Shit that Pissed me off – 9/20
Indian Woman Becomes Miss America, Americans Become Racist
I don’t actually care about the Miss America pageant at all. I have to make that clear. Couldn’t care less who wins. I never notice when it is happening or look forward to it in any way.
But hey, this year’s winner is an American woman of Asian Indian descent. I point out that she is an American because a lot of folks on Twitter seem to think that Miss America should be an American and by American they mean “white.”
Some of them thought she was an Arab. Because they are fucking morons.
I’m not a Muslim? But I thought all women who looked like me were Muslims!
Some of them even thought that it was bad form to give the award to someone who was neither an Arab or a Muslim just a few days after 9/11. I guess they were upset because only white Christians died on 9/11.
Shit that Pissed me off this week – 9/13
Arizona Exorcists Go to England Because of Harry Potter
Take a look at the faces of these girls. They are filled with the same kind of crazy that you find on the face of Michele Bachmann. They are still teenagers.
They didn’t come up with this insanity on their own. It was taught. Someone mucked about with their brains in completely unacceptable ways.
Don’t touch it! It’s eeeevil!!!!
But you know why they are getting attention? Because they are photogenic. They are well dressed and their hair is done right and they are young and so the news will spend a lot more time on them than their particular brand of crazy should warrant.
As a result, they will take themselves a lot more seriously than they should.
And the cycle continues.
Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 8/30
The Shitstorm Surrounding Miley Cyrus
So Cyrus did a performance at the MTV Video music awards that was two things: 1) Blatantly sexual and 2) Artistically awful.
Now the VMA’s are about the most gaudy ridiculous spectacle in music so the fact she was part of a gaudy, ridiculous performance should be neither shocking or upsetting. That’s what the show is all about.
The fact people are pitching a fit because she exhibited hardcore sexuality when she’s only (gasp) twenty is what is really bugging me here. Because if Miley Cyrus was a twenty something guy grabbing his crotch and dancing suggestively and her name was…say…Michael Jackson, hardly anyone would be complaining.
Woo!
Cyrus, though, is a girl woman and she’s not Madonna.
Of course, Madonna got all sorts of crap for being brazenly sexual as well.
Having watched the video, I think that the performance was awful. Her singing was breathy and not in her strongest range. She was more interested in showing off how “grown up” she was than in being a good singer (and she is a good singer – even if you don’t like what she sings). Her “dancing” consisted mostly of gyrating and sticking out her tongue. The three songs they chose to mash-up don’t really fit together. What was with the teddy bears anyway? I fucking hate “Blurred Lines.”
The fact that Cyrus engaged in suggestive dancing should not be the subject of criticism. It should be the fact she did it badly. If you want to be perceived as grown up and sexy, be grown up and sexy.
But while we all comment about Cyrus, we need to remember one thing. She gave that performance to get attention. And she got a lot of it.
Shit that Pissed me off this week- 8/23
It’s actually been a pretty boring week. Not too much that really annoyed me. Perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong places.
They Cut Down a Grand Old Tree at the Renaissance Festival
This is not a “fuck the management of the Renaissance Festival” screed. While I sometimes feel that way, the issue here is not one of any idiot running the festival but rather the cost of our human needs.
Near a group of rocks at the MRF grounds, there was an oak tree that provided shade for years. That tree stood over the old peasant banquet and sing-along and it even provided some shade to the old juggling booth. All of those things were long gone but the tree remained. Until now.
The tree wasn’t sick (so far as I know). They cut it down because they had to run new power lines on to the site and it was in the way.
I don’t know if they could have run the lines somewhere else. Even if they could have done so, it probably would have resulted in some other tree being destroyed.
But that tree had history for me. That tree meant something to me.
That tree there. They one right between these two lovely ladies (photo by Eric Knight).
And it is the inevitable cost of human progress that we destroy things that get in our way. Over and over and over again. It isn’t a problem with the Renaissance festival. it is a problem with the way the world works.
I guess it doesn’t piss me off. It makes me sad.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/26
Pastor Says that He’s Never met Anyone who Didn’t Regret Having Sex Before Marriage
I must assume, then, that he’s met very few people who have had sex before marriage.
I need to meet this guy because then he will have met one person who is completely happy with the decision to have sex before marriage. Then I’ll introduce him to a whole lot of other people. Many of whom are Christians.
See, I’m used to self-righteous idiots like this talking out of their asses. But why say something so easy to refute? Especially because the guy has to realize that what he is saying is bullshit, doesn’t he? How can you not realize that what you are saying is bullshit when you say something so incredibly stupid?
I’m betting a million dollars that this dude has never regretted having sex outside of marriage.
In fact, when presented with evidence that what he said was bullshit, he turned off the comments on his post and deleted all of the comments that disproved his statement. Because when faced with evidence that you put your foot in your mouth, the best thing you can possibly do is destroy the evidence. And this jerk would probably want to ask me where I get a moral compass without god.
Seems like god hasn’t done him any favors in that department.
Shit that Pissed me off – 7/19
Thing is, I didn’t think that there was a chance in hell that Zimmerman was going to be found guilty and honestly, I don’t think he should have spent the rest of his life in prison. I think he should have gone to prison but not for the rest of his life. Splitting hairs, maybe, but there you go.
While it seems probable that Trayvon Martin did attack Zimmerman, it also seems clear that Zimmerman would not have been in a position to be attacked if he’d followed directions and stayed in his car. He didn’t and a teenaged boy is dead.
In the end, nobody learned anything. Zimmerman feels like his actions have been vindicated. In fact, he feels like killing Martin was part of God’s plan. A belief that won’t be shaken given the verdict. Trayvon Martin can learn nothing ever again because he’s still dead.
Or – since it was all part of god’s plan – maybe he’s burning in hell and learning a lot. Too bad it won’t do him any good. Ha ha!
Is Zimmerman guilty of murder? Apparently not. I still believe that what he did was wrong. And it exposed something ugly about our country that a lot of us would rather ignore. Like the fact Zimmerman can go free while a black woman can spend 20 years in jail for firing two warning shots so her abusive husband would stay away from her.
Sadly enough, after the uproar about this verdict dies down, we’ll just go back to ignoring it.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 7/12
Death Valley Officials Have Asked Tourists to Stop Frying Eggs on Rocks and Pavement
OK, those National Park Rangers just don’t want to let tourists have any fun! I mean, why are we going to Death Valley National Park if not to engage in science experiments that…don’t work?
Turns out that you can’t just fry an egg on the pavement. It isn’t quite that hot. You could do it if you have a frying pan and the video that is inspiring all of this failed egg frying even mentions that it doesn’t work without one but facts are unimportant when you are trying to do science!
Check out the SCIENCE!
Cleaning up after yourself is also, apparently, unimportant. Better to just leave eggshells and unfried eggs all over the place because you were too stupid to follow directions.
The message here is clear: don’t tell people how to do cool science experiments because they will probably just fuck it up.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 6/28
Pakistani Actress Gets Acid Thrown on Her Face
Now why did this happen? It happened because the Taliban in Pakistan are doing this to a lot of women. Their religiously motivated hatred of women is so deep, it is driving them to assault women simply because they are asking for an education.
I don’t dislike Islam any more than I dislike other organized religion but this is a fine example of what bothers about most of them. On the one hand, they talk about how their treatment of women shows such a high level of respect.
On the other hand. That is bullshit.
You don’t throw acid on someone because you respect them. You throw acid on someone because you want to punish them for existing.
I’m just trying to find out on which page of the Koran you can find this picture. I’m sure it’s near the picture of a woman. Ha ha! No it isn’t. No false idols, remember??
The Taliban practice a warped version of Islam. That is true. Religion is so easily warped already and that is what bothers me. Any religion that suggests women must cover themselves to avoid tempting men (as all the Abrahamic religions do) has created something that can be warped in the most sinister ways.
And yeah, I think I’ll call throwing acid on someone “sinister.”
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 6/21
There are Almost Literally No Movies Featuring Women any More
The article I link to points out that 90 percent of the films showing last weekend we all about guys or groups of guys. That’s pretty pathetic.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy watching movies about guys. I’m a big fan of Iron Man 3 and I don’t think it’d be better if it was about a woman. You can’t really make a movie about Superman without making a movie about SuperMAN.
I’m just curious as to why those are the only movies being made. The movie industry will probably tell you that it is because movies about women don’t make as much.
That may or may to be true but there sure isn’t a lot of data one way or the other, is there? Catwoman didn’t make any money because it sucked, not because it featured a woman as a protagonist.
Why isn’t there a Black Widow movie in development? You can’t tell me the legions of Marvel fans wouldn’t like to watch it. Wonder Woman is also languishing in development hell.
A Black Widow film would probably be all about Hawkeye anyway.
I don’t honestly think filmmakers have any idea how to make movies featuring women as protagonists. I understand it is difficult but I don’t think anyone actually gives a fuck as long as Man of Steel has a 100MM opening.
And that kind of sucks for anyone who has a daughter, doesn’t it?
Shit that Pissed Me Off This Week – 6/14
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is Off the Rails
Kennedy has long been an Anti-Vaccine crusader and I dislike the anti-vaxx movement with only slightly less zeal than the creationist movement.
I have two children on the autism spectrum. They were both vaccinated and I know two things:
1) Vaccinating my kids did not make them autistic
2) Even if it did (and it didn’t), I would rather have autistic children than children with Smallpox or Polio
You think this guy was happy he wasn’t vaccinated?
Kennedy and others like him have been pushing misinformation and, as this article proves, they are willing to name names. They people they name, however, never actually said what they are claimed to have said. Nor do the studies they cite actually say what they claim those studies say.
So all he is doing is engaging in character of assassination.
I get that big pharma is theoretically evil but here’s the thing – vaccines are not. Yes, pharmaceutical companies make money off vaccines. I guess that’s a price I’m willing to pay to ensure that my kids don’t get the measles.
Claiming vaccines cause autism is to make the claim that you understand a shitload more about autism than all the folks out there researching the condition.
And in the meantime, making people afraid of vaccines is contributing to the rise of diseases we thought had been eradicated. That’s what I call a lose-lose.
Grail Diary 