Oh, the humanity

A distant relation posted this on Facebook the other day.  I almost commented, but don't want to end up cutting off contact with them, so I ruminated, and am just going to post on here.

Obviously this has been in the news lately.  Obviously it is divisive.  Obviously, some people are ignorant about both history and current culture, not to mention human decency.

Where to start, the author of that post says?  I sympathize.  I am often at a loss as to where to start with conservative idiocy.  So many angles of attack, on so many ridiculous and repugnant ideas.  The direct discrimination, the echoes of history that are sadly ignored.  I'll start at the end, where he says it's tyranny to force people to abandon their beliefs, after suggesting that it is abhorrent to participate in a gay wedding.

Well.  Tyranny?  Really?  That's inaccurate and overwrought.  And it's abhorrent?  That's a pretty strong word.  And not appropriate.  You think it's abhorrent, as opposed to being the decent thing to do?  And how are you participating, exactly?  You don't have to go, and smile and celebrate their love.  Of course, that would be a decent thing to do, but if you disagree with gay marriage, hey, don't go.  And don't marry someone of your own sex.  But abhorrent?    Look, you're not being forced to get married to a guy, or have sex with him.  You're baking a cake.  But whatever.

The article is full of nastiness, false analogies, and distortions.  I haven't read something so mean-spirited in a long time.  But then I tend not to read conservative blogs, or watch Fox, so maybe I'm missing out.  It saddens me that people use "moral" principles to be so demeaning to others.  And it saddens me that people are so willing to discriminate against others.

This law is far more broad than its proponents make it out to be.  It would apply in all kinds of situations, for all kinds of businesses.  And business owners would be refusing service based on who customers are, what they look like, etc.  Hm.  Would it be okay to refuse service to a heterosexual, white, Christian male? If I own a business and someone walks in wearing a cross around their neck, I can refuse to serve him?  Is that really the path you want to take the country down?  Talk about divisive- this kind of law, this kind of attitude, is abhorrent to me.  But if it were passed, I would refuse to serve anyone who I suspected was a Republican, a Teabagger, a fundamentalist Christian, anyone wearing Duck Dynasty items, and of course smokers (I'd notice the smell on their clothes and breath.  I find it abhorrent.)

Not so long ago, laws existed in this country that supported this kind of bad behavior.  Not so long ago, people used the Bible to protest interracial marriages, school desegregation, etc.  Have we learned nothing?  There is still discrimination based on race, on gender, on sexuality.  Laws should be used to reduce such discrimination, not codify it.

This is, simply, a situation where people are using their religion to discriminate against other people.  A peaceful, non-discriminatory religion, at that.  What would Jesus do?  Seriously.  Would he turn away people?  Would he refuse to heal someone who was gay?  Of course not.  Some people who call themselves Christian seem to have forgotten Jesus' lessons.  And then they use bits of the Bible to back up their abhorrent beliefs.  Just as slave owners used the Bible to justify themselves (and, of course, they used their property rights, another common thread here.)

Isn't the purpose of business to serve people and make money?  Why would you, as an owner, turn away customers?  Why would a state push away both businesses and customers?  Like them or not, surely, 'mo money, right?

I read a few other articles on this issue, like this one and this one.  They lay things out better than I can, and are wittier to boot.

Work-related insanity

People are stupid.  It makes me sad sometimes, and angry sometimes.  The other day at work someone (out of my sight and a ways away so I couldn't tell who it was, or I would have responded) was saying "You hear what Obama did?  Made Atlanta a disaster area, before a friggin' rain storm!  You know why he did it- I'm not allowed to say it.  That part of the country is.. darker."

Wow, where to start? First of all, why on earth would preparing for a storm be a bad thing?  Should we just wait till a week after before responding, like Bush?  And this storm ended up killing 16 people (last I checked.)  It was freezing rain; I'd rather have snow.  Freezing rain pulls down trees and power lines, is harder to drive and walk through, etc.  And Atlanta isn't as prepared to deal with winter weather as we are in Ohio.  And I have family in the path of that storm.  I did look up Atlanta's demographics; it is slightly majority-black.  But that matters exactly how?  Did the guy think Obama forgot about his half-white background?  And he faults a president for doing his job of protecting people and planning ahead.  Yeah, an idiot.

On the other hand, the same day I had a reasonable conversation about minimum wage with a known conservative, someone I did not expect to agree with (we both think it should go up.) There's definitely divisiveness around, particularly from Fox and other TV sources. But people can talk about things, and work them out.  Just not politicians, and talking heads.

02/14/2014

It's Valentine's Day, and this year the numbers line up pretty nicely.  This of course isn't the only day to celebrate love, but it's a good time to think about it.  There are many, many songs that make me think of Miss Mox.  There are a few that make us look at each other and sing and smile.  Some I've already posted on here; hopefully I'm not repeating myself, but these are a few more that always remind me of her.


Lumineers-  Ho Hey
I always call her my sweetheart, so this one is really special for us.




Bon Jovi- Born To Be My Baby
A favorite of hers, and appropriate for us.




Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros- Home
I heard this on the way home from a long road trip, eager to get back to her.




Foreigner- Waiting For A Girl Like You
This is one of those songs that I heard long ago but has never been about anybody in particular- until now.




Smithereens- Girl Like You
Another that went from being a cool but generalized song about love, to being very specifically about Miss Mox.




Ramones- I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
Summed things up for me pretty early on.  About as gentle as the Ramones get...

Creative Thinking

I didn't get to listen to much of the creationism debate, but I've read a bit about it (and heard and thought a lot about the subject before this.)  I'm not sure why Bill Nye agreed to do it; all it does is lend credence to the idea that there's a "controversy" that can be debated, and maybe even a result to be decided.  This is a manufactured controversy, like many started by conservatives.  Call it a created controversy, even, created by creationists.  I'm not sure why some religious people get so upset about evolution, and science in general.  Religion can answer the "Why are we here?" kind of questions.  Science can answer the "how," the specifics, the details of how things work and change.  Not that I'm a theologian, or a scientist, but I personally see no conflict: if there is a God (or gods,) he/she/it/they could easily have created this universe we have, set up all the rules the place operates by, and be keeping things running along smoothly.  Science, in that view, can explain all the wondrous details.  But I guess that somehow offends people.  Of course, it leaves open the idea that God isn't necessary to make the rules and run things, and I think that's what really frightens these people: the possibility that they're wrong.

I am open to a spiritual force, call it whatever you want, behind this wonder we call life, behind the terrible beauty of the world and universe.  I'm not sure there's anything there, but sometimes it's nice to think there's a life force surging behind what we see.  I'm not particularly dogmatic about it, or specific.  I certainly don't see an old guy up in the clouds, responding to our selfish prayers.  The world is a pretty unfair, unpredictable, cruel place.  But I can imagine some force behind the good I see when I stop to smell the roses.  Someone once said the forests were his church, and I can see that- being out in the wilderness, appreciating the awesomeness of the world.  Church itself has always seemed a bit confining, a bit too orderly.  And then there's my longstanding mistrust of authority...

I've gotten a bit off topic; maybe I need to write an essay about my beliefs.  As for this debate, it solved nothing.  People who are die-hard creationists simply cannot see anything but what they want to believe.  And they might tell you "evolutionists," whoever they are, are similarly blinded and guided by faith.  Which just goes to show how little creationists, and most biblical literalists/fundamentalists, understand science, and indeed the world.

To finish up these ramblings, here's an interesting article on the debate.  I love the tweet at the top.

And a picture that sums up the whole thing:

STFU

I don't usually listen to the SOTU.  I'm usually at work, and they're often boring.  I've heard about this one, and heard parts of it.  And I can hear the Republicans now.  Well, I have actually heard them some, though I try not to listen to that bullshit, but I can imagine their outrage: "Oh, it's nothing new, he's not gonna work with us, how dare he?"  There is some new stuff in it.  He does want to work with them.  He's tried.  But after five years of Republicans not wanting to do a thing he wants- even stuff they want! stuff they came up with!- with them saying "absolutely not" to anything he does, wouldn't you get impatient?  So he has said: work with me.  Or don't.  I don't care.  I'm going to do this.  We can work together, or not.  I think he should have said that a long time ago, when it became clear that they were the Repobstructionist Party.

Of course there's an even wackier fringe too, that is saying that this is clearly him being a dictator (they've been saying that from the start, with no evidence for it.)  If you look at reality, if you have any cognizance of reality, it's not that.  But we shouldn't expect any acceptance of reality from Republicans.  Why should they start now?  They don't care about reality, or America.  They just want to listen to themselves yell.  And frankly I say fine, leave them behind.  Hopefully most people will recognize the idiocy, as more comes out of the Reps, as they keep finding new depths.  I'm not sure whether to be optimistic for the future of the country, with maybe the Republicans splitting into parties that might be more reasonable; or to be pessimistic, since so many people willingly believe utter crap.

Which leads, of course, to one of the special guests at the SOTU: Son of Duckman, who showed up dressed appropriately for such an event (not) and sporting an American flag headband that just a few years ago would have gotten him jeers from most conservatives.  Because, after all, it is blatant misuse of and disrespect for the flag.  But hey, why let something like their principles, or common decency, get in the way of scoring points with idiots?  Do they know how this makes them look?  Do they know how it makes America look?  I bet they do, and just don't care.  But then, they are Republicans.  They make it pretty clear that most of the time they don't care about anything or anyone but themselves.