Words can hurt, but actions hurt more
Dear Matt Birk:
Most of my friends don’t know it, but I’m a football fan. I have followed the Vikings for my entire life and when you were our center, I proudly wore your jersey when I attended games. When you left Minnesota for Baltimore, I understood your decision completely. That is the nature of the game. Your favorite players move on. I may not be a fan of the Baltimore Ravens but I can’t deny I would love to see you win a Super Bowl.
I was saddened, therefore, to read your Op-Ed piece in the Star Tribune supporting the amendment to ban gay marriage in the State of Minnesota.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that you are against gay marriage. I fully expect that most of the athletes in the National Football League share your opinion on the subject. Players like Chris Kluwe, who speak out in support of marriage equality, are relatively rare.
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.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 8/31
Apologies to those hoping for lots of stuff from the Republican National Convention. I just can’t get to riled up about a bunch of rah-rah speeches meant to serve as a sort of infomercial for the Republican product. I get as annoyed by the Republican convention as I get excited by the Democratic convention.
Not much at all.
Boy, that Paul Ryan is a lying douchebag, though.
Mitt Romney Pandered to the Birthers?
I have to hand it to Romney. Up to this point in the campaign, I haven’t given a shit about what he’s had to say because he’s been so unerringly dull. He finally said something (sort of) interesting when he pointed out that nobody has asked to see his birth certificate.
You know why that is, right Mitt? It’s because you are white.
Hey Mitt – if you could only ask to see one of these two guys’ birth certificates, which one would you ask?
I think we should start asking to see Mitt’s birth certificate, don’t you? Hey Mitt, where the fuck is your long form birth certificate? How do we know you aren’t Canadian? Or from some Nordic country? WE DEMAND TO KNOW!!!!
Shit that pissed me off this week – 8/24
Todd Akin says “Legitimate Rape” Rarely Results in Pregnancy
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people are talking about this one so it may seem pointless that I even bring him up so late in the week. Ignoring his messed up statistics and knowledge of biology for a moment, what really has me upset is the concept of “legitimate rape.”
Now by this I assume he meant to insinuate that many women who claim to have been raped are lying. That is a pretty common tactic. Point out that some cases of rape are not legitimate (which is true) and you cast doubt on all claims of rape.
Because we’re stupid, we think that if one woman lies about rape, any claim of rape must be viewed as suspect. That’s what Akin taps into here. He is trying to diffuse the question of abortion in the case of rape by suggesting that women are lying about rape in order to get an abortion.
He may have issued an apology but the language was no accident. He knew exactly what he was saying and to whom he was speaking.
Note that Akin has brought all sorts of other stupid people out of the woodwork who have interesting thoughts about pregnancy and “legitimate” rape.
What I should have said
You know, Minnesotans for Marriage were out at the State Fair today. We all know that I don’t have a lot of respect for them and I suppose I should have gone up to them and said something. They all wore bright green T-shirts and they were very cherrfully chatting up the small contingent of people who came to their booth while dozens of folks with orange “Vote NO” fans streamed past. I should have gone up and talked to them. I should have told them that I feel their position is untenable and if they win in November, they have committed what I would consider to be a wholly evil act.
What’s the point, though? If you are so convinced that marriage equity is a horrible thing, I’m not going to say anything that will change your mind. If I come up and ask some sort of “gotcha” question, they will just smile and answer me with the same idiotic excuses they have been using to justify their beliefs for the last several months. The net result will be that I wasted fifteen minutes in which I could have been eating a Pronto Pup.
If I had walked up to them, though, here are some questions I might have asked:
Atheism Plus What?
I’m an atheist. We all know that. When it comes to activism and atheism, I’m on the fringes. I consider myself a comedian and because of that, I take what is going on in the atheist movement just seriously enough to joke about it.
Because what is going on right now is pretty serious and, to my way of thinking, you need to be able to joke about it just to get past all of the vitriol.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 8/17
A bit of a slow week over here at Shit that Pissed Me Off HQ. I should probably get worked into more of a froth about Paul Ryan but the guy just doesn’t interest me. It’s like Mitt Romney was looking for someone with less of a personality than he has.
Yeah, yeah, I know that Ryan wants to get rid of Medicare and all that other garbage but when you look at the guy, don’t you seriously just think that they could put two mannequins on stage at the Republican convention and most of the delegates wouldn’t notice?
Ladies and Gentlemen! The Next President and Vice President of the United States!
I’m not saying the delegates are that stupid (although Michele Bachmann will be there so at least some of them are). I’m just saying these guys could possibly constitute the most boring ticket in the history of Presidential elections (although Kerry/Lieberman is pretty close).
Anyway, on to shit that pissed me off!
Dumb-Ass shoots a security Guard at the Family Research Council
As only too many liberal groups are pointing out in the wake of this attack, I hate everything the Family Research Council stands for but violence is not the answer to the problem. You don’t change minds with a senseless shooting. Nobody looked at this event and thought “hey – I’d better start supporting gay rights because if I don’t, some nutbar might shoot me.” That didn’t happen.
Instead, all sorts of gay advocate groups had to quickly point out that this guy wasn’t with them and they didn’t support what he did. Which should have been bloody obvious.
Turns out it wasn’t, though, because Family Research Council Tony Perkins blamed the Southern Poverty Law Center for the act. Or rather, he said they should be “held responsible.”
Now, I’m guessing Mr. Perkins doesn’t think he should be held responsible when a gay kid gets beaten up in high school, does he? Nor does he think he should be held responsible when people shout hateful things at a gay couple getting married in New York. The double standard is pretty pathetic, don’t you think?
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 8/10
Creationism Craziness
(Sorry folks – the link is broken)
Not content to simply ignore any research showing that evolution is real, this creationist has studied the bible to determine that – wait for it – plants are not alive!
Among other reasons plants aren’t alive: they don’t have blood and apparently you need blood for a sacrifice to god. Since plants can’t be bled out to show god how awesome he is, they aren’t living creatures.
Try telling that shit to the Whomping Willow, asshole!
If you are reading this right now and thinking anything except “what a complete loon,” please don’t tell me. I want to believe that the only person on Earth who is that messed up is the guy who wrote the original piece.
Grail Diary 