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Theramin Trees has put up another wonderfully well done video. I am once again in awe of his clarity and thoroughness. Truly, his is some of the highest quality content on youtube. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching his other videos after you’ve finished with this one.
Vi Hart is truly amazing. Awe inspiring yet accessible, sublime yet exciting, her videos are strange, wonderful, fun, educational, and so many other great things combined.
Now it’s time to expand your mind with a delightful explanation and demonstration of Shepard Tones
Disclaimer – This isn’t specifically about *you* white dude whose ‘sensibilities’ are in a tizzy (you’re welcome for the longer version of #NotAllMen).
“Rape was a political crime committed by men against women in order to assert their power. It was an act of terrorism by which, as Susan Brownmiller expressed it, ‘all men keep all women in a state of fear’.
…From this understanding feminists derived the slogan: ‘All men are potential rapists’ which has always brought forth howls of protest from men who wanted to disassociate themselves from rape.
The slogan simply means that if male sexuality is constructed in such a way that men associate sex with aggression then every man is capable of rape. The slogan also means that women are not in a position to know whether the men they meet are likely to rape or not. Some men may feel entirely innocent but it is not possible for women to treat them differently. To a woman in a train carriage or on a street every man is a potential rapist. The judicial system expects her to act on that assumption and will hold her responsible for her own victimisation if she treats a man who subsequently rapes her with ordinary human politeness.”
-Sheila Jeffreys, Anticlimax
See also: Schrödinger’s Rapist – A guide for the Men.
The war on women and their rights continues to chug along, it can get depressing having to digest all the misogyny that leaks from the anti-choice, anti-woman side. Despite all the shite that is going on stories get out that are inspiring, here is a excerpt from the NYmag article about the first legal abortions and the doctors that were performing them.
““No matter how much you shame and scare them, women will still come for abortions. Pretty recently I had this young woman, 15 maybe, and we did the procedure. I said, ‘Your uterus is empty, the procedure is over. I have to go check to make sure we got everything,’ and I left the room to examine the tissue. Then I came back and told her, ‘Everything’s fine, your uterus is healthy.’ And she said, ‘So … when are you going to use the steel ball?’ I picked my jaw up off the floor and said, ‘Steel ball?’ She said, ‘Well, I went to the crisis pregnancy center and they told me you’re going to put a steel ball that’s covered with sharp blades into my uterus and twirl it around.’ And this kid still came! I was thinking, How did you ever make yourself walk in the office believing I was going to do that?””
Trust women.
Oh and a big heart-felt fuck you to so called ‘crisis pregnancy centres’ that are always filled to the brim with toxic bullshit. We need you like we need smallpox in the world.
Well I’m surprised it took this long, but Bill Mahr has almost perfected the technique.
Must be nice to argue against the the assertions your opponent makes with the proviso that you just made up said assertions. :)
Go vote! Or don’t! The FPP system will probably scuttle your intentions anyways. I hear spitting into the wind or pissing up a rope are fine substitutes for exercising the barest of minimums required for participatory democracy.
The getting out the vote campaigns are heroic and all that stuff, encouraging all those young whipper-snippers to exercise the merest formality in participating in a democratic like system. But really, young people…oh you sad sack millennials, you’re fucked. Generation X is now in the demographic that tends to vote often and is catered to by the political class – did you hear all the campaign promises about lowering tuition and making going to university/college easier – I didn’t either. Have a nice future pouring my coffee and lackadaisically ‘helping’ me at retail locations.
What I heard a lot of during this overly long election cycle (thank you Conservative gerrymandering squad) was economy, jobs, and then niqab. None of these topics have been ‘tailored’…ooo… I guess the word for it now is ‘curated’ for your easy consumption and understanding. Did you tune out and start that really important twitter conversation about the Blue Jays? You did? Good for you! We’ll see you in line, eagerly waiting to express your ‘individuality’ by purchasing the next mass produced shiny over-hyped bauble at the Apple store. Because what you buy defines you. (Not your actions, not your commitments to others, not your responsibilities – just your *stuff*, honest.)
Conspicuous consumption, they have an app for that…
The political leaders, during the election cycle, have talked, emoted and generally performed fairly well; all of them selling their shiny political promises and filled with rainbow farting unicorns and free bonbons for all. A series of turgid farts strained through a dirty burlap sack would have just about as much relevance and importance to the decision Canadians are making on the 19th of October.
What is really at stake here is the continued march of Neo-liberalism and the decimation of the social fabric of our society. Corporations are not people, nor should they have the right to sue our governments for protecting our people (and businesses) from predatory capitalism. The TPP is NAFTA all over again. Do you like having domestic industry? Unions? Society run for the benefit of the people living in said society? The TPP is the enema-bag filled with hydrochloric acid poised to flush all those nasty things I mentioned out of Canadian Society.
I could care less who gets into power as long as this latest shit-swirl in the ice cream of trans-national capitalism is strangled in the crib, because combating Neo-liberalism is the big picture now because if NL wins democracy doesn’t matter anymore. Is our country for Canadians or Corporations? Profit or People?
Now I voted NDP because my MP is one kickass woman (Linda Duncan) who regularly kicks ass and takes names in Parliament, she responds to mail and makes me think briefly that representative democracy might not be bag-of-rats I think it is (that feeling passes quickly).
The 10 week slow motion seppuku that was the NDP national campaign was about as inspiring as being hit repeatedly in the head with a dirty sweat-sock filled with cold spunk. I just need the names of the NDP campaign-brain trust who somehow thought that throwing all the ham at all the walls by going centrist was the best-est idea evar? The salty-tears of socialist jebus are leaking out of the dark hall-closet you mung-gargling-arseholes tossed him in for this election. Pandering to the centre and abandoning core democratic-socialist principles… who would of thunk that was a recipe for getting ass-whipped in the election…
Hello NDP your political base is calling wondering where the hell you are and why there are smexy middle of the road blonde hairs on your damn overcoat.
So anyhow, happy election day Canada. We’ll get the government we deserve today. I’ll see you, fair readers, tomorrow as I have a date with TIO and the good Captain Morgan.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…