Shit that Pissed me off this Week – 2/15

Georgia Lawmaker Wants to Make it Illegal to make Fun of People (Specifically Him) on the Internet

Whether or not making mean-spirited jokes about people is wrong, it isn’t illegal. And it shouldn’t be.

Because honestly, who’s to judge which statements are worth fining and which are not?

Right.  A Judge.  OK. I knew that.

You know, the thing that bugs me about people who choose to engage in public service is how surprised some of them are when people make fun of them.  Sometimes they deserve it.  Sometimes they don’t.

In a country as ideologically divided as we are, however, it is going to happen.  Constantly.

You have two choices.  You can grow thicker skin or you can introduce laws designed to ensure people will make even more fun of you.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why so many people do the latter.

Indiana High School Students want to Hold a “Separate Prom” Where Gays Aren’t Allowed

Seems that there are some places where parents are teaching their kids right from wrong.  Too bad they got the meaning of the words reversed.

The kids want all their gay friends to know that they love them but they don’t love them enough to be around them.  In fact, their gay friends, whom they “love”, make them very uncomfortable.  What with all that dancing together and kissing each other and not hiding their sexuality from the rest of the world.

The article even quotes a special ed teacher who feels that homosexuality is a “choice” and that gays have “no purpose in life.”  She said this directly to a TV camera.  Which was stupid.

Maybe their purpose is just to be able to go to the fucking prom with the person of their choosing without a bunch of bigoted religious extremists getting so upset that they decide to have their own prom. Sounds like a decent purpose, don’t you think?

But you know what?  Go ahead.  Have your own prom.  If you can’t handle the fact that the world is changing and these kids will be accepted and loved, you should abandon the rest of us.

We don’t particularly enjoy your company either.

Update: Most locals think that these kids (and the adults who are backing them) are jackasses.

NRA Says Obama Wants your Guns Even Though He Doesn’t

I’m not going to debate how effective an assault weapon ban would be because honestly, I don’t know enough about it to offer an informed opinion.  The facts are, to say the least, murky.

But the way the NRA incites fear by suggesting that anyone who is for gun control wants to take away everybody’s guns galls the hell out of me.  It simply isn’t true.  Scare tactics are, in my opinion, used by cowards who don’t have a good enough argument to talk about the issues.  They just try to convince people that the government will take all of their guns away.

Let’s be clear on this: NO THEY FUCKING AREN’T.  Hell, it’s not even possible.  Take a look at this:

Ignore the bottom third and just look at the number of privately owned guns in our country versus the number owned by the military.  The government doesn’t want to come for your guns, folks.  If they did, they’d be engaged in the biggest firefight anyone has seen outside of a Tarantino film.

The government doesn’t want all your guns.  They would like better background checks (which may actually be effective).  But they don’t want all your guns.

Let’s keep the debate focused on what Obama is saying rather than scaring people with what he is not.

Fact is, the NRA isn’t willing to consider any changes to gun policies.  They aren’t interested in compromise or conversation. Even when an overwhealming majority of their own members support stricter background checks!

And that’s why I don’t like them.

A Preacher wants Money Really Badly

The only commodity churches have is god.  They don’t sell anything else.  So they have to sell god pretty hard.  Because god can’t save your soul without some cold, hard cash.

The money grab in this video is hard to watch because it implies you can’t be saved unless you give all sorts of money to god.  Except you aren’t giving to to god.  You are giving it to the church which, I guess, is well versed in knowing how god wants your money spent.

Never has it been more apparent that salvation is a business.

The Illinois Family Institute Has Some Fears about Gay Marriage and How it will Affect Their Children

My favorite?  If gay marriage is legalized in Illinois (and it is fairly likely), the stigma behind hiring openly gay teachers will be gone and they can get jobs anywhere.

Now some might consider that a positive.  Some might consider it a good thing that the best teachers would get hired in spite of their sexual orientation.  They want their kids to learn from the best, right?

Well sure!  So long as their kids don’t learn that their teacher is gay.  Because seeing someone they respect who is openly gay would completely undermine all the bigotry these kids are being taught at home.

Why, they might even reject the idea that homosexuality is wrong!

We can’t have that, now, can we?

Leading Papal Candidate Has Defended Ugandan “Kill the Gays” Bill

Basically, Cardinal Peter Turkson has said “you need to understand where these folks are coming from!  It’s their way!”

As a Catholic – and even a Catholic who opposes homosexuality – it makes no sense to me that he would defend “their way.”  One thing on which the Catholic Church and I agree is the death penalty.  The Catholic Church is against the death penalty in almost all cases.

So is one of those cases where the death penalty is OK being gay?  Or is only being gay in Uganda?

Is the Church OK with that or is it, as I’m led to believe, against that shit?  Hell, the church is against masturbating because you are killing baby potential.  Or something.  They may hate the sin of Homosexuality but they don’t want to kill people who are gay, right?

He shouldn’t be defending any law that promotes the death penalty because he should be against it in all cases.  But it would appear he’s only against it when it doesn’t interfere with someone’s “way.”

School Board Tells a Student He Can’t Wear a Kilt to Prom

This one falls in the “what the fuck is your problem you crazy fucks” category.

A student of Scottish descent wanted to wear a kilt to prom as formal wear.  In spite of the fact that lots of scots get married in kilts, the school board determined that it was not “appropriate” prom attire.

You know, because what we really want to teach our kids is something like “traditional dress that honors your heritage is not appropriate because you’re an American.” Or maybe they are trying to say that guys showing off their legs is totally off limits.  Or maybe they don’t know how to pronounce “sporon.”

Now let me ask this – why the fuck was the school board involved?  Why do they get to tell a kid what he can wear to prom?  Shouldn’t they be doing other stuff like making sure that kids are learning stuff or something?  Why do they get to boss this kid around because they don’t understand the difference between a kilt and a skirt?

Before I ever had kids, I was reminded that my goal as a parent was not to raise a child, it was to raise an adult.  Well how the hell am I supposed to do that when there are so many adults who act like children?

*Did I go too far there?  I mght have gone to far.  It struck me funny.  Sorry.