From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: Canada (was: Re: Freedom of Religion as well as everything else)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 2 Sep 92 00:59:47 GMT

In article <5H2FqB2w165w@ailanth.UUCP> ailsa%ailanth.uucp@wang.com (Ailsa N.T. Murphy) writes:
>darsie@eecs.ucdavis.edu (Richard Darsie) writes:
>
>> I have to admit to occasionally sharing everyone's depression/anxiety/
>> foreboding about the course the country is taking. I have my own ideas
>> about what's responsible for the pass we've come to - TV and it's
>> moronic popular culture is real high on the list. It's really a perfect
>> medium for mind control and when I read that young kids watch 6-7 hours
>> of that c**p *every day*, I shudder.

*TV IS EVIL.*  Well, okay, so it has SOME redeeming values, but like
booze -- although it can be nice sometimes, the planet would probably
be better off if it all just disappeared. 

I still recall the old "Cosmos" series quite fondly, though.  It lit the
imagination of the kid I was and steered me into astronomy.  I didn't
stay there, but found it to be a very rewarding experience.  It showed
me how I could believe that science IS spirituality, just as uplifting
and awe-inspiring as any grimoire.

Overall, though?  *TV IS EVIL.*  I watch two shows -- Star Trek because
I find it kind of fun, even if I do get pissed at some stuff.  Jeopardy
is the other one, mostly because I like to fantasize how my brain's
ability to remember anything it's exposed to coupled with its INability
to purge things after they are useful can someday pay off . . . 

Come to think of it, the only time my brain was successful at purging
stuff I'd worked hard to remember was after my qualifiers . . .
 
>well, that's why katy watches *0* hours of tv per day.  stupid stuff, mostly,
>and reinforces all the cultural values i dislike.  granted fundamentalists keep
>their kids from watching tv for similar reasons, but fundamentalists also
>breathe for similar reasons as i do, so i try not to let it worry me too much.
>and katy has an excellent vocabulary and loves books, so i must be doing
>SOMETHING right...

Hon, when you mentioned that you had a kid, I just about breathed a sigh
of relief.  I know you only through the net, but I still said to myself,
"At least there's ONE kid in this place who's being raised by someone
with her head screwed on straight." 

>> Keep hope alive!
>
>doing my best...
>
>                                           -ailsa
>
>p.s. in all this talkj abotu leaving, i never made clear: i am not too terribly
>worried about the US turning into a totalitarian dictatorship (any more than it
>is already) with closed borders.  all i'm worried about is a stiffening of the
>already present tendency to try to remove custody from lesbian mothers. there

This is a-fucking-palling.  Is it really a noticeable trend on the rise,
or just a continuance of a trend always there?

Scares the shit out of me the way people think they can see into your
head and know you just by pinning some stupid word on you.  ailsa, you
have now been reduced to a word.  How's it feel? 

>is at least one lesbian couple and son who are officially refugees from thsi
>country because of this.  i think they're in denmark currently.  i can get to
>toronto on one AFDC check...

I have to keep remembering what I said about amber at times like this. 

Blessings,
Janis 
Newsgroups: alt.pagan