i am leading by example, here.

when you get bullshit charges filed against you, you should counter-attack with abandon, and tell the peanut gallery to fuck off.

what's the update on disclosure?

the crown is delaying. i gave them a request for further disclosure on the 24th of october, and requested i come back for a follow-up on the 31st. they were insistent that they needed until the 14th, and the justice agreed.

the request never made it to chatham - meaning we just wasted the last the three weeks. and, they're going to get shit for it tomorrow.

so, what is going to happen tomorrow? well, i was supposed to schedule a resolution meeting, once the crown had analyzed the request. but, the crown never received the request. so, i'm going to have to go in tomorrow and complain about an unreasonable delay, then basically state the same thing i stated previously. the crown may claim there is no further disclosure, but how can the crown respond when it didn't receive the request? and, this opens up a more complex set of circumstances, as there is a conflict on the file. did the crown withhold the request on purpose?

so, i'm going to make my first formal request for a dismissal; the crown isn't taking this seriously.

i've also made a request for a transcript of the bail hearing, and plan to file discrimination charges within days of it getting here. i was waiting for documents, but they're clearly dragging their feet for a reason.

i haven't heard back from the office investigating the officer.

this is annoyingly stupid. and it's just going escalate from here.

so, i got the oesp to confirm that the credit is gone.

i called the hydro office to explain the plan of letting the oesp cut down the bill month over month and ask what they'd do if i followed through with it, and they had no meaningful response. "just check your bill". ok. i guess that's what i'm going to do.

the process is apparently rather mechanized, so i don't have a lot of space to talk to a person, or get a human response, and that's sort of what i was concerned about. if they mail a disconnection in february, can i talk to a human being to get a straight answer? i think that i should be able to get the point across well enough. i mean, they can see my usage, they can see the oesp, etc - it's a convincing argument. but, you can't argue with an algorithm.

i tried to insult an algorithm once, and i was impressed with myself, but i don't think it had much of an impact.

i did learn something, though - i learned that they can't disconnect in the winter. so, i'm kind of safe until probably march. and, the argument should just get stronger as it goes, and the balance comes down.

i just need to be conscious about usage for the next few months - the less i use, the faster it flips, despite very diminished returns over the $27 service fee.

so, that's the first thing for the day.

i have meet queer arabs and queer turks, but they didn't identify as muslims. and, no, you can't be a gay muslim - or at least not genuinely. you're just a living a lie, and if your family still talks to you, they're waiting it out.

but, i need to be clear on the point, if i haven't been (and i have been): i'm not arguing for racial intolerance or racial inequality. what i'm arguing for is a greater level of social coercion towards open apostasy.

i want the women to burn their hijabs in giant festivals denouncing patriarchal oppression, and i want the men to feel comfortable embracing each other.

....because it is these right-wing social values that threaten me, not their fashion decisions or their skin colour.

it's a waste of time for everybody, as there's only two possible outcomes. the first is a secularization process, which leads to an end point where we're not talking about muslims anymore but arabs or pakistanis or somalis or whatever that have apostatized and denounced the faith, and then it's no longer a discussion - they're just some liberals with some brown skin, and nobody on the left is going to care about that. the other is that they hold hard to their religion, in which case that wall needs to come up, and it just needs to be explained to them that their views are not consistent with a secular, liberal or, dare i shudder to say, "progressive" view of western democracy - that they're going to find their values better reflected in the republican party.

see, and then the solidarity lies on a racial level and it starts to get weird, because the left should support the rights of muslims to be republicans and be accepted by conservative institutions. and, then what? do democrats write laws that force the republican institutions to accept muslims as equals? in a functional sense, this is what democrats and leftists are actually arguing for - the right to register these people as republican voters.

...because there has to be a breaking point, eventually. the left can only stand up for people they are fundamentally in opposition to for so long, and if there is ever any level of actual success, the muslims themselves are not shy in admitting that they will instantly bolt to the right.

so, what's the point?

the left needs to give the muslims a choice - convert or get lost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/sunday/do-muslims-have-to-be-democrats-now.html

or, you could show up with a swat team and yell at everybody to be civil, right?

*shoots gun in the air*

you're going to stop being uncivil right this moment. or else.

or else what?

the importance of speech rights is in direct proportion to the level of offence taken at them.

that is, the more offended you are by what i say, the more important it is that i'm able to say it.

when somebody says to me that "i'm offended", i imagine they must be a 90 year-old woman that hasn't missed a day of church since she had her last child.

and, i frankly don't fucking care - except in the sense that it's comical.

if you won't fight for your rights, don't be surprised when you lose them.

expressions of moral outrage are comical - it's the comedy jackpot, the higher plane, the whole point of telling a joke.

and, i mean - do you not realize that i'm trying to offend you?

do you think it's some kind of accident that you're upset? because the joke is less in the offence, and more in the reaction of being offended - that's the part that's really funny, the puritanical reactions against moral turpitude and statements of self-righteous superiority. that's where the laugh is. that's what i want to hear.

a few decades ago, i would have jokingly asked a sarcastic question, "what are you going to do? put me in jail?". nowadays, that's becoming increasingly less farfetched. so, these arguments need to be had in the legal arena, and these attacks need to be beaten back.

people need to STOP APOLOGIZING and start FIGHTING BACK. you take these freedoms for granted. but, freedom is not something to put on a shelf and forget about, it is something that must be constantly exercised. and, when people challenge your rights, you need to assert them, not apologize for having them.

it's not a triviality.

it's the basis of a free society.

so, a muslim and a republican walk into a restaurant during pride and sit down and order a glass of water.

the waiter comes by and asks "are you guys together?".

and, i just don't understand how we got to this point where the left is complaining about being offended. that's supposed to be a right-wing thing.

nobody imagines the young liberal activist as clutching her pearls - that's what the old conservative woman is supposed to do. and, the young liberal activist is supposed to enjoy watching her squirm, and laugh at her for being uptight.

i really think the (real) left needs to stop giving a fuck, and start poking people in the eyes. when somebody says "don't say that, it's offensive", the proper response should be to yell it into that person's face 40 times, and laugh at them when they start crying.

and, i intend to lead the way.

so, go ahead and tell me you're offended - that's just an affirmation that i'm doing something right.

but, what if i told you that i actually enjoy offending people?

"j, did you actually make the football team?"

yeah.

"matt didn't make it though."

matt needs to either lose some weight or gain some weight if he wants to play football.

"i see. and, dave didn't make it?"

dave was apparently lacking in skills. i dunno. i didn't talk to him about it.

"but, you made it? really. i'm just surprised. you don't come across as somebody that would be interested in football."

well, i'm not, really. it's more a dad thing.

"right. but i still can't believe you made the team."

well, i'm a fast runner, and i can actually catch. i'm very healthy; i'm in very good shape. i know football is thought of as this violent sport, but the fact is that there's always going to be a place on a football team for people that can outrun the field.

"right. i guess that not everybody on the field has to be physical and confrontational. so, what position do you play, again?"

left bench. they tried to move me to the right side a few times, but it didn't really fit. i'm a natural on the left bench, though.

=============

i actually quit the team midway through the year because i didn't want to skip out on math class. that was the excuse i needed.