Can I borrow a match? I need to light this article on fire.

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It’s funny. My interest in USAmerican politics is fairly new. For most of my adult life, I did not care about anything political. My knowledge of the political world extended to successfully answering the question “Who is the current President” and, during presidential elections, “Who are you going to vote for”. The answer to the latter question was always “whoever is running as a Democrat”. That’s because I, like many people, unthinkingly followed in the political footsteps of my parents. But for all that I knew next to nothing about politics, I did know about the Log Cabin Republicans. I didn’t know much about them, but I knew they were an organization of gay people who were Republicans. And even though I didn’t know much about Republican politics, I knew the leaders of that party typically opposed rights for gay people. So I couldn’t understand why any gay person would claim Republican Party membership. Why would members of an oppressed class belong to a political party that exacerbates the oppression of that class?

Fast forward a couple of decades and my understanding of politics has deepened quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live in the world of politics, but I know quite a bit more now than I did when I was younger. And  I recognize the negative impact of Republican ideas on people in this country. I see the way the people are made to suffer bc of conservative ideology. And that sickens me. No, this realization doesn’t mean I embrace the Democratic Party. In fat, I think the Democrats are all too happy to maintain the status quo. And that status quo is sexist, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, ableist, neurotypical, and classist. Yes, Democrats occasionally support measures that would improve the quality of life of USAmericans, but by and large, I get the impression most Dems don’t want things to change, whether for the better or for the worse. Contrast that against the Republicans, who aren’t content to retain the status quo. No, they want things to regress to an earlier time. Donald Trump’s mantra of “Make America great again” is almost the unspoken mantra of the GOP. This notion that the country would be better off if things could return to an earlier unstated, yet ostensibly glorious time, is part and parcel in the beliefs of a great many Republicans. An earlier time, like the good old days when LGBT people could be arrested for simply existing. When blacks and white had to use separate water fountains. When women could not legally obtain an abortion. Too many Republicans see those days as the glory days of this country, and they are fighting to return to those times. And because of that, I view the GOP and their supporters (hey there Log Cabin Republicans) as a greater destructive force than the Democrats. That includes LGBT people like Pride writer Basil Soper who elide the harms caused by the GOP bc he feels unity is more important than criticizing harmful beliefs.

Continue reading “Can I borrow a match? I need to light this article on fire.”

Can I borrow a match? I need to light this article on fire.
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Vapid, ignorant opinions must run in the Palin family

right_wing_nut_design

Sigh. Bristol Palin said a thing:

In a blog post on Tuesday, Palin said she agreed with Fox News contributor Stacey Dash opinion that both Black History Month and the BET network should not exist as special privileges for the black community.

“Either we want to have segregation or integration. If we don’t want segregation then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards,” Dash told Fox News host Steve Doocy last week.

Well, I don’t much like the thing that she said. Soooooooooo…my turn to say a thing (two actually):

Continue reading “Vapid, ignorant opinions must run in the Palin family”

Vapid, ignorant opinions must run in the Palin family

Outraged conservatives have a new target

The list of subjects that cause conservatives to bristle with fury is quite extensive. I daresay one could fill up each space on a bingo card with a subject that makes conservatives seethe with anger. In fact, let’s try it out:

  1. The Affordable Care Act
  2. immigrants
  3. queer people
  4. Common Core
  5. Happy Holidays
  6. multiculturalism
  7. black people
  8. President Obama
  9. atheists
  10. liberals
  11. feminists
  12. “entitlement culture”
  13. “PC” culture
  14. anti-discrimination laws
  15. contraception
  16. mainstream media
  17. environmental regulations
  18. people who fail to demonstrate proper obedience to authority figures
  19. Communists
  20. Marxists
  21. Socialists
  22. gun control
  23. evidence-based sex ed
  24. Planned Parenthood
  25. (who needs a free space with all the shit conservatives get pissy over) minimum wage increases

Unfortunately, I’m out of room on my bingo card, and there’s a brand-spanking new addition to the list of subjects that conservatives blow their tops over:  Joss Whedon.

Continue reading “Outraged conservatives have a new target”

Outraged conservatives have a new target

One phrase is causing the destruction of the United States

There’s a phrase people say that annoys me. Like, annoys me worse than people who leave shopping carts in parking spots rather than wheeling them over to a cart rack. Worse than people who leave their turn signal on for miles when I’m driving behind them and cannot ignore that damn blinking light. Worse, even, than parents who let their kids run rampant around a restaurant when employees are trying to deliver food or drinks.

Actually the use of this phrase does more than simply annoy me. The examples I gave above are mere annoyances. This phrase exasperates me. It gets my hackles up. It causes me to…well, I’ll let Mrs. White describe the feeling I get upon encountering this phrase:

Mrs. White, from the 1985 move, Clue, describing how much she despised the woman who had an affair with her husband. Clue is among my most favorite of movies.

Also, when I hear this phrase, I roll my eyes in disgust, because the people using the phrase are condemning something that is good, reasonable, and progressive. Something aimed at changing the discourse in society such that people from marginalized groups are crapped on just a little less. Something that’s about showing respect and decency to women, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and People of Color. Still not sure what phrase I’m talking about?
Continue reading “One phrase is causing the destruction of the United States”

One phrase is causing the destruction of the United States

Ben Carson lies again, film at 11

Ben-Carson-and-evolution-with-TARDIS-and-Jesus-riding-dinosaur
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (one of the many GOP presidential candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the presidency) is once again filling the airwaves with his unique brand of ignorance. You’ll remember Carson as the guy who said that being gay is a choice because straight people who leave jail are gay, that white liberals are the most racist people there are, that the Affordable Care Act is the worst thing that has happened to the United States since slavery, and compared supporters of President Obama to Nazi’s. In response to the heavily edited anti-choice propaganda videos recently released by the Center for Medical Progress, Carson told Iowa radio talk show host Jan Mickelson:
Continue reading “Ben Carson lies again, film at 11”

Ben Carson lies again, film at 11

Mike Huckabee has the sadz

Republican presidential hopeful and all ’round douchebag Mike Huckabee is feeling left out. While the list of Republican candidates has grown large enough to field a sports team, according to him, the media only wants to talk about one man: Donald Trump. He even said as much in a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer. Here’s part of the transcript:

Continue reading “Mike Huckabee has the sadz”

Mike Huckabee has the sadz

Yes Mr. O'Reilly, let's look at some stats

FOX “News” commentator Bill O’Reilly has made a career out of being an obnoxious, racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexistmisogynistic bigot (an extremely lucrative career). The highly rated conservative pundit (who, I am shocked to find out, is only #43 in Iris Vander Pluym’s Abattoir; what’s an asshole like O’Reilly gotta do to move up the list?!) regularly engages in inflammatory rhetoric that’s clearly designed to gin up his conservative viewership. If there was a personification of the phrase ‘punching down‘, it would probably look like Bill O’Reilly. I find the man so repellent that I don’t even want to hear his voice. I don’t know how the folks over at Right Wing Watch can stand it (and O’Reilly is far from the only craptastic conservative they report on). Thankfully, listening to his voice is not necessary for me to learn the latest awful thing he’s said. For that, I have but to turn to Raw Story:

Continue reading “Yes Mr. O'Reilly, let's look at some stats”

Yes Mr. O'Reilly, let's look at some stats

Yes Mr. O’Reilly, let’s look at some stats

FOX “News” commentator Bill O’Reilly has made a career out of being an obnoxious, racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexistmisogynistic bigot (an extremely lucrative career). The highly rated conservative pundit (who, I am shocked to find out, is only #43 in Iris Vander Pluym’s Abattoir; what’s an asshole like O’Reilly gotta do to move up the list?!) regularly engages in inflammatory rhetoric that’s clearly designed to gin up his conservative viewership. If there was a personification of the phrase ‘punching down‘, it would probably look like Bill O’Reilly. I find the man so repellent that I don’t even want to hear his voice. I don’t know how the folks over at Right Wing Watch can stand it (and O’Reilly is far from the only craptastic conservative they report on). Thankfully, listening to his voice is not necessary for me to learn the latest awful thing he’s said. For that, I have but to turn to Raw Story:

Continue reading “Yes Mr. O’Reilly, let’s look at some stats”

Yes Mr. O’Reilly, let’s look at some stats

A Million Hundred Thousand Moms are angry

In a recent Facebook post, the conservative, retrograde, fundamentalist group One Million Moms (whose membership doesn’t seem to have a tenth of that number; of course that link is 3 years old, so maybe they’ve seen a tremendous surge in membership over the years) expressed their concern over an upcoming show from FOX, Lucifer:

FOX has plans in 2016 to air “Lucifer,” a new series which will glorify Satan as a caring, likable person in human flesh.

The series will focus on Lucifer portrayed as a good guy, “who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell.” He resigns his throne, abandons his kingdom and retires to Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals.

At the same time, God’s emissary, the angel Amenadiel, has been sent to Los Angeles to convince Lucifer to return to the underworld. 

Previews of the pilot episode depict graphic acts of violence, a nightclub featuring scantily-clad women and a demon.

Based (loosely, some might say) on characters from DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, Lucifer follows the titular character (played by Tom Ellis) who decides he is tired of running hell and sets up shop in Los Angeles as a nightclub owner who wants to combat his millenia-old bad publicity:

Rush actor Tom Ellis plays the title role in the series, which explores what happens when the Lord of Hell decides to quit his job and move to Los Angeles. While that aspect of the series remains true to the comic book series, the television character’s decision to help the Los Angeles Police Department catch criminals is a pretty major departure from the more heady subject matter tackled by his comics counterpart.

Ellis is joined in the cast by Chicago Fire actress Lauren German as the LAPD detective who’s strangely immune to Lucifer’s charms, as well as Spartacus actress Lesley-Ann Brandt as a demon in human form who’s allied with Lucifer. D.B. Woodside (24) plays the angel Amenadiel, who’s tasked with convincing Lucifer to return to his realm in the underworld that he abandoned.

While Gaiman introduced the DC Comics version of Lucifer that inspired the series, it was writer Mike Carey who authored the popular, self-titled Lucifer series that ran for 75 issues and was published from 2000 to 2006.

Here’s the preview:

The idea of presenting Lucifer as a character who wants to combat his bad image and even being ::gasp:: likable? Well that’s just plain appalling to groups like One Million Moms (who love them some petitions). Given the theme of redemption inherent to Christianity, you’d think a group of religious people would support the most Evil Being® in all existence (OMG!!!) working to become a better person. After all, if Satan can become good (or at least not as evil), that says something about the power of redemption. If the Lord of Evil* can become a better person (or at least try) despite all the evil he’s done**, then us lowly humans born into sin***, definitely have a chance to bask in the presence of the Lord for all eternity. Your mileage may vary, but for me, that doesn’t sound like a good way to spend all eternity. It sounds rather like torture. In any case, the theme of redemption appears to be prominent in this show, so OMM ought to quit their complaining.

But they won’t.

Because Satan/Lucifer/The Lord of Evil can’t be nice. He can’t be likable. He can’t be anything approaching a decent person. And good golly gosh, he can’t be redeemed****! Attempts to paint Satan in a positive light are wrong because they mischaracterize Satan, who is an Evil Being®. As an Evil Being® we all know that Lucifer does not have good qualities. Depicted properly, Evil Beings® endorse, support, and condone slavery, rape, and infanticide. Evil Beings® are possessed of a bloodlust that must be sated with the ritual sacrifice of animals. They’re also petty tyrants who demand that their followers worship them, or else! Eternal Torment! Lake of Fire! Cut off From Being With Them For All Eternity! They create laws and commandments that prohibit people from engaging in completely innocuous activities like eating shellfish, wearing clothing with mixed fibers, dancing, consensual sexy funtimes, gambling, and more. Oh, and Evil Beings® will go on genocidal temper tantrums when their creations don’t act as they should (so glad that most human parents dpn’t kill their kids when they act up).

Whew. I guess that means Satan is safe. He hasn’t done any of those things. Good thing too, because then he’d be an Evil Being®. So my advice to One Million Moms-aside from “you ought to call yourselves Tens of Thousands of Moms” or “Moms who believe in religious nonsense” or my favorite “Moms who start petitions over harmless things”-you ought to start petitioning churches to quit worshiping that God guy. Between Him and Satan, it’s pretty clear which one is Evil-and it isn’t the guy with an upcoming tv show on FOX.

*Man, I love randomly capitalizing letters

**Or said to have done, bc honestly, I think Satan gets a bad rap

***Remember kids, sin is a fictional concept inherent to one particular strain of religion (out of thousands). Like other religious concepts, there is no basis in reality for this concept, so don’t get all confused thinking it applies to real world actions

****So sayeth One Million Hundred Thousand Moms

A Million Hundred Thousand Moms are angry

Indiana's new law and why I hate the phrase 'PC'

Indiana Governor Mike Pence has faced heavy and well-deserved criticism for signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (you can read the full text of the law here). Critics of the law maintain that it opens the door for legalized discrimination against LGBT people. Supporters of the argument claim that the law is not a license to discriminate against LGBT people (the conservatives who advocated for the bill’s passage say otherwise). According to them, Indiana’s RFRA is meant to protect the right of business owners to operate their business according to their religious beliefs and without undue interference by the federal government. They also criticize opponents of the law for ignoring the federal government’s 1993 RFRA as well as the religious freedom laws passed in 19 other states. Contrary to the protestations of right-wing pundits (as well as mainstream media outlets), the law is substantially different from the federal government’s 1993 RFRA. In addition, the language contained in the Indiana law differs from the RFRA’s enacted by other states across the country. Bottom line: Indiana’s RFRA is unique and offers bigoted business owners the legal cudgel they need to discriminate against those they don’t like (outrage over the law has focused largely on how it could impact LGBT citizens of the state, but the law could potentially be used to discriminate against women, African-Americans, and non-Christians).

Shortly after the bill was signed into law, it, Governor Pence, and the state of Indiana all came under heavy fire (here is a list of the entities-celebrities, corporations, sports organizations, colleges & universities, and more-who have criticized the new law). On Tuesday, Brett Jewkes, Senior Vice-President and Chief Communications Officer for NASCAR (the second most popular sport in USAmerica) released a statement denouncing the discriminatory law:

“NASCAR is disappointed by the recent legislation passed in Indiana. We will not embrace nor participate in exclusion or intolerance. We are committed to diversity and inclusion within our sport and therefore will continue to welcome all competitors and fans at our events in the state of Indiana and anywhere else we race.” — NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Brett Jewkes

Of course no good deed (or statement, in this case) goes unpunished. Some NASCAR fans took to Twitter to let NASCAR know they weren’t happy:

https://twitter.com/elJimBo70/status/583346033024995328

Those last two Tweets struck a nerve with me. A big nerve. Like Grand Canyon size. So I did what any angry, self-respecting, SJW would do: I wrote a bunch of words. The following is a comment I left at Addicting Info:

I really, Really, REALLY want to take the phrase ‘politically correct’ out back and chop its head off, stake it through the heart, and burn the ashes. I’m so sick of hearing that phrase invoked.

Don’t like that a company supports equal rights for all? Accuse them of being PC.

Don’t like people requesting that you moderate your language (which is not censorship) and stop using bigoted or gendered slurs bc they punch down on marginalized people and contribute to a climate of discrimination and oppression? Accuse them of being PC.

Don’t like the idea of students requesting that professors add trigger warnings to certain topics so that those students won’t be caught off-guard when sensitive material is discussed? Accuse them of being PC (and curiously, I’ve yet to see PC complaints lobbed at the Motion Picture Film Industry and the ratings they use to inform viewers of the type of material present in a movie).

‘PC’ has become a blanket term for “stuff I don’t like or disagree with”. Moreover, it has become a term that many feel is an argument unto itself. Rather than engage with the substance of a particular topic, a great many of the people who lob the ‘PC’ bomb invariably lob it and walk away. Just look at the pissants in the OP whining about NASCAR being “politically correct”. Do they even understand the very phrase they’re using? Do they know that generally speaking, PC means:

“[…] an attitude or policy of being careful not to offend or upset any group of people in society who are believed to have a disadvantage.”
(from wiki)

With that definition in mind…I’d like to ask these socially regressive numpties: why it is so bad to be PC?
What is so horrible about someone advocating that people not refer to women as sluts?
What is so awful about someone requesting that others not refer to lesbians as ‘dykes’?
Why is it such a bad thing that companies like Starbucks, Nike, and NASCAR publicly declare their opposition to discrimination?
Being careful so as not to offend people that are crapped upon by society (to different degrees) or requesting that others employ greater care with their words and deeds–this is something that’s bad?

The fools in the above Tweets are whining about NASCAR taking the position that discrimination against LGBT people is not ok. By [poorly] arguing that NASCAR should “stay out of this”, they’re sending the message that they (and other companies) should not comment on human rights violations. Thankfully, more and more companies are recognizing that diversity initiatives and a welcoming, inclusive work environment are important keys to the success of a company. And part of that is making it known that you are an inclusive company that opposes discrimination.

Gee, that’s such an awful thing.

::rolls eyes::

Writing that was a bit cathartic. I’m still annoyed/angry/frustrated of course, but I needed to get that off my chest. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think Mr. Pointy and I have some slaying to do.

Indiana's new law and why I hate the phrase 'PC'