I'm not anti-gun, I'm anti-fucknut

"You're dead kids don't trump my right to carry around, anywhere I want, a device whose sole function is to kill your children." - Joe the Plumber

I'm paraphrasing, of course, and I'll link to the original quote as soon as I find it again. (Edit: here is a link - and he's an even bigger asswipe than I thought.)

But, gun owners seem to be some of the most selfish and aggressive people around.

I mean, honestly, anyone who shouts - with pride, no less - "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers!" is someone that I don't want having a gun. There's aggression, there's paranoia, there's lack of empathy, and there's someone looking for an excuse to fire that thing at other people - that means killing people.

People are fucking nuts, and gun owners seem to be leading the charge. Yeah, even the "sane" ones, because let's be real: if you jump on the bandwagon with the fucknuts, and you start defending the fucknuts, then you've just reduced yourself to being a fucknut.

Today is Tuesday - always a good day to lose my mind

Today feels like a lovely day to lose my mind.

Maybe that's because it's Tuesday.

Long time readers of my old Facebook rants know that Tuesday and I have a long-standing relationship. For years, it was pure antagonism, but recently we've reconciled.  I suspect me hiring the hobgoblin mercenaries had a lot to with it. Or maybe it was the laisez-faire attitude I decided to adopt, because I was tired of the fight. It's much easier to be laisez-faire from inside the blanket fort, especially when you keep the 40-watt plasma rifle warm.

I'm not really insane. I just see the world differently. Sometimes, I turn my head one way, and I see the mess created by human selfishness and naivety and it hurts so much, I want to scream, cry, or both.

Other times, I turn my head the other way, and just laugh. Genuine laughter, at the amazing and complicated world we live in. The universe is stunning, especially if you study a lot of science, and really grasp what you are seeing.

Some people call me "silly." I'm fine with that, since generally I enjoy life more than most people.

So, I guess I don't think I'll lose my mind today. But, maybe I will take it out and play fetch with it. Let it run a little, and dig under the porch. Yeah, that's the ticket. Of course, I did get it micro-chipped so even if it gets lost, someone will bring it home.

Happy Tuesday!

Appeal for calm, because, you know: People Are Fucking Nuts

There is nothing wrong with Religion. Religion is good - it gives people hope, a philosophical center, moral codes of conduct, etc., etc.

The problem is that People Are Fucking Nuts.

I mean, look at Catholicism today. Catholics, as a whole, are a very quiet and unassuming bunch. Oh, sure, historically they were a murderous, psychotic lot, being lead by power-mad buggers intent on political and material gain, but today they're pretty quiet.

So, since People Are Fucking Nuts, I guess we need to have lunatics, somewhere, where mindless sheeple follow power-mad leaders. Let's call them Evangelicals - you know, the people who deny climate change, and vote to legally discriminate against gay people, or to legally discriminate against the "wrong kind of Christians," and shit like that.

And since the Taliban seem to No Longer Be Nuts Enough, we have these ISIS bastards - really just another bunch of power-mad warlords channeling the mindless anger of the unhappy, ignorant masses against innocent targets like women, religious buildings, and pretty much anyone not the power-mad warlords.

Yeah.  Not really much difference between those Muslim lunatics and the Christian lunatics, when really it all boils down to People Are Fucking Nuts, and lunatics will follow whatever "god" - by another name, right George Orwell? - is presented to them with enough authority and repetition.

Christians are NOT persecuted in the US

I totally support the rights of anyone to pray anywhere they want, as long as they do it quietly and respectfully to those around them. These guys (see picture below) are doing just that. Hell, if I rushed into burning buildings for a living, I'd pray, too. If I saw these guys in the diner, I'd buy them dinner as a way of saying "thank you for being real life heroes."

Okay, back to the meme. The only problem I have is that this is loaded. The real agenda of this meme is to tweak Christians and exaggerate the sense of "Christians are persecuted." Which, in the US, they sure as Hell aren't.

Here is the litmus test to decide if you've been tweaked: Imagine these guys had brown skin and were on their knees on prayer mats. If that image bothers you, then your nose has been tweaked and your chain has been yanked, and maybe now you have an understanding of what it means to not be the "right kind of religion" in America.

Freedom of Speech does not mean you can't get fired from your job, asshole

Rob Schneider is a twit and a tit.

1) He's anti-vaccine.  Okay, there are so many reasons this is selfish, dumb, and well, just bone-headed wrong.

2) He's confusing getting fired from a private contract job with "freedom of speech."

Freedom of Speech means "the government of the people, by the people, shall make no law prohibiting speech."  Just like that asswipe on the Duck show chanted "freedom of speech" when he got fired from his private contract job with a television show for being a racist tit, so Rob is trying to claim that private industry is the same as government.

So, let me see - Rob and Phil want to say that "My private contract cannot be canceled, regardless of what I say, therefore employee rights trump corporate owner rights."

Hm, now that's an interesting idea. Quite in reverse contrast to the way the model of "corporate owner rights trump serf/slave rights" is chanted.

Hm. The little tit might be onto something.

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Note: I did edit this to fix the link about Rob Schneider, since the original link broke when the site owners changed it. I also added the link about Phil Robertson from "Duck Dynasty."  Actually, that is a really good read, because it breaks down the point I'm making in very eloquent language, and also lambasts politicians like Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin for being ignorant tits and conflating "freedom of speech" with private contract law. Actually, I don't think Gov. Jindal is ignorant - I think he's deliberately misrepresenting the First Amendment in order to score political points with a niche group of voters who have become very confused about what the First Amendment is by people exactly like Gov. Jindal who are deliberately trying to confuse them.  I do think Gov. Palin is an ignorant tit.

Fox Noise - hate-baiting the Christians (again)

It's called hate-baiting and tweaking-the-noses-of-Christians.

This priest is a dick, and tarnishes the good name of the collar he wears.





Father Jonathan Morris (Fox News)

Marriage defined in the real world

"Defenders" of "traditional marriage values" like to cite religious scripture to say that marriage is a "union of one man, and one woman."

Funny thing is, in the real world, marriage is just contract law. No, really, end of discussion.

How do I know?

Well, in the real world one man and one woman can form a union, and raise children, and do everything together without ever filing legal contract law paperwork.

In the real world, one man - or one woman -can sign marriage contracts with multiple partners, as long as they only do it sequentially and not concurrently, since the contracts are exclusionary.

In the real world, said contract law provides binding legal rights and privileges to the partners, which are independent of any union the two might have. The contracted couple could even live wholly separate lives and never contact each other, and still have binding legal privilege over each other.

in the real world, people look at said same holy scripture and ask "How many wives did that Solomon guy have, exactly?"

Do those T-Mobile bastards pay dividends?

Anybody know if those bastards at T-Mobile ever pay stock dividends? I've had some stock for about six months with no payments. In contrast, I swear those Microsoft guys pay dividends every five minutes.

Did you know that sitting on the Board of Directors for T-Mobile nets you a $250,000 compensation package? And your entire duties consist of one meeting a year. Well, okay, there are up to ten 30-minute phone meetings per year, but if it goes over ten phone meetings per year, then you get paid for each and every one (I think it was $1000 each, but I may be low).

Yeah... Gosh, it pays to be rich, doesn't it? I mean, what a sweet gig: be in the 2% for doing slightly more than nothing at all. And all you have to do to get rich, is to already be rich enough to buy (or influence peddle) your way on to the T-Mobile Board of Directors.

"Stand your ground" is all about class warfare

These gun-happy "Stand Your Ground" laws are all about class warfare - get the peasantry to try to kill each other, keep the peasantry in-fighting, and no one pays any attention to the theft of rights and privileges happening at the top.  Oh, sure, on the surface it's all about "My right to protect myself."

Yeah, well, turns out Trayvon Martin had no right to counter-assault the man who stalked him down, then ran him down, then ultimately murdered him.  The "proof is in the pudding," as they say. The meme summarizes the death of Trayvon Martin nicely, and his murderer was set free for "standing his ground."

Today is "1984" - congrats to us

It is "1984" as Orwell foresaw - and by that I mean "today is '1984'."

Greed has driven specific forces to buy the media. The media is the message, and the message is the media. These forces have sold the message that unrestrained capitalism is utopia, and the people at the bottom need to demand the removal of the stops and protections that prevent unrestrained capitalism from destroying those at the bottom.

Metaphorically, those at the top have convinced those at the bottom to slit their own wrists and pour their blood into the troughs from which those at the top feast and gorge.

Unrestrained capitalism is utopia - but only for the tiny number of ultra-greedy bastards who will kill anyone who stands in their way. Oh, rarely literally, but they think nothing of destroying the economic options of others, and care nothing if the disenfranchised starve or die from homeless exposure. Such "actuarial deaths" cannot be on the hands of the greedy and righteous, for they have "pulled no trigger." It is "market forces" that kill those "too weak to compete."

The problem with greed is that it can never be satiated. There is always something someone else has.  Those at the top will eventually destroy themselves, but not until long after they have destroyed the rest of us.

So has gone Rome, and samurai Japan, and every Egyptian and Chinese dynasty before. Look up "water empire." At what point does the entire Earth become the water empire? Ultimately it will collapse, and humanity will rise from the ashes to repeat the foolishness again.

Unfortunately, you and I probably won't live long enough to see the cleansing fire; we'll merely be the precursor - the fodder being ground into the combustible dust that lays the trap for the fire that comes long after we are broken and gone.

Bonsai Potato Kit - Missing the Point

"The Art of the Bonsai Potato Kit. Zen - Without The Wait!"

Talk about totally missing the point.

Well, that or the people who made it Get The Joke (i.e. the Cosmic Prank being perpetuated on us by God), and are capitalizing on the fundamental selfish short-sightedness of human nature.

Rape Survivor Wants the World to Grow Up and Act Like Adults

Let's be honest: Running a University is all about the money. Mostly, it's about money for the top brass, and the football coaches, but it's all about money.

This is why rape is swept under the rug whenever possible. Everyone knows (well, used to know) that rape is wrong, and a bad thing. So college administrators try to hide it, because it's bad press.

Well, here's the deal: hiding it and ignoring it, and LETTING WOMEN GET RAPED is bad press, too.

Here is one very brave young rape survivor hellbent on pulling back the shades and trying to make the world pay attention and get people to act like grown-up adults, and accept the fact that some shit just needs to stop being allowed to happen.

(Okay, for the record, the title of this post is my editorial interpretation of her motivation, so don't get all cranky if you watch her interview and don't find my words in her mouth.)

I miss my friends on FB

I desperately miss all my friends on Facebook. But, I can't give them a photo ID. I can't trust the bastards to protect my privacy, and I can't risk being exposed.

Fuck, it was a good run. I've gotten some really sweet feedback from people that FB won't be the same without me.

If you are one of my FB friends and read this, please spread the word, so people know why I disappeared, and that I can be found here. Thanks!

Ass-backwards logic about "If only the criminals have guns, then the criminals will know they can use them more freely!"

Yet more asshat logic from the gun-happy: "apparently" people are mysteriously and magically being victimized at gunpoint at Target stores, because Target management doesn't want guns in the store.

Now, probably what the real case is that someone got held up at gunpoint, and some asshat decided to make political points by falsely claiming it's because "Target patrons don't carry guns."  In fact, this particular story I link to above, seems to be repeated across what I would consider "right-wing media," but doesn't seem to appear anywhere else. That suggests that it's either total bullshit, or that - as I said - someone is taking a series of normal instances and making them into total bullshit, in order to yank the chains of gun-owners.

So, um, yeah, "Target targeted because no one has guns," and men abuse their girlfriends only because the girlfriends haven't learned kung fu in order to fight back.  Bullshit, men slap their girlfriends around because the abusive men are assholes, and they'll go find themselves any woman who lets them slap her around, whether she knows kung fu or not.

Let's try this:  people rob people at gunpoint all the fucking time. The straw man of "Well, if the crazed gunman knows no one will have a gun, then the crazed gunman will go there."

Bullshit. Crazed gunmen are crazy, by definition, and if suddenly everyone is allowed to carry guns to the theater, you think crazed gunmen will stop shooting up movie theaters?  Don't be stupid.  What you'll get is - eventually - some instance of some asshole getting into an argument, a gun getting pulled, and suddenly 20 assholes are shooting the place up and a whole lot of people get hurt.  If you don't think this can happen, then 1) you're an idiot, and probably an idiot with a hard-on for your handgun, and 2) you're still an idiot.

So, gun owners, you still need to clean up your shop and get your heads out of your butts, and stop pretending that more guns will solve anything, and realize that smarter gun owners - not more gun owners as stupid as the rest - will make the world safer for everyone.

(image source)

Suppressing Voter Suppression in Ohio

Federal judge blocks efforts to hurt American people.

Voter suppression is alive and well in Ohio.

Let's be clear that cutting the number of days and options for people to vote is called voter suppression and is both unethical and - in many cases - illegal.

In this case in Ohio, the judge apparently is calling the bullshit out for being bullshit.

Real Patriots want all Americans to show up and vote during every election. Real Patriots accept that sometimes their candidate will lose, and that's just how the system works.

Selfish, self-centered, ignorant or foolish people think that stopping "the wrong people" from voting is somehow a good thing.

Would you click an advert to support me?

So, I'm finally starting to use this blog, even though I set the name ages ago (okay, so that other social network had been sucking all my time, whatever) and now I'm trying to decide if I sign up for adverts or not.

I mean, you hear rumors of people who know people who've heard about people who can live off the advert revene from their blogs. How cool would that be, right?

So the open-ended question is: would you click an advert if you knew I got money for it?

Minds who want to write for a living want to know these things.

Image from www.brucesallan.com

Slugs - A Nasty Joke by Gaia, or What?

Slugs - the invertebrate kind, not the leaden ones, or the bipedal ones.

I was visiting some friends in the almost-countryside over the weekend, and late at night, when it gets cool and dark, their lawn and deck get overrun by mobile dog turds.

I mean, Ewwwww. Other than being totally gross, and leaving that indestructible slime all over everything, what is the point of slugs??

AND, I had the misfortune to see two of them having sex. At least I think it was sex. I don't know. The science nerd part of my brain was totally fascinated, but the rest of my brain was completely grossed out.

I'm calling slugs one of Mother Nature's Little Pranks, and she wants to see who gets the joke.

More insults from the FB asshats

"Icarus, a lot has happened since you last logged into Facebook!"

Asshats. First they tell me I'm a liar and "obviously" using a fake name.

Then, if you try to see any of my posts, it says "This person blocked as a spammer or abuser."

Finally, "Hey, while you're locked out, a lot is going on that you'd really like to be involved with, you lying, abusing, bitch."

Fuck 'em.

The American Punishment System of Law

A critical flaw in our so-called "justice system" is that it is not, in fact, built for justice, but for revenge. It is built to punish those we feel have commited a crime. No, not even that - it is built to punish someone when a crime is perceived to have happened. It is not meant for justice. If it were a justice system, then the asswipes on Wall Street and the asswipes who started a war in Iraq for personal profit would long ago have been dragged through the system and justice handed down for their crimes against humanity.

No, we have a revenge system, so what happens is that the innocent are punished for crimes they didn't commit, so long as someone is punished and we get our emotional salve to soothe our pains and our consciences.

It's still a better system than many alternatives (e.g. tyranny), but Good Lord we need to pull our shit together and fix it.



Death By Tuesday

Died on a Tuesday. Well, my FB account died anyway. Of course it was a Tuesday. Not that you can see any of my old FB posts, but long time friends know I have a long-standing war with Tuesday. Very metaphysical. Bastard Tuesday ambushed me just when I was starting to feel good about it.

Kicked off FB and they can kiss my ass

Well, let's see how this goes. Those asswipes at Facebook have (again) declared "You are not using your real name!"

This begs the question: do they have algorithms that just decide "Oh, that name must be fake" in which case they're just assholes, or are they parsing names against public record databases, in which case they are assholes who do not respect privacy.

Well, since they are demanding - DEMANDING - photo ID, they can just kiss my tight ass.

I know, I know, I'm not paying money for the service, and it's a private enterprise, so I really have no moral high ground to bitch from, blah, blah.

It's just a load of horseshit to bump otherwise perfectly well-behaved users - whose behavior is being data-mined and sold off - from their system unnecessarily.