From Hell's Heart of the New West, I Stab At Thee

I'll preface this up front by stating Halloween and Days of the Dead is/are my favorite social celebration/s of the year. It's a momentary departure from how one is told one *should* behave that not only permits but encourages all ages to celebrate colour, imagination, magic, What-if, the fantastic, the unknown, the untouchable, pageantry, debauchery, overdose of sugarbombs liquid and solid, heros, villains, ancestors, and anything else you can cram into it.

The fiestas are the breath between Harvest's closing and hopefully fat moments, and the shadows veiling the next Harvest, reminding us the only true certainty in the future is Death and if we don't laugh about it, we'll cry.

Having so much fun contemplating altered states and mortality apparently drives 'serious' religionists bats. And when they insist on being serious in Alberta, I get to hear about it as if it's news. Welcome to Jeesusween . Not as fun as you'd think.

Aside from the 'what marketing genius thought up the name so the rest of us can point and laugh', it's sadly apparent that the pastor doesn't seem to understand the Christian origin of Halloween. Note, I didn't say origin of Samhain, I said Halloween, or All Hallows Evening, the un-fun night before the amazingly un-fun All Saints/Hallows Day. No, not Harry Potter's Deathly Hallows. That would be *fun*. Yet another church day invented by the Catholics to usurp the pre-Christian Roman Empire rituals of the 'Celtic' calendar, in this case, their New Year.

You'd think Christians would at least know their own history but perhaps that far back is too papal. All I really know is, when the Christian Hellhouses started up in righteous moral opposition to the demonic influences of 'secular' Halloween, it was easy to see the teenagers allowed to take part were diving into the grislier parts of their horror show with nearly secular glee. They truly found their inner Grand Guignol in depicting the sins and punishments of Hell. Medieval as H..all get out.

Trust Alberta to come up with a version that will suck even that much life out of the experience for kids and everyone around them. This October 31st, I could find adults using kids as their stalking horses, planting them on doorsteps with some version of Christian bibles and 'sharing the Word'.

From "Benefits" at the darling website...

"The children coming out to give the bibles will do it with excitement. They will not feel deprived as they will be coming out like other kids to give the Word to people. They will definitely be received by families as it is just natural not to turn a child down. The children will understand from an early age that it is fun to give the Word."

And if that isn't enough, just think of the fun on the faces of the children receiving bibles and other heartwarming Christian paraphenalia in their treat bags when visiting a Jesusweenie household. I mean, really? Not even a chocolate Jesus?

Fun. I do not think this word means what you think it means. Also, too, Jesusweenies? Stating "The dictionary meaning of Ween is to expect, believe or think"...

a/doesn't make it so no matter how much you want to retroactively try to make it sound like you meant it that way and scavenging a dictionary for justification is just *low*. If you came clean and stopped doubling down, you wouldn't have to resort to JesusWin as the hep backup name.

b/isn't where Ween comes from in relation to Halloween, hence apparently requiring you to spout what Word Detective encounters all too often in etymology; 'common sense' interpretation of origin. How's that working out for you around evolution again? I mean, why not just say Jesus'een? or better yet and this is after three seconds contemplation on my atheist part, Nazar'een...wait...why am I helping you? You're accomplishing all I can ask of a Christian 'outreach'.

Happy Halloween, Pastor Paul.

Game On!

Woo. We almost missed this. Nominations for the 2011 Canadian Blog Awards are now open.

And still with a seemingly uncontroversial Best Feminist Blog category.

Go nominate your faves. And no, this isn't a hint. DJ! and a bunch of other good bloggers fought long and hard for a feminist category. We want to support the new and improved Canadian Blog Awards.

And thanks again to Support Bro Jonathan Kleiman.

Suits for Bay Street

Clever idea.

On October 15, our crack team of well dressed artists, designers, and wardrobers will deliver racks and racks of business attire, free of charge to anyone at Liberty Square. We'll be joined by progressive tailors, radical barbers, and folks who want everyone to look great.

The way you say it matters as much as what you say. So say it in style. Say it in a suit.

What We Need and What You Get

You can help us realize this vision with your donations. Twenty dollars will put a protester in a crisp thrift store suit.

Or mail us a nice suit you're not using anymore. It’s free if you mail it from work. Here's our address:

Proper Business Attire Working Group
C/O The House of Yes
342 Maujer Street
Brooklyn, NY
11206

Extra suits and late deliveries will be donated to Threads for Success, an innovative New York City program that dresses young people in the justice system for court appearances and job interviews.

Let's get organized.

Look sharp. The whole world is watching.

Other Ways You Can Help

Post our campaign to anyone who needs to see it.

And straighten your tie.

Somebody should set something like this up for #occupytoronto.

Name that Protest!

Who would have predicted that, from Tunisia to Wisconsin, Tahrir Square to Wall Street, 2011 would be the Year of the Big Protest?

From here. The Occupy Wall Street protesters have perspectives that are quite different from the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement on the nature of US problems - though at times their complaints sound remarkably similar. Call you tell the Tea Hatriots from the Occupiers?

Try the BBC quiz. Pay close attention to the substance of what is said and how it is expressed. Hint - one of the quotes is attributed to Sarah Palin.

Suck it up, Buttercup

Well, that was sweet, wasn't it?

As deBeauxOs gloated pointed out earlier today, The Sun is in a tizz, which I find especially delightful since they refused to endorse Hudork.

And our friends over at Freak Dominion -- yeah, those guys who told the whiny lefties to suck it when we pointed out that a majority of Canadians did NOT vote for King Stevie the First -- are having a bit of, um, what to call it?

Oh, right. IDWCDI. It's Different When Cons Do It.

In a thread dissecting the loss of their boy, a commenter named 'Conservative Toronto' says:

Just to put things in perspective, 0.492 x 0.3762 = 18.5% of Ontarians voting for McGimpy, and 81.5% choosing to do "other".

To which 'smallLliberal' replies:

so what, that would mean Hudak got around 17% .. 83% chose "other"

Yep.

First Past the Post is a bad system and NOT just when your boy loses.

Of all the morning-after blah-blah out there, I really enjoyed this from Andrew Coyne, accounting for Con losses in both Manitoba and Ontario.

In short, conservatives in this country, at least of the partisan, capital-C variety, have lost their nerve. They do not believe in themselves, yet somehow hope the public will. They reek of flop-sweat, calculation and guile, yet ask the public to trust in their leadership. They offer no alternative, yet campaign on “change.” It is a formula guaranteed to fail, as it has done, over and over again. Yet it is the one they return to, over and over again.

Dan Gardner, who pointed to the piece, said:

BTW, I love this: "They reek of flop-sweat, calculation and guile." Impossible to read that without seeing Hudak.

Yep.

One more morning-after bit from me. A Globe reporter named Steve Ladurantaye was reassigned from his usual real estate beat to ride the bus with Hudork. I found his reporting good and his tweets even better.

I could try to find it, but near the end of the campaign, he tweeted something like: 'I don't usually cover politics and am finding the level of dishonesty/lying/disingenuousness [something like that] amazing'.

Imagine. A reporter who asks questions, expects to get them answered, and is surprised when he's lied to.

Yo! Globe! Keep Steve on the political beat.

And give him a raise.

Today, he tells the story of Hudork's borrowing of Wayne Newton's raunchy tour bus, a story the Con staffers wisely kept to themselves until after the election.

Reporters were never told, for good reason. The replacement bus formerly belonged to Wayne Newton, party insiders said, and featured a stage complete with a stripper pole in the back.

Dammit, if only we'd known.



Image source.

Welcome to Hell

Last night on Twitter, it was rumoured that would the blazing headline on the cover of all Sun tabloids in Ontario.

I thought: "How sweet. Though Hudak snatched defeat from the jaws of the victory PMSHithead predicted for him, Sun Media is still going to run the headline they'd prepared for him."

So, did it happen? I don't buy that tabloid and the front page doesn't seem to appear online.

I also worry about poor little Miller. Montreal Simon tweeted this.

Imagine having to look at Mr Grumpy-face every day until the next election.

Contempt Party and femicide

This is DJ's ongoing reflection regarding the Contempt Party government & its *Hard-On Crime* Omnibus Bill.

I believe that it will encourage police forces and the court system to shift resources away from investigating and prosecuting crimes against women and children. Since the Cons' Crime Bill will significantly reward cops for the number of arrests leading to convictions, they will only pursue criminals that are "easy" to catch.

Did you see *Justice* minister Nicholson's weasel performance a couple of weeks ago?

He evaded questions regarding costs and priorities but kept using buzz words to create the impression that the Cons care about preventing violence against women.

The inevitable result of this re-engineering of the legal system will be a vicious circle of fewer and fewer women reporting criminal assaults that are inflicted upon them, and less investigations and prosecutions of their assailants. These violent men will get the message they can and they will continue to sexually terrorize and harm women and children.

Consider what is happening in the US. With diminished funding and resources, the states and the municipalities are trying to dump the responsibility for charging spouses with *domestic abuse* on the other jurisdiction, which means violent criminals walk, unchallenged.

[...]domestic violence advocates in Topeka say it’s already putting vulnerable people at increased risk. Since the county stopped prosecuting the crimes on September 8th, it has turned back 30 domestic violence cases. Sixteen people have been arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery and then released from the county jail after charges weren’t filed. “Letting abusive partners out of jail with no consequences puts victims in incredibly dangerous positions,” said Becky Dickinson of the YWCA. “The abuser will often become more violent in an attempt to regain control.” The YMCA also said that some survivors associated with their Center for Safety and Empowerment were afraid for their safety if the dispute wasn’t resolved soon.

PMSHithead and his party of Cons have taken the craft of lying to new depths. Under their watch, expect the usual deliberate obfuscation and political theatre that focuses on so-called "honour" killings and disregards systemic violence against women and children.

Update: Kevin Page, Parliament's independent budget officer has some choice words about the cost of the Cons' *Hard-On Crime* bill.

The Conservatives say their massive new crime bill, which includes nine separate pieces of legislation, will cost $78.5 million over five years, part of bigger justice agenda the government says will cost $2.7 billion.

But Page, who has been asked by the Opposition parties to cost out the bill by mid-November, told The Canadian Press the government estimate includes no methodology, no supporting information and no provincial costs. Nor can Page find the $2.7 billion expenditure listed in any federal budget of the past two years.

More lies from Contempt Party government.

They LIE.
They lie they lie they lie THEY LIE!

Today our government introduced the Budget Implementation Act II which includes measures to eliminate the Per Vote Party Subsidy. In November 2008, our government committed to ending this tax on voting that will save the Government of Canada around $30 million per year. This move is being heavily criticized by the NDP, who receive most of their funding from large unions and have come to rely on this subsidy for a portion of their annual funding. This disrespect for taxpayers' money is yet another reason why the NDP are not fit to govern.

From here, where Kady O'Malley eviscerates the truthiness of the above agit-prop produced by the Contempt Party's propaganda machine, aka Stevie's Politburo.

"In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State - Alexander Solzhenitsyn."

RIP, Bert

Aw. Guitar legend Bert Jansch has died.

Robin Denselow writes: Bert Jansch was that rarity, a musician who really did deserve to be regarded as a legend, and who retained that status throughout his career. He was an extraordinary guitarist and a thoughtful songwriter, and generations of would-be pickers sat at his concerts watching his fingerwork with envy and astonishment.

He was influenced by traditional songs, blues and the "folk-baroque" of Davy Graham, but his distinctive style always allowed him to take chances and work with different musicians. When I first met him, as a student journalist in the 1960s, he was outselling Bob Dylan in the folk shops along the Charing Cross Road, and told me: "I'm not recording for anyone, just myself."

Years later, visiting him at his garden flat in Kilburn, it always struck me how little he had changed – he was still a tousled-haired figure with a slight mumble and quiet sense of humour, happiest when picking up a guitar and discussing music. One of the most memorable of Bert's shows was his 60th birthday celebration at London's South Bank, when he ran through the full gamut of his work, joined by younger fans including Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler and Hope Sandoval. He was a unique performer.

My highschool boyfriend was a very talented musician. He studied the bass but loved the guitar. Like all guitar-nuts, he was blown away by Jansch.

One day we were listening to a new Jansch album and almost came to blows over a particular song. I think it was this one.



Boyfriend insisted that it was double -- at least -- tracked. Had to be two -- at least -- takes mixed together. NOBODY could pick like that.

Nobody but Bert.

RIP.