Shit that Pissed me Off This Week, 12/7

Bill O’Reilly says Anyone who Thinks Christianity is a Religion is “Stone-Cold Dumb”

In his latest tirade against the “war on Christmas” he insists that the biggest problem is all of us idiots who think that Christianity is a religion instead of a philosophy.  We are, in fact, “so stupid, it’s painful.”

Well I’m sorry to cause Mr. O’Reilly so much pain but I’m going to have to ask him in what way Christianity does not meet the following definition:

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.

Now perhaps Mr. O’Reilly thinks that Christianity is also a philosophy.  That is a different conversation but it isn’t what he said.

The problem, in fact, is not what he said but the fact that when he says it, thousands of people adopt his position as truth.  Instead of saying to themselves “holy shit – that is the most fucked up description of Christianity I’ve ever heard,” which they should because most of them are Christians, they are instead saying “he’s right!  I don’t accept the divinity of Jesus Christ as part of a religion! It’s my philosophy!!!!”

However, let them believe that because if they want to argue that Christianity is a philosophy, then their churches need to start paying taxes because they are no longer exempt.  And they can’t get all pissed off about people saying “Happy Holidays” either because we aren’t attacking their religion any longer.  Since they don’t have one.  They also can’t demand freedom of religion either.  The first amendment doesn’t provide freedom of philosophy.

Let’s all celebrate Rene Descartes day! We’ll all spend the whole day thinking and therefore being! Thanks for opening the door to making it a Federal holiday, Bill!

You keep going with this one Bill.  I hope you convince everyone who is watching your show that you are right.

Note: He backed off that claim a little bit when a Catholic Priest corrected him.  Damn!  I really wanted him to re-define Christianity as a philosophy.

There is a “No Respect for Suicidal Teens” Page on Facebook

Now it should come as no suprise that there are insensitive douchebags on the internet.  This particular Facebook page is completely populated with a bunch of assholes who, apparently, are the only people in the world who made it through their teenage years without once contemplating suicide.

Having managed to achieve that surprising feat, they feel qualified to judge other people who didn’t.

Now I actually didn’t link to the FaceBook page because fuck those people.  I linked to an online petition designed to convince FaceBook to shut down the page.  I’m not sure how I feel about the petition, though.

The FaceBook page certainly comes close to the definition of online bullying but since it is opt-in, it may fall just short.  I don’t like hate speech very much but I think that we still need to be careful about shutting down certain kinds of speech just because we don’t like it.

Also, I think it’s better to know who these people are.  They are publicly stepping up and announcing “I’m an insensitive douchebag” to the internet community.  I’m all for that.

I like to know who the assholes are so I can avoid interacting with them.  I say provide them with places so we can observe them and keep them separated from the rest of the online community.  Sort of like a zoo for animals everyone hates.

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Dismisses Pro-Marriage Equality E-Mail

Just a few months ago, Minnesotans voted no on the anti-gay marriage amendment and at the same time, they gave Democrats a majority in the state house and senate.  With a governor who is friendly to marriage equality, now would be the perfect time to repeal the state law against gay marriage.  It would be a fairly easy piece of legislation.

Alas, Senate majority Leader Bakk has said that they have too many other priorities to deal with this problem right now.  Further, he has said that the push to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota is being pushed by “real liberal constituencies.”

I would assume that includes gay people.  And family members of gay people.  And friends of gay people.

These folks, for instance, aren’t “real liberal.”

At least one person (whom I know) sent a message to Bakk indicating their displeasure with his unwillingness to push through a fairly easy piece of legislation.  The response was disheartening.  Bakk could have simply thanked the writer for their input.  That’s what most politicians do.  Instead, he chose to chastise the constituent by telling them they did a poor job lobbying him.

Mr. Bakk – with all due respect, who gives a fuck?  This can’t be the only message you received relative to this issue.  Are you answering all of them the same way?  For someone who is going to be the Senate Majority leader, you have shown a remarkable lack of tact.

Now in fairness, it probably wasn’t actually Bakk.  It was probably a staffer who should soon be out of a job.  Bakk, however, would do well to publicly apologize for his staffers behavior because he looks like a pompous ass.  A good way to lose power quickly is to look down your nose at the people who got you there.

Birther Loses Another Court Case

Gadflys like Orly Taitz just drive me nuts.  There is absolutely no credible evidence Obama is not a US citizen but she continues to file court case after court case in her fruitless assault on logic, wasting public funds in the process.

In her latest case, Judge Charles Margines told her “You should know that evidence is not stuff printed from the Internet” but I respectfully submit he is wrong.

She knows no such thing.  The only thing she “knows” is that Obama is not a citizen of the United States and she will not rest until she proves that to the rest of the world or he leaves office.

Fortunately for her, the latter will definitely happen.  In four years.

Bristol University Chrsitian Union Bans Women Speakers

That isn’t quite true.  Ladies are allowed to speak of they are speaking with their husband.

They chose to adopt this policy after “seeking god’s wisdom” and yet they also point out they hold “individual convictions” on this issue that is reflected in the churches they choose to attend.  So they sought god’s wisdom and god, in his wisdom, didn’t tell all of them the same thing.

What is up with that cagey god?

God’s mixed messages aside, the clear message that gets sent is this: god doesn’t like women all that much.  Maybe it is the forbidden fruit thing (that was a long time ago) or perhaps it is just that he’s still in the closet and his own self loathing plays out as a hatred of women.

Are you still pissed off about that?? It was ONE FUCKING APPLE!

I don’t know.

Tell you what, though, if you are a lady and you have an opinion on the topic, you’d better bring your husband if you want to talk about it.

Republicans Narrowly Defeat UN Disability Treaty Because We’re America DAMMIT!

It also appears there is some sulking going on.

In spite of the support of failed Presidential Candidates Bob Dole and John McCain, Senate Republicans failed to provide enough votes for the US to adopt a treaty that, in essence, says we should all treat disabled people decently.  Disabled veterans were all for it but we need to keep in mind that mainstream Republican support for military personnel seems limited primarily to the time the soldiers are still in uniform.

Excuses varied from arguing that signing the treaty threatened American sovereignty to arguing that they shouldn’t be signing treaties during a lame duck session.  In the end, a few Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for the bill but not enough.  36 stood on the “don’t vote for it during a lame duck session” principle.  Because that is going to play great with their constituents back home.

Actually, it won’t play at all.  Because nobody really cares.  Which is why they could execute such a dick move without any fear of political repercussions.

Yahoo Headline Declares Scientists are Baffled by Something that Doesn’t Baffle Them

In Death Valley National Park, there is this cool as fuck phenomenon that, if you aren’t a geologist, makes no sense at all.

Check this out:

Hey wait – that’s not where I left that 100 years ago!

Rocks look like they are sliding across a parched desert landscape!  That is fucking amazing!  And mysterious!  According to the Yahoo headline, scientists have no idea how it happens! They are “baffled!”

Except they really aren’t.  They don’t know all of the specifics but they have a pretty solid idea what makes it happen.

But we are more interested in shit that baffles scientists because those scientists are know-it-all fucks and we can’t wait to see nature knock ’em down a few pegs.

Christians Freak Out when an Ahthiest Crosses “In God we Trust” off of a Bill

For some atheists, crossing “In God we Trust” off of currency is a way to feel empowered.  I think it’s kind of dumb.  I mean, I’m not happy it’s there but how does crossing the phrase out accomplish anything aside from giving one a smug sense of self satisfaction?

Well in Louisiana, someone did this and the store gave out their bill as change.  And a Christian freaked the fuck out.  She posted on FaceBook that she was never going to do business with that establishment again after having made the completely illogical leap to assuming that the shop owner did this to all of their bills.

Once corrected, she apologized and took down the post but why didn’t it occur to her that she might want to validate her assumption before she decided to rally the forces of god to boycott a business?

Never mind the question of why it was more important to rally the forces of god to hurt a local business that it might have been to rally the forces of god to fight poverty.