rabble rouser of the month :: january 2015

cassandra fortin (aka cassandra c)
  a 17-year-old girl was diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma last year.  she decided to not undergo chemotherapy to eradicate the disease.  the decision was supported by her mother, but not the state of connecticut.  cassandra was then kidnapped, taken to the hospital and given radiation treatments. basically, she is opposed to the poison used for treatment, doesn't want it in her body, and doesn't want to further put toxins into the ecosystem for her own supposed benefit.      this isn't a terribly rare scenario.  it's just that complicating factors like pregnancy, religious beliefs, "first nation" rights, different state's and nation's laws all give different underage people different rights.  and in connecticut that seems to mean that cassandra is not allowed to make decisions for herself that other people elsewhere may or may not be able to make.
     meanwhile, someone over the age of 18 can choose to commit suicide to end their pain, such as brittany maynard did after moving to portland be able to "die with diginity".  brittany became a national celebrity for refusing cancer treatments.  i am not judging brittany's case and imagine i would have done a similar thing, but it is a contradiction to villainize one person and glorify another for essentially the same thing just because one is 12 years older than the other.
     and let's certainly not suggest this is about the government wanting to care for citizens.  a queensland father is looking at jail time for giving his dying daughter cannabis oil even though the result was a great improvement, much like angela brown and her son in minnesota last year.


runner up.

     good old fashioned pranksters from toronto, (kyle forgeard, jesse sebastiani, niko martinovic and marko martinovic) pulled a stunt on LAPD, in which they videoed themselves offering to sell coke to people near the beach.  then, when the cops show up, things get goofy.
after announcing that they have a bunch of coke in the back, the kid in back says somewhat offhandedly,"i didn't know you couldn't sell it like that tough." in response, the female officer says, "will figure it out man, just relax." her response alone got endless chuckles from me.  after checking out the car, finding only coca-cola, the cops are seen laughing, joking and shaking hands with the pranksters that they naturally let go.  the only problem came from the posting it online to much criticism, including the LAPD who weren't laughing about it in hindsight.
     certainly, the video has been criticized by more straight-laced people as a waste of police time. perhaps that's a justifiable rationale, but taking the video on it's own accord,  the acting is priceless. straight-faced, they are so convincing in pulling this off.  no doubt they could probably have a decent career ala the jerky boys or jackass type schticks.