Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Ariel Castro gets off scot-free





Ariel Castro is dead. Cue all the happy theists who are certain he hasn't escaped punishment. I've already seen posts that are celebrating the idea that he will have to answer to god.

This is just another example of the comfort factor at work. Instead of realizing that life is extremely unfair sometimes, some people need to make excuses so that their sense of justice is not disturbed. Without a god, Ariel Castro just got off for his crimes. With a god, all he did was get an early start on his eternity of punishment.

And don't even get me started on the idea that I, as an atheist, am just as deserving of eternal punishment as Castro. Think about that. A guy that held three women as sex slaves for a decade will get the same punishment as a guy who just doesn't see evidence for a god.


As an aside, I think he was killed. Reports say he wasn't on suicide watch, but they were checking on him every 30 minutes. While he was in isolation. In a prison. Anyone else think he got the "Oz" treatment?

Sunday, May 19, 2013

20 Specious Arguments From the Far Right



So I was googling why conservatism doesn’t work(slightly longer story than I have time for here), and the second link from the top was to a nice little conservative website called Right Wing News. The link lead to an article by a charming young man named John Hawkins titled "Answering 20 Frequently Asked Questions About Conservatism" and I could tell I was going to be in for a treat. I was not disappointed. Check it out, it gives some insight into how some conservatives think.


Then I go to the front page and see something even better. An article titled "20 Reasons To Dislike The Democrat Party". I could tell this one was a gem, just by the title. Sure, calling it the Democrat Party instead of the Democratic Party is a petty tactic, and almost completely harmless, but it tends to speak to the agenda of the person using the term. Nothing left but to get into it. No better place to start than at the beginning.




The first reason on the list is a list itself, comprised of democrats(no, it’s not the same thing as calling it the Democrat Party) who’ve had scandals of some sort. Honestly, when I saw this list the first thought through my mind was “Bitch, please!”. I know, weird right?


I made my own list.

Larry Craig, Charlie Crist, Paul Babeu, Troy King, Robert Arango, Christopher Lee, Carl Kruger, Dan gurley, Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy Jr., Roy Ashburn, Edward Schrock, Phil Hinkle, Richard Curtis, Robert Bauman, Mark Foley, George Rekers, Newt Gingrich, Mark Sanford and David Vitter.


And that’s just a partial list of Republicans who’ve been caught in affairs, proffered prostitutes and other strangers for sex. They are all hypocrites who preach “family values” when they really mean “family values for you guys”. While there are a few democrats like James McGreevey, Barney Frank, Gerry Studs, and  Anthony Weiner, none of them were doing something that goes against one of their core principles. They didn’t campaign and vote against allowing everyone to do something they themselves were doing. It doesn’t exonerate them, but it’s not even on the same level.




His second reason is that 54 million babies have been killed due to the “Democrats’ beloved Roe v Wade”. This is just flat wrong. Most abortions occur during the stage when the thing inside the woman is not a baby. The ones that happen later on are health related. Women are not going through most of a pregnancy and then aborting because they change their minds. Women are not using abortion as a way to have as much consequence free sex as possible. Talk like this is what drives people like Scott Roeder to kill abortion doctors, to stop baby killers. It’s dangerous and highly irresponsible.


Reason three is that the worst three presidents are Obama, Carter, and Lyndon Johnson. C’mon, seriously? This is just partisan hackery.


Reason four(democrats booed god at the 2012 national convention) is just a straight up lie. And I have video to prove it.



The video clearly shows that the boos and anger are directed at the way the procedure was mishandled. They were mad because they thought the vote was much closer to 50/50 and not two thirds. At no point does anyone boo when god is or Jerusalem is mentioned.

Number five, I have to admit, is completely true. The Democratic Party's slogan was:


Dang, he got me. 
Wait, you mean that's not the full story? Color me surprised. 

What Hawkins left out is that the history of the two parties is slightly complicated. There was what is called The First Party System, the Democratic-Republican Party, which stood in opposition of the Federalist Party. After the presidential election in 1824, the two parties split. There is a difference between a Jeffersonian Republican and the Republicans of the Republican Party that was founded in 1854. You might be inclined to think that since the modern Republican Party was founded in 1854 and the ticket is from 1965, that Horatio Seymour was a liberal racist democrat. That is, until you realize that he ran against former Union war general Ulysses Grant. Which means the parties were still in the early stages of the big switch, and Seymour was a Democrat by name, but espoused the values that we see in Republicans today.


Number six is easy, The Governator is the reason California went bankrupt. He mismanaged the state from day 1, when he rolled back the Vehicle License Fee, taking 6.5 billion(annually) out of the loop.

Seven's easy too. In a nutshell, it says that when everything eventually goes really bad and we have no order, remember to blame the Democrats for bankrupting America. Republicans seem to think we can cut our way to prosperity. That doesn't work. The two wars Bush never put on the books are constantly being called Obama's doing since he was the honest one about it. 

Number eight(Democrats caused what is known as the Trail of Tears) is similar to number five. In 1938, Andrew Jackson, and later on Martin Van Buren mistreated(causing thousands of deaths in the process) many natives. This was back before the parties switched, making this the kind of thing modern day Republicans would do, not modern Democrats. 

I won't go any further debunking the claims, because most of the rest of them are false because the parties were switched. Also because he says things like, "Al Gore tried to steal a presidential election he lost in 2000".Oh, and he quotes Ann Coulter. Nuff said.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Family Matters...


I am a man without a country.

I watch as my relatives(I call them relatives because I damn sure can't call them family) talk with one another over social media. I watch as they give each other emotional support when necessary. I watch as they share jokes and stories both new and old. I watch, from a distance.


I don't have to wonder why things are the way they are. I understand that this is the price I have to pay for not staying silent. For daring to question something they were too scared or complacent to question. How dare I think for myself? It's amazing to see someone get mad at you because you asked a question they can't answer, or won't answer because they know the answer will force them to see something logically when they want the comfort that often comes with willful ignorance.


From my grandmother(who up until she found out I was an atheist was the sweetest woman in the world) who called me stupid and said I was doing a bad job raising my kids to my many cousins and aunts and uncles who questioned my parenting, morals, and sanity because I don't believe in something they can't prove to be true, I feel like I've been pushed out.

Sure, it hurts to be shunned for something you can't control, but what can be done about it? Contrary to popular belief, I'm not behaving like a petulant child, arms crossed, saying to god "Fine, you want to act like that? Well I don't believe you exist!"

I could probably go on for a few more pages, but I'll leave it at this: I've endured a lot of emotional trauma because some people value comfort over reality, and that's just sad.