Shit that Pissed me Off – 4/12/19
I missed a couple of weeks again! I had really good excuses but never mind that. I’m going to try to hit on a few things that have come to my attention in the last few weeks. Enjoy the rapid fire journey!
South Dakota Schools Required to Display “In God We Trust”
South Dakota lawmakers, in a display of “patriotism” passed a law requiring the national motto “In God We Trust” to be prominently displayed in all public schools.
It may feel like this is a violation of the separation of church and state and no doubt that will be tested. I think it will actually stand because “In God We Trust” is actually our national motto and Donald Trump has been allowed to seat two conservative Christian white dudes on the Supreme Court.
You can argue that “In God We Trust” is a shitty national motto and far worse than the one it replaced (E Pluribus Unim or “Out of Many, One) but it doesn’t matter because it’s still the national motto. You could also argue that the word “God” could be referring to any god and not just the Christian god it clearly refers to.
Maybe it’s referring to Thor! You don’t know!
Hiding behind patriotism is the dodge that really pisses me off. I mean they have to do that because if they admitted their motivation was to put God on every public school wall because Christianity just isn’t enough places in our lives already, even Brett Kavanagh and Clarence Thomas might need to stop hitting on their clerks long enough to strike the law down. But the transparency of the act is galling. Of course this is about religion.
If you wanted it to be about patriotism, you’d just pass some law about posting the bill of rights in every school.
For the record, I’d be 100% behind that one. Kids should know their rights. Read More…
Shit that Pissed me Off – 3/1/19
I totally missed last week because I was driving to a show. So I have some items from last week I’ve carried over. Because they still piss me off.
Captain Marvel Being Panned Pre-Release by People Who Haven’t Seen the Film
In the grand and glorious tapestry that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there hasn’t been one film featuring a Woman as the lead character. Until March 8th when Captain Marvel will be released.
Yes, yes, Ant Man & The Wasp technically had The Wasp as a lead/title character but that was a shared lead and Ant Man came first and it was a sequel and it didn’t seem to piss off Men’s Rights douchebags so let’s try to avoid being pedantic for just a moment, OK?
When it comes to pissing off Men’s Rights douchebags, nothing works better than a movie (any movie) about a woman. Mad Max Fury Road was awesome but why did it have to have a woman in it? The worst thing about The Last Jedi was all those girls getting in the way of the story that should be about whiny emo dudes just like them.
Holy shit! That’s why they hate Kylo Ren so much!
“Look at that whiner! He has all the power but he’s still not happy with it so he’s going to take power away from everyone around him who doesn’t have it just so he can feel better about himself even though he still doesn’t. That is so unrealistic!”
The scene is a lot more interesting if you imagine this guy eating Funyuns and crying.
I’m a nice guy! Why aren’t girls interested in nice guys?
Anyway – the reviews are already pouring in for Captain Marvel and many of them are by guys who haven’t actually seen the film!
That’s right! They are already posting negative reviews with their major complaint being “I don’t like that Marvel has, after three Captain America Movies, three Iron Man movies, a couple of Ant Man movies, and so on, decided to bow to the pressure of Social Justice Warriors by making ONE MOVIE with a girl in the lead!”
Some are even gloating that they are going to kill the box office for Captain Marvel just like they did for The Last Jedi.
Whatever, guys. If you didn’t notice that nearly every woman and person of color was dusted at the end of Infinity War, maybe you need to realize that women have a bigger representation gap than you.
So go back to your meditation chamber, Kylo, and feel sorry for yourself. Because the rest of us don’t.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 2/15/19
The Cleveland Browns Signed Kareem Hunt and Colin Kapaernick Still Doesn’t Have a Job
Hunt was kicked off his former team (the Chiefs) after video of Hunt assaulting a woman became public. They claimed they knew about the incident but that Hunt had “lied” about it to them.
So Hunt was out of Football. At least he might have been were he not so gosh darn talented.
I could point out that Colin Kapaernick is more talented than – well – just about every third string quarterback in the league, probably most of the second string ones and maybe even a few first string ones and he doesn’t have a job in the NFL. Because he didn’t hit a woman on camera. He kneeled during the National Anthem to call attention to systemic racism.
But Kareem Hunt deserves “another chance.”
I’m not even going to argue that he doesn’t deserve another chance. I don’t know. Maybe he really has figured his shit out and is going to make amends and be a decent guy.
Who doesn’t want to believe, right?
What I’m arguing is that a guy who punches women has an easier time getting a job in the NFL than a guy who kneels during the national anthem.
Moreover, the response to the Hunt allegations is muted. People are shocked but immediately say “we don’t really know enough to leap to judgement.” The response to Kapaernick isn’t muted at all. It is angry. Vocal. And filled with people who are telling him that they don’t give a fuck what he says until he says it the way they want to hear it (not that they plan on telling him what would make them listen).
The NFL is a business. And they know full well that in a game as violent as Professional Football, their audience has shown a willingness to accept players who are violent off the field. What they can’t accept is a player who peacefully points out institutional racism and – yes – violence.
Note: It was just announced that Kapaernick reached a settlement with the NFL in his collusion case that claimed the NFL colluded to keep him out of a job. Of course the terms are confidential so the NFL doesn’t need to actually admit to doing anything wrong…
Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/20/18
Trump Corner: The Russia Problem
I don’t usually lead with Donald Trump because he’d pretty much always a problem. Him and the people who blindly accept everything he does as anything other than the actions of a narcissistic racist whose every action is meant to make things better for himself and his family members. And who is also a sexual predator.
This week, Trump had a private meeting with Vladimir Putin and proceeded to throw his own intelligence agencies under the bus in the press conference that followed. What he did was so blatant, even Fox news had to acknowledge it at first. They couldn’t side with Trump until a day later when he basically said that he didn’t mean what he said and also fake news.
Because the news is super fake when it is quoting what Trump said into a microphone.
Now all of this was bad. But I feel as if we lost something while we were all being pissed off at our President for being a clueless asshole.
He had a private meeting with Vladimir Putin and we still don’t know what they talked about.
Did Putin ride to the meeting on a horse while shirtless? WE DON’T EVEN KNOW THAT!!!!
Putin has even announced he is beginning to work on military agreements reached at that meeting. But we don’t know what those agreements are. It isn’t even clear that our military is aware of what those agreements are.
Understand, our President called the European Union our “foe” last week. He then had a closed door meeting with Putin in which even his staff was not allowed. And he got together with Kim Jong Un earlier this year.
When a President of the United States has nicer things to say about two dictators than he does about democratically elected leaders of state, it should scare the ever loving shit out of you.
This isn’t politics. Stop loving this guy because he’s a Republican. He isn’t. He’s a guy who will do anything and everything to better himself.
I don’t know what he talked about with Putin. And neither do you. Don’t get caught up being pissed at him for insulting the US intelligence community to forget that he was buddying up to an oppressive dictator.
….and so was Putin.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 5/18/18
White People Are Calling the Police on Black People All Over the Place
Since I missed last week’s column (I was on a trip for my anniversary and we had a lovely time thank you), I didn’t get to write about the white woman who called the cops on a black student who fell asleep at college or the white woman who called the cops on a black family barbecuing. I was also going to write about the two Native American students who were on a campus tour but detained when a white woman called campus security on them.
I was going to write about all three happening in the same week. But then I didn’t write a post last week.
Then this week a Hobby Lobby manager called the police when a black man with proper receipt tried to return something to their store. Shockingly, the manager was a white woman! A white woman also called the police on a black man who was inspecting a property he was planning to buy.
In every one of these cases, the people had done nothing wrong. I mean aside from not being white. In most cases, the individuals reported were at least inconvenienced by the situation. But in all cases, the police acknowledged they had, basically, done nothing wrong.
I suppose all of these people of color should be relieved that they hadn’t raised the concern of a white male because he probably would have shot them and claimed self defense.
I know, not all white women call the cops on people of color. And not all white dudes shoot black people. It seems silly that I have to point out that I’m using hyperbole to make a point but I fear I will bruise fragile white egos if I don’t point out to the white people reading this column that I’m not talking about them specifically.
#NotAllWhitePeople
But then let me as a white dude say this – yes I am.
Because this is our problem. When you put a racist in the White House and you argue that we need to understand both sides of the argument, you are forgetting that sometimes one side is right and the other side is wrong. When a black man can’t return something to a store without the manager calling the cops, the problem isn’t the black man’s behavior.
One one side you have a guy just trying to get on with his day and on the other, you have a racist.
So maybe you aren’t specifically calling the cops on black people. Or shooting black people. Next time it happens, though, maybe you should stop trying to see the “other side” because if you are white, you can’t even begin to understand what it is like to know someone might call the cops on you for existing.
Shit that Pissed Me Off – 4/13/18
Black Teenager Asks for Directions and Almost Gets Shot
Post racist America is alive and well in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
14-year-old Brennan Walker (yes – you read that right – he’s fourteen) missed his bus and he got lost. Sounds pretty scary, right? Not compared to what happened next.
Next, he rang a doorbell to ask directions. The woman who answered the door freaked out and said he was trying to rob them. Because most robbers ring the doorbell.
Her husband grabbed a gun and that’s when Brennan ran. As he was running away, the dude shot at him. Fortunately, he missed or Brennan would be a statistic and his murderers would be claiming they were in fear for their lives to avoid going to jail.
And they probably were.
Because they are racist fucks who freaked out when a black kid came to their door. The guy who shot at Brennan (who was convinced he was a “good guy with a gun”) is facing charges but we all know he’s probably going to get away with it. Because a fourteen year old kid asking for directions was a credible threat.
Maybe if he’d been selling girl scout cookies, they wouldn’t have shot at him. Oh who am I kidding? They would have claimed he’d stolen them.
What’s sad is Brennan’s mom told him this could happen. She warned him that people would be afraid of him because he’s young and black. The warning probably saved his life because he ran away from the murdering racists before they could murder him.
Isn’t it great, though, that the mothers of black young men need to prepare them for situations like this? Because they actually happen?
Shit that Pissed me Off – 3/30/18
Rick Santorum Suggests Students Should Learn CPR to Deal with School Shooters
It continues to baffle me that Santorum is considered the kind of person who should be taken seriously. A day after students took it upon themselves to stage a massive demonstration against guns in schools, he appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and suggested that the kids should stop asking other people to solve their problems.
Instead of asking politicians to do their fucking job, he said maybe these kids should take classes on how to deal with an active shooter or maybe learn CPR.
That makes sense, right? The kids are already in school and they don’t need to learn stuff like math and science.
He backed off his initial statement by saying he didn’t mean CPR. I’m not sure what he meant instead. Santorum has always struck me as particularly dumb and that means he might not have understood what he was saying when he said “CPR.”
I mean he clearly didn’t understand what he was saying when he chastised kids for asking politicians to do their jobs. Because the best thing an adult should do is tell kids that they should stop asking adults to keep them safe because the adults aren’t going to do it.
Even if, when he said it, he was accidentally telling the truth.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 3/2/18
A Bunch of Teenagers are Running for Governor of Kansas
I’m not pissed about teens running for Governor. I think it’s hilarious that someone finally noticed there is no age restriction to be Governor in Kansas and while I’m pretty sure no teenager is equipped to do the job competently, being seventy hasn’t helped our current President any so what the hell?
Given the current law doesn’t even require a candidate to be human, the legislature is working on a fix but it won’t be in place before the fall elections so Kansas might elect someone who isn’t even old enough to be drafted.
Here’s what pisses me off – every single teenager running to be governor of Kansas is a white male. Some are Republicans. Some are Democrats. A few are members of other parties. But they are all a bunch of white males.
In Fact, the crowded field includes only one woman. She’s a Democrat and this is Kansas so she probably won’t win.
Oh shit. I’m back in Kansas.
So the real question we should ask here is: why is it that no seventeen year old girl decided to run? I mean, it is clear the law makes that possible given that a dog could run for governor so long as it could file the proper papers.
It seems that, at least in Kansas, young women are learning early that they should not speak up. They are being shown by the young men around them that politics is not a game for women of any age. That the boys know what they are doing.
Who am I kidding? It isn’t just Kansas.
Although the demographics show that more women will be running for office than ever before this year, this one state proves we have a long way to go.
And no, boys, I don’t want you out of politics. I want more women in politics. Read More…
Shit that Pissed me Off – 2/16/18
Utah Anti GLBTQIA+ Lawmaker Resigns over Allegations He Solicited a Prostitute
Jon Standard is a Utah politician who, like a lot of other Utah Politicians, is a Mormon and a Republican. He believes that “traditional” marriage should be between one man and one woman (but that’s only because the Mormon church no longer encourages bigamy) and recently helped pass tougher laws for people who solicit prostitutes.
He was forced to resign last week because he solicited a prostitute. He claims it is because his father has cancer and I feel very bad for his father because this jackass is using someone else’s terminal disease as an excuse.
John Wayne had cancer. Maybe he should have stepped down because of John Wayne’s cancer.
I’m sure that the right is going to say this one Mormon Republican lawmaker in an extremely conservative state who is likely to be replaced by another Mormon Republican lawmaker is being targeted for a hit job by this prostitute who is lying because she’s a prostitute and you can’t trust a prostitute.
I mean, she says he hired her to do a job and she did it so I’m feeling like she’s pretty reliable, you know?
Oh, and he may have used taxpayer funds to pay for the hotel where he hooked up with her. Smaller government!
Shit that Pissed me Off – 1/26/18
School System Blames Late Busses on a Weather Report They Already Knew About
OK, so a little perspective.
Last year, my band had a holiday show scheduled on a day that was forecast to have a horrible snow storm. Even though we didn’t know how bad the story would end up being, we chose to cancel the show and refund the tickets because driving was supposed to be dangerous. The snow happened but it wasn’t nearly as bad as predicted and we could have done the show.
Earlier this week, a gigantic storm was predicted by every weather service. The local school systems opted to close school slightly early and the result was a lot of busses trying to get kids home in the midst of the worst of it. Some children were stuck on busses until past midnight.
That, my friends, is a logistical failure.
Who (aside from every meteorologist in the country) could have predicted this would happen?
Now far be it from me to add to the outrage culture in a weekly blog entitled “Shit that Pissed me Off” but the problem here is the fact the school system then blamed the weather forecast with the implication they never could have known how bad it was going to be. This ignores from the fact they were told how bad it was going to be.
It wasn’t snowing in the morning. I know because I dropped my kid off at school and it wasn’t snowing. By noon, it was horrible. Again, I know because I drive for a living and I was driving in it.
The issue here isn’t the fact kids got stuck on school busses. It’s easy to say “they should have known because they literally did know” but when do you cancel school? Before the storm hits? What if we only get an inch? So they tried to send kids home early once it was clear the storm was going to be as bad as predicted but the end result was they waited too long and some kids (and their parents) had a really shitty night.
Where they screwed up was in blaming the weather report rather than saying “we screwed up.”
The weather report was right. They didn’t act fast enough. They should simply blame themselves.*
*Note: Later in the week, the Superintendent of the St. Paul Schools sent out a very well worded apology that blamed their own shortcomings. So good for him.
Grail Diary 