How About 'March For Choice' Day?

I wrote about this fucking shitshow last year, and it seems like we've reached that time again. Yes, once again, it's time for all those who value vague bits of genetic material over the lives of actual human women to gather together, march to our nations' capital and give away a free iPod or two to the kids that are there on mandatory field trips.... wha???

Okay, I don't think I need to get into how fucked up it is that the pro-life movement is targeting young people with a 'hip and with it' new campaign strategy. It's pretty obviously, completely fucked up. I'm not even going to get into how bizarre it is that is seems to be working, although it is, to me at least, quite effing bizarre. Let's instead focus on what fucking frightening timing this rally comes at.

I've talked about Stephan Woodworth before, haven't I? In case you need a quick refresher he's the asshole who seems to be pushing the hardest for the abortion debate to be reopened. As a backbencher for Herr Harper, one can hardly be surprised. However, the P.M. has held strong to his promise that the debate shall not be reopened. Woodworth seems unfazed by his masters' words and presents himself as an ally, perhaps even a leader to the evangelical and otherwise brainwashed hordes, their shining beacon, their voice on Parliament Hill.

People like Woodworth and his followers are the people that picket clinics set up to help women in need. They're the ones that perpetuate the myth that women use abortions as birth control. They're the ones that leak clinic records to the public at large, shame single women that couldn't support the children they'd have to care for, shame the rape victims for aborting the fetus that shares the DNA of their attacker, shame every woman who dares to make a choice. They're the ones that bomb clinics, kill abortion doctors and make women fear the potential of getting pregnant even more than they already have to. They're bullies. Some might even call them terrorists. But, in the name of their god, they're just doing what they think is right, aren't they? Am I so off base here? To compare pro-lifers with any other group of religious, god-fearing terrorists?

Of course I am. I couldn't say that if it weren't for the anonymity the internet provides. That's your freedom of fucking speech right there. The freedom goes to who it always goes to. That's why there's a 'March For Life' Day, but the supposedly Liberal mayor of Ottawa won't greenlight a 'March For Choice' Day. That's why there isn't a 'March For Choice' Day. And if there is somewhere, that's why it's not of this magnitude. Because no matter how "Liberal" you are, no matter how much you're all for freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom over yourself and your body, etc. it always stops short of women. No one ever backs a womans' freedom of speech unless they're slamming other women. The pro-lifers get heard all the time, because the freedom of speech is not universal. It belongs to men, and men do with it as they see fit.

These people, marching for life, are they ever around after the babies are born? Are they ever there to help the single mothers who go through with their pregnancies? Do they babysit to these women can finish school and get better jobs so that they can support their children better, in lieu of the fathers in absentia? Do they provide financial support to the women who can't make ends meet, but had no choice but to conceive? Of course not. Doing god's work isn't about making sure people turn out okay. It's just about getting your message across and getting your way, whatever the consequences, innocent bystanders be damned. Those are the people in the "March For Life". Rest assured that this parade will never march with one like that.

As If I Didn't Already Have To Barf

Just a quick update here, folks. It seems my nemesis, one Steven Tyler, has hit the absolute bottom of the barrel and is now doing super shitty Burger King commercials. Burger King prides itself on producing increasingly sexist and disturbing ad campaigns aimed at the slacker male 14-35 demographic, so Tylers' involvement is no surprise to me. But, seriously Burger King, if you really wanna sell food to people, don't make me look at the twisted, puppet like wrinkled visage of this old, tired, child-molesting rapist. It turns the stomach just as badly as most of your other ads. I would sooner eat my own intestines out of my body then give one dime to Burger King, but involving Tyler just makes me wanna wretch. Don't give these fuckers your money. They hate women. They hate women more than most other fast food chains do. Fuck Burger King and Fuck Steven Tyler. I'm gonna go eat some delicious raw vegan ice cream just to wash the taste of this horror outta my mouth. See you all soon!

P.S. I'm not posting a link to the commercial. If you're really that desperate to see it, go Google yourself a bad time.

That's All I Can Stands, I Can't Stands No More

Okay, seeing as I've been gone for about a bajillion years and I've had lots time to think about this, here we go. Today the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (with whom I don't normally have beef) decided that genital surgery isn't required for a man to be legally recognized as a woman.

Whoooooops, Ithoughtforaminuteyoumadeareallystupidfuckingdescisionthere.

Oh, wait, you did. Now, I'm probably the least qualified person ever to weigh in on the trans debate, but shit. Let me say this right now, and forevermore: penises do NOT belong in the ladies' room. Are we clear on that? I don't care if you, man, like Shania Twain, feel like a woman, you're not. Especially if you're still holding onto the ol' doodle down there. Look, I don't think that all trans women (that's men who wanna be recognized as women, right? Somebody correct me if I'm fucking up) mean direct and inherent harm to real women, but with the seemingly endless fucking demand that they be allowed carte blanche access to any and all womens' spaces, whether or not they've rid themselves of the organ that makes them most obviously male, is scary as all hell in my mind. Men, raised in the patriarchy are taught, either directly or indirectly, that the penis is a weapon. The penis as weapon is used to harm and threaten and control the female population, while at the same time reminding the male of his superiority to those that lack the penis. Do I have to repeat it? I will anyways: penises do NOT belong in the ladies' room.

This decision is all stemming from some dude, who is of course remaining nameless (he is still a dude, after all), who had his testes removed, but not his penis, and thinks that the law and all those under it should now believe that he is woman, hear him roar. So, what's the logic here? If we use the penis-as-weapon analogy again, one could liken the penis to a gun, and argue that without the testes the gun is 'unloaded', and therefore useless as a weapon, as it cannot perform the function it was designed to.

I choose: Strongly Disagree

For the penis-as-weapon is not a gun, nor a knife, nor a club, nor a grenade. To women, the penis-as-weapon is all of these things and more, and whether or not it can perform one or more of it's biological functions is mutually exclusive to the fact that it's very presence can cause great harm to women. A man who does not produce sperm in his semen or who has lowered levels of testosterone due to the removal of the testes is NOT and CANNOT be defined as a man that will not rape, simply because his penis does not perform all of its' normal operations. A man with a penis is still a man with a penis that was raised in a patriarchal rape-culture. Whether he believes he is a woman or not is by and large irrelevant to the fact that he poses a threat to the women whose space he wants access to, due to the way he was brought up to interact with women in the rape-culture.

Anyways, back to the article. A Toronto-based Trans Lobby Group said in a statement it was "thrilled" with the ruling.

“Requiring sexual reassignment surgery is differential treatment based upon a personal characteristic, that is, that trans people are treated differently, and face harassment and discrimination when their legal documents do not match how they present in their everyday lives.” said Susan Gapka, chair of the Trans Lobby Group.

I don't doubt that trans-folk are treated differently. Nor do I doubt that they face harassment, discrimination or even violence. I would not be so crass as to suggest this. I do believe that there may be out there one or more men that truly believe that they are women. That have no negative agenda in their trans-ness. That these individuals would not claim to 'know what it's like to be a woman' as they were not born as females and, in their pursuit of becoming the opposite sex, would gladly rid themselves of their male genitalia. However, from the research I've done about the trans movement, these individuals I just hypothesized about are clearly not the visible majority. Or the visible minority. Or hell, even the invisible minority. There ain't enough of them to make much of an argument, amidst all the dudes demanding to work in rape crisis centres and talk of 'cotton ceilings', topics which many of the other blogs on my sidebar have already covered very completely. I'm seeing the trans-movement drawing too many parallels to the MRA movement these days. Trans-women calling out lesbians that don't want to sleep with folks that have penises. Shit, that's kinda at the crux of what being a lesbian is all about, you know? Speaking as a heterosexual MAAB (and I hope this doesn't come off sounding stupid), I wouldn't wanna sleep with someone that has a penis, either, even if they do believe that they're a woman.

And, is believing enough? To a man who 'becomes' a woman in his teens, or his twenties or his thirties or whenever, is just the mere belief that he's a woman going to undo years of patriarchal brainwashing? Can he ever really understand what it's like to be a woman in today's society, even if he, say, reads all the back issues of Cosmo? Of fucking course not. A man, raised with male privilege and used to solving problems with male privilege (or male violence) will never be able to truly think like a woman. Not a real woman, anyways, maybe just one of those caricatures you see in television sitcoms.

Just like you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, you can't be a woman if you have a penis. I know it's not actually up to me to make that decision in society, but that's how I feel. I'm not trying to shit on anyone's dreams, but it's biological science, dudes! We're not clownfish. We can't just become one sex or the other over the course of our lives as a natural function. As humans we're born male or female and our genitalia are clear indicators of which. If being 100 % female was really on the agenda, I think you'd want to lose the sausage, not just put on a lady-costume. And under-fucking-stand that to women born as women, the thought of some newly-minted faux lady pissing through a penis in the next stall is frightening. The womens' washroom is one of the only woman-only spaces women have ever gotten without much of a fight from MRA's (see: women-only gyms, etc.) Don't try to take that away from them. I don't know where trans-people are supposed to piss once they're 100% post-op. But, I'll say this one last fucking time: penises do NOT belong in the ladies' room.

"The Worlds' Oldest Profession"

If one does any amount of research and applies the least bit of critical thinking to said research on the subject of prostituted women (and women that appear in various forms of pornography) then one will find that, time and time again, 99.9% of them don't fucking want to be there. Indeed the vast majority of prostituted and offered up women, a majority so huge that it might as well be an absolute, are there against their will, either forced by a person, persons, or the pressures of a society set up to objectify, commercialize and destroy women. So, when I hear the tired old phrase "The World's Oldest Profession" it makes my fucking blood boil. I've stated before I'll only use the term prostituted women here because terms like 'sex-trade worker', even though I'm told they're politically correct, still make it seem like these women choose this life of their own volition, which as I've said, is utter fallacy.

So, if prostitution isn't the world's oldest profession, what is? Well, how about slave trader, or what they're commonly called these days, a pimp? Indeed, since women were barred from officially working for so long (that is, because men decided that waitressing, teaching, nursing and mothering aren't real jobs), how could the worlds' oldest profession be one that is so dominated by women and girls, even to this day? No, prostitution is not a career, not a job, not an industry. But the ownership and exploitation of women and children, THAT'S the worlds' oldest profession right there. The first paragraph of Wikipedia's definition of the history of slavery goes like this:

The history of slavery covers slave systems in historical perspective in which one human being is legally the property of another, can be bought or sold, is not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved. As Drescher (2009) argues, "The most crucial and frequently utilized aspect of the condition is a communally recognized right by some individuals to possess, buy, sell, discipline, transport, liberate, or otherwise dispose of the bodies and behavior of other individuals. "An integral element is that children of a slave mother automatically become slaves. It does not include historical forced labor by prisoners, labor camps, or other forms of unfree labor in which laborers are not considered property.

So, that's right. Humans that own other humans. When a human is the property of another. When a human can be bought and sold. When a human can't escape and must perform the work without a choice being offered. That sounds like prostituted women. They're not the workers. Workers have rights. The owners, the pimps are the workers. The women are the product. Bought and used by all the johns of the world. But yet, the onus is still put on them. They carry on the "worlds' oldest profession" even though they have no say in it. It's bullshit. Is the horse called "the worlds' oldest vehicle"? Of course not. A horse is a horse is a horse, of course (unless his name is Mr. Ed). So, why this rhetoric, this catch phrase about prostituted women?

Well, no fucking doy, dude. It's because it benefits men. If the rhetoric goes that women choose this life, and that they have chosen this life since time immemorial, then it becomes so much easier for everyone to just let shit slide. All womens' lives are at risk in one way or another because of prostitution and pornography. But, most people don't give it a second thought. Because they're told it's just "the worlds' oldest profession", that "it's gone on for years, and it'll go on forever", that "women just charge a fee for what men really want" and blah blah fucking bullshit ass blah blah barf.

The next time you hear that old bullshit about the "worlds' oldest profession" tell whatever dumbass fucker who's saying it that the true oldest profession is that of the pimp, or slave trader, and see what they fucking say. Prostitution and pornography is slavery. Just because something's been around forever, doesn't mean it should be allowed to continue, or that if it's ignored it'll go away. The more prostitution and pornography are normalized in society, the less safe spaces women will have. Legalization is not the key. Abolition is. 

Oh Yes, Legalization Would Make This All Better

(That's a sarcastic title, hope it came off that way)

There's a killer on the streets of the nation's capital. Way back in December, Ottawa police chief Vern White did prostituted women a real solid and tipped them off to what they already knew. There is an escalating pattern of violence against prostituted women in Ottawa. The number of not surprisingly unsolved murders of prostituted women in the last few years has risen sharply. Don't believe me? Let me put some humanity on this issue for you, then.

Kelly Morrisseau was found dead in a parking lot near Gatineau Park in 2006.  The body of Jennifer Stewart was discovered at a Vanier parking lot on 120 Alice Street in August, 2010. And most recently, Leeann Lawson was found in September this year in a Lower Town parking lot.

See? Real people, with real names and real faces that had real stories and real lives. Now they're gone. So, it's nice to hear that the police stepped in and asked that prostituted women report their "bad dates" (OPP's words, not mine) and make use of all the resources this great land makes available to them.

Fast forward to today. Nobody's been apprehended for any of the murders. The streets are still increasingly unsafe for prostituted women. The police are still making it seem like there's only one bad dude out there killing these women. As if to say "Oh shit, don't worry ladies, once we get this clown, everything'll be hunky-dory and back to normal!"

But, none of that REALLY helps these women on the streets. They're out there because for all the talk of increased police patrols, the option to report "bad dates" and occasional access to support workers, there are no fucking exit programs. These women are being killed because they're on the streets, both literally and figuratively. The legalization of prostitution would not save these women. Getting them indoors, into legally run brothels, even with panic buttons and the like would not save their lives. I've said it before: No one has ever been beaten or raped or murdered by a street.

These poor, frightened, vulnerable women don't want to be out there. This isn't a fucking lifestyle choice anyone ever wants to make and I'm so fucking sick of that argument. I haven't exactly done a study, but I'll bet the fucking farm that 110% of young girls don't dream about becoming a stripper or a prostitute when they grow up. Childhood sexual abuse, abduction, poverty, addictions, SOCIETY... they make the choice for these women. And men, with their constant demand ensure that choice will always be there. Men and patriarchal society make it so damn easy for women to have no choice but to turn to this lifestyle of abuse (when they're not forcing women into it themselves), just like they make it so fucking hard for anyone to ever leave. It's a trap, and dudes know it, even if they won't admit it.

Making it seem like only one "bad" john is out there is so fucking ridiculous. Quick tip: if you're a john, and that means if you've purchased a woman, ever, on the street, at a massage parlor, in a strip club, via the internet, on DVD, in a magazine, what the fuck ever; you are a bad fucking person. You are capable of despicable, heinous violence because you've already taught yourself how to turn a human being into a meaningless commodity. Johns are killers. The act of purchasing a woman hurts her, harms her, kills her, over and over again in a way that no man can fully understand. Anyone who engages in the degrading and purchasing of human lives is a dangerous individual.

Getting one rough dude off the streets won't save prostituted women. Legalizing prostitution won't save prostituted women. Criminalizing the johns would certainly help, but it's only the first step. The demand has to cease. Or something else has got to change, drastically. While I don't think female separatism is a bad idea, I don't think dudes would be very down with it, and would probably try their damnedest to wreck any happy lady-only communes that sprung up. But, something's got to give. Women are in constant danger, and none more so than prostituted women. People need to start thinking about how to save the lives of these many human beings, not about getting their goddamn rocks off.

Am I Still Here? Yes.

Sorry for the absence, folks. The computer went down and it took the tech might of my awesomely talented partner to get it up and running again. I cheered her on. It was super cool.

Anyways, this blog should be back up and running at its' normal level of inefficiency by next week proper.

To tide you all over, remember it's absolutely okay to crack Steven Tyler upside the dome should you pass him on the street. Why?

I'm a weird lookin' plastic rapist!

Do you really need for me to give you any more reasons than that?

Who I Hate #4

Haven't done one of these in a while, and this one might actually be the most relevant of the series thus far (excluding, of course, my numerous rants on why I hate Steven Tyler).

Who do I hate?

Hugo Schwyzer

Image found at https://www.facebook.com/SayNoToHugo

So, if you don't know who this fucking shithead is, I'll give you a quick rundown. Hugo here is an instructor of gender studies and history at Pasadena City College. He blogs a lot too, at his own shitty blog, at the "Good Men Project", at the ever-disappointing (and misogynist!) Huffington Post and, for whatever reason this was allowed, at Jezebel. He co-organized the Los Angeles Slutwalk and wrote some shitty books that I won't bother to mention. When he's not busy with all of that, you'll probably find Hugo pretending to be the epitome of a male feminist, raping his female students, writing columns about how anal rape and facials are great for women and men(but mostly men) or trying to kill his ex-girlfriend in a drug-fueled rage.

Hugo's a snake. That's about the mildest way it can be put. He poses as an ally to women, but in reality he is a huge misogynist, has no respect for women or womens' spaces and derives great pleasure from the perpetuation and normalization of humiliating, degrading and harmful male-centric sexual practices against women. Anyone with an ounce of awareness can see right through his bullshit, but the problem is that the real feminist viewpoint gets shushed by the media and leaves only dickheads like Hugo to speak to the masses. Hugo is the perfect reason that women should be extra wary of men. He is the reason that womens' separatism makes sense. He IS the reason that men should not be able to infiltrate womens' spaces.

I don't even know what more to say about this pile of shit. He's the fucking worst. I wish only the worst things in the world upon him. I worry that this post might sound a bit hypocritical to some, me being a male myself, calling myself a feminist and shitting all over this dude. None of you readers (if there are any of you out there) know me at all. You'd be forgiven for wondering what the difference between myself and Schwyzer is. But I hate him so fucking much. How dare he lecture women on feminist ethics and patriarchal culture?!?! He exploited young women for sex. His students. He held a position of power over them and used it to rape them. Does no one see that as just a tad wrong? Doesn't that at least call for the repossession of his "#1 Male Feminist" coffee mug? Fuck! How does this fucker still have a job, a teaching job,  a teaching job where he teaches about womens' issues like he has a fucking goddamn CLUE about them!!! All the while writing pro-pornography articles like they're going out of style. He just makes me so damn sick and sad.

Hugo Schwyzer, I hate you so very, very fucking much.

(Minor) Inquiry Update 3

RCMP could have done more in Pickton probe

Yeah. No shit.

However, it's not like the VPD did any better on their side of the investigation. At least the fact that both the RCMP and VPD were wasting their time squabbling with each other, rather than arresting a serial rapist and murderer has come to light. Although, no one really seems to be paying attention to that. So, I'm just going to save everyone a lot of trouble and lay out what happened right here:

Both police forces knew Pickton was guilty. Both police forces couldn't give two shits about the victims. Both police forces had separate but equal information that could've led to a timelier arrest of Robert Pickton. However, I believe each police force wanted the other force to do all the work, without the sharing of each of their respective information and each force wanted credit for the collar, even if they weren't the ones who actually caught the bad guy. So, the endless fighting between municipal and federal police let Pickton rape and murder forty-nine women before he was caught. And the police still don't care about the victims. They just want to come out of this looking as good as they possibly can. And they most likely will. The longer this inquiry goes on for, the less media attention it will receive and eventually the populace at large will forget about this case altogether, until the conclusion of the inquiry, whereupon one or two people will get a slap on the wrist and the VPD and RCMP can go back to ignoring crime against women as usual.

Fuck all of you officers who were too busy worrying about your egos and reputations, and not giving the slightest shit about the growing number of dead and missing prostituted women in your midst.

This Can Only End Well

A while back I wrote about one Brad Trost, a Conservative MP who thought that the Conservatives weren't being Conservative enough when it came to the issue of abortion. As you may recall, Trost was one of the leading characters in the defunding of Planned Parenthood's Canadian arm. Which is what I thought about when I read this.

It's happening here, too. All of those things that everyone wants to believe are only happening in the backwards, hick-ass, bible-belt southern United States are starting to happen up here in Canada. Abortion clinics are being closed all over the place. Wait times are unbelievable. Sometimes, a woman might have to travel to another city to have an abortion. And now, Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth would like to redefine when a fetus is considered to be a full-fledged human being, complete with rights that supersede the rights of the woman carrying said fetus. And, in a textbook case of 'no fucking shit they did', the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada was all 'Fuckin'-A right on, Stephan!'. So, yet another Conservative MP challenging Harpers' as-of-yet unbroken promise to not reopen the abortion debate. Only this gets worse, because as we've seen down in the States, when fetuses get rights, abortion becomes murder, not only in the eyes of evangelical types, but in the eyes of the law, as well. Women who abort their pregnancies, or even miscarry can be charged with a crime, fined or jailed. Don't think for a minute it won't happen here, too.

As stated, Woodworth has beef with the current definition of when a fetus becomes human, and is leading the charge to have the law redefined. He says the current law defining a human being dates back to centuries-old English common law and Parliament has a responsibility to lead a debate on whether it's time to rewrite it. Quote Woodworth:

"Our definition of human being says that a child does not become a human being until the moment of complete birth,"

Ever notice how these dudes seem to hate centuries-old laws when they give women and children any sort of autonomy (which is rare enough), but they got no problem following the centuries-old laws in their magic-bible-storytimebooks? Ah religious types, you infuriate me to no fucking end. Seriously, a caterpillar ain't a butterfly until it busts outta that fucking cocoon, and a baby isn't a baby until it's born. It can't order a pizza in the womb, it can't vote and it can't actually exercise any other rights these evangelical dipshits want to give it. And nobody's being fooled. Joyce Arthur, spokeswoman for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada knows exactly what's up. Quoth her:

"When the anti-abortion movement says they want to reopen the debate, it means they want to recriminalize abortion. That's really what it's about," 

"When you're talking about giving rights to fetuses, essentially, which is what they're talking about here, obviously that is going to impact abortion rights."

So, yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking, too. Shit is getting bad, folks. I saw this coming. There's a butt-ton of Conservative MP's out there who want abortion to be a criminal offense again. And I believe that even if Harper doesn't reopen the debate, he thinks that if should be a criminal offense as well. These backbenchers will just keep coming out of the woodwork, probably on the Prime Ministers' orders and whipping the evangelicals into more of a frenzy than they're usually in. Evangelicals and pro-lifers are loud. And that's a problem. Because if they stay loud for long enough, well Harper might just decide that (much to his fake chagrin) he has to reopen the debate, if only to calm the masses. We have to get the Conservatives out of power in the next election. Speak for womens' rights with your votes. Support womens' safety with your votes. I know the next election is a long way off, but get organized now. Talk to people, get them on board. If you're not a voter, or not registered, do it. Religious people, racists and sexists are already mad good at voting. That's why so much of this shit happens. So, if anyone like-minded is reading this, and you're NOT at the very least voting against the bad guys, then please, I implore you to get active to at least this level. You'll be happy you did. And you've got time to do it. Now is the time, before things can get any worse.

Potential Of Womens' Only Cabs In NB Gets Dudes MAD!!!!

Not the most graceful post title to be sure, but I'm supposed to be on vacation here, anyways. So, let's get right to it. As usual, here's the link to the CBC story. I'll give you the skinny. This dude in Saint John, David Barnes, realizes that for some women, getting into a cab with a dudely driver can be a scary thing. You're in an enclosed environment with a dude you don't know for an undefined period of time. Alone. No duh that gives lots of women the willies. Especially when you consider how common sexual assault by cab drivers is. So, this dude isn't a feminist. He isn't trying to make a statement. He just noticed how female-only cabs seem to have caught on over in Europe, and probably wants to make a buck or two doing it over here. Because there's nothing like a dude cashing in on the fact that women are afraid of men to really make you aware of the "feminized society" that we live in.

And then there's the comments. And they are BAD. Apparently, just the thought, the mere mention of possibly, maybe, sometime, somewhere starting a female-only cab service in this country is equatable with passing a law that it's now legal to shoot dudes' dicks off after five on Thursdays. Dudes are up in fucking arms about how "misandric" this new service would be. "It'd put male cab drivers out of business!" "How's a dude supposed to get home if the cabs are only picking up chicks?" "You know, one time, Karla Homolka killed a dude, so that proves that dudes aren't the only violent ones!" You know the kind of bullshit that gets spouted by the MRA fucks that mostly populate the CBC comment threads.

But, there was one comment I read that really made my skin crawl and made me realize just what kind of heartless, depraved FUCKWADS are shitting on womens' issues on the CBC. It was a reply to a comment made by someone called FatherJones. (As an aside FatherJones, like Mother Jones? If so, I think that's kinda neat.) Anyways, Jones says:

A dear friend of mine was badly beaten and sexually assaulted by a cab driver. It's sadly not that uncommon. The police didn't really do anything and acted like she deserved it because she had been drinking. It's not just the drivers make women feel unsafe, it's knowing there will be no justice if something does happen that compiles it.

To which one FrancoPwned (lame, dude, just fucking lame) replies:

I say links to the news story or I didn't happen.

And, of course, all the other little misogynists on the CBC just back this dude up wholeheartedly. And all I can think is "... wow, just fucking wow. So THIS is what it's come to." And what if a link was provided? I'm sure this dude would've found some other reason to call Jones a liar. But, he doesn't get what he's really doing here. Because that's the power of dudely dudes. If they want to make something that happened go away, then they just collectively don't believe it. And, poof! It's gone. That's how the legal system works, isn't it? Because no one ever gets convicted! The rapists always get away with it! Jones tells an anecdotal story to illustrate just why women's-only cabs are a good idea, something terrible that happened to his dear friend (or perhaps more, maybe his spouse, maybe his daughter, who knows if he's protecting the victim's identity) and FrancoFuk'd there shits all over it. Because in his mind, that story can't be true. If it were, well that would ruin all his logical dudely arguments, so false it must be! And, true to form, other dudes come out of the woodwork to back him up. And what does that mean? That means that FatherJones, and potentially his dear friend that was assaulted, have to relive all the pain of that incident as well as the pain of probably not being believed the first time around. And Franco just thinks he's fighting the good fight.

Well, I say fuck that. I say that dudes ARE fucking scary, and I don't blame any woman that doesn't want to get into a cab with one, or sit next to one on a bus, or get into an empty elevator with one, or whatever else. I mean, I am a fucking dude, and I'm still scared of them a good ninety-nine percent of the time. So, me, I'm all for women's-only cabs. And women's-only gyms. And whatever else. And I don't think it's "misandric", I think it's just fucking smart. Dudes are shitty. Ladies, stay away from them whenever you can, however you can until you're damn sure that they're safe. And even then, keep your keys handy. Let the hate mail begin. See you all in 2012.

Crappy Holidays, One And All!!!

I hate this time of year. So, so very much. I don't know where to begin. Let's see, the rampant celebration of consumerism and the masses spiraling themselves into debt, the fake goodwill to all, the extra doses of religioness shoved down my throat... it goes on and on. So, I'm ducking and covering, folks. Don't expect much outta me until after New Years. Until then, one and all. Stay safe and stay angry.

Heroic Dude A Hero! Status Of Victim and Attacker Unimportant...

If you read Canadian news by major metropolitan area (i.e. Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto etc.) rather than just reading a country-wide overview, you can find some pretty surprising stories, more often than not, more in line with what the general populace would and should need to know about. I mean, there's also a lot of local fluff pieces, but a lot of the time, the country-wide headlines don't tell you about what you really need to know. I like using the nation's capital as an example, because in terms of sucking, it really sucks. On many, many levels. One of those levels is Ottawas' public transit system, O.C. Transpo. O.C. Transpo is in the Ottawa news just about every day. They run the most expensive public transit system in the country (twelfth in the world, I believe) and deliver some of the worst service in the entire country as well. Apparently, their union has a stranglehold on the mayor's office and subsequently, on Ottawas' transit-riding populace. Most Ottawa citizens that have ever taken a city bus are worse off for it, and the drivers threaten the city with strikes on a yearly basis, while fare rates are increased twice to thrice per year.

I'm not anti-union. But, there ARE corrupt unions out there. It seems to me, that over in Ottawa, O.C. Transpo's one of them.

But, this post isn't about how shitty Ottawa's public transit is. No, this is about how an Ottawa bus driver is being touted as a hero for really, from what it sounds like, doing the bare minimum to help a woman in trouble. The story can be found here, but I'll run it down for you anyways.

On October 4th, bus driver Michel Laurin was gearing up to start his route. While heading to his bus or whatever, he came across a young woman who had just been beaten, raped and robbed and was lying on the ground, just outside the car in which her assailant was still sitting. Being a heroic dude of dudely action, Laurin yelled at the woman to "come to me, to get out of the way." From a safe distance, of course. The attacker, realizing he'd been spotted, fled the scene. Laurin caught the license plate number and called the cops. Let me digress for one second here.

Laurin's an older dude, judging by his picture. I guess I shouldn't expect that he'd rush the car, rip the door off its' hinges and beat the shit out of the rapist. And, sticking around to help, getting the license plate number and calling the cops is more than a lot of people would've done. A lot of people would've just walked on by, ignored the situation, not gotten involved. That's not my beef with this story. Laurin did the right thing. Does that make him a hero? Or, did he just do something human? I don't know if it's for me to decide. I'm not tooting this dudes' horn, I'm just trying to report the facts as I understand them.

Anyways, so the cops showed up, took the info and presumably got the woman to a hospital, but I don't know, because that's where the story stops giving a shit about her. And her assailant, who apparently hasn't been caught yet, even though the cops have his plate number. No, the status of the attacker and victim both are unknown, but what I do know is that apparently Michel Laurin is a honest to goodness hero for calling the cops. He got an award. And the transit union of Ottawa is using this story to get positive publicity for their otherwise hated bus drivers. Isn't that nice? That woman could've died from her injuries and we have no fucking idea. Because what this story is saying is: that's not the real story here. The REAL story is one of dudely heroics and quick-man-thinking! The writer should be fucking ashamed! Who the fuck uses a brutal rape and beating as a goddamn backdrop to an "extraordinary citizen" piece?!?!

Only one or two of the comments pick up on this line of thinking. Most people are too busy metaphorically patting this dude on the back to wonder what happened to the victim, or why the police haven't caught the rapist, or why it took two and a half MONTHS for anyone to hear about this assault in the first place. It's depressing. The news media is oftentimes guilty of the objectification of women, but to turn a human's tragedy into a pedestal upon which to shine the spotlight on a 'hero' who's only act of heroism should be considered basic human decency and to not even follow up on her (the victims') condition in the aftermath of all of this is just reprehensible. But, it happens all the time in the news. If something happens, and both men and women are involved, the bulk of the coverage will be spent on the men, while the women will be reduced to mere sidebar mentions. Unless, of course, they're just shown as whatever photos some pervert decided to take from their Facebook pages.

The long and short of it is, the news, like most every other form of media in today's world, still views men as more important than women, still views women as mere objects for the servitude and gratification of men and will shirk proper coverage of stories to either glorify the men they deem 'heroic' or dehumanize women who would otherwise be human beings.

Yet Another Example Of Why Most Everybody Sucks

I've stated before that I usually don't write about U.S. politics, due to my lack of knowledge about differences between Canadian/U.S. legal and electoral systems. However, here's something I think I have a grasp well enough on to make some snide remarks. Here goes:

Hey, has anyone here heard of Herman Cain?

Yup, I'm talking about THAT Herman Cain. Republican presidential candidate and full-time rapist Herman Cain. Misogynist extraordinaire Herman Cain. First ever "Second Black President" Herman Cain. You know the dude. He's been in the news a bit lately. Seems over the years ol' Herman raped a woman or twelve. Oh, excuse me, sexually assaulted. That's what they're calling it, right? No, oh sorry, sexually harassed. 'Cuz... he didn't... or the rules are... or something. Anyways, there's a big thirteen year extramarital affair hanging over his head now, too. Hoo-wee! Herman, he sure loves the ladeez, amirite? However, one would think hope that due to all these fairly blatant crimes he's committed against women, his approval rating would be falling faster than R.I.M. shares (zing!). But, you'd be wrong. Because Herman Cain is claiming a "groundswell" of support in the face of these many, many accusations against his character. Yes, a groundswell. Whatever the fuck that is. This guy gropes women left, right and center and has been cheating on his wife with a steady mistress for thirteen years and people still fucking love him! What the fucking fuck?

It's so damn depressing sometimes, because if Herman Cain had been a female candidate (especially a democrat, you better believe it) people would be hanging him (her?) out to dry. To be fair, I suppose his approval rating has actually dropped some since all these stories started breaking, but not nearly enough. And he continues his campaign! He believes that he's done nothing wrong! He still thinks he can be president! What the hell? I heard he even tried to head off this affair business by saying something along the lines of "I won't say who, but someone is going to come forward and say something nasty about me. So don't believe it." What are we here, five? "Mom, Dad, you might hear some things about me and your broken lamp in the next little while. Now, I'm not gonna say who from, but I'm here to tell you, whatever you hear, don't believe it." Uh-huh. Nothing inspires trust like asking for blind faith in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. Well, it works for Jesus, I guess.

The thing that really sucks, though, is that people still support Herman Cain. People (mostly dudes, duh) are so quick to accuse the victims of Cains' attacks (and that's what they were, attacks, make no mistake) of grubbing for the camera, looking for their fifteen minutes, trying to get rich quick, all while ignoring the fact that no woman has ever gotten rich or famous (infamous, maybe, to dudely dudes) in this way. Herman Cain is a misogynist, therefore he has the support of all other misogynists. There's a code, a bro code amongst woman-haters. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some dudes started to like Cain because of all the accusations. And that's just so fucking scary I can barely deal with it. The more you hate women, the more dudes like you. What the fuck kind of society is this? How can anyone look you in the eye and tell you that it's not an oppressive, misogynist fucking patriarchal empire while looking at the smug-ass grin on Herman Cains' oh-so-guilty-but-getting-away-with-it face? Cain says these allegations are just a smear campaign cooked up by his competitors to attack his character, reputation and name, but he doesn't "believe that America is going to let that happen."

Unfortunately, I think I agree with him on that.

The Male Definition of 'Honor' Seems Lacking...

Honor killings. You've probably heard of them. If not, to summarize, honor killing is a practice in which men defend their "personal honor" and the honor of their family name by killing their female relations if and when they step outta line. Although the numbers fluctuate depending on your source, anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 women and girls are killed (honorably) every year. To drive the point home, here's the currently accepted definition of honor killing, from the group Human Rights Watch:

Honor killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.

 This is a practice that is alive and thriving today, all over the world. It happens "there", in the uncivilized nations that lack our "compassion, understanding and humanity" and it happens here, in our own neighborhoods. While men technically can be the victim of an honor killing, I'd like to point out that:

1) While it is agreed that minimum 5,000 women and girls are killed in the name of honor per year, the number of males killed for honor is nowhere near that, hovering somewhere around 200-250 per year.

2) There is virtually no evidence to show that a heterosexual male has ever been killed in the name of honor, even though they could be killed by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship.

So, as you can see, honor killings happen to women and girls, and sometimes homosexual men, but mostly women and girls. Which brings us to this. Four females are dead. An honor killing is suspected. There is a virtual fucking mountain of evidence, forensic and otherwise, to implicate the father, Mohammad Shafia and his other child, his male child, Hamid Mohammad Shafia in their deaths. His (Mohammad senior's) current wife, Tooba Mohammad Yehya is also implicated in the crimes, but if the beatings and threats that Shafias' first wife and daughters faced paint any picture, it would seem that Yehya would have had little choice whether to be involved or not.

The girls were routinely beaten and threatened. They lived in constant fear of their father and brother. Youth protection had been called on more than one occasion. The eldest daughter, Zainab Shafia, had run away and both of the other two girls had repeatedly told authorities they were afraid and wanted to leave the family home. And then, they all wind up dead, with their mother in the car, just days after someone had used the family computer to Google things like "where to commit a murder" and "bodies of water".

The trial is already underway. The plaintiffs have all plead "not guilty". Mohammad Shafia wants to know if this happened because his daughters were "drugged or choked" even though the autopsies performed twelve hours after the drownings have detected no drugs or signs of choking. I believe he thinks he can get away with this. I believe he does not care that his daughters and first wife are dead. I believe that he did not think that they were human enough to live and now thinks that he should not be punished, but oh, these pesky backwards Canadian laws! His crocodile tears and false act of postmortem concern don't fucking fool me for a second. I smell a rat. And I'd smell one even without the skyscraper's worth of evidence pointing the finger straight at daddy dearest.

The scariest thing is, honor killings seem to be on the rise in Canada. This seems to be common knowledge but, and here's the real kicker, no one really seems to be doing anything about it. Just like the neighborhood that just knows that Mr. Johnson down the street simply couldn't be a pedophile (!), everyone seems to think that they'd know if there were honor killings going on in their neighborhood, and since there obviously aren't, well it's not their problem, is it? Ask most white Canadians and they'll tell you "well, that's, like, an Arab thing, right? So, like, I don't really, like, think about it or whatever." But, no. Because even if it is an "Arab thing" or an "East Indian thing" or a "Whatever other group thing", if dudes keep getting away with it, other men will start to notice. And when they do, what's to stop it from becoming a "Mormon thing" or a "Jewish thing" or even a "Catholic thing"? And if that happens, well, then it just becomes a "normal thing" and women and girls are even more fucked in the Western World than they already are now.

There should be no leniency on those found guilty of committing honor killings. If your precious fucking "honor" is really more important than a real human life to you, then you should be locked up forever, having no contact with the outside world, especially those you consider yourself superior to. The concept of dudely honor is fucked anyways, in that dudes have honor, and the women in their lives reinforce that honor by being pure. But, according to the tenets of dudely honor, ladies have no honor, they're just things with which you prove your honor to other dudes. And if another dude gets your lady-honor-marker-thing dirty, well you get rid of that dirty lady-thing, right? I mean, forget about the dude that brutalized your female relative, she's damaged goods, man! How's that going to make you look to the brothers down at the lodge? Oh, and P.S.: fuck you, dude.

The bottom line is, that if only men can have honor, ladies can never be safe. And since dudes are never going to let women be honored or honorable in the same way as men are, the whole concept of familial honor has to go. Now. Today, preferably. Because if not, this won't be the last time women and girls are dredged up out of the Kingston river in the name of "honor".

Laziness, Nimbostratus Style

Don't really feel like writing a proper post today, but here's a few articles that've caught my eye. Feel free to engage in such activities like clicking on links, reading articles and coming back here to discuss.


Teens in superhero garb confront online predators

Benetton pulls ad with Pope kissing imam

RCMP harassment claims to be investigated

I'll have something longer and better written soon, folks! Thanks for putting up with the spotty posting as of late (as of always). 

Inquiry Update 2

Here's a surprising fact: Robert Pickton was the Vancouver Police Forces' top suspect during his rape and killing spree. But, while the police were sure that Pickton was committing the crimes he was, in fact, committing, they felt he was "out of their jurisdiction". It seems that the farm Pickton occupied and took the women to, before he and his associates raped and murdered them is in Port Coquitlam, which is RCMP territory. Nevermind that the Vancouver police had numerous credible tips and eyewitness accounts, that farm just wasn't in their jurisdiction. So, what did they do? Well, they instead chose to pursue other potential suspects who resided in their jurisdiction... for four fucking years. That's right. Pickton topped the suspect list of the Vancouver PD in goddamn 1998!

What the fuck?!

The Vancouver Police are pointing the finger at the RCMP. The RCMP are pointing right back at the VCPD. Who the fuck is to blame here? Well, the Vancouver Police have a long and storied history of unwarrented violence, especially against homeless or impoverished women, which is what most if not all of the prostituted women that Pickton killed were. As for the RCMP, don't they care enough about prostituted women in danger to nab a suspected killer in due time? Oh, that's right, the RCMP hates women, too. So, to recap, that's two separate police forces, all not giving a shit about women disappearing off the streets, for their own special reasons. But, it goes even deeper than that, because once again, patriarchal society is to blame. When you grow up and live in a world that not only looks down on women as a whole, but looks down on some women even more because of what they do to survive, without even taking into account the circumstances that may have forced these women into this horrible, nightmarish lifestyle, then it becomes plain to see that prostituted women are doomed from the start. Even if they're not murdered, or contract a deadly disease, or overdose on drugs to escape the pain of life.

I want to point out that the term should be "prostituted women" instead of "sex workers" because the latter denotes some type of choice. The former shows that women are always, in one way or another, forced into sexual slavery at the hands of men. I'm so sick of hearing the "but some women choose to do it!" argument, because even if it is true, even if somewhere out there is one self-employed prostitute who has nothing but wonderful things to say about her job while she sits in her mansion and drives a Ferrari (which is how the story usually goes, just ask a dude), that doesn't make up for the billions upon billions that are forced into sexual slavery against their will.

But, I digress. I guess what I was trying to say is that police hate prostituted women. Police look down on victims, on the people that they're supposed to protect. Prostituted women go missing by the truckload, but instead of going to catch the guy who's taking the women, the police squabble about who's in charge of the jurisdiction that the murderer resides in, not wanting to step on anyone's toes, of course. And the squabble goes on for fucking years. And what does the rapist-murderer do while no one is busy arresting him? Well, he kills forty-nine women, that's what he does. Forty-nine women that could have been saved, but the police decided that fucking jurisdiction trumps human life. How's that for a message to 51% of the countries' population? That's right, if you're already unlucky enough to be forced into prostitution, you'd better get raped and killed in the same town or county where that fucking john picked you up, or no one's ever gonna come looking for you. Or, evidently, for him, sayeth the VCPD and B.C. RCMP. No, but once the body count passes the magic number, once the stack of missing women posters just can't be ignored anymore, then maybe they'll get their shit together and catch the guy they knew was doing it all along.

To Serve And Protect.

Whatever, dudes.  

CBC: Canadas' Secret Misogyny Meetingplace?

Today, the CBC published an article which they've published before about Canadian women being politically stifled. No doy. I'm not going to point out the obvious here. In terms of equal representation in our major political parties, we're pathetic. We rank behind places such as Burundi, Latvia and Guyana, which are supposedly more backwards than the liberal, modern, equality-for-all-type haven Canada touts itself as. Look at who our leader is. This is on the verge of becoming a dead horse for me.

What I want to point out, however, is that every time the CBC posts an article that has anything to do with women's rights, equality or anything of the sort, these (presumably) white-dude trolls come out of the woodwork to shit all over it. Where do they all come from? Why do they all flock to the CBC? How do they have the time?

Listen to some of the few comments, unedited and in their original form, posted so far on this particular article:

Women are still considered an "under-represented" group by the federal public service yet they make up 55% to men at 45% a 10% difference and I was denied applying to a job a couple weeks ago because it was only open to women and other under-represented groups. I think this needs to change for one, gender equality should go both ways.

As to politics more women should run, perhaps men are more interested in politics thus more run? I vote for the best person, be it a woman or a man as fo most people now so the only issue I can see is getting more women interested in it.

 Says "Darexc". Here's a short but sweet one:

People vote for the best PERSON and that's how you get elected.

 Thanks "Kritterz" for that tired old fucking line of bullshit.

If you want to enter a trades program, as a women you can get full funding. Not as a man. Go figure.

 "DaleMartell" ignores most, if not all of the facts here. Nice one, dude.

so long as women have babies... this isn't going to change

good luck with that!

This gem posted by a dude with the handle of "Anti-Establishment". Just as an aside, what do you wanna bet that Mr."Anti-Establishment" just loves him some high-budget pornography? And then, there's the worst of what's posted so far:

Most women are smart enough not to get into politics that's why!

 You can thank a dude by the handle of "SayWhatThe" for that one. This is what I mean. And, to be truthful, these are pretty tame in comparison the blatant woman-bashing that usually goes on in the CBC comments. These comments are supposed to be moderated under strict guidelines ( found here) and if you'll look at what to always avoid as a commenter, let's see if you can spot anything that might be amiss:

Always avoid:

• Lengthy excerpts from other posts. We want to hear your own opinion.
• Racist, sexist and offensive language.
• Personal attacks and defamatory statements.
• Breaking copyright rules (that includes copying and pasting excerpts from other sites without permission and attribution).
• Violating someone’s privacy.
• Threats or suggesting committing a criminal act.
• Insensitive comments regarding the death or injury of private individuals, especially children.
• Posting your message in all CAPS (this makes it difficult to read and in online speak is considered yelling).
• Posting press releases and commercial promotions.

 Above boldface emphasis mine. However, the majority of comments I read on the CBC are racist, sexist and offensive, I have seen commenters post personal attacks against other commenters as well as post defamatory statements, and hardly anyone is civil. The policies clearly state that "If you violate any of these rules, then your comment will not be posted and your account may be suspended." But, some of these people post comment after comment after comment, even gaining the rank of so-called 'Trusted Members', which I interpret as meaning that their comments go unmoderated altogether. Who does this moderating? Why have these policies if they're so obviously ignored? Why do my posts never seem to make it through, even though they are NOT in violation of the commenting guidelines?

The CBC is touted as "liberal media" which is a bullshit label, I suppose, but would lead some to believe that they (the CBC) are more enlightened, more tolerant and that their readers/viewers would follow suit. Canada has many more Conservative media options than true liberal ones, but the CBC isn't really making the grade. I know that "liberal" is kind of an iffy term, in the sense that a lot of liberal dudes hate women just as much as conservative dudes, but what I mean to say is that I guess with Sun Media and the National Post and all the other crappy news sources out there, I want to expect more from the CBC. I want them to stand up for equality. I want them to at least enforce their fucking comment policy! I don't know if this is really an issue of the greatest importance, but it irks me to no fucking end whenever I go a-searching for news during the day. I guess it just goes to show that when dudes have the opportunity to talk shit about women, the venue just really doesn't fucking matter to them. And that's goddamn depressing. Because like I said, the comments I posted above are just the tip of the iceberg. I have read comments of a truly disturbing, threatening, disgusting, frightening and violent hateful nature on the CBC. I just don't know how most dudes can hate women so fucking much that they will derail a comment thread about a raped or murdered girl just to get their hateful point across. The backlash against women is getting stronger in this country every day. If this is the type of commentary we see in our "liberal media", then I'm even more afraid than ever about what the future holds.  

Inquiry Update

The inquiry into police procedures concerning the disappearance of forty-nine Vancouver women from the Downtown Eastside and their subsequent deaths at the hands of Robert Pickton continues today. I'll be keeping semi-regular tabs on the inquiry as it develops. The latest news is that the families of several victims will taking the stand to present their testimonies and deliver impact statements and the like in the coming hours and days. Perhaps the courts will be inclined to take greater action and have a closer look at police procedure upon hearing these testimonies. As I've stated before, it is in opinion at the very least that these women were allowed to go missing in such numbers due to not only the fact that they were prostituted women, but also that the majority of them were First Nations/Aboriginals. The police routinely treat women fitting this description from the Downtown Eastside with a disdain and callousness that brings their (the police officers') very humanity into severe doubt. More on this story as it develops.

I'd also like to provide a link to the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry website for those that are interested. This is the Commission that is spearheading this inquiry, and hopefully will inspire many other such necessary inquiries into the various police forces across this nation.

You're Fooling No One, So Quit It.

A young Ottawa boy, about the age of fifteen killed himself after being bullied relentlessly by his peers at school. This boy, Jamie Hubley, was bullied because he was gay. He was tormented for being a figure skater and being openly gay in high school. He battled depression until he could battle it no longer. The city mourns him. His family mourns him. And, the Conservative Party of Canada has decided to join Dan Savage's 'It Gets Better' campaign in this boys' honor.

Wait, what?

Yup, that's right John Baird (hate that guy), Vic Toews and Rona Ambrose among others star in a heartwarming video telling gay teens that although they might be bullied in high school, life gets better out in the real world. Because out in the real world you've got people like Vic Toews, who from 2003-2005 was relentlessly opposed to both Bill C-250, which protects homosexuals under hate crime legislation and to Canada recognizing gay marriage nationwide. He even launched an extended filibuster to delay committee work on the issue. Toews also argued that religious organizations should be permitted to deny gay individuals the use of their facilities.

You think someone like that should be giving out this kind of message? A message that, in time, the bullying will stop and you'll be in a land of wonderful tolerance and unlimited possibility? Toews, who we might as well just come out and say it: fucking hates homosexuals. And the rest of this Conservative crew that was apparently slapped together at a moments notice to star in this low-budget garbage fest probably aren't much better.

Sweet pepper relish, have you watched this shit? A bunch of Conservative MP's, all privileged as hell, droning on in their dead voices about how it gets better, so obviously cold-reading off cue cards because they can't say anything from the heart on this issue, repeating the same thing over and over and over, they couldn't even clear the fucking halls in the House of Commons for five minutes so you don't get all that fucking background noise? Is it nitpicky? Yes, but the poor production values make it look even less sincere, and makes it seem that these people just slapped this together to capitalize on what could potentially be good publicity. The message is delivered with less gusto than those old 'The More You Know' ads that used to run on NBC. You're dedicating this to someone who just took their own life after years of bullying and abuse! Can't you folks fucking just pretend to give a shit for five goddamn seconds? You can see it here for yourself.

They're really pushing the Kids Help Phone, too. Unfortunately, when you're in a situation where you really need really real help, the Kids Help Phone can't always do much for you. The Kids Help Phone can't stop people at your school from bullying you. The Kids Help Phone can't make your parents accept you for who you are. The Kids Help Phone can't promise you that 'It Gets Better' anymore than can Conservative MP's, some of whom if given the chance would make it worse for you, out there in the world after high school. Neither can Dan Savage, as a matter of fact. He can just tell you that if your partner likes to rape you, or slap you or shit on you and you don't much care for it, well, then you're a prude.

Maybe I'm being overly critical of this. I do tend to suspect ulterior motives when Conservative MP's do anything even close to human. It's mostly the gall of Vic Toews to even be in the video that gets me. I mean, did they just not tell him what it was for? However it happened, having a well-known homophobe tell LGBTQI youth that 'It Gets Better' seems just a final slap in the face to one youth that it never quite got better for.

The Four R's: Readin', Ritin', 'Rithmatic and Ridiculous Pro-Life Garbage.

Hey, just quick, really, right quick: When did shit in Manitoba get all fucked up beyond belief? Some jackpipe elementary school principal wants to give credits to students who attend pro-life rallies?

Well... I just... I mean... fuck.... so, if you.... and then you get a..... so..... and nobody thinks that this is....

Aw, fuck. I'm too tired for this kinda shit today. The intersection of pro-life and Christianity (particularly Catholicism) always turns into a four-way stop of doom for womens' rights to choice. And now, besides the pro-life stance being taught in Catholic schools, students are getting fucking rewarded for shitting on the autonomy of women all over the country. Well, fuck that noise. That's a load of goddamn golden calf shit and everyone knows it. I'm all for students having to do community service for high school credits, but a pro-life rally doesn't service the community. Not all members of it, anyways. This is getting really fucking scary. More on this as it develops. But for now, lazy.