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 – 11/28
Religious Conservatives Believe in Free Speech as Long as They are Doing the Speaking
In this case, the Duggars are getting a lot of flack for saying bigoted stuff because the bible says that kind of speech is OK. Problem is, some folks don’t agree and have started a petition to get their show taken off the air.
So what’s the big deal you ask? By petitioning TLC (that show is on The Learning Channel? Really?) to cancel the show, they are attacking the Duggar’s right to free speech!
I got this picture off of their family blog where they are regularly prevented from exercising their right to free speech.
I can’t believe we have to go over this again but NO WE ARE NOT! Having the right to free speech is not the same thing as consequence free speech. When you say thing that pisses people off, they get to say things back.
It amazes me that conservative Christians claim they are being “silenced” when all that is happening is people are calling them on their bullshit.
Shit that Pissed me off – 9/5
The Whole Jennifer Lawrence Nude Photo Thing
The problem is that there is a dialogue focused on whether or not Lawrence (and other celebrities) are to blame for the theft of their personal pictures.
Well let’s stop and think about this for a mom…NO!
I am writing this blog post on a laptop computer that is valuable. Now you, the reader, know I have a laptop computer you could sell for money. If you came over to my house, broke in and stole my computer would it be my fault because I made you aware that I owned it?
It looks a little bit like this
NO! That’s what we call theft! There are all sorts of laws about that shit.
It is not my fault for owning a computer any more that it is Lawrence’s fault that she owned nude photographs of herself (if indeed those are photographs of her – which she denies).
Theft is a crime. Owning things people want to steal is not.
Shit that Pissed me off – 7/18
A Lot of People are Freaking out About Immigrant Children
Here’s what I genuinely don’t understand:
The far right is super concerned about the rights of unborn children.
Once the kids are born, though, they don’t really give a fuck. Especially if those kids weren’t born in America.
In this case, we have a Republican candidate so anxious to show how anti-immigrant he is, he stages a protest with a busload of immigrant kids. Too bad it turns out the kids were actually from a YMCA camp. Apparently they use school busses to move all kinds of kids around. Who knew?
Look! Its a school bus! I’ll bet there are illegal immigrants in there!
Seriously, does anyone do research before setting up a photo-op?
But more seriously, these are children! This immigration “crisis” is bullshit election year stuff. There are all sorts of people crossing our borders all the time. Politicians only care every two years.
The rest of the time, they only care if there are enough immigrants around to pick their food, cook their food, and clean their houses. And they don’t give a shit about how many of them are on school busses.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 2/28
Alabama House Committee Approves Prayer in Schools Bill Even Though They Lost the Vote
The bill looks to improve Alabama schools by allowing up to fifteen minutes of organized prayer per day. The believe, apparently, that this will improve children’s test scores more than any other more proven technique. Kids who aren’t Christians are welcome to opt out and deal with ridicule from their peers and teachers. So that’s fair.
In order for this bill to go before the Alabama house, it needed to be approved by committee. It wasn’t.
By voice vote, it was two votes for the bill and three against (with three abstentions). The committee chair claimed that she “heard more yays than nays” and forwarded the bill to the entire House.
Might I suggest she get one of these before the next session?
You would think that her devout Christianity that was on display when she supported a bill to improve schools through prayer would have been on display when she was called on to honestly count the votes.
I guess, though, that she would rather spend state money on defending the inevitable lawsuit coming their way if this bill becomes law.
How, exactly, are Christian values winning out here?
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 3/29
Woman Complains about Sexist Behavior at a Convention and she gets Harassed and Fired
I just don’t get it, really. A couple of guys were making sexist jokes while sitting in the audience for a panel about women coders and an audience member thought they were in the wrong. Yeah. I agree.
She asked the conference organizers to tell them to stop. They were asked to stop and they did.
Then all hell breaks loose because one of the guys loses his job.
Look, I don’t think the guy should have lost his job for that but I wonder if it was really just for that? Isn’t it possible he was shitty at his job already? Even he was “just” fired for sexual harassment (oh the humanity), the logical response should not be for other people on the internet to attack the woman’s place of work and get her fired.
Hey guys! Let’s use our computers to teach this uppity bitch that she shouldn’t complain when we call her an uppity bitch!
That’s the sort thing dicks do.
Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of dicks on the internet.
Update: Clarifications in the comments below. And in this article. She did send a tweet to the conference organizers, not a public one (at least according to what I read). I question any firings happening and the harrassment is completely unacceptable.
Mea culpa on this one, though. I usually research the articles better before I comment on them. I didn’t look into this one deeply enough. If I had, I would still have commented on it but been more clear about all of the details.
The results of this situation – both firings – look to be classic overreactions by both companies and that still pisses me off.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 3/8
Video Showing Income Disparity in America
I don’t talk a lot about income disparity and tax structure in America because frankly the argument bores me. There seems to be this idea that we all have a right to get rich and therefore the system is fair and us liberals should shut up about it.
But look, the system is not fair. It is designed to ensure that people with money will have an amazingly easy time making more of it while people without money will have a nearly impossible time doing the same. Hard work alone does not get you “ahead.”
Not only that, we need janitors and teachers and police officers and firefighters and none of those people are getting paid well. And they never will. The people with the wealth are not the people doing the jobs that absolutely have to get done. I’m tired of the idea that anyone can get ahead in this country.
I’ll wager that this guy is not actually one of the top 1%
The solution is not as simple as just taxing the 1% that controls the vast majority of the wealth in this country because they will still control the vast majority of the wealth in this country. I’m not saying I know the solution.
But I can sure as fuck recognize a problem.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 5/18
I’m on vacation this week and next week so the column is shorter than usual. That, I imagine, is probably a good thing.
Most Psychotic Anti-Gay Person Ever
This lady’s crazy rant has been circulating the internet quite a lot in the last week.
This doesn’t piss me off. It makes me laugh but if I’m being honest with myself, it also makes me sad. This woman isn’t just anti-gay, she is completely around the bend crazy. She needs some sort of medication in the worst way. Just listen to the crazy shit she is saying. Normal people don’t talk like this. When you can make Michele Bachmann look sane, you have a very serious problem.
Update: Yep – she’s mentally ill. Her family says she is on medication (up the dosage) and that makes the attention on her all the more sad. The whole thing points up the kind of hatred that is focused on gay people. She’s mentally ill and you can’t control that but would her vitriol be focused on gays if there weren’t so many sane people doing it already.
Grail Diary 