Shit That Pissed me Off This Week – 6/29

Iranian Americans Told They are Not Allowed to Buy an iPad because Racism

I’ve been an Apple customer for a long time.  There are more Apple products in my house than there are bathrooms.  It’s pretty sad.

This story is a publicity nightmare and I’m pissed they didn’t have the intelligence to publicly state “you know what – we messed up.”

While Apple has a policy against exporting their products to Iran (because what Iran needs to bring down the US is clearly lots and lots of iPads), that doesn’t mean that anyone who speaks Farsi should be denied service.

A vital piece of the dreaded Iranian “iPad enrichment” program

Hell, I think it is a pretty major invasion of privacy just to ask what language was being spoken.  If I was speaking a foreign language in an Apple store and an employee asked me what language it was, I’d tell them it was none of their business.  Especially now.

Come on Apple!  Wake up and admit your policy is screwed and tell people you won’t be denying service to anyone based on what language they speak.  To achieve your goal of world domination by 2018, it is a necessary step.

You can’t dominate the world if you don’t dominate Iran.  I think Napoleon said that.

Louisiana Private Schools will be able to Use Public Money to Teach Kids that the Loch Ness Monster Disproves Evolution

So yeah, religious textbooks in private schools include sections arguing (poorly) that Nessie disproves evolution.

Well, even if she existed (she doesn’t), that would be bullshit.  But it’s in a textbook so it must be true!

Now why do I say they will get public money?  Because of vouchers, that’s why!  Want to send your kids to a private school where they can be taught from textbooks that provide ridiculously horrible science?  Louisiana is the place to be!

Call me an intolerant asshole but I don’t think that religious freedom should include the right to pass ignorance and bigotry on to your children.

Atheist Blogger Converts to Catholicism

Actually, this doesn’t piss me off at all.  She’s not the first person to convert from one world view to another.

No, what annoys me is that she is being characterized as a “top” atheist blogger as if this is some sort of horrific blow to the atheist community.

I’m sure she is a fine person and all but you know, I read a lot of Atheist blogs and I’d never heard of her.  I’d hardly characterize her as a top blogger.  She’s on Patheos, which makes her more notable than atheist bloggers like – you know – me but I’d still question her position on “top” of the atheist blogging pyramid.

So why do they call her that?  Because it sounds a lot more interesting than “atheist blogger you’ve probably never heard of converts to Catholicism.”

In other words, they are taking a story that isn’t news and trying to turn it into something that is.

I will say this, though.  She may not have been a “top” atheist blogger but all of this press is going to ensure she is a “top” Catholic one!

Wastes of Space on my Facebook wall

Ho ho! You really got me there, didn’t you…?

You know what I hate about Facebook?  The fact that people are constantly dismissing someone else’s point of view with a stupid post  like this.

What threat does your unvaccinated kid pose to my vaccinated one?  None.  Unless my kid has cancer. But that isn’t really the fucking point, is it?  The point is that the more people who are unvaccinated, the greater possibility that a severe epidemic of some disease can hit all of them.  Your unvaccinated kid doesn’t pose a threat to my kid.  No – he or she poses a threat to every other kid who isn’t vaccinated.

What threat does your completely messed up uninformed point of view pose to potentially thousands of children?  Plenty.  Anti vaccination claims are based on bad science and willful ignorance.  There is this desire to think that anything a pharmaceutical company produces is inherently evil.

Hey, I don’t like pharmaceutical companies either.  You know what I like less?  Smallpox.

Ooo! Ooo!  Here’s another waste of space from my Facebook wall:

Yeah, because all leftists hate guns and hate America. That means all those lefties who joined the army and got killed did it just to make America look bad! Well done lads! On Memorial day, the rest of us America hating lefties are gonna drink to you!  Wait! Do we like booze? This thing doesn’t tell me.

And another one:

Yes, that must be the reason. Has nothing to do with separation of Church and state issues or the fact that the central premise (that we no longer do this) is actually bullshit since they still recite the pledge in most elementary schools.

Also this:

Which is actually awesome.

Woman will be Allowed to Sue Sheriff for Allowing a Guard to Deny her Prescribed Medication

The story in question is actually a (comparatively) positive one in light of the fact she is being permitted to sue but the story is fucked up.

Here’s what happened:  a woman was raped.  She was prescribed a morning after pill by her doctor and took the first dose but had to wait 12 hour to take the second.  In the process of reporting her rape to the police, she was taken into custody for a prior warrant.  The prison guard then refused to allow her to take the second pill because it was against his religious beliefs.

The good news: she didn’t get pregnant.  More good news: she can sue the pricks who denied her rights.

The bad news: she was denied rights that would have been given to a man with prescribed medication because a man would never have been facing the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy.  It is amazing what people will force other people to go through in the name of their religious beliefs.

Chuck Norris is a Douche

I knew that Norris was a right-wing ideologue and you know, that is not bad in and of itself.  I have friends who are conservatives and while we may disagree on a lot of things, they aren’t assholes.  You can be passionate about politics without being an asshole.

Norris, in this opinion piece, shows himself to be an asshole.

I’m especially fond of how he starts paragraph after paragraph asking “is it a coincidence that…”

He doesn’t provide the answers, of course, he assumes we all think the answer is “no.”

I, and many other supporters of the Boy Scouts of America, have a huge problem with the organization’s stance on homosexuality.  Norris seems to think that their stance is completely reasonable and those who question it are undermining everything the scouts stand for.

I think the policy in question undermines everything the Scouts stand for and the sooner they get rid of it, the better.

Norris is using his celebrity to say the opposite.

I’ve got a new Chuck Norris meme for you.  Goes like this: “Chuck Norris is such a badass, he’ll kick the ass of a gay kid who just wants to be an Eagle Scout like every other boy in his troop.”

Hi-larious!

Minnesotans for Marriage Are Bigger Assholes than Chuck Norris

They weren’t content to say that gay people should not be allowed to marry.  Now they are just coming right out and saying gay people should be put to death.  Keep it up, assholes.  The more you advocate killing homosexuals, the more people will realize that your point of view is – for lack of a better word – evil.

Oh yeah – you heard us right! Bring it!

P.S: They claim they were hacked and they say they would never advocate putting something to death, they like gay people.  They just don’t want gays to redefine marriage for all of society.  See, they are really very nice people!

Who fail to recognize that giving gay people the right to marry doesn’t redefine their marriage at all.

Crazy Legislator in New Hampshire is Crazy

This guy claims that Kindergarten causes higher crime rates.  He claims to have studied this phenomena for the last 16 years and has discovered a correlation between higher crime rates and communities where more children are in kindergarten.  The obvious conclusion, of course, is that children are being taken away from their mothers too soon.

Assuming his research is based on actual facts (there is no evidence that it is), he forgets the cardinal rule of all mathematical analysis: correlation does not imply causation.

For instance, there are more Kindergartens in urban centers and urban centers tend to have more crime than rural areas.  Voila!  Correlation!  Did the kindergartens cause the crime?  Probably not.  Both the elevated number of kindergartens and the elevated crime rate are probably caused by the same thing (larger population) but one is not caused by the other.

Let this be a lesson to those of every political persuasion.  Before you fill in your ballot, make sure that the candidate of your preferred party is not a loon.

Unless you are from Minnesota, in which case the State Constitution obligates you to vote for loons.

Eric Holder Held in Contempt of Congress Because Politics

Nobody knows what this is about and nobody cares (if you do care – here’s a lengthy article about it).  I think the majority of Americans are well aware that the reason Holder is being held in contempt of Congress is because he’s a Democrat and Republicans are in charge.  If the Democrats were in charge and Holder was a Republican, the same damn thing would be happening.

Why is he withholding documents?  Hell, I don’t know.  He probably has a pretty good reason and the reason is not that he’s guilty of horrific crimes.  He knew he was going to be found in contempt of Congress and was clearly willing to let it ride because this whole thing is a political game.

To use Chuck Norris’ technique: is it a coincidence that the first black Attorney General in the history of our nation is also the first Attorney General to be found in contempt of congress?

Well, yeah, it probably is.  If he’d been black and Republican, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.