Victimology, Christian-Style

Yes, we should definitely investigate Hollywood filmmakers, the creators of "South Park," and anyone else who "denigrates religious beliefs." Good idea, Values Voters Summit-guy. (Full article here, via crooks and liars.)



In a little one-minute clip, this guy snappily demonstrates a couple of the huge, glaring hypocrisies of the red-meat, nutbar wing of the GOP. The party of freedom, the party of "get your government hands off my Medicare," is also home to many, many people who believe there would be nothing wrong with having government intervene in the religious lives of its citizens--as long as that religion is Christianity.

Which of course illustrates the other hypocrisy, that these people are always the first to cry "persecution" anytime anyone says or does anything remotely in opposition to their beliefs. As if to have a set of beliefs means that everyone else in the world must believe them too. Or if not believe, at least not challenge or question them, because to question someone's beliefs is to "disrespect" them.

So it is that the religion of 76 to 80 percent of Americans--around 240 million people--is the victim here, being "denigrated," warranting investigation.

It must really suck to be a persecuted majority. Methinks perhaps you guys are doing something wrong here if you're being persecuted by the rest of us.

how to stop your kids from being atheists

via via

O, my goodness yes.

choice quotes:

'Lie to them constantly about how the world works. Feed them a steady diet of mumbo jumbo dressed up as real knowledge...'

'Make them loathe their own natural bodies and functions.'

'Instruct them...to never question for themselves...'

these kids today

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I have to point out what is becoming a more and more obvious truth: as a broad, general trend, kids are getting stupider.

Now, there are of course many, many exceptions to this rule. I have met many surprisingly smart kids. But you have to admit they are becoming more and more rare.

Racism...or taxonomy. But whatever. You won't need to know that to run the fryolater at BK.

Case in point: here's a site that's been making the rounds lately: shit my students write. (via) A few of the posts are really clever things kids wrote; most of them are depressingly moronic. Here's a couple examples:

'The potato literally encouraged the Irish to overbreed.'

Never listen to potatoes, you silly Irish gits. Especially when they are being encouraging.

'The rebel and onion armies showed grose negligence by having many of their battles right inside national parks, like Gettysburg.'

Those bastard onion armies.Ruining our parks.

And my favorite thus far:

'Macbeth couldn’t have loved Lady Macbeth because he was crazy and too busy hallucinating witches and stuff. Also, crazy people can’t do it without going crazy midway through.'

See, that explains a lot.

some fun with the TSA

I'd like to see t-shirts made in these designs in time for holiday travel.

via via via

mistaken misanthrope

From Wiki:

'Misanthropy is a general dislike, distrust, contempt, or hatred of the human species or a disposition to dislike and/or distrust other people's silent consensus about reality. The word comes from the Greek words μίσος (misos, "hatred") and άνθρωπος ( anthrōpos, "man, human being"). A misanthrope is a person who dislikes or distrusts humanity as a general rule.'


If you know me or read this, you probably already know that I have a tendency towards misanthropy. I wouldn't say I HATE humanity, but 'distrust, contempt,' and 'a disposition to distrust other people's silent consensus about reality' pretty much hits the nail right on the old head there.

This blog especially is where much of it comes out. I hope that I am generally a more cheerful person in real life than these rantings would lead you to believe. Sometimes it seems to turn into my own personal 'rants and raves' section, a place for me to dump all the negativity and express my frustrations with the thick soup of teh stoopid in which we all swim.

And if you know anything about me, you can probably guess that I am not a huge fan of weddings.

Or church.

I was at both yesterday, and the interesting thing, the take-away I got from it--aside from a skull that weighs about 400 pounds and is filled with lead--is just how lovely and beautiful people are. Yes, they are stupid, and selfish and all the other things I rant about. But when people of so many diverse backgrounds and upbringings and lives and belief systems can come together and meet each other and be happy together, celebrating this weird, archaic ritual, it really does me some good.

I met a lot of really good-hearted people yesterday, and despite my disdain for the rituals of the church, the value that I can grok from this event is that community, in the sense of bringing people together to 'commune' with one another is a very important cultural device we have invented for ourselves. I value my alone time, and I am very comfortable being alone. And I think that lots and lots of people are unable to feel okay about themselves unless they are constantly around other people. Whatever; to each his own.

But for a loner like me, I am discovering that maybe every now and then I have a need to come down off the mountain and rub shoulders with my fellow humans. It sounds cheesy as hell as I write it, but the real challenge is to find a way to love people, even for all their faults and stupidity.

We are horrible, clumsy, murderous, sweet, vicious, cruel, adorable buffoons, every one of us.

I walk away, and today I see people in a different light. They are just like me, doing the best they can.