Shit that Pissed me Off – 1/3

Teen Makes a Joke on Twitter and People Tell her She Should Kill Herself

So here’s the joke:

This beautiful earth is now officially 2014 years old, amazing

Now shame on her, I guess, for failing to clearly identify her post as sarcasm.  I mean she’s only a teenager so it could naturally be assumed that she wasn’t making a joke but was, rather, a complete idiot.

Her joke went viral and when jokes go viral on the internet, two things happen.  The first is that a lot of people are amused by the joke.  The second is that a lot of other people will completely fail to get her joke and reveal themselves to be complete assholes.

If this was a real book, it would eventually outsell the bible. Ironically, nobody who bought it would read it because they would assume they already knew it all.

The internet, my friends, is the most Democratic place in the world.  You want free speech?  You can make a joke that reaches thousands of people.

Be warned, however, that some of those people are idiotic.  And the idiotic ones are the most likely to say something.

Bill Nye will Be Debating Ken Ham about Evoluation at the Creation Museum

As someone who believes pretty strongly in Evolution, you would think I would be totally on board for this debate.  I’m not.

First off, this debate is taking place at the Creation Museum, which is hardly a neutral site.  The house will be packed with people who will be aping Ken Ham’s opinion and will have little to no interest in the actual scientific evidence that Nye will be presenting.

Second, and more importantly, when you get on stage to debate a creationist, you are implying that they have a rational point of view that can be debated.  They don’t.  Their concept of science is so twisted that you cannot untangle it.

By engaging in a public debate, you are putting that twisted concept on equal footing with a scientific principle that is accepted by anyone with the capacity to understand it.

Look I love that Bill Nye is championing evolution in a very public way.  I just cannot come up with any reason that debating Ken Ham on his turf will do anything but make Ham’s idiotic ideas seem as if they are worth considering.

And they aren’t.

Turns out Chris Kluwe was Probably Fired for Speaking his Mind

I acknowledge that this is one man’s interpretation of a series of events and conversations.  The Vikings have a very different perspective on what took place.

I tend to believe that Kluwe experienced what he said he experienced.  He was probably fired for football reasons but at the same time, there was more of an immediate desire to fire him because the Vikings didn’t like that he was vocally advocating for same-sex marriage.

The point here isn’t that they didn’t like his issue.  They probably didn’t care.  What they didn’t like was that he was creating a scene that they found distracting.

Now if Kluwe’s allegations against his coach are accurate, the distraction was fed by a coach who didn’t much approve of his commentary.  That created a difficult work environment for all.

Maybe his coach was distracted every time Kluwe stepped out of the shower. RAWR!

Football is a business and all businesses make decisions that have absolutely nothing to do with what is best for the people they employ.  That is the nature of business.

But let me say this: Football probably isn’t that homophobic but it is controversy phobic.  Kluwe was fired, at least in part, because he invited controversy.

“Breaking Bad” fan Arrested on Drug Charges

Why, exactly, is this a story that anyone gives a fuck about?  Because the dude was a fan about a show whose central character is a drug dealer and he, apparently, is also a drug dealer?

I’ll bet he’s not the only drug dealer who was a fan of the show.  What does that mean, exactly?  That the show was attractive to drug dealers or that drug dealers watch television when they aren’t dealing drugs?

This story wouldn’t be news were we not living in a world where the constant flow of news is essential for a news organization to be successful.

What’s next?  We’ll hear about a fan of Gone With the Wind who is also a war profiteer? A fan of “Dexter” who is a serial killer?  A fan of Free Willy who is also a killer whale?

Former Pastor is Going to try Atheism on for a Year

I think it is great that he is being open about his doubts.  I question how one can experiment with being an atheist.  We aren’t talking about someone in Colorado picking up a few bags of Fritos and giving weed a shot.

He says he’s going to live his life as if god didn’t exist and I have to wonder, how does that really change anything?  He won’t pray or read the bible, I guess.

Thing is, I’m an atheist and I have read the bible.

Not all of it, to be fair, it bored the shit out of me.

What is with all of these begets? Reads like a series of pre historic birth certificates.

I can’t try out being a Christian because I’m not one.  Even if I spent a year praying and going to bible study, I would not be trying on Christianity.  I might be trying to understand it.  I might even be trying to re-ignite the fire of faith (if that was what I wanted).

His yearlong journey has been started on what feels like a lie.  I applaud him for following a path that may lead to atheism or agnosticism or even a different kind of spirituality.  Good for him.

The rest of his “journey” feels more like propaganda.

Phil Robertson Encourages the Faithful to Marry Underage Women

Ignore the fact that Robertson is a homophobe and a racist for a moment.  Ignore also, that he continues to be extremely rich.

He get to speak his mind because it’s in the Constitution yadda yadda yadda.  What is in his mind, folks, is really fucking ugly.

He doesn’t want his sheep to marry children for any other reason that the younger you marry them, they easier they are to control.  That’s what he’s saying.  If you want a woman you can push around, marry them before they are old enough to figure out that it isn’t OK.

Is that really the kind of person that Sarah Palin wants to defend?