Photo a day 22

November 22

Grateful

I keep promising myself that I'm going to post these photos to my blog the very same day I take them (at the very least) but it never works. So today I will promise myself that I will eventually up load all the photo a day photos I take. That should be an easy promise to keep.

Also, what I'm grateful for: Living somewhere where human rights actually mean something.

White people mourning Romney?

A tumblr that has simultaneously entertained me and made me weep for America. What gets me is that people would have such a strong reaction to the loss of someone who had managed to alienate 47% of the population and the majority of women and African-American voters (no really, Romney got a whopping 6% of the black vote).

I get it that his supporters felt that he was the best man for the job, but the reactions to his loss have been simply over the top. I mean, really, a death notice for America stating cause of death as suicide? Have you really been so brainwashed by the rape apologizing, female dehumanizing, racism of the far right that a moderate democrat in office is the death of a nation?

Obama is not Hitler and he will not commit genocide just because people disagree with him. Quite the opposite, he is far more capable of accepting opposing viewpoints than many of the so called "freedom" crowd. And he doesn't cry persecution every time someone say "I disagree".

He is neither Muslim (or as I have seen it “muslin”) nor Kenyan. This has been dead and beaten since 2004. If you can’t accept that, I suggest you spend the next 4 years sequestered in your bomb shelter so the rest of us can live in peace.

He is not a socialist dictator. Yes he has some socialist ideas, like insurance companies shouldn't be able to refuse to cover someone because of some so called "pre-existing" condition like being too tall or having a uterus. But if you really think Obama is creating a Commie Utopia, I strongly suggest you move to an actual communist country and see what the differences are.

Here's the thing, before Obama we had to put up with eight years of this guy named Bush. Someone that sunk the country into trillions of dollars’ worth of debt, started a war with every country that looked at us cross-eyed, and did everything in his power to screw over anyone who didn't fit in with the white, rich, middle aged demographic. Yes, I know the right has been working to erase these eight years from memory, but I haven't forgotten and neither will the rest of the bleed heart liberals. It didn't kill (most) of us to deal with Bush, I think you poor, persecuted Christian right could handle living in a country led by a man with some sense of social justice for another four years. Who knows, you might learn a thing or two.

Elections!

The best thing I've seen all night. I just about cried tears of joy when I saw that Obama had gotten more than 270 electoral votes.

Congratulations Mr. President, maybe one day we can see one of your daughters achieve the same honor.

These People Have An Audience?

Between Todd Akin claiming legitimate rape rarely causes pregnancy and Sharon Barnes insisting that pregnancy resulting from rape is a blessing, you’d think someone somewhere would get these people to shut up.

Unfortunately we get more bullshit from the same disturbed line of thinking. This time Paul Ryan, Romney’s chosen Vice Presidential candidate, is claiming that rape is just another form of conception. I can’t be the only person disturbed by the recent drive by Grand Old Party candidates’ attempts to trivialize a serious and disgusting breach of one’s person. What’s next? Decriminalizing domestic violence? Oh, wait, Topeka, Kansas has already done that.

The United States is going to hell in a handbag, but you know what? The Neo-cons are wrong, it’s not us liberal, LGBTQ, single mother loving, fornicating bleeding hearts sending it there. It’s the misogynistic assholes like these people who are doing it to us.

And with that I leave you with this video. In case there is any question about what is or isn’t rape.

Stupidity That Knows No Bounds

For many people the Tea Party encompasses all that is wrong with the US today. They are nothing more than a group of racist, neo-con, ignorami. Now, a tea partier has expanded on that. Jerome Corsi has decided that because President Obama once wore a ring on his left ring finger and sat on the same couch as his roommate in university, they must have been married. That’s right folk… According to Corsi, Obama was involved in a “gay marriage” before he was married to his wife Michelle. There is so much wrong with this logic I am having a hard time figuring out where to start, so I’ll start with this: I hate the term “gay marriage” and if Obama was married to another man before being married to a woman, it clearly illustrates why I have a problem with the term. Gays are not the only ones who are looking to marry people of the same gender. You want to be accurate, the term same-sex marriage covers it best. Now we can look at two of the main logic fails. 1) The ring – Obama wearing a ring on his left ring finger means jackshit. Really. Plenty of unmarried people I knew in my younger years wore a ring on that finger for a number of different reasons (the most common of which was they did the whole purity shit and that is traditionally where the purity ring goes). 2) Hyperbole – Really… Apparently sitting on the same couch together (mind you closer than usual, due to an excess of crap on one end of the couch) is the same as Obama sitting in this guy’s lap. One big rule of trying to make a logical argument is do not exaggerate your points. That just makes it a big joke. So, clearly Corsi knows what he’s talking about, right? *snort* Not likely.

A Truly Canadian Death Threat

As it turns out, asking someone if they have been to The Stampede yet is now Calgarian for “I want to beat you senseless, take your money and kick your dog!”

Various news sources have latched onto a letter to the editor sent into The Calgary Herald by Walt Wawra, a Kalamazoo, Michigan police officer, who was visiting Calgary with his wife during the aforementioned rodeo. The letter tells of the man’s terrifying experience while going for a walk with his wife in Nose Hill Park. Apparently a couple of men stopped Wawra and his wife to ask them if they had been to the Stampede and Wawra found this to be a very threatening inquiry. He concludes his letter by writing “Would we not expect a uniformed officer to pull his or her weapon to intercede in a life-or-death encounter to protect self, or another? Why then should the expectation be lower for a citizen of Canada or a visitor? Wait, I know - it's because in Canada, only the criminals and the police carry handguns.”

Now, as someone who doesn’t live in Calgary, I admit I am not completely up on all the intricacies of the city’s social customs. It has, however, been brought to my attention that it is not wholly unusual for people to ask each other during the Stampede if they have gone to see it. Nor is it particularly strange for there to be offers of free tickets, which is probably closer to what these two men were packing than an actual weapon. I am very much in the category of people who read this letter and seriously questioned the validity of it. It just seems like a huge joke. But then I am not in the habit of assuming someone asking me a question about an event that happens to be going on at that time.

I would be suspicious of free ticket offers (only because I would wonder if the person offering was trying to pawn off counterfeits on me.) But I cannot imagine the mental gymnastics required to make the leap from “have you been to the Stampede yet?” to “I’m just going to shoot you, ok?” I also have a hard time believing that crime is so prolific in the United States that one must consider pulling a gun because a stranger decided to make small talk.