WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD V. 1

A weekly segment on my Facebook page has jumped to my blog for the week and expanded.  I present the Worst People in the news of the past two weeks.

THE LIST

10.  Roy Hibbert:  Starting 5 big man for the Indiana Pacers, Hibbert managed to turn a miraculous beat down of the Heat in Game 7 into a homophobic, media beatdown that left everyone scratching their heads.  An otherwise polite, supposedly, kind young man, in his post game conference used a homophobic curse and called the media, "mother-fuckers," while he later apologized and was fined $75,000 the overall message was clear; perception is more important than morality.  Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 earlier this season for mouthing a slur during a game.  Hibbert says it and gets a smaller fine.  Arguably he should have gotten a larger fine or suspended, but then the NBA would've answered to all the conspiracy nuts who would have called this an effort to get the Heat to the finals.  It is a shame that fans with misguided perceptions kept the NBA from demanding a higher standard for their players.  But for Hibbert, the unneeded scrutiny was ended on the court when Lebron James (also used a homophobic slur a few years ago) beat down the Pacers.  

9.  Christina Nance:  Mother of Amieya Renee Stewart.  Nance reported her daughter missing on Friday, May 31st after the four year old went missing from a family gathering in Richmond, California.  While a grieving mother looking for a child does not warrant scrutiny, her inability to understand her own daughter and common logic does.  After the police and dogs were sent for, Amieya was found…hiding under the bed.  Good work mom searching the house.  Relatives told the AP that she liked hiding, especially under beds.  

8.  Artie Kempner:  The Lead Director for Fox Sports NASCAR and NFL.  Kempner had to apologize for a camera cable that broke and fell on fans and the track at the Coca-Cola 600.  THe camera caused 10 injuries and damaged several cars.  This is a "sport" where cars drive around a track at ridiculous speeds trying to nudge passed each other to win a race.  Artie made sure that nylon drive cables were the most dangerous thing.  

7.  Karen Harrelson and Gregory Stambaugh:  I was upset when Game of Thrones killed my favorite character this week, but apparently not upset enough to attempt a similar action.  A couple, Karen and Greg, were arrested a week ago when the two could not agree on who should win American Idol and so the stabbed each other.  Apparently "beer, tequila, and a pint of scotch," was also involved.  Go figure.  

6.  Latasha Renee Love:  In Charlotte, love comes at a cost.  Latasha Love decided to use tough love on her 13 year old son when she had him arrested for stealing her pop-tart.  This one baffles the mind, wondering who is worse, the mother for utter stupidity or the police for taking part in utter stupidity.

5.  President E Gordon Gee:  As I am writing I have been told that the President of The Ohio State University will retire, which is wonderful.  Gee, who looks like a wanna-be Lou Holtz (ironic), came under fire when a recording got out of remarks he made including "The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week," Gee said. Later, he said, "You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that."  And, "You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing."  The guy who looks like Erkel had a love affair with Bill Gates and then aged twenty years said that?  Good Riddance he's done.  

4.  Robert Ford:  Or should I say soon to be former South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford.  Last week it was Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto fucking up.  Now it's Robert Ford from South Carolina.  The state ethics committee found that he has misused thousands of campaign funds, the bulk of which he used to buy porn.  People wonder why I don't criticize enough Democrats, well if they pull this kind of shit I will continue to do so.  But hell he will probably get re-elected someday.  I mean, this is the state that Mark Sanford used state travel $$$ to fund his extramarital affair in Argentina.  The ex-governor who was elected to congress last month.

3.  M Night Shyamalan:  This makes me so happy.  I hate this director.  Not just because his movies are shitty but because he treats people like dirt and has a massive ego.  So very happy that yet another one of his movies, After Earth, flopped.  The creator/director of the masterpiece The Sixth Sense has gotten progressively shitt-ier as time has progressed.  Perhaps it is because his "villains" have been Aliens killed by water, trees, poor writing, and terrible plot progression.  Perhaps it is because he is an egomaniac.  Perhaps its because he is a talentless hack.  There are so many reasons why his movies are terrible.  It's like batting practice.  "Tell Merrill to swing away."

2.  Society:  Grumpy Cat now has a movie.  The world is officially ending.  After the ludicrously stupid internet hero "Grumpy Cat" won the Webby for Meme of the year, (the fact that this category exists is evidence enough to spark the coming apocalypse) the cat has garnered her own brand name products at Walmart, a full line of Friskies Cat Food, and a manager.  That's right.  It has a manager.  And soon a movie.  The name of the feline is actually tardar sauce, proving that at least one thing is dumber than the actually branding.  

1.  Michael R White Elementary School.  In Cleveland a group of adults, that's right adults were enjoying their kids "kindergarten graduation" when a fight broke out.  The idea of a Kindergarten Graduation is aggravating enough but now they can add aggravated rioting.  Two teenage girls began to fight and then six more adults joined in.  A hammer and multiple sticks are now part of evidence.  Eight people at Michael R White Elementary School are officially the worst people of the past two weeks.  

I'm Going to Bed

The doctor tells me I should start turning my computer off an hour before bed, dammit I should've done it tonight.  I don't hate Republicans or Democrats.  I don't hate people because of their skin color, religion, or favorite ice cream.  In fact I rarely hate anyone, although I would be lying if I were to say that I am entirely void of hatred.  Republicans, especially modern day Republicans in power annoy, irritate, and really piss me off the majority of the time today.  I think that the Republican party is disgusting, based on many of their current ideals.  However I know many a fine and wonderful Republican.  I am friends with many.  Tonight two of those are no longer my friends.  

I saw that two of my friends supported and found the "git er done" master's quote hilarious.  That is simply disgusting.  It's deplorable.  This is essentially joking that its a "smart" and "good" thing that Katrina hit the people it hit.  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!  That is a joke that cost 1000 Americans their lives.  And you find it funny?  The worst thing is that you call yourselves "perfect Christians."  I have a feeling your God might have a slight problem with this kind of thought process.  This is like a member of the Occupy Movement saying, "the people who died in the world trade centers had it coming, because they were part of the wealthy."  Some might call this an exaggeration but I heartily disagree.  There is nothing funny about what happened in New Orleans.  Homes were destroyed, lives were lost, and hope was killed.  How dare you ever make a joke about their memories.  How dare you preach from your pulpit about Christ and his love and then turn around and agree with such senseless humor.  You two are massive hypocrites and I ask that God have mercy on your souls.

I'm really pissed off about this.  Like I said, no computer before bed.  

Hatred. Love. Acceptance. Respect. Jason Collins.

--I know that many of my friends, some close, will ultimately see this as an insult, a condemnation, perhaps a continuation from where I have been coming from, at least in rhetoric.  The only thing I will say in response is this:  I don't hate any of my friends.  I love each and every one of them.  Sometimes I just really don't like what they stand for.

I was 12 years old when my brother came out of the closet, a term that to this day still bugs me because

ultimately he didn't come out of any closet but instead just realized who he was and was proud of it.  If the term "coming out of the closet" means fully respecting yourself for who you are, then so be it.  When he came out I was attending a fundamentalist Christian conservative church.  I, myself, was never really a conservative but nevertheless that was where I chose to be at that particular time.  I was told, well "taught", by one of my elders that a murderer can repent, a rapist can repent, but a sin holier than both of those, than all the others was being a homosexual.  God defined it as wrong in his holy scripture.  So it was wrong.  I remember exactly where I was, who told me, what he said.  My brother came out.  I disowned him.  

Now what does disown him mean at age 12?  Well it meant, for me at least, that his soul was sent to eternal damnation.  Obviously as anyone who knows me I am not still that naive 12 year old boy.  (I'm still naive, but for other stuff).  I am a proud ally of the gay community.  And by proud ally that doesn't mean that every gay pride day I wear a rainbow pin.  It means that in my own way I work daily to fight for equality.  (Some days more than others).  But before I became the person I came to be today I had to go through four steps along the way.  Hatred.  Love.  Acceptance.  Respect.  

Hatred is a mixed bag so I will skip over it for the time being and move on to Love.  Love, in this context is a dangerous word.  Love is a word that allows Christians and Evangelicals to get off the hook.  Mark 12:31: Love thy neighbor as thyself.  There is no commandment greater than these.  See where love becomes sticky?  If the second commandment asks you to love your neighbor as you would yourself, many Christians believe that love does not need to come with acceptance.  So did I at a young age.  I could love my brother because he was my brother.  Forget that he is gay and just love him for being related to me.  In this context, love is a lie.  It is a smokescreen that covers the real problem which is that love isn't caring, understanding, acceptance, but instead love is ignoring.  If you love someone you can forget their flaws, as Christians see homosexuality to be a flaw.  (I also understand that not all Christians feel this way, so I apologize if you think that I am lumping all under the same umbrella).  Love is ignorance.  In this case at least.  

That is why you need acceptance.  Love without acceptance is pure folly.  If I were to say that I love you but still know that you will burn in eternal damnation than I really don't love you.  I have not accepted who you are because it does not fit my belief system.  Your justification is the Bible or the Torah, Book of Mormon, Qu'ran,  We look at Islam and say that acts of violence are a bastardization of the Qu'ran, but we don't look the same way when it comes to the Bible?  Talk about a double standard.  The KKK, Army of God, Christian Identity, Christian Patriot, Lambs of Christ, Concerned Christians, The Covenant, The Sword, and Arm of God, The Freemen Community, all have ties to terrorism and call themselves Christian.  Son of Sam murdered 10 women, called himself a born again Christian.  Jeffrey Dahmer, Watts, Bruce Lee, The Yorkshire Rapier, all called themselves Christian.  And this is the religion that condemns homosexuality?  Hitler was a Roman Catholic, Stalin was a Protestant Christian.  People look at the book Mein Kampf and consider it responsible for the death of 6 million Jews.  How many people have been killed in the name of the Bible?  Countless.  

All of this is not to say that Christianity is inherently wrong.  In each of these religions you can find scripture that calls for love, humanity, kindness, and understanding.  However terrorist factions can also find scripture that calls for death, destruction, and judgement.  Which brings me to Respect.

My final step in really truly loving my brother was the fact that I came to Respect him.  Not because he was gay, but because of who he was and is.  Everything, his sexual identity, his intellect, his kindness.  I love my brother.  We don't talk enough, that is partially his fault, but it is more so mine.  I hope this is something I can change in the future.  But is it because I love him, no, because I accept him, Hell no.  Acceptance is a way of saying that I am better than you, putting myself on a higher plain.  I accept you.  The reason why I care so much about him is because I love, accept, and respect him.  He is my equal.  Flawed in his own ways but never, Never because of who he loves.  Ultimately what my brother has gone through in some ways makes him my hero.  And in learning to truly love him, perhaps I learned how to love myself.

Which brings us to hatred and the jumpstart point for writing this.  Earlier this week Jason Collins came out of the closet making him the first MAN in major American professional sports to come out.  Collins is a journeyman, 12th man in the NBA.  Some critics have condemned him because they think he is using his 'coming out' to save his job.  He came out so he could be who he was born to be in public.  If part of it was to save his job, so be it.  It makes him no different than anyone else on the planet.  What I loved about his coming out was that the majority of the league and community reacted positively.  What I disliked were a few comments that made national news.

Chris Broussard on Monday's OTL, "I'm a Christian. I don't agree with homosexuality. I think it's a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is.... If you're openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be ... that's walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ."

Bryan Fischer on Focal Point (Pundit for AFA).  Fischer stated that having "an out, active homosexual" in the locker room would prompt fellow NBA players to avoid being on a team with Collins because he will be "eyeballing" them in the shower.

Tim Brando on Twitter.  "I'm hearing Collins is a HERO because he made history!  Ok as a Sports Commentator if I make a SEX tape is that History?  The word matters ok."

&

"Simple Being a a Christian White male over 50 that's raised a family means nothing in today's culture.  The sad truth.  Period."  

The backlash over the Chris Broussard comments were quite large but even larger was the backlash to the backlash.  For many he represent what one of my friends called, "the biblical stance":  "It's nice to see someone in the national media take an unpopular (and Biblical) stance, and actually speak out on it. It's also great to see him call out the hypocritical intolerance towards people who are "intolerant" by having their own set of beliefs."  The fact that Broussard thinks this way is unfortunate and saddening to me personally but I still choose to tolerate it; much in the same way I choose to tolerate the words of hatred spewed by the KKK because I respect the First Amendment.  If anyone called Broussard intolerant, I believe that they are mistaken.  If anyone called him ignorant.  I would agree.  Does this mean that I think all religious views are ignorant?  No.  Does it mean that I think all views on homosexuality that liken it to an abomination are ignorant?  Yes.  Ignorance means "a state of misunderstanding or lack of knowledge."  In my own belief I think that anyone who uses the bible in the same ways that it was used to defend slavery and racial discrimination is in fact ignorant.  Are they terrible people?  No.  But I will never agree with them.  Jason Collins is not 3/5ths of a man.  

On Bryan Fischer's statement, I cannot believe that this will be an issue.  The immediate thought is that if a homosexual is around men they will immediate start looking at their junk.  Are you kidding me?  The locker room is as much an office for athletes as anywhere else.  Perhaps Fischer is referring to the fact that 39 states can still fire you entirely because you are gay.  The logic behind locker room mentality is entirely bogus.  A locker room is not inherently sexual.  It is rather inherently smelly.

And Tim Brando.  This is the one that bothers me the most.  First of all how does a gay athlete change anything about being a Christian White Male over 50.  It doesn't.  As most Religious followers would tell you the most important relationship is a personal one between yourself and God.  How does someone else's lifestyle play into your own life?  The real problem with his comments is that he compares a sex tape to Hero, claiming that Collins is not a hero.  I, personally, do not feel that he is a hero, but do feel he did something heroic.  1/3rd of teenage suicides are linked to sexual identity and over 60% of children put into child rescues are kicked out because of sexual identity.  If one child does not die because they look up to Jason Collins and his actions…that's heroic.  

This is a topic that is quite obviously at the forefront of my thought process.  I feel that our real problem comes from the binary.  Heteronormality is a theory that deals with sex and gender from a hetero  perspective.  The dominant culture is viewed through the lens of heteronormality.  To be straight is to be normal.  To be male is normal, while to be 'other' is to be odd or as it were queer.  From this perspective the binary is the problem, the narrative exists not because it is true but rather because of hegemonic practices that an individual imposes a mythical perception of that narrative on themselves.  Irigaray looks at this issue through the logic of sameness meaning that society looks at woman as man's other.  This narrative becomes an issue because the binary is entirely hegemonic with such examples as woman to man or straight to gay.  Another issue that this raises is that although sex, gender, and sexual orientation are three entirely separate things; sex dealing with biology, gender dealing with cultural behavior, and sexual orientation dealing with sexual attraction, too often does society view the biological issue of sex through heteronormality.  Male, female, and intersex  should be viewed through biology not through a binary that opposes male and female and labels intersex as the other or as an outlier.  Gay should not be synonymous with the lesser.  The binary must be struck down between 'gay' vs. 'straight.'

This is a hot button issue.  It will be debated for a long time to come and I will always be willing to have a conversation on the topic, but three things are certain to me:  Being Gay is not unnatural, it's part of human DNA, under the law human beings should be able to love amy type of person, and I love my brother.  Oh.  And I love you too.  

P.S.  Congrats to Rhode Island and Delaware…C'mon Minnesota!

Sarah Palin: A Social Experiment

*Preface:  It is not my intention to intentionally hurt any of my friends with these comments.  If they have that impact I am sorry.

**Preface to the Preface: I wanted to write this article to discuss the issues important but unfortunately there is one, too much information, and two, it pisses me off too much.

Today I decided to try a small social media experiment.  I posted the following around noon today on my Facebook wall

~ "I betcha I speak for a lot of Americans when I say I want to go over there right now and start teaching those folks a lesson. And let's not stop at the Czech Republic, let's go after all Arab countries.  The Arabians need to learn that they can't keep comin' over here and blowing stuff up. Let's set off a couple of nukes in Islamabad, burn down Prague, then bomb the heck out of Tehran. We need to show them that we mean business."

~Sarah Palin

No Words.

The "No Words" adage was all me.  As the day progressed I received many comments on my wall and even more messages.  I found my inbox fuller than it has ever been with many messages from people I don't even know, which makes me question my Facebook account settings.  I thought, perhaps, people were responding to a youtube link I shared recently.  Bibleman the TV/Movie Series, which I have to say is by far one of the funniest things I have ever found on the internet.  I don't mean funny in an anti-christian way, I understand that you have to find a way to make the bible interesting for children, (Think Captain Planet but with less budget and more message, oh and I guess no color coded racism) but the way they do it in their "action packed" series is simply hilarious.  Tangent aside I expected my friends had responded in kind to my post, but no it was about my Sarah Palin comment.  Many of the things that were said were nasty.  Very nasty.  But so be it.  People are people.

My post, I know, and knew all along was fake.  Sarah Palin did not say this on FoxNews, in reference to the Boston Bombing suspects, but instead it was a piece of satirical political humor written by The Daily Currant.  But is it all that strange that she might say something like this?  After all this is a women who has produced such gems of wisdom as these:

"Dr. Laura: don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence "isn't American,not fair")" --Sarah Palin, in a Twitter message coming to the defense of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the talk radio host who apologized and decided to retire from her highly-rated program after using the N-word on the air 11 times in 5 minutes, Aug. 18, 2010

This ape-like behavior in the White House and in the Democratic-controlled Congress needs to be stopped. Americans will not put up with this for long.  – Sarah Palin, March 30th 2010, Amridge University, Alabama.

What’s really funny is seeing these [queer] activists supporting Muslim governments. They don’t want us to bomb them…. Do they know what would happen to them outside of the United States? Do they know what what would happen to them if Islamists took over this country? They are lucky that they live in a privileged country… a country which gives them every right to do whatever they want no matter how much they happen to hate it. It’s all very ironic.

– Sarah Palin, April 7th 2010, The Sean Hannity Show.

So based on previous comments made by Palin our piece of political satire is not all that far from the truth.  But at the end of the day, although it is quite horrifically funny, why repost it without any clarification?  Because I can.  No that's not the right reason.  Oh maybe it is because it is what the Republican attack machine has been doing for years.  No Democrat can make even a joke in the media-laden world and get away without being lambasted by the Republican Party.  Now you might consider me to be hypocritical, aren't the Democrats doing the same thing?  No, but it isn't for lack of trying, we just aren't any good at it.  Let us look at a few examples:  

1.  "Under Barack Obama's watch, we have expended $805 billion to liberate the people of Iraq and, more importantly, 4,400 American lives."

---Oct. 28, 2011, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. Interview with Wolf Blitzer 

Bachmann's number comes from the cumulative total spent in the war from 2003 - 2011, our war expenditures from that time included over 6 fiscal years of the Bush Presidency.  As for the 4,400 American lives, well as of October of 2011 there had been 4,482 deaths and of those 261 came on Obama watch.  When Bachmann was asked a factual question about her inaccuracies:

Blitzer:  "But as far as Iraq is concerned, the Iraq War, which started in March 2003 -- that was President Bush and the Republicans who launched that war that went on for years. This current president is now withdrawing all of those troops from Iraq. Don't you give him credit for that?"

Bachmann responded with this gem:

"Wolf, the current president is being kicked out of Iraq. The president of the United States has gotten nothing."

2.  "Well, in just one month — just one month, the Democrats have spent more than President Bush spent in seven years on the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina combined — in one month."  ---Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday Feb. 27th in a speech at CPAC, 2009

Now why is it important that we look at this quote.  Other than the fact that it is a blatant lie, (Numbers don't lie, Mitch does) it also feeds into the 805 billion dollars that Rep. Bachmann spoke about above, 2+ years later.  Also it became a major Republican talking point used by John Boehner and other Republican candidates in the lead up to the election.  Here is the truth:  

In order to arrive at the claim above McConnell spokesman Josh Holmes said that the Democrats spending in one month was 818 billion dollars.  (Dollars I might add being used to get out of a recession created by George W Bush).  That's 31 billion on the expansion of State Children's Health Insurance and 787 billion for the stimulus bill.  First off Mitch, 326 billion of that stimulus bill is from tax cuts (http://www.jct.gov/x-19-09.pdf) which is not spending, but if it were, then it would be future spending cuts.  Why does this matter? Because Bush spent an estimated 655 billion until the end of his term but appropriated 808 billion (805 was actually spent, see Bachmann).  Also this is only based on the actual money appropriated but if we include everything down the road including full Veteran Benefits, the actual amount of money that the Bush White House "spent" will be in excess of multiple trillion dollars.  

----

I had a great desire to look at hundreds of quotes in which the Republican Attack Machine ran its mouth, but unfortunately it is the week before finals and I just ran out of time, so instead I will launch into my shortened rant.

Why did I post a fake Sarah Palin quote?  Because I'm sick and tired of the Republicans being the only one who lies and gets away with it, the latter part being the more important part.  Is lying a bipartisan issue, no, Democrats are guilty of lying as well, but unless it involves sex (i.e. Anthony Weiner, Bill Clinton) rarely do Democrats continue to lie once they have been caught.  Again this is a statement that will inevitably get me into trouble, but so be it.  On the overall scale of Republican lies and lies on top of lies it is monstrous in comparison to the amount that Democrats do the same.  Many more Democrats obfuscate the truth rather than lie, Republicans are blatant about it.  But aren't blatant about the truth.  Politicians lie, I get that, it has and will happen for the rest of well, time, but my problem isn't when a politician lies, it is when they lie in order to cover up their lies.  The old saying that if you get incredibly drunk you can just "drink yourself sober" is equivalent to the way the Republican party looks at lying, "lie yourself into the truth."  If you lie about something enough it will become part of the rhetoric and then citing a source will be based on just another lie.  Fox Noise is best at doing this.

Obama is the biggest spending President in history and has spent more than any others!  BULLSHIT.  Yearly spending increases do not exceed 2% which is the lowest rate since Eisenhower.  Our nation debt is 16.7 trillion dollars.  When Obama took office we has a debt of 10.6 trillion dollars.  6.1 is less than 10.6

Obama is a Muslim!  BS.  And even if he was, who cares?

Obama isn’t an American!  BS, you're are just plain wrong if you believe this.

Obama is a Communist/Socialist/Fascist!  HUGE BS.  Even if he was any of these things, which he is not (based on any of these manifestos he would make a terrible member of the party) all of these things are DIFFERENT.  Communist does not equal Socialist or Fascist.

Obama is always on vacation!  BS.  In his first term Obama has taken 131 vacation days (on par for 262 overall).  Bush: 1,020 days in 8 years.  Reagan:  484 in 8 years.  

Unemployment is at record highs!  BS.  The Unemployment rate is currently 7.7%.  At its height in 2009 it was 10% (largely attributed to Obama, but really part of the broken recession that Bush built)  When Reagan took office it was 7.5% and shot up to 10.8%.  Unemployment at the beginning of 2001 was 4.7% below the traditional national rate of 5%.  At the end of the Bush White House it sat at 9.3%

Obamacare is unconstitutional! BS.  The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, the President and later by the Supreme Court.  Yes it is Constitutional.  

Obama wants to rule like a dictator, he’s the Executive orders President! BS.  Obama: 147 Executive Orders in 4+ years.  Bush: 291.  Reagan: 381.

Obama has waged a war on the rich!  BS.  We have added 300,000 new millionaires since Obama has taken office.

Obama is out to take our guns!  BULLSHIT.  If, in fact, he wants your guns than he is exactly the same as Reagan and Bush who backed the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.  

These are just a few of the lies that Fox Noise CONTINUES to tell even after they are blatantly confronted with the TRUTH.  

SO YES.  I did post a statement online that was false.  Am I any different from Mitch McConnell, Sarah Palin, Todd Akin, Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, George W Bush, Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Rand Paul, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Mike Huckabee, Charles Grassley, John Kyl, Ben Nelson, Saxby Chambliss, Mike Crapo, Rob Portman, Jim Inhofe, Mark Kirk, Pat Toomey, Jim DeMint, Mary Landrieu, Jon Thune, Orrin Hatch, Roy Blunt, Ron Johnson, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Shepar Smith, Neil Cavuto, Monica Crowley, Geraldo Rivera, Glenn Beck, Andre Napolitano, Bill Sammon, Bobby Jindal, and on and on and on

Oh yes, I am different because of this:  Dear Sarah Palin, although I knew that The Daily Currant had created a misrepresentation of your views on the Boston Bombers I still decided to post this funny, but wrong status on my Facebook wall.  I'm sorry if it offended you.

I admit to my lies.    

76 Things Banned in Leviticus

Check out 15, this baby is a Sinner

This weeks post is a simple list of things that banned in the book of Leviticus with chapter and verse next to them.  This is the same book that we use the line: 

Leviticus 18:22 - You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.  

1.       Burning any yeast or honey in offerings to God (2:11)

2.       Failing to include salt in offerings to God (2:13)

3.       Eating fat (3:17)

4.       Eating blood (3:17)

5.       Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1)

6.       Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1)

7.       Touching an unclean animal (5:2)

8.       Carelessly making an oath (5:4)

9.       Deceiving a neighbour about something trusted to them (6:2)

10.   Finding lost property and lying about it (6:3)

11.   Bringing unauthorised fire before God (10:1)

12.   Letting your hair become unkempt (10:6)

13.   Tearing your clothes (10:6)

14.   Drinking alcohol in holy places (10:9)

15.   Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7)

16.   Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for football) (11:8)

17.   Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12)

18.   Eating – or touching the carcass of - eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19)

19.   Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22)

20.   Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27)

21.   Eating – or touching the carcass of – the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon (11:29)

22.   Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42)

23.   Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4)

24.   Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5)

25.   Having sex with your mother (18:7)

26.   Having sex with your father’s wife (18:8)

27.   Having sex with your sister (18:9)

28.   Having sex with your granddaughter (18:10)

29.   Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)

30.   Having sex with your biological aunt (18:12-13)

31.   Having sex with your uncle’s wife (18:14)

32.   Having sex with your daughter-in-law (18:15)

33.   Having sex with your sister-in-law (18:16)

34.   Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (bad news for Alan Clark) (18:17)

35.   Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)

36.   Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19)

37.   Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20)

38.   Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21)

39.   Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22)

40.   Having sex with an animal (18:23)

41.   Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4)

42.   Reaping to the very edges of a field (19:9)

43.   Picking up grapes that have fallen in your  vineyard (19:10)

44.   Stealing (19:11)

45.   Lying (19:11)

46.   Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12)

47.   Defrauding your neighbour (19:13)

48.   Holding back the wages of an employee overnight (not well observed these days) (19:13)

49.   Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14)

50.   Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15)

51.   Spreading slander (19:16)

52.   Doing anything to endanger a neighbour’s life (19:16)

53.   Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18)

54.   Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19)

55.   Cross-breeding animals (19:19)

56.   Planting different seeds in the same field (19:19)

57.   Sleeping with another man’s slave (19:20)

58.   Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23)

59.   Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut astrology) (19:26)

60.   Trimming your beard (19:27)

61.   Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27)

62.   Getting tattoos (19:28)

63.   Making your daughter prostitute herself (19:29)

64.   Turning to mediums or spiritualists (19:31)

65.   Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32)

66.   Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born”  (19:33-34)

67.   Using dishonest weights and scales (19:35-36)

68.   Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9)

69.   Marrying a prostitute, divorcee or widow if you are a priest (21:7,13)

70.   Entering a place where there’s a dead body as a priest (21:11)

71.   Slaughtering a cow/sheep and its young on the same day (22:28)

72.   Working on the Sabbath (23:3)

73.   Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14)

74.   Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22)

75.   Selling land permanently (25:23)

76.   Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42)

Why Glee is Dangerous (Am I turning Conservative?)

I have no problem admitting that I am, in fact, a GLeek.  Since the shows pilot in May of 2009 I have seen almost every episode and the episodes of the Oxygen Network's The Glee Project, well actually just season two.  Yes, people might make fun of me and criticize me but I have always found the show to be the best American "camp" of the day.  I liked the fact that there was such a popular show on television that focused, to a degree, on theatre and was started by theatre people.  Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele, two of the hottest names on broadway teamed up with the fabulous Ryan Murphy and created this following.  It was fun, very stupid, but deliciously wonderful.  Even though the following has turned into a bit of a culture cult, there is still a degree of fun and whimsy that the show produces.  But I don't think I can say that anymore.

For a long time now I have been watching episodes of Glee as they have deteriorated, in writing, acting, singing, producing, format, and most importantly content.  The show that I adored.  The one that stood on the principles of individuality, love, and song has been destroyed because of the unreal expectations that the show now produces.  I loved the show because I was so happy to find a network show, and a network show ON FOX, that supported homosexual rights.  I was thrilled, but I now see this support as the producers attempt to say that their show is progressive and intelligent when really it's a ton of hogwash.  (Not the fact that it supports the LGBT community because that still rocks!)

The expectations created by the cast members give their followers horrific ideas of what it means to be an actor, to work in theatre, to make it in this profession.  I won't even touch on the fact that they are able to shorten the work, by not actually working at all, and yet their dancing, music, choreography was all perfect.  I get that level of suspended belief that must follow with a show like this.  And to a lesser extent if this show was billed as a middle of the road soap opera I would have no gripes whatsoever, but it isn't and this "cult" following is really worrisome.

It's hard in the theatre profession and if you look at the show here are the rules that it teaches you when it comes to theatre:

1.  If you get cast in the wrong part, pout about it:  I speak in particular about the stupid shows that are performed at the fake McKinley High.  Grease and I believe, oh hell I don't remember the first one, but they look at acting as if the best talent should get the roles they want.  Umm hello, that never happens in the theatre profession.  It doesn't happen in college or high school or even the class play.  And when you don't get the "right" part you should what, complain about it.  Oh thanks Glee let us perpetuate a dramatic event that is already to common in our profession, but because we (Glee) are progressive we can cave in.  Fuck no.  Would I like to play the part of one of the princes in Into the Woods, yes, will I, no.  I am 6'8", overweight, and usually ghoulish on stage.  I look more like Shrek than the prince, but does that bother me?  NO. When Shrek rolls around I will have a better opportunity than the other guy.

2.  The only place where Theatre exists is New York:  Now you can argue that Mike went to, oh I don't know to dance, Mercedes went to LA (because of one, ONE, Youtube clip), Dianna Agron (Forget the name) got into Yale for theatre and then there are a couple of misfits, but the story focuses on the fact that if Rachel doesn't get into NYADA her whole life is ruined.  FUCK that, oh and Curt too.  Which brings me to my next point.

4.  NYADA is the only place to go to school:  One, NYADA is not real although it is blatantly based on AMDA in NY and LA.  Apparently Rachel, who has "prepared" for stardom her whole life has no idea that THERE ARE OTHER SCHOOLS IN THE U.S. FOR DRAMA.  But the shows focus on NYADA gives people the horrifically stupid idea that if they don't get into their dream school then they will fail.  Wonderful.  I didn't get into my dream school.  Twice.  But I wound up in a great undergrad that led to a fucking fantastic MFA at VCU.  Oh and I work in theatre.

4.  Everyone will be successful, except for Finn:  Everyone is successful.  But how can I say that when Santana doesn't have a job and Puck is well Puck.  Notice that they live very far away and still manage to travel back to Lima frequently.  It costs me over a grand to fly across to California from here.  Also that goddamn apartment in NYC.  They say that because it is so far away they can afford it.  On the low end that is a $5,000 apartment.  

But all of this theatrics is just a small testament to the show's stupidity.  Honestly, who cares about this bullshit.  If you suspended belief maybe this isn't damning theatre kids (it is and giving them false expectations, but hey, that's just me)  The real issue with the show is the content.

WHY GLEE IS DANGEROUS:

I come to the newest rant because of this past weeks episode in which a school shooting took place.  Well there wasn't anyone hurt but the school went into panic and lockdown because of gunshots heard.  The episode caused a lot of controversy because the shooter was a scared down-syndrome character, Becky and because the Newtown Group thought it was exploiting the tragedy.  The real problem is neither of these two issues.  It is the fact that Glee produced a show that had there been a real school shooting most of those kids would have died because of the stupidity of the school.

In most school's there is a lockdown procedure in place in case of a school shooting.  A New Jersey school district called this a Lockdown Yellow and they run drills:

Instructions to the students include:

1. "Go to the room nearest your location in the hallway.
2. "No one will be able to leave room for any reason.
3. "Silence must be maintained (Use of cell phones are not permitted).
4. "Make sure you are marked present.
5. "Do not leave the classroom until directed by PA System, telephone or by an administrator."

Other lockdown procedures at other institutions include barricading the door, having the teacher arming themselves with a weapon, and waiting.  Some consider this to be the wrong plan of attack.

Greg Crane, a former SWAT officer has instituted a new policy called ALICE or Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.  This plan looks the lockdown procedure and adds the element of improvisation due to the situation on the teachers part and possible confrontation such as throwing things at the shooter and running. "We've taught a generation of Americans to be passive and static and wait for police, the people shot and killed in the Columbine library sat there for five minutes before the shooters entered and shot 18 of them."  Said Crane.  Now I won't go into an argument on whether or not lockdown drills or ALICE or other ideas instituted to keep our children safe are good or bad, but I will look at how Glee handled the situation.  

Hero

Teachers such as Vicki Soto and Kaitlin Roig, teachers at Sandy Hook are heroes.  Roig locked her classroom door and then barricaded herself and her 14 students, keeping them quiet, in a locked bathroom.  Soto became a human shield by dying to protect her students.  These are heroes.  And they are in the end ordinary people who stepped up to do extraordinary things.

Mr. Shue and the other teachers/administrators at McKinley High are not.  

First off Mr. Shue is an awful teacher.  He was the Spanish teacher for multiple years before anyone found out that he couldn't teach Spanish and when the school found out they moved him to History.  NO, that is where you get fired.  Another horrific statement about the state of education in this country.  Now when the shots rang out here is a list of things that he did poorly.  

1.  He told the kids to take cover and they did all around the sides of a circular room.  In almost every lockdown procedure list it is said to put all students against one wall, and the wall that is on the door's side so if the shooter were to look in a window they wouldn't see anyone immediately.

2.  He hid with another teacher away from the students.  A teacher's job in this situation is incredibly scary because it is their job should the shooter come in the room to disarm the shooter, or protect the students or both.  Whether armed with a large weapon or barricaded against their students, a teacher no longer can think about their own lives when in a situation that requires them to protect their students.  Kids come first, no exceptions.

3.  He asks his students to use twitter, text, or try and find out what is going on.  Although in this terrifying situation students would immediately use their phones the teacher must try and keep the noise non-existent.  So they would be on silent.  Everyone of those phones was on full volume.

4.  There is too much talking, moving, and overall chaos in the room.  This is not to say that there is not chaos like this in a shooting.  There is terrible lack of remembering these protocols, these steps, but a television show that considers itself a Moral leader has no business showing these types of mistakes.  

5.  The school is re-opened without the gun being found.

6.  The school is re-opened only days after the incident.

And on and on and on.

It is quite possible that I lost steam towards the end of this rant.  I am still suffering from Pneumonia and on a lot of medications, but something that must be looked at is the impact of negative expectations that shows like Glee have on children.  We need to stop celebrating them.  

20 Profound Statements…That Aren't That Profound...or Important

20.  Action Movies are Dead:  And this is not just because I just saw Olympus has Fallen, although that is a contributing factor.  Remember back in the 1990's when we made fun of action movies like Air Force One, Con Air, The Rock, well those are classics compared to the fare we get today.  Olympus Has Fallen serves as a wonderful example of the death of action movies.  It was hilarious in how bad it was.  The cast includes Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Gerard Butler, Ashley Judd, and many others.  Each of these actors can carry their own movies.  Obviously this is where they spent their budget.  Some of the worse CGI work I have ever seen, a plot that is predicated on the fact that if the front door is breached the White House will fall, Aaron Eckhart is a terribly nice man, but terrible President.  There are so many problems least of which is after Butler saves…the country from nuclear annihilation his reward is that he gets his job back on the Secret Service.  One, he is seen on world wide television as the savior of the White House.  Isn't the job of a secret service agent to be, umm, secret.  The other is that he saves the world.  Half the major government is dead and the Army Chief of Staff is an imbecile, you are telling me he couldn't get a better job.  Sorry.  Not meaning to rant.  Although, wait, that's the name of the blog.  I like guys like Jason Statham, but unfortunately the action industry is dead, and I do mean the mainstream action industry.  Movies like Crank that are shot in a Grindhouse fashion are still thriving.  But nowadays you don't get real action stars like Willis, Gibson and Glover, Stallone.  The time has passed.  Perhaps as we get older the offshoots will succeed to the point where they become the new medium.

19.  April Fools Day is Awesome:  When done correctly.  When meant to hurt, demean, or destroy other people it is stupid and ignorant of the title.  It is about fooling, about being a trickster, about fun and triviality.  This year I set an all new record with 65 people fooled.  I even got my Grandmother, on accident.  Some of my favorites that I used this year were: My Great Grandfather invented the fork, All cheese is invented in France, I was bit by a rabid raccoon, and The pope resigned because of bad bunions.  A solid year to be sure.

18.  Although not in the news very much, Donald Trump is Still an Idiot.  Enough said.  

17.  Cat Positioning is Wrong:  I have ranted before on the fact that there are too many cats on Facebook.  Although I, too, have participated if only briefly in this cat craze, it is still wrong.  Positioning your cat because it looks funny and taking a picture, making the cat play the piano, all of these things are wrong and are ultimately lower degrees, but still animal cruelty.

16.  Brittany Griner + NBA= Good:  The news reports that Mark Cuban is considering drafting Brittany Griner.  Obviously this is a publicity stunt, a media buy, a marketing ploy, and a way for Cuban to make money, but if Griner plays in even one NBA game, it will be a massive success and a big thing for women equality in sports.  Sure it may be about money, but what isn't.  The road to success is never filled with purely good intentions.  Don't tell me Branch Rickey wasn't in it for the money.

15.  20 Statements was Far Too Long a List:  I have no time.  Why am I doing this?

Last time Heigl was good at acting

14.  Katherine Heigl is Shit:  It is not just that she sucks in romantic comedies, but really that she flat out is an average to less than average actress at best.  Other than 27 Dresses she has been the cause of everyone of the movies that has flopped, and they all have.  You may say that Knocked Up is a good movie, but it really isn't a good movie.  It is a funny movie + Katherine Heigl.  Stop with the Heigl.

13.  Fox News Sucks, but…:  so does CNN.  CNN has become so shitty.  Read CNN.com and you'll will see how terrible it has become where not only is everything sensationalized but also blown so far out of proportion that it is quite despicable to see.  Every single news story is now breaking news.  They are the boy who cried wolf…constantly.  And a little food for thought.  This is what terrible Bill O'Reilly said "O'Reilly claimed last week that opponents simply "thump the Bible" and the biblical argument wasn't strong enough against reasonable logic that gay Americans just want to be treated like everyone else."  hmm.

12.  Sleep is Overrated:  Bullshit.  People who say this are full of shit and are most likely getting an adequate amount of sleep.  Damn them.  

11.  This Girl is Amazing:  Yes I am coming late to the party, but at least I showed up at all.  Talia Castellano is a hero and should by looked up to by everyone.  Made famous, last year, by The Ellen Show she is a 13 year old girl who dreams of being a fashion and makeup designer.  She has her own Youtube channel and is followed by over half a million people.  She also has suffered from multiple cancers that will likely claim her life and she speaks about them with the clarity and understanding that few people my age or older would be able to do.  And she is adorable.  Both tragic and horrible her story is also one that laughs in the face of unbelievable odds and never stops swimming forward.  

10.  Ellen Degeneres is Awesome:  I don't really need to say anything here cause it's just that.  Proven.  But petitioning for years and now Finding Dory is going to be made.  Good for her.

9.  Chocolate by Snow Patrol is their Best Song:  This is based on absolutely no information whatsoever.  

Poor Patrick

8.  Red Dawn Doesn't Hold Up:  Unfortunate but quite true.  Upon a recent viewing, aside from the many plot holes and character mishaps it is done too campy for such a serious movie.  Kids are dying and it's still being treated almost like Ferris Bueller.  Eventually it gets real.  But not in time to save the movie.  the jingoism, the commie bullshit, and the terrible, terrible script, in addition to the awful acting, make Red Dawn an almost unbearable movie to watch today.  Other movies that don't hold up:  Godzilla 2000, I know it was shit at the time, but I thought it was really funny, nope it's just shit.  Heavyweights, although you can clearly see where Ben Stiller got his inspiration for Dodgeball.  The Dark Crystal, I couldn't even make it 10 minutes into it again.  Any Superman other than the first one.  Also, Superman.  Finally, The Towering Inferno, Robert Wagner notices his building is on fire, so he throws a damp bath towel over his head and almost manages to mess up his hair. With a reassuring wink, he tells his workplace fuck buddy he once ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat and then proceeds to run out of his office and directly into a flaming chair, not 3 yards into his 100-yard dash.  Then in slow motion he runs into everything else that is on fire and falls through a sheer glass window.

7.  Footloose Has No Business Holding Up:  But it does.  This is truly one of the dumbest plots that I have ever heard of.  A town outlaws rock music and dancing.  And Kevin Bacon shakes it up.  So dumb, but yet a credible Bacon and Lori Singer along with a relatively great (relative for the movie) performance by Jon Lithgow makes this a good movie today.  Far better than the shot for shot remake.  

6.  Hashtags, LOL, and Totes:  Are ruining society.  Oh and Stephanie Meyer books too.

5.  Taylor Swift's Next Boyfriend:  Should sign an agreement that says if we break up you cannot use it is a song about me.  

4.  Caridad Svich is the Best Playwright Ever:  Not true, but she is damn good.  Look her up if you are in need of a play to read.

3.  The Red and White Equality Sign:  Was both incredibly trendy and overdone, and amazingly awesome.  It was great to see that much support and there was a day where that is all we talked about.  Good or bad it caused a conversation.

2.  I'm 6'8":  Same height as Brittany Griner.  I saw a report on her and people who are 6'8" are 99.36% taller than the rest of America.  Cool.

1.  Sportsmanship is Still Great to Watch:  A softball player tears her ACL on a homer that would win the game for her team.  If her teammates get off the bench she's declared out.  So the other team picks her up and carries her around the bases.  The Marcus Lattimore injury and both teams come out on the field in support of one of the best players in college sports.  Sports, both professional and College are the definition of competitive.  But it is wonderful to see people with humanity and compassion.  I think of this because of one major story from December.  "On December 2, Basque athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai - bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain winner of the race - mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.  Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai’s mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first."  Simply wonderful.