Junk Activism

Effectively snipping the cojones from “Brokeback Mountain” – a tale of two gay cowboys – Italian broadcasters censored and cut out all of the gay scenes from the movie, making it into an innocent story of two chummy cowboy buddies.

“Gay” controversy aside, I must say this movie sucked bad.  The scenery was great, the song “Wings” is incredible, but it must have been one of the most boring pieces of cinema I’ve ever had the displeasure of yawning through.

Italy, instead of cutting out the only controversy that made this movie interesting to begin with, can you add some action to it, please?  Or some comedy.  Maybe Adam Sandler shows up and sings us a song about sheep.   How about some ass kicking and gunslinging action scenes with John Wayne?  Maybe the Terminator shows up Or… that awesome white-house-exploding scene from Independence Day would’ve been perfect.

Then again, maybe all of Italian TV should be boring.

I shake my head:

The women were identified as Laura Raquel Ramirez, 37, and Naida Villaverde, 41. One of them fainted from the heat and pain, said Blas Vera, one of the movement’s leaders.

lol.  Really?  Wusses.  Everyone knows Jesus could do it.

Several men heaved the crosses on their shoulders and bore the women through Asuncion, joining dozens of other protesters.

Personally, if we’re going down that route, I prefer the Buddhist Monk style of self-immolation.  However, for a housing protest I think being nailed to a cross may be appropriate.  Obviously, we know what the inspiration is for this:

Nearly 90% of Paraguay’s 6 million citizens are Roman Catholic.

We are such sheep, always following the Media, doing what we see, reenacting the violence.  What is to blame for such violence and atrocity that these two women would subject themselves to?  Was it a video game?  Is it Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ“?  Were these women reading The Bible again?  Or is it the Roman Catholic Church, which often depicts Christianity as a tortured carcass hanging from a cross?

Is it a prerequisite to be gay to come up with hilarious protests?  Is there competition within the gay community to come up with this stuff?  This one should take the cake for this week.

San Francisco gay marriage supporters are encouraging same-sex marriage supporters to “call in gay to work” tomorrow, Wednesday December 10th. From the article:

Sean Hetherington, a West Hollywood comedian and personal trainer, dreamed up the idea with his boyfriend, Aaron Hartzler, after reading online that a few angry gay-rights activists were calling for a daylong strike to protest California voters’ passage last month of Proposition 8, which reversed this year’s state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage.

The couple thought it would be more effective and less divisive if people were asked to perform community service instead of staying home with their wallets shut. Dozens of nonprofit agencies, from the National Women’s Law Center in Washington to a Methodist church in Fresno collecting food for the homeless, have posted opportunities for volunteers on the couple’s Web site.

Although I’m not gay and am scratching my head at how this is anything other than cheeky and fun attention-getting, it’s noble that they’re proposing to do community service instead of holding hate signs.

I can’t wait to try out a “gay” excuse sometime.  Something so utterly disturbing they won’t want you in the office.  I propose this excuse:  “Sorry, I can’t make it to work.  I’m gay today.  It’s this condition where I’m profoundly attracted to members of the same sex.  Because of that, Satan is burning holes in my brain, I’ve oiled up my body, and my muscles are twitching.  I also find it hot to compulsively touch myself while staring at my ass in a mirror.  Typically, this is a “24 hour bug” and will probably be gone tomorrow.  I understand that this behavior is disturbing for most and it is probably best if I stay home today.”

Also from the article is our Junk Activism Organization of the Day: Colorado Queer Straight Alliance

Awesome.

It appears the new trend in getting what you want is to raid the airports, stop the flow of traffic and chaos will ensue.

So yeah, the links I point out above are from just one protest over Thailand’s government.  One note reported Thailand was losing between $50mil – $85mil a day from the airport blockage. Unfortunate in a country where the people’s cash cow is the influx of tourism.  I can’t imagine people are rushing to buy their tickets to Bangkok now.

Over the weekend, another group of protesters in London were inspired over the weekend to preach  doomsday in the form of climate change on a runway at Stansted Airport.  Oh yeah, and that Runway was closed for maintenance:

The protest, by 54 campaigners, saw demonstrators occupying a runway and taxi area which had been closed for maintenance work at around 3am.

Thailand’s was WAY better than this sorry excuse for a protest.  Seriously, you broke into an airport and stood on a closed runway?  Imagine the looks on the faces of the five airport runway maintenance staff as they find 54 people run into the middle of an empty airstrip carrying doomsday signs.

Things brings to question:  What was the protest about?  Well, it was about climate change…. er, airport expansion.  Charts have proven that airport expansion is EXACTLY proportional to a rise in temperature.  Meaning, the more airport run ways you build, the warmer the airport gets.  Sort of like…. every time we build one, God will drown a cute polar bear.  You know, like sound logical science type stuff.

But what was it REALLY about?  It’s about FUN:  getting attention….. civil disobedience…. creating inconvenience for the “status quo”…. breaking and entry…. getting arrested.

According to this post on New York Daily News, a protest of Rent-A-Center was staged last Saturday for renting computers and appliances at ridiciulously high prices.

From the article:

Activists feel the Texas-based corporation takes advantage of inner-city residents who can’t afford to pay outright for new appliances. Rent-A-Center offers seemingly cheap deals, but the numbers quickly add up, activists and some shoppers say.

Strangely enough, this protest is led by Al Sharpton, who has found a new niche in protesting with lousy consumers who victimize their bad spending habits.  Or maybe he just loves being loud.

Brooklyn, please.  Here’s a few tips from “Junk Activism’s Responsible Consumerism 101“:

1) Stop renting your toys and appliances.  It’s cheesy, it’s wasteful, and of course you’re going to pay a shitload more than something is worth.  For a business, that’s the point of renting instead of selling.

2) Read the fine print before you sign anything.

3) Do the math before you sign anything.

4) Relax.  You don’t need a 1,000,000″ HDTV ultra high-res Samsung plasma TV right away, anyway.  Idiot.

So, put your signs down.  Just go shop somewhere else.