Shit that Pissed me Off – 4/21
For Easter, Someone Decided to Vandalize an Atheist’s Truck
In Crookston, Minnesota, there aren’t a lot of atheists, I’ll wager. I would go so far as to guess even fewer are out about it.
Jeff Carter had a couple of magnetic bumper stickers on his truck that made it clear he’s an atheist. That’s cool, right? I mean, one truck with a few atheist slogans is hardly a problem when there are probably dozens (or hundreds – I didn’t bother to look up the population of Crookston*) of vehicles with Christian bumper stickers in the same town.
Apparently flaunting your atheism in Crookston is not cool, though. At least not cool to the (I assume) Christians who vandalized Carter’s truck.
Jesus rose from the dead! Praise god! Let’s go write some Christian shit on an atheist’s truck!
How do we know they are Christians? Because they wrote phrases like “Jesus is Great” and “God is Life” on his truck. Now I suppose it is possible that a couple of Crookston Jews pissed off at Carter’s atheism but decided they should frame some Christians but that might stretch the imagination a bit too far.
And look – I know these assholes are not indicative of almost every other Christian in the country. Even the ones who voted for Donald Trump. They are outliers.
They serve as a reminder, though. The next time a Christian complains about how they are being oppressed by modern society, remember that there aren’t a lot of atheists going around vandalizing cars with Christian bumper stickers.
I assume because they aren’t really sure what to write on the car. “Science is great?” “I totally came from a monkey (even though I didn’t – monkeys and I share a common ancestor)?” “Atheists make better cookies (citation needed)?”
*I lied – It’s 7,904
Let’s be clear – I’m sure Sessions knows exactly how the court system works.
But when a Hawaiian judge struck down the Trump travel ban as unconstitutional, Sessions whined that he was “amazed” that a single judge on a “Pacific Island” could issue an order that would stop the Presidential order.
He really shouldn’t be amazed because that’s a power district judges have when they rule that a Presidential order is unconstitutional. It is what our founders liked to call a separation of powers and it was meant to limit Presidential power.
I’m sure Sessions knows that. Further, I’d like to believe Sessions (although Probably not Donald Trump) believes that the system in place is good because it prevents government overreach.
Now, that judge may be wrong as I’m sure the eventual 5-4 Supreme Court ruling will attest. But it is his job to make those decisions just as it is the job of higher courts to review his decisions.
The fact he is from a “Pacific Island” is really irrelevant and, unsurprisingly, rather insulting to mention. It could have been a judge from Iowa. Or Nevada. Or Texas.
OK, it wouldn’t have been a judge from Texas.
The point is Sessions knows how the court system works and he should fucking respect it. Because someday his party won’t be in control and they will want that exact same system to work for them.
Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and Sarah Palin Make Fun of Hillary Clinton’s Portrait
I honestly don’t care. Does anything in the personality of those three people suggest they would be anything but sore winners?
What bothers me is the distraction factor. Once again, the circus that is the Trump white house serves to keep us focused on stupid stuff like three minor political figures being rewarded for their support with a Presidential visit and then making fun of his vanquished foe.
I’ll bet Trump’s Presidential portrait will look a little like this. Hillary will be the dragon. The girl in the back will probably be his next wife.
I’ve seen enough from Palin, Rock, and Nugent to think they are not just people who have a politically different perspective from my own. I think they are assholes who have a politically different perspective from my own.
So the fact these assholes did the kind of thing that assholes do is really kind of a non story. Trump is still President. Sessions is still Attorney General. Palin, Rock, and Nugent are still assholes.
Trump Corner – Trump Snubs Tom Brady Because He Doesn’t Show Up
So the world champion New England Patriots got their White House visit (no word on what they did in front of Hillary Clinton’s portrait) and Tom Brady couldn’t make it, citing “family reasons.”
Now, Brady’s mom has cancer so that could have something to do with his decision to stay away. It’s also possible he came up with a bullshit reason because he’s a businessman who is about to stop playing football and he’d like to be as apolitical as possible.
Given it would have been his fourth trip to the white house (he skipped one already), it is possible the novelty has worn off.
Whatever, he and Donald Trump are supposedly “good friends” and yet he didn’t show up.
So when the President gave his speech about how awesome the Patriots are and when he singled out a few of them, he didn’t mention Brady. You know, the guy who won the Super Bowl MVP.
Now you could say Trump decided to omit Brady because he knew Brady wasn’t there. Thing is, that doesn’t seem like his personality. Trump seems like the guy who would leave Brady out to send a message to his “friend” that staying home because his mother has cancer (or whatever) is unacceptable.
Trump is a petty man. I don’t care if you like his politics or not. He is a petty man. The snub of Brady was deliberately petty.
And the fact he’d do something like that to a “good friend” ought to scare the piss out of you.
On the Other Side of the Coin are the People Pissed at Danny Amendola For Thanking Trump
Trump called out Amendola for his performance at the Super Bowl but Amendola wasn’t at the event. Turns out he was going to the funeral of a friend.
So Amendola tweeted out thanks to the President for the call out.
Which seems polite, you know. I mean Trump is a petty asshole but he called out someone for exceptional play and that someone said “thank you.” It’s the sort of thing someone who isn’t a petty asshole would do.
This is something a petty asshole would do.
His followers jumped on him for that. Because Trump doesn’t deserve common courtesy or something?
Those of us who hate Trump for being who he is need to be careful about hating other people for being nice to him. Treating someone – even Donald Trump – with respect is an admirable action.
It worries me when Trump is so polarizing that we attack people for being decent because they were decent to Donald Trump.
The Atheism Section of Bookstores
I was in Half Price Books earlier this week but the store isn’t important as this happens everywhere. I often look in the religion section to see if there are any books on atheism. I don’t need to read them because, you know, I’m already a non-believer and reading a book about how awesome I am sounds fun in theory but in practice it feels kind of self indulgent.
If there is an atheism section, it is typically one shelf or, more likely, part of one shelf in the religion section. And atheism isn’t a religion so we already have a problem. The religion section is usually several stacks.
So it is frustrating when I look in the atheism section and more than half of the titles are books like this one:
In other words, most of the books in a section on atheism are actually written by Christians who are telling atheists how stupid we are.
Now, there aren’t a lot of books about atheism. And honestly, I’m fine with that.
What bugs me is the idea that books lecturing atheists on how we are wrong end up in a section labelled atheism. Does that mean books lecturing Christians on how they are wrong end up in the Christian section?
And I’ll be honest – I nearly bought this book because I was curious to see how much faith it takes to be an atheist. Or how little faith it takes to be a Christian. I also wanted to up the percentage of books about atheism in the atheism section.
But then I didn’t because $7.99 is too much to spend to make a point nobody but me would get.
Grail Diary 