Shit that Pissed me Off – 7/29
The Debate Rages Over Slaves who Built the White House
If you missed Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC, she basically dropped the mic. At which point, she picked it up and dropped it again.
She killed it so hard, not even many Republicans had bad things to say. So they attacked the one thing that, you would think, no smart person would attack.
Obama pointed out that she lives in a house built by slaves. Because, you know, the labor that built the white house was at least partially slave labor. I mean Abigail Adams wrote about it. Fact checking what Obama said, it would seem that perhaps she could have said “partially built by slaves” to be more accurate.
Not that it should matter. She is a black woman in America and when she points out that her home was at least partially built by slaves, it shouldn’t fucking matter what percentage was built by slaves.
The response should be “good point, Michelle. As a white person, there is no way I could relate to how that feels.”
Instead, we are hearing that it wasn’t entirely built by slaves (so how many would be an OK number) and Bill O’Reilly told us the slaves were “well fed” (thanks for the good meal but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sell my son).
O’Reilly definitely knows a lot about being well fed.
The fact this is a conversation should embarrass all of us. The white house was at least partially built by slaves and when a black woman living in that house points it out, you should think about what that means instead of being a nit-picky racist asshole.
Because seriously, lecturing a black woman on slavery is pretty fucking racist, don’t you think?
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 2/8
Catholic Girls Take a no Profanity pledge but Catholic Boys Don’t
Apparently use of profanity is “unladylike” but it is totally “manlike.”
I can actually support the idea of using more civil language in school but not because a civil tongue is a function of gender identity. I’m (obviously) not opposed to swearing but keeping foul language out of discourse in school can, I think, make it easier to learn.
In this case, though, what the young ladies are learning is that they are expected to be proper young ladies while the boys can be vulgar and nasty and, basically, act like assholes. That’s OK, you see, because they are boys.
Can the girls do this or is it also unladylike?
Well I cry bullshit (I can say that because I’m a guy). If you want civil discourse in school, you can’t exclude the boys from the conversation. When you do, you are making it very clear that the young men at that school are simultaneously better than the young women because they can say whatever they want and worse because they can’t be counted on to control themselves.
In other words, swear up a fucking storm, guys! God says it’s OK!!!!
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week, 12/7
Bill O’Reilly says Anyone who Thinks Christianity is a Religion is “Stone-Cold Dumb”
In his latest tirade against the “war on Christmas” he insists that the biggest problem is all of us idiots who think that Christianity is a religion instead of a philosophy. We are, in fact, “so stupid, it’s painful.”
Well I’m sorry to cause Mr. O’Reilly so much pain but I’m going to have to ask him in what way Christianity does not meet the following definition:
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
Now perhaps Mr. O’Reilly thinks that Christianity is also a philosophy. That is a different conversation but it isn’t what he said.
The problem, in fact, is not what he said but the fact that when he says it, thousands of people adopt his position as truth. Instead of saying to themselves “holy shit – that is the most fucked up description of Christianity I’ve ever heard,” which they should because most of them are Christians, they are instead saying “he’s right! I don’t accept the divinity of Jesus Christ as part of a religion! It’s my philosophy!!!!”
However, let them believe that because if they want to argue that Christianity is a philosophy, then their churches need to start paying taxes because they are no longer exempt. And they can’t get all pissed off about people saying “Happy Holidays” either because we aren’t attacking their religion any longer. Since they don’t have one. They also can’t demand freedom of religion either. The first amendment doesn’t provide freedom of philosophy.
Let’s all celebrate Rene Descartes day! We’ll all spend the whole day thinking and therefore being! Thanks for opening the door to making it a Federal holiday, Bill!
You keep going with this one Bill. I hope you convince everyone who is watching your show that you are right.
Note: He backed off that claim a little bit when a Catholic Priest corrected him. Damn! I really wanted him to re-define Christianity as a philosophy.
Grail Diary 