Snark

Anoka-Hennepin Parents Want to Sue for Discrimination

Stephanie Zvan40 Comments

Last time on As the Bullies Turn, our homophobic “heroes” had suffered a major defeat when the Anoka-Hennepin school district settled with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education. The settlement produced an agreement that the district would ban not just anti-gay bullying but also bullying based on any form of gender expression.

However, the intrepid bigots didn’t rest there. They presented a list of demands to the district, suggesting that if the district failed to meet them, they would file suit based on the idea that the anti-bullying measures represented a “hostile environment” to religious students and violated their First Amendment rights to…bully?

Join us now as we tune in to watch how our champions of injustice fare in their battle against the forces of justice. What will be the answer from the school district? Continue reading “Anoka-Hennepin Parents Want to Sue for Discrimination” →

Anoka-Hennepin Parents Want to Sue for Discrimination
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How to Choose a Mockable Movie

Stephanie Zvan4 Comments

You’d think it would be as easy as finding a bad movie and setting it to start, but it’s not. There are subtleties to this movie-mocking business. Nuance and stuff.

For example, if you haven’t been mocking movies very long or in a structured fashion, you might not know that it helps if the movie you’re mocking isn’t too awful. Why? Because awful films are frequently awful because they’re boring. There are only so many ways you can count down the minutes left in a film and have it be funny. The same goes for saying, “Wait. What?”, which is the reaction to the other sort of perfectly awful film–the disjointed mess.

When things happen in your movie and they appear to at least be meant to be connected, it much easier to mock the ways in which they fail. A decent rule of thumb is that your movie should have a rating in the 2.5 to 6 star range on IMDB.

Additionally, you don’t really want a movie that is mocking itself. Continue reading “How to Choose a Mockable Movie” →

How to Choose a Mockable Movie

Gov. Christie Abandons Representational Democracy

Stephanie Zvan10 Comments

New Jersey’s state senate today passed a marriage equality bill 24-16. It is expected to pass the Democrat-controlled Assembly as well and then to pass to Governor Chris Christie for signing into law. There’s just one little problem. Christie suddenly doesn’t think he should do his job.

“I think this is not an issue that should rest solely in my hands, or the hands of the Senate President or the Speaker or the other 118 members of the Legislature,” Christie said.

You see? He just can’t make a decision on this issue. When it comes to marriage equality, Christie–who represented the town of Mendham for a year on their board, tried to represent his district in the Assembly but lost in the primary, represented several companies as a lobbyist, represented New Jersey in the federal court system for seven years, and has represented the state as its governor for two years–just can’t find it in himself to shoulder the responsibility of representing. He was fine slashing the budget without input from other state lawmakers, but this…well, this is just too much for him.

Because, of course, this could never be just a chance for Christie to taunt gay marriage proponents:

Continue reading “Gov. Christie Abandons Representational Democracy” →

Gov. Christie Abandons Representational Democracy

Now Everyone Can Eat Babies!

Stephanie Zvan11 Comments

But only if you think fetuses count as babies. I guess that makes atheists exempt this time around.

An Oklahoma Republican is pushing a bill to outlaw the use of human fetuses in food, because, as he says, “there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.”

State Sen. Ralph Shortey introduced a bill on Tuesday “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.”

Though he has allowed that he is not aware of this occurring in Oklahoma, or anywhere for that matter, Shortey cited research he did on the internet that claimed that some companies use embryonic stem cells to help develop artificial flavoring.

Somebody’s been reading too much wingnut news, I think. Still, the idea has potential: Now! More baby flavor than ever!

ETA: Gawker is on the case, ready to tell you which companies will provide your fetus flavoring!

Now Everyone Can Eat Babies!

Please Make Up Your Mind

Stephanie Zvan59 Comments

Am I:

  1. A delicate flower, in need of protection from any hint of flirtatious behavior from any male in the skeptical and atheist movements, because I insist I’m here to get some work done; or
  2. A raging force of destruction whose criticisms have the power to destroy reputations and halt forward progress on “serious issues”?

Additionally, am I:

  1. A lousy “freethinker” because nothing I say is actually the result of a process of thought, being instead merely behavior conforming to a group; or
  2. A schemer who concocts elaborate stories outs of bits and pieces of the meaningless behavior of other in order to create controversy where none existed and drum up page views?

I mean, I’m happy to consider feedback, but y’all are gonna have to pick and choose here. How else am I supposed to know how to be maximally pleasant for all concerned?

Please Make Up Your Mind

An Apology from the Gay Community

Stephanie Zvan4 Comments

For those of you who don’t follow Minnesota politics, you’ll have missed that our Republican Senate Majority Leader, one of the forces behind our upcoming vote on enshirining marriage discrimination in our constitution, stepped down a week ago.

There’s no hidden agenda behind her decision, Koch said. She decided to step down because it’s time to try other things.

Then we found out from others in the Republican leadership that this wasn’t true.

Republican leaders in the Minnesota Senate today said Amy Koch stepped down as Senate Majority Leader yesterday after they confronted her about allegations that she engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a male staffer.

The statement from Interim Senate Majority Leader Geoff Michel suggested they had just found out about the relationship. Then we found out from the person who reported it to them that this wasn’t true either.

Sheehan is also the first person to report an inappropriate relationship between Koch and a male staffer. He said he first learned of the relationship on Sept. 21.

In the meantime, we discovered that the person widely rumored to be the “male staffer” in question (he lost multiple positions with Republican leadership just after Koch’s resignation and with no other explanation offered) may not be such a sweetheart either.

Sarah reported that Michael had thrown a kid’s toy — though it wasn’t aimed at her — during the dispute, and stormed out of the house. Michael “slammed the door causing a frame to break.”

Sarah Brodkorb called 911 because “the level of anger in Michael’s voice scared both her and their three children,” according to the police report.

But it is only today that we discover who the true villains of the piece are.

Continue reading “An Apology from the Gay Community” →

An Apology from the Gay Community