Poking trolls and putzing around.
Being bored is bad for me in more ways than one; when I have too much free time at the library here I like to scroll around the comments sections of various news sources and leave my little internet droppings like an annoying pest. XD Of late I have managed to irk a Bible-thumper on their blog and a 50 Shits Shades lover over on Twitter.
The Bible one I found by accident; I forget how other than that I went through random Google-a-doodling and caught sight of a quote on the header page that I thought was interesting (in a good way): something about a wise woman building her own house, whereas a fool tears it down. Then I saw the little entry below about allowing gay people to marry, and, well, like a bottleneck at a trainwreck, I had to look. (Three guesses as to where this person stands, and the first two don't count.)
I didn't expect to change any minds there but I left a nice little comment anyway explaining what was wrong with that sentiment - and yes, I was nice: no cursing at this person or anything. I actually got a reply back, but as I expected, it was full of the same basic "my mind is permanently closed for business because I can't be bothered to give this holy book the critical examination and thought that it deserves since it's so much easier to just take it at face value and that way I can feel better about myself and justifying discrimination" crap. (This is, incidentally, part of the reason the myth about Christians being 'persecuted' in this country stubbornly prevails: when you've been the dominant majority for so long, and in recent decades are finally being told hey, you have to share the toys with the rest of the class because it's only fair, you can't hog it all, well, that loss of privilege doesn't sit so well.)
Here's what I wrote:
I strongly disagree with you on this subject. A gay adult wanting to
share his or her life with another consenting gay adult isn't based on
the sordid (and overrated, IMO) topic of sex alone. Yes, sex is a part
of a healthy relationship - gay or straight - but it isn't the sole
factor. Some adults don't even engage in sex at all, ever - gay or
straight, even some married couples. And that's fine. To use a bad pun
here, different strokes for different folks. As long as you aren't
doing the happy with animals, non-consenting adults, dead bodies or
children, I really don't care what you do or don't do in your own
home. Those four are generally understood by any reasonable person as
off-limits no matter what, because the issue is consent: none of those
four have the mental, emotional or physical capacity to be able to
give informed consent.
Marriage is about extending the civil rights that heterosexual adults
take for granted every day to homosexual adults. Marriage is (or
should be) based on mutual love and respect. Who can say what love is
for someone else? It means different things to everyone. (Don't even
try to bring up the red herring of "gay marriage = bestiality or child
porn.") In the case of secular law, we're talking about things like
being able to pass down property or money to a spouse, or being able
to visit a spouse in the ER should serious illness/injury strike.
These are rights that heterosexual adults enjoy regularly without
second thought, and no one has yet been able to explain to me why gay
adults don't deserve those legal rights. (The Bible doesn't count
either; that book can be and has been used to justify the most hideous
oppressions and cruelties. Any religious text has this unfortunate
tendency to be abused by unscrupulous people, so Christianity isn't
alone in this regard. You would think that if gay marriage was such a
big no-no to God, He'd have stuck it in the Big Ten List somewhere
between Commandments #4 and #6...)
For that matter, the issue of whether or not churches should do
marriages for gay adults is a self-correcting problem. Those churches
that will do such marriages will do them, and people will flock there.
Those churches that refuse, that's their right and it should be
respected. However, word will get out and the churches that refuse
will eventually die off from lack of membership as more people realize
that they feel judged unfairly based on superficialities, which runs
contrary to God's word (regardless of however one sees God according
to one's own religious preferences - the Abrahamic faiths all pretty
much follow similar routes). They'll wonder what else that religion
might judge them on, and they'll want to go somewhere else where they
feel treated fairly and kindly. It's no coincidence that gay children
kicked out of their homes by their own parents wind up finding
community (if they're fortunate, that is) at LGBT-friendly youth
centers: the only places where they are judged on how they treat other
people, not by whom they want to kiss.
Secular government recognizes no official religion, nor should it, and
even Jesus Himself said to render unto Caesar. This is why we have the
practical theory of the separation of church and state. VERY bad
things happen when people try to mix the two together, and if you
doubt this, take a trip to Europe and check out some of their
historical documentation of the bloody wars between Protestants and
Catholics. Better yet, try certain sections of today's Middle East for
vivid examples of what happens when an insanely narrow-minded version
of religion is allowed to control daily matters. (Hint: Women are
virtually slaves in Saudi Arabia; they can't drive and can't travel
without a dominant male's (husband, brother or father) express written
permission. Trust me, there's nothing even remotely "protective" or
"caring" about that. Nowhere in any religious text did God say that
women are inferior to men or that they were their slaves. Men and
women were meant to be partners - equal shares - in life, not one
lording it over the other.)
I can't understand how anyone can look at an obviously loving and
faithful same-sex couple who've probably been together for decades
longer than most Hollywood heterosexual marriages, and say, "those two
don't deserve to call themselves married" all because they have the
same genitalia. I just don't get that. I can see how the idea of it
would be weird and uncomfortable to a heterosexual person, but since
they're not harming you or yours (and no, there are no roaming hoards
of gay people trying to 'indoctrinate' new recruits, sorry), why does
it matter? If the God you claim to speak for is so powerful, can't He
do his own smiting himself without relying on weak puny humans to do
His work? If I recall correctly, He had no problem smiting the heck
out of anyone and anything that ticked him off in the Old Testament
(Mean 'ol bugger, wasn't he? Of course, if I had to watch the
Pharisees messing up my stuff, I'd probably be in a smiting mood too).
I don't believe that God works that way. I believe there is a God. I
don't know if that God is the God of the Bible, or the Torah, or the
Koran, or any other text. (I suspect it is all the same.) I'm
comfortable admitting this ambiguity. Because I trust that God will
answer me one day, and I believe that God approves of love among
adults regardless of hetero or homosexuality. The woman of a gay son I
once saw on TV said as much, and she said she didn't know if she was
doing the right thing by accepting her son as gay, but she said she
believed in God and in love, and seeing how at peace her son was with
himself after admitting that he was gay, she wanted to act out of love
rather than fear. I thought that was a beautiful, even a Christian,
thing to say. If the "Christian" thing to do is act from love, then it
follows that gay adults must - and will - have the same rights as
heterosexual adults when it comes to the union of marriage. Which they
are, slowly but surely. And not surprisingly, life has gone on,
heterosexuals' marriages are doing just fine (except, of course, for
those marriages in which there is no love and respect). So relax, take
a walk in a garden, enjoy how blessed life is in all its variations,
because I really don't think that you will get ripped on by God for
'allowing' gay people to get married. (He might, however, have some
interesting things to say about people who kick other people down. But
don't worry, I'll still speak up for your defense, and anyway, if we
both end up in h-e-double-hockey-sticks-land, at least we'll be in
good company, because I know a lot of cool people in the same basket.
Also, we have cookies. ;) )
I don't expect you to answer or agree with me. I stumbled onto your
website through an unrelated search, and my eye was caught by the
wise-woman-house quote (for the record, I liked that quote). So I
wanted to say my piece. Not as a gay person, not as a straight person,
only a person who believes in dignity and human rights for everyone. I
think that's how God would want us to treat each other. I hope this
has given you some new food for thought.
The Twitter one was just funny. I did a random browsing for people in or near the Chicago area and came up with somebody calling themselves some variation of a 50 Sucks name. I forget what they posted too, but I couldn't resist the urge to reply with "Sorry, I'm not into abusive stalking guys. Or spineless wimpy women attracted to them, for that matter." They came back with a predictably lame "haters gonna hate." Yeah, shitty self-insertion writing trying to pass itself off as quality pretentious assfuckery does tend to bring out my evil side, I'm afraid. :p
--
Talked to my brother and SIL the other night. They are more or less now settled in Texas. According to SIL the place - the base, that is - is freaking huge. Their own house is in a nice enough neighborhood, although they do have to watch for rattlesnakes: one neighbor keeps his grass too long and in any case the general climate is such that rattlers are a common sight; they saw a squished one by the side of the road just down their street. D:
--
Am thoroughly getting tired of all the Superman publicity crap that's out lately. Ordinarily I wouldn't care, because I hate almost all standard comic-stuff anyway, but the publicity for this movie is annoying because they filmed several scenes for it in my old hometown where I grew up and lived much of my life, till we ended up moving at the end of 2005. That building in the pic there used to be an old abandoned apartment complex, and the one next to that was part of a family-owned furniture store that's been in business for decades (it's still there, I believe). This all took place while I was living in Florida. Consequently the whole area has been inundated with movie-related stuff for the upcoming theatrical release, and my old town thinks it's hot snot because OOH HOLLYWOOD WAS HERE for all of maybe 5 minutes (of the proverbial 15 minutes' worth of fame).
I am somewhat darkly amused by the local reaction to all that attention, because I can tell you from VERY personal experience what it was like to live there, and while I won't say explicitly what I think, let's just say that there is a reason small towns have a certain stereotypical imagery to bigger-city-dwellers. (Also: the high school there SUCKED STEAM-FRIED DONKEY BALLS. I have no fond memories of that particular building, thank you bullies.)
The Bible one I found by accident; I forget how other than that I went through random Google-a-doodling and caught sight of a quote on the header page that I thought was interesting (in a good way): something about a wise woman building her own house, whereas a fool tears it down. Then I saw the little entry below about allowing gay people to marry, and, well, like a bottleneck at a trainwreck, I had to look. (Three guesses as to where this person stands, and the first two don't count.)
I didn't expect to change any minds there but I left a nice little comment anyway explaining what was wrong with that sentiment - and yes, I was nice: no cursing at this person or anything. I actually got a reply back, but as I expected, it was full of the same basic "my mind is permanently closed for business because I can't be bothered to give this holy book the critical examination and thought that it deserves since it's so much easier to just take it at face value and that way I can feel better about myself and justifying discrimination" crap. (This is, incidentally, part of the reason the myth about Christians being 'persecuted' in this country stubbornly prevails: when you've been the dominant majority for so long, and in recent decades are finally being told hey, you have to share the toys with the rest of the class because it's only fair, you can't hog it all, well, that loss of privilege doesn't sit so well.)
Here's what I wrote:
I strongly disagree with you on this subject. A gay adult wanting to
share his or her life with another consenting gay adult isn't based on
the sordid (and overrated, IMO) topic of sex alone. Yes, sex is a part
of a healthy relationship - gay or straight - but it isn't the sole
factor. Some adults don't even engage in sex at all, ever - gay or
straight, even some married couples. And that's fine. To use a bad pun
here, different strokes for different folks. As long as you aren't
doing the happy with animals, non-consenting adults, dead bodies or
children, I really don't care what you do or don't do in your own
home. Those four are generally understood by any reasonable person as
off-limits no matter what, because the issue is consent: none of those
four have the mental, emotional or physical capacity to be able to
give informed consent.
Marriage is about extending the civil rights that heterosexual adults
take for granted every day to homosexual adults. Marriage is (or
should be) based on mutual love and respect. Who can say what love is
for someone else? It means different things to everyone. (Don't even
try to bring up the red herring of "gay marriage = bestiality or child
porn.") In the case of secular law, we're talking about things like
being able to pass down property or money to a spouse, or being able
to visit a spouse in the ER should serious illness/injury strike.
These are rights that heterosexual adults enjoy regularly without
second thought, and no one has yet been able to explain to me why gay
adults don't deserve those legal rights. (The Bible doesn't count
either; that book can be and has been used to justify the most hideous
oppressions and cruelties. Any religious text has this unfortunate
tendency to be abused by unscrupulous people, so Christianity isn't
alone in this regard. You would think that if gay marriage was such a
big no-no to God, He'd have stuck it in the Big Ten List somewhere
between Commandments #4 and #6...)
For that matter, the issue of whether or not churches should do
marriages for gay adults is a self-correcting problem. Those churches
that will do such marriages will do them, and people will flock there.
Those churches that refuse, that's their right and it should be
respected. However, word will get out and the churches that refuse
will eventually die off from lack of membership as more people realize
that they feel judged unfairly based on superficialities, which runs
contrary to God's word (regardless of however one sees God according
to one's own religious preferences - the Abrahamic faiths all pretty
much follow similar routes). They'll wonder what else that religion
might judge them on, and they'll want to go somewhere else where they
feel treated fairly and kindly. It's no coincidence that gay children
kicked out of their homes by their own parents wind up finding
community (if they're fortunate, that is) at LGBT-friendly youth
centers: the only places where they are judged on how they treat other
people, not by whom they want to kiss.
Secular government recognizes no official religion, nor should it, and
even Jesus Himself said to render unto Caesar. This is why we have the
practical theory of the separation of church and state. VERY bad
things happen when people try to mix the two together, and if you
doubt this, take a trip to Europe and check out some of their
historical documentation of the bloody wars between Protestants and
Catholics. Better yet, try certain sections of today's Middle East for
vivid examples of what happens when an insanely narrow-minded version
of religion is allowed to control daily matters. (Hint: Women are
virtually slaves in Saudi Arabia; they can't drive and can't travel
without a dominant male's (husband, brother or father) express written
permission. Trust me, there's nothing even remotely "protective" or
"caring" about that. Nowhere in any religious text did God say that
women are inferior to men or that they were their slaves. Men and
women were meant to be partners - equal shares - in life, not one
lording it over the other.)
I can't understand how anyone can look at an obviously loving and
faithful same-sex couple who've probably been together for decades
longer than most Hollywood heterosexual marriages, and say, "those two
don't deserve to call themselves married" all because they have the
same genitalia. I just don't get that. I can see how the idea of it
would be weird and uncomfortable to a heterosexual person, but since
they're not harming you or yours (and no, there are no roaming hoards
of gay people trying to 'indoctrinate' new recruits, sorry), why does
it matter? If the God you claim to speak for is so powerful, can't He
do his own smiting himself without relying on weak puny humans to do
His work? If I recall correctly, He had no problem smiting the heck
out of anyone and anything that ticked him off in the Old Testament
(Mean 'ol bugger, wasn't he? Of course, if I had to watch the
Pharisees messing up my stuff, I'd probably be in a smiting mood too).
I don't believe that God works that way. I believe there is a God. I
don't know if that God is the God of the Bible, or the Torah, or the
Koran, or any other text. (I suspect it is all the same.) I'm
comfortable admitting this ambiguity. Because I trust that God will
answer me one day, and I believe that God approves of love among
adults regardless of hetero or homosexuality. The woman of a gay son I
once saw on TV said as much, and she said she didn't know if she was
doing the right thing by accepting her son as gay, but she said she
believed in God and in love, and seeing how at peace her son was with
himself after admitting that he was gay, she wanted to act out of love
rather than fear. I thought that was a beautiful, even a Christian,
thing to say. If the "Christian" thing to do is act from love, then it
follows that gay adults must - and will - have the same rights as
heterosexual adults when it comes to the union of marriage. Which they
are, slowly but surely. And not surprisingly, life has gone on,
heterosexuals' marriages are doing just fine (except, of course, for
those marriages in which there is no love and respect). So relax, take
a walk in a garden, enjoy how blessed life is in all its variations,
because I really don't think that you will get ripped on by God for
'allowing' gay people to get married. (He might, however, have some
interesting things to say about people who kick other people down. But
don't worry, I'll still speak up for your defense, and anyway, if we
both end up in h-e-double-hockey-sticks-land, at least we'll be in
good company, because I know a lot of cool people in the same basket.
Also, we have cookies. ;) )
I don't expect you to answer or agree with me. I stumbled onto your
website through an unrelated search, and my eye was caught by the
wise-woman-house quote (for the record, I liked that quote). So I
wanted to say my piece. Not as a gay person, not as a straight person,
only a person who believes in dignity and human rights for everyone. I
think that's how God would want us to treat each other. I hope this
has given you some new food for thought.
The Twitter one was just funny. I did a random browsing for people in or near the Chicago area and came up with somebody calling themselves some variation of a 50 Sucks name. I forget what they posted too, but I couldn't resist the urge to reply with "Sorry, I'm not into abusive stalking guys. Or spineless wimpy women attracted to them, for that matter." They came back with a predictably lame "haters gonna hate." Yeah, shitty self-insertion writing trying to pass itself off as quality pretentious assfuckery does tend to bring out my evil side, I'm afraid. :p
--
Talked to my brother and SIL the other night. They are more or less now settled in Texas. According to SIL the place - the base, that is - is freaking huge. Their own house is in a nice enough neighborhood, although they do have to watch for rattlesnakes: one neighbor keeps his grass too long and in any case the general climate is such that rattlers are a common sight; they saw a squished one by the side of the road just down their street. D:
--
Am thoroughly getting tired of all the Superman publicity crap that's out lately. Ordinarily I wouldn't care, because I hate almost all standard comic-stuff anyway, but the publicity for this movie is annoying because they filmed several scenes for it in my old hometown where I grew up and lived much of my life, till we ended up moving at the end of 2005. That building in the pic there used to be an old abandoned apartment complex, and the one next to that was part of a family-owned furniture store that's been in business for decades (it's still there, I believe). This all took place while I was living in Florida. Consequently the whole area has been inundated with movie-related stuff for the upcoming theatrical release, and my old town thinks it's hot snot because OOH HOLLYWOOD WAS HERE for all of maybe 5 minutes (of the proverbial 15 minutes' worth of fame).
I am somewhat darkly amused by the local reaction to all that attention, because I can tell you from VERY personal experience what it was like to live there, and while I won't say explicitly what I think, let's just say that there is a reason small towns have a certain stereotypical imagery to bigger-city-dwellers. (Also: the high school there SUCKED STEAM-FRIED DONKEY BALLS. I have no fond memories of that particular building, thank you bullies.)