The 'L' word...

Even though I consider myself left leaning, full fledged Liberals drive me nuts. Nothing could sum this up better than my experiences in Sociology class in college.

One specific thing that annoyed me was the way Liberals complain about something and then praise it. Also, they get their priorities mixed up.

For example, we the class were informed that the media is controlled by corporations. In 1999, some anti-globalization protests against the World Trade Organization meeting turned into a riot. ABC did not cover the event for a few days as Disney, the parent company of ABC, thought it would make them look bad. Evil corporations are suppressing the truth!!!

Then a few months later, we learned about working Mexican women being raped and murdered and the police and government didn’t give a crap (typical response from politician was “they were asking for it because of the way they were dressed”. That would get you kicked out of office in America.)

(or should I say…In America!)

When ABC was not covering the WTO protests, they were covering this.

Well, wait a minute… wasn’t this good that ABC was covering this instead of a bunch of whiny white middle-class slackers smashing in the windows of stores with their Nike sneakers? ABC helped to bring about a story that was under the radar. Women were being raped and killed and no one in the Mexican government cared. And yet, to Liberals the spoiled white kids throwing a tantrum is more important because CORPORATIONS ARE F@CKING EVIL!!!

The next is the spoiled, self-righteous, condescending, know-it-all feeling of Liberals, particularly when it comes to bicycles.

My Professor and her friends like to ride their bikes. They like to organize large-scale bike rides around cities, and act if they were the only freakin’ ones in the world that had permission to use the roads. Yes, bikes have a right to the roads. But, you DO NOT have the right to slow down and block faster moving traffic. That is not my opinion either,

Any vehicle which is going slower than the normal speed of traffic must be driven in the right-hand lane or at the right hand side of the road, unless it is passing traffic moving in the same direction or preparing for a left turn.

 Article 25, Section 1120 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law (Professor is from Buffalo).

Bicycles do about 13-15 mph. Average city speed limits are 25-35 mph. Move your ass! Yes, cars should watch out for bicyclists and should not drive in a way to endanger them. But if you want to be treated equally on the roads, stop acting smug and follow the damn traffic laws!

I also loved the story about a bike ride that ended with arrests because the bikers felt the need to harass the police.

It started when the bikers were going to travel all around Buffalo, NY. A couple of young kids (8 or 10?) joined in with the group near the end. As I said, the group would be traveling around the city of Buffalo, miles of city streets. So the Buffalo police, concerned for the children’s safety, (kids could have been hit by a car, could have gotten lost, could have gotten tired) arrived and asked the kids to go home or escorted them back or whatever. The story was told four years ago, so who remembers? Anyway, the news reached the front of the group and they decided to turn back and confront the police. After not understanding the simple logic of “you can ride your bikes as planned but we fear for the safety of the kids”, they start getting into arguments with the police.

It’s hot, you want to be doing something important, and now you have a bunch of whiny bikers asking you philosophical questions about the law. Of course arrests are going to be made as they get more vocal, threatening, and uncooperative. The Professor’s friend was arrested for resisting arrest, in which her still pictures clearly proved his innocence. Kind of. The Prof mentioned all he was doing was “asking philosophical questions about the law” while someone was being arrested and then he was arrested.

A person is guilty of resisting arrest when he intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a police officer or peace officer from effecting an authorized arrest of himself or another person.

New York Penal Law Article 205, Section 205.30.

You can make a slight case for this as he was kind of trying to stop an arrest while he was not physically doing so.

I hate Liberal self-righteous smugness. This image has so permeated politics that labeling anything “Liberal” makes it bad. Just ask Dukakis. So please Liberals, stop it. You have a lot of good ideas that will go nowhere if they are associated with you.

"It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!!!" Wow, it must have taken you a full minute to think that one up...

It is my opinion that there is no legitimate argument against Gay Marriage.

It appears that more and more people are accepting Gay Marriage. About 50% of people now accept it, Hawaii just legalized Civil Unions (a step below but still a step ahead), Obama will no longer pursue defending the Defense of Marriage Act, Five states and the District of Columbia recognize Gay Marriage, Prop 8 was struck down in California, and Maryland will most likely approve Gay Marriage very soon (although by Maryland law, it will most likely go to a referendum and Gay Marriage has been defeated in every state in which it has been put to a popular vote).

Of course, there are still many people (50%) that still do not accept gay marriage (at least some do support civil unions). But as my opening line stated, there is no legitimate argument against Gay Marriage. Most “arguments” are just simple statements with no real point.

“It’s Tradition!”

So? Slavery was tradition. Keeping women in the house and having no rights was tradition. Marriage was once a concept of ownership of women! Just because something is old, does not mean it is right.

“The Bible says…”

No No No No No. I will not listen to any argument that starts with that. This is not a theocracy. This nation was not founded upon the Bible. It was founded upon Enlightenment principles and the basis of our laws comes from the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I frankly don’t give a rat’s ass about what the Bible says on this issue. Don’t get me started on the list of things the Bible says I can and can’t do that make no sense in modern times…

“It takes a man and a woman to make a child. Two men or two women cannot make a child”

...Oh, are you done? Um, do you want to make an argument and not state basic biological fact? Yes, biology dictates that man+woman=baby and that two men or two women cannot create a child. You can't argue with that. But, there are plenty of childless couples in the world, should their marriages be nullified because they are not fulfilling their duties? How does the ability to reproduce entitle you to certain rights? 

“Because we need marriage to make children”

No, we don’t. SEX creates children. You just stated above you need a man and a woman to create children. Marriage isn’t the “+” sign, it’s sex. Do you know how many kids are born out of wedlock each year? Gay Marriage is not banning reproduction. Reproduction will not be affected at all by this. Do two men or two women getting married across the state all of a sudden turn me gay and not want to reproduce?

“Gays are sick pedophiles!!! They just want to redefine marriage to make their choice of lifestyle acceptable to teach in schools and force our kids to be gay!!!!!!!!”

Do you people still exist? Gay Marriage is some super secret plan to take over America and destroy it from within? Googling “homosexuality in school” does not give you a single gay-friendly site on the first page. Instead, we get pages about how gays are trying to take over and brainwash our children (I didn’t look further as I started to feel sick with disgust). 

Won’t somebody please think of the children? 

Why haven’t I seen the book “Protocols of the Elders of Castro Street” yet? Yes, I saw a Republican Maryland State Senator use this argument on the news this week (I think it was a State Senator. Maybe it was a protester dressed nicely. I can't find a clip). In fact, this kind of language actually got a conservative member of the Maryland Senate to support Gay Marriage. So please, keep spewing your hate-filled crap!

The only argument against Gay Marriage that makes some sense is this: Civil Unions YES, Gay Marriage NO. While I don’t like creating a second-class designation for gays, this at least allows their relationship to be viewed under the law and gives similar benefits as marriage (Civil Union laws are harder to write as they have to define every single legal right to be granted, whereas marriage already has legally defined rights on the books).

I am a little uneasy about Obama’s decision to not enforce the DoMA. As President, he has to enforce the laws of the land, even the ones he disagrees with. He should work to repeal it (which won’t happen with this Congress) or let the Supreme Court decide (A. The Court is pretty conservative and could strike down Gay Marriage, setting back the clock or B. The Court will uphold Gay Marriage but the backlash will be so great it will greatly energize opponents into pushing for an overturning or an Amendment, just as Roe v. Wade has done with abortion). I support embryonic stem cell research but agree with the Judge’s decision to stop the administration from funding it, as it does violate federal law. There is nothing in the Constitution saying that you can’t ban the funding for something, so the law is Constitutional. Work to repeal.

You can’t just decide to follow what laws you like (You hear me South Carolina and other CSA states?), that would be anarchy. But should you disobey laws that are unfair? But what is “unfair”? Too much thinking for a Saturday…

 Wait, how was Elaine able to go to a "lesbian wedding" in 1992? Was it legal back then? Or was it not illegal?

HMO! (Help the Man Out!)

I think it is a little offensive to Taft that the only thing we remember about him was that he was fat. One interactive activity at the Madame Tussauds wax museum is weigh yourself against Taft.

William Howard Taft was the 27^th President from 1909-1913. He was also Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921-1930, being only one of two people to be head of two branches of the US Government (James K. Polk was the 11^th President from 1845-1849 and was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1835-1839¹). He was also the only former President to swear in a President.

Taft’s accomplishments are too long for me to list, so go to Wikipedia to learn about him. He should be known for more than a fat man.

 Though not an official slogan, supporters of William Jennings Bryan did say this against Taft in the 1908 Presidential campaign.

He deserves dignity. So that is why I would like to start the “Society to Help the Image of Taft” or S.H.I.T. I also want to create an organization to help all historical figures rehabilitate their image from falsehoods or embellishments. It would be called the “Kindly Improve our Leaders’ Legacy so Many Inhabitants Learn Legitimate Accounts of Real Details so the Famous, Influential, and Legendary Leaders can Monopolize on Orally Repeated Errors/Exaggerations”.

I think it has a nice ring to it.

¹ It's hard to say who is in charge of the Senate. Technically, the head of the Senate is the Vice President, in which 14 have become President. The President pro tempore of the Senate (aka oldest member of the chamber) is the only leader in the Senate in the line of succession if the President and Vice President are unable to serve (none have served as President although David Rice Atchison was President pro tempore between 1846-1849 & 1852-1854 and makes a very flimsy claim of being President for a day). The Senate since 1920 has elected leaders who have similar powers to that of Speaker of the House, although the SotH is the Chamber leader and not the Party leader as it is in the Senate (even though the position of Speaker changes hands when the majority party changes). The House of Representatives does elect it's own Party Leaders  but their position and power are very small. Only one Senate Majority Leader has ever become president, Lyndon Johnson from 1955-1961. As there is no one ruler for Congress and instead a leader for each chamber, I guess there is technically no single Head of the Legislative Branch.

The sky is falling!

So, there’s this show called Skins on MTV. It’s based off of the British series of the same name (we like to do that a lot). It is a teenage drama written and staring teenagers. The show deals with “common” teenage issues like sex, drugs, death, mental illness, and dysfunctional families. The “racy” depictions of sex have caused some controversy as most actors are underage, but I think older actors are used in those instances. Mostly, the controversy surrounding this show is that is shows teenagers having sex, doing drugs, etc.

I.e., what teenagers already do. Some claim that this may encourage teens to do the same as the show portrays little to no consequences for their actions.

Horse’s Ass.

How many times have we been down this road? Something happens on TV, in a movie, in a video game, in a book, and it’s going to cause teens/kids to imitate it. I am so sick of this believe that we need to protect kids, I mean TEENS, from themselves. “We can’t show teens what teens are doing or else they may do them! We must shelter them!”

 

This reminds me of what I read about the Senate video game hearings in 1994. Did they know what a video game was or any of the specific games they were complaining about? If I told you that an argument against video games is that when you lose in a game you “die” and therefore it hurts kid’s self esteem, you would think that was stupid, right? Not according to Marilyn Droz, who is currently the Vice President of the National Coalition on Television Violence. Basically, video games are murder simulators. She basically used the plot summary of the movie Toys as her point.

Most famous of these panic-inducing idiots is ex-Lawyer Jack Thompson. This man thought The Sims should be banned because it showed graphical depictions of sex and genitalia (it doesn’t, unless you find and download custom content, not made by the game designers, in which you have to pay for it and be over 18). He blamed the Beltway sniper on video games with no proof whatsoever (He blamed Halo). Before the shooter was identified, he blamed Counter-Strike for Virginia Tech (FYI, no games were found in the shooter's room). Thankfully, there is justice in the world and this man was disbarred for his many frivolous lawsuits against video games. He has since appealed his disbarment claiming he was disbarred for his Christian beliefs.

Again, Horse’s Ass.

How about that case about the six-year-old who drove his mother’s car to school, crashing it in the process? Clearly it was Grand Theft Auto’s fault. Why? The kid said he learned to drive from playing the game!

Take a look at these two images:

How the hell do you learn to drive by using a PlayStation controller? Of course most news articles like to pepper their stories with references to GTA. “Were not saying it made him do it, but…” Maybe it was the fact he had deadbeat parents. Maybe it was the father’s fault for leaving him and his four-year-old brother alone with their mother, AGAINST COURT ORDERS! The mother must have done something wrong in the past to not be allowed to be with her own children alone. Also, she didn’t even think of getting up and making sure the kids were fed and on the school bus. “Screw the kids! I need my sleep!” I found at least one story in which there were no references to video games. Thank you!

You know, we are really lucky to be living in this day and age. The concept that “Video games will ruin the world” has started to die out, just like all the complaints about sex and violence in movies and TV. I'm actually surprised by how no one blamed video games for the Tucson shootings.

In response to Virginia Tech, someone did have some common sense:

Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though.  There's more to this than that... it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers...

People have a tough time accepting a relatively simple explanation for something of this scale.  But how many people are playing video games out there? How many millions of people play video games…?

If you start blaming the video games, you may as well demand video game control…You have here a sick individual, an evil individual who committed a random act.  But if you want to start blaming the video games, this guy was this or that, weeeeell, then you've gotta maybe talk about banning them…

Do you know who said that? Rush Limbaugh. He said something I actually agree with.

Can we stop finding boogeymen to blame all of our problems on? Who are we going to blame next?

Canada?

What dost thou speak of?

There is something that really p*sses me off. Modern adaptations of Shakespearean plays.

Why the hell do they keep the same style of language? Do you really expect me to believe this story is real when teenagers in 1996 are speaking in iambic pentameter with words and phrases that have died out before George Washington was born? No, I don’t.

I don’t like sitting through an hour and a half movie and not understanding what the hell is going on. Every Shakespearean Play that I read in High School had annotations written in the margins to tell us what the hell they were saying. So Hollywood Producers, do you think I’m going to understand the movie without notes explaining what every line is? It only makes sense to speak like that if it is taking place in the period or 200 years ago. And even then people didn’t speak like that in Elizabethan times.

I saw a High School play of As You Like It when I was in Middle School. It was updated to 1968 and that idea was shoved down your throat. It could have taken place in any other year as I saw no reason why it mattered so much that it takes place in 1968, besides the occasional song number done in the style of the time by someone dressed up as an artist from that time. It was still spoken in Elizabethan garbage. I sat there two hours bored and confused, wondering why my mom didn’t take me home when she took my grandmother home for falling asleep a quarter of the way through.

I’m sure the students put a lot of effort into the production and tried really hard, but I hated it.

West Side Story is a great example of how you modernize one of Shakespeare’s plays. Although, did it have to be a musical? (I know the movie was based off of a musical.) Also, the gangs dancing in sync really made it hard for me to think of them as threatening. (Though the dancing was done well).

So listen up Hollywood. If Hamlet is on a plane and Romeo drives a car, HAVE THEM SPEAK MODERN ENGLISH!