Rage Blackout

I'll hit you with challenges 15 & 16 before I rage blackout entirely. Lets just say I hate baby boomers and money grubbing, jack ass capitalists. I want to smack someone with a shovel right now. But anyway... onto challenges ...

15: Check out some real life, every day heroes. We all know police officers and firefighters and military service men/women are heroes. But, if you will, I ask that this week you broaden your definition of hero. This weekend, Canada held it's own gathering in Ottawa to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. You can check out all the details of the Ottawa protest here http://www.ottawaaction.ca/ and here http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent/Hundreds-gather-on-Parliament-Hill-to-tell-Harper-No-to-Tar-Sands-/ and about why the tarsands pipeline is pretty much the worse idea we've ever come up with as a species, check out here http://www.grist.org/list/2011-08-24-heres-the-video-that-will-convince-you-to-go-to-the-tar-sands-po. But, let me break it down for you in a nutshell anyway.

Extracting oil from the tar sands will environmentally destroy all surrounding areas.

Areas of cancer around sites where oil is extracted from tarsands has SKYROCKETED. Generations of people will have horrible health effects.

The pipeline will travel through several states in the US, putting MILLIONS of people at risk of leaking pipelines, in addition to destroying all of that environmental land too...

The pipeline WILL leak. This corporation has YET to produce a pipeline that doesnt.

The tar sands will put 46million tons + of carbon dioxide into the year every year.

All of those bullshit studies on Canadian television and elsewhere that claim the tarsands are safe are seriously, 100% extreme bullshit. It damages soil, water, air, and HUMAN HEALTH. THERE IS NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT.

If this pipeline goes through--it's game over. Seriously. There will be no recovering. Millions of people will be affected. The emissions produced from the tar sands will send global warming into overdrive. Millions of people could DIE.

President Obama has the power to STOP the Keystone XL pipeline. Now, Obama hasn't exactly been a hero for the environment. Quite the opposite in fact. But even Rolling Stone thinks Obama needs to stop the pipeline: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/environment-ten-things-obama-must-do-20110914

Now, here is where the heroes come in. The people at the Ottawa protest today, and those at the protest in Washington DC at the end of August, willingly put their lives on the line and risked arrest in order to stop this pipeline. Many of them were young--risking future employment, careers, and ability to support themselves with their arrest. They did it for free. They saw that this was an evil, and they got to the protest site as quick as they could. All to stop this pipeline and save MILLIONS of people from devastated water supplies and generations of sickness and cancer.

They stepped up. And they deserve recognition.

16. Okay, this one is slightly less rage filled. Challenge 16 is to not buy any new clothes for a month. Now, for some of you, this one is really easy (it's a hairflip as my friend would say). Whereas for others, this one will be really tough. But, you can always borrow clothes, or buy used ones, so it's not as much of a challenge as it seems on the surface. And it's only for a month. People waste a ton of fashion, when there are lots of ways to be stylish without constantly buying new clothes. For proof positive of this, please see the following: http://www.theuniformproject.com/

Okay. Challenges issued. I'm off to Sweeney Todd my rage away. Jokes, of course. Maybe...

<3 Manic Panic