Happy Pagan Holidays! – The New Christmas Spirit
For the past few years I have been troubled by Christmas and developed a strong bitterness towards this holiday season. Greed and Religion, diluted with Christmas songs that are mediocre at best. Songs that hold nothing more over any other dull song except for the sleigh bells sound mixed into the background to give it that Christmas "edge".
I was sick of people acting like Christmas is about giving, when most of them only give to other wealthy people in their little circle of friends and family. In the meantime others starve. Sure some tend to give more, but they still give even more to people who have more than they need.
Remember how the schools would send toys to the impoverished countries in shoeboxes? I always thought that was pretty awesome. I got to see this year what one class was putting in their boxes: a whole mess of Bratz dolls. This made me bitter about the whole thing. It felt like these poor kids were getting a punch to the face instead of a nice toy. Can you imagine living in a place where food and shelter are scarce, and then getting your "present" from your caring friends in North America, only to find dolls that flaunt the rich and spoiled lifestyles of North Americans? In this sense, all the kids receiving these shoeboxes are getting screwed . Bratz dolls, may your creators slither back to the pit from whence they came.
I'm also tired of Christians complaining about stores wanting to say "Happy Holidays" . New flash: The entire world does not give a shit about you. If you want to worship your silly man-made God, then go do so; do not demand more than you deserve, as if your particular religion you were brought up with should be recognized over any other, you arrogant piece of shit.
Disappointed and beaten, I didn’t even bother to preach my sorrow or do anything. I just told my family not to expect gifts and not to get me any. Christmas always leaves me empty inside.
However, I have recently come upon a revelation. I read this article, which talks about the origins of Christmas. Yes, the holiday that was celebrated by people who didn't give two shits about Jesus or Bratz dolls(Jesus wasn't even born yet, and his birthday wouldn't even be celebrated for 1000 years after his death). These pagans stood in awe of nature and worshipped it, and worshipped the reproductive system(instead of demonizing it). People who liked to give gifts, get drunk, have orgies, and just have an all out great time during this season.
I seem to relate to these people more than I do anyone in this era, so I decided that I was going to enjoy Christmas again…. the real christmas. Which means I just might give a few small gifts to my family. And I just might try to keep in the holiday spirit, but a different spirit: one that is much stronger and more worthy of attention than what our current society follows. Today's holiday "spirit" consists of stress, pain, greed, religious arrogance, plastic trees, more clutter to add to your collection, financial burden, loneliness, etc.
This is a rather grim portrayal and is not always typical. I have heard of two deaths already in this past week. One was a young girl killed in a car accident. Another accident killed a families father. These events are not out of the ordinary, but even I hold a higher level of sympathy for their loved ones because of the approaching season. The current spirit is not all bad. In fact, I was happy to find out that my family wanted to all chip in to buy some food for people in starving countries.
This made me realize that people do indeed become more generous during this season, I just wish we could be like this all year round, and not be so self centered.
I think we need to embrace the true origin and spirit of Christmas in order to heal our society.
Merry fucking pagan Xmas, you crazy humans!
Where is the Stephen Harper We Know and Love?
I originally started this blog due to my own personal outrage at the actions of our Conservative Government. I of course picked on Mr. Harper because he was their spokesperson, trying to pacify the masses while the conservatives attempted to drive us back into the stone age.
What I've been noticiting is its been kind of quiet lately. That or the media doesn't report on it like they were. During Harpers first term we heard all kinds of outragious activities: Destroying funding for women's rights groups, trying to shut down the needle exchange program, enacting totalitarian laws for the sake of corporate interest, spitting in the faces of intelligent Canadians by suggesting that marijuana is dangerous and that harsher punishments need to be inacted for its cultivation, and trying to make life harder for women by creating laws that would create a backdoor to recriminalize abortion.
Since the second term I've not heard a peep from Mr. Harper or his cronies. When the conservatives got reelected, I thought, oh boy, here we go again….. silence. I hear him muttering about nothing occasionally on the radio in that bland monotone voice of his. The other day I saw him singing "With a Little Help From My Friends." on youtubes. It's kind of ironic that the man who wants to incarcerate pot smokers would sing "I get high with a little help from my friends".
Could it be that the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the family man Stephen Harper are two different people? Is the real Harper just a down to earth guy that likes to sip a glass of wine, smoke the occasional fatty, and hug some kittens? Is he required as Prime Minister to push through the agendas of the conservative cult, even if it goes against his own judgement and morals?
I'm not gonna let him off the hook so easily…. I think that they are laying low, in hopes that people will forget about their previous bullshit and vote for them in the next election, and maybe they could get a majority government! Then they could pass whatever draconian laws they feel like!
Nice try asshole, we are watching.
Is Shampoo One Big Scam?
I heard about a growing trend of people who have completely stopped using shampoo and I decided to give it a go and then publish my results.
No shampoo, or "no-poo" as it’s commonly referred to is steadily gaining popularity, especially in Europe. I heard that some celebrities don’t use shampoo, and I even heard that Prince Charles doesn’t even wash his hair, but I couldn’t find any references to back this up.
It’s been about 3 months now since I started. At first it was fine because I had my hair cut very short, but as it grew longer it started to get greasy. I used baking soda to combat this, which is the preferred method. I then moved to a place that had a water softener, and even now with my hair very long I don’t need any baking soda; it comes out clean each time. The obvious benefits to this are a healthy scalp, avoiding chemical shampoo additives absorbing into my scalp, and saving money on otherwise expensive natural shampoos. This is also a great method for people who have allergies or skin sensitivities to these harsh products.
The reason my hair got so greasy was due to an imbalance from using shampoo for so long. Shampoo strips the coating off of the hair follicles causing them to dry out, and then the scalp over-produces oil. It can take up to 2 months for the oil production to balance out once starting the no shampoo method.
Some people use apple cider vinegar as a conditioner, but I have not required this yet.
I have been getting dandruff lately, but I got dandruff before when I still used shampoo. This is likely due to the weather getting colder and I probably have the water too hot.
I hope this helps people decide if the no-poo method is right for them. Shampooing isn’t really that necessary; any honest hairdresser will tell you that it does more damage than it’s worth. Why not give it a shot?!
The Racism Epidemic in Canada and the United States
Lately I’ve been reading about the outrageous racism that seems to be sweeping the United States now that Obama is the president. I felt pretty smug as a Canadian, judging Americans for their outdated racist attitudes. As it turns out I was about to get owned by my own brain as it brought up many examples of Canadian racism. I had kind of thought, naively, that racism was an attitude that was almost gone besides a few freaks that still thought it was <1950.
I knew that there were was some serious racism in America toward Barack Obama and his family left in the comments on many conservative blogs, but it really hits home when you experience it first hand, which I did recently. I had some American truckers come into the place where I work. This is the conversation that I overheard:
Trucker: "Man that Obama sure is an arrogant son of a bitch. You know I listen to fox news all day in my truck and you should hear what that nigger is doing. He’s turning us into a socialist country(he continues to blather on about the auto industry and taxes)."
Truckers Wife: "One of these days someone’s gonna assassinate him and that’s probably a good thing…"
Trucker: "Well if they do they better do it during the day, because you know you won’t be able to see him at night!"
Canadian Co-worker: "You just gotta make him smile." (he’s not such a bad guy, I think he just wanted to fit in with the crowd, which is a very common theme here in Saskatchewan and I’m sure, all over Canada. I’ve seen decent people jump on the racism bandwagon many times in my day, myself included, when I was younger and less educated).
Trucker: "Those niggers should remember where they came from. They used to pick cotton, now they sell crack." (I think this was meant to be a joke)
Needless to say I was appalled and wasn’t sure if I should risk my job by flying into a rage lecture and accentuate my speech by firing a computer chair through the nearest window. I decided to remain silent.
In Canada, or at least in Saskatchewan it’s not really black people that we focus our racism on, but the Aboriginals or First Nation people(the Canadian equivalent of Native Americans for you United Statesers). The remarks usually revolve around crime and substance abuse, pretty much judging and mocking them for being in the terrible situation they are in. If anything we should be ridiculing the government and the Catholic Church for doing this to them. If you were ripped from your home as a child, abused both physically and sexually, and had your language and culture stripped from you, I’m sure you’d consider turning to the drugs that are available in mass quantity to ease your pain.
Here’s what I don’t get. It’s 2009! Everybody knows(or should know) that racism is… just stupid, yet we seem to cling to the past like a dumb hick who clings to their confederate flag. Why is it that when one person makes a racist comment the others, who definitely know better, will awkwardly chuckle along anyway? Why is it that studies show that most people won’t say anything when someone is being racist?
I sort of get off by rejecting the status quo, so I for one will not tolerate this bullshit anymore. The next time I hear people being racist I hope I have the balls to say something, and I hope you will too. Truckers can be kind of scary, especially the American ones, but if I hear some average Joe or even worse, a friend utter a racial slur, I’m going to remind them that we are all human beings and that racism is something that simply should not be tolerated in this day and age. Remind people that it’s 2009!
Marijuana: Why is Health Canada Failing the Sick?
I’m the kind of person who assumes every big government organization in Canada is either in the pocket of some corporation or only has motives that would suit the needs of the current administration. I assume that because I’m generally proven to be correct on a regular basis.
Let’s take any government run organization, how about…. HEALTH CANADA. You’d think that their basic priorities would be to make legislation that would take into account the health, wellbeing, and human rights of the citizens of Canada. I just assume so, because with a name like Health Canada it kind of says so right in the name right? They have been entrusted with our safety and wellbeing.
Well when it comes to medicinal marijuana it seems like the wellbeing of our nations sick mean absolutely nothing to Health Canada. They’ve blocked all attempts of anyone trying to make any proper change to our current fascist marijuana laws.
Basically they’ve restricted medicinal marijuana growers to produce so little that it’s forcing the users to get it from the black market. And they won’t let up. They’ve been taken to court 8 times and the Ontario Court of Appeal deemed these restrictions to be "unconstitutional".
So uh, what possible reason could there be to be so restrictive of a simple plant to the point of being unconstitutional? I can only think of two reasons: A) a group of powerful people in our government really don’t like marijuana, which doesn’t make any sense considering that it’s harmless. Oh you don’t think so? Do some damn research you uneducated prick… Ahem! I seem to be getting sidetracked…. B) common folk having access to marijuana must threaten the profits of a corporation(s). Corporations such as…. THE PHARMECUTICAL INDUSTRY perhaps? An industry who would hate to have a bunch of our problems solved by a happy plant that grows naturally in the wilderness and can be consumed in all kinds of innovative ways and that works better than any drug their top scientists can come up with?
The constitution doesn’t mean shit when profit is involved. And if you think about it, the fact that anything has remained "unconstitutional" for this length of time is very disturbing and makes me wonder how much longer we’ll even have a constitution. Let’s hear it for democracy! At least we’ve got lawyers like the fellow in this article putting pressure on these clowns.
Canadian Piracy/Copyright Laws: Things Are About to Get Stupid
In an almost laughable attempt to put pressure on our government to push through "better" copyright laws, the Office of the US Trade Representative bumped Canada from "Watch List" to "Priority Watch List". Ooooo, I feel so guilty. What’s next, is the FDA going to put us on a watch list for smoking too much pot? Perhaps we need a new threat level indicator to show the world just how dangerously forward thinking we are.
Department of Homeland Security, I’ve got a patent on this chart, just for the record.
Seriously, does anyone under the age of 40 buy this bullshit anymore? So the Canadian government is a bit slow on bowing to our corporate masters and selling out it’s citizens for blatant greed, and that’s somehow bad I guess? Would you prefer our law enforcement to start arresting students and have our lawyers bankrupt single moms? Will that put us back on "Watch List" status? Who is dumb enough to feel pressured by this pretense?
While the rest of the world is already starting to move on, realizing the silliness and poor logic of the American copyright laws, our government once again wants to try to keep us in the stone age. Yes that’s right, our pals in parliament are still trying hard to pass this stupid bill, and if it goes through you can say goodbye to Canadians being the leaders in innovation and creativity as technology exponentially advances. We’ll be stuck passing songs down from mouth to mouth like we did before they invented the phonograph.
Hey, since we’re on the subject of our government doing creepy things, did you know a superior court recently determined that law enforcement does not need a warrant to spy on you while you’re online? You can blame the pedophiles for this one… of course the issue is this: if we can’t spy on our citizens, how will we catch these child pornographers? Those god damned pedophiles, always ruining things for us.
The problem with this is what happens when our government starts to abuse this system to spy on and manipulate its people? What if some far right wing-nut cop doesn’t like what I say about his religion? Could he decide to dig up information on me and use it to harass me? There’s nothing like a massive police raid on your home to teach someone a lesson. Will bloggers start disappearing mysteriously for posting their opinions online? Of course I’m being paranoid, but hey, it’s certainly not impossible is it? Words are the only way we can currently fight back against oppression and an out of control government. The only other option involves forming an underground resistance movement comprising of hackers and hockey stick wielding henchmen.
Back to the copyright stuff: Does the rest of the world even blink when the American government does stuff like this? These organizations seem like that spoiled child who breaks into someones house and the corporations are like the greedy parents who sue because the child was restrained by the homeowners.
Why does the Office of the US Trade Representative even bother? According to this guy the USTR are over-exaggerating this whole thing just to put some pressure on our government. Don’t buy this crap ladies and gentlemen. Remember that the only people who care about their precious films and music being stolen are the ones that already make a fortune, aka the mainstream sellouts and the companies that manage them.
If you want to learn more about the reality of the whole piracy situation, you can buy or download a documentary on Canadian piracy here. Also a great Swedish one here.
AC/DC Live – More Important Than Anything Conceivable
It amazes me how despite all the things going on in this crazy world, people act like the most trivial things are a crime against humanity.
I was listening to the old News Talk radio station featuring John Gormley a few days ago. It’s always painful when he opens up the phone lines, because the worst kind of people call in. It is indescribable the emotion I get listening to these people talk.
The topic for the day was concerning the problems people had with the Ticketmaster website and the Ticketmaster phone line while attempting to score some prized AC/DC tickets.
As soon as the lines were opened, like a floodgate, all these pathetic whiners started calling in; sniveling about how they had to wait for half an hour on the phone or complaining about how they were kicked off the website because it was too busy. The way their voices sounded, the urgency of this most horrible experience was simply pathetic. THIS is what outrages these types of people.
While regular folks might be concerned about more pressing matters, John Gormley and Crew want to let Ticketmaster know that they expect better service and that this is a travesty of epic proportions.
Are you guys aware of ummmm well for starters:
The ongoing Darfur massacre?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict
The ongoing torture and rape of women and children in the Congo while our western culture consumes their resources?
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3426273.stm
www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/candidates-silent-on-reso_b_129267.html
"Coltan is the engine behind our communications systems, and 1500 people a day are dying in this region while Americans profit from corporate greed, take Congolese resources, turn our backs, and power-up our cellphones." -quote from above link
All the Americans(and some Canadians) who have lost their homes and jobs?
www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf
You think your life is tough because you had to wait for a few moments to get AC/DC tickets, and then felt you had to call in to a talk radio station to whine about it on the air? I’m embarrassed for you. How weak minded these people are.
I think this is why I despise the wealthy. If I became rich all of a sudden I think I’d have to give it all away. Otherwise I’d loathe myself. Maybe that’s why most of the rich have no empathy towards others, because they are buried in a heap of self loathing.
Here’s someone who has the right to complain. You DO NOT.
Wake up you spoiled children. The picture is much bigger.
Our Government Wants us to Fail – Internet at Risk
Check out this video. I’m not sure if this has passed or not yet, but here’s some instructions on how you might be able to help. I really hope this doesn’t go through or we’ll no longer have access to real information anymore.
"Take action: http://www.saveournet.ca/content/take… We have just a few days until the CRTC’s submission process closes. If you haven’t sent in a comment please do so now. If you’ve sent in your comment already we ask that you please take a moment to reach out to friends and family. "
Action Items:
1. Send i your comment: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/cr…
2. Share this video
3. Take a second to email 3 of your friends with our easy to use form: http://www.unionvoice.org/your_media/…
4. Share the campaign online using Facebook and our promo materials: http://saveournet.ca/content/share
Entertainment Tonight: Unraveling the Fabric of Society
I had the pleasure of catching 10 minutes of "ET", or "Entertainment Tonight", which I think should stand for "Extra Terrestrial", because I’m pretty sure it’s hosted by a freakin alien! No seriously, of all the people they could have picked as a host, they decided to go with the freakiest, creepiest, android-like creature ever, with wide eyes permanently locked into an excited stare. EGADS!
Cyborg Host – Model T600.11
Now I know what your thinking: that this is a show covering American things and has nothing to do with Canada. But it’s aired in Canada, and Canadians clearly watch it(and there may even be a Canadian version). This involves more than just Canada, though. I’m pretty sure this involves the entire planet, because after watching 10 minutes of this…..show, I’ve decided that we are all doomed.
Offered in high definition, ET treated me to 3 segments of soul crushing terror. Right away my senses were bombarded with screenshot after screenshot of Rihanna’s beat up face, rapidly zooming up on various cuts and bruises. It felt like the camera was raping her face. Now I thought this was old news, having spotted it on digg.com weeks ago. I Guess not because I had to sit through images of domestic abuse flashing over and over into my brain at speeds that only my subconscious could comprehend, while all the gory details came pouring in. And then the announcer promised us that she looked much, much worse later at the hospital. That’s fantastic. Glad to hear it.
Keep in mind folks that I haven’t really watched television in a few years. I knew the quality of television had sunk quite low, but I was not prepared for the level of obsession and exploitation over Rihanna’s abuse by Chris Brown, whoever the hell that is. That poor girl. Is this what mainstream society watches on a daily basis?
That segment left me depressed and highly disturbed, and as I was contemplating the future of humanity, on came the next segment of this award winning show. It was some 19 year old country music star named Taylor Swift appearing on an episode of CSI, and ET was kind enough to take us behind the scenes. Swift told us all about how she just like, loves CSI more than anything in the world, and like, playing a dead body is so awesome, and like, woah, there’s like, blood all over her dress, like, how cool is that you know? Like, OMG she’s such an AWESOME ROLE MODEL!
Just as I was about to leave, fearing I would vomit all over my friend’s nice couch, it was time for an important OCTOMOM UPDATE! YES! We looooove you Octofreak! Keeping track of a billion children sounds rough. What a sacrifice she is making! And it turns out she DID get plastic surgery. I fricken KNEW it! I totally called that one. I’ve been constantly telling my coworkers how I know deep down in my heart that Octomom had plastic surgery, and that I would die trying to prove it if I had to. It became a dark obsession that threatened to leave me jobless and homeless. Yup, Octomom finally came clean; she had breast reduction surgery………………………
Good bye. It was nice knowing you. It was nice to see all the trees and creatures and beauty that nature has to offer, before it gets ripped away by the massive overload of stupid, soulless, money obsessed, celebrity obsessed people that are educating themselves on nothing but pure trash television. Which one of you mental mutants will be the next Prime Minister of Canada or the President of the United States? How many of you will assist in changing our laws to suit your world view, which has been molded by this twisted corporate garbage?
It is my opinion that shows like ET and CSI are slowly crushing the last drops of sympathy towards others out of society. Abuse, murder and domestic violence start to feel normal. And then the human race destroys itself. The end.
I’d say god help us, but it’s now clear to me that god is dead and rotting in some serial killer’s basement(airing next week on CSI).
I Have a Website/Blog!
Wait a minute… I have a website? …… Oh boy….. How long’s it been since my last update? 2 MONTHS! Wow. Okay…. well, it’s time for a quick recap of the last 2 months in Canada! GO!
Ummmm ummmmm ummmmmm ummmmmm, well the Liberals got a new leader, Michael Ignateb? Michael Imhotep? Anyways, he’s the new liberal guy and I’m sure he’s super cool.
Barack Obama came here yesterday. Him and some of our leaders discussed some stuff. All I can remember is that they ate fancy food, including bison. Yes, bison, which is terribly fascinating and relevant. Thank you CBC Radio 2. Maybe Obama and crew should have talked about how to help all the starving people in the world and then ate at a local mom and pop restaurant. Heh, world leaders are so cool! And rich!
Anyways, ummmmmmmm Jack Layton is still doing his thing, whatever that is. Doin stuff… criticizing….stuff.
Stephen Harper? Well he’s doing the usual stuff. You know, running the country. Doing everything in his power to increase our liberties. Nursing orphaned kittens. You know, the usual.
Who else do we got? Ummm The Christian Heritage Party still hates abortion and other human rights. I don’t foresee much change over there. At least until their members all die off of course.
Uhh, sheesh, I can’t recall much else at the moment.
I promise I’ll try to update more in the future. See, since the new year I’ve been distracted; I moved, and I’m still recovering from that. I’ve been slaving for my corporate masters endlessly, and this whole political blog thing just kinda slipped my mind you know? I think I owe it to my 2 subscribers to at least keep them current. Expect more frequent updates from now on.
Have a nice day/evening!
