Shit that Pissed Me off – 2/21

Student Suspended For Pretending He Was Having Sex With a Teacher

What pisses me off is the simple fact that every time someone makes a false accusation, it is that much harder for someone who is actually a victim.

Now let’s be clear – this kid was making a joke.  He was not trying to get anyone in trouble. What he didn’t realize is that his joke had real world consequences.  He could have cost an innocent teacher her job.

Because even if everyone reading his tweet knew that he was telling a joke, law enforcement has to act as if he wasn’t. Because what if he wasn’t?

Excuse me, ma’am. I’m going to have to take you down to the station and scare the shit out of you because one of your students is an idiot.

This kid did something stupid and while his lengthy suspension may be a little bit severe, kids need to understand that what seems like an innocent joke to them can hurt people more than they could possibly imagine.  Instead of standing up for him, his classmates should be standing up for the teacher who could have lost her job and gone to jail because of a joke.

And they also need to realize that he made it that much harder for someone who is actually suffering from abuse to be heard.

Kansas Lawmaker Introduces a Bill Allowing Teachers to Spank Children

As a parent, I realize that disciplining children can be difficult.  I know enough about raising kids to know that spanking is by no means a useful punishment technique.  It sure wouldn’t work on my kids.

Not to mention the fact that I couldn’t live with myself if I struck my kids.

Clearly, however, a teacher would know better than a parent if spanking would be the best form of punishment for an unruly child.  Obviously they would know if the child was acting up because their parents were going through a rough patch or there was some sort of abuse in the home and would withhold the rod because they understood the child’s needs.

Given how in touch with their kids teachers are, it makes perfect sense that a teacher would need legal protection if they determined that spanking was the best course of action.

No, it actually doesn’t.  They aren’t the kids’ parents.  They don’t get to spank my kid without my permission.  And they won’t get it.

BTW – we all know that I’m a pretty liberal dude so I want to note this bill was introduced by a Democratic lawmaker.  Way to go, Democrats!  We can’t let the Republicans have all the crazies.  It just wouldn’t be fair.

Guy Who Killed a Teenager Convicted of Trying to Kill the Other Three Kids in the Car But Not Killing the Kid He Killed

This dude is a piece of work.  He claims he doesn’t remember the incident but also claims that the kid he killed had a gun (no he didn’t).  He fired ten shots at a fleeing vehicle but claims it was in self-defense.

Somehow, he managed to hang a jury on the murder charge but they convicted him of trying to shoot the other three kids in the car.  He’ll be in jail for the rest of his life so I guess that’s OK, then, right?

He’ll have so much time to think about how that dead unarmed black kid ruined his life!

Thing is, if you took this same incident and the case involved a middle aged black man killing a white teenager, the guy would be looking at a death sentence and the conviction would have been a slam dunk.   If you think differently, you are delusional.  The jury might claim that race was never a factor and they may actually believe that.

But they are wrong.

The kid didn’t have a weapon.  He was leaving the scene.  If he was white, no member of the jury would have had a reasonable doubt.

But if a black person points it out, they are playing the race card.

Tell me again how there is no more racism in America.

Montana Prosecutor Allegedly Told Mother of 5-Year-Old Rape Victim That Boys Will Be Boys

His office also allegedly said a whole lot of horrible things to other victims of sexual assault.  The “boys will be boys” line just makes the best headline.

I say allegedly because the prosecutor in question claims that it is all a big conspiracy.

Which is another way of saying that rape victims are liars, right?

There’s no possibility that the prosecutor’s office was trying to push victims away because rape trials are notoriously hard to win, is there?

Nah!  No way it could be that!

Dear Abby Lays the Smackdown on a Couple of Homophobes

So a couple moved to Florida and they were welcomed into the community with open arms.  Their neighbors include two same-sex couples.  Because the new folks don’t much care for the “lifestyle choice” (fuck them), they opted to omit these same-sex couples from social events in their own home.

Turns out the rest of the community is returning the favor by omitting this new couple from their social events. New couple feels they have been labeled as bigots.  Probably because they are.

Thank goodness there aren’t any gay people here to spoil our party!

It also seems to me that when you omit certain members of a community from your social events, you are likely to suffer the same kind of treatment when other community members find out you are a judgmental self-righteous jackass.

Abby agrees with me, by the way.  Then she goes on to tell a 14-year-old boy that being spanked with a belt by a man who isn’t his father is abuse.  Unless, of course, that man is a teacher in Kansas.

What I’m saying is that Abby rocked this column hard.

Former Speaker of the House Tom DeLay Thinks Americans Need to Remember that God Wrote the Constitution

So how many of the commandments don’t jive with the constitution?  A lot of them, right?  Nothing in the bill of rights about keeping the Sabbath holy, is there?

Adultery isn’t unconstitutional either.  You can totally do that.  Good thing too, given how many framers of the constitution were adulterers.

I’m pretty sure having sex with a slave is adultery. I think he categorized that as “pursuit of happiness.”

Actually the whole part about making no law establishing a state religion kind of goes against commandment number one.  If they really wanted a Christian nation, they could have spelled that out, right?

Especially if god was writing the constitution, right?  He’d have made sure that part was really clear. I mean, he’s god!

I don’t know what is dumber – the fact DeLay actually believes God wrote the Constitution or the fact he chose to say it out loud.

University of Minnesota Police Kick a Man Out of the U Library Because he is Not a Student Although That Should Not Have Been a Problem

So let’s all remember that the University of Minnesota is a State run college. That means that their library is open to any member of the public who wants to use it.

EXCEPT OBAMA!!!

Apparently, however, there are some members of the U Police department who don’t like that policy.  At least not according to the report in the article I read.  Do I know what happened?

Not really.  I wasn’t there.

But if this report is true, you have people in a position of authority denying someone a right they should not have had the power to deny.

Alabama House of Representatives Approves a Bill That Will Allow the Ten Commandments To Be Displayed in Public Schools

It really bothers me how much Christians think displays of the Ten Commandments will fix every problem.  Want to stop school shootings?  No problem!  As soon as the gunman sees that god said “thou shalt not kill,” he’ll just turn around and go home.

Not only is posting the commandments in a public school unconstitutional, it is a useless gesture.

The ten commandments do not make people more moral.  If they did, no self proclaimed Christian would ever kill someone, commit adultery or steal something.  But Christians doe that stuff all the time.  The commandments are not some sort of inoculation against doing bad things.  They are just words.

Putting those words in front of kids is literally the least you can do to change behavior.  It’s like saying “I don’t know what to do so I’ll just give them a book and hope they read it.”