And I have an opposable thumb! (or two)

Never have I been particularly agreeable. In fact, I go out of my way to start arguments just to create discussion between people or significant others. I press people to keep fighting to make their point. With a lot of relationships, just when we are getting to a point of stability, I decide that we need to argue about something. (Not anything about the relationship - just something like what the age of consent in Canada should be or what drugs should be legal.)

I’ve always taken the devils advocate position in classes. And even though my profs are far more educated than I am (and probably ever will be) I find it necessary to argue with them in front of the whole class and attempt to prove them wrong. (The arguments usually end with the prof saying “Let’s discuss this in my office out of class.”) I ask people debatable questions and take the opposite side of whatever they answer.

In high school teachers hated me because I would sit there and yap to them about why they were wrong, or how they could be more right. I’ve transfered all of that now to talking to people in the work place and on things like Facebook. I think it’s fun to get people going on Facebook…. because it’s so damn easy.

Well this time I pissed off the wrong people, and voila, my account is pounded with angry messages, hate mail, jerks and assholes. To the point were *poof* the account is now closed. … Over the course of the next few days I’ll be posting about some of the things that came up during this facebook fiasco. Why the church needs to change, how I can still have meaning in my life while not having a god, why beauty pageants aren’t an effective way to backlash against religious sexism, that I can have morals without god and my favorite - atheism is not a religion.

The whole ordeal is sort of ridiculous, but then again… 20 - 30 year olds are pretty ridiculous in an of themselves. Stay tuned.

It seems old fashioned, but its up and coming

It seems like everywhere I look, someone else is going organic. Just the other day I was perusing my favorite store, H&M and came across and entire organic section, that I had somehow missed the other times I was in there. We’re seeing them pop up all over - The Gap, American Apparel and prAna. It’s cool to be granola, and the farmers are loving it. As with the new craving for locally grown foods, the local farmers are starting to feel the love sustainably harvested homegrown threads.

Both American Apparel and prAna are not only continuing their lengthy organic roots, but will be doing so from Southern California to offset the carbon burned while transporting the goods. Still, the current amount of organic cotton being grown out of America is still small, and a lot of it comes from overseas sources such as Turkey where labor is cheaper. But the market is booming, Organic Exchange’s predictions for the sales of organic cotton fiber is to see it read $226 million by 2009 in contrast to $19 million in 2004. Suffice to say the opportunity for local farmers to grab their share of the market is anything but small.

Local farmers are not on the road alone, nonprofit groups such as the Sustainable Cotton Project are there helping dozens of farmers find their way into the organic cotton based economy. While not all of these crops are completely organic, they farming techniques used reduces pesticides by up to 73 %… it sure is a start.

Organic is no longer to grudge looking sweaters that we would expect to see 1990’s sad rock bands playing in. Instead it’s high fashion and main stream. In Canada we’re not only seeing an increase in the amount of personally owned business breaking into the organic business, but also our larger retailers.

Cotton Ginny (my mom’s favorite store) is Organic Exchange’s company of the month.

Cotton Ginny has a grass roots approach to spreading the word on the benefits of organic cotton and aims to educate people, as well as improve quality of life for people in the developing world.

Woo!

A rise up to $226 Million by 2009 is crazy - and I absolutely look forward to the increase in not only local support of farmers, but people turning to organics. It used to bother me that people were only into organics, fair trade and CFLs because it was “cool”… but hey - if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes. I’d much rather it was cool to wear organic than dirty.

It’s science - it floods in South Africa. Rainy season begins in October reaching a climax around January - March and ends off in April. In previous years it wasn’t until February or March that the waters started creeping up for the banks of lakes and reservoirs. But this year the news started pouring in as early as December about the floods creating problems such as cramping up roads and cutting off farmers. It was as early as January 4th that the Pungue and Buzi rivers reached their tipping point. All the Zambezi main tributaries are at high levels.

Unusually heavy rain continues to beat down on Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river levels in Mozambique are of particular concern. The Zambezi River is rising bringing water discharge from the Cahora Bassa dam to levels that were not reached until late February during last years season. 72, 000 people in Mozambique alone have been affected as the floods damage crops and infrastructure. 13, 000 people were evacuated on January 7th. Over 31 000 acres of arable land have been lost to the flood waters. There have also been an increase in outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and diarrhoeal.

Check out relief web for more details and numbers.

…Only MUCH more interesting…

My friend Ron Brown from Toronto has a new blog called The Frame Problem. I suggest checking it out. It’s what my blog was originally intended to be before it became a haven for dinosaurs and geography. Alas. (I also think he would have appreciated this link 5 months ago when my traffic was literally 5xs higher than it is now… I got busy!)

He covers a lot of really interesting stuff, most recently stories on sexually active gay men no longer being allowed to donate organs, schools voting against evolution and shroom’s involvement with religious experiences.

Not only has he got good coverage of interesting stories, but he’s also managed to spark up some interesting conversations…check out the comments here and also here - about my favorite topic in the world - Nisbet… only because he’s so closely linked with Mooney. Swoon. (For the record - I don’t think academies are lying to the american people… at least not all the time.)

Anyway - I’ll be adding him to my blog roll.

if you had to think about that question, you make me sad.

I’ve written a lot about religion in the past - mostly condemning stupid Christian behavior or declaring my atheism for whatever reason or another. In the past little while I’ve started to question my tone toward religion, christianity and my own beliefs. Although this statement has nothing to do with the following post - I just want it known that I am not “against” religion or christianity like I once was, and in no way do I know what to label myself. … Having said that, I think one think I never wrote about was how much I hated people who won’t let their children have medication.

I’ve just read a book called God Grew Tired of Us, and in the last chapter they look at the abuse that religion puts on children - mentally. The one thing it doesn’t really touch on is how religion can hurt children physically, and that is through Christan Science.

First of all - … why do they get their own science??? Okay, okay. Besides the point. But really - Why do they get their own science?!!!!?!?!?!? … Sorry.

Christian Science in a flash:

• Crazy lady, Mary Barker Eddy, writes a book called Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures in 1875
• Other crazy people think the book is pretty neat.
• Essentially - everything on earth is spiritual, not material… (’kay, thanks Buddha.) what you see, feel, hear, touch, smell, breath… etc is actually all an illusion, or an “error”
• Praying enhances spiritualization and heals emotionally, physically and mentally
• In 1866 crazy lady is healed from an injury after reading a passage in the bible and thus concludes that reading the bible and praisin’ the looord jesus! (amen!) heals.
• … No more medicine, yo.
• Oh, and you can heal homos too.

Mary’s “Scientific” Statement of Being:

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.
All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.
Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error.
Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.
Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness.
Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual. (S&H 468)

So why do I care? I’M not a christian scientist, and neither is my mom… or anyone in my family. In point of fact I’ve never even MET a christian scientist. So why the heck should I care?

Wikipedia knows everything!

There are now statutes in 44 states which contain a provision stating that a child is not to be deemed abused or neglected merely because he or she is receiving treatment by spiritual means, through prayer according to the tenets of a recognized religion. Although these exemptions take different forms and interpretations in different state jurisdictions, the overall effect has been to limit the ability of the state to prosecute parents for suspected or alleged abuse or medical neglect of children when such occurrences may be the result of religious practice.

Uh huh. Your kid is sick. You try to pray! it out of him. He dies… Whaaa? Did you pray SO HARD that his spirituality just became to BIG for this error of a materialistic world that we live in?? How far do we let freedom of religion go?

I am completely and totally supportive of letting people be religious. I am support being able to go to whatever sort of religious gathering you want, praying in public places… I even think it’s fantastic that high schools accommodate for those that need to leave classes to pray. I don’t think religion should be in government, on money or in anything that involves all people. … I REALLY don’t think we should be allowing parents to deny their children health care because they are praying the cancer out of them…

Have children actually died because of this? Yes. A lot of them. There are a few more recent cases found here. In fact:

A landmark study published in the journal Pediatrics uncovered more than 150 reported fatalities over a 10-year period – a tally that one of the study’s authors later said represented only “the tip of the iceberg” of a surprisingly pervasive problem.

Which means:

Assessing whether forms of religion-related child abuse pose a greater risk to children than more widely publicized threats, such as ritual satanic abuse, a wide-ranging study funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded that “there are more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan.”

… The problem is that fighting this will bring screams like “But the first amendment says!!!” … vs. … “Children need rights, to protect them from stupid people.” That’s just not a political battle that many people are willing to fight.

Despite parents have control over their children’s life - just like we would take the children away if the parents punched them in the face, so should we if they refuse to let an i.v into their arm. Children shouldn’t suffer because of religion.