Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 11/2
Crazy Christians Claim Hurricane Sandy is the Wrath of God
Any time a random act of nature affects human beings, god is getting all up in our face for something, according to the crazy wing of the Religious Right.
Now why god flooded the east coast is up for debate. It might be gay marriage. I could have something to do with Israel. It could have something to do with the fact that it is a coast and getting hammered by a storm once in a while is about as likely as floods happening on flood plains.
If you look really closely at the cloud formation, you can see god flipping off the east coast.
Once again, why believe that God is such a colossal dick? Why would he put the lives of believers at risk? There are, unquestionably, a large number of New Yorkers who don’t support gay marriage. So god is punishing them because they didn’t oppose gay marriage hard enough?
When can we all settle down and accept that natural events are not the act of a vengeful god?
At the very least, can you all have a conversation and figure out what he’s punishing us for before you start talking out of your collective asses?
Can we Stop Saying Horrible Things about Rape?
This election year has been filled with white, male Republicans falling all over themselves to say dumb things about rape. They talk about legitimate rape, the rape thing, forcible rape and they even imply that rape is god’s will. Every time you think they have gotten the “shut up about rape” message, one of them trips up and thinks they finally have a way to talk about pregnancy resulting from rape without sounding like a dick.
But here’s the thing – isn’t this all just a distraction?
The conversation about safe, legal abortion in this country has shifted from “you don’t get to tell a woman what she can do with her body” to “well, sometimes you can, but what about when she is the victim of sexual violence? Surely you don’t mean then?”
Understanding the Difference Between Stupidity and Apathy
There. Are. THIRTEEN stripes!
This weekend, I decided that we’d play a game called “Are you more American than a Vilifer” with our audience. I figured I’d ask two audience volunteers questions about Minnesota and American politics to see which one of them knew more.
Several of the questions I asked are standard questions on the naturalization test. They are things people who want to become citizens of our country are expected to know.
Now understand, I expected that they would do poorly. I had several “easy” questions prepared just to ensure that they got a few answers right.
The results were worse than I expected.
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.
Voting No Twice
I’ve written a ton about the gay marriage amendment because I’m really pissed off we are even voting on such a thing. When it comes to the Voter ID amendment, I’ve been relatively silent.
I have pretty strong feelings about it but the marriage amendment has been far more important to me because I think it is a fight we have an outside chance to win. Voter ID is probably going to happen. I’m not happy about it but I don’t think I can sway anyone who doesn’t understand the implications of the Voter ID amendment to change their vote.
See, the problem I have with is a seemingly little thing that I believe to be more important than any other talking point. I don’t think we should be putting obstacles in the way of voting.
Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 10/12
I honestly wonder if the dude even reviews law before he makes rulings. His most recent comments seem to state that since anti-sodomy laws were on the books for 200 years, that makes them constitutional.
I guess we can be pretty certain he’s not going to be terribly supportive of marriage equality, is he?
See, I understand that there are different legal interpretations of a lot of things but what I don’t understand is how one dude who is so clearly an asshole who doesn’t give a shit about anything except making sure corporations can spend money however they please can have so much power over the rest of us. Yeah, he’s one of nine but he’s one vote you can always count on.
And by that I mean, ask yourself how a jackass would rule on any particular topic and you can bet Scalia will vote that way.
Not that kind of jackass!
New Vilification Tennis Podcast
We got a little bit behind on podcasting for Vilification Tennis during the festival season but this weekend I managed to get some folks together to record a new episode.
I managed to get Mark Lazarchic and Bob Alberti to start arguing politics. Unfortunately, I had to cut them off after about ten minutes but I think the podcast is worth listening to just for that. There’s also a lot of talk about a lesbian in Hong Kong because that’s the kind of podcast we do.
We also get really in-depth talking about the Renaissance Festival, including a lot of behind the scenes stuff. I think it turned out to be a good episode in spite of the worst home game rounds ever.
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.
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.
Grail Diary 