Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 6/22
Michigan House Passes a Bill that Says it is OK for Counselors to Discriminate Against Gay People
Here’s the facts: A graduate student in counseling was dismissed from her graduate program when she refused to help a suicidal gay student because (you guessed it) she’s a Christian. She sued (of course) and lost (of course).
Well the Michigan House can’t help her but they can definitely help the next homophobic therapist tell a suicidal patient to find someone else by passing an “antidiscrimination” law that will allow people to discriminate!
Why didn’t they say “hey, if your religious beliefs prevent you from counseling certain people, maybe you shouldn’t become a therapist?”
Suck it up and tell the gay kid he has something to live for. Because he does. According to you, all he has to look forward to when he dies is hell so do the compassionate thing and help him enjoy the 100 years he’s going to be living outside of the lake of fire.
It’s what Jesus would do.
So a witness for the state testified that this guy would be a greater risk to the public in prison than he would if he’d been put to death. The evidence was complete bullshit.
Now for those of you who are saying who gives a fuck, the guy should fry because he killed a kid, the evidence suggests that he didn’t. Don’t worry, though, he’s still in prison. But even if his conviction isn’t overturned, the death penalty happy Texas justice system is gonna have to keep this dude alive.
That has got to just stick in their craw.
Rock of Ages Makes a Joke that Isn’t Even a Little Bit Funny
So about 3/4 of the way through the movie, the young lovers have broken up and their lives have gone to hell. They meet at their “special place” by accident and eventually confess to each other how far they’ve fallen.
“I’m a stripper” she confesses.
He looks at her as if she has no idea how bad things can get. “I’m in a Boy Band,” he tell her.
And she says something akin to “OK, that’s worse.”
I don’t remember exactly what she said because I was too busy being amazed that there existed a universe where being forced to work as a stripper was less degrading than being a member of a boy band.
Oh yeah – WAY less degrading!
Somebody go ask Justin Timberlake which one is a more challenging career path.
Conservatives Hijack #SayVagina hashtag to make Stupid Points
Here’s my favorite by @Capit0lism:
Dear feminists, your lewd behavior and obsession with your genitals is embarrassing, please stop. Signed, classy women. #SayVagina
Others say that we liberals are just trying to distract everyone from the budget crisis (that was caused by both parties thankyouverymuch) and the unemployment rate (that is minimally impacted by politicians thankyouverymuch) rather than noting that liberals might just have a point.
We aren’t ignorant of all the other problems that face our nation. However, it is still a problem when a woman is publicly censured for saying “vagina.” We aren’t just going to say “oh, you’re right – the budget is more important.”
You wouldn’t want us to say that anyway, because we’d start pointing out that the defense budget is bigger than everything else and maybe we should start cutting there.
To the twit above, I say that telling other women to shut up about their sexuality is not the least bit classy. Sex is not dirty and without it, none of us would be here. The more we treat open discussion about sexuality as taboo, the worse off we all are.
You know who has the most satisfying sex? Couples who talk about what gives them pleasure.
You know who has unsatisfying sex? “Classy” men and women who want the rest of us to shut up about it.
Southern Baptists Pass a Resolution Stating that Gay Rights are not Civil Rights
Because if gay rights aren’t civil rights, it is OK to be against it.
The minute you suggest that it is discriminatory to discriminate against homosexuals, you make the people doing it look like complete assholes.
What’s the solution?
Well, you could stop being an asshole or you could start arguing semantics.
Guess what the Baptists chose?
The whole Fucking Jerry Sandusky Trial
I know that this is America and you are innocent until proven guilty.
However, his entire defense seems to be “these people are all making this shit up so they can win a ton of money in a civil trial.”
Guess what? They’ll win money in a civil trial no matter what. Remember O.J. Simpson? He was acquitted in the criminal trial. The civil trial? Not so much.
So if the jury buys the “these ten people are all lying just so they can get some money out of Jerry Sandusky,” it will be one of the worst verdicts in the history of the criminal justice system.
These crazy kids are just trying to take all the money that I made as an assistant coach on a college football team! I look like such a nice man!
Seriously, the defense called the guy’s wife just so she could say that she never witnessed the abuse. Well OK, good for her. Because if she had witnessed the abuse, she should be on trial with him.
The jury probably won’t buy it. Sundusky will probably go to jail. And he should. If he doesn’t, I’ll be even more pissed than I am reading about this horrible man.
Update: Guilty on 45 of 48 counts. I’m just fascinated to see what he does in the sentencing phase of the trial. Does he keep saying he didn’t do anything or try to imply that all the “kind things” he did through his charity (that he used to find victims) should count for something when the judge decides how long he should spend behind bars which, given his age, is going to be the rest of his life.
You’ve probably seen the video by now. Some little shits on a Middle School bus spend ten minutes abusing their bus monitor and failed to realize the one cardinal rule of this day and age – every stupid jackass thing you do will end up on the internet.
If you somehow missed the video, here it is:
What a bunch of little fuckers, right?
Fortunately, the internet has responded by buying this woman a dream vacation worth over $300,000.
And in classic “what the fuck is wrong with you people” fashion, it has also responded by finding out the names and addresses of the kids involved.
Yes, that’s right, the internet is bringing the pain to a bunch of teenagers.
Now, these kids are horrible examples of human beings but who out there thinks terrorizing these children is going to help the situation? Who thinks getting their parents to change their phone number, their home and maybe even their name is going to solve the problem? And hey, what if you got one of those names wrong?
We couldn’t leave it up to the school and the police to deal with this problem? It would appear they are pretty goddamned aware of what is going on, doncha think?
These kids deserve some pain for what they did but I’m pretty sure that the wrath of the internet falls under the definition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
P.S: Proving that people are equal opportunity assholes, now some folks are complaining this lady doesn’t deserve $350,000 for what happened to her. Well OF COURSE she doesn’t. It isn’t like one person gave her $350,000. It’s more like hundreds of people gave her $20. She didn’t ask for it and they didn’t have to give it. Chill the fuck out.
5 responses to “Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 6/22”
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Grail Diary 
Hey Tim,
Just one comment about the therapist. All people bring their biases to all situations. Therapists are responsible for being aware of their own biases and if they didn’t recuse themselves from cases where their biases would get in the way of helping the client, it would be malpractice.
Now, the therapist in question also has a duty to refer the client to another therapist who she believes would be able to help him. But I don’t think she was wrong not to take the case.
I do agree that the therapist has issues that she needs to resolve if she’s going to remain a therapist if she is refusing cases based solely on the client’s sexuality, but I don’t have enough case details to determine whether that was what happened.
Keep the insightful blogs coming!
Good points. Thanks.
I think that any time religious beliefs prevent one from being an effective therapist, it is time to question the choice of career. Everyone has biases, yes, but I would think that sexuality questions are a common issue thearapists face and someone with such a strong bias against counseling someone dealing with those issues has chosen the wrong occupation.
I also have a huge problem with the legislature stepping to pass a law on the issue.
You have a point on the legislature issue, but I have to agree with John in regards to the therapist, and counseling ethics. I don’t even think she was wrong for not referring the person to a different therapist.
One thing that a LOT of people don’t seem to understand is that for therapy to be good for the person, there MUST be a reasonable rapport between therapist and patient. That is why the first session is always a “Get to Know You” session for both sides. If there is any reason on either side that the relationship won’t work – the patient needs a different therapist.
I am very up front with my therapist regarding the fact that I am poly and pagan. Since they are both important parts of my life, the therapist will have to deal with them. I have had numerous therapists I have “tried out” who have religious or other biases against either or both. In fact, it is so important to me – I usually bring it up when I am discussing making the first appointment. That way I don’t waste my time or theirs.
My current therapist is a devout Christian (albeit of a fairly liberal Lutheran sect). The only thing important to her about my lifestyle choices? A) Is it making me happy; and B) do I have ANY spiritual support at all. As long as my answers to those are “yes.” She’s ok with discussing them. I may have to explain some things to her, but that’s ok with me.
The only place I would be concerned is if a) this was at a school counseling situation (in which there are usually a limited number of counselors available, and also likely to be a policy that precludes discrimination – explaining probably why she was dismissed); and b) if she did ABSOLUTELY nothing to deal with the suicidal ideation, and the person died as a result of it. Do we know if the student committed suicide? If so, then frankly I would consider her to be guilty of negligent homicide.
The judges ruling against the student is fairly clear that according to the ethics guidelines in her chosen field. I find this part particularly important:
So, in fact, she has an obligation as a counselor to set aside her own biases and accept the point of view of her client. Ethically, she was way off base – at least according to a Federal Judge and her own professional organization. If she wants to be a counsellor, she has to be prepared to council people whose belief systems differ from her own. She demonstrated an inability to do that and was (rightfully) dismissed from the program.
In my opinion, she chose the wrong career.
The legislature has stepped in and passed a law specifically designed to protect individuals with “deeply held religious beliefs” so that those individuals will no longer be held to the standards everyone else in their field must be.
There is also going to be another consequence that the short-sited legislature probably didn’t take into account. Michigan public colleges will most likely lose all accreditation for all counseling and medical courses because they can no longer fulfill the ethics code. Who would want to go to a school, spend a lot of money that will most likely occupy the majority of their lives paying back, only to not get the needed accreditation in order to work in their field? In order to counsel clients, master degree students are required to read and sign the professional code of ethics and behaviors, agreeing to abide by that code. She knew the code and yet couldn’t put her own bigotry (and yes, that is what it is) aside in order to follow that code. She deserved to be taken out of the program because she couldn’t suck it up for a short time in order to finish her schooling. Her work to help get this law passed could very well screw the rest of the public colleges in the state that have medical programs out of talented and bright future students (and money).
I’m happy that she has her belief system and is happy with that. Fine. But that does not mean that she can inflict that on people with other beliefs, especially if they are in so much pain that they are suicidal. Once she is out of school, she is free to take the patients she wants as long as she refers the patients she doesn’t want to competent, less biased therapists. But if her focus is going to be so “christian”, maybe she should look into becoming a pastor.