Ξ December 16th, 2006 | → Comments Off | ∇ General, Politics |
CBC.ca Arts - Mother may take Harry Potter battle to court
Now really, aren’t there bigger battles to be fought in the world than trying to get Harry Potter books banned? You know, things like AIDS prevention, feeding and clothing the homeless, and something called tolerance.
Stories like this really get my ire up because they are just so petty and worthless. It typifies everything that is wrong with society, to me.
This time it’s a ban on abortions in South Dakota. This law was put into place, in part, to challenge the roe vs wade decision that confirms women’s right to control their own bodies.
This legislation sets human rights in the U.S. back over 20 years. Hopefully there are pro choice groups in South Dakota and the US that will challenge the legislation and the Supreme Court will uphold the Roe vs Wade decision.
As you might have guessed, I am strongly pro choice. I believe that people have the right to choose what happens to their own body. It simply comes down to one simple phrase to me, “My body, my choice”.
Oh, and if anyone feels they need to spout pro life propaganda at me, don’t bother. My opinion is firm, and no matter what kind of arguements you use to try to support your cause, I’m pro choice. I support your right not to have an abortion, and I support her right to choose to have an abortion. Get it? PRO CHOICE.
Ξ January 22nd, 2006 | → Comments Off | ∇ Politics |
There’s no legal method to spoil a ballot, warns Elections Canada | CP
You’ve got to be kidding me. Making a political protest by spoiling your ballot is illegal in Canada, punishable by a $500 fine or 3 months in jail.
No wonder nobody wants to vote.
The election in Canada right now is huge joke. Our political system is a huge joke.
I’d say more, but the taste of bile in my mouth is interfering with my enjoyment of my movie.
Ξ September 10th, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ Politics |
I’m watching a documentary thats composed of old U.S. propaganda & war films from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Other than the sophistication of how the message is delivered, not much has changed in 50 years.
If you listen to the language used in the propaganda films, you quickly realize the systematic and prolific fear mongering that the government used to control the population. The McCarthy era was the quinessential example of this. The US government created such a fear of ‘commies and reds’ attacking within their country, it pretty much gave the US government carte blanche to do whatever it wanted on a domestic and international front.
Now look at what is happening today. The fear tactic today isn’t reds or commies, it’s terrorists. Look at the unprecidented interruptions in guatanteed freedoms in the US. Listen to the language used by the government to promote it’s own agenda. It’s all about creating fear so they can mold public opinion the way they want.
Obviously the propaganda films of the 50’s are really transparent. “*This* is what will happen if we relax our vigilance and let the commies live in our communities”. The message is the same, but it’s delivered in a much more sophisticated manner. Gone are the propaganda films; now we have CNN, FOX, the internet, and army recruiting ads on TV.
Scary shit.
And the world is controlled by Zombies!
Well, not really. George Bush and Paul Martin somewhat qualify for the denotation of zombiehood given their decaying mindless governmental policies, but they are still beathing; so they don’t technically qualify.
Ok. The back is still sore, but I can sit at the computer for a bit longer now than I could yesterday or the day before, so I am actually getting a little work done. Instead of my usual 6-8 hours I might make 2 today. Better than nothing!
I figured out how to set up hosted galleries for my websites. Using .shtml I have been able to allow my affiliates to insert their reseller codes into the hosted galleries so they get credit for sales they send through the HG. I’m really excited by this. It means I have a whole new market I can enter, TGP’s. It will make my affiliate programs much more attractive to other webmasters. The great thing is that it only took me about 30 minutes to set it up on existing HG’s I had already set up, and another 10minutes to e-mail my resellers. Yeehaw! So, if you’re a verotel treasureclub reseller and you need to know how to make hosted galleries, send me an e-mail and I’ll send you the code.
In the spirit of making an effective affiliate marketing, I am setting up a new website, www.erotibucks.com. I’m installing Mambo, a content management system, to a) see if it is a viable CMS for my sites, and b) because I like new toys. Don’t expect there to be anything there yet except the default mambo template. It is slow going because I have to take a break every 10-15 minutes to cringe and rest me back. Hooray for Tylenol 3’s!
I need some lovely curvy lasses to photograph too. If you’re a lovely curvy lass, or even if you’re not curvy and would enjoy having your photo taken, please let me know. Both Katt and I are very professional and very good photographers!
And with that, it is cringing and resting time.
Ξ August 10th, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ Fitness, General, Politics |
I’ve been on a reading kick lately. I’ve demolished eight books in 5 days. I’ve been going to used book stores looking for old series that I really liked that I want copies of and haven’t read in a long time. I cleaned my bookshelf in anticipation of all the new additions. I have a big stack of books I don’t want, mostly science fiction, fantasy, and russian literature, sitting beside my fridge waiting to be sold or donated.
We also had/have a nasty mouse infestation. For a while we left out back door open with a piece of lattice wedged between the two sliding doors so the dogs couldn’t get on the deck, but that also allowed mice to come in off the back deck. Nikko used to kill all the mice in the back yard, and keep our place free of mice, but since we no longer have him, the mice are not afraid. I’ve caught 8 of them since I started laying traps. Poor mice; they’re just hungry but I don’t like the mess they make and the diseases they spread. They’ve got to go.
Vancouver is considering a more comprehensive smoking ban which would include barring smoking within a certain radius of all doors to public buildings, bus stops, and eating establishments. It’s about time. It’s really offensive to be sitting at a bus stop and have two people sit down beside you and light up. They don’t ask if you’re allergic, or if you mind, they just start puffing. It’s gross. Perhaps because I grew up in a smoking househild until I was 15 I have an extra sensitivity to it, but I just can’t handle being around cigarette or cigar smoke. I get congested and have problems breathing when I am around second hand smoke. From my point of view it is a form of assault. I really don’t care if people smoke; it’s their body they are ruining. But please have the decency not to ruin mine.
Speaking of health, the eating and exercising is going well. I am up to 221lbs, the weight gain seems to be happening slowly but surely. I’m still going to the gym 5-6 days a week too for at least 90 minutes a day. That seems to be going well. I do wish I had a partner to train with still so I could get those extra reps in while being spotted. It’s hard to really push without a spotter, but I am slowly increasing the difficulty over time.
I find out tomorrow if I get surgery for my arthritis and ganglions in my ankle. I will ask them to x-ray and MRI my other ankle while I am there. It makes sense that if there is arthritis in one ankle it would be in the other. I am really looking forward to having a fully functional ankle again. It will be a good thing.
Huh. I never knew we had slavery in Canada. That’s something that was never covered in any Canadian History course I took during high school or university.
Scary. Both slavery, and revisionist history.
Slavery in Canada
I managed to kill the spam checker on my server somehow. I tried to upgrade sendmail and the spam checker stopped deleting spam mails. I spent most of the day yesterday trying to fix it, to no avail. I’m waiting for advice from webmaster forums to see if I can get some useful advice. I spent today doing site updates for 4 or 5 of our websites. I’m hoping we get some sign ups from the new material. I’m trying to get back to a normal routine for work again. It’s so easy to get lazy when you work from home!
I’ve really been enjoying the winter weather lately. We’ve had snow on and off for the last 3 days and it’s been fantastic. The unfortunate part of the snow and cold is that there are so many vehicle accidents. It’s unfortunate that so many people choose to drive in those conditions. Every snowfall the main focus of the news is how many car crashed there have been and how many people have died, usually because they were going too fast or their cars still had summer tires. It’s rather sad.
There was an article about the possible effects of a tsunami on the west coast in the paper today. The tsunami on boxing day was a tragedy. What bothers me is how the media plays up the ‘fear of the day’. All the media seems to do is give worst case scenarios and no strategies for people to stay safe in the event of tidal waves, earth quakes, or fire. It also bothers me that the government can spare 80+ million dollars for relief half way across the world but they can’t spare anything for the homeless people in our own country. Ideally 80 million would be spent at home and abroad for distaster relief. Anyone who needs support should get i, no matter where they are in the world. In my opion the fundamental purpose of government is to protect it’s people. At the most minimal level that means providing food, shelter, and medical care for those that cannot afford it. Simple basic neccessities of life somehow seem to be stretched thin when it comes to the most marginalized populations.
I’ll stop my rant before I get too far into it. I just wish government made better use of resources and that people cared enough to make the government work as it should.
Tomorrow I am going to get out of the house for a while. I’m not sure what I’ll do yet, but I’m sure it’ll be lovely.
