Something Important and Something Stupid

First of all, I'll talk about the stupid stuff. It's just been rattling around in the cavernous empty space of my mind for the past week or so. How monumentally stupid and hypocritical it was for those Conservative Party of Canada scum to jump on the "It Gets Better" bandwagon. I mean, what could they possibly have been thinking?

The "It Gets Better" campaign was conceived by the famous American (and proudly gay) sex advice columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller, in response to an avalanche of gay teen suicides. In their first video, Savage and Miller just sat there and told gay teens that their lives would get MUCH better after high school. It was never intended as the last word against homophobia. It isn't designed to solve all the problems that gay teens face. It was never intended as anything other than a way to communicate to young gay people tortured by the ignorant prejudices and fucked-up-ness of North American culture that high school (while seeming huge and all-encompassing) is really just a generally moronic, and pointless part of one's overall life. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and heterosexuals as well, reached out to tell gay teens that things WOULD get better after high school.

Canadians participated. Especially after the tragic death of 15-year old Jamie Hubley. That case was so terrible that even the Conservative Party of Canada got in on the act, producing their own "It gets better" video. The video features (amongst other Conservative luminaries) John Baird and David Sweet.

It's pretty special really. The party that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage! The party for people who at the local and provincial level see initiatives against gay bullying as assaults on religious freedom and freedom of speech! "It gets better." Not if those morons and hypocrites have anything to say about it.

And how does it get better? Well, allegedly, John Baird is a closet-case. If that's true, let's consider this: If Baird finds it easier than in the past to stay in the closet it's because OTHER GROUPS BESIDES HIS STUPID POLITICAL PARTY have made being gay not such a big deal. One Conservative candidate described him as "openly gay" but that's not how he's portrayed, is it? Baird? Your party is rabidly homophobic and anti-gay. How can you tell gay teens that it gets better when you're a member of the party that wants to make things WORSE for them???

And, I think the real prize in that video is MP David Sweet. Former president of the fundamentalist "Promise Keepers," Sweet is on record as saying that homosexuality is a sin, bad sexual practice and "not an acceptable lifestyle." When confronted on his monumental hypocrisy of appearing in an "It Gets Better" video, Sweet's only reply was a gutless statement that he said what he said.

I know that this is relatively old news, but that doesn't make the brainlessness of the harpercons any the less. What the fuck were they thinking? Because, you know, they "think" like this every day. "Sure, it's too bad that kid died, but I will fight tooth and nail against pinkos and faggots trying to teach my kids that homosexuality isn't disgusting. I will fight for my children's rights to express their religious beliefs [read: delusions] to shame queers into suicide. And we haven't given up the battle to return marriage to a institution of love between men and women only. Marriage is sacred. And sure you can get married on a reality tv show or marry your high school sweet heart for a few hours, or something, but the second you let queers do it, humanity might as well legislate mandatory GAY sex with farm animals. But, yeah, it's too bad about that kid. Tragic really."

Yesterday I posted about the Globe & Mail and the Toronto Star simultaneously reporting on the Metcalfe Foundation's report about the 42% increase in poverty in Toronto between 2000 and 2005. For the most part, BOTH of those newspapers endorsed the political-economic policies that produced this failure. BOTH of those newspapers' owners probably say to themselves that this decline in the living standards of the poor and the working poor is regrettable and that steps should be taken to reverse this pattern. But the Globe & Mail certainly, and the Toronto Star probably, will only double-down on the witless neo liberal con job.

It isn't cute when people with power fuck up so badly. It isn't comedy. It's serious.

Oh, and before I forget. Another stupid thing? Reporting about Michelle Obama's dancing. Holy shit. Holy Fucking Shit. This is a response in progress. I hadn't read those stories about "Michelle Obama's Dance Moves." I'd just seen the headlines and thought about how her husband has granted himself the right to kill US Americans (and their children) overseas without restriction, how her husband is the Commander-in-Chief presiding over Bradley Manning's torture, how her husband is bailing-out Wall Street criminals while cynically posturing about helping Wall Street's victims. I mean, who really gives a shit about the First Lady's "dance moves"? In going to find a link about "Michelle Obama's Dance Moves" I discovered what all the fuss is about. She's raising awareness about the sufferings of US-American military families facing lengthy separations while mommies and daddies are overseas blowing-up rag-heads for US corporations! Oh my fucking god:

In the episode, which is entitled "iMeet the First Lady," Carly's friends Sam (Jennette McCurdy) and Freddie (Nathan Kress) arrange a webcast for Carly and her father after they learn he is not able to make it home for his birthday. The first lady comes to visit Carly to talk about her service to America as a member of a military family and to thank her friends for supporting her during her father's deployment.

"I'm here to say I'm proud of you," Obama said in the episode. "It can be really rough for kids who have a mom or dad way from home for a long time... As important as it is for Carly to support what her dad is doing, it's just as important that she has good friends like you who support what she's doing, too."

Of course Carly, if your father wants to protest against Wall Street, or loses his mind because of what he's witnessed serving US corporations, well you suckers are on your own. Veterans are a disproportionate number of that country's homeless population. What sickening rot.

Well, having dispensed with that bile, I'd best get on to the important stuff. As I said earlier, I read This Crazy Time by Tzeporah Berman. Berman fought against the logging companies and their BC-NDP governments beginning in the battle for Clayoquot Sound, and then in the creation of the Great Bear Rainforest Reserve. Later, she was disgusted with the BC-NDP's "Axe the Tax" campaign against BC Liberal Premier's carbon emissions taxes. I mention this conflict with the NDP because while I think the NDP is the best of a bad lot, Berman has a point that they side with the corporations first, and then with [misguided] unions second, under the delusion that saving the environment means economic disaster and massive unemployment. (Actually, it's business-as-usual capitalism that has brought us economic disaster and massive unemployment!)

Anyhooo, ... in her book, Berman informs us all about a Greenpeace resource to learn how creating the post-carbon economy will create jobs and bring prosperity. And, that's fucking serious shit.

So, having spent most of my morning unloading about how much I despise the homophobic, hypocritical, stupid harpercons and Michelle Obama, it's all I've got left to link to the important, positive stuff.

Here's the link. Energy [R]evolution. Check it out.