mentioning it. Maybe there are good reasons to leave some things unsaid, or better yet, cut the controlling jerk-off loose. If you have to make all these compromises, like give up your friends, why would you want to be in that relationship anyway?

Then they toss those insecure husbands a bone by telling them how great it is for your wife to have a friend to go shopping with her. I know that I have male friends so that we can all go hang out at the mall together. We girls just love to shop soooo much.

So you see why everything is a tool of the patriarchy? Gender brainwashing is absolutely everywhere, otherwise CNN would not waste their time reminding everybody that women and men are sooooo different and can’t be friends because they will be too busy having teh secks.

I wasted far too much time on this crap. I should have just hit the back button when I had the chance.