Shit that Pissed me Off – 11/8

Player Response to NFL Bullying Incident is “Man Up”

NFL player Jonathan Martin just quit his job over alleged bullying by another player that included an incident where he felt forced to pay for that player’s vacation to Las Vegas.  This is part of a wider allegation that a lot of rookie players are hazed by veterans in various demeaning and (sometimes) expensive ways.

The basic response from many corners is that the guy who quit needed to grow a thicker skin.

You don’t even need a thick skin. That’s what the pads are for, right?

Now I don’t believe I know everything that went on here but I have some experience with bullying and I have to assume that even as a “grown” man, there is a feeling of powerlessness that is hard to overcome.  As a young guy trying to make the team, you will feel compelled to just deal with the bullshit because you want the veteran guys to accept you.

Inevitably, you will view that behavior as acceptable when it becomes your turn to do the same thing.

What has been exposed is a cycle of abuse.  To defend it is to fail to understand that teaching a bunch of man/boy millionaires how to be grown-up’s is the most valuable thing that the NFL can possibly do.

Liberty Council Posts their Annual Naughty & Nice List

By “Naughty,” of course, they mean “companies that don’t mention Christmas in their Holiday ads.”

This really pisses the Liberty council off.  It’s like Christmas is the only Holiday that takes place during December and therefore any company that chooses to imply there are other Holidays in late December that non Christians celebrate don’t deserve good Christian business.

Frankly, I think the pagans need to start their own list because they peed on this particular time of year first.  Anyone who has “Christmas” in their advertisements but not “Yule” or “Solstice” should get a sternly worded letter that was, presumably, written while naked.

My apologies to all my Pagan friends for the insensitive generalization of your complicated beliefs.  You should still write letters.  It’d be funny.

Also, does anyone beside me think the liberty council is mis-named?

Here’s the definition of Liberty:

the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.

Wouldn’t that include being free from oppression by doucebags who believe that anyone who doesn’t celebrate their holidays they way they want them to should be harassed until they do?

Teacher Suspended After Forcing a Jehovah’s Witness to Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

I have no particular love of Jehovah’s Witnesses because the more I learn about their cultish religion, the more I dislike it for reasons far beyond the fact they regularly knock on my door.

But this story is really about an adult who is using a position of authority to make kids do something that is important to her.

I’m sorry, Betsy, that was incorrect. The answer to this equation is AMERICA!

Patriotism, to me, is one of those bizarre principles where we are all expected to love the country we were born in above all others and if we don’t we can go fuck ourselves.  Love America or leave America.  Unless you are against guns.  Then you can love America but you still need to leave America because GUNS!!!!!!

America is pretty cool for a lot of reasons.  I’m glad I was born here.  My life would be a lot worse if I were your average North Korean or a woman in any country under Sharia law. But we aren’t perfect and blind patriotism is really no better than being Jehovah’s Witnesses, is it?

It’s just blind devotion to a fantasy.

Bus Driving Pastor Encouraged Kids to Pray With Him Until he got Fired

Pastor George Nathaniel was warned that encouraging kids to pray with him if they wanted was not appropriate.  He wasn’t forcing them to do it!

I mean, maybe he was forcing them to listen to it but that isn’t the same thing!

Now that he’s been fired, he feels his freedom of speech has been infringed because he isn’t just a member of the majority religion in the United Sates, he’s also a victim.

Izer.

Budget Cuts may Force NASA to Cut Either Cassini or Curiosity

I get that our government needs to find places to cut costs.  What bugs me is that one of the places they always cut costs is places where they should be spending more.

I mean I realize few Americans really care about super fucking cool pictures from Saturn (no GUNS on Saturn) but they probably should and not because it serves any useful purpose in their everyday lives (even though it does).

Fuck it. We don’t really need pictures like these. We can just use the National Endowment for the Arts to have someone work one up in Photoshop, right?

What they should care about is how relatively cheap space exploration is compared to all the other parts of government.  Paying a few scientists to look at the data coming from the Cassini probe is not a ridiculous amount of money.

I mean, most of us don’t make that much so it seems like a lot.  But if you consider the cost it would take to keep both programs running versus the cost of – say – paying Congress to shut down the government, it really isn’t that much at all.

Now you tell me – would you rather have science on Mars or Congress?

Deepak Chopra Writes Smug Article About How “Militant Skeptics” are on the Decline

Chopra wrote a blog entry entitled “The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism” and posted it on his website that seems entirely devoted to selling assorted homeopathic “remedies” that will be far more effective at making him wealthy than they will at making their purchasers healthy.

It would be fair to begin by saying that Chopra is in direct competition with skeptics because his business depends on skeptics being wrong.  So when he categorizes skeptics as “militant” because they have the gall to suggest that he produce some sort of scientific evidence that his Endorphinate does – well – anything, he is really just selling his product.

Still, his smug attacks on skeptics who are of the opinion that he is a con artist preying on the human desire for miracle cures are logically mixed up and intellectually dishonest.

What do you expect from a guy whose website contains nuggets like this one:

When you eat natural whole foods you enhance the life-giving energy that knits thousands of processes into a whole person.

What the fuck does that mean?

Why can’t he just say “natural foods are better for you?”

Side note: what does “militant skeptic” even mean? I’ve yet to meet a skeptic who believes in violent overthrow of Chopra’s Endorphinate empire.  There is no Che Guevera in the Skeptic community.  Most skeptics wouldn’t even wear one of those T-shirts with a picture of Che because they’ve done enough research to recognize he was as fucked up as anyone else.

Republicans Poised to Block Law that Prevents Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation

35 Republicans in the Senate voted against a law designed to protect LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination.  That’s annoying.

Doesn’t matter, though, because Speaker Boehner is not going to let the House vote on the matter.  The Republican Party is doubling down on the “we don’t like gay people” platform at a time when it seems clear that plank is pretty fucking rotten.

Hey Republicans! How about Nazis? Nobody is going to give a shit if you discriminate against Nazis!

There’s also the fact that this bill (like so many) had provisions that allows companies to discriminate against GLBT employees for “religious reasons.”

I wonder how things would go if some businesses asked for provisions allowing them to discriminate against straight people for “religious reasons?”

I know, I know.  That’s completely different.

Buzzfeed Posts 13 Times When CJ Cregg was Right

I liked this post.

But come on.  CJ Cregg was right a whole lot more than 13 times.