Shit that Pissed me off this week- 8/23

It’s actually been a pretty boring week.  Not too much that really annoyed me.  Perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong places.

They Cut Down a Grand Old Tree at the Renaissance Festival

This is not a “fuck the management of the Renaissance Festival” screed.  While I sometimes feel that way, the issue here is not one of any idiot running the festival but rather the cost of our human needs.

Near a group of rocks at the MRF grounds, there was an oak tree that provided shade for years.  That tree stood over the old peasant banquet and sing-along and it even provided some shade to the old juggling booth.  All of those things were long gone but the tree remained.  Until now.

The tree wasn’t sick (so far as I know).  They cut it down because they had to run new power lines on to the site and it was in the way.

I don’t know if they could have run the lines somewhere else.  Even if they could have done so, it probably would have resulted in some other tree being destroyed.

But that tree had history for me.  That tree meant something to me.

That tree there. They one right between these two lovely ladies (photo by Eric Knight).

And it is the inevitable cost of human progress that we destroy things that get in our way.  Over and over and over again.  It isn’t a problem with the Renaissance festival.  it is a problem with the way the world works.

I guess it doesn’t piss me off.  It makes me sad.

Arkansas Senate Passes a bill Banning Certain Types of Body Modifications

When it comes to my body and body art, I’m a bit of a prude.  I don’t have any.  I simply have never come up with something that I’d love to have on my body for the rest of my life.

Other people feel differently and that is great.

Unless you are in Arkansas where the Senate passed a bill banning certain types of body art including scarification and subdermal implants.

Like a digital watch on your wrist. This is the only kind of watch my son would never lose.

Except it really isn’t any of their damn business what someone does with their own body.  I may think scarification is pretty out there but it isn’t my skin that is being branded so whatever, dude, you know the health risks.

If this was pushed through by Democrats, I’d roll my eyes at the party with which I more closely identify.  But it was Republicans.

What about small government, you psychos?  Telling people what kinds of body piercing they can have is the definition of government getting all up in people’s business.

What the actual fuck?

A Woman is Booted from her Church for Supporting her Gay Daughter

Yeah, there are stories like this every week.  It’s sad that they are so commonplace, really.  Someone supports a homosexual and their loyalty to a loved one is rewarded with contempt and derision.

While this mother is certainly also receiving the support of a great many people who recognize that supporting her daughter at the expense of her church is laudible, this is not a decision that should even exist.  Churches casting people out for the sin of compassion are so completely beyond my comprehension as to be deserving of little more than my derision.

It isn’t that the god they believe in shouldn’t exist.  They shouldn’t want that god to exist.  They should be hoping with all their hearts that they are wrong.

Instead they throw up their hands and say “it isn’t my fault! I’m just following god’s word!”

And in the next breath, they worry about atheists who have no moral compass.  What about their own moral compass?  They have no moral compass because their every moral decision is driven by an external force (god) rather than their own conscience.

I’m just tired of bigotry disguised as piety.  It’s only so much bullshit.

A Horrible Person Writes a Horrible Letter to the Parents of an Autistic Child

I almost didn’t write about this because I think it has been so over exposed this week but as the parent of two kids with mild autism (caused – no doubt – by the fact I vaccinated them), I couldn’t let it slide without comment.

Here’s the thing, oh person without compassion or tolerance for others, everyone has their failings.  This one neighbor of yours has an autistic child who annoys you to the point you feel that child should be put to death.

You probably annoy the shit out of someone else.  Now whoever that person is, they may not wish your death.  Perhaps they only wish your eyes were pecked out by rabid crows.  I don’t know.

The point is, someone dislikes you as much as you dislike that kid.  And they keep it to themselves.

You decided to lash out and that means there are most likely hundreds of people who are just waiting to hate you as soon as they know who you are.  Well done!

Next time, maybe you should realize that you are just as annoying as everyone else.