Shit That Pissed Me Off – 2/28
Alabama House Committee Approves Prayer in Schools Bill Even Though They Lost the Vote
The bill looks to improve Alabama schools by allowing up to fifteen minutes of organized prayer per day. The believe, apparently, that this will improve children’s test scores more than any other more proven technique. Kids who aren’t Christians are welcome to opt out and deal with ridicule from their peers and teachers. So that’s fair.
In order for this bill to go before the Alabama house, it needed to be approved by committee. It wasn’t.
By voice vote, it was two votes for the bill and three against (with three abstentions). The committee chair claimed that she “heard more yays than nays” and forwarded the bill to the entire House.
Might I suggest she get one of these before the next session?
You would think that her devout Christianity that was on display when she supported a bill to improve schools through prayer would have been on display when she was called on to honestly count the votes.
I guess, though, that she would rather spend state money on defending the inevitable lawsuit coming their way if this bill becomes law.
How, exactly, are Christian values winning out here?
Shit that Pissed Me off – 2/21
Student Suspended For Pretending He Was Having Sex With a Teacher
What pisses me off is the simple fact that every time someone makes a false accusation, it is that much harder for someone who is actually a victim.
Now let’s be clear – this kid was making a joke. He was not trying to get anyone in trouble. What he didn’t realize is that his joke had real world consequences. He could have cost an innocent teacher her job.
Because even if everyone reading his tweet knew that he was telling a joke, law enforcement has to act as if he wasn’t. Because what if he wasn’t?
Excuse me, ma’am. I’m going to have to take you down to the station and scare the shit out of you because one of your students is an idiot.
This kid did something stupid and while his lengthy suspension may be a little bit severe, kids need to understand that what seems like an innocent joke to them can hurt people more than they could possibly imagine. Instead of standing up for him, his classmates should be standing up for the teacher who could have lost her job and gone to jail because of a joke.
And they also need to realize that he made it that much harder for someone who is actually suffering from abuse to be heard.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 2/14
Disney Star Gets Death Threats Because Her Show Featured Lesbians
The star in question, Mia Talerico, is five years old.
Her show featured a play date in which her friend had two moms. You know, a healthy happy lesbian couple. Just the sort of thing that causes the bile to rise in the average Christian Right household.
Yeah. This sort of thing is really threatening.
So what’s the Christian thing to do?
Not being a Christian, I’m a bit uncertain. Can someone tell me if threatening the life of a five-year old girl is the Christian thing to do?
And can someone tell me how this kind of behavior comes even close to hating the sin and loving the sinner?
Also a memo to “One Million Moms” – you currently have only 60,000+ “likes” on Facebook. You could increase that number twice as fast if only you allowed lesbian moms!
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 2/7
Coke Super Bowl Ad Creates Unsurprising Freak Out
The ad was supposed to be patriotic. It started with “America the Beautiful” in English and then transitioned to the song being sung in other languages.
Now the concept (I think) was to show how people from other countries immigrate (legally) to America to pursue a dream of freedom and blah blah blah America is awesome. Fortunately, the internet is filled with people who wanted to prove to Coke that America is not, in fact awesome.
They objected to the whole idea that an American song could be sung in any language other than American! How dare Coke suggest such a thing?
Is the word “Coke” even English?
They also freaked out about the fact that the commercial featured an openly gay couple prominently displayed in a song written by a lesbian.
The saddest commentary to me is the fact that when we watched the commercial at our Super Bowl party, we predicted the response. And no, that doesn’t make us psychic. Predicting stupidity requires no special skills.
Shit that Pissed me off – 1/31
Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants To Ban All Marriages
There we have it ladies and gentlemen, the nuclear option! If we can’t stop those pesky gays from getting married, we’ll just stop everyone from getting married.
We all knew this had to happen eventually, right? While these people aren’t bigots or homophobes (just ask them), they are willing to carpet bomb the entire idea of marriage rather than allow that their idea of what marriage should be in not the only valid one.
When you write stuff down in your idea journal in the morning, sometimes it should stay in the idea journal
In the process, a party that seems really interested in preserving the rights of the small businessperson is willing to propose a law that will screw over thousands of them! Every event planner, photographer, florist and baker in Oklahoma will lose a whole lot of income if there aren’t any weddings.
But who are we kidding? Churches will still be allowed to perform weddings. And because they are churches, they are welcome to discriminate (or not discriminate) in any way they see fit.
Convenient. Read More…
Shit that Pissed me Off – 1/3
Teen Makes a Joke on Twitter and People Tell her She Should Kill Herself
So here’s the joke:
This beautiful earth is now officially 2014 years old, amazing
Now shame on her, I guess, for failing to clearly identify her post as sarcasm. I mean she’s only a teenager so it could naturally be assumed that she wasn’t making a joke but was, rather, a complete idiot.
Her joke went viral and when jokes go viral on the internet, two things happen. The first is that a lot of people are amused by the joke. The second is that a lot of other people will completely fail to get her joke and reveal themselves to be complete assholes.
If this was a real book, it would eventually outsell the bible. Ironically, nobody who bought it would read it because they would assume they already knew it all.
The internet, my friends, is the most Democratic place in the world. You want free speech? You can make a joke that reaches thousands of people.
Be warned, however, that some of those people are idiotic. And the idiotic ones are the most likely to say something.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 12/20
Fox News Columnist Gives Atheists a Christmas Gift
His Christmas gift, of course, is to let all of us atheists know that we are wrong and we can totally stop hating Christmas because he can prove god is real.
Atheists HATE Christmas trees. In fact, we piss on every one we see. That ice rink at the Rockefeller center? Totally not water.
He can’t prove that, of course. At least not with the arguments he presents as they are unconvincing and make wild assumptions about facts that aren’t actually facts. There is not broad agreement, for instance, among historians that Jesus rose from the dead since there are no eyewitness accounts that were written anywhere near the time it is reported to have taken place.
What drives me crazy, though, is this notion that I’m sitting around and sulking about Christmas. Damn those Christians smearing their holiday in my face! Why won’t someone just prove that God exists to me so I can be happy?
God does not make people happy. People are happy or not. I’m generally pretty happy. Even when it’s Christmas.
Heck, this might blow the author’s mind but I’m even a little bit happy because it’s Christmas.
Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 12/13
Michigan Passes a bill Forcing Women to Purchase an Insurance Rider for Abortions
The bill specifically prohibits insurance companies from covering abortions except in cases where the mother’s life is threatened.
The idea here is to save certain people from the horrible guilt of paying into an insurance plan that covers abortions. This way, only people who might want an abortion would be in the insured pool and other women would be able to enjoy guilt free insurance.
With a little fresh fruit, this insurance policy can be part of a guilt-free breakfast!
The problem is that the opponents of the bill are complaining that women have to basically bet on whether or not they will be the victim of rape or incest. While that is true, it continues the dangerous trend of making the conversation about abortion all about rape and incest.
The basic idea that 50% of the population of Michigan is getting told that their insurance will be legally prevented from covering a medical procedure is a bigger problem than arguing about why they might want that procedure.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 12/6
I missed two weeks. Apologies to my small by loyal fan base. This covers three weeks of stuff. I tried to be picky but you may want to expect that I’ll be more long winded than usual.
They can’t help it.
They are one of those states that has constitutionalized discrimination against same-sex couples and because they are constitutionally forced to discriminate, it’s the only way they can comply with the Supreme court ruling.
You gave benefits to legally married same-sex couples who are in the National Guard? GO TO JAIL!
Or some bullshit.
The gymnastics people go through to deny rights to someone who is serving our country makes me want to vomit. Especially when most of these people belong to a party that regularly talks about how much we need to respect our troops.
Well, you know, they meant the straight ones.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 11/8
Player Response to NFL Bullying Incident is “Man Up”
NFL player Jonathan Martin just quit his job over alleged bullying by another player that included an incident where he felt forced to pay for that player’s vacation to Las Vegas. This is part of a wider allegation that a lot of rookie players are hazed by veterans in various demeaning and (sometimes) expensive ways.
The basic response from many corners is that the guy who quit needed to grow a thicker skin.
You don’t even need a thick skin. That’s what the pads are for, right?
Now I don’t believe I know everything that went on here but I have some experience with bullying and I have to assume that even as a “grown” man, there is a feeling of powerlessness that is hard to overcome. As a young guy trying to make the team, you will feel compelled to just deal with the bullshit because you want the veteran guys to accept you.
Inevitably, you will view that behavior as acceptable when it becomes your turn to do the same thing.
What has been exposed is a cycle of abuse. To defend it is to fail to understand that teaching a bunch of man/boy millionaires how to be grown-up’s is the most valuable thing that the NFL can possibly do.
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