Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 4/20

Catholic Bishops get together to whine about how misunderstood they all are

In the wake of all the work the Catholic church has been doing against women and homosexuals lately, they decided they needed to complain about the lack of religious freedom in the United States.

As always, the Church only gets pissed off when the government tells them to do something (like provide health plans that actually benefit women).  As soon as they want to tell the government what to do (like pass anti-gay marriage ammendments), the story is a little different.

DNC Tries to distance itself from the Phrase “War on Women” 

Yeah, because god forbid you keep using a term when it is working.  The Republicans have been coming up with catch phrases like this for years and the first time the Democrats are successfully fighting back with a phrase that is true, the develop cold feet.

You think the Democratic party is too elite, too fiscally irresponsible?  How about too frakking nice?  They need to take off the gloves and stop letting the party that  has most of the power in political discourse act like they are being hurt when all that is being done pointing out what is actually going on!

There is a big constituency out there – like homosexuals and women – who are looking to you to change the dialogue so the other party loses this battle.  Because it is an important one.

So what do the Democrats choose to do?  They find their voice and then back away because they are still too afraid to use it.

The Anti-Gay campaign uses a Titanic Metaphor to Make their point

I missed this last week.  Forgive me.  Check out the video on this one:

It is somewhat unfair for me to include this in my “shit that pissed me off” column because this doesn’t make me angry.  It makes me laugh.

But it also makes me a little bit scared.  People really think this way.  They believe that if gays are allowed to just live their lives out in the open, we are headed to a disaster of – literally – Titanic proportions.

How horrible must it be to live with that kind of fear?  I’m afraid of a lot of things but nothing scares me the way that gay people scare them.  People who are afraid of spiders don’t go on a crusade to rid the world of spiders.  Yet people who are afraid of homosexuals will go on a crusade to rid the world of gays (or least any evidence gays exist).

OK, to cheer you up, here’s a much better video about the “homosexual agenda” from last week.

Cabin in the Woods gets Beaten at the box office by The Three Stooges

I ranted about this on Monday but here it is Friday and I’m still pissed about it.  Please, go see Cabin in the Woods this weekend and restore my faith in the American movie going public!

Michele Bachmann has Stated Talking Again

Michele Bachmann creeps me out because, unlike most politicians, I don’t think she is lying when she talks.  I think she’s bug nuts crazy.

In this case, she is claiming that women should have control over medical decisions about their body.  I agree.

Thing is, she doesn’t.  She is in full support of anti-abortion bills that prevent abortion even in extreme cases.

So when she says that women should be able to make their own decisions about health care, what she means is “women should be able to make their own decisions about health care unless they are pregnant.  Or want to use birth control.  I mean, that is totally  different.”

I can’t tell you how glad I am that she is from Minnesota.  Please understand – we aren’t all like her!

Religious Nut bag suggests that the Cause of our National Debt is Sexual Freedom

Let’s try to parse this one out.  He uses the story of the prodigal son to argue his point.  The prodigal son asks for his inheritance, goes out and spends it all (presumably on hookers and blow) and then comes home.  His father welcomes him back.

All of this is intended to be an analagy for the idea that god is always there waiting for you and if you come back to him, he will welcome you with open arms.

Also, it is a parable, which means it didn’t actually happen.

So this guy is using a metaphor that is meant to teach us a different lesson to argue that the national debt problem would go away if …what?  Gay people stopped fucking each other?

Speaking of Catholics, the Seattle Diocise is slightly more Reasonable than the St. Paul/Minneapolis one

In Seattle, the Archbishop is pushing for signatures on a petition that would get gay marriage on the ballot.   Why?  Because it is already legal in Washington and we all know that the majority should rule on issues of civil rights and morality because the majority makes such great decisions about that sort of thing.

See how the majority can be so tolerant and understanding?????

At least the Seattle Archbishop is allowing parishes to opt out of the petition.  Here in Minnesota, our Archbishop has effectively told priests that if they have a problem with church policy, they need to keep it to themselves.

You know, because when you’re the spiritual leader of the community, the last thing you want to do is be open and honest about your beliefs.  Unless you are against gay marriage.  Then you can say whatever you want.

Christian Right Leader Calls Secularists Bullies and then Mangles the English Language

I continue to be tired of Religious leaders trying to pretend that they aren’t in the majority but what really annoys me is this fellow’s use of the English language.  Here is an excerpt of his speech that I find particularly galling:

…the bully on the playground intimidates, that’s what he does, intimidates people into silence, into fear, into avoiding the bully. And oftentimes the bully is the paper tiger and when the righteous individual who is being bullied defends his or herself and punches the bully in the mouth, guess what, the bully more times than not has a glass jaw, falls down and then everyone on the playground says “whoa, the bully was a weakling after all.

Paper tigers?  Glass jaws?  This guy is mixing the hell out of his metaphors.

Do paper tigers have glass jaws?  I thought they were made out of paper!

And don’t bullies tend to pick on the weak and the vulnerable like….I don’t know….homosexuals or women????

Tell me more About Liberal Bias in the Media

Check this out:

God damn could I go for some pie right now.

The graph is pretty damning but you should read the article because it does a good job pointing out that the numbers have been skewed for years. For all the talk about liberal bias in the press, these number show the opposite – at least when it comes to Sunday morning punditry.

It gets even worse when you consider that we are predominatly being exposed to white male Republicans.  Why is this?

Well it is probably because the press has been getting told that it has a liberal bias forever and they are trying to say “look!  We don’t have a liberal bias!  Look how much we love white male Republicans!”

I suppose the alternate argument is that we are talking Sunday morning television here.  Most Republicans still see liberal bias because they are all in church when their views are being represented on TV.

The Vatican Blasts US Nuns for Failure to be Good Sheep

And Catholic week continues!

Basically, the Vatican is upset because the nuns are thinking for themselves and we can’t have that sort of thing.

Measles Cases are at a 15 Year High! 

All those anti vaccination folks can rejoice!  They are finally having a measurable impact!

 MN State Rep Mary Franson Calls Earth Day a “Pagan Holiday.”

As a good Christian who opposes Pagan traditions, I’m sure that in the future, she will eschew celebrations of Christmas and Easter.

Ho-ho-holllllld on there Tiger!

The 4th of July is a secular holiday as well.  All we do is worship craven images of the founding fathers and the liberty bell!   It is also far too close to the summer solstice!  It’s gotta go!