Saturday, June 9, 2012

Twitty Tumbling

So here is one of the many perils of active Tumbling: you end up sTumbling (get it?) onto things like this...

Reblogged from DearMinlee
Dafuq did I just read?

So apparently, in an emergency, one should not call for the Police or the Fire Department or even the Paramedics. Naw, fuck that. That would be helpful. Instead, as your home is being invaded and a masked man is waving a working chainsaw at you, just smile as you crack open your Bible to Psalm 91. Read it out loud to your assailant and he will instantly stop what he is doing and turn himself over to the authorities and apologize for disturbing you during the season finale of Sixteen and Pregnant.

Don’t forget to carry your Bible with you so that when you get mugged and beaten and are left within an inch of your life, you can ask a passer-by to open your Holy Book and read you 1 Corinthians 13. Then, Jesus himself will descend from Heaven, hold his hand up to your forehead and cure you of all ailments, both physical and spiritual.

Actually, my bad. You’re supposed to dial these numbers on your phone, apparently… Unless, of course, your phone line has been cut by your rapist or your cell has been stolen by your mugger. Then, you’re pretty much screwed since they stopped printing Bibles in 1999, right?

What the fuck. Encouraging people to turn to the Bible instead of calling 9-1-1 is as asinine as it is dangerous.


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Fox Radio Men on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

"Ed Klein: I don’t want to sound anti-feminist here, but [Hillary Clinton is] not looking good these days. She’s looking overweight, and she’s looking very tired.
Brian Kilmeade: She’s not trying, to be honest.
Ed Klein: Yes, it does look that way."
Reblogged from "Really, Fox News?"


Dear Mr. Klein,

Guess what? You do sound anti-feminist. In fact, you sound like a misogynistic blow-hard and a political commentator and author not worth his salt.




You’re looking pretty tired, yourself, there, Ed. When’s the last time you tried something different with your hair?
[…]
What’s that, you say?
It’s not relevant to your work, you say?
Your physical appearance has nothing to do with your qualifications or how well you do your job, you say?
I should concentrate on things that actually have to do with your profession, you say?
You first, asshole. Secretary Clinton is the FREAKING SECRETARY OF STATE. Not the Secretary of Perms. Not the Secretary of Lipstick. Not the Secretary of Botox. The Secretary of State. Maybe she doesn’t have time to put on make-up because she’s, oh, I don't know, flying around the world dealing with our Nation’s Foreign Affairs and running an entire government department.




How much time did you spend in the make-up chair today, Brian “Kill-media”? Yeah, I guess you have tons of time to spend on your appearance when all you do is blow hot air into a camera all day. Try reporting an actual story for once.
And Klein, you wrote an entire god-damn book about Secretary Clinton. If this is really all you’ve got to say on her political career then you don’t deserve a cent from that or any of your books.
/rant

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Last Straw

I have always been ambivalent about the Catholic Church. On the one hand, many Catholics are wonderful people and have done wonderful things. On the other hand, slavery, misogyny, homophobia, covered up pedophilia, the Crusades, Indulgences, the Inquisition, oh, and this commercial where they have the gall to showcase how "varied" their religion is, because they totally didn't enslave 90% of the cultures in the ad and force them to take Catholicism on pain of death, right? But seriously, I was raised quasi-Catholic, as in I had all the sacraments and such but we didn't always go to Church, so I've always been ambivalent about it and religion in general. Up until today I figured that religion was really up to each individual and though I didn't much care for institutionalized religion, it couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong.

"I consent, as an informed, free individual, to abandon my own religion and
culture in favor of yours." - Atahualpa
Some of you may have already heard of the nine-year-old who was excommunicated this week after aborting the twins her stepfather had raped into her 80lb body. Doctors performed the abortion because the pregnancy "posed a serious risk to the girl". This is all perfectly legal in Brazil, who despite their resistance to Choice has allowances in cases of rape and danger to the mother - both of which apply here. The Catholic Church, however, feels that the rape of a child wasn't enough (not that they really mind child rape anyway), no, she needed to carry the twins to term and live the rest of her life with a Cesarean scar to remind her every day of the trauma she went through for the peace of mind of a bunch of Deacons in their dusty palace several thousand miles away. They tried barring the abortion, but when the Brazilian government turned them down, they did the only thing in their power - the excommunicated the girl, her family, and the doctors who performed the procedure. No, not the rapist. The nine-year-old.

While we're at it, let's just go ahead and excommunicate all victims of child abuse.
Those sluts.
All of this wouldn't be so bad if Religiously Oriented "news" source didn't keep popping the word "allegedly" in front of the rape in their reports of this story. A nine-year-old cannot consent to sex. There is no alleging anything. She was raped by her stepfather. On the lighter side, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has defended the young girl and condemned the decision to excommunicate her... but the Pope still supports this atrocity.

Don't blame us! It's your fault you got raped. You don't have a say any more.
My head is positively reeling. I am in a blind rage and I can barely type I'm so angry. This is the ultimate hypocrisy and one of the most evil, misogynistic things I have ever heard of. How about you skip mass this Sunday and think about that instead?

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Today, a Video

I don't think I've seen a more concise, logical, and reasonable deconstruction of conservative rhetoric:



Love,


If you'd like to know more about me, click here!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

An Open Letter to Dr. Keith Ablow

Dr. Ablow:

A recent article of yours on Fox News website takes a completely innocent moment of childhood, twists it completely, and brands it as the first step in a sweeping decent into apocalypse and glittery, glamorous dystopia.

The very picture of depravity.
Well, it may seem to be all fun and games now, when a man of supposed education writes chaotically unorganized and nonsensical tirades for alleged "news" companies, but at least put some money aside for psychotherapy for the poor children whose parents follow your advice.

This article is a dramatic example of the way our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of sanity - homogenizing liberals and conservatives into one singular method of child-rearing when the outcome of such "psychological sterilization" is not known.

"Psychological sterilization". You use that term without explaining it. A tactic I find very common amongst close-minded, backwards people. Use scary words to freak people out so they listen to what you say. If I understand you, "psychological sterilization" is a fancy term for brainwashing. Brainwashing, to you, is the act of allowing children to freely express themselves. To you, there are two sets of human genitals (there actually aren't just two) and all parents must carefully observe these genitals in their children and indoctrinate them accordingly. I don't know about you, but I think the other of those two stands out more as a method of brainwashing...

Glazing over the fact Facebook and Prozac are somehow both contributing factors to this "gender crisis", I also don't understand how dressing little girls like adults contributes as well. In fact, this actually helps your cause. As much as I abhor the thought, sexualizing little girls only makes the distinction between men and women ever-clearer. Therefore, I do not understand how the lax morals of "prosti-tot" parents contribute to Beckett Lyons' desire to wear pink toenail polish.


"If you have no problem with the J. Crew ad, how about one in which a little boy models a sundress? What could possibly be the problem with that?"


If you have a huge problem with the possibility of Beckett wearing a dress, perhaps you should consider the horrors of a girl wearing bifurcated garments! Pants will absolutely never be an acceptable garment for girls, and they will never be feminine!

Heaven help us.
Well, how about the fact that by its nature Gender Identity is chosen, not given at birth. Just as a person cannot decide when they are born that they wish to be an investment banker or a farmer - unless of course it is the duty of our parents to indoctrinate our careers as well as our identities (both gender and otherwise) from birth? Are parents, too, supposed to decide for us our taste in music? Our sexual preferences?

Beckett may choose to paint his nails hot pink when he grows up, but saying he will submit to random amputations is a little far-fetched. If you were actually talking about sex-change operations (which I doubt you were since doctors are supposed to be professional about their fellow doctors), then shame on you for not even understanding the difference between gender and sex. I would have hoped that had been one of the first concepts they taught you in school. Not to mention that jumping to the conclusion that people will want to change their race once we let them choose their physical sex or gender identity defies any sort of logic one expects to obtain through the course of higher education.

If non-fiction always wins then why did you choose fiction as the subject of your article? Opinion is not a matter of fact, it is much more objective than that. You present no concrete evidence for any of your speculation. This article is complete and total fiction, and non-fiction will win when people wake up from this "flight of fancy".

I don't need to tell you that the items you claim as evidence of the "fallout" are shaky at best. Most them are displays of earnest sexuality, and thus enforce gender stereotypes by encouraging sex between men and women. Granted, reproduction is at the base of these, too. Does this mean, though, that anyone who ever has sex should be doing so only for the purpose of reproduction? Does this mean that any sexual act that does not contribute to the birth of a child strips away our gender? Does this mean that those who are unable to reproduce are not useful to society? Instead of waiting for your answer I'll just say that neither extreme is good. Reproduction is crucial to sustaining life, but the consequences of overpopulation are equally horrifying.

I don't see how women serving in the military is a fulfillment of "traditional" gender. By your account if boys can't play with dolls then girls can't play with toy guns. Can you explain why you're suddenly so anxious for women to go to war and why this stands in such stark contrast to your views on traditional gender? Should we teach our children that losing their lives or staying home and punching out more soldiers are the only two ways they can be useful to society?


"Jenna Lyons and J. Crew seem to know exactly what they’re up to. That’s why the photograph of Jenna’s son so prominently displays his hot pink, neon toe nails. These folks are hostile to the gender distinctions that actually are part of the magnificent synergy that creates and sustains the human race."

J. Crew, that cesspool of gender confusion. They clearly are the enemy! This ad completely cancels out everything else the company does. Above their separate lines of men's, women's, boy's and girl's clothing lines or the traditional New England aesthetic of their clothing they hold this one evil siren, drawing you to the rocks of gender catastrophe and psychological suicide. Hide your kids. Hide your wife. Otherwise J. Crew will fill them with the desire to have sex only for pleasure, wear nail polish, and eventually undergo surgery to change both their sex and their race in one fell swoop.

Oh, God... I can't tell them apart!!
Perhaps, sir, the enemy is not those persons who put these "dangerous" images out there for all to see. Perhaps it is those who draw unrealistic and questionably sane conclusions as to their effects on the whole of humanity. Perhaps, sir, the desires of children are not something suddenly being created by evil parents bent on destroying society. Perhaps they are in fact a liberation of those children from the suppression of their happiness for the sake of the comfort of people like you. Perhaps, sir, the desire to continue suppressing the happiness of these children comes not from a place of concern. Perhaps they come instead from a place of fear or even jealousy. However, I cannot draw these or any conclusions about you, having never met you, and I cannot say my words are anything more than speculation, since I present no other opinion or information other than my own.

I, too, wonder what Ms. Lyons would think if her son wanted to adhere to traditional values of masculinity by playacting as a cowboy with a gun. I would hope that she would be happy to see her child expressing what makes him happy and would allow him to do so. However, I'm also glad to see that she does not do this selectively based on her pre-conceptions of gender. As I hope any mother would tell her daughter that she is free to do anything her little heart desires, anything from being a homemaker to being president of the United States, I hope she continues to allow her child Beckett to wear pink nail polish if he so desires. True, some closed-minded people may choose to sneer and snivel and whine and complain about the decay of society, but what that has to do with Beckett's - or any other child's - happiness is beyond me. Maybe Beckett will outgrow this "fantasy" as you so call it, but wouldn't he have to outgrow the cowboy fantasy as well? Unless you think he should pursue "Gunslinging Vigilante" as a career. After all, non-fiction always wins, right?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

FIFA's Blatter Comments on Qatar 2022

Qatar, known for its criminalization of homosexual behavior, has recently been selected as the location of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Now, stereotypically speaking, sports has never been an area of interest for gay men. Realistically speaking, there are great numbers of gay sports fans - myself included (WhoDat!). In fact, the FIFA World Cup is one of the few sporting events I watch regularly. So, naturally, I was genuinely hurt by Blatter's complete disregard for his gay fan base:



There are still twelve years(!) of progress to be made in civil rights before then, and if means more openly gay athletes and more openly gay fans, then this promises to be quite an interesting football season.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Peter LaBarbera is "Homo-Nauseated" and Proud to Hate

In a recent interview of Barbara Anderson (Minnesota Family Council) by Peter LaBarbera (President of "Americans for Truth About Homosexuality"), the pair discussed how the Southern Poverty Law Center recently declared LaBarbera's organization as an anti-gay hate group. Both were heard in the interview as saying that this new label was a good thing, a "badge of honor". Interviewee Anderson even went so far as to say that any anti-gay group that was not on the list was not doing enough to have its voice heard.

LaBarbera - Anti-Gay and Anti-Equality Activist

In my research for this article, I found that neither Peter LaBarbera nor his association have wikipedia articles, which in my opinion makes the idea of his striving for "truth" a bit suspect.

The thing that struck me the most about the program was their quoting Ronald Reagan with the famous line "City on a Hill". It irked me mostly because it insinuated that Reagan was the first to use this in reference to the United States. He wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even the first president to famously quote the Bible verse/Winthrop Sermon. Reagan might not have used the phrase were it not (ironically enough) for President-Elect John F Kennedy who returned the phrase to its current prominence. Moving on...


I'm always confusing these guys...

Among other hateful things, LaBarbera states that he doesn't "feel like a homophobe." He feels "homo-nauseated."

When I discussed this interview with some friends, someone said they couldn't conceive the amount of vitriol these people spew. She said it must be so hard to hate that much all the time. I at first agreed with her, but I remembered one of my philosophical stewings from a few weeks ago. I came to the conclusion that it's not difficult to hate. It's actually probably the easiest of human emotions alongside anger.

Savage - Sex Columnist and GLBT Activist
When hearing LaBarbara's words, it is easy to fume and rant and rave, to get up in arms, to send them angry e-mails and to dismiss them as hate groups. In fact, this was one of a few valid points discussed in the interview. Many GLBT activists (namely Dan Savage, LaBarbara's main example) are very quick to add to the anger and hate flying across the aisle. In the interview they ask rhetorically why Savage and many of his comrades haven't been labeled as anti-Christian haters. I hate to admit it, but he has a valid point. No matter the side, no matter the argument, hateful speech remains exactly what it is.

Newton - Father of Physics
Isaac Newton taught us that every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. Again, I state that anger is easy. It takes no effort to return the vitriol and blindness that these people give out. What is our challenge as humans and humanitarians is to feel the anger (we cannot avoid the anger or shut it out), and release it to the universe in order to keep our heads.

King - Father of the Civil Rights Movement
Think of it this way: it took Martin Luther King to really advance the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-60s. Why was he so successful? Because he realized what many of us have forgotten- that fighting fire with fire achieves nothing more than creating a larger fire. Neither did try to fight fire with water. He decided instead to build a ditch to contain the fire and sit and wait and watch the fire slowly burn out. This is the difficult decision. This is the hardest choice to make. Why? Because the as the fire realizes it's losing the fight, it will heat up and lash out, spitting sparks and thickening the smoke. Those who sat in at lunch counters were taunted, beaten, humiliated without letting the anger take them over.

A sit-in in Jackson, MS, 1963
I really believe it might just take another MLK to win this war that began at the Stonewall Inn. As long as we give into anger and lash out, we feed their cause and show their supporters that they are right. As a movement we need to take a page out of the book of Sanity and learn to let go...


The 'Mo in the Mask
The Gay Advice Fairy

Sources
Joe My God
Right Wing Watch