Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 5/31
Arizona State Representative was so Upset an Atheist Rep. Didn’t pray, he Prayed Twice
I missed this one last week, sorry.
So here’s what happened. Arizona State Representative (and secular humanist) Juan Mendez gave an invocation that did not include God. They take turns giving the invocation, it was his turn and he gave an invocation based on his beliefs. Which is totally his fucking right.
Representative Steve Smith was so upset about it, he offered up a special prayer the next day for “repentance of the previous day.” In addition to a prayer he’d already given. Because he had to make up for Mendez, I guess.
Oh god, please forgive my fellow legislators for being tolerant of beliefs other than their own. As I’m the only one of them without sin, I’m going to cast the first stone.
Now let’s step back for a moment and ask what the appropriate response would be had Mendez given a Hindu prayer. Or a Jewish one. Or an Islamic one. Would that have been OK because he’d mentioned a god or gods (even if they weren’t the right one)?
Assuming Smith’s response had been the same (two prayers to make up for the lack of a Christian one), would he have taken flak for choosing to disrespect any belief system other than humanism?
I’ll bet people would have been pissed as hell. Not just Muslims or Jews or whatever other religion he’d chosen to disrespect but Christians as well.
As it is, Smith will be applauded by the religious right for standing up to the godless left even though the godless left has had to tolerate Christian prayer in the Arizona state house for every day except one.
I am a White Male and I Cannot be Silenced
It sounds really stupid when I say that I can’t be silenced, doesn’t it?
I mean, here I am writing a blog entry and I get to say whatever the fuck I want. Nobody is telling me to shut up because I’m a white guy. Nobody seems to think that I haven’t a right to speak my mind. It’s really fucking easy for me to have my say any time I like.
I bring this up because I’ve been reading a lot about a welcome address given at the Women in Secularism conference just over a week ago. The address got on the nerves of a lot of attendees because the speaker, a white male, chose to use part of his speech to admonish the women in attendance for perhaps taking feminism too far.
Now the fact he is a white male should not be the big issue here as he is the CEO of the Center for Inquiry and they did sponsor the event. Having him open the conference does seem somewhat appropriate.
Shit that Pissed Me Off This Week – 5/10
Chris Kluwe Released by the Vikings
I don’t know for certain why he was let go. I could speculate and a lot of other people have but the fact is the dude is a great voice for change and now he’s on his way out of town.
He’s bigger than the game he plays. I know that sounds ridiculous given Football is the most profitable professional sport in the world but it is just a sport. Kluwe tried to use his celebrity to help achieve a higher goal.
What goal could be higher than balancing a football on your middle finger? Get your priorities straight, Chris! Get it? Straight???? Get it?????????
And I’m pretty sure he got fired for it. I guess you should have waited to speak your mind until you weren’t a professional football player, Chris.
Not a problem now though! Boo-yah!
Shit that Pissed Me off – 4/26
Arkansas State Senator Nate Bell is a Douche
He decided to take a tense situation and make it all about gunz. As Bostonians were awaiting the results of a manhunt for a killer, he was wondering how many of them wished they had a semi-automatic weapon.
Ha ha!
I’m going to attempt some mind reading to suggest that the number he was looking for was damn near zero.
There were armed police everywhere. A bunch of civilians with machine guns weren’t going to make the situation any safer. In fact, the odds of an innocent bystander getting shot would have skyrocketed.
Maybe this was the gun they were wishing for.
Nate Bell loves his gunz. He loves them so much that he makes a fallacious assumption that people who don’t love gunz will automatically change their mind in a situation where a gun might have come in handy (although there is no proof that is the case.) He’s got that one wrong.
As with most things, the people on both sides of the issue have equally strong justifications for their choices and one fugitive is unlikely to change someone’s mind about how many guns they would like to have in their home.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 4/12
North Carolina Republicans are Pushing a Bill for a Two Year waiting Period on Divorce
Explain to me how this is less government again?
Now I have to be honest. I think couples who are considering divorce should have a cooling off period. They probably should get couples therapy to see if they can work out whatever differences they have. Unless there is abuse, of course, then I think that the marriage needs to be ended as quickly as possible.
That opinion, by the way, is not shared by the authors of this bill. There is no exception for spouses trying to escape abuse.
No matter what my personal opinions may be, however, I don’t think that the state should be the one that gets to decide when a couple has tried hard enough to keep their marriage together. To be blunt, how the fuck would the state know?
I’m not so sure gay people would want to get married in North Carolina
The law in question may even start the clock over if it can be proven the couple has had sex after filing for divorce. So let me get this straight – you want them to make sure they work on their marriage before they call it quits but if, in the natural course of working on their marriage, they have sex, they will get punished by having to remain married longer. The logic is completely idiotic.
Work on your marriage.
NOT THAT WAY!!!!
I’m sorry – now you are going to have to work on the marriage more.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 3/29
Woman Complains about Sexist Behavior at a Convention and she gets Harassed and Fired
I just don’t get it, really. A couple of guys were making sexist jokes while sitting in the audience for a panel about women coders and an audience member thought they were in the wrong. Yeah. I agree.
She asked the conference organizers to tell them to stop. They were asked to stop and they did.
Then all hell breaks loose because one of the guys loses his job.
Look, I don’t think the guy should have lost his job for that but I wonder if it was really just for that? Isn’t it possible he was shitty at his job already? Even he was “just” fired for sexual harassment (oh the humanity), the logical response should not be for other people on the internet to attack the woman’s place of work and get her fired.
Hey guys! Let’s use our computers to teach this uppity bitch that she shouldn’t complain when we call her an uppity bitch!
That’s the sort thing dicks do.
Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of dicks on the internet.
Update: Clarifications in the comments below. And in this article. She did send a tweet to the conference organizers, not a public one (at least according to what I read). I question any firings happening and the harrassment is completely unacceptable.
Mea culpa on this one, though. I usually research the articles better before I comment on them. I didn’t look into this one deeply enough. If I had, I would still have commented on it but been more clear about all of the details.
The results of this situation – both firings – look to be classic overreactions by both companies and that still pisses me off.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 3/22
MegaChurch Pastor Told his Teenaged Girlfriend That Jesus Wanted them to be Together
Jack Schaap has pled guilty to taking a minor across state lines for the purpose of having sex. He’s not the first middle-aged guy who has shacked up with a teenager who looked up to him.
But I’m sure he’s been preaching about the abomination of homosexuality and possibly fornication and then he seems powerless to control his own lust. He even went so far as to tell his young lover that Jesus wanted them to be together.
Go ahead and do her, buddy! I’m behind you 100%! You don’t mind if I watch, do you?
I’m sure he’ll blame his behavior on the devil rather than himself. What will never occur to him (or his flock) is to question how a man so in tune with God could succumb to the same base lusts he condemns in other people. I’m sure he prayed to god for the strength to stop cheating on his wife with a child. Why didn’t god stop him? Why did he instead decide that god wanted him to do it?
It’s like the god he believed in didn’t really exist.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 3/8
Video Showing Income Disparity in America
I don’t talk a lot about income disparity and tax structure in America because frankly the argument bores me. There seems to be this idea that we all have a right to get rich and therefore the system is fair and us liberals should shut up about it.
But look, the system is not fair. It is designed to ensure that people with money will have an amazingly easy time making more of it while people without money will have a nearly impossible time doing the same. Hard work alone does not get you “ahead.”
Not only that, we need janitors and teachers and police officers and firefighters and none of those people are getting paid well. And they never will. The people with the wealth are not the people doing the jobs that absolutely have to get done. I’m tired of the idea that anyone can get ahead in this country.
I’ll wager that this guy is not actually one of the top 1%
The solution is not as simple as just taxing the 1% that controls the vast majority of the wealth in this country because they will still control the vast majority of the wealth in this country. I’m not saying I know the solution.
But I can sure as fuck recognize a problem.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 3/1
North Carolina Student Could be Expelled for “Intimidating” her Rapist
What is happening here is a young woman was sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend. She has been speaking out about it and calling on UNC to improve how they deal with students who have been sexually assaulted. The University has responded by telling her that her speech is “intimidating” her rapist.
Well first off, who gives a fuck if a rapist is being intimidated? Fuck him. If he didn’t want the negative publicity that comes from raping someone, he shouldn’t have done it.
I’m so afraid that I’d get caught again!
I can understand that there would be some concern for this young rapist if she was calling him out by name everywhere but she isn’t. She isn’t naming him at all. She’s just pointed out that some guy was sexually abusive and the University has done dick about it. If he’s being intimidated, it is because she’s trying to make it harder for him to rape again.
Well, I can see why that would scare him. It makes perfect sense that the University would need to protect him.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 2/22
Alaska Republicans respond to a question about Gay Marriage with Laughter
While the Alaskan public is beginning to warm up to the idea of legalizing gay unions (or at least giving homosexuals protection from discrimination in the workplace), the Republican caucus in the state legislature thinks idea is pretty funny.
You know, the Republican party is still full of openly anti-gay members. However, most of them are smart enough to avoid laughing at the idea of marriage equality on camera. Not this crew. They just laughed out loud because, I guess, fuck the gays.
Oh dear! I’ve laughed at the gays so much, I smeared my make-up!
I suppose when you know that you aren’t going to get the gay vote anyway, you have no reason to treat them with respect or compassion. Better if they all just commit suicide while they are still in high school, right?
You can laugh at gay people if you want, assholes. They aren’t going to disappear. You managed to make them hide for a while but most of them have finally realized they are right and you are wrong. Pretty soon they will be laughing at you. The difference will be that you deserve it.
Grail Diary 