Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 11/2
Crazy Christians Claim Hurricane Sandy is the Wrath of God
Any time a random act of nature affects human beings, god is getting all up in our face for something, according to the crazy wing of the Religious Right.
Now why god flooded the east coast is up for debate. It might be gay marriage. I could have something to do with Israel. It could have something to do with the fact that it is a coast and getting hammered by a storm once in a while is about as likely as floods happening on flood plains.
If you look really closely at the cloud formation, you can see god flipping off the east coast.
Once again, why believe that God is such a colossal dick? Why would he put the lives of believers at risk? There are, unquestionably, a large number of New Yorkers who don’t support gay marriage. So god is punishing them because they didn’t oppose gay marriage hard enough?
When can we all settle down and accept that natural events are not the act of a vengeful god?
At the very least, can you all have a conversation and figure out what he’s punishing us for before you start talking out of your collective asses?
Geeks Without God is Getting all Political this Week
This week features an episode we recorded back at the Renaissance Festival. We sat down with Tony Miller (Shamus the Insulter) to talk to him about being raised as a Menonite. I still think we need to back to talking about him about that because we ended up getting sidetracked by the upcoming gay marriage amendment.
Obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time writing and talking about the amendment but I really liked a lot of the things Tony said in this episode. We decided to schedule it a couple weeks before the election in hopes that it might change someone’s mind. Even if it doesn’t change your mind, I’m hoping that we can inspire a few people to talk about it to family and friends who are still going to vote “yes.”
People who vote “yes” don’t want to talk about it. At some level, I believe they understand that their decision to vote “yes” is a hurtful act and they don’t like to be told. This isn’t an ideological conservative vs. liberal issue. It is a “fucking over a minority issue.” I don’t have a problem with people who are going to vote for Mitt Romney. I have a big problem with people who are voting “yes.”
All righteous indignation aside, I’m pretty proud of this episode. Please listen.
Shit That Pissed me off This Week – 10/5
I don’t care how you feel about it – voter fraud is a red herring in the Voter ID debate. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and further, no evidence that voter ID laws will prevent fraud.
Also, we’ll need to draw some blood.
What Voter ID laws will do is make it more difficult for college students to vote without getting a new drivers’ license in the state where they attend college. It will make it harder for seniors who no longer drive to vote. It will make it harder for a lot of people to vote and that pisses me off because voting is one of the most basic rights we all have in this country.
We shouldn’t make it harder to vote. We should make it fucking easy to vote. That way more people will vote.
All that aside, isn’t it a bit suspicious that the party who is most strongly pushing for voter fraud is responsible for voter fraud? I know it’s just one guy but that proves my argument. This sort of thing is not widespread.
What are they really trying to do with these amendments? Because it would seem what they aren’t trying to do is stop voter fraud.
Why now?
When I look at the amendment battle this year, I am angered not just by the cold-hearted attempt to use a public forum to legislate what is a private matter. I’m also angered by the cynicism it takes to put these amendments on the ballot now.
Yes, these amendments are on the ballot, in part, to get conservatives to the polling booth.
You’d think that the better play would be to put up candidates worth voting for but neither major party seems interested in doing that.
Doing something nice for my kid
Last week, I wrote about how my son was being bullied and how proud I was of his response.
A lot of people told me how he sounds like a great kid and they also told him this weekend. Before the weekend, I made a facebook post wherin I suggested that those who wished to should give him $5.00 to help replace a 3DS he lost last week. Several people asked if there was a way to do it online.
So for those folks, here is a way to donate to his DS fund through paypal. You can only donate $5.00. I don’t want anyone to donate more than that. If you can’t afford $5.00, that’s OK.
If we make more than what we need to buy him a DS, we will donate the remainder to Minnesotans United for All Families.
If you would rather make a $5.00 to Minnesotans United in his name, that would also be terrific.
Thanks for all the love and support he’s received. He doesn’t entirely undersand it but I know he appreciates it.
Here’s the donation button for those who would like to use it:
Words can hurt, but actions hurt more
Dear Matt Birk:
Most of my friends don’t know it, but I’m a football fan. I have followed the Vikings for my entire life and when you were our center, I proudly wore your jersey when I attended games. When you left Minnesota for Baltimore, I understood your decision completely. That is the nature of the game. Your favorite players move on. I may not be a fan of the Baltimore Ravens but I can’t deny I would love to see you win a Super Bowl.
I was saddened, therefore, to read your Op-Ed piece in the Star Tribune supporting the amendment to ban gay marriage in the State of Minnesota.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that you are against gay marriage. I fully expect that most of the athletes in the National Football League share your opinion on the subject. Players like Chris Kluwe, who speak out in support of marriage equality, are relatively rare.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 9/21
Rick Santorum Doesn’t Like Smart People
We all know what I think of Rick Santorum, right?
Santorum basically believes the “intellectual elite” just want to run the lives of everyone that is dumber than them. He seems to believe that smart people are all mad scientists who believe that if the world will just submit to their will, we’ll all be a lot happier.
Yes! If I am successful, I will FORCE THE WORLD to never have cancer again! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
The wave of anti-intellectualism in this country is staggering. It’s the reason people with no knowledge of biology will spend hours arguing with biologists about the evidence for evolution. Santorum is not the cause of this wave. He’s a symptom.
I can’t understand why anyone, Conservative or Liberal, wants to live in a country where we dismiss the brightest among us simply because they happen to be smart. Maybe I’m the only person who views Idiocracy as a cautionary tale.
I look at people like Rick Santorum and I think that he could very well represent the smartest of our future politicians. If that doesn’t fill you with horror, you are probably already too far gone.
What I should have said
You know, Minnesotans for Marriage were out at the State Fair today. We all know that I don’t have a lot of respect for them and I suppose I should have gone up to them and said something. They all wore bright green T-shirts and they were very cherrfully chatting up the small contingent of people who came to their booth while dozens of folks with orange “Vote NO” fans streamed past. I should have gone up and talked to them. I should have told them that I feel their position is untenable and if they win in November, they have committed what I would consider to be a wholly evil act.
What’s the point, though? If you are so convinced that marriage equity is a horrible thing, I’m not going to say anything that will change your mind. If I come up and ask some sort of “gotcha” question, they will just smile and answer me with the same idiotic excuses they have been using to justify their beliefs for the last several months. The net result will be that I wasted fifteen minutes in which I could have been eating a Pronto Pup.
If I had walked up to them, though, here are some questions I might have asked:
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 