stupid quote of the day

random internet commenter:

"[about indigenous populations]

How is it that when the Spaniards, the French, the Portuguese, and the British went to colonise different islands around the world? How would the people have gotten there if there were no airplanes? The distances would have been too far for that many people to take a boat, so how did they get there? Did the land masses just "magically" move, such as your flawed theory of plate techtonics says? Did humans once have wings and then lose them through "natural selection"?

If you can't answer this, then there is no other logical explaination than God did it and that Jesus Christ is the Lord."

from this website, full of gems!!!

one more (about evolution):

"bats are birds because they fly and look like birds. that's how we define things: by looking at them. 

[later]


ostriches are birds because they look like birds. flight is not necessary, if they are enough similar to a bird.


i wouldn't call penguins birds because they look kinda weird. a little birdish, but not entirely birds. they are waterbirds.


i think it's foolish to say that an animal is a different kind of animal just because it is warmblooded or coldblooded, or if it lays eggs instead of children, because a normal person can't even notice if a creature has warm blood or not, only scientists can do that, so scientists can have their definitions and we normal people have our own"

asdkjksd

unicorn rainbow land

ha!

so pretty

"The different colors of the rose depict different emotions with the yellow rose being the symbol of joy, white is for reverence and pink is considered the rose of sympathy and admiration.  The white rose was considered the rose of purity in medieval times and was such given to ladies who had not yet lost their virginity.  The red rose is the rose of love and covers all aspects of love from romantic gestures to sacred love of family and faith."

Thanksgiving makes me uncomfortable

This was on Raine's blog first, and I know that Thanksgiving was a long time ago, but this is important

I like Angelina Jolie a teeny bit more now for not celebrating the systematic genocide of First Nations people!

i need to make a freaking blog post for my best friend raine

10 reasons why i want to live in vancouver:

1) raine willow, if she doesn't live in America by the time i move there since that's what she wants to be when she grows up. an American

2) hopefully bff/gf V will be there too and we will have 3-7 cats

3) it is the most livable city in the world

4) hopefully less dudebros and whoo girls

5) sometimes you can find brand new 52" flat screen TVs with the required cords, just by going for a walk

6) also pretty new dressers

7) better transit

8) orcas <3

9) better music/culture/cooler things to do all the time

10) better sushi probably (too bad it makes V frown...she hates seaweed!!)

ps 2 blog posts lately about vancouver...i am such a dork

my halloween costume

vancouver

i want to liiiive here so freaking bad. this is where my heart belongs, i know that. how beautiful is this city.

kimmy will you take me to all the neat places??

remember this?

slowing down at barely yellow lights so we could hold hands for a little bit longer. taking the long way to my house. so obviously in love but so in denial about it.

i am reminiscing so much these days, i guess because the dust has finally settled so i can actually see clearly everything in our past. it was too cloudy and chaotic before, i didn't dare look behind me. now i can see...and i love looking back at everything we've gone through. it seems like our love will never go away.

love all ways

today a boy on the train read us a poem he wrote for the girl he loves...not that he admitted to loving her. but seriously, you don't write poems for people you don't love. he asked us, "if you could sum up love in one word, what would it be?" you said "infinite". i like that. love is a sacrifice, he said. i don't believe in it. it means giving something up. this is true, but it also means letting the other person give something up equally for you. it means being vulnerable and exposed and embracing the terrifying unstable exhilarating feeling. exposing souls and intertwining them, a deliciously painful feeling. negative personal space. he asked us if we know anyone who is actually in love and having fun. we both said "well we're doing alright, that's for sure". he said "you're both in love?" just as we were pulling into the station where we had to get off. you asked me if you should tell him, you wanted to tell him. i didn't know...you said "come on, we'll never see him again". he repeated - "you'll never see me again!".

"i'm in love with her!" you said as we wheeled our bikes off the train, giggling, watching his mouth gape open in disbelief. we felt so proud to say it. so proud to say "she's mine". maybe we convinced him that love is real, it exists!

"love has nothing to do with what you're expecting to get - only what you're expecting to give - which is everything"

i love this quote

"Walsh says she doesn't feel like labels are important. 'They can connect to a pecking order of the 'gold star lesbian' being more legit or more truly evolved than someone who has a more diverse sexual history,' she said. 'I also think that if we cling too hard to a particular self-identification, it can blind us to the full spectrum of what feeds our souls — and can make us more prone to judgment, and too rigid about others' situations. Instead of parsing and arguing and classifying, we could be spending that time making out, or meditating, or having some really groundbreaking new conversations.'"


from this article, about the fluidity of sexuality.

in which i rant and foam at the mouth

Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform's anti-choice Genocide Awareness Project display is back on campus tomorrow for 2 days, which of course will send me into a ranty bitchy mood for at least a week. They attempt to draw a comparison between the Holocaust, lynching of blacks in the United States, and the Rwandan genocide with abortion. They also perpetuate common anti-choice propaganda such as the claim that abortions cause breast cancer and that abortions are dangerous.

Despite the fact that most people at university are annoyed and disturbed by this triggering, racist, nauseating display of ignorance and stupidity, they are still somehow allowed to be here. By all means, have a reasonable discourse on abortion. But do not exploit dead people of colour who you would not normally give 2 shits about to further your agenda. Do not pretend you care about horrific racist events in our history to further your agenda. Do not shove your misinformed opinions down my throat. Do not compare women and health care providers to Nazis. And do not blatantly lie to women about how abortion affects their health.

"Pro-life" is a funny term for these people to call themselves. They certainly don't seem to be very "pro-life" and so I refuse to call them that. If they were pro-life they would take into account the lives that already exist in this world. They obviously cannot see that far past themselves.

If the "pro-life" movement really cared about reducing abortions, they would:

1) make birth control cheaper and more accessible
2) improve the quality of sex education, and stop abstinence-only
3) support single mothers and fathers
4) support pregnant women in making sure they get the best healthcare possible
5) support low income families
6) help make the adoption process easier and more efficient
7) care about women's health at all, ever

as it stands, the anti-choice movement does not do any of these things. They badger and pester women to keep their babies in the most difficult of situations, calling them murderers if they do choose abortion, then on the occasion a woman keeps her baby, leaving her in the cold as soon as it's born.

In no other instance is one person required to give up their body or parts of their body for another. A parent is not required by law to give their child a kidney or bone marrow. But somehow women are required to give up their bodies for a baby that they may not be able to love or care for properly.

Let's be real. The motive of the anti-choice movement is to make sure that women are never in ownership of their own bodies.

On a related note, here is a funny poster making fun of GAP's tactics:

excuse me while i'm the coolest ever

idol

can i please have 0.00007% of your confidence!!!

this ones for you, groceries!!!

ha haha hahaha

what a lame stupid video. but i know you love this song!!!



ayyoooo

how do you like my new look

this photo takes my breath away!!! looking at it is exhilarating because heights scare the shit out of me.

and so does this song (takes my breath away, not scare the shit out of me): the organ - let the bells ring



might be the most underrated band of all time. they only have a handful of songs and it should be considered a crime. whoa and i just rhymed!

sounds eery and dark and depressing but light at the same time.

"i live under a bell-shaped curve for being average"

thank you V

could not think of anything cuter!!! you are theee beessstttt

eat pray love

reminiscing about Victoria with Kimmy, watching eat pray love which was more like eat cry cry for us. with an incredibly noisy but good-for-the-environment chip bag.

This will be me in a few months!!!! on a journey of self-reflection and discovery


Also missing beautiful Victoria, my future home city

the ocean is toooo beautiful.

fatima fatima

she spoke arabic and swahili, she'd say upendo anta habibi

mind = blown

past present future which do you live in??

i might be a present oriented hedonist. certainly NOT future oriented!

werd.

said way more intelligently than i could ever say it!! stick that in your pipe and smoke it

my horoscope...

has been right on target lately

Let friendship be your focus today. If you have noticed recently that you seem to have the same problems or challenges with making relationships work, this is the perfect time to study and perfect your communication skills. If a particular relationship is troubled right now, you should really address your concerns so that you don't allow this person to fall through the cracks. If you don't nurture and maintain your friendships, they cannot continue to grow and thrive. Someone important in your life needs your attention.

and yesterday:

Don't let fatigue get the best of you. If you're falling-down tired then it is only logical to remedy the situation. Whether you've been hard at work burning the candle at both ends, or indulging in a bit too much social activity, you really need to adjust your habits. You may feel as though you're fitting in as much work or fun as possible because you want to seize the day, but over time it could be getting to you, and it could begin to affect your work and your relationships. Take better care of yourself.

revealing biases

here is an interesting Harvard study, and the related implicit association tests that anyone can do.

These tests try to reveal biases people have towards race, gender, sexuality, skin tone, age, weight, even countries (US vs. Canada). It is not hard to believe that when the results from this study were compiled, it was found that most people automatically prefer white over black, thin over fat, and straight over gay, as well as holding some pretty stereotypical views on which gender is better at science or humanities.

I've only done the weight test myself, and surprise! The results are in and I slightly prefer thin over fat. These tests prove that racism, sexism, fatphobia and homophobia, among others, are structural problems and are not a matter of individual opinion or choice. Everyone has ingrained biases that are extremely difficult to get rid of because of the constant messages we are fed by society.

let's talk about tommy douglas...someone has to!

"I don't mind being a symbol but I don't want to become a monument. There are monuments all over the Parliament Buildings and I've seen what the pigeons do to them."

The very-underrated-by-my-generation Tommy Douglas was voted The Greatest Canadian.

And with very good reason. He's the most influential politician Canada has ever seen (especially impressive since he was never prime minister), and a very big reason Canada is so great. Douglas started out as a social activist in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and went on to lead the Saskatchewan CCF, which eventually became the first democratic socialist government in all of North America. Douglas is considered (though sometimes he does not get the credit he deserves) the father of many of the social programs and legislation we take for granted today:

- prime creator of public healthcare in Saskatchewan, which soon spread to the rest of the country with the help of Lester B Pearson and John Deifenbaker
- created several Crown corporations
- created legislation that allowed the unionization of the public service
- helped pass the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, which protected equality rights and fundamental freedoms for the individual from the government as well as from more powerful corporations and individuals
- creation of the Saskatchewan Power Corp which was publicly owned and helped deliver electricity to rural farms and villages

He eventually went on to become the leader of the NDP until his retirement in 1979.

Douglas fought hard for what he believed in even when no one would back him up; he was the definition of a true activist. He faced enormous struggles in creating public healthcare especially, which is something the majority of Canadians are grateful for today.

thank you Kimmy

heart is finished

trying to pick up the pieces of myself that are strewn about, pick myself up off the floor

i tried so hard

fear.

"What did the Fascist regimes in Italy, Germany, and Spain have in common? They consisted of a highly militarized state, backed by corporation and a wealthy elite, that rose to power through a false populism that exploited the public’s fear of foreigners and ‘moral degenerates.’”

- Sean Donahue

sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?

On a related note, this article makes me lose my faith in humanity. Or I should say, the remaining faith I had, since there wasn't much to begin with. Apparently, 25% of Americans (I prefer the term USians, myself) still think that Obama is Muslim. In fact, this percentage has gone up since the last poll, probably due to Obama's support for the Islamic community center in New York City (which is another post in itself). More than two years into his presidency, and the discussion on whether he is Muslim or not is STILL going on?! I fail to see why anyone should care what religion he identifies as? He is not Muslim, and the worst part is that all the hand wringing surrounding this non-issue implies that there is something terribly wrong with identifying as such.

The only people that care are the ones who need to assess why they're so terrified of a religious faith that has millions of followers around the globe. Islam is not the problem here, it's your own special mix of fear, hate, willful ignorance and privilege that keeps the cycle of hate and violence churning. It is not the duty of the millions of peaceful Muslims who practice their faith every day across the globe (the majority of which live in Indonesia, by the way, NOT the Middle East) to prove to YOU, white ignorant right wing American, that they are not violent or radical. It is the duty of the racist, white ignorant American to check their privilege and read a goddam book.

This issue at its deepest level boils down the fact that the current president of the United States is not white. In other words, in the eyes of racist white Americans, he is not one of "us". He is not on "our side". Because of this, and because, as we know, radical right wingers only have straight, cis, able-bodied, white, male interests in mind, the radical right wing media and "politicians" will do anything to discredit and smear him, create all kinds of impossible barriers and obstacles to prevent him from making any progress, (like, umm, accusing him of being racist or a Muslim radical) and then call him out for not making any progress. They do this because they are really, truly angry that a black man is president of the United States, and they really, really want him to fail. Because, how dare he, right? How dare he think that he's allowed to lead the GREAT United States of America?

The racism and Islamophobia coming out of the United States is not just American's problem. This is the entire Western world's problem, because this reflects poorly on every nation with Western ideals. This is a matter of oppressor vs oppressed, in which we, being richer, more powerful, and overwhelmingly white, are the oppressor. Which is why it so important to show the rest of the world that we overwhelmingly welcome diversity and freedom of religion.

trouble in paradise

"i just heard a foghorn I'm sure. we're back on the island. just me and you. a beach. an ocean. and an eternity to spend."