Shit that Pissed me Off – 4/10

Police Officer Shot a Man in the Back and was Caught Lying About it

If you click through to the link, there is video of a man being shot to death.  That’s important to know because you might not want to watch such a thing.

Early reports about this incident indicated that the victim tried to take the officer’s taser and the officer shot him in self-defense.  That was the story the officer repeated over and over again.  And it was a lie.

If I said I didn’t like ice cream, it would also be a lie. A harmless lie. So when the officer lied to save his skin, it’s kind of like that, right?

Even if the victim had tried to take a taser before the video starts, it is obvious he posed no threat to the officer when he was running away and eight bullets were fired at his back.

Without that video, the officer would not be facing murder charges.  Thousands of people would be telling us that we weren’t there so we couldn’t know what really happened.  We should take the word of the police officer because why would he lie?

I don’t know.  Maybe for the same reasons as anyone else?

The Hugo Awards Got Gamed

What is it about a certain breed of GamerGate conservative that makes their entire existence about the fact nobody respects them?  I mean, I guess we are all self-centered to a certain degree but these guys (and they are mostly guys) really think the world has screwed them over.  They spend a crazy amount of time obsessing over ways to make the world pay.

Angry that a bunch of Social Justice Warriors were – I guess – existing and having thoughts and saying them out loud, the Sad Puppies decided to create a slate of candidates for the Hugo awards.  Then they got other, like-minded people to vote for that slate.

In a field as crowded as genre fiction, it doesn’t take too many people to get most of your slate nominated.

So victory for them, right?  They played the system and won.

Except it isn’t any kind of victory.  They may have been upset that their brand of conservative fiction wasn’t “properly” represented on the Hugo ballot but how does stuffing the ballot box make it better? They took an award that meant something in their industry and turned it into an award that means nothing.

All because they wanted attention.

And they got it.

I guess they won after all.

Alabama Inmate Freed After 30 Years on Death Row

Anthony Ray Hilton spent 30 years wondering when the state would end his life.  This in spite of the fact the bullets found at the crime scene didn’t conclusively match the gun found at his home.

At least he’s still alive.  Because the state had been trying to kill him for the last 30 years.

Kind of like Wile-E-Coyote has been trying to kill the road runner for 30 years. Only not as funny.

I just can’t even imagine spending that much time wondering when you are going to be killed for a crime you didn’t commit.

Our society puts people on death row all the time.  Most of those people are guilty. But not all of them.  So the question becomes this: what number of innocent people is it OK to kill so we can keep killing the guilty ones?

Homphobic Pizzeria Makes Over 800K From Other Homophobes

This all starts with an Indiana pizza restaurant making the ridiculous assertion that they wouldn’t cater a same-sex wedding.  As if pizza is a common wedding meal and a whole lot of same-sex couples will weep into their garlic bread when they learn that they will have to go with Papa John’s.

If you don’t want me at your wedding, by the way, have it catered by Papa John’s.

What followed was a storm of people angrily yelling at the poor homophobic guy for being a homophobe and other people threatening his family, his business and his life.

Quick aside to the people threatening this guy: What the fuck were you idiots thinking?  When will we learn to respond to assholes by not being assholes?

Anyway, he was forced to temporarily close his business and some enterprising folks started a GoFundMe campaign that raised over 840 thousand dollars.

I’m pissed because I’m clearly doing it wrong.  We just spent 50 hours raising $10,000 and if we’d just spent five minutes defending our religious freedom, we could have made 84 times as much.

People have their priorities so completely out of whack.

Speaking of priorities, have you donated to this Kickstarter I’m working on?  I’m just bringing it up because we are looking to raise a lot less than a homophobic pizzeria.

A Comedian Makes Fun of Another Comedian in the Worst Possible Way

As a comedian myself, this one makes no sense to me.  Ari Shaffir spend a lot of time in a televised set making fun of comedian Damienne Merlina because she is fat and has one arm.

First rule of comedy: nothing is off limits.

Sure.  OK.  I agree.

But why the fuck make fun of someone by name unless your goal is not to be funny but to genuinely hurt them?  I’m not talking about telling a joke about Barack Obama.  He’s the President.  Being the target of jokes comes with the job.

Look at this guy!  He’s a liberal who was elected President twice! What a jackass!  Amirite?

But I don’t think it comes with the job of being a comedian.  Shaffir could have made the same joke without ever mentioning who he was talking about.

Comedy is supposed to be about punching up.  How are you punching up when you are basically just shaming a fellow comedian for being overweight? Being sloppy and mean is not comedy.

Teacher Proselytizes to Kids in Class

Let’s be honest and say we don’t know exactly what happened.  The parents have one story and the teacher denies all of it.  What we do know is kids claim this teacher told them that their parents weren’t Christians if they voted for Obama.

Because Christians would never vote for a “Muslim.”  I guess.

Some parents objected to this teaching method because teachers aren’t supposed to use the classroom for political grandstanding and they met with the teacher.  Who brought along her husband.  Who was a member of the school board.

And they gave the parents some religious brochures.

If this happened (and the evidence at hand suggests something like this took place), what the actual fuck is her problem?

I’m sure right now she is feeling really persecuted for being a Christian but she fails to realize people aren’t angry with her because she’s a Christian.  They are angry with her because she’s obnoxious.

If she wants to tell kids their parents are bad Christians if they voted for Obama, she should teach Sunday school.