Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 8/30
The Shitstorm Surrounding Miley Cyrus
So Cyrus did a performance at the MTV Video music awards that was two things: 1) Blatantly sexual and 2) Artistically awful.
Now the VMA’s are about the most gaudy ridiculous spectacle in music so the fact she was part of a gaudy, ridiculous performance should be neither shocking or upsetting. That’s what the show is all about.
The fact people are pitching a fit because she exhibited hardcore sexuality when she’s only (gasp) twenty is what is really bugging me here. Because if Miley Cyrus was a twenty something guy grabbing his crotch and dancing suggestively and her name was…say…Michael Jackson, hardly anyone would be complaining.
Woo!
Cyrus, though, is a girl woman and she’s not Madonna.
Of course, Madonna got all sorts of crap for being brazenly sexual as well.
Having watched the video, I think that the performance was awful. Her singing was breathy and not in her strongest range. She was more interested in showing off how “grown up” she was than in being a good singer (and she is a good singer – even if you don’t like what she sings). Her “dancing” consisted mostly of gyrating and sticking out her tongue. The three songs they chose to mash-up don’t really fit together. What was with the teddy bears anyway? I fucking hate “Blurred Lines.”
The fact that Cyrus engaged in suggestive dancing should not be the subject of criticism. It should be the fact she did it badly. If you want to be perceived as grown up and sexy, be grown up and sexy.
But while we all comment about Cyrus, we need to remember one thing. She gave that performance to get attention. And she got a lot of it.
Shit that Pissed me off this week- 8/23
It’s actually been a pretty boring week. Not too much that really annoyed me. Perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong places.
They Cut Down a Grand Old Tree at the Renaissance Festival
This is not a “fuck the management of the Renaissance Festival” screed. While I sometimes feel that way, the issue here is not one of any idiot running the festival but rather the cost of our human needs.
Near a group of rocks at the MRF grounds, there was an oak tree that provided shade for years. That tree stood over the old peasant banquet and sing-along and it even provided some shade to the old juggling booth. All of those things were long gone but the tree remained. Until now.
The tree wasn’t sick (so far as I know). They cut it down because they had to run new power lines on to the site and it was in the way.
I don’t know if they could have run the lines somewhere else. Even if they could have done so, it probably would have resulted in some other tree being destroyed.
But that tree had history for me. That tree meant something to me.
That tree there. They one right between these two lovely ladies (photo by Eric Knight).
And it is the inevitable cost of human progress that we destroy things that get in our way. Over and over and over again. It isn’t a problem with the Renaissance festival. it is a problem with the way the world works.
I guess it doesn’t piss me off. It makes me sad.
Geeks Without God talks about a Wedge Issue!
This week’s episode of Geeks Without God was recorded in my hotel room at CONvergence 2013, which sounds dirty but really isn’t. My Twitter friend Finn Murphy was at the convention and she’s a co-host of the Skeprechaun podcast back in her native Ireland. Super cool! We asked her on our podcast and she agreed.
So what topic did she want to talk about? Abortion! A perfect topic for a comedy podcast, right?
Actually, it was a great topic. For all the issues we have with abortion laws in the United States, things are far worse in Ireland. It was a fascinating exploration of some really problematic legal choices.
Hey, I used the word choice. See what I did there?
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 8/9
This is actually two week’s worth of stuff and it is still pretty short. I guess that the mild summer is taking a toll on people acting like crazy idiots. Not all of them, though.
Guy Blew up a Dog But he’s not Going to be Charged With Killing the Dog
Now let’s be clear – this guy is completely nuts. He blew up a dog because he believed it was possessed. Normal people don’t have a tendency to do that sort of thing.
He’s charged with possession of explosives but not with animal cruelty.
In some places, this means the same thing as “beware of the dog.”
Why not?
Because the dog died instantaneously and therefore did not experience any pain.
Now look, the guy needs to go a mental institution because he’s pretty clearly fucked up. Animal cruelty or no animal cruelty, he’s quite a few bullets short of a loaded gun.
You have to wonder about a law, though, that won’t allow you to charge someone with animal cruelty when you blow the animal up. Pain or no pain, that seems like a pretty cruel thing to do, doesn’t it?
Shit that Pissed Me Off this Week – 8/2
British Jackass Arrested for Objecting to Jane Austen
So the Brits change the faces on their currency every now and again to discourage counterfeiters. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work but bravo to them for trying.
Their 10-Pound note currently sports Charles Darwin, which is a great choice. In a few years, Darwin will be replaced by Jane Austen. This also seems like a great choice.
However, a few complete assholes feel that Austen doesn’t belong on British cash because there’s already a woman on every bill produced in the country. The reigning monarch is prominently displayed on the front of every note and Elizabeth is still filling that role thankyouverymuch. Because the ladies get the front of every note, a few assholes think the back should be reserved for the guys.
Anything less than a 50/50 spilt constitutes misandry, or something.
Doesn’t she just look like a feminazi?????
So one fellow was so upset that women were taking over his money, he decided to harass one of the proponents of the change via Twitter. I’m not sure if he was aware that death threats are illegal in England but he sure didn’t seem to be aware that when you make such threats via Twitter, it’s pretty easy for people to figure out who is making them.
Especially when you are sending over 50 abusive tweets per hour. It gets a lot easier to track a guy
Geeks Without God Talks about the Fringe Festival
My life is about to become all Fringe Festival all the time so it seemed appropriate that this week’s Geeks Without God touched on the theatrical orgy that is the Minnesota Fringe. We brought back former guest Joshua Humphrey to engage in Fringe Nerd conversation.
To be fair, Josh and I are the fringe nerds. Molly and Nick patiently listened to what we had to say and asked really good questions. The conversation covers the origin of the Fringe, the benefits to local theatre companies and some of the challenges as well.
Then Josh got to ask us five questions and they required a fair amount of thought. I don’t know what it is with guests showing up and making us think, but it needs to stop!
If you would like to listen, you can do so here!
Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/26
Pastor Says that He’s Never met Anyone who Didn’t Regret Having Sex Before Marriage
I must assume, then, that he’s met very few people who have had sex before marriage.
I need to meet this guy because then he will have met one person who is completely happy with the decision to have sex before marriage. Then I’ll introduce him to a whole lot of other people. Many of whom are Christians.
See, I’m used to self-righteous idiots like this talking out of their asses. But why say something so easy to refute? Especially because the guy has to realize that what he is saying is bullshit, doesn’t he? How can you not realize that what you are saying is bullshit when you say something so incredibly stupid?
I’m betting a million dollars that this dude has never regretted having sex outside of marriage.
In fact, when presented with evidence that what he said was bullshit, he turned off the comments on his post and deleted all of the comments that disproved his statement. Because when faced with evidence that you put your foot in your mouth, the best thing you can possibly do is destroy the evidence. And this jerk would probably want to ask me where I get a moral compass without god.
Seems like god hasn’t done him any favors in that department.
Geeks Without God Talks CONvergence Again
OK, I know we’ve been talking about CONvergence a lot. We really like the convention. So this episode is about our favorite moments at the convention. I think the episode is fun to listen to but no matter what, it was fun to record. That has to count for something, right?
Actually, there are some fun stories that came out of the convention and we somehow managed to remember a few of them!
Shit that Pissed me off – 7/19
Thing is, I didn’t think that there was a chance in hell that Zimmerman was going to be found guilty and honestly, I don’t think he should have spent the rest of his life in prison. I think he should have gone to prison but not for the rest of his life. Splitting hairs, maybe, but there you go.
While it seems probable that Trayvon Martin did attack Zimmerman, it also seems clear that Zimmerman would not have been in a position to be attacked if he’d followed directions and stayed in his car. He didn’t and a teenaged boy is dead.
In the end, nobody learned anything. Zimmerman feels like his actions have been vindicated. In fact, he feels like killing Martin was part of God’s plan. A belief that won’t be shaken given the verdict. Trayvon Martin can learn nothing ever again because he’s still dead.
Or – since it was all part of god’s plan – maybe he’s burning in hell and learning a lot. Too bad it won’t do him any good. Ha ha!
Is Zimmerman guilty of murder? Apparently not. I still believe that what he did was wrong. And it exposed something ugly about our country that a lot of us would rather ignore. Like the fact Zimmerman can go free while a black woman can spend 20 years in jail for firing two warning shots so her abusive husband would stay away from her.
Sadly enough, after the uproar about this verdict dies down, we’ll just go back to ignoring it.
Geeks Without God Talks to PZ Myers
In the second of two live episodes recorded at CONvergence, we finally got to talk with outspoken atheist PZ Myers. I wanted to talk to him about evolution because he is a professor of evolutionary biology and a vocal opponent of creationists the world over. My question to him was fairly simple: what is the best evidence you can use to get a creationist to think about their beliefs?
I had no illusions that one could completely eradicate years of indoctrination with a single well-chosen piece of evidence. I just wanted to know how you could start the ball rolling.
Of course the answer isn’t nearly as easy as the question. I knew that.
Still, PZ helped us work through some of the ways those of us who know evolution is true can begin to educate those who do not. It was great to have PZ on the show and I hope we can chat with him again soon!
Grail Diary 