This makes me sick.

Let's get one thing straight, with all of humanity, right here and right now.

WE ARE ANIMALS, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER LIVING THING THAT CRAWLS, WALKS, OR SLITHERS.

We are not better than then any other animal.

We do not have any more right to be here, on this planet than any other animal does.

Every animal, on this planet, including humans, has the right to survive, to eat, to defend itself with any means at its disposal.

Death is a part of life, and is acceptable in the natural cycle. AND ONLY the natural cycle. The needless torture and death as an act of ownership that humans exhibit for their own pleasure is a CRIME AGAINST EVERY LIVING THING.

There is a man in South America that calls himself an artist. He goes by the name of Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. In 2007, he took a dog off the street and tied it to a post in an art gallery, while people watched this poor defenseless animal starve to death.

I'm not only horrified that this is called art, but that his government condoned it as such. Take a look at the pictures here, if you are strong of stomach. What kind of person could do such a thing? What kind of government can allow it? What kind of people could visit the gallery and sit by and do nothing?

The answer, in short, are cowards. Cowardly people that are not right in the head, in my opinion.

So what can you do about it, besides flying down to Nicaragua and overthrowing the government that condoned this, beating the people that watched it, and killing the criminal who though it up?

Sign this petition.

This dirt bag is going to pull the stunt again, this year, in 2008. Sign the petition. It doesn't cost you anything, and every extra name helps.

One more thing. If you feel strongly about this like I do, put this up on your blog. It's not just about one dog, it's about a statement, a contingent of people who won't stand for barbaric, medieval style thinking. It's one of the many things that you and I can do to start to bring the human animal in harmony with our world and our roomates, instead of constant conflict with it.

Until we can come to grips with our own superiority complex, the only true animals that inhabit this planet is us humans.

=======

If you care about the world at all, please read the following:

The story of stuff

Dissapointment, and an Opinion

I was disappointed today.

One of my blogging heroes, V at Violent Acres, made a broad, sweeping generalization that smacks of ignorance for a person of her clear logic and rational intelligence.

She said:

The problem with Atheists is most of them are snobs.

She went onto describe them as "dumb" and "fighting a losing battle", amongst other things.

This doesn't particularly sound like something she would say in a rational state of mind. Generalizations like that are akin to saying "MOST Catholic priests diddle little boys", "MOST protestants gaybash and witchunt", or " MOST Sicilians are part of the mob".

In a repeating cycle, people from any one group who are at the fundamentalist end of the extreme are also the loudest. These are the people who want to make their arrogant and misguided views known to the world with as much muster and fanfare as they can possibly provide. Their voice does not represent the whole, rather, it makes the rest look bad. Most people are trying to live their lives, not host rallies and websites and posters that scream to the world "Everybody that believes anything other than we do are retards!"

People who spearhead fundamentalist and extreme, loud and obnoxious initiatives are all the same people; they are merely waving a different banner.

I do, however, have an opinion that can be construed as a broad, sweeping generalization.

I do believe that most people live for themselves, and work towards mostly their own interests. It's an evolved trait that's good for the survival of you or your own, but in this rapidly constructed "village" of millions and billions, there can be adverse effects.

For example, next election pay attention to what many people are saying around you. I bet it'll be something like "but this candidate is going to slash taxes, that's good." or "But this candidate will be giving us more money for child tax credit! I have six children, that's good! Vote for him!"

Very few people make statements concerning the policies that affect the good of the whole, unless it's a popular topic such as the environment. And that's only because it's a bandwagon opinion, and they're whole heartedly jumping on board (only after ensuring their candidate makes an election promise that benefits them directly).

Politicians cater to the people's whims. More so, they cater to the whims of the large conglomerates, and the large conglomerates want to ensure that the people are consumer whores. It benefits them, and what benefits them benefits the politicians.

In essence, an entitelist "not my fault" attitude is good for big business, and what's good for big business is good for the politicians. That attitude changes little among the first world, and you don't get much change between major parties, only superficial differences.

In the futuristic world of Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the only people on Earth who are allowed to vote are people who are classed as "citizens". Sure, you can live your life without getting your citizenship. You can get a job, you can start a company, you can be the CEO of a major corporation and rake in billions of dollars if that's your aptitude. But unless you're a citizen, you can't vote.

Citizens are those who have served time in the military. Hard time. That's the only way you can get your citizenship, and that's the only way you will ever be allowed to vote.

The reason this system was instilled? Because those who have served time in the military are trained to think of the good of the whole above the good of themselves. That attitude is carried forward to the polls.

The world he created does not suffer from a draining social system, rampant frivolous lawsuits and a self centered attitude. The economy is strong, taxes are low, and people are happy. The only real threat to this planet comes from off of it, from an alien species.

Call me jaded, as good as this sounds, I don't think it will ever be possible to achieve. At least, not in the very near future.

Oh, and just for the record, the definition of atheist is as follows:

atheism is the absence of belief in deities

That's it, that's all. Anything further to that is the opinion of one person, or a group of people, and has no bearing on anyone else.

My personal feelings are a lack of empirical evidence, and the entirety of monotheistic religions claim they are correct and insist that everyone else is wrong. Accordingly, even the subsets of the same religion cannot agree; so which religion would I choose when all of them are as right, and as wrong as the next?

The answer is none of them.

At the same time, I cannot prove that said deities do not exist, and a particular religion is wrong. I believe that all have the right to practice what they believe, as long as it does not do any harm, physically or emotionally, to their own or to anyone else.

I believe in the RIGHT for anyone to uphold their own personal belief without harrasement.

And I expect the same from everyone else.

Yea, I was rambling, and I mixed in two different topics together. It's my blog and I'll do what I wanna!

==============

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Abortion!
Absurdity of Homophobia
My Superpower
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The story of stuff - EXACTLY how it is.

Close your eyes, you need to concentrate. Wait, don't. You won't be able to read this. So don't close your eyes, but eliminate all distractions from your environment. Turn off the music, let the dog outside, placate the children, do whatever you have to do to create twenty five minutes of free time.

Do it, it's important. This concerns your life, and the life of your children and their children. This is about the very future of mankind itself.

Imagine the planet as a train. Imagine that as the train gains passengers (population), it picks up speed. Over time, it gains more passengers, and picks up more speed. I suppose you'd want to know it's eventual destination right? It's destination is a wall.

Do you really want to be in that train when it hits?

We live on a planet, with finite resources. This means that nothing (other than solar radiation and a bit of space dust) comes in, and nothing goes out. What's on this planet is all we have, and when we run out, it's gone.

Consider how you live. What do you do when you don't like the colour of your kitchen cabinets anymore? When your shoes become unfashionable? How many bags of garbage do you put to the curb every week?

And where does it go?

If you answered, I buy more stuff, I put lots of garbage out, and it goes to the landfill, those are the answers I was looking for, those were the truthful answers.

Let me ask you this. If the earth is a finite system, and all it's stuff is filtering through you to the landfill, what happens when the earth runs out of stuff?

Haven't thought of that did you. You were too busy enjoying all your stuff, and shopping for new stuff.

That's the problem. We're complacently running ourselves faster and faster into that wall, towards certain doom, and the best that we can do is put it out of our minds and go shopping, for more stuff.

But don't take my word for it, I'm just an amateur. Luckily, we have someone out there batting for us, someone who's done the research, someone who knows the straight goods. That person is Annie Leonard, and she gives us the story of stuff.

Go to her website here. Watch the flash movie. And please, pay attention. If you don't want to navigate away from this page to watch it, I have it for you below, albeit in a lesser quality version than is on her site.




I hope those of you that have watched this have taken it seriously. Please do, because in the end, it applies to us all.

Go to www.thestoryofstuff.com. Check out the resources. Develop an active interest in taking true, meaningful steps to saving our planet, and all of us that live on it. Most importantly, spread Annie's message to as many people as you can. Knowledge is power, and there is power in numbers.

Let's make a difference before we hit that wall, shall we?

=========

If you liked the above, you may also like:

We're the problem, ok?

Dealing with the Evangalistic Douchebag

Why do Christian Evangelists feel the need to make the second thing they say to you "have you let Jesus into your heart?" You know, if they took the time to know you better, they'd know the answer to that question. Don't they know that this falls into the same line as annoying as hell telemarketers trying to sell a shitty product or service? Why are they trying to cheapen their belief by becoming nothing more than a door to door crappy vacuum salesmen?

If they took the time to actually talk to me, they'd find out that I don't believe in their invisible sky fairy any more than I believe in any one else's invisible sky fairy. I don't try to proselytize any Christians into atheism, why should I? Your beliefs are your own and you are welcome to them. I don't want to push any thing onto anybody, I really, truly don't care if you believe in Jesus, or Allah, or some sort of magical purple unicorn that flies out of your ass every stinking night.

The funny thing is, if there was atheist evangelists, the religious evangelists would cry foul. THOSE ATHEISTS ARE DESCRIMINATORS! SUE THEM! ARREST THEM! STOP THEM! Seriously, try that with an evangelist and see how upset they get. I guess it's ok for them to do it to others, but turnabout isn't fair play. Do they not realize that by pushing your beliefs on others, it's the same as saying "you're an idiot for believing what you believe. Only our beliefs are correct, and you're going to hell." The hypocrisy some of these evangelists spout is thick and palatable.

Let's get one thing straight, evangelists. There is as much physical, empirical, and quantitative evidence for your invisible sky fairy as any one else's, and that evidence is NONE. No one living has seen your god, and those who have come from a thousands of years old book that has no historical backing. You heard me. Understand that the winners write the history books. The societies that have won the wars, that have taken dominance over the lands, these are the people who get their stories told. And these stories usually are extremely biased. Historians know this, so before something becomes historical fact, historians look for records of the same events from different societies. Preferably enemies of the winners. If the two more or less agree, it becomes fact.

THERE ARE NO AGREEMENTS ON HOLY BOOKS.

Everything remains, your belief. So you see, EVERY religion is on a level playing field. Understand? I know you don't, Mr. Evangelist Douchebag, which is why I've scripted a response to you. Anyone who wants to use it, please feel free.

Evangelist Douche: Hello Mr. Spazoid, nice day isn't it.
Spazoid: Sure is, how are you today.
Evangelist Douche: Just fine, have you let Jesus into your heart?
Spazoid: No, but I let him into my trunk.
Evangelist Douche: Pardon?
Spazoid: Yea, when I was vacationing in Cozumel.
Evangelist Douche: I don't understand?
Spazoid: Yea, he wanted to get across the border, and I felt sorry for him. So I let him into my trunk to smuggle him across. The problem was, the retard made ALL sorts of noise at the border. Something about going to the bathroom. I left the guy an empty bottle back there to use, what the hell?
Evangelist Douche: Sir, I don't see how -
Spazoid: Yea, the border patrol had to arrest him. I had to act all "Holey shit! How the hell did he get in there!" to avoid getting arrested. Boy, was he was pissed!
Evangelist Douche: But you don't get it, I -
Spazoid: He wasn't nearly as pissed as the girl I was seeing at the time. That was her father! I didn't get laid for a month!
Evangelist Douche: *Stammering uncontrollably*
Spazoid: Are we done here? Get off my porch.

Good luck to all!

March 2, 2008 UPDATE!

To those who haven't seen this before, how'd you like this to come knocking at your door? And are you as disgusted as I am?



========

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Condom Nation

The United States government was in an uproar. The nations largest condom supplier had a huge meltdown of their biggest factory. The breakdown was so severe that it would be weeks, if not months, before the factory could be ramped up to full production again.

Fearing a whole host of unwanted and unplanned births taxing the nations welfare and charity systems to breaking, a shaken President of the United States called the nearest industrialized first world country, Canada, for help.

The Canadian Prime Minister was more than happy to help their nearest and closest ally in their time of need. He promised the President that he would have the Canadian condom factories ramp up production and start shipping in two days time. With all luck, the timing would be such that the American condom market would never know the hit to their supplies.

The Prime Minister hung up the telephone and arranged for an emergency meeting with all of Canada's condom manufacturers. Once the heads of the companies were all seated around a table in Parliament Hill, the explained the situation and the importance of meeting production.

All of the manufacturers agreed to get started immediately. The Prime Minister made one last stipulation. "Gentlemen" he said with a grin, "Every single condom to be shipped to the states, shall be ten inches long, five inches wide, and labeled as Canadian size small".

=================================

The above story is not true, but is based on a true story. The actual story involved Bill Clinton and some personal lubricant, but that's all I'm authorized to say.

American ladies, there is one thing I want you to know. When you convert from Imperial measurements to Metric measurements, the number increases dramatically. My doors are open to any interested American woman.

Things I notice.

Try this. Rent an all female porno (or grab one from your collection), close your eyes and listen to the noises being made. Remembering that noise, watch a female tennis match in a similar manner. Just listening, I have a very hard time telling the two apart.

I notice a very disturbing trend in floors getting more and more shiny and reflective, and women wearing skirts less often.

I notice that my farts don't really smell that bad, but everyone acts like they do.

Old people are always telling me to slow down. Funny thing, I'm usually not driving at the time.

Babies and puppies go out of their way to poo in an inconvenient spot at an inconvenient time. It's like they KNOW.

Cats go out of their way to make sure they are sleeping in the most inconvenient spots. When they do this, a Mac truck won't make them move. I notice that cats are jerks.

I notice the difference between cheap beer and expensive beer. Expensive beer is much better. Until I've had eight or nine expensive beers. Then I don't notice the difference between the two at all.

I notice women with mustaches. In my town, I can't help not to. They ALL have mustaches.

Think no one will notice that bit of spinach stuck to your teeth? Trust me, I notice.

Every once and a while I go to an all you can eat buffet. I notice all the extremely overweight people there. I notice that they eat four or five times what I eat. I notice that their plates are piled high with high fat fried foods without a single vegetable. I notice my plate, with visible separation between the foods. I notice that this is a buffet, meaning you can go up as many times as you want. I notice that these fat people don't understand that.

When I go to the gym, I notice the same overweight people leaning against a cardio machine, eating a high calorie weight lifter protein bar and complaining about their weight problem.

I notice people picking their nose in the car. Especially in traffic jams. I notice car windows are transparent. I wonder why no one else does?

I notice smokers smoking underneath a no smoking sign. Assholes.

I notice when politicians lie. I've noticed that politicians lie every time they open their mouth.

I notice the right wing fundamentalist christian right movement scream bloody murder about being persecuted. I notice the same group persecuting christians of slightly different beliefs, atheists, homosexuals, muslims, pagans and wiccans. I noticed myself laughing at the bullshit being oozed by this group of idiots.

I notice women noticing when I am shifting my junk around. I notice women don't understand what it's like having your junk hanging between your legs, and you can only resist so long when it needs adjusting. How long can women resist scratching itches? It's like that.

These are the things I notice.

The Absurdity of the Canadian Criminal Code

I must apologize for the following content. I know that Spazoid's Space is supposed to be a humour blog, but there is something I must get off my chest.

How would you answer the following statement?

If someone breaks into your home, and you do what it takes to protect your family and yourself, does that make you a criminal?

I answer NO.

The American government answers NO.

The Canadian government answers:

YES.

In Canada, if someone breaks into your home and you take preventative action to ensure the safety of your loved ones, before the CRIMINAL who illegally and forcibly entered your home has the opportunity to cause harm, you are a criminal and you go to jail. For a very long time.

The Canadian Criminal code is exceptionally lenient towards violent offenders, especially first time violent offenders, in the hopes that they can be rehabilitated quickly. Canadian law states that you cannot take action above what an attacker is taking to subdue him. If someone pushes you down on the street, you cannot do more than push him back. If he punches you, you can only punch him back - once. If he stabs you in the gut, you can take higher action to protect yourself - only if he's already stabbed you, if you aren't laying in the ditch bleeding, that is. Even then, if you manage to hurt him to stop his attack on yourself and possibly others, after you are done your hospital stay (should you survive) you will be sitting in the defendants chair in a Canadian courtroom.

This applies to any situation, including in your own home.

This means that in the past, people have been doing nothing more than trying to protect themselves have gone to prison as criminals. Doesn't that make you sick? I know it really angers me.

I especially have a problem with this as it applies to the breaking and entering of your home.

I recognize that most people who do this are only looking to steal things to make money. They target homes when they know people aren't home. They don't carry weapons, and usually a simple HEY! will send them packing.

That's not the situation every time.

If you catch someone breaking into your home, you have to assume his intent is hostile. Why else would he forcibly enter your home? You don't know if he has a weapon, what his intent is, if he'll do anything to get your stuff to sell for his next crack fix, if he's thinking clearly or not.

How long do you have to decide how to act if someone breaks into your home?

The answer is just a split second.

You can't ascertain if he wants to steal something, if he wants to rape your wife or daughter, if he's high on something and thinks he's Harry Potter come to save the world by killing the evil wizard, YOU, in his mind. You just don't know. You do know that his intent is NOT good. When someone forces their way into your home, their intent is CRIMINAL right off the hop.

About a decade ago in my county, a drunk man entered someones home in the middle of the night carrying a knife. He wandered around, found their teen aged daughters bedroom, stabbed her in the stomach, and left.

Had the house owner found this man before he got to the daughters bedroom, knife in hand, and shot him or beat him to submission with a baseball bat, according to Canadian law the house owner would be serving a decade or two for manslaughter. The criminal would be walking the streets in months.

We need to treat criminals as criminals and victims as victims. If you need to take action to ensure your families safety in a home invasion that results in the injury or death of the person breaking in, YOU are STILL the VICTIM and he is STILL the CRIMINAL.

We MUST allow taxpaying and law abiding citizens to reasonably protect themselves from criminals. We MUST change the law. We must recognize intent and appropriate action, and we must understand the circumstances involving a break in.

Please do not misunderstand me. I'm not lobbying for a gun in every house hold, or the right to kill someone unchecked should they enter your property without permission. I'm asking that we do not make victims criminals, and allow house owners reasonable opportunity to protect themselves and their families without the concern of spending time in jail. I'm asking for Canadians to be able to act properly without freezing in confusion, in worry that their protective actions will make them a criminal.

It's time for us law abiding Canadian taxpayers to take action. We must be able to not worry about protecting our loved ones, and the consequences from the government for doing so. Can you imagine a family with a dead child, and a husband in jail for life, while the real criminal walks the streets?

What kind of justice is that?

I call on all concerned Canadians to tackle our overly liberal and lax attitude towards protecting the wrong and punishing the victims. I call for everyone who is concerned to write letters to their MP's. Bombard them. Make them see that we will not be made victims of any more. Show them that we are proud of what we worked for an will not allow criminals and our own government to push us in the mud.

For the sake of our loved ones, we need to be able to protect them without fear of unjust reprisal from the government!

Thank you to all who would listen. If you are Canadian and concerned, please forward this short article to all you think would benefit from it.

To be the Canadian - Part 1, dreams of the big city

There are many stereotypes and mythes surrounding Canadian life. I'm writing this post today hoping I can clear up a few of those, by describing some of the events and actions I endure on a daily basis, as a Canadian. There is much to being Canadian, which is why I have titled this only part one of a series of posts to come.

I apologize if this is a bit quick. I'd like to make it longer, but my turn on Canada's Central Ontario computer is almost done. We got a colour screen last week! Everything is so vibrant! I can't believe the graphics on the new copy of PacMan we got on 5 1/4" floppy last week! But I digress.

It was the middle of August, when summer finally came. I was getting ready to move out of the winter igloo and into the summer log cabin, as I only had a week left before the igloo started to melt. I crawl out of the igloo and head towards the cabin, only to find a family of Grizzly bears have taken residence. Shit. Once a grizzly family settles in somewhere it's damn near impossible to get them out. What's worse, there's a full grown mom and pop, and three teen aged cubs.

Unfortunately, the night before I had lent my high caliber rifle to Lenny to go moose hunting in his backyard. You know Lenny from Canada right? Man, what a hoser, eh? Anyways, they are only grizzlies, it's not like I'm facing polar bears or anything. I can take a grizzly, or possibly two of the teen aged cubs, but not all five of them. No way sir! I'm not crazy!

Well, as every Canadian knows, grizzly and beaver are mortal enemies. The only way to get grizzlies to move out of a location is to make them think they have immediate competition for the space by beaver. Of course, beavers are inherently lazy animals, so you have to really force the situation. It's easy to catch beaver during the day, because they are nocturnal. So off I go to the beaver damn, poke a hole in their nest, and scoop up the lot of them.

A dozen beaver in hand, I sneak up to my log cabin kitchen window opening and throw them in. I then run like the dickens, as the mayhem inside ensues. Screaming, growling, gnashing of teeth, bangs and bumps, this goes on for 15 minutes before I see the door come flying open and the grizzly family going full tilt in one direction, followed by a dozen angry beavers. I swear, I saw one of the beavers flip the bears off before heading back to fix their broken ceiling.

As I make myself busy at the cabin cleaning up the bloody chunks of bear and poo of various sizes and messes, I find my thoughts wandering to moving. I always wanted to check out Canada's biggest city, Toronto. It's up to 500 people now, and that's enough to keep the bears away. It's not that I mind small town life, mind you, but I'm really getting sick of these stupid bears. Just yesterday I was getting ready to go to work. I come out of my igloo and what do I see? A dumb bear leaning up against the dogsled. I had to shoot the damned thing because it wouldn't move. It even took a swipe at me! At least the dogs had a good breakfast that morning.

Really though, have you ever slipped on beaver poo? Those stupid little animals leave their turds EVERYWHERE. I heard that in Toronto, the mayor hired some Inuit to train the beaver to pick up after themselves. I think. Either that or the Inuit just picked up all the beavers and left with them, I don't know. I don't really care though. Beaver are only good for scaring bears anyways, and I wouldn't need them anymore if I was living in the big city.

Speaking of which, here's a picture of our grand provincial capital.

Some people say that cities are ugly, but I disagree. I find the architecture awe inspiring! It's so straight and level, the degree of engineering is incredible! Those vibrant colours, and look! Do you see that? It's a CAR! Wow.

If I moved to Toronto I could get a desk job. I'm not quite sure what a desk job is, but I imagine it involves assembling desks. Or moving them maybe. I'm not sure really, never having seen a desk. I am told it looks something like a picnic table that's made out of metal and has something called "drawers". They make furniture out of metal in Toronto! Whole pieces of furniture! Man, it must be nice to be rich!

In Toronto, you don't have to carry a machete around with you to hack away at all the over growth to get from place to place. You don't need a compass either, because they have something there called "roads". Basically, a road is a path that's kept clear and is lined with cement. I can't imagine! Old man Smith has a cement foundation he builds his igloo around, but that's only because his dad got rich after a trip to America. In America, they have these things called "malls", that have "water fountains" in them. Apparently, Americans throw pennies into these fountains and make wishes. What a superstitious lot. Everyone knows that you have to catch a loon in a lake under a full moon for a wish to come true. Anyways, Smiths old man waded around in the fountain and came back to Canada with almost three American dollars! Talk about living the high life! Anyways, the people in Toronto must be super rich to be able to pave their streets!

I want to do all the big city things! Drive a car! Eat a burger! Drink beer out of a glass bottle (instead of a hollowed out bear skull)! Wear clothing made from something called "cloth" instead of moose pelt! See a movie on the big screen! In colour! With sound! Have sex with a woman that isn't some sort of cousin! All the good stuff!

But I know that big city life just isn't for me. I know that I'll go there, and I just won't fit in. I won't be cooth, I won't be cool, I won't be able to adapt myself to the high standards of high society. Hygene for one. I mean, they have something called a toothbrush, which means they have teeth!

I spent the summer thinking about the big city, thinking about all the things I'd never be able to see or do. All the things I'd miss out on in my life, the things that city folk get to do every day. The more I think about it, the more I realize how happy I am here. I mean, I'm my own made man. I'm responsible for the pinecones and deer liver in my gut! The skins on my back, and the roof over my head!

With the summer behind me, and my thoughts now on the happy life I'd created for myself here, I felt a smug satisfaction come over me. I no longer felt the need to turn my back on real Canadian life. With that, I went outside to start building the winter igloo. It was late September after all, and I wouldn't be able to last in the summer cabin much longer.

As I waded through the shin deep snow towards the spot where I build the igloo, I see that same bear family making their home in the remnants of last years shelter. Blast, and Lenny still has my rifle! Oh well, off to find some beavers.

Until next time,

-Canadian Spazoid

Merry Christmas to us, but lets talk about those less fortunate.

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope everyone is immersed in holiday cheer,and are enjoying family, lots of good food and gift exchange.

This post will not be humorous or entertaining in any way. I know that's not like the Spazoid theme, but sometimes, you just have to get serious. If you do need a chuckle in the Spazoid style, please check out the new About Me section for a laugh or two. Please! I worked hard on it!

Not too long ago Drowsey Monkey introduced her regular readers to a charitable organization she donates too. It's called Kiva, and I believe that this is the very BEST third world charitable organization that has EVER been conceived, that I've ever heard of.

You're probably asking for an explanation, and not to worry, I've got one coming.

Most third world charitable organizations that I've heard of focus on saving the children. They want you to sponsor a child for a small amount of money, and this sponsorship feeds, clothes, vaccinates this child. Without that sponsorship, that child would likely die of starvation and/or disease.

Please don't get me wrong. The horrible images these charities plaster on the T.V. sicken me to the bone. Watching those suffering children makes my skin crawl, and I just want to feed them all, make them better, do SOMETHING. It appeals directly to my emotion and by passes my logic.

But logic prevails. My logic tells me that this is a band-aid fix only, and will help the problem for now, but will create a bigger problem in the future.

You see, these children are starving because the economy and resources of the country to which they were born cannot support them. If it cannot support them then they do not get food and they die. Best case scenario says that they should not have been born in the first place. It is the way of nature, and nature is a cruel mistress.

Let me give you a theoretical example of how things are made worse by these charities. All the numbers here are numbers that I've pulled out of my ass for effect. I don't know the exact numbers, but I do know this scenario to be true.

Lets say the first world has a maximum of 10,000 money units to donate per year. Lets say it takes 1 money unit a year to feed and clothe a third world child, and there are 10 third world children this year. That makes a surplus 9,990 money units available. Great, those children are full, healthy and grow up to have children of their own. Ten children makes 5 breeding pairs. Each breeding pair has 10 children each, making 50 children. Those 50 children are also starving, because remember, the resources available have not changed. Thats fine, because with 10,000 money units available, that leaves a surplus of 9,950 money units and children with full bellies.

Using this scenario, how long will it take before the money surplus turns into a deficit? In 5 years, there will be 31,250 extra starving children from the original 10. Since the maximum amount of money units available from the first world is only 10,000, that leaves 21,250 children to starve to death.

In effect, these band aid charities have saved the first 10 children but condemned 21,250 children to death in the future with a band aid solution. That doesn't sound very charitable to me, does it?

You might be saying to yourself "but we can't just do nothing!". You don't have to do nothing. You can donate to an organization that helps fix the root problem. You can donate to Kiva.

Kiva is absolutely brilliant. Instead of treating the symptoms of the disease, they treat the disease itself. Kiva gathers first world donations to give to third world business as loans. The third world businesses use the donate money to purchase supplies and training for their services and shops, and repay the money once they are up and running. One of the best parts is that it helps these people keep their dignity, and someones dignity is a powerful need, almost as much as keeping fed.

This bolsters the third world economies, which in turn draws in more money, and more services. There are more jobs for people, more resources, and more resources available to the people. That ensures that the children born there, are born to parents that are able to take care of them, and they get fed under the resources generated and owned by their own parents. And since there is an economy in that country, the children grow up to be able to do productive work and feed their own children.

Kiva takes your money, and loans it to the third world business people in need. Once the money is repaid, you can choose to take it back, or re loan it to another third world business in need. Personally, I plan to donate a small amount of money and just keep it rolling through those in need, like Drowsey Monkey is doing.

It is not a perfect system, and there will always be hardships everywhere. Sometimes you may lose money as it's not able to be paid back. Again, this is the way of the world, you can't make it perfect. What you can do, is make sure you help in the right way. With the money I'll loan out, the risk I take is lose the money, OR truly help someone in need.

Please, if you are interested in helping third world relief, send your money to Kiva and help fix the problem, not the symptom.

Death Penalty - to Kill or not to Kill

There are two sides to the issues of the death penalty. There are those who say that under no circumstance should society deal out the punishment of death, we have no right. There are those who say eye for an eye - burn 'em all and let god sort 'em out.

Both groups are very passionate about their stances. Pro death people will argue that life imprisonment is very costly to the tax payer, and serves no purpose. They argue that the death penalty is a few cents in electricity or chemicals or a bullet - and serves as a deadly deterrent to would be criminals. Pro lifers side with a societal reason for criminal behavior, and that we should do all we can do to rehabilitate.

Arguments can get rather loud emotional on both sides of the fence.

I'll save everybody time and pain by saying this. Just like everything else on this earth, there is no such thing as opinions in blacks and whites. Everything is a shade of gray.

To the pro lifers: Rehabilitation is all well and good, and should be the first course of action. After all, a productive member of society is an excellent payoff to reasonable attempts at rehabilitation. But when reasonable rehabilitation attempts do not work, how far is too far? How much money, time and effort, at the expense of the rehabilitation of others, should be spent on a truly criminal or insane person? Out of all the violent offenders, how many people can truly be rehabilitated? Perhaps most of them, but what of those who just cannot be saved?

To the pro deathers: Relax Texas Jim, and put your guns away. People make mistakes. Some people, through the way they were raised or various mental conditions, cannot see a reasonable way out of a situation and do things when they think they have no alternative. Many of these people can be helped, can pay their debt to society, and can become productive members of that society. Is it not our duty as reasonable human beings to try? Would not an eye for an eye attitude make YOU a murderer?

Here is the way I see it. Make a reasonable attempt to rehabilitate a violent offender. If every reasonable attempt is made and they do not show remorse for their crimes and are at a very high risk of killing, raping and torturing people when they get out, further punishments should be carried out. If these people cannot ever be set loose in society again, why is society paying millions of dollars to feed, clothe and house these people, for decades and decades, until they die of old age?

I believe this is the best way to help the errant correct the path they are on, and help mitigate the every growing vacuum of tax dollars.

The death penalty. Let's do it, as a very last resort.

We're the problem, OK?

What is the greatest threat to the world today? Is it the stockpile of nukes? Global Warming? Fundamentalist, fanatical religious zealots bent on world domination and/or forcing an Armageddon? Destruction of the rain forests? Yes, these are all horrible things, but the greatest threat facing the world today, is, US. Specifically, it is the number of us that are present on the face of this earth, and growing.

According to this website, in 1804 there were 1 billion people on this planet. In 1927, there were 2 billion people, 3 billion people in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, and 6 billion in 1999. Today, there are almost 7 billion people, and there are projected to be 10 billion by 2050. As you can see, since 1800, the human growth rate has been exponential in nature.

In nature, there exists a thing called a “carrying capacity”. The carrying capacity is the ability for a particular ecosystem to support a certain number of a specific organism, given things like food, water, habitat space, and general land area. For the following example, I’m pulling numbers out of thin air for examples sake. Imagine a wooded area taking up approximately 10,000 acres. There is a pond in the middle. Several pairs of breeding deer move in and, seeing no other competition for the resources, breed prolifically. Eventually the deer numbers reach 1000, and resources start running out. The deer would eventually all die off, because they had kept on breeding and ate all of the food. The deer level off at 1000, because at that time, a pack of wolves enter the area. Seeing all the deer around, they gorge themselves, and quickly increase in number. Soon the wolves are about 100 individuals, but they cannot sustain any more then that, due to the number of deer present. Soon, they have hunted too many deer and start dying out due to lack of food. The deer soon become populous again due to the decrease in wolves, and the cycle starts over.

In that way the deer and wolves obey the natural carrying capacity of the land at 1000 and 100 respectively, dipping slightly below and going above due to the natural fluctuations in the populations.

Humans too used to respect natures carrying capacity. The land area, and resources would limit their numbers to no more than the carrying capacity would allow. Having big brains and opposable thumbs, humans decided they would try to outsmart nature. “This corn we find growing about is good” they think, “but what if we could get it to grow all and only in one big piece of land? Imagine how much food we would have then!”. So agriculture was born. With agriculture, the amount of food that was available in one particular piece of land increased exponentially, and with it, the number of humans. Trade increased the numbers even greater, as resources could be shared, therefore the carrying capacity was increased even further. That brings us to the 19th century.

The industrial revolution, along with a money based market rather than a trade based market, sent the human carrying capacity skyrocketing. Now, people could buy whatever they needed and pack themselves into tightly crowded cities, making the carrying capacity for a particular piece of land, for humans and humans only, soar. The cities expanded with the population, and the farmland expanded at the cost of the habitats of every other animal and plant nature had provided. Man had become master of his planet.

Since 1804, the human population of the world has doubled first in 123 years, and doubled again 33 years later, and again 14 years after that, and again 13 years after that, and doubled again 12 years later. The population in total, shows no signs of slowing down.

The world is a closed ecosystem. NOTHING comes into this planet except solar radiation and a bit of space dust. While the population keeps climbing, the amount of resources available to that population remains static. Remember what happened to the deer that ran out of food?

The ecosystem in general requires many species to survive. The ecosystem is a big web of animals and plants. If too many animals and plants are taken out of the picture, the entire web falls apart. When humans raise their own carrying capacity, they do so at the cost of every other indigenous species around. Vast areas are paved for human cities. Huge numbers of trees are razed for wood and farmland. Fields are ploughed over for even more farm and grazing land. The only things that can survive in the human planet, are things that the humans need for their immediate survival. Humans cannot think too far past their own stomachs.

In general, the energy passed on from one trophic level to the next is about 10%. That means that out off all the energy that plants gain from the sun, they pass on about 10% to herbivores, and so on. With the planet being paved over and razed, you will eventually nock the bottom level of the trophic period down to a point where the pyramid will fall over and nothing but the cleverest scavengers will survive until the ecosystem rights itself.

Of course, the problem of humans doesn’t stop there. The population is growing exponentially, as I’ve mentioned, and the hunger for resources is growing right with it. That means burning of fossil fuels at exponential rates, filling the air and the soil with toxic by products. The industrial process’s that make all sorts of chemical by products are then flushed away into the environment. Ton after ton of garbage, waste, and crap, just tossed into giant piles taking up even more room and filling the groundwater with poisonous leachate.

I don’t know what would be a good carrying capacity for humans. I don’t think anybody does, I’m sure there are theories by scientists, but I don’t think anybody knows for sure. In my opinion, its way less then what we have now.

A lesser population helps in many, many ways. It gives habitat back to the other species that call earth home. Let’s face it - it is human arrogance to assume ownership of this planet. There will be way less waste produced, and all of the sudden, technologies such as solar and wind power become much more viable when there is a much, much less energy demand. With a smaller sustained human population, food supplies can be plentiful and available for everyone’s needs, not just the rich. That’s right, a socialist system that would work!

I don’t know how to achieve a proper population, but if it can be done, many, many problems would go away. Solving other problems would suddenly become easy.

So there we have it. The greatest threat, in my opinion, is simply the ever increasing numbers of people. We have to whittle ourselves down, we have to maintain a proper balance, because if we don’t, nature will eventually do it for us, and perhaps it will raze us more than we bargained for.

Lesbians - A quick one for saturday

Friends of my family have a daughter that decided to jump the fence, play for the other team, go for her own kind, bury her face in the rug permanently.... if you don't get my drift she likes other women.

During the last federal election, it was abundantly clear that the Conservatives, Canada's left winger party, were going to attain power according to the running polls. One of the campaign promises was that they were going to abolish the legal right for gays to be married, which spurred many, many rushed gay and lesbian marriages. The family friend's daughter was among them, and she was married to her huswife, Amanda. For those of you who care, the conservative party did attain minority power. The gay lesbian marriage right was put to parliament vote, and parliament voted to keep allowing everybody the right to marriage, as it should be.

Now, Amanda is your typical bull dyke. She's HUGE, her shoulders are big and square, her hair is also square and short, and stands at attention, her arms bristle with manly like muscle and she's got facial hair that teenage boys would die for. She's DEFINITELY the husband in that marriage.

Being a County employee and the mischievous jerk that I am, I went crawling through the County records and found their wedding license. I found that her name was not spelled Amanda. It was a very different spelling that made perfect sense. Ready for this?

AMANduh.

If you didn't get that, just give it a minute to sink in.

I hope nobody expected ever single one of my blogs to be PC!

And the winner is!

Well, the wait is over, and the Ontario 2007 provincial election results are in. And guess who won! Dalton McGuinty is premier again. Surprise surprise. Ontario is a liberal province, always has been, always will be. The PC's did make some gains though, just not enough. The liberals have 71 seats, PC's 26, NDP 10, and the Green party NONE (oo, surprise), giving the liberals a majority government AGAIN.

Via the liberal palm greasing to GTA corporate, it had that vote locked in. More broken promises lulled the weak willed into a false sense of security, and yet others vote liberal not wanting to lean too far left or right (as if the liberal government didn't lean at all).

I guess out of the options of asshole and idiot, us Ontarians prefer the liar and thief. Well, here we go with another term of broken promises, too many taxes and Dalton and his band of liberal thugs padding their wallet with my hard earned tax dollar.

There is one good thing that came out of this, the liberal fueled (in my opinion) referendum was kicked to the curb. 101 ridings said a vehement NO! to the new way of voting, and a piddly 6 said yes please, lets ensure liberal majorities!

Ces't la vie. Onto bigger and better things, now that this cluster fuck is behind us, for now. Oh, did you hear? With waning support for the liberal feds now that poutine Dion is leader, PM Harper is pushing for another election. Way to go for the majority, you Bush kissing robot! Yes, I love everybody.

Introduce the candidates

Well, election day is finally here. For all of us who live in Ontario, it's time to vote your favorite candidate in. Will we re elect liberal Dalton McGuinty? Or will we have a progressive conservative John Tory taking the helm? Maybe NDP Howard Hampton will take the reigns or green party hopeful Frank De Jong. Myself, I'm waffling between McGuinty and Tory. I really don't know yet, probably won't till I get to the polls.

The candidates themselves? Well many describe it as selecting the lesser evil. You have to make informed choices on the core values of the candidates. Liberal leaders want equality for all, conservative want tax dollars better spent. The green party wants cleaner water, air and soil at the sacrifice of the economy, and the NDP want more money given to the Canadian workforce at the expense of the economy (except they don't know that their plans will destroy it).

But really, it boils down to whose face you like the best. With that in mind, here are the candidates pictures, and really, a picture says a thousand words. I hope looking at them might give you a better understanding as to what they are really all about.





On second thought, is this guy running? He's probably better than all of them.





Anyways, let's all go out and vote. Because if we don't, we don't have a right to bitch about how much of a loser the other guy that got in was!

Ontario's Referendum

On October 10th, 2007, the Ontario provincial elections will take place.

I have (had) my favorite party, which I've switched up due to another topic I'll deal with in a bit. For the mean time, I'd like to talk about this referendum.

The referendum will be on the voting system of Ontario itself. Usually it's first past the post, meaning the party with the most seats based on their constituencies wins regardless of the popular vote. The referendum will add a second voting area, so you can vote for your local candidate and your party. This means you're voting for two seats in the legislature, one which goes to the winning local MPP and the other going to 39 mystery spots, to be awarded on a popular vote percentage by the various parties.

This new system will give the popular vote credence and power.

For example, municipality "A" could have 50,000 people, municipality "B" 100,000 people, and municipality "C" 1,000,000 people.

Municipality "A" votes in the "BLUE" candidate with 25,001 votes, "B" the "BLUE" candidate with 50,001 votes, and municipality "C" votes in the "RED" candidate with 900,001 votes. Even though the "RED" party got 824,999 MORE votes in total than the "BLUE" candidate, the blue candidate won more seats in legislature so gets to form a government.

There are some things I don't like about this new system being proposed.

1. 39 seats in legislature that do not have to answer to a constituency
2. an additional 12 million dollars of taxpayer money going to salary these new seats
3. the fact that the GTA has the lion share of the people, does NOT represent the needs of the entire province, and has the ability to dominate the polls

Based on the above, I'm voting to keep the old system in place. I feel it gives better representation to the province as a whole come election day, and we do NOT need to pump any more money into the politicians themselves (ahhhummmm liberal scandal snnarchh sponsorship ahum!).

I don't think it really matters though, because the referendum needs 60% of the popular vote to implement the new system. Most people I know of haven't heard of this system, don't really care, and if this is news to them at the polls, they'll probably stick with the old system rather than voting for something they don't have any clues about.

Besides, if it does go through Parliament has until 2008 to erect a statute governing it and we all know how fast Queen's Park DOESN'T go!

I'm looking for some opinions and refutations to mine. Anyone game?

Let's get right to it... ABORTION!

ABORTION!

Ok, did I get your attention? I hope so.

Might as well start off big on my first post, right?

Not too long ago, I was driving in my clapped out 1994 Mazda truck with my little pup in the back, on our way to the river for a walk and a dip. It was a hot summer day and both of us were looking forward to the water. I was in a good mood and so was the pup (well, she's always in a good mood), until I saw something that put a damper on my chuckles.

Passing the hospital, there were people walking up and down the sidewalk holding anti-abortion signs in full fledged protest. Ugh, another protest.

EVERYBODY is entitled to their opinion. On this subject, some are pro choice, others pro life. Fine and dandy, on this little ethical dilema there are people who fall both ways.

The thing that makes me angry is who do these people think they are? Do they know why a mother might make that kind of choice for her and her child? Will the baby be born normal, and adopted to a good family? Will it be born horribly disfugured and live out the next two years of it's life in horrible agony before it asphixiates itself on its own bile and mucous?

Do they consider the gut renching and agonizing feelings of the mother who's doing this? Do they need to add to it?

I've seen these people physically accost others on the street, which is uncalled for. This same mentality is the one that drives bombings of abortion doctors and clinics. I guess it's not okay for the death of a fetus but it's ok to kill doctors and members of the public with collateral damage? Pure hypocrisy.

Talking of hypocrisy, i'm wondering how many babies these demonstrators have adopted themselves? How many babies with severe mental and phsyical deformaties have they adopted?

Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but for fucks sake, abortion activists, could you consider ALL details and find a more constructive way to get your OPINION across?

Thanks, the world will be a better place if you do.