Think Before You Forward

We've probably all been on the receiving end of forwarded e-mails of things that we didn't find amusing, or might have even found annoying.  We're probably also all guilty of forwarding something to someone who was likewise annoyed with our sense of humor or importance.  I'm prone to sharing raunchy, bawdy, downright rude and crude humor.  I tend to be the recipient of a whole bunch of "if you love Jesus you'll send this to 1,000,000 people in the next 2 seconds.  If you don't that means you don't love Jesus and Jesus said 'whosoever is ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of him' and you're going to hell."  WTF-ever.  Watch how fast I can hit delete.  Oh, and I flipped the bird to the thumbs-up Jebus statue on my desk while I was hitting delete. 

Those yappy, sappy, be-a-good-little-puppet-and-prove-you-love-jebus e-mails aren't the ones that really bother me, though.  Granted, their purpose is to spread the brain infection known as religion, but they're otherwise harmless.  It's the ones that spread outright lies that bother me.  The people who started the e-mails are bad enough.  They knew they were spreading lies when they did it.  The people who don't bother to verify the contents before hitting forward - they're the ones that stick in my craw.  You don't have to research it like it's your thesis and dissertation to obtain your Ph.D.  Just a few simple clicks of the mouse, such as http://www.snopes.com/ or http://www.factcheck.org/ will confirm or deny the veracity of just about anything making the rounds.  The current one is some bullshit that Obama orchestrated the shut-down of Chrysler dealerships whose owners donated to Republican causes.  Pure bullshit.  While most of the ones that were shut down donated to the Repugs, so did most of the ones that stayed open.  The truth of the matter is that car dealers are more inclined to lean to the right.  Then there's the one calling for the boycott of Target for not supporting veterans.  The truth of that one is that some cat soliciting donations for a veterans' cause didn't want to follow the procedures to get the donation and instead decided to start the smear.  I'm sure a lot of people are wondering:  "So?  What's the harm?  If it's not true, ignore it."  Well, the harm is in the people that do believe it.  The Target e-mail, for example, called for the boycott of Target - allegedly to "teach them a lesson."  Think this through, brainiacs.  If Target's profits drop, the folks at the top aren't going to take a pay cut.  They're going to cut the labor force at the bottom.  That's right, genius.  The cashier who is barely making ends meet is going to get laid off because the store isn't making as much money.  All because some asshole didn't want to follow the procedures to get a donation and started a lie that none of the assholes on the receiving end bothered to investigate, and then sent on to more dipshits who didn't check it out.  Jesusfuckinchristonthecrapper, people!  Think things through!  Oh, and then there are the ones about the person who accepted jay-zuz ka-riiist as their lardass lord and savior just immediately prior to what would have been a certain, gruesome death.  My favorite, or should I say least favorite, is the one about the college competition diver who was preparing to do practice dives alone, in the inside pool, in the dark, and accepted Jeebus on the diving board.  About the time he finished "being saved," the janitor comes in, turns on the light, and lo and behold, the pool is empty.  Taking the time to be "saved" saved the lad.  Bullshit!  No, really.  Bullshit.  First of all, no competition diver is going to dive alone.  They have a spotter with them a) to critique and b) in case something goes wrong.  Nobody is going to dive in the dark, and certainly not a competition diver.  Finally, the pool isn't going to be drained during competition season.  Yet this bullshit gets sent around and around.  Nobody bothers to think this crap through.  It's all about Jebus saved another soul. 

I'd really like to start some "Frankie became an Atheist just before he was swindled by the First United Church of King Jesus into signing his home and bank account over to them.  If he hadn't become an Atheist, he'd be a homeless beggar at the mercy of FUCKJesus.  Praise science he came to his senses."  My brother, who forwards everything without discrimination, will be the first to receive such an e-mail. 

 

The Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine Being Escorted to School by the 101st Airborne Division

Dig if you will the picture of being fifteen years old.  You're young, you're bright, and the adults around you tell you that you are going to make a difference.  You're about to start a new school.  This school is huge - your old school would fit on the first floor of one wing of your new school.  You have a friend or two joining you at the new school.  Some went to a school even older than your old school - yours was the "new school" by comparison.  This new school takes up two full city blocks for the building alone.  The stadium and recreation areas take up another two blocks.  The school has a north wing, a south wing, and the center.  It has three full floors, a basement that runs beneath the south wing and center section, and two top floors that sit atop the center section.  Everything at this school is state-of-the-art.  You will get an education here that isn't available anywhere else.  There's just one problem.  The governor of the state has decided that you and your friends cannot go to school here.  He's gone so far as to activate the National Guard to prevent your entrance.  

That's right.  The governor himself is taking heavy-duty measures to keep you and your friends out of this school.  You're not troublemakers, hoodlums, or slackers.  In fact, you're among the best and brightest of your peers.  You'd like to say you don't understand what the commotion is all about, but unfortunately, you do.  You've been on the receiving end of similar treatment before.  Not on this scale by any stretch of the imagination, but nonetheless, you've had a taste of this at some point in your life and more than once. 

Your crime...

...you are black.  Not only are you black, you are trying to attend school with white children. 

This is what greets you in the front lawn of the school as you try to enter the building.  You are turned away.  The President sends in the 101st Airborne Division to escort you into the building everyday.  Unfortunately, they can only do so much.  They can keep the unruly mobs of adults outside and they can keep those unruly ones from preventing you from entering the building, but once you're inside, you're on your own.  It's you and your eight friends and everyone else.  Some of the other kids try to be your friend, but they, too, become the object of name-calling, ridicule, scorn, and other such things.  You and your friends are spat on, tripped, pushed, your feet are stomped on, food is spilled on you, you are called names, and it is done if not right in front of the faculty, within their sight and earshot.  You dare not stand up for yourself lest you be thrown out of this school, as actually happened to one of your friends.  You now understand what your elders meant when they said you would be making a difference, but you're thinking that maybe this making a difference business isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Sometimes you think maybe someone else can make history and you can go back to your old school.  Maybe it's old and the equipment is outdated, but you wonder if you're actually getting an education here.  Then you realize that you have to keep going.  People have died to ensure your right - not privilege - RIGHT to be here.  What you might not realize at the time is that in a few short years, more will die to ensure that people who look like you are no longer deprived of their rights because of the color of their skin.  

You make it to the end of the school year.  Sadly, next year won't happen at this school for you or anyone else.  The school is closed.  In fact, every public school in town in closed because the white people would rather their children be uneducated than attend integrated schools.  You got the last laugh, though.  Your name and your eight friends' names are in the history books.  You and your friends are known as The Little Rock Nine. You are synonymous with Little Rock Central High School.  When people think of Central HIgh School, they think of you and your eight friends.  People worldwide make pilgrimages to Central High School in honor of your bravery and dignity.  Yearly ceremonies are held to commemorate your courage in the face of mob cowardice.  I, my husband, our children, and people like us owe you a debt of gratitude that we can never repay.  We met at Central.  Without your acts, he wouldn't have been at Central.  Without the acts of you and those who came after you, marriages like ours would still be illegal in the state of Arkansas.  

Of course, some of those in positions of power had less than kind words regarding President Eisenhower's use of the 101st Airborne Division to keep the mob in check and escort the nine children into the building.  You can read the opinion of one such Federal Judge here.  Unfortunately, this rhetoric is starting to reappear under the guise of "taking back our country", otherwise known as teabaggers.  They're spouting the same crap today that they did fifty-three years ago, and for the same reason.  A person of color has invaded what they considered to be theirs and theirs alone.  

I hope the people spouting this drivel will stop and think for a moment.  Little Rock Central High looked like this for the 1958-59 school year. 

This is Little Rock Central High today. 

This school is a scholarship factory.  It is a haven of tolerance.  I cannot fully quantify what it means to have been a student here, or what it means to know that two generations of our family are LRCHS alum.  Not only did we not go to hell in a handbasket after integration, we thrived and are so much better than we were. 

Today's blog is written in memory of Jefferson Thomas.

Welcome to America...or Maybe Not

I'm absolutely fed up with all of the people who scream about eee-legals this and eee-legals that.  For you followers north of the Mason-Dixon line, eee-legal is redneck for illegal. More to the point, eee-legals is dumbfuck for anyone who is or appears to be of Hispanic lineage.  It doesn't matter if the person in question is Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Panamanian, or any other nationality.  It also doesn't matter if the person immigrated legally or was born on US soil.  If they're Hispanic, they're eee-legals according to the dumbfucks.  


Momma Moonbat had to light into someone earlier today.  You see, gentle reader, the offending party sent me one of those bullshit e-mails making the rounds about why we Amurkins should support Arizona's racial-profiling law.  After all, those eee-legals not wanting to be racially profiled is like them wantin' some sorta special treatment or something.  Goddamned eee-legals.  One would think that said offending party would be a bit more opposed to laws that permit racial profiling, being as said offending party has been on the receiving end of that a time or two.  Check my reply. 

The law in Arizona goes beyond the simple production of ID.  It allows cops to pull over because they "look illegal".  This means anyone that looks remotely Mexican.  It's in the same vein as being pulled over for being black in a rich neighborhood.  They're getting harassed by the cops for having the wrong skin color.  It's bad enough when white people perpetuate this bullshit, but it's an outright disgrace when black people are so quick to put someone in a position of being racially profiled.  This law requires anyone who "looks illegal" to prove they're not, and the simple production of ID isn't sufficient.  

Do me a favor and don't forward anymore of this bullshit to me lest I put you on the KKK's mailing list or Mormon bomb you.  I'm sure you'll be about as amused with them as I am with this bullshit.  Until you speak Iroquois, Cherokee, Navajo or any of the other truly "native" tongues, you're in no position to raise too much hell about anyone else being here illegally.   Just curious, who's the racist fuck that sent this bullshit to you?

For those of you who don't know what Mormon bombing is, it's when you contact the local Mormon church, tell them you're so-and-so (the object of your wrath), that you're interested in becoming a Latter Day Saint, and could they please send some missionaries to talk to you about it.  Jehovah's Witness bombing is the same thing, only you're sending the JWs instead of the Mormons.  

We'll see what the response is, if any.  In the meantime, I'll close with this nifty Cherokee prayer that I found.  I don't believe in any great spirit, but forget all that.  It's the message - pay attention to that. 

Your Rights End Here

If he can't heal you with faith, he can always drink your blood.

Your right to freedom of religion ends where my right to freedom from religion begins.  When your practice of your religion encroaches upon my life, liberty or property, you no longer have the right to freely practice said religion.  Parking lot proseltyzers and door knockers are annoying enough, but that's all they really are - annoying.  I'm pretty quick to tell them to bugger off and go on my merry way.  Right now, I'm talking about those theists who practice faith healing as one of the tenants of their beliefs.


If a consenting adult wishes to forego modern medical treatment in lieu of so-called faith healing, that is his/her perogative.  Parents (or other allegedly responsible adults) who inflict these beliefs on children to the point that the child dies for want of medical attention are a whole different argument.  While I certainly think it is foolish at the very least to think that skydaddy, Jebus or the righteous spook will heal your ailments, if you are an adult and are doing so of your own free will (as opposed to being pressured to do so by a controlling spouse, clergy, etc.), then by all means do your thing.  A child, on the other hand, is not making that decision of his/her own free will.  A child is having an adult's delusions inflicted upon him/her.  A child does not have the capacity to knowingly reject medical care.  A child does not fully understand the consequences of rejecting medical care in favor of superstition.  Any adult who would deprive a child of medical care and then hide behind the First Amendment to do it should be horsewhipped. 


What has me in such a dither, you're wondering?  This.  A pre-term baby who probably would have survived with medical attention instead died the day he was born because his parents are members of the Followers of Christ congregation in Oregon.  The mother had no prenatal care, and the birth was not attended by anyone with any medical training.  I'm speculating now, but prenatal care could have prevented a preterm birth.  Maybe not, but both mother and child would be in a better position to survive.  This church has a rather high death rate among children. Haven't they figured out yet that skydaddy is going to say no to their requests.  Well, actually, he isn't saying no.  He's not there to say anything, and they're causing children to die because they refuse to accept that no holy being from the sky is going to swoop down and heal their child.  What is wrong with these people that the are so warped in their way of thinking that they would prefer to let a child die than seek medical care?  This furthers my thinking that believers are motivated by two things - fear and greed.  Apparently, they feared skydaddy's wrath to the point that they would prefer to allow their newborn to die believing it was skydaddy's will rather than risk pissing him off by seeking medical care, thus facing eternal damnation. 

I'm repeating myself, but it's worth saying until these people get it through their thick skulls.  If you want to decline medical care in favor of religious rituals for yourself, fine.  Knock yourself out.  When your practice of your religion involves denying others of medical treatment, you have stepped outside the sheilding cloak of the First Amendment and are now encroaching upon the life and liberty of others.