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 – 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.
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.
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 8/3
Climate Change Denier Releases Study that, in Effect, says “I was Wrong”
I know, why would this piss me (someone who has long accepted the Global Climate Change is happening and is largely caused by humans) off?
Because it won’t change anything. No amount of data proving that climate change is happening will convince those who believe otherwise.
Not even when that data actually convinces a skeptical scientist. Unless 100% of scientists agree on climate change, the deniers will always have someone on their side. No matter that 97% (or more) of climatologists – the people whose field of expertise most closely focuses on climate change science – believe climate change is real and caused by humans. If one climatologist says differently, we still have a “controversy.”
I don’t blog much about climate change science because I know a lot of deniers and they are smart people who, I believe, are completely wrong on this one topic. My fear is the longer we argue, the more damage we are doing. That is a fear shared by many scientists who know a lot more about this shit than me.
Shit that Pissed Me off This Week 7/20
I note that yes, the shooting in Colorado pissed me off. But I’m not going to write about it because fuck that guy. This is all the 1’s and 0’s I’m going to commit to him.
What pisses me off is that there is no there there. I’m a liberal. I don’t like Romney.
Yet if you read the article linked above that quotes both anonymous and public sources who are Democrats that Support Obama, this whole thing appears to be much ado about nothing.
The Bain issue appears to be the Democratic equivalent of a swiftboat campaign. There are a lot of good reasons why Romney shouldn’t be our next President. If there is an honest belief he can’t be beaten on those grounds, the problem is with our campaign.
Just look at the guy! I’m telling you, he’s an Auton!
I don’t like it when Republicans lie and obscure facts because I don’t agree with the majority of their agenda and if people really understood it, I don’t think a lot of others would either.
What I really hate, though, is when Democrats do the same thing. I know – they do it all the time.
But I agree with them most of the time and I wish they would figure out how to get people to understand their point of view without resorting to misdirection.
When is a Personal Opinion a Business Practice?
Yesterday evening, my friend Cargill decided to poke the bear. In response to the internet vitriol over Chick-Fil-A, he tweeted the following:
Boycotting a business over their business practices is the democratic free market in action. Doing so over their personal opinions is not.
By boycotting a business over personal opinions, you are saying it is okay to threaten someone’s livelihood if they don’t think like you.
Let’s start by pointing out that Cargill isn’t a dick. Yes, he’s a Republican and I’m a left-of-Democrat liberal but he and I actually agree on most social political matters and even some economic ones. I don’t fully agree with him here, although I do see what he is saying and understand the point he’s trying to make.
He’s a good guy and he argues fairly. I’m not trying to take him down. He got me to think and that is a good thing. He’s very good at it.
But this isn’t an argument that could be fairly explored over Twitter.
Grail Diary 