You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2012.
Exercise the bare minimum of what is required for us to have a democracy, if you’re an Albertan make your way down to the polls and participate in the political process.
Not at all actually. Good Riddance evil snow!
Luckily, due to a variety of meteorological factors, Alberta experienced a very mild winter, we’ve been very lucky this year, meaning that I’ve been wearing these:
Instead of these for much of the winter/spring season. –
Here in western Canada, we really don’t have much to complain about. However, a different story is being played out in the East.
“Eastern, Southern and Central Ontario will be hit with snow starting Sunday night and lasting through Tuesday, Environment Canada says. Ottawa, Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto and Hamilton can all expect a possible dump of white stuff, while North Bay and Sudbury could continue to see wintry precipitation through the end of the week.
Temperatures in most of those areas are forecast to fall to one degree C, and in some places will be several notches below freezing, which is up to 10 degrees below normal for this time of year, Environment Canada said.
Meanwhile in Quebec, it’ll look like a winter wonderland. Parts of the Saguenay region around Lac-St-Jean and southeast of Chicoutimi, as well as the Lower St. Lawrence, Gaspé and North Shore regions, are expecting 15 to 20 centimetres of wet snow beginning Saturday night and lasting until Monday.
The federal weather office has issued snowfall alerts for most of those areas and cautioned that strong winds could whip up the snow, impeding visibility on roads.”
Late season snow can be very demoralizing as it brings back all the dread of winter when its “supposed” to be all nice and warm and sunny. We’ve had our late season snow here in the Alberta and thankfully it went away fairly quickly, I hope that our Eastern neighbours have similar results.
*In the style of the most stereotypical evangelical sermon voice you can imagine
**congregation responses in red
Brothers and Sisters! As I was perusing the web the other day, I heard a disturbing sound!
*Amen
I SAID As I was perusing the web the other day, I HEARD a DISTURBING sound!
*AMEN!
It was the sound of a THOUSAND “believers” promoting the power of PRAY-YER!
*Have Mercy!
The power of prayer? Never before have I heard such a hay-EEN-ous notion!
*Yes, Reverend!
Do they not KNOW God is eternal?
*Hallelujah!
Do they not KNOW the Almighty is ALLLL-Knowing?
*Tell it!
Do they not know that there is a MA-ster plan, greater than the summation of ALL mortal desires and understanding?
*I can feel it, Lord!
You see Brothers and Sisters, –pass the plate around– God has a plan, and as it is God’s plan, it is the greatest plan. And as it is the greatest plan, it stands that any other plan must be lesser, worse, sinful, and unacceptable to the perfect grace that is our Lord!
People promoting the power of prayer do not accept this. They think that God is some wishy-washy, uncertain, fallible, dough-head, just like themselves.
They think that God, upon hearing a prayer will say “Y’know, I did have my Divine plan that took into consideration ever fact, event, and possibility in the natural and supernatural universe, but that Steve from Delburne just prayed and suggested I do things differently. A good thing too. I was so sure I was right, but now that Steve has prayed to me, I can see that his way is better than Mine. I will now alter My plan, that I’ve had for all of eternity and perfected to a degree beyond human comprehension, to more line up with the wishes of Steve.”
What arrogance!
*mmm-Hmmm!
What Hubris!
*Amen!
What Shim-shaming Flimflammery!
*Hallelujah!
I can imagine NO greater SIN than to put yourself above All Glorious and Estimably Hallowed God, thinking that YOUR plans should supersede His. Same goes for “Blessing” things too, or any other request of God, whatever! To think we know better than God how much Grace ought to be dispensed to this, that, and whomever. This BLASPHEMOUS notion that us wretched and insignificant beings could come up with a better plan than God defies all manner of humility, decency, and logical consistency. For Shame!
*Disapproving murmur
These Peddlers of Prayer go on to say that it is a method with which to communicate with God. Communicate with God? What can a finite being possibly tell an entity that knows absolutely everything?
Absolutely nothing, that’s what!
Anything you will ever think or do, God knew you were going to think it and do it before Time began, and you think you need to show or tell God things? HE KNOWS!
What can we take from all this, Brothers and Sisters? Everything out of your control is a part of God’s great plan. If your stocks go bust and you become destitute, Rejoice! 
for God knows it is the best thing that can possibly happen to you. If your loved ones get severely ill and start throwing up buckets of blood, Celebrate! for God’s plan must be the best possible plan. If your child is kidnapped, tortured, and raped, be thankful that your offspring got to be such an important part of God’s awesome plan.
Praying for answers, advice, or changes just shows that you are unwilling to accept the perfectness of God’s divine plan.
A divine plan, by the way, which is meant to be delivered to you via me, but me, being a finite sole myself, requires funds.
So, Brothers and Sisters, stop praying, and start giving me money. It’s God’s Plan!
Halleluja!
*AMEN, Take my money, please!
Only in Alberta does the the electorate consider ending the 40 year term of the staunchly right wing Progressive Conservatives with a party that is, you guessed it gentle reader, further to the right. It is only the false populist veneer of the Alberta Wild Rose Party that makes it appear palatable to the people of Alberta.
My progressive bones shudder with the thought of electing a party that is considered the fast-track to completing the journey to the dark-side of corporatocracy. Make no mistake, the WRP party was spawned by the Conservative effort, namely the Royalty Resource Review, to give the people of Alberta a more reasonable deal when it came to the extraction of resources from this province. The Royalty Review, even in its gutted state, cost Ed Stelmach his job as premier and cries rang out through the oil patch of ‘never again’; cue the WRP resurgence – a party for the oil companies people of Alberta.
Fortunately, for sanity’s sake, the WRP is made up mostly of dyed in the fool social and fiscal conservatives. These conservative-clowns have now been unleashed on the public and have been busy finding ever larger calibre of guns to shoot themselves in the foot with as the election draws near. Let’s begin with Allan – Homos Will Burn – Hunsperger’s thoughts on sexual orientation –
“Musing on the Lady Gaga song ‘Born This Way,’ which preaches tolerance, Allan Hunsperger wrote that: “You can live the way you were born, and if you die the way you were born, then you will suffer the rest of eternity in the lake of fire, hell, a place of eternal suffering.”
Wow, now that is Christian bigotry Love in action. All the stupid fuckwittery of religion and intolerance on display, you would think the leader of the WRP would kick this sack of bug-frak crazy out of the party. It would be the rational course of action…
Time to burn homos. Love Jesus. How can you believe in shite like this in the 21st century?
“At a campaign event in Calgary, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith refused to condemn Hunsperger’s views. From Postmedia:
“When a person is making personal statements in their capacity as a pastor, which he was, I don’t think anybody should be surprised that they’re expressing certain viewpoints,” she said outside a Wildrose photo opportunity at the Calgary Hindu Society’s temple.
“It was a year ago when he was talking in his capacity as a pastor. He now understands, we’ve spoken, we’ve communicated on this, that we will not be legislating on contentious social issues. He understands that. He accepts that.”
Hey, in the WRP upfront religious delusion is A-OKAY. Nothing like this will go into making secular public policy…honest..we swear on the very tears of Jesus!!! Oh and there is bonus material as well apparently Captain Crazy also has his pastor mojo on over another great evil in society – The public school system!!1!!11! In his own frothy words:
“This includes those students, staff, and families who identify or are perceived as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two- spirit, queer or questioning their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The Board expects all members of our diverse community to be welcomed, respected, accepted, and supported in every school.” Why this from our public educators? Because they believe people were “born this way” and have a right to die this way. The blind leading the blind! Now every Christian school that has come under the Edmonton Public School board will have to adopt this as well. Trapped! For years I have warned Christian educators that you can’t partner with public education because public education is godless. As far as public education is concerned, there is no God“
Yes, there you have Admiral Nut-Butter Von Douche-Bigot of the good ship Homophobia whinging on about the anti-bulling policy of the school board. How dare it be tolerant of the devil children and all their evil! Frak me jebus, why isn’t this man running the party!
Religious delusion aside, the Wild Rose Party of Alberta also happens to be chock full of privileged while males…
And Everywhere the Wild Rose Party is as well.
“I believe that for the people of Calgary-Greenway they need a change. They need someone who has a passion for their community, someone who will represent their community and I believe that as a Caucasian I have an advantage that for the Punjabi community I am able to speak for the whole community and to lift the community up in our region,” CTV reported Leech as saying on the video.
“I believe when I come to our community here I am very concerned that the Punjabi community have not been esteemed, lifted up. When a Punjabi leader speaks for the Punjabi, the Punjabi are listening but when a Caucasian speaks on their behalf everybody is listening.” The host of the program then said he agrees with Leech’s statement.Wildrose officials said the video was recorded about two weeks ago, before Leech made similar controversial comments to Fairchild Radio on Sunday.“I think as a Caucasian I have an advantage,” Leech said during the radio interview. “When different community leaders such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian I believe that I can speak to all the community.”
Leech, a long-time a pastor, apologized earlier this week for his radio comments, […]”
This is lobe exploding material – Ron Leech who honestly believes that by default White is RIGHT when it comes to representing a constituency. Because isn’t it superobvious that the white man represents all people much better than any of those colour folk. Amirite? Y’all?!?
Damn, you would think that bigots and racists would have learned by now to keep this kind of shit holstered until after the election. And unfucking surprisingly, we get these progressive words from yet another kindly loving Man of God. The vile duplicity of religion is being put on glorious display, you would think that our news media might mention that fact somewhere… but no we get the lukewarm saccharine mewings from our media about candidates questionable behaviour.
Certainly now, Denial Danielle Smith (The science is still out on whether or not Danielle Smith has more than two neurons to rub together) would apologize for this carnival of crazy and boot these loons out of the party. Instead we get a rancorous “Oh Hell No!” from Danielle Smith –
“EDMONTON—Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith on Friday headed into the final weekend of the Alberta election campaign on the defensive, insisting that a candidate who said a white politician was better able to represent the community had simply misspoken.“
Ah yes, let us NOT hold Mr.Lake of Fire and Mr.White Power accountable for their reprehensible actions, just STFU Albertans and elect them already; the WRP has a province to run in the interests of the Oil companies.
Vote for the WRP party! Embrace Corporatism!
Just finishing up working on a selection from Purcell, this could be my next vocal project. Having been doing a lot of singing in Italian as of late I’ve noticed by french pronunciation has gone to merde. :>
- Date: 1880
- Composer: Claude Debussy
- Period: Post-Romantic (1870-1909)
Review
This is Debussy’s first published work, and shows many of the characteristics
that we see in the mature Debussy–a somewhat melancholy, bittersweet air,
considerable tone-painting with both voice and instruments, and an intense
lyricism. While it is a bit more old-fashioned than Debussy’s later work,
more “hummably” melodic, and a bit more obvious in its craft, it is a strong
and attractive composition.
The refrain, sung three times, translates “Starry night, under your veils,
under your breaths and your scent, sad, sighing lyre, I dream of past loves.”
The verses are less openly melodic, but flow naturally into the simple,
repetitive refrain. The piano accompaniment matches the rippling vocal
lines, and the final product is a perfect example of the sweetly melancholic
French salon music of its times. ~ Anne Feeney, Rovi
This is the conclusion to a great article found on Practical Doubt.
“Hidden beneath the inclusive guise of Christianity exists the absurd notion that people are capable of understanding the depth of humanity through the eyes of faith. They engage this masturbatory exercise without the slightest comprehension of words like love, mercy, justice, and morality. I cannot think of anything more detrimental to the progress of human beings.
That our understanding of reality comes from a deluded perception, one that is completely irrespective of reality and the behavior of others. Inside of this vacuum allegedly exists the answers to all of life, and yet a war veteran that had seen more atrocities than any human being should experience in such a short life span, refused to accept a supposedly ordained child of God.
If that isn’t proof for the lack of a creator, then I’m not sure what is.”
– Jarod Smith
To comprehend any issue it is important to have a understanding of key terms base principles at work. Two very different narratives of how racism works are identified by John Stoehr in this excerpt from his article on Al-Jazeera.
“[…] Everyone agreed the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was tragic, but liberals and conservatives disagreed on what caused it. On the left, racism was ultimately to blame. Why else would the shooter, George Zimmerman (who was recently arrested), spot Martin walking around a gated community, call the police, follow him and then later shoot him? On the right, race had nothing to do with it. This was a case of horrible judgment, bad policy and a tragic wrong that should be righted.
These are two views of racism. In one, racism is a concrete social force that exerts power over individuals. In the other, racism is an abstract universal human failing like any other that can be overcome with the right attitude. While the liberal view is often exaggerated, the conservative view does not account for who is doing what to whom. In this case, a half-white man killing a black boy.
The conservative view of “racism” is ambivalent, unmoored from history and freed of its long association with white violence. This has given rise to laughable locutions like “reverse racism” of which conservatives regularly accuse blacks whenever they rage against the racist machine, as Al Sharpton and others did in the wake of Martin’s death and the fact that justice did not prevail.
Yet when conservatives say race doesn’t matter, what they are saying, hopefully without meaning to, is that white violence doesn’t matter – and obviously white violence matters. In US history, blacks did not lynch whites with the blessing of the establishment, but whites did lynch blacks in the name of white supremacy.
Conservatives rightly say blacks kill more blacks than whites kill blacks. But that’s another one of those false equivalencies that hides what’s really going on. Black violence, even on those very rare occasions when whites are its victims, is scary and unjust, but white violence, especially when the victims are black, echoes through the web of history and can terrorise African Americans into submission. That’s been the historical purpose of white violence. If explicit laws and pernicious social norms didn’t control you, then the threat of violence did. That’s why racism is not about race so much as power – who has it, who doesn’t, what’s done with it and why.
And power is often above the law. Zimmerman and the man who killed Jake England’s dad are equally protected under a similar law that allows you to “Stand Your Ground” when facing life-threatening situations. Neither man was changed, because both claimed they acted in self-defence. But that’s where the similarities end. Trayvon Martin’s family has appealed to public opinion for justice. Jake England appealed to his gun. The present is a product of the past. To take white supremacy out of racism is to willfully ignore that reality.”
I’ve seen some of the arguments that more conservative commentators put forth regarding racism, and it seems they miss the key point (as they often do)- as highlighted from Stoehr’s article – the imbalance of power in society and how power is used and misused by those in control. The discussion of racism needs to be framed around this idea of the misuse of power in society and how we can best redress the imbalance that is the cause of much racial violence.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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