Heart Beats TO Glows!

Two of my favourite people decided to get with the Halloween times and has brought out glow in the dark HBTO shirts. This is a limited time offer and is available here.

This shirt is great for casual wear but also for a bit of dressy attire when suited with a blazer and bootcut jeans. When it's dark outside, people may not be able to see that your heart beats TO. Well now they can!

Visit my people

Racist Tweets Pulled

People tend to have this sense of freedom when they log onto social networks to be the bold, fearless and most times senseless internet user. This freedom is basically anonymity and deindividuation all mixed up in one.

Twitter pulled racist and anti-Semitic tweets posted in French earlier this month. Many of the German neo-nazi supporters on twitter claimed that a ban on their expression was a ban on their freedom of expression. However, what these users failed to understand is that there is a limitation to the freedom of speech. This limitation means that spreading hate speech is not granted under human freedom. A call for murder isn't a freedom for anything really.

This isn't the first--and definitely not the last-- of users tweeting hate speech on social networks. This definitely isn't news to celebrities and public figures tweets inappropriate texts. Paraskevi Papachristou was suspended from the Olympics after her rant earlier this year.

In 2009, the news was flooded with reports of a Northwest Career and Technical Academy teacher that claimed to the students that Holocaust never happened. This caused other non-Jewish students to make anti-Semitic jokes and follow the claim that the Holocaust was made up.
Oh... I guess the story was just creative writing that spread globally with evidence existing by chance?

Smh...

Halloween Events in TORONTO/GTA

It's that time of year again. Just between summer's end and hectic Christmas/New Year's holidays sits a nice spooky day. People of all ages dress up, trick or treat and throw great events.

Here are some upcoming Halloween events. If you have an event to post, please e-mail them asap!


Halloween Fun for Kids with Exceptionalities

- 1 in 91 children are diagnosed with autism. Come out this Sunday and help raise money for those with autism all while having somne family fun. Pumpkin carving, costumes and other fund Halloween activities are on the schedule! Visit their site here.

Where: Bright Star Academy 2950 Keele Street Toronto Ontario
When: October 28th, 2012
Cost: $10-$19 ... Donations are welcome!

Andrews' Scenic Acres

- Enjoy a nice walk through raspberry bushes, pumpkin patches, floral gardens and say hello to farm animals before you walk through the spooky hay stacks of halloween decorations. Afterward, purchase Andrews' Scenic Acres' freshly made pumpkin, peach, and apple pies, kiwi and other fruit jams and caramel apples. See there seasonal calendar and website here.

Where: 9365 10th Line Milton Ontario
When: check website for upcoming dates

Rocky Horror Show

- Lower Ossington Theatre features the 5th Annual Rocky Horrow show. This live performance classic and comedy. Visit their site here.

Where: Lower Ossington Theatre 100A Ossington Avenue Toronto Ontario
When: October 19th - November 3rd, 2012
Cost: $40-$49

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

- With a little more experience than the list above, this Rocky Horror Picture Show Toronto Cast has been happening for the last 30 years. Enjoy the show and... BOO!

Where: Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 506 Bloor West Toronto Ontario
When:  
Friday, September 21st at 11:30pm
Friday, October 26th at 11:30pm
Saturday, October 27th at 11:30pm
Wednesday, October 31st at 7:30pm
Wednesday, October 31st at 10:30pm

Cost: $10-$19

Pumpkinfest on Kingsway

- Enjoy dress up, pumpkin carving and music and street entertainers at Pumpkinfest on Kingsway

Where: Bloor & Royal York
When: October 27th, 2012
Cost: FREE


For night life events this Halloween, check out Toronto.com for the listings!

Police Spokesperson Does His Job Well

Keith Ryan, 34, claims to have been beaten by police

 
Keith Ryan, 34, of Toronto is an office administrator that is currently suing two police officers and one parking enforcement officer for 2.3 million dollars after what he claims as a brutal beating. This incident occurred in April of 2011.

Photo of the week: Stop bullying

I'm not sure where this pic is from. I came across it on Instagram tonight. It's the perfect example of solidarity leading to strength. Here is a united front against bullying.
I thought this was only appropriate and not an issue to be taken lightly.

Spread the word.

Missing Autistic Man

Police are searching for a missing Autistic man who hasn't been seen since Friday, October 12th.

Rick Hazard (pictured above) was last seen in the Jane and Eglinton area. He was wearing a greay jacket, jeans and a black backpack.

Please contact 416-222-TIPS with any information.

Gone Too Soon

If you were logged onto Twitter this past week, you probably heard of Amanda Todd. Just a month before her 16th birthday, she committed suicide because of the endless bullying and cyberstalking.

When Amanda was twelve years old, she made the naive mistake of "flashing" a webcam. Her photo was distributed publicly and Amanda continued to be taunted regardless of a numerous fresh starts. She was blackmailed to "giving a show" through a message on Facebook, a profile was created in honour of her body parts and she was bullied in school. She was twelve years old and thought of it as harmless behaviour. What's disturbing is that the people distributing her photos are distributing child pornography.

Amanda was bullied, attached, manipulated, stalked and harassed for four years. As a young girl, how many of you could get over that?

I've read plenty of comments and posts about Amanda's suicide. These are some of the disturbing and ignorant comments made:
------

 @DevilDiva9 (YouTube) wrote:

"Honestly, I'll admit, I felt pity for her after hearing, rather, seeing this story and it's ridiculous that she got bullied.
But regardless, I criticize her for
1 flashing herself to unknown men
2 Not learning to say no
3 Not staying strong for herself
Now 4 being selfish for causing herself physical harm and finally suicide"

-- Very nice of you to outline your arguements by numbering them Devil Diva. But your criticisms of Amanda Todd are nothing more than an attack on the naivety of a twelve year old girl, victim blaming and supporting the disgusting pedophilia behaviour of grown men preying on the internet. "Not learning to say no"... Are you serious? "Not staying strong for herself"? I had no idea these we were taking advice from fortune cookies when it came to bullying.

@Norfag420 (YouTube) wrote:

"She was basically begging for it. Fuck it. I'm gonna grab a bottle of bleach. Wanna come?"

-- "She was begging for it" are words often uttered by rapists. Just so you know, Norfag.

@IMAV4MPIRE (Twitter) wrote:

"Amanda Todd isn't the only person who committed suicide because of bullying. What makes her more important than anyone else?" 

-- Ask Amanda Todd's mother what is so special about her. Bet she would talk your ear off considering that was her daughter. The point is, Amanda was a human being that was treated like a bag of garbage. For whatever reason you believe for tweeting such ignorance is beyond me. And no, Amanda Todd isn't the only one that has ever committed suicide, but she's one of the victimns of on and offline bullying...and for FOUR YEARS. People have followed her to new schools and blackmailed her. No one is making her more important than anyone else. They're making her more important now because people failed to make her important for the right reasons before she died.

--------------

I've posted the negative comments to show you that even though we have lost a life, people are wrecklessly still attacking the victim online. Amanda Todd felt there was no reason for her to try and live her life. A twelve year old made a mistake once. But there were so many people involve in it. This situation went thought so many channels; all guilty of persisting the bullying.EVERY SINGLE PERSON that DISTRIBUTED HER PHOTOS. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT BULLIED HER. EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT "LIKED" HER PARODY FACEBOOK PAGE. What Amanda Todd did was a mistake. What everyone else did to use her mistake as a weapon was always deliberate.

You've sincerely made some mistakes as well.

Photo of the Week: Ain't This The Truth

Who doesn't agree with this??

The Power Struggle of Potty Training

23 year old Elizabeth Escalona superglued her 2 year old's
hands to the wall and severely beat her.

DALLAS-- In September of 2011, Elizabeth Escalona superglued her 2 year old daughter's hands to a wall and beat her so severely that her brain was bleeding. Reason? The 23 year-old mother claimed her daughter's toilet training "problems" were the motivation for her attack.

In July of 2012, Escalona pleaded guilty to her charges. She didn't about her daughter's conditions and was only informed because the officer interviewing her initiated the particular discussion.

No reason is any reason to harm a child, but what the hell was this woman thinking? This isn't the typical medicalization of a frustrated parent that the media immediately diagnoses when stories like these surface. This is power over children and the abuse of authority. We see this with many caregiver-client or patient situations. We hear about this not only with children but in retirement homes, in-home caregivers, pets, special needs individuals and so on. We see it anywhere in which one party has more power than the other.

Surely, a two year old is expected to have potty training problems. 

Perhaps Escalona made her way out of her mother's uterus and miraculously knew how to urinate in the toilet. But to the rest of us, we need to learn it. Apparently, this frustrated Escalona to the point of severe child abuse. 

The Escobar Situation

Toronto Blue Jay, Yunel Escobar, made a boo-boo.
Right at start-off season, the baseball player wrote "TU ERE MARICON" under his eyes, meaning "You're a faggot" back on the 15th of September during a game against the Red Sox.
He has defended and not defended his actions... at the same damn time.




He claims that it was a language misunderstanding and that among the Spanish community, the word "faggot" doesn't have the same meaning as it does in the english language.
He also claims that several of his friends and employed staff are gay and they apparently haven't felt offended by it. I doubt that. Escobar, however, agrees with his suspension and the monetary compensation of his suspension contributed toward an anti-homphobia organization.

The fact of the matter is, hate knows no specific language. Escobar deliberately wrote those specific words as an action of offensive nature, not endearment.

I believe that his monetary contribution doesn't actually deal with the root of the problem--- that homophobia is taken very lightly in this situation. Yes, he was suspended and needs to donate his portion to the organization and yes he was subject to a press conference made public. However, does this change his thoughts on how offensive his actions were? He agrees with the actions against him but his blame on language misunderstanding is all too common.
We always see public figures that were caught in some derogatory language or action issues claim the same argument--- "I didn't mean to offend so and so", "I love black people", "I have no problem with gay people... My ___ is gay". It's the same formula to dealing with public outrage.

Many of the responses on Twitter against Escobar after the press conference was a little disturbing. One Twitter user tweeted, "It means wimpy and not macho, nothing to do with gays".
Actually my dear, it does.

Gay men are seen by straight men as deviants of hegemonic masculinity. They're seen as less of man. You don't cry when you're hurt, you don't watch "chick flicks" and you don't hug another man with both arms. Those are the apparent rules. The word FAGGOT itself may not have been the direct translation, but it sure has the same meaning when we discuss masculinity.

Stop feeding these so-called public figures these excuses. If you want to get all technical, read about the implications of the homophobic society we live in first.

If you really thought about it, you wouldn't argue against this.