Stalemate

Sorry for the sporadic posting. Things have been busy and I've had to shy away from blogging for a while. That and I've been reading The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone. But, here I am with a few things in the news I'd like to talk about. There's going to be a common thread here, I think. That thread is that I can't believe that here in the year 2011 we have still only reached this level of advancement as a society.

New York has legalized gay marriage. That IS great news, no doubt about it. The state has become the sixth in all of the U.S. of A to do so. Sixth. They have what, forty maybe fifty states down there? Six? That's fucking it? I can't believe that being gay is still such a taboo. That governments, state governments down there and federal governments up here still believe they have the right to determine who can marry whom in terms of sexuality. And Canada can claim it's soooo progressive, but our nationwide gay marriage law only passed in 2005. Vic Toews is still reeling. Isn't it funny when privileged white dudes tell you that no one is oppressed anymore but them? Six fucking states. Unbelievable.

The Conservative (Harper) government hates unions. Waves of shock and surprise wash over the nation. Then everyone realizes that Herr Harper hates people having rights that he didn't give them. Surprise goes away. Film at never. Seriously though, Harper's brash style of "Get-the-fuck-out-of-my-way governing" is being too readily accepted by the vast majority of Canadians, even the ones that didn't vote Conservative. Listen to how smug he is:

"We know what side the public was on and I think today Members of Parliament on the other side finally start to get that message," Harper said Saturday night outside the Commons.

Baaaaaarf. You know what side the public was on? Nobody asked me. Nobody ever asks me. I'm never a part of the surveys or the opinion polls or any of that shit that tells me what I think and want. Now, I'm not saying that some unions these days aren't corrupt. But, we should all be standing firmly behind workers' rights. Unions were a hard fought-for right, one that needs to be straightened out certainly, but a right that is to this day necessary for the protection of the working class. At least the NDP stood up for those rights. I wasn't sure what they'd do after they stopped being Socialists. Boogy-boogy, scary socialism!

Here's something that I don't understand. When teaching schoolchildren to sing, why does the instructor have to touch them? Answer, he doesn't. This guy, Uwe Lieflander, would rather step down and stop teaching choir than do it without being able to touch his students as he pleases. So, obviously he's not teaching for the love of music. You don't have to touch a kid to make him/her sing better. There is no need for that. On my understanding of Royal Conservatory vocal training, contact is completely unnecessary. This guy just wants to touch kids. And what blows my mind is that some parents are in his corner!

"He's found ways to demonstrate with touch — which is really taboo, unfortunately — how to get these kids fired up," 

says Mrs. Cummings, whose son was in the choir. I don't know, but if I had kids, I wouldn't want anyone getting them "fired up" about anything through the power of touch. Hands off. If these are his methods and people are going to bat for him, then how are the children supposed to refuse him if he makes them feel uncomfortable, or worse inevitably tries something? I don't understand how anyone can see this as anything but a giant violation of the children's rights and safety. I fucking hate people. So much.

It goes on and on. Abortion rights being debated and taken away every day. Prostitution being fought for. Pornography becoming more protected as freedom of speech. The rights of women and children slip further and further away every day. Why? How? In this age of supposed enlightenment and freedom, why are so few enlightened and even fewer free? Why can't we fix this broken system? Why are white males still the top of the food chain when they're so obviously outnumbered? The planet has finally had enough of us, and we're going to be wiped out as a race unless things change drastically. Does anyone want this age of suffering and oppression to be our legacy?