Bulliers gonna bully...

Now, I am not trying to downplay tragedy, but why are there suddenly so many suicides from bullying? When I was younger, let's be honest: I was an overweight, socially awkward bookworm with bad hygiene. And I was bullied. Often. Lots of people I know were bullied. And yet, when I was a kid I never heard of anyone committing suicide because of bullying. Hell, it was even a part of who knows how many older movies and TV shows. People knew about it, they experienced it, they got over it, life went on. I mean, what happened here?

And personally, I think that the extreme measures being enacted now to try to stop bullying are likely to do as much harm as good. I was always taught that when it happens, either ignore them or stand up to them. Kick 'em in the nuts if you have to. It's what I always planned to teach any kids I had, the ability and willingness to defend themselves, along with the restraint to not injure. We were taught it was character-building. Personally, I think it strengthened us, prepared us for hardships later in life. Instead, now, the kids are coddled at best. Quite frankly, I don't think bullying will be stamped out entirely any more than I think war will. Some things are just part of some people's natures, and some people are just shits.

I support movements like the “It Gets Better Project”, etc. Things that help teach kids that these people won't always be around, and that there is a future. But let's be honest, bullying still exists when you hit adulthood. Employers will sometimes bully employees, threatening jobs. Sports fans bully rivals. Neighbors can bully neighbors. I was taught to stand up to them, stand up for myself and what I want. A more beneficial move might be to take the bullying victims and try to teach them martial arts or something of that nature. Most of these new policies and rules, though, seem like they're more likely to convince the kids that nothing like this will ever occur elsewhere, and even if it does, well...there's no need to be able to stand on your own and protect yourself, because someone else will do it for you.

Choice...

So, you hear a lot of the fundamentalists say that homosexuality is a choice. It has to be a choice, it can't just be the way some people are wired, and they can change their minds at any time. Next time you hear someone say that, I say you offer them this challenge:

Tell them to prove it. If it's a choice to be gay, to be turned on sexually by another man (or woman, but I usually hear this shit from men more often than women), then they can easily prove. Have them choose to watch gay porn, or another man masturbate. If they can choose to get aroused, get an erection...then yes, it must be a choice. If they can't bring themselves to get aroused by it, then obviously it's not a choice, it's just the way some people are.

Marriage

So, I couldn't help but hear some Waffle House customers talking the other night about how they basically couldn't believe gays were actually fighting for and wanting the right to marry. Because of something in the Bible, I don't know exactly where the conversation went after that, I did my best to tune out the morons.

First off, while I generally disagree with marriage for myself, I think anyone of legal age who wants to get married should be able to. And frankly, the law should stay out of it, because as far as legal marriage goes, it is simply a financial contract.

As for any argument that gay marriage is opposed in the Bible, let me state this quite clear: Marriage was not invented by the Bible, or by Christianity. Pretty much every culture on Earth has had something approximating it, where two people vow not to have sex with anyone outside of their arrangement and to share financial gains and hardships. When explorers set out from Europe and found various new cultures, these cultures already had something similar to marriage, and had never heard of Christianity or the Bible. Bible opposes gay marriage? Fine. Don't get married in that church. But that should have no bearing on whether the legal arrangement and contract should be able to be entered into under the law. Separation of church and state. I almost find it hard to believe that this is an issue at all. And then I remember: people are stupid. ;P

False Advertising

So, I stopped off at Taco Bell the other night, on my way home from work. Long night, just didn't feel like cooking when I got home, and I wanted to try the new XXL Chalupa. Looked tasty in the commercials, and on the big sign on the store front and on the menu. Then I got my order, opened the box. Shell was all droopy, meat was about a third of what was in the picture, lettuce and such were almost absent.

Most of you will read this and just think, "Yeah, that's how that works, the picture's never like the actual item." We've grown complacent, fine with restaurants showing us a picture of something, and then taking our money and giving something far, far short of it. Not only fast food, but even many of the sit-down restaurants. And I may be alone in this, but when I go someplace to eat, my decision is influenced by not only the description but by the picture. I say it's time that this stopped, and I hope that you all will join me. Next time I go someplace to eat, and the food served falls that very far short of the picture, I will be taking it back to the counter, asking for my money back, and telling them exactly why. I will then send an E-mail to their corporate contact, telling them about. Maybe if enough of us do this, and they start losing the money, things might change.

Midgets

Yeah, kind of a random thought thread. Was pndering some things to do with one of my game designs earlier, things to add. Decided to add the trait "Midget" to one. Or maybe "Dwarf". And then the thought occurred to me that some might take offense. This was followed by not caring.

I support the right of any disadvantaged group to choose how they are called. I don't really have problems with that. However, I will call a midget a midget until they think of something to call themselves that doesn't make me giggle from irony. Because I see all these TV show titles focusing on them, and I can really only think the same thing: Any midget coming up me and getting upset, insisting that the term is "Little Person/People", will cause me to squat down to his level and look at him with a very serious look. I will then, in a slight Irish accent, AS IS MY ANCESTRY, say to this person, "So, you're insistin' you're one of the little people, eh? Well, my ancestors and my people have known about you for many centuries. I'm just wonderin', which type are you? Leprechaun? Elf, maybe? You're not quite big big and vicious enough to be a red cap. Your eyes are a bit big, maye you're a boggart? Naiad? Selkie?

"Or maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't choose to go by a title that has, for a couple thousand years, meant and included every other word that fucking offends you. Because if you're going to be dumb enough to use a term from my ancestors, I'm gonna include all the rest that go with it, pixie."

Long History of Abuse...

I am a bit of a hedonist. And I enjoy indulging in the pleasures that this world has to offer. And I get people telling me that I'm wrong because of religious mandates, and that things should not be indulged in. It usually ends up with me wondering and asking why these things would be in this world, and why they would give such pleasure and enjoyment, if they were not to be indulged in. This generally prompts one of two answers.

One is that, well, God didn't put them here, the Devil did. They were put here to tempt us, and lead us astray. You know what, this only works if one of two things is true. One is, the Devil is as strong as God, strong enough that God cannot stop him. In this case, a lot of the rhetoric just doesn't really work. The other way for this to be true is if God condones it, in which case he may as well do it himself. If I watch you kill a family, and I stand there and do nothing to stop you or report it, I have committed almost as bad an atrocity as you.

And then there's the worst one I hear, to explain either the original oddity, or the previous answer when I question it. "We're being tested". You know what? I have been in an abusive relationship. After it ended, I went and did some research, kust to help myself over and past it. It was primarily mental and emotional. Things like, being demanded of things I hated, or put into uncomfortable or painful situations, and being told afterwards that it was a test, to see if I really loved her. Told that I was worthless or useless without her. Et cetera. I also recognized my enabling behavior, such as thinking/saying that she should test me, or that she was right.

If you have to cause someone pain, put them in a bad situation, or dangle someone they'd enjoy in front of them, in order to test their love for you, that is not love. That is cruel, and abusive. It smacks of insecurity. And yet, the people that spout this claptrap will say that otherwise, without God, they are nothing. Sound familiar? I am not an atheist, or against belief in some form of creator. But this type of "morality" needs some serious reexamination, to say the least

Because I never claim to be "good"...

In fact, let's be honest: I often to refer to myself as evil, and/or wicked, or other similar terms. However, I just stumbled across some of these, while looking for one particular quote I liked, and thought I'd share.

"It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost." -Stephen King
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -Blaise Pascal
"Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires." -Bertrand Russell
"Life - the way it really is - is a battle not between bad and good but between bad and worse." -Joseph Brodsky
"When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before." -Mae West
“Hear no evil, speak no evil - and you'll never be invited to a party” -Oscar Wilde
"Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil." -Anatole France
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.” -Steven Weinberg

Useless Advice

So, I was reading through a thread on Fetlife, a guy who was looking for advice, thinking he was being "too nice". He saw it as at least a potential problem in himself. Kudos for him, looking for advice and help, seeking self-improvement. But then there were all the replies that were only, "You have to love yourself first" or "Don't be a doormat", as the total of their post.

Why the fuck bother typing anything? Seriously. Particularly as someone who's gone through something similar, I read these with some annoyance. It's like standing on a dock, seeing someone drowning, and calling, "Hey, dude...you should get out of the water."

If someone's looking for help, and all you can think of is to spout stale platitudes and sayings...unless you can add something concrete or constructive, you would only be wasting your breath, and the other person's time.

Bumper Sticker

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Saw this as a bumper sticker on someone's car. And it irked me, and the first thought to pass througb my head was that pontificating from an ignorant perspective just makes you seem pretentious. The "eye for an eye" phrase, from the passage of the Bible, was not meant as a cry for vengeance, but instead as a cry for temperance. In the time at which it was written, this was intended to mean that the punishment should match the crime. An eye for an eye, instead of the tradition of the time, which was a life for an eye. Personally, I'm thinking...yeah, "eye for an eye" thus seems more fair and just.

I support punishment matching a crime. Generally. I also think, though, that extenuating reasons be allowed for certain crimes.

Mmm, Cruelty...

So, the "Organic" and "Cruelty-Free" food craze amuses me. The Organic bit...okay, I can kinda see. But when it costs at least 66% more than the regular stuff, fuck that. "Cruelty Free" meats, though... Yeah, this concept is just ridiculous. Let me make this clear: This is an animal born and raised for the sole purpose of being kiled at the peak of it's health, and then chopped, sliced, and turned into food. If you think about it critically, raising a creature and making it as healthy as possible for the best yield from it's death...is cruel. Not smacking it, shocking it, starving it, overfeeding it, whatever, doesn't make it any less cruel.

I love my meat. I am not going to stop eating it, and I am a very far cry from ever saying that eating meat is cruel. There are damned few animals I wouldn't eat except in the most dire consequences, and those are the ones I know personally and those that I've been told taste repulsive. I just say, let's have some damned honesty. You cannot go to the store and buy "cruelty free" meat.

"Here you go, cow. A beautiful pasture. A doctor to help ensure your health and well-being. The best of treats and food. Kindness, pleasure and contentment. Happy? Ecstatic? Good. Now, hold still and ignore this ax..."

http://www.illwillpress.com/CFREE22.html