Insert Title Here

I can't think of a good title for this... lol. I'm still a little sleepy. :P

Anyway, I had fun yesterday. James and I went out for some Valentines Day fun, lol, in advance. We figured it would be better than dealing with Valentines Crowds etc. So we went to Lloyds and skated around for a good while. Had some dinner there too. It was fun, I was a little nervous because of all the small kids and over the top guys showing off. I spent a lot of time trying to keep track of who was where etc... I guess I'm a little parinoid. I still had fun though. My legs aren't anywhere near as sore as I thought they would be. I got a really bad cramp in my leg before we left, but it sent away later, James helped me stretch it out. (No, nothing sexual there, he helped me put weight on it while I stretched it out lol).

And then we went back to his place, which was supposed to be empty, but his brother apparently didn't hear the part where he had to get the hell out. Urrg. Oh well, we still had a HELL of a good time, even though Matthew (James' brother) kicked us out at 12 becuase he had work (Something tells me he does not offer James that same curtoesy). Well, we still made the most of it, and it was really fun. Tuesdays plans for just hanging out and being cuddly and stuff is a go, and Matthew has plans so he'll be out lol. Gotta talk to James to make sure he has the car that night. I hope he already checked into that...

Anyway, I have some homework to do here, I wanna try and maybe get sorta ahead here so that I can go out Tuesday and such. I'll catch you all laters.

Punkrawk4all's darkside uncovered at 1:30 PM 3 comments

To lighter things...

After a couple really heavy posts I decided to return to something lighter today, and go back to something a little heavier tommorow. Anyway, I managed to find this cute test online, so here's my geeky resultus!

I Am A: Lawful Good Elf Bard Mage


Alignment:
Lawful Good characters are the epitome of all that is just and good. They believe in order and governments that work for the benefit of all, and generally do not mind doing direct work to further their beliefs.


Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.


Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.


Secondary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.


Deity:
Oghma is the Neutral Good god of knowledge and invention. He is also known as the Binder of What is Known, and is the Patron of Bards. His followers believe that knowledge reigns supreme, and is the basis for everything else that is done. They wear white shirts and pants, with a black and gold braided vest, and a small, box-like hat. All priests of Oghma are known as Loremasters. Oghma's symbol is a scroll.


Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)



lol, I'm normally not an Elf when I play, but it makes sense in terms of my personality.

Punkrawk4all's darkside uncovered at 11:13 PM 3 comments

The most political post yet...

Today various events have prompted me to head into the political realm deeper than I have ever gone before. This post may offend some, though I hope it doesn't... I want to stay as neutral as possible. Forgive it's length, please follow me to the end, this post will also be very emotional.

Before I continue, I want to list the topics I plan to cover, so people can brace themselves and to give myself some structure to follow.

1) The Nature of Propaganda
2) The Cartoon Riots of the Middle East
3) The Persecution of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) followers in China

Many probably expected me to go on about the Cabinet annocements today in Canada, but I will leave that for some other night when I don't have so much on my mind. Some who know I watched a CBC presentation called "Murder Unvieled" which is based on the actual case of a young Indian girl who secretly married outside her caste and her subsequent murder. Someday I would like to comment on this, my knowledge of the various laws and caste traditions is not enough to make an accurate statement. I will say that murder is wrong, no matter what your reasons, and that unwilling confinement, and physical violence are unexceptable. Those to me are fundementals and I don't care what nationality or tradition you are. Now to my "essay".

1) The Nature of Propaganda

Several things prompted me to start thinking about the nature of propaganda. I partly blame taking Philosophy and Poli Sci courses on the same day, and I also credit the events I will discuss later.

So how do we define propaganda? Is it purely slanderous, hateful, untrue statements? Or is it any media produced by an agency that displays thier side in a postive light and the other negitively? Or is it only if the media just presents the agencies side but says nothing about the other side, if that is even possible?

I did not include a case where both sides are presented equally with poth pros and cons. This I will define as neutral and the ideal of journalism and truth. I'm not saying there aren't cases where even this can be twisted, but such cases are too complex for me to look at at this time.

The slanderous, hateful, attacks I think are the classic definition of propaganda. So we will leave that one alone.

If an agency produces media that displays thier side in a positive light and the other in a negitive, it can be propaganda, but may not be. It depends on the truth of the positive and negative. If it the portrayal of forgiving whenever possible as good and killing is wrong, is it propaganda. What if it is reversed. I cannot pass judgement on this. Aside from the fact that I am by no means one of any authority, but it is all a matter of perspective. I will simply call this a grey area to be decieded case by case, person by person.

If an agency presents thier case, in a positive light with no mention of their oposition, or no mention of anything other than fact for the sake of fact, is this propaganda? Again if the light is positive, for a positive action or a negative action affects things drastically.

I believe that what seems to define propaganda is the lie. As our first defintion is an outright lie, all others that contain lies should in someway fall to being in some part propaganda.

I am sorry if that was overly long, complicated or redundent, but I felt the need to write it. Onto the next.

2) The Cartoon Riots of the Middle East

Many have heard about the mass riots in various Middle Eastern, prodominatly Muslim countries. These riots are caused by a very contriversial issue. In Muslim belief it is unacceptable to depict Allah, or Muhammad. Well, in Europe someone wanted to write a childrens book about Muhammad and was having trouble finding an illustrator for this reason. When the press heard about this, they felt the need to publish a string of cartoons depicting Muhammad. Worse still, they did not just depict the prophet, but they did so in a slanderous manner. I will not post them or link to them, but one featured Muhammad with a turban/headress containing a bomb. (Yes! An example of propaganda!)

Now that happened 6 months ago and there was backlash in Europe, yet they were REPRINTED, not once, but TWICE! Why? For kicks basically. I am all for freedom of speech, but don't be a dick. (Less so many layman words, but simpler is best). Now there had been little to no response from the Middle East on this until some people from Europe got fed up and decided to go to Iran and a few other places and stread the news of these cartoons. Why they did this, I don't know, it's about as smart as republishing them, but none the less... it happened. Thus the riots began.

These cartoons go beyond disrespectful, and I do not blame people for being angry. I would be too. Yet I do not agree with rioting, people have died, and not those responsible! Instead it has been the protestors themselves! I am no here to debate that, souly to question the logic of the publishers (all 3 sets... in 3 countries) and those that felt the need to spread the news.

Next!

3) The Persecution of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) followers in China

Today at the University there was a very grpahic art exhibt that featured paintings of tortures expereinced by followers of Falun Gong in China. Interspursed with these were pictures of the followers in thier happier moments, experiencing the greater world. These paintings were accompanied by a table of handouts (none of which were forced on you) and one man hummbly (and I do mean humbly, he was so curteous, quiet, and focused) handing out general information pamphlets on what Falun Gong was to anyone who had spent 5 minutes or more looking at pictures. Not passers by, those that had shown interest. To me, this is how to get your cause across, powerful images, quiet devotion and respect for those you are asking to help.

The pamphlet I recieved from the man after looking though half of the pictures had only 1 small section, a third of a pannel, on the persecution of Falun Gong in China, but it struck me powerfully after seeing the images (this too could be seen as propaganda, which is what spawned my initial musings).

What is Falun Gong? The best way I'm finding to relate to it is to Tai Chi or Yoga. A series of exercises and meditations to uniter your mind and body and move you to higher conciousness. It is not a religion so to speak, but a spiritual practice. Needless to say, these people gather, stretch, meditate and then go home. But in China starting in the 90's it was seen as a threat to the communist regime. Communism pushes for atheism in it's subjects (for lack of a better term), and in the case of China, Falun Gong became a target.

It's participants are tortured in horrible ways, without care of age, physical condition etc. Children, pregnant women and the elderly are just as likely to suffer. (Why does equality always show up in cases of torture but never in terms of employment, pay etc...) Some eventually escape China, but many do not. My law they can be beaten to death for thier practice and it happens often. Children come home from school to find thier houses empty and the dreaded 610 (the agency repsonsible for eliminating Falun Gong) written on thier door.

I urge people to help support thier fight against this injustice, but I do ask you go and do your research. The ideals of communism in the long run are actually quiet admirable, unfortunatly it's execution is often so far from it's roots it is hard to see the relations.

I will not supply links to the sites I have for Falun Gong unless people request them, I do not have anti ones to go with, personally to be anti any religion or peaceful practice goes against my beliefs, and just knowing there was persecution of meditations was enough for me personally, and becuase of that personal moral I did not view the other side. But if you don't hold that moral as stroungly (perhaps blindly?) as I, go look at the other side.

Thank you all, I fear it is time for me to go to sleep. I believe I will rest well.

Punkrawk4all's darkside uncovered at 11:48 PM 0 comments

Adult Industry Regulations

Oh the religious right of the USA, is there nothing you won't touch. We'll o.k, nothing you won't let other people touch because you believe it's morally impure or something along those lines?

So the US and it's oh so wonderful elected (I can't use quotes on that anymore, he actually got elected second time around, yay for voter apathy... then again, the votes didn't actually count the time before...) leader have created a ton of wonderful new regulations to "foil" the porn and adult entertainment industries.

Now many of you may not have really seen the affects of all these rulings. So let me do a quick run down, simplified for your pleasure.

1) The US has decided to make it near impossible for any company to sell adult products of a more obsure nature and use a US bank account. It's difficult for those selling normal sexual material, but lord help you if you're into sadism etc.

2) Next the courts are going after those same people selling, showing things with sadism etc for all sorts of crazy reasons, the whole usual religious right string of excuses.

Anyway, so the porn industry isn't foiled, instead the more exclusive parts are being shut down or sold off to foriegn companies (yes, that's right, more jobs and money headed out of the states!) Now some might know that I'm into the BDSM scene, so this is really annoying me... because of course being a poor student, I was relying on the preview sections of many of these sites, which are now gone.

What's my point in this, aside from general frustration? Not only does it kill the freedom of expression thing the US loves to boast about, it is an attempt to kill a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY! Does this make sense?! O.k. Yes. I'm looking to kinda downsize the major oil industries etc, but that's because we're KILLING ourselves very slowly with it. This is a physical death, not a moral one. I'm all for getting rid of any porn that involves physical death. Past that, does it really matter.

Yes, protect children from it in everyway, yes make sure people know what they're getting into and it's documented. But if people choose to damn thier immortal souls, let them.

I realize this post is probably making no sense, it's late, I'm annoyed, I've had too much Pepsi again... but you get the idea.

Oh... I wonder how much hate mail I'll get for this?

Punkrawk4all's darkside uncovered at 11:14 PM 2 comments