Shit that Pissed me off – 6/24
Britain Votes to Exit the European Union
The people have spoken. Democracy is a strange and wonderful thing. I guess.
Except I don’t think a lot of the people speaking really knew what they were saying. The majority of the concerns with membership in the European Union have to do with immigration and it’s pretty clear many English have developed some level of xenophobia.
Although the Brexit vote doesn’t necessarily mean that England is going to close its borders, it would seem that a whole lot of people were convinced that was exactly what it meant. They were convinced, of course, because that is basically what the pro Brexit camp was telling them.
Goddamn French people want your job!
Also, this week’s vote could result in Scotland finally severing ties with the UK. I imagine most English don’t care about that either because they have a hard time understanding what the Scots are saying.
I mean, I do too. But they sound damned sexy saying it. Maybe the Brits are just jealous.
The result of this vote calls to mind the England of Children of Men. And that isn’t a good thing.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 6/17
A Senseless Massacre in Orlando
I pretty much have to lead with this, don’t I? There’s no way to avoid talking about a killing spree in which almost fifty people were gunned down in the largest mass shooting in US history. Although that depends on how you define mass shooting, as the internet has been careful to remind me.
As if arguing over the how extreme the slaughter was actually matters in the least. Would it matter less if the gunman had only managed to kill five people?
The only thing that now seems to matter is that he was a Muslim. Even though there is enough evidence to suggest that he was a homophobic man who was also likely dealing with a lot of self loathing because he was secretly gay, the narrative is all about his religion.
He may have wanted it to be that way because he pledged allegiance to ISIS during the attack. But that is the narrative he wanted.
Not a picture of the actual shooter because fuck him.
He wanted to be known as radical Islamist. Is that because he didn’t want to be known as gay? I have no idea. What I do know is that the narrative revolves around radical Islam and that narrative originated with the man who did the killing.
No matter what, we haven’t spent enough time recognizing that whatever he used to justify his act, he deliberately targeted the GLBT community. This act of violence was done specifically to harm a community he found objectionable. The reasons he found the community objectonable are irrelevant because there is hate speak coming from everywhere. Not just Islam. I’ll get to that later.
We’ll talk about all of this for a few weeks. And then we will forget about it until the next mass shooting takes place.
At which point, we will only talk about the killer’s religion if they are a Muslim.
One note though: if you want to talk about gun control, or not gun control, or Islamic fundamentalism, or whatever else you want to talk about, that’s great. And it is important. But please do something tangible as well. there is a Gofundme campaign that has raised over 5 million for the victims. I know it seems like $5 won’t make a difference. But it will. If you want to make a difference, please do more than talk. Contribute to the campaign or donate blood or do something to support your local GLBT community. Do something.
Shit that Pissed Me Off – 6/10
Judge Sentences Convicted Rapist to Six Months Because He Was Drunk
In a case that involved a brutal sexual assault, the rapist has said he’s going to do everything he can to educate people about the dangers of the drinking culture on College campuses.
As his victim pointed out in an eloquent statement she read in court, he doesn’t seem to have any desire to speak out on the subject of stopping sexual assault. He seems convinced that if people stop drinking the sexual assault will go away.
The rapist’s father also made a statement in which he argued that his son should not be punished for the rest of his life after “20 minutes of action.”
I’m just going to point out that this young man was apparently a star swimmer and that means he was regularly rewarded for just a few minutes’ work. Somehow, however, he should not be punished for twenty.
The judge listened to the boy’s father and the victim’s statement and decided that the father was the one who was mostly in the right and a young man who sexually assaulted a woman behind a dumpster so violently that she had pine needles in her vagina is going to jail for – at most – six months. Probably more like three.
And his lawyer is appealing.
The concern voiced by the father and the judge has everything to do with the “ruined” life of the rapist. It has literally nothing to do with the ruined life of the victim. But who cares about her, right?
She wasn’t the one on trial.
Except, in our justice system, she actually was. Read More…
Short Story – The Cargo
This week’s short story is pretty dark again. I was thinking about a snowstorm at the top of a mountain and this is what came of that basic starting point.
There are times when I know exactly how a story begins but I don’t know how it ends. In this case, I had the end of the story long before I knew how it began. It is always interesting to work backwards and figure out where that ending came from.
As always, I definitely appreciate any comments, shares, or just people who take the time to read. If you don’t, that’s OK too!
Shit that Pissed me Off – 6/3
Donald Trump Says There is not Drought in California
Even though California has been suffering through a worsening drought over the last few years, Donald Trump has been assuring farmers that there is plenty of water and when he’s President, he’ll make sure they get it.
I know that it is easy to say that Trump is just a politician making hollow promises but let’s remember that Trump believes global climate change is a hoax. Not wrong. A hoax.
So when he starts spouting conspiracy theories about the California water supply, it is entirely likely that he believes them. He believes that the drought isn’t really happening and it is just liberal, tree-hugging politicians who are to blame for the fact California farmers can’t water their crops.
This photo making it look like Lake Mead is at 40% of capacity is clearly created with gigantic mirrors.
And the more evidence he is shown to the contrary, the more likely he is to believe it is all a big fucking conspiracy.
This guy is going to be the Republican nominee for President. His party is going to stand behind him because they have no choice.
And that ought to scare the hell out of everyone.
Short Story – Dinosaur Bones
For this week’s story, I decided I wanted to include a dinosaur. Not just any dinosaur, though, but one that was alive. And not just a dinosaur that was alive but one that was alive right now. Sort of like in Jurassic Park but not like that because Jurassic Park has been done already.
In the end, things didn’t happen exactly as I’d originally planned. But the idea of a dinosaur that was alive is still the driving centerpiece of the story.
As always, thanks for reading if you do. Thanks for sharing if you do. And thanks just for being you!
Shit that Pissed Me Off – 5/27
Just a quick note: I was on vacation for two weeks so a few of the things that pissed me off this week are old. I didn’t want to forget about them, though. So you’re welcome, I guess?
Meteorologist is Handed a Sweater While on the Air Because Viewers Complained About her Dress
Let’s count all the ways this is wrong.
- On the air? Are you fucking kidding me?
- Her dress was not indecent. You could see her shoulders. If that was distracting people from the regional temperatures, those folks have some serious issues that go far beyond what their weather person is wearing.
- Although they were not, apparently, so distracted that they were unable to text and e-mail while she was still on the air.
- They asked her to cover herself while she was on the air!
Guys – assume for a moment you are a weather person and you wear a shirt someone finds objectionable. Or, you decide to do your morning report in a muscle shirt. Do you think you’d get half the e-mails that this young woman did?
They would probably be trying to get his co-host to shove cash down his pants.
The fact people made it their business to whine about her dress should be embarrassing. To them.
It shouldn’t have been embarrassing to her. Except it was because the station made the incomprehensible decision to fix it. On the air!
Point is, women in media are subjected to this kind of scrutiny all the time. They have to think about every style choice they make because the “wrong” choice might just result in an embarrassing situation like this one. Men in media basically need to decide which tie to wear.
People don’t send a lot of e-mails about ties.
Short Story – The Summoning
This story is an attempt to balance a little bit of horror with a little bit of humor. There is definitely some dark stuff going on but within that framework, I was working to keep the tone a little more comical.
I mostly wrote this because I wanted to write a story that included a demon named Clarice. I just thought it was a good name for a demon.
Most of my stories have had women as protagonists lately. That’s been a conscious choice because I’ve kind of decided that if the gender of a character isn’t relevant, I might as well make her female. This particular story, however, featured characters that really needed to be women. Sorry men! You’ll just have to read and/or watch most of the other popular culture being produced!
As always, please read, comment, share, or do none of those things! Thanks!
Short Story – Mercury and a Big Hole in the Ground
This week, I’ve been visiting the National Parks of Utah as well as The Grand Canyon.*
Whenever anyone visits The Grand Canyon, they typically tell you that they have no words to describe it and I think I know why.
Simply put, someone already came up with the best way to describe The Grand Canyon and that description is “The Grand Canyon.”
“The” – it is the only one.
“Grand” – Can describe something that is both big (it most definitely is) and impressive (yep).
“Canyon” – describes a geological feature that directly corresponds with the geological feature one is viewing.
So “The Grand Canyon” is a name that implies you are looking at a canyon that is big, impressive, and unique. And so it is. The job has been done so perfectly as to pose an impossible challenge for everyone who tries to describe the place on their own. I, therefore, will not make any attempts to describe The Grand Canyon in deference to whoever managed to knock the ball out of the park before the ball game had even started.
Instead, I will tell you the story of a sunrise and a planet.
Shit that Pissed me off – 5/6
Fox News Commenters Make Racist Statements in a Story about Malia Obama’s Choice of College
I know. Reading comments is always a bad idea. In this case, Fox turned them off after a whole lot of racist assholes turned up to share their thoughts regarding what was basically a harmless story about a young woman’s college choice. Unfortunately for her, she is young black woman.
Being black in this “post-racial” society means that you are going to have racist epithets thrown at you by a bunch of internet ignoramuses for having the temerity to exist.
Fox was smart to turn off the comments. However, they need to recognize that they invite this kind of commentary. It is their own personality that helps encourage people to be racist fucks on the internet.
Malia Obama will be fine. She has been the target for this kind of language since her father became a legitimate Presidential candidate and while I’m certain her parents have protected her from the worst of it, there is no way they could protect her from all of it.
There’s just too much.
Thing is, as long as Fox news keeps insisting we live in a post racial society but has to shut down comments on an article about a young black woman, I will continue to wonder why anyone takes them seriously.
Grail Diary 