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?
Shit that Pissed me Off – 10/21
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Criticizes Colin Kaepernick
I missed this one last week so I’m making up for it now.
This makes me sad because I love RBG in almost all things. However, here is what she had to say about Kaepernick’s decision to kneel for the National Anthem:
I think it’s really dumb of them. Would I arrest them for doing it? No. I think it’s dumb and disrespectful.
Ginsburg has a right to her opinion. And she certainly agrees he has a right to act as he had. However, I’m really unpleased she chose the word “dumb” to describe her reaction to his act. Disrespectful? Sure. OK. I mean that’s kind of the point.
But dumb?
I’ll tell you what’s dumb, Colin. Throwing interceptions. That’s dumb.
To her credit, she walked back her comments later in the week. I’m still concerned she chose to make them in the first place.
I guess the problem is idol worship. Ginsburg is by far my favorite Supreme Court justice. As such, it saddens me when she says something with which I don’t agree. It’s like my brain has delivered a thought that completely disagrees with everything else I thought my brain believed.
Which is, I guess, unfair to Ginsburg. She gets to have bad opinions every now and again. At least she is pretty good at recognizing when she should keep those opinions to herself.
So we’re cool, RBG. Unless Donald Trump gets elected and you retire or die when he’s President. We won’t be able to get past that.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 10/17
Feminist Speaker Forced To Cancel Her Talk After She was Threatened
She didn’t cancel the talk because she was threatened, you understand. She was still going to speak.
But she asked for protection against someone who claimed he was going to open fire on her and Utah law prevented police from patting down attendees at the event.
So a guy (I’m assuming it was a guy) threatens to shoot her and the police can’t even stop anyone from carrying a gun to her talk. Because the right to carry a firearm wherever the fuck you want is more important than the right to keep people with firearms out of a place where someone has threatened to kill people with a firearm.
And spare me the good guy with the gun/bad guy with a gun thing. If the bad guy with a gun gets into the event, he (again I’m assuming it is a guy) will be able to kill his target before anyone kills him. And that’s all he cares about.
So best case scenario is this asshole (who was probably making empty threats but they still worked) would have died after accomplishing his stated goal. Which is what he expected would happen anyway. Great solution, Utah!
Utah! Where you can’t stop homosexuals from getting married and you also can’t stop people from bringing their guns to the wedding!
Please note that I’m not talking about Gamergate for a few reasons. First, it has been talked to death and the people doing most of the talking are assholes who don’t deserve my time.
And second, we need to stop naming every scandal after Watergate. It is just so completely unoriginal. Have you guys heard of the Teapot Dome Scandal? That’s a great name for a scandal! Now everything is NounGate.
Nixon is dead, folks. We need to move on.
Grail Diary 