Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/28/17

North Carolina Church Reportedly Importing Slaves from Brazil

Post racial society, huh?

This report, which the church very pointedly doesn’t deny in it’s vehement tirade against the news organization that broke the story, suggests some troubling things.

Now I know we could all simply dismiss this entire mess because people aren’t that awful but history tells us that, yes, people can really be that awful.  There is currently a person that awful working in the white house.  And our President regularly listens to what Mr. Bannon has to say.

America is, we are told, the greatest country in the history of countries (sure we are) so we ought to be super upset about this entire problem.  However, with the possible exception of Vatican City, we are the most smugly Christian country in the history of countries and that means any report like this must be viewed with suspicion because Christians just don’t do that sort of thing!

And to be fair, most Christians don’t do that sort of thing.  We should really get upset, though, when some self professed Christians actually do that sort of thing.

Remember how we all got super upset about this story five years after it broke?

The response so far seems tepid.  It isn’t the sort of “what the FUCK” kind of response you like to see when a church is accused of enslaving people.  I mean the health care vote is a big deal and it affects all Americans so I understand why we aren’t quite as concerned about a few Brazilians.

Once we get this health care thing sorted out, though, can we spare a few thoughts for people tricked into slavery?

Oh fuck.  We’re never going to be done sorting out this health care thing, are we?

Trump Corner: Our President Uses a Speech to the Boy Scouts to Talk About Himself

Forget the fact that our narcissist-in-chief used the word “hell” in a speech to a bunch of kids.  I don’t care if he used the word hell (but the Boy Scouts really should).

I do care that instead of using his time to talk to the boys about ways to be good kids in a non partisan fashion, he got them to boo his predecessor for failing to speak to them six years ago and then proceeded to talk about what an awesome guy he is.

Now look – I realize this is not an original thought but most people who are as awesome as Donald Trump says Donald Trump is don’t spend all of their time pointing it out.  In fact, most them say things like “I’m not that awesome compared to all these other awesome people so why don’t you pay more attention to them?”

And when they say these things, they are never talking about Donald Trump.

They don’t need to, though, because Donald Trump is always available to talk about himself.

Trump Corner Part 2: Trump Bans Transgender Men and Women from Serving in the Military

I try to keep it to one a week but this jackass who works in the oval office managed to do two things I just couldn’t ignore.  The first was just an example of why he is a jackass.

The second was an act that will hurt real people, was done in the most idiotic of ways, and has literally nothing to do with reality.  Given he made this announcement in a Tweet and the military almost immediately came forward and said “this is not an official policy – he hasn’t talked to us about it yet” means it literally has nothing to do with reality.

I’ve seen some folks suggest it was just a smokescreen to get people to ignore the health care vote or the budget vote or something else.  I don’t feel like Trump thinks that far ahead.  Maybe he really is as brilliant as some people think.

He should wear this button instead of a US flag pin just to remind us.

If he’s brilliant, though, it is the kind of brilliance we should all despise because it is, as with all things, focused entirely on ways to make him feel better about himself.  Having trouble passing a health care bill?  Distract people by attacking transgender members of the military!

What a brilliant asshole!

And hey – I don’t want Transgender people serving in the military.  I don’t want anyone serving in the military.  I don’t like that the military is necessary.  Seeing as it still seems to be something we need, though, I feel that we shouldn’t give a flying fuck who wants to serve our country.

If a grizzly bear can figure out how to sign it’s name on the requisite forms, we should welcome our new ursine overlords.

Ark Park in Breach of Tax Incentive Agreement

The Ark Park in Kentucky annoys me for a lot of reasons.  Most of them have to do with bad science.  However, it also bugs me because the taxpayers in Kentucky are getting ripped off by this unsuccessful park and the dude who runs it cloaks himself in the bible while engaging in shady business practices to avoid spending money.

What would Jesus do?  Probably not what Ken Ham does.

Instead, Ham sells his for-profit park (that is losing money) to his non-profit company for $10 in order to avoid paying taxes.  I don’t know why it was $10.  If you are going to do something that blatant, why not do it for $1?  It’s still more than the ark park is worth.

So he’d originally gotten a bunch of tax incentives from the State of Kentucky that were kind of bullshit anyway because he refused to hire people who didn’t believe that Genesis was 100% true.  Now, of course, the ark park is a non profit and that means they don’t have to pay taxes.

So being in breach of the agreement kind of doesn’t matter, does it?  Except he should have to pay that money back because I can’t believe he didn’t plan to do this all along.

What does it say about a Fundamentalist like Ham when he’s clearly doing everything he can to avoid rendering unto Caesar?

I Learned about David Wolfe This Week

I’d never heard of this guy until someone posted the link above.  Then I fell down the rabbit hole of a dude who is making all sorts of money telling people gravity is a conspiracy.

Yes, you read that right.  Gravity is a conspiracy.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s an actual quote:

Gravity is not intrinsic to matter. That Carl Sagan idea that was sold to us on Cosmos on PBS, was sold to us deliberately to actually confuse us just so you know that. There’s people who have known that gravity is a force that can be displaced. There’s people that have known that since the 50s or even earlier than that. But by screwing up, confusing our mind about things, and giving us incorrect theories we were brain washed into a totally different belief system. That gravity is intrinsic to all matter, we’re fighting gravity, we have to push our way through gravity to launch a craft up into outer space, all this nonsense.

That’s right, using thrust to escape Earth’s gravity is nonsense, people!  You can literally, I don’t know, just jump into outer space if you just don’t believe in gravity enough.

I believe you should have said Oscar winner Gravity, thankyouverymuch!

I’ll bet needing oxygen to live in the vacuum of space is also nonsense.  If you can jump into space, you can clearly breathe there.

This guy is not a joke.  He really makes money peddling bullshit products and his customers don’t read his quote about gravity and say “holy fuck – if he’s this wrong about gravity, that must mean everything he is selling must also be bullshit!”

That dudes like David Wolfe exist is not really my issue, I guess.  It is that dudes like David Wolfe can get rich is my issue.

So Is John McCain Horrible or Awesome?

Earlier this week, McCain went to the Senate floor and voted to forward debate about a bill that would partially eliminate the Affordable Care Act.  Liberal friends of mine were furious with him even though we all had to admit that debate is not the equivalent of legislation.

Later in the week, it came time to vote on legislation and McCain, being a maverick, voted against the legislation because he didn’t think it was very good.

And it wasn’t.  It was a bullshit bill that was hastily put together because Republicans are more concerned about getting rid of the ACA than they are about crafting a good replacement for it.  McCain called them on their bullshit and good for him.

So here’s what I think happened.  And given how hard it appeared Republicans were lobbying McCain, I could be completely wrong.

I think everyone knew McCain would never vote for the legislation and that it would fail.  I think they knew it was shitty legislation and they needed time to put together something better.

And I think they all knew that McCain would be more than willing to be the guy to “save” the whole thing by voting against the bill.  Now they can take the time to “craft a better bill” and even if it isn’t really better (it won’t be), McCain can totally vote for the new bill and be the hero they needed.

Or maybe McCain is just a good guy who voted his conscience and with whom I have fundamental disagreements on most policy issues.

Or, more likely, both.