Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 10/26
Yes, that’s right, let’s discourage people from being seismologists by threatening them with imprisonment if they don’t do a good enough job predicting Earthquakes. You know, because their job is to be perfect about something we know we can’t accurately predict.
And when they get it wrong, we can hold them accountable when people die.
By god, someone will PAY FOR THIS!!!!
You know, because it makes sense to hold people accountable for an act of nature.
The next time some idiot decides to jump into freezing cold rapids at Yosemite National Park and they die as a result, we should sue the Federal Government because they didn’t give the guy an IQ test at the gate, right?
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 10/19
Academic Men Explain Things to Me Tumblr
I shouldn’t read these pages. Yes, most men are not misogynist pricks who talk down to women at every opportunity but far too many of them are.
Ladies, if I’ve ever said anything this shitty to you, I sincerely apologize. I’ll try to do better.
Here’s my favorite:
I was at a conference outside my field (I am in Women’s Studies), and a male undergraduate came up to me, saw the department name on my tag, and told me, “no offense, but Women’s Studies is a dead field. It’s built on a fundamentally sexist premise, so it was only a matter of time before you killed yourselves.” Thanks?
Hey everyone, rule of etiquette number one: if you ever need to preface what you say with “no offense,” what you are about to say is really fucking offensive.
Shit That Pissed me off This Week – 10/5
I don’t care how you feel about it – voter fraud is a red herring in the Voter ID debate. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and further, no evidence that voter ID laws will prevent fraud.
Also, we’ll need to draw some blood.
What Voter ID laws will do is make it more difficult for college students to vote without getting a new drivers’ license in the state where they attend college. It will make it harder for seniors who no longer drive to vote. It will make it harder for a lot of people to vote and that pisses me off because voting is one of the most basic rights we all have in this country.
We shouldn’t make it harder to vote. We should make it fucking easy to vote. That way more people will vote.
All that aside, isn’t it a bit suspicious that the party who is most strongly pushing for voter fraud is responsible for voter fraud? I know it’s just one guy but that proves my argument. This sort of thing is not widespread.
What are they really trying to do with these amendments? Because it would seem what they aren’t trying to do is stop voter fraud.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 9/28
A Story from Inside the Westboro Baptist Church
The Story is one of the finest radio programs on the air. Dick Gordon is one of the best interviewers I’ve ever heard and he finds amazing subjects every single episode. If I didn’t have a life, I would be listening between 9:00 and 10:00 PM every night.
This week he interviewed Nate Phelps, one of Fred Phelps’ sons. I’ve said for a long time that I’m going to maintain strict radio silence where the Westboro Baptist Chuch is concerned because talking about them gives them power and attention and that’s exactly what they want. I’m breaking my vow of silence to talk about the one thing we don’t really understand about these people.
Listening to Nate talk about the history of intellectual and physical abuse that he was subjected to at the hand of his father, I came to understand the tragic nature of the world Fred Phelps has created. He creates hateful, awful people by creating a world that makes that behavior seem normal.
Kids don’t think this without a trusted adult force feeding it to them
When you hear Nate’s description of that insular society, you almost feel sorry for the people who have been, quite literally, brainwashed into doing what they do. Worse, every one of them is being taught how to make sure the next generation does the same thing.
It’s a never ending cycle of hatred and we all feed into it by hating them right back. I wish I knew the solution. I wish I could figure out how to rescue these kids from the cycle of hatred and abuse that Fred Phelps has created.
I don’t know how to do that. I just fear that every time those hate filled people are met with (deserving) hatred and anger, we are perpetuating the problem.
You want to know how I define evil? Fred Phelps.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 9/21
Rick Santorum Doesn’t Like Smart People
We all know what I think of Rick Santorum, right?
Santorum basically believes the “intellectual elite” just want to run the lives of everyone that is dumber than them. He seems to believe that smart people are all mad scientists who believe that if the world will just submit to their will, we’ll all be a lot happier.
Yes! If I am successful, I will FORCE THE WORLD to never have cancer again! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
The wave of anti-intellectualism in this country is staggering. It’s the reason people with no knowledge of biology will spend hours arguing with biologists about the evidence for evolution. Santorum is not the cause of this wave. He’s a symptom.
I can’t understand why anyone, Conservative or Liberal, wants to live in a country where we dismiss the brightest among us simply because they happen to be smart. Maybe I’m the only person who views Idiocracy as a cautionary tale.
I look at people like Rick Santorum and I think that he could very well represent the smartest of our future politicians. If that doesn’t fill you with horror, you are probably already too far gone.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 9/14
Christian Mother Looks for Advice after her Daughter Comes out as an Atheist
Here’s the problem we face in this country. When a child comes out as an atheist, a parent immediately views the situation as a parental failure.
This woman says she tried to instill her children with “good Christian values” and the problem I see is the fundamental question of what “good Christian values” might be.
If she wants her daughter to treat others with respect, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to value her life and strive to live it as best she can, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, she can do that if she is an atheist. She probably won’t but she can.
Instead of being upset, this young woman’s mother should be proud. Her daughter is growing up and making her own choices. No parent will like every choice that their child makes but at some point, we all need to allow our children to make them. If her thinking wasn’t so clouded by her religion, she might recognize that she hasn’t failed raising her daughter. She succeeded.
Alphabetical Movie – Jackie Brown
At CONvergence 2012, I was on a panel that explored Quentin Tarantino as a feminist filmmaker. While the panel offered no answers, it inspired some spirited discussion on Tarantino and also on what makes a film a “feminist” film.
I mean, is Kill Bill a feminist film because it has a female protagonist who can kick all sorts of ass? Maybe.
On the other hand, the entire film began because of Beatrix’s identity as a mother. Is that feminism? Even as a feminist, I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. I think the answer depends on the person answering the question.
Alphabetical Movie – It Happened One Night
You can’t really escape sexism in most movies but the older the movie, the more likely that the sexism will be overt. Just like the racism in classic films, though, everyone involved in making the films was oblivious to what they were doing.
Nobody was trying to be sexist. They just were. The fact that women weren’t actually delicate flowers who would faint at the slightest provocation didn’t change the fact that women in film were that way. Easiest way to facilitate the monster carrying his victim? Have her faint!
That isn’t really sexism, right? It’s just practical.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 9/7
Michele Bachmann is Still from Minnesota
This week, Bachmann suggested that the common American can’t relate to Obama because he’s so rich.
That was certainly an interesting thing to say given that her parties’ nominee is somewhere around one hundred times richer than Obama. Based on her statement, I would assume that Bachmann believes that Romney is one hundred times more out of touch with the average American than Obama.
I would consider it fair if she’d said that Obama is a little out of touch with the average American because he lives here:
This house is a lot nicer than mine
Bachmann is out of touch with the average American because she is crazy.
What the Fuck is Wrong with People?
I wrote about the conversation surrounding Atheism Plus a few weeks ago. In general, I like the idea. I don’t think it needs to be all of what being an atheist is about (neither does anyone else) but I think it’s a good idea and I don’t understand the vitriol that is aimed at the people spearheading the idea.
That vitriol has managed to silence one of the voices behind that movement (at least for a time) and now I’m going to ask what the fuck is wrong with you people?
Grail Diary 