Shit that Pissed me Off – December 26th

Shia LaBeouf Live

This video is actually fucking hilarious.  The stinger at the end – freaking brilliant.

But I can’t get the song out of my head.  It is an earworm of epic proportions.  On Christmas Eve, we weren’t singing holiday tunes.  We were singing the damn Shia LaBeouf song.

In the kitchen! Shia LaBeouf!

SHIA LABEOUF!

Cooking up the meat! Shia LaBeouf!

Opening the Presents!  Hollywood superstar Shia LaBeouf!

It’s probably best if you don’t watch the video.  Your sanity may depend on it.

The Mall of America Protest

I think I’ll lose some people here because from what I’ve read online most of my friends don’t agree with me on this one.  Even the liberal ones. So be it.  I’ve spent a lot of time mulling it over.

I’m so full of mixed emotions about this protest.  I’m not sure it was a good idea but I’m also not faced with the kind of daily discrimination that my black friends experience.

In watching video of the event, though, I don’t think it was that bad.  It looks to me like it was mostly focused in the rotunda and I could see shoppers getting around the bulk of the protestors.  While it was probably inconvenient, it most likely didn’t ruin the day of most people.  I avoided the inconvenience by shopping somewhere else and, quite frankly, I found other shoppers far more annoying than a protest.

Some things that do piss me off though:

Bitching about the protest taking place on private property being illegal

Well of course it’s illegal!  It’s civil disobedience!  That is the whole fucking idea.  You don’t have to like the protest to get the basic point that people engaging in civil disobedience are doing so with the full knowledge that they are engaging in an illegal activity.

Do I think the Mall should sue them?

No.  It seems stupid and petty.  But they certainly have a right to do it.

Conversing with all your white friends about how the black people are doing it wrong

I’m not talking about racism, per se.  Certainly not intentional racism.  I just noticed that everyone I saw raising cain about the protests were white people.  If that doesn’t say something about the racial divide in this country, I don’t know what does.

What was worse was when people had the bad taste to defend the protest.  The response (from white people) was “they just don’t get it.”  Not only is that dismissive as hell (maybe you don’t get it – think about that before you just ignore anyone else’s point of view), but I think the whole point of the protest was that we (white people) don’t get it.

#Alllivesmatter

A friend went so far as to post that #blacklivesmatter was racist.

Look, these protestors know that all lives matter. But what they are saying (if we could slow down and listen for a moment) is that it certainly appears that white lives matter more.  There is a systemic break in this country that we shouldn’t ignore and the protestors are doing whatever they can to focus our attention on that systemic break.

Whether you approve of their methods or you don’t, complaining that it should be #alllivesmatter makes the entire point of the debate all about you because they forgot to include you.

They didn’t forget.  They were under the (correct) impression that in our society, nobody is acting as if your life doesn’t matter.

TLC Will Air a Show Called “My Husband’s Not Gay”

Proving once and for all that the title “The Learning Channel” has absolutely nothing to do with the kind of show they’ll put on the air, TLC is going to show us the lives of three openly gay men who are trying to live straight lifestyles in accordance with Mormon doctrine.

First of all, fuck Mormons (and other religions) for telling people god wants them to live a miserable life.

Also – and I can’t stress this enough – this book is complete bullshit.

Second of all, fuck The Learning Channel for making money off these broken people.  They are not broken because they are gay.  They are broken because they have been raised to believe that their sexuality is wrong and they have to actively live a life that is counter to their desires.

The Mormon church is famous for changing doctrine any time it becomes too unpopular so, in the next thirty years, look for a message from god that being gay is OK.  Then how are these guys going to feel?

TLC will probably do a fucking follow-up.  Assholes.

Anti-Gun Advertisement Produced by a Complete Idiot

I’ve made it no secret that I’m not nuts about guns.  I don’t have a problem with legal gun ownership but I don’t want one in my house and I don’t get why so many other people want them in theirs.

However, this ad suggests kids steal their parent’s guns and turn them in at school.  Is it parody?  I don’t think it’s parody.  I think this idiot is serious.

Hey kids!  Concerned about a gun in your house?  Don’t talk to your parents like a rational human being!  They might shoot you!  Just commit a crime and bring the gun to school!  Because schools aren’t the least bit jittery when a kid brings a gun to school!

All right, Timmy! Shoot the letters that spell “Cat!”

You want to get more annoyed?  Read the comments where hundreds of conservatives say things like “this is what is wrong with the liberal mindset.”

Um…no.

Most liberals think this is completely fucked up and stupid.  This doesn’t represent our mindset.  Engage us about the stuff that the majority of us actually believe rather than what some fringe idiot believes, OK?

A Crazy Guy Shot Two Police Officers

Unacceptable.

But you know, it would be unacceptable if this guy had randomly shot two security guards or two pedestrians or two prostitutes.  He had a psychotic break and, due to racial tension in our country, chose to attack police officers.

That is tragic and wrong.

I think it is wrong, however, to point at Ferguson and #blacklivesmatter protestors as inciting this violence.  Both groups quickly denounced the killings because they aren’t saying that officers should be shot.

They are saying officers should be held accountable.

And what about the fact our killer shot his ex-girlfriend before killing the cops?  She’s a footnote.  An afterthought.  Who gives a rip about her, right?  She lived so we don’t care that she was also a victim of this guy’s break from reality.

This is all awful.  Those police officers should be alive.  Their deaths shouldn’t be a rallying cry against the Ferguson protests, though.

Because when you tell people to shut up because one person took it too far, you are just telling them to shut up again.  And look where that has gotten us.