Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 1/4
Woman Accused of Scamming People in the Wake of the Newton Massacre
There’s no better way to show compassion for your fellow human beings than by trying to make money off of their misfortune. In this case, a woman allegedly convinced people to donate money for the funeral of one of the Newton victims but kept the money for herself.
She, of course, denies that she had anything to do with the scam – even though it was run from her own personal gmail account.
Now, let’s be fair. Her account might have been hacked.
Maybe she got this message on her computer!
That still means some asshole was using her account to profit off of the murder of a bunch of kids. Who did it isn’t really the point, is it? Someone decided that they needed money and figured that they’d make it the easy way.
Let’s hope they never find themselves in need of real charity.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 12/28
The Pope Communicates his Growing Irrelevance to the World
After the Catholic church’s spectacular failure to stem the tide of tolerance, The Pope has decided to make opposition to gay marriage the major thrust of Catholic activism in the coming year. In fact, he said that it is (I shit you now) a “threat to world peace.”
WHAT?????
I really want to understand what kind of thinking would suggest that allowing two people who love each other the right to marry would ever threaten world peace. I would think that stable, loving homes would be a benefit to world peace. I don’t have any data to prove this but goodness knows that the pope has no data to prove his point either.
He doesn’t need data, though. Because he’s infallible.
Infallibly wrong.
He’s also a very affordable line of cosmetics!
And, as usual, he is wasting the vast resources of his church on Gay Marriage. At what point is he going to start focusing on issues that are actually important to his church?
Like the fact so many people think the guy leading his church is a dick?
Reality Hurts
In the wake of yet another senseless slaughter, I’ve seen many of my friends argue that something should be done and they offer up their opinions as to what the solution should be. They argue for more guns or fewer guns. They argue for more god. They argue for more mental health care. They argue against “politicizing” the event by arguing for or against guns, god or mental health care.
What everyone is trying to do is come to grips with something that makes no sense. Who would kill twenty children deliberately? How could anyone do that? We don’t understand and we want to find something that will create a just universe where these things will never happen again.
Do I support reasonable restrictions on gun ownership? Yes I do. I want to be clear that I don’t believe that people should not be permitted to own guns. I do believe that some restrictions on dangerous weapons may help reduce the amount of damage a crazy person with a gun can do.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 12/14
This week will probably be pretty light as I was out of town for much of it and, as a result, not really following the news. A few things, as always, did manage to catch my eye.
Texas Man Carves a Pentagram into his 6 Year Old Son Because he’s a Fucking Loon
You just know that a lot of people are freaking about this guy because they think he did this because he’s a satanist or pagan or something. I’m unfamiliar with the religion that celebrates the holy day of 12-12-12 but I’m pretty sure that no matter what religion the guy follows, cutting up a 6 year old is not in the holy book.
The guy did it because he’s got a screw loose. Actually, he has a whole erector set full of loose screws. He’s the kind of crazy person who exists so other crazy people can think they are normal.
Is this a pagan symbol or a Japanese throwing star with the safety on?
Normal people don’t carve pentagrams into their children’s backs. Normal people make their kids dinner and give them a hug and kiss before bed. I wish this guy had chosen to carve something less iconic (like a zebra) into his kid’s back. Then the comversation would be on how crazy he is – which is where we should be focused.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week, 12/7
Bill O’Reilly says Anyone who Thinks Christianity is a Religion is “Stone-Cold Dumb”
In his latest tirade against the “war on Christmas” he insists that the biggest problem is all of us idiots who think that Christianity is a religion instead of a philosophy. We are, in fact, “so stupid, it’s painful.”
Well I’m sorry to cause Mr. O’Reilly so much pain but I’m going to have to ask him in what way Christianity does not meet the following definition:
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
Now perhaps Mr. O’Reilly thinks that Christianity is also a philosophy. That is a different conversation but it isn’t what he said.
The problem, in fact, is not what he said but the fact that when he says it, thousands of people adopt his position as truth. Instead of saying to themselves “holy shit – that is the most fucked up description of Christianity I’ve ever heard,” which they should because most of them are Christians, they are instead saying “he’s right! I don’t accept the divinity of Jesus Christ as part of a religion! It’s my philosophy!!!!”
However, let them believe that because if they want to argue that Christianity is a philosophy, then their churches need to start paying taxes because they are no longer exempt. And they can’t get all pissed off about people saying “Happy Holidays” either because we aren’t attacking their religion any longer. Since they don’t have one. They also can’t demand freedom of religion either. The first amendment doesn’t provide freedom of philosophy.
Let’s all celebrate Rene Descartes day! We’ll all spend the whole day thinking and therefore being! Thanks for opening the door to making it a Federal holiday, Bill!
You keep going with this one Bill. I hope you convince everyone who is watching your show that you are right.
Note: He backed off that claim a little bit when a Catholic Priest corrected him. Damn! I really wanted him to re-define Christianity as a philosophy.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 11/23
Conservative Christian Commenter Shows Remarkable Lack of Knowledge about Nature
We haven’t gotten a lot of comments from right-wing Christians over at Geeks Without God yet. I guess we haven’t quite hit the big time. I’m sure that we may eventually be awash in commenters telling us we are going to hell but we’ll need to have patience for that. Someday we will be truly famous on the internet!
We did get a comment this week and what annoys me is not the comment, but the tremendous level of ignorance that it contains while being only a paragraph long.
If you are going to argue that homosexuality is unnatural, don’t start by arguing that it doesn’t happen in nature. Because it does.
No really! It was an accident! We just tried to have sex with her at the exact same time!
Now as a whacked out conservative Christian, you have all sorts of articles that will try to make the argument that sure, homosexuality occurs in other animals, but it doesn’t count. So why deny homosexual behavior exists in wild animals when you can just make excuses for it?
Please note that last link takes you to Coservapedia so beware: that way lies madness.
The point here is that the argument is useless obfuscation. Who cares if homosexuality occurs in other species? Birds can fly. Fish can breathe underwater. Humans can’t. Different species do different things that are completely natural. The presumption that homosexuality is a behavior that is somehow the only thing an animal species does that is counter to the natural order defies logic.
Humans, in fact, do a ton of stuff other animals don’t or can’t do. There is no presumption that most of those things are unnatural. Homosexuality gets special attention because one passage in a very long book has been given far too much relevance.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 11/16
This is not all of the members of the Wisconsin Legislature, mind you. Just nine of them. One of them says the Affordable care act is “unconstitutional” (even though the Supreme Court said it wasn’t) and that is his justification for supporting a law that would get a federal employee arrested for trying to do his job.
You can’t make something unconstitutional by saying so. That isn’t the way the system works. If it did, I’d say the Citizens’ United ruling was unconstitutional and Super Pac’s would be instantly dissolved.
As a lawmaker, you don’t get to pick which laws you follow. That’s not the job you got hired to do.
You can try to change laws. You can try to make laws better. You can’t decide that the supreme court got it wrong (even if you believe they did) and then start enacting laws based on what you think they should have ruled.
Aw fuck it! We can just assume that whoever wrote the dissent got it right, can’t we?
Either you believe in our system of government and you work within the rules or you shouldn’t have run for office.
New Geeks Without God – now With More Liquor
This weeks Geeks Without God was recorded live at Omegacon and we were pretty drunk. Actually, Nick and Molly were pretty drunk. So drunk, in fact, that I think it is fair to qualify that we were all drunk even though I technically wasn’t drunk at all. We recorded in front of a live audience and shared booze with them. I even tried some. Boy was that a mistake.
We talk about games and movies and a little bit about the gay marriage amendment. Also annoying mega churches. There’s a little bit for everyone! Please listen!
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 11/9
Pakistani Couple Killed Their Daughter Because She Looked at a Boy
A 15-year-old girl looked at a boy on a motorcycle twice. Her parents feared she was going to turn out like her older sister who had already “disgraced” the family. She promised she wouldn’t do it again but it was too late because her mother had already thrown acid on her.
The good news is that her parents figure it was her destiny to die like that. It wasn’t really their fault, you see. They were just tools of destiny.
It was also apparently her destiny to die because her parents waited almost 12 hours to take her to the hospital after they threw acid on her face. They would have taken her right away, you see, but it was her destiny to wait.
Let’s be clear: religious fanaticism didn’t kill that girl.
But it sure didn’t help keep her alive, either.
One Vote is all that Matters
My friend Carr Hagerman has a thoughtful blog today that provides, I think, an important perspective on our choice to vote. He’s right, of course, you don’t have to vote. Voting is not an obligation, it is a right.
You do not need to take advantage of that right.
And yet, if I could ask all those who are disenfranchised enough to skip voting this year to do one thing, it would be this: vote anyway. Vote on one thing and then go home.
If you don’t like any of the presidential candidates, then don’t vote for any of them. If you have no idea who your senator is (or should be), don’t vote for them.
But take the time to go to the polling booth and vote no on the marriage amendment. Even if you are sick to death of the political process you need to understand that this one issue will have a major impact on a great many people and they need your help.
If you want government out of your life, you need to vote no. Otherwise you set the dangerous precedent that our constitution can be used to deny the rights of those who are not like ourselves.
This fight will play out in the courts if the amendment passes. It will not be over.
So please, don’t go to the polls because it is your duty. Go because on this one issue, you can make a difference. Carr is right, the choice to stay home is completely valid.
But this year, that choice will have consequences.
Check one box and go home. Nothing could be easier.
Grail Diary 