Shit that Pissed me Off This Week 12/27

Atheist Shoots Video of Himself Being a Total Dick

I complain about stupid religious people all the time so it is only fair that I get a little annoyed when an atheist is a complete jerk.

This charming fellow is understandably upset about a nativity scene set up on public land.  Especially given they have nothing representing other religions.  Only Christianity.  Totally unconstitutional, that.

So what does he do? He posts a video of himself in a profanity laden rant that completely undermines the whole argument.  Hating on Christianity (or it’s trappings) just shifts the focus to his asshole behavior rather than keeping it on the fact that you can’t put a nativity scene on public land.

Maybe if I get the gun a little closer, I can be sure I won’t miss….

It frustrates me when an atheist acts like the asshole so many people seem to believe the rest of us are because the conversation get hijacked.  Nobody is talking about the separation of church and state.  They are talking about a guy being a dick.

And the guy being a dick also happens to be an atheist.  So the conversation becomes about how atheists are dicks rather than how this one guy is a dick and he’d be a dick no matter what he believed.

Teenager Kicked out of School for Public Lewdness After Reporting a Rape

This happened a few years ago and her story just appeared online this week.  It’s a perfect example of how poorly our society deals with rape allegations.  In this case, a young woman said she’d been raped and she was almost instantly treated like a criminal.

Hell, she still is because, as expected, the comments section to this article is filled with gems like this one:

…she CLAIMS this is how it happened. There is obviously a LOT more to this story. I think the police investigation probably went a LITTLE deeper than an MSN article that was clearly not even trying to be unbiased.

I wrote a blog entry a long time ago about how my knowledge of our abuse culture makes me automatically biased towards the alleged victim of a crime like this one.  Because I know too many people who have claimed abuse (sexual or otherwise) and had their friends (and the system) abandon them.

Hell, we talked about this same issue on Geeks Without God a couple of weeks ago.

We live in a world where victims are put on trial by the public and perpetrators are cast as victims.

I’m tired of the constant reminders that we don’t have this shit figured out.  Because they don’t seem to be working.

Texas Hospital Must Keep Brain Dead Woman Alive Because she is Pregnant

Given she is brain dead, she isn’t suffering and actual harm because of the legal requirement that she be kept alive until her child is brought to term.

She wasn’t breathing for over an hour and there is no clear information yet on what harm may have come to the child.  Likely there is a considerable amount.

Brain dead pregnant lady comes into the hospital and her family wants her pulled from life support? Read the post it!

However, the law that prevents her husband from carrying out her wishes doesn’t actually do anything to pay for the medical treatment she will require to remain alive until the baby can be delivered.  Nor will it do anything to care for that child if it is severely handicapped as a result of the trauma suffered in the womb.

Which is one of the biggest issues I have with the pro-life movement.  The concern is 100% about the unborn child.  There is no concern for the impact on the mother, the father or even the child once it is no longer in the womb.  There is more concerned with those who have the potential to live than they are for those who are actually – you know – alive already.

Library Trustees Reject Charitable Funds Raised by Athiests Because they are a “Hate Group”

I missed this one last week but it really needs a revisit.

The Friendly Atheist raised over $3000 to go to a Park District that had lost funds due to one of the park board members’ refusal to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.  The Park District declined the offer because they didn’t want to get embroiled in a “First Amendment Dispute.”

So after that wonderful response, the money was sent to the Public Library.  To buy books.

Not specific books, mind you.  Just books.  They could have spend the $3000 on Bibles if that was what they needed.

However, on board member proceeded to take a whole shit ton of stuff out of context and convinced the other board members that the blog constituted a hate group similar to the KKK.  They wouldn’t take money from the KKK to buy books, would they?  Therefore they should not take books from atheists who are fighting for the continued separation of church and state.

So if atheists are like the KKK, what the fuck are we going to burn in people’s yards?  Darwin fish?

Saudi Blogger May be Sentenced to Death for Apostacy

In other words, the guy could be murdered by the state for insulting Islam.

As if Islam can’t handle the blow.

I’ve said this before but the problem with blasphemy laws is the fact that they punish people for committing a crime with no victim.  Assume for a moment the Islamic god exists.  Is he going to lose any sleep over one Saudi blogger saying that his religion is a sham?

He called me an invisible man in the sky. It hurts when they say that. Hold me!

He can totally take it.  And it shouldn’t be up to us to protect him because he’s GOD!

If the guy doesn’t exist, then things are even more ridiculous because there is, quite literally, no victim at all.

Except the religious leaders who want to ensure that the population continues to believe exactly what they want.  They stand to lose an awful lot if people are allowed to speak out.

Huh.

Awful Version of “Christmas Time is Here”

The Holiday music mix at work seems to have been carefully selected by a group of people whose only task was to listen to as many different versions of Christmas classics as they could find in order to pick the worst one imaginable.  Didn’t think you could do worse than the Bing Crosby/David Bowie “Little Drummer Boy?”  Wrong!  You thought the original version of McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” was horrid?  It could be even worse!

The worst of everything, though, is a version of “Christmas Time is Here” that is so awful, I can’t even find a version to link to online.

The best description I can come up with is to imagine that the opening song from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special was somehow taken over by the opening credits from “Twin Peaks.”

Every time it plays, I start to imagine that Kyle MacLaughlan has shown up because someone murdered Lucy Van Pelt.  Who could it be?

Charlie Brown?  After the bullshit she kept pulling with that football, he’s an obvious suspect.

Linus?  He was way smarter than her but she’s the one who was always getting paid five cents for psychiatric care.

Shroeder?  She had no respect for Beethoven.  None.

Snoopy?  Why not?  That dog is psychotic.

Don’t go near him when he’s like this. Just don’t.

See what I mean? It could be anyone!

So Agent Cooper is snooping around trying to find clues but nobody can tell him anything because any time he asks a question, he just sounds like a muffled trumpet.

He also can’t find a good cup of coffee because kids don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee.  Snoopy probably knows how but he’s fucking insane so you don’t actually know what he’s going to put into your cup.

I haven’t figured out who the dwarf is yet…WOODSTOCK!

…it occurs to me that all of this is making the song sound unbelievably awesome.  Trust me on this – it really isn’t.