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Pier Pressure

Pistol Whipped By Margaret Cho

Ughh...
Finally some one points out the obvious!
So usual lunch topics can usually get controversial and crazy with some of the ladies i work with and when ever the whole dancing with the stars thing comes up i cringe and then a hilarious argument ensues. With me hating on palin and her non-celebrity child on a show with "stars" in the damn title. It all makes no sense and neither does that woman. Everything that comes out of her mouth is joke and already becoming a parody. I don't get how people can not only listen to her but actually believe anything she is trying to say. She comes off so stupid.
Whatever. Crazy lunch time antics are the only reason i even know about any of this. I don't watch this show , i never have. But IF i did i would boycott it like one friend i know did. I think that's awesome. Plus i think that guy "the situation" was on it too. Cant be good.
I think Margaret Cho is really funny..."Sarah supposedly blames Bristol harshly and openly (in the circles that I heard it from) for not winning the election, and so she told Bristol she “owed” it to her to do DWTS so that “America would fall in love with her again. Instead of being supposedly “handicapped” by the presence of her teen mom daughter, now Bristol is going to be an “asset” – a celebrity beloved for her dancing.”
Except she didn't win. That Dirty Dancing girl that looks like a completely different person now did. But now people will see her in more of a "positive" light which is what her mother wants. Its grose. Poor girl. The funniest clip I saw was the "I don't know how the be sexy" one on the soup or tosh.o or something. Yeah, ok. I think it true that she openly blames her own daughter and pushed her to be on that show. Hundred percent. Palin LOVES her fame! She even has her own lame show on that exploitative channel TLC(formerly the learning channel). But I really don't think she can run for president now. If she does I will be surprised, it will eb a joke. But i can be happy because she will be easy to beat if that is who the reps want to back in 2012. She should stick to her bumpkin appearances and trying to write books that make people like her.

Sole picks the West's five greatest myths

Read this...
And then read the things he is referencing...
and learn something....

Because Sole is not only intelligent, open minded, and on point...
He is DOPE! (and this guy knows his history, do you?)


Five Western Myths
by Tim Holland, a.k.a. Sole

1. Santa Claus

The modern Santa gets his roots from Sinter Klaas, the Dutch father of Christmas. Sinter Klass, with the help of his '"Zwarte Pieten," a.k.a. enslaved "black devils," brought gifts to children. He moved his residence to the North Pole, where he seemingly swapped out the Moors for Inuits. Today this myth lies at the center of our entire economy and arguably our way of life.

My biggest problem with Santa is that it teaches children that something comes out of nothing, and it gives them an early and tangible affirmation of the supernatural. Even during periods of relative prosperity, it's not uncommon for an American parent to take a second job around the holidays simply to perpetuate this myth. Maybe history laughs last, as yesterday's “Moors” are replaced the world over by today’s work force.


2. The Epic of Gilgamesh

The first epic poem ever written, there is something about the crudeness of the poetry, its repetition, and style that really floors me. This is where much of "Genesis" in the old testament draws its roots, most notably the tale of "The Great Deluge." In the Sumerian version, the "gods" decided to wipe out mankind simply because we were making too much noise, not because the city was corrupted and perverse.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story of a tyrant king created by the gods who seeks the leaf of immortality to be more like them. Although the leaf was stolen by a snake, Gilgamesh ironically attained immortality through the stone tablets that preserved this myth for 10,000 years. It is well known that Iraq/Babylon/Sumer is "the cradle of civilization," and this bizarrely written story speaks to the roots and motifs that pervade our "civilization."

3. Behold A Pale Horse by William Cooper

This is another story that has captured the imagination of conspiracy theorists, rappers, Tea Party members, and free thinkers alike. There are very powerful ideas in this book about how society is constructed. It explains how people are dumbed down, how information is organized, and how the world would be ruled. The basic premise of this “myth” is that secret societies control the world (on behalf of aliens), which wouldn’t be so annoying if so many people didn’t favor ready-made catch-all answers over researching history.

These stories were used for different ends by different groups in different times, but the result is always the same: “Do nothing; watch YouTube videos; you’re helpless.” I hate this myth the most, because it takes facts, twists them, and misleads the less educated. In the '80s, it was William Cooper. These ideas were then adapted by Alex Jones and are today being reworked by Glenn Beck on Fox News. Karl Marx said, “All that is solid melts into air”; in America, the reverse is also true.

4. The Matrix

Forget about the second and third Matrix movies. The original Matrix was inspired by the ideas of Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher inspired by OG situationist Guy Debord. Baudrillard believed that “man had ceased to be man and the world had ended when the spectacle took over.” The basic idea here is that the "spectacle" has its own agenda; it is an abstraction of power, finance, and media that grinds the Earth and its inhabitants down as raw resource. We are here as spectators — numbers in a giant machine that is controlled by little more than market forces.

Like in The Matrix, the modern worker is completely alienated from his labor and his reality. Thanks to modern technology and social networking, mankind manages to bypass both physical and geographical limitations. Technically, our bodies are not hooked up to giant fields that harvest us for energy to feed the machine, but we might as well be.

5. Revelations

America is a Christian nation, and even reformed Christians hold on to a lot of Christian beliefs. One of the most pervasive is Armageddon. Atheists hedge bets on societal collapse. Evangelicals don’t mind carbon emissions as long as Christ makes it back in time to rescue the pious. New-Agers wait for Atlantis to rise or 2012, when Jon Cusack will save a handful of whites. In reality, Revelations was about the fall of the Roman Empire, and it still is.

Soldier Poet

Since its veterans day, and i didn't get the day off, i was listening to NPR on the way home and heard Brian Turner reading his poems on the radio. I'm not very patriotic per se but i am a realist and this shit is real, almost surreal. I liked the one about the soldier in Lowe's seeing everything around him mimicking the imagery of war. I liked it because it is showing how humans do not just snap out of it once they leave or escape the trauma but rather carry it with them evermore and how that is true of negative aspects of life's experiences in general. I like what he is writing about now, about the value of human life en masse, on this planet as a whole, not just being the "good guys" and killing the "enemy".

The one from tonight isn't up yet.
ill try to find it later.

Prop 8 declared Unconstitutional!

Finally! Victory for civil liberties!
That is essentially what we are fighting for here. Whether you agree or dont agree with it, we are fighting for our basic civil rights. The more these rights are taken away from "certain groups" the more we all lose because sooner or later they will come for YOUR rights too. Being gay doesnt nominalize a person, same as being a WOMAN does not nominalize a person, yet we are fighting for our basic rights everyday (Sign the petition). Everybody diserves dignity and respect, you see, we are ALL equil.

Logorama

Check out this short film...






From a collaboration of French animation studio H5 directors, François Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.


Its producer, Nicolas Schmerkin, explains:

"It’s about the way we live and the way we react to these logos. The brain can register 14 logos in less than one second. Making the logos characters with sets and props is about what we’re living … They’re used for what they are."


Its extremely cleaver use of logos in specific locations create comedy, irony, and Ronald McDonald representing the villain, goes completely psychotic.
Don't miss OBEY posted up on the walls.

edit: 100th post!

Capitalism: A Love Story

The HuffPost had a great Michael Moore article this morning.

Im watching the film later.

Also, my new hero strikes back at dumb dumb after she tries to rally her cronies to oust him, saying"Do it for the rest of America". "I look forward to an honest debate with Governor Palin on the issues, in the unlikely event that she ever learns anything about them," Grayson said. His campaign added that "[s]cientists are studying Sarah Palin's travel between Alaska and Florida carefully. They hope to learn more about the flight patterns of that elusive migratory species, the wild Alaskan dingbat."

HA!

And, Uh-hum, I happen to live in America and I think he is one of the only House Reps. that actually takes the job seriously and is not afraid to speak the truth.

The Cove

Oscar winner for best documentary. This film was very difficult to watch. It is the kind of thing i would usually have to turn off (like anything on polar bears) to avoid intense heart break and total sadness, but I needed to watch this to know. We all need to know and that is why I am so glad it won. See this film! Think! Feel it! Learn more! DO SOMETHING! Pledge NOT to go see Dolphin and Whale shows!

Dolphins and other small marine mammals are not protected by the ban on commercial whaling — but, as we shall see, the methods used are so nonchalantly brutal and gut-churningly primitive that Taiji officials are understandably publicity-shy. (And, we learn later, there are other secrets lurking beneath the town’s thriving tourist industry and cute, dolphin-shape pleasure boats.) Consequently, anyone straying too close to the kill zone — a secluded lagoon protected by steep cliffs, manned tunnels and razor-wire gates — is violently harassed by videocam-wielding fishermen hoping to record an imprisonable offense.



^Richard O’Barry, Flipper's trainer turned Dolphin activist

His drooping eyes and sagging shoulders testify to the bone-deep exhaustion of someone who has spent the last 35 years atoning, and when he gate-crashes a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the video screen strapped to his chest is like a physical manifestation of decades of guilt.


You know there is a similar slaughter in Denmark's Faroe Islands as well as some sick sort of male right of passage. Read the article...
"I have seen the bays of the Faeroe Islands stained red with blood and I've heard the screams of mortally wounded whales pleading for their lives as insensitive brutes drunk on slaughter are showered in the hot blood of the whales, laughing and swearing as their vicious blades rape the whales repeatedly. It is a monstrous spectacle and it is an obscenity fully embraced by the Danish government and many of the Danish people.
When did concern for the environment and the protection of species become "cultural imperialism"? This is a ridiculous accusation from a country whose only claim to fame lately has been to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. Such is the cultural ignorance of the cartoonists that they did not know that Arabs do not wear turbans. Yet Denmark has defended the cartoons and Danes have expressed their belief that Denmark is defending Christian values in the face of Muslim extremism. This smacks more of cultural imperialism than the legitimate concern of European nations to stop the illegal killing of whales. Defending the rights of cartoonists as champions of Christian values while endorsing the illegal slaughter of whales and dolphins displays a warped sense of moral values."

I have not eaten meat in over 5 years for the reasons exposed in Fast Food Nation, Food, INC, and Meet your Meat. I refuse to eat beef, chicken, turkey, but I eat fish. Now I need to re-think my fish intake as well. Im not going to eat ANY seafood unless it is fairly local (alaska, because we cant eat fish off our coast due to heavy pollution). Horrible! This must stop! Im going to cut down on my main protein - tuna and salmon because tuna is already becoming endangered and risks harming other sea mammals and salmon because they are threatned and endangered now as well. MORE GOOD TOFU PLEASE!!!

I can not smile.

Our ocean is not meant to be RED!

The Winner of Debate II? "That One"

This artlcle leading up to the debate had the McCain campaign all set to usher in its message for the last 30 days of the campaign: "We may not be good for your bank account, your mortgage, your health care, or your job security -- but none of that will matter if you are dead.

John McCain: If You Want to Live."


This is fear-mongering at its best right here. Even Bush couldnt take it this far.

Then, during the debate, John McCain refered to Barack Obama as "that one".

Now they are calling Obama "traitor" and "terrorist" at McCain/Palin rallies. Lewis compared his campaign rhetoric to segregationist George Wallace.

Then at another rally, the mic was being passed around and landed in the hand of an elderly woman who said: "I don't trust Obama, I have read about him. He's an Arab."
McCain quickly grabbed the mic and said:"No, ma'am, He's a decent, family man, [a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

Its true that Obama isnt of arab descent, but the way McCain puts it sounds so racist... As if an "arab" can not be a decent person, or that a person can not be both an "arab" and a citizen? WTF?

The racism in this campaign is so unbelievable. It really makes me SICK!
Who are these people yelling "kill him"? Do they actually think they are correct?

Must see...

Last nights episode of The Daily Show is a must see.

A Million Doors for Peace

This is what I was doing last weekend. Along with tens of thousands of Americans all over the country.

Going door to door right in my neighborhood asking the 40 people on my list to sign the petition calling congress to end the war in Iraq and bring troops home with a year. We are not simply collection signatures.

Over the past 5-6 years we have marched, we have lobbied Congress, written letters, and said this war must end.

The goal here was to find NEW people who we havent met yet, and havent made up their minds yet. Our lists are compiled of newly registered and infrequently voting neighbors. Not just the same people who already agree with us to end the war. The idea is to deliver this petition to congress with a whole list of new supporters of ending the war in Iraq.

Here's the petition.

Also see the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq.

I did meet a few of my neighbors, one right in my building, that are very supportive of ending the war. That made my day.

Tina Fey As Sarah Palin On SNL

We were waiting for THIS! Me and my boyfriend were chatting about how great it would be if Tina Fey would come on SNL as Palin right after the RNC. A week later I hear she is AND Obama was slated to appear but had to cancel due to hurricane Ike.

Dead on!

I was waiting for Hilary to belt Sarah across the face with the piece of podium she tore off.

Last night the WORD on Colbert Report was hilarious! How dare you question your potential leaders!
I wont be laughing if these crooks actually win.

Seriously:
Tina Fey glasses, talks like she's chewing her face, charges victems for their own rape kits.


Suggested daily reading for the next 50 days.

I voted!
and Im glad that in CALI we squashed Prop 98!
Woo Woo.
Also Obama won the nomination.
Yippie!

This is going to be one crazy election, I can't wait to watch the debates!
So, Obama officially becomes the Democratic nominee at the party convention on Aug. 28, on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he delivered his vision of an America in which skin color no longer limited life's possibilities.
Doesnt that sound amazing? Especially after how Bush divided the country 20 ways to Sunday?

Here is a little article that explains how Obama was able to break fundraising records, I heard this on NPR. Amazing.

Here are a few facts about McCain...
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
(WOAH! That’s really scary!)
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6
(UNBELIEVABLE!!)
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10


Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html
"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/
2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us
"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/
3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/
4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/
5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007
"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/
6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80
"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home
7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022
"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/ 8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/
"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251
9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/
"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/
10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

I am now glad that my 5th grade social studies teacher made me watch the 1988
Bush - Dukakis debates and report on them. I didnt understand much of what they were saying back then but it was good to see at that young age.

OK, So I cant take it anymore, Its time to get political on this blog.
I have tried to restrain myself and keep this art and craft related with a few slips here and there, but this really urked me!
I was watching some talk show this weekend(maybe Chelsea Lately) and Shia Labeouf was on saying he got arrested in Burbank for smoking. WHAT?!? Well, he wasnt actually arrested like he said on the show but he did get cited. Apparently, this law went into effect may 12, 2007. I must have juked the cops on my last IKEA visit.
I ran across an article while researching on the subject that I really agreed with. It said...
"Women are already being forced to nurse their children out of public view because this natural and necessary event is repugnant to some. Women are being pulled off of airplanes because somebody considered their dress inapropriate. Recent articles speculate that being fat is contagious. Will we next say that no fat people are allowed within 5 ft of outdoor gathering places and event areas? Maybe bulimia is also contagious. Will thin people be next on the banned list? "No! That's ridiculous," you say. That's precisely what smokers were saying twenty years ago, and that is why I now see things differently. Now, I realize that the loss of one person's rights ultimately means the loss of rights for us all."

OK, cars and burning fossil fuels are a greater harm to people and the environment but they are not banned, there is no ban on sodium laureth sulfate which is in most shampoos and contains dioxane a known human carcinogen, there is no ban on hydrogenated trans-fat yet in large amounts are known to lead to obesity. The point is its YOUR CHOICE! Everyone makes their own daily decisions. These are called CIVIL LIBERTIES!
I could go on and on. I think the point is made.
That article again... "American society seems bent on taking political correctness to outrageous lengths. Soon there will be no segment of society except rich white male nonsmokers allowed in public places. There will always be some reason identified to ban another group."

So from this point on, I say...

FUCK YOU, Burbank

You have made it very clear that you do not want my business. From now on I will drive to the IKEA in Carson or Covina and I will instead drive to Eagle Rock to shop at Target. I will never visit your homogenized chain restraunts and mall.