I'm Not Bitter BUT...

Meet in the Middle for Equality to Overturn Prop 8 Rally Almost Overturned my Support for Gay Rights (Almost)

2009-05-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

Fresno, CA—“Meet in the Middle” was the “angry protest” promised by the Overturn Prop 8 people in the aftermath of the Supreme Courts bullshit decision to Uphold Proposition 8, the measure that for the first time in history stripped a minority of their FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.

So OF COURSE I was out there at Santa Monica and Valencia on Tuesday marching to protest Supreme Bullshit, and of course I was RSVP'ed to go to Fresno for “Meet in the Middle” on Saturday (it was between fighting for civil liberties and going to a party my friend was throwing in Hollywood, I THOUGHT I'd made the right choice).

Caravans of carpools and buses were organizing all over the state and Socal, so I showed up to Union Station to grab a comfy and fully guaranteed seat on the bus. Finding the bus was the start of my adventure.

I got to Union Station in LA riding on 2 hours of sleep and the promise of breakfast when I got there, parked my car topside and started walking around all alone with a big blue “I DO SUPPORT THE FREEDOM TO MARRY” eqca sign. I was trying to hide it behind my back but it was two sided so that didn't work out too well. All of the sudden some skinny Latino boy with a girly-walk ran up to me wanting to know where to meet up. I guess I wasn't the only one with the plan of “follow the people holding the signs.” His name was Darwin, we walked around until we saw someone in a Day of Decision sweatshirt who told us we were in the right place, early.

Darwin and I ended up sticking together while he checked out guys.

“Don't worry, I'm gonna introduce you to lots of girls,” he said to me, then pulled me over to a young lesbian couple and literally introduced me. I waved at them, Darwin did the talking. Darwin's friends eventually showed up in a little grey Centra, all tall, lanky, and as fruity as he was. They talked like valley girls with a limp wrist and a lisp, and smiled “Hayyy” as they shook my hand. We all grabbed car-paint pens and scribbled “Equal Rights” and “Love not H8” all over the little Centra until it was a rainbow nightmare. I personally scrawled “Freedom Fighters” on the side and we all took pictures in front of it while a documentary filmmaker interviewed us.

“Why are you here?” he asked me.

“I'm here to fight Supreme Bullshit because the ruling didn't change the last ruling in the San Francisco marriage cases, Prop 8 is still unconstitutional and we really need to ban together to fight for Equality,” I answered not realizing I'd said “we.”

The caravan was ready to leave and Darwin's friends had an extra seat in their car, so I gave up my guaranteed spot on the perfectly guaranteed safe-return bus and hopped in a car full of fabulous flamers and one short lesbian named Ana. Jaime was our driver, Sean was riding shotgun, while I rode in the back with Darwin and Ana. (We also grabbed like 3 boxes of cookies and muffins from the breakfast table for the ride).

“Get down!” Darwin called and ducked as we were pulling away. Apparently he'd grabbed a gas card after Jaime had already been given a gas car, and Sean pulled out his own gas car that the organizers had given him also. $75 worth of free gas for equality by accident.

“Alright we've got the trip paid for, now lets go to Disneyland!” said Darwin.

“Wouldn't it be funny if that's what everyone ended up doing? Taking the gas cards and not showing up to the Rally?” We kicked around the idea for a moment and then hopped on the 101 to find an Exxon Mobil. A text from Ana's mother read “Y R U going 2 Fresno? Nothing up there but fruit, vegetables and Mexicans!”

“Luckily, Dawin doesn't just like Fruits, he LOVES vegetables!” said Sean.

“I wanna suck on some cucumbers but hell no Mexicans!” scoffed Darwin, who was Nicaraguan.

“Whoa!” I exclaimed wide-eyed and surprised, at which point Sean leaned back and said, “you'll never think about salad the same way again,” at which point Ana shot back, “she doesn't need to, she's a lesbian.”

Whoa. This was going to be an interesting car ride.

Sean and Darwin switched seats at the gas station we found in Boyle Heights, Jaime's hometown (we were going the wrong way but intended to turn around after we filled up). Sean sat in between in me and Ana for the rest of the way up to Fresno and chatted like a gitty school-girl about how they'd been at Club Rage the previous night and were rolling off 3 hours of sleep.

“My gay friend took me to Rage for his 21st birthday,” I said, “it was an educational experience seeing all those beautiful guys grinding on each other.” That comment was followed up by a rash of jokes about how a lesbian found gay guys attractive and self-promoting comments about things they wanted to do to each other. I don't know how I got into a conversation with Sean about politics, but the only way I could save my Republican skin from a Liberal tongue-lashing was asking Sean personal questions.

“So, can I ask you a question I've always wanted to ask a gay guy but have been too embarrassed?” We turned to face each other like teenage girls talking about secret crushes all excited. “Can guys have sex like...facing each other?” He laughed and then went into incredibly graphic detail about the fundamentals of gay sex, which I really didn't need to know. Sean gave me the whole lowdown on gay-terminology, positions, “tops,” “bottoms,” and “various',” which apparently means either or.

“That's one of the standard questions about gay sex,” he said coming back to my question, “the standard question I've always wanted to know about lesbian sex is—“ brrrriiiiinnggg.

THANK GOD MY CELL PHONE RANG! It was the Courage Campaign people calling to see if I was going to canvas with them tomorrow. I struggled to hear them over Britney Spears and Miley Cirus tunes blasting on Jaime's radio, and tried to carry on the conversation as long as possible with the guy on the other end so that by the time I'd gotten off the cell phone, Ana and Sean had already changed the subject of the conversation.

Somewhere past Bakersfeild, a biker on a Harley pulled up next to our Rainbow Monstrocity and gave us the eye. Ana tried to ignore him but then smiled and waved, he flipped us off. I rolled down the window, flipped him double birdies and called him a faggot. Everyone in the car laughed.

"He's wearing velcro shoes!" called Ana.

After four hours on the road, we finally got into Fresno, Jesus' tourist trap. In town, bikers were everywhere but ignored us for the most part, and a few friendly cars honked at us in support. We parked, applied liberal amounts of sunscreen and pulled out our signs. A same-sex married couple came up to us to say hi and when they saw my sign they nearly blew a gasket.

“Don't use EQCA signs, they're always trying to hijack our events, here use this sign.” They threw my blue sign back in Jaime's trunk and gave me a hand-made sign that said “We Deserve Equal Marriage Rights.” Well, I ended up carrying around a We sign.

Boy was it HOT! Like a billion plus degrees. Darwin walked with his arm around me as he scanned all the non-hetero guys.

“This is where you find long-term relationship type stuff, we don't want that. We want quickies in the bathrooms, backs of cars, wherever but no longer than seven minutes, lets see who can get more,” I didn't say anything when he challenged me. Just changed the subject to a guy I saw walking around with cool spikey hair.

“Ooh, I like that guys hair,” I exclaimed. Darwin rolled with the fact that I was looking at a guy and looked with me.

“He's a bottom for sure.”

“He's pretty hot too,” I replied getting everyone in the group to look at me funny.

“No, you know who's hot,” said Darwin, “that camera guy.”

I looked over at the blatantly straight camera man with big arms and a tattoo and swooned right along with Darwin, who was by now eyeing me quite confused.

The rally kicked off with speakers from gay rights advocacy groups all over the country, but when “Don't Ask Don't Tell” victim Lt. Dan Choi got up on stage, everyone went WILD! In front of the news cameras, people stood up and clapped, but behind the press stage where the cameras couldn't see, everyone was jumping up and down and cheering. I was jumping like crazy, screaming and waving my We poster all over the place while Lt. Choi recited a poem in Arabic and a quote from “a President” who said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

"Well I'm tired of asking, I'm going to tell! And I'm going to keep telling all the way to Washington!" proclaimed Choi. I was cheering like I was at a rock concert, I'm a fan of soldiers seeing as I've always wanted to be one but have a problem with a certain combat-exclusion policy. Sean and I were chanting “Dan for President” after Lt. Choi's powerful speech. I would vote for that Korean man for President.

We all got pictures in front of a big banner that said “In Case You Haven't Noticed, This Flag Is Not White.” We couldn't stand another moment in the sun, so we left before Cleve Jones spoke to get some lunch. Stupid.

We stopped at a Jack in the Box and sat around a table Bullshitting. These guys were really cool. Most of my gay friends are the kind of guys who hang around straight men and have to tell you they're gay, but these flamboyant college kids were the kind of gay guys you party with. I was having the time of my life! They were sitting around the table talking about their sex lives, the men they'd dated, the women Ana had dated, and finally came to me. Uhhh...

I swallowed and was silent for a moment, now I knew what coming out must be like for gays. So, I set my drink to the side, folded my hands in front of me, and took a deep breath. Everyone's eyes were on me.

“Um, guys, you know this is probably going to sound like the weirdest coming out story you've ever hear but...I'm straight.”

Dead silence. Blank stares.

“What?” they asked after almost ten whole seconds. “Really?”

I nodded.

“Oh my god!” they exclaimed, then smiled quite surprised. “Why didn't you say anything?”

“I'm sorry, I didn't know how to approach it, I thought you would be like 'why are you here' if I pointed it out.”

I then explained to them why I was there. When I went out for the football team and the wrestling team in high school, I shaved my head for Hell Week just like the rest of the guys. I lost all my friends because they were homophobic, everyone called me a lesbian, no one hung around me because they were intimidated, guys didn't approach me. I told them how I'd been kicked out of lockerrooms, had complaints filed against me at the YMCA, been lectured by priests and doctors alike and been discriminated against for something I wasn't even anyway! I told them that I knew exactly what gays went through and anyone who voted Yes on 8 has never experienced real discrimination. Ending hate of homosexuals would make people stop hating me, and since I've been lumped in with them so many times, I feel like this is my fight too. This is ridiculous, if people harbored so much hate that it even spilled over onto kids who were straight, then I want to help. I also told them about my best friend who got thrown out of his house when he was 17 for telling his dad he was gay. I was totally anti-gay in 9th grade, but then my best friend came out to me and I thought “do I really want to lose my best friend?” The answer was obvious, and that is why I was at Meet in the Middle on Saturday.

“You are the most awesome straight girl in the world!” they all exclaimed. “How cute that she's coming out to us. How long have you known?” they joked.

“So that's why you were checking out my camera man!” joked Darwin.

They all proceeded to tell me their own coming out stories.

“Gosh but you were showing all the signs!”

“I'm sorry for throwing off your gay-dar,” I apologized. Then they got serious. They all apologized to me.

“You know, it's funny how we all get mad about people stereotyping us when we just turned around and did it to her.” We talked about how gay is perceived, and how funny that the stereotypes were affecting me in my life to the point where I'd be out there marching with them. It wasn't just a gay issue anymore. I found out Jaime had been in ROTC, not very stereotypical gay.

We finished our lunch and got back on the road, this time Ana sat in between me and Sean. Sean leaned over and raised his eyebrows at me.

“So it's good I never got to finish my question about lesbian sex isn't it.”

“I'm so glad my phone rang!” I exclaimed. The question was then fielded to Ana.

“So what do lesbians consider 'penetrative' sex?” asked Sean. An in-depth explanation about lesbian sex followed, again which I probably didn't need to know.

“Do you girls scissor?” Sean asked Ana, then explained to me what it was. I decided to hell with it and asked my own question.

“Don't lesbians do it with strap-ons?” This led to Sean asking me if I would ever “peg” a guy I was with.

“What the hell?” I asked. He then explained to me that “pegging” is doing a guy with a strap-on. All of this sex education was kind of overwhelming my comfort levels. Sean laughed and asked if they were making me uncomfortable. Ana said they were making her uncomfortable more than anything.

“She's asking questions, maybe she's bicurious or bisexual,” said Ana.

That threw me. My whole tone changed. I whirled and suddenly wanted nothing more than to get out of the car, and might have if we weren't in the middle of nowhere. In that moment, I realized why people voted Yes on Prop 8, and what gay people did to turn straight allies away from them. I also realized that picking and choosing which political beliefs from which political party to believe in lost you credibly.

“Ana, quit it, look you're making her blush!” said Sean. I don't know whether I was red from embarrassment or anger, but I was suddenly extremely uncomfortable sitting next to a lesbian whom I thought might have been trying to convert me. After I'd calmed down, I convinced myself that it had only been a passing comment and I was being irrational. I fidgeted uneasy for a long time after that. Suddenly we came up on highway 99.

“Hey guys, wanna go to Sequoia?” asked Jaime out of the blue, and the next second we were veering across 5 lanes onto Sequoia Hwy. We drove over snaking, winding roads all the way up mountains to the National Park. Darwin pee'd on General Sherman, Jaime got a ton of pictures of him posing like a model, Sean and Jamie got in a lot of catty arguments, which I learned gay guys do a lot, they're worse than women, and on our way back, we blew a tire. Nice. So there we were, 2 girls and 3 queens and none of us knew how to change a tire...in the dark. We waved someone down to help us and were about to get going when Darwin nearly had a heart attack from seeing a coyote. He was scared and jumped in the backseat.

“Drive, drive, drive!” he yelled. So we swerved down the forest roads once again, the altitude getting to us when suddenly Darwin called for us to stop because he was going to be car sick. It all went downhill from there. Darwin stopped responding to our questions and started wheezing. He was nearly passed out couldn't breathe or talk. We stopped the car and I leapt out and took Darwin's pulse. Fast and thready. His legs were cold, he wasn't sweating, I told Jaime to get on his cell phone because Darwin might have been having a heat stroke. No cell reception. Great! We waved down another shady driver who told us to get in his car and he'd take us for help. Um, stranger, red flag, we drove Darwin to the fire station. He was fine and apparently suffered an anxiety attack from the altitude, which he'd been dealing with all his life. It was midnight by the time we left the park.

"I wanted that firefighter to give me mouth to mouth with his tongue on my nipple!" exclaimed Darwin. We determined that hot guys are the cure to Darwin's anxiety attacks and we needed a hologram of guys whenever he started spazzing. A side thought crossed my mind that the Firefighters probably wouldn't want to be thanked by having gay guys ogle them.

So we ended up in a cheap hotel somewhere in Bakersfield. We snuck 5 people into a two bedroom with no toilet seat! We had to work out accommodations. Five people, two beds. They were going to make one bed the girls bed. That's where I got fidgety.

“I don't know how to say what I want to say without offending anyone,” I stammered. “It's weird, the gender roles are kinda reversed a little here. I'm sorry but I'm more comfortable sleeping next to a gay guy than I am next to a lesbian.” They understood and I ended up crowded onto a twin squashed in between Sean and Darwin. When I woke up the next morning, I was really ready to go home.

The Freedom Mobile was fun at the rally, but now in the middle of Bakersfield, it was suggested that we should look around for a hose.

“Nah,” said Jaime. There we were in the middle of god-knows-where surrounded by rednecks and wetbacks with a colorful kaleidoscope of liberty-and-justice-for-all-who-survive. We got the spare-tire changed at an all-hispanic tire place, crowded back in and drove back down to LA.

"We didn't get to meet any hot guys on this trip! Let's go pick some up, Nicole said she's gay."

"Hey!" I shouted, ready to punch him.

"I said you're game," said Darwin.

"Oh," I replied, and stayed quiet for a long time after that, peering out the window.

One day of spanish bubblegum pop blasting and every other word being a sex joke was fun for a while, but the second day, I found myself cursing queers and I'd never said the word queer in my life.

“I'm sorry,” said Sean, “we don't mean to talk about so much sex but when you get a car full of sexually frustrated gay guys, that's all you're gonna hear,” then they went back to making sexual innuendo and Ana kept talking about what it was like to be a lesbian. I tried to pay attention but at that point honestly didn't want to hear it. At that point I was gayed out, done, felt weird, and did NOT want to know what it was like to be a lesbian. We parked at a grocery store so Darwin could use the bathroom yet again and a truck pulled up with a bumper sticker that said “Freedom isn't Free, Protected by Smith and Wesson.”

“That truck is packing, probably Republicans,” scoffed Ana. They didn't notice me peer genuinely annoyed at them through my sunglasses. It was Democrats who passed Prop 8. Finally back down the highway to LA, rolling on a few hours of sleep and kinked necks, we dropped Ana off at Occidental College to go straight to the Canvas, and dropped Darwin off in East LA.

“Home Sweet Home,” he mused as I saw what was probably the cause of his anxiety, I mean it's East LA.

Jaime dropped me and Sean off right back where we'd started at Union Station. We all got contact info and parted ways. I left kicking myself for not bringing a camera because this would have made one hell of a documentary!

Well, all in all, Meet in the Middle was eventful, chaotic, insightful and an experience. I missed a happening party in LA to go, but had some form of crazy fun anyway. However, I think I'm pretty gayed-out, I'm sorry to say I left my “I DO” sign in Jaime's trunk. I still think the Supreme Court's decision was wrong, and with this whole abortion thing, am still scared my own rights will be taken away by popular vote, but now instead of holding a sign that says “Vote No on Prop 8,” I think I'll make a sign that just says “Vote” seeing as this WHOLE MESS happened because gays didn't all get out and vote the first time around. So far I've met at least five who didn't vote. Forget right and wrong for a moment, people died for everyone's right to vote, and no one does. Now that a national movement for full federal equality has been sparked, Prop 8 may have been the best thing to ever happen to the gay community seeing as now they're all going to come out to vote for their own proposition next year and get all their rights and then some. Right, wrong, how about just what's easy? The gay community knows what it has to do.

I'll vote however they tell me to, but I think my protesting days will be better spent studying for myself from now on.

Prop 8 Supreme Court Decision (Since the Court Site has Crashed)

2009-05-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Link to the decision. Please summarize it for me in the comments, I'm too heartbroken to read it now.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S168047.PDF

How to Get a Girl

2009-04-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Tip 1: Stand up to her older brother

My little brother punks on all of my little sister's friends constantly. These poor guys who tread the loser path instead of waltzing down popularity lane have to put up with my superjock bro who intimidates the heck out of them intentionally. I see how he does it. He stands right next to them looking very alpha-male and just nonchalantly says "sup," but that's all he says to them, then he does the usual brother routine with my sister and starts punking her around in front of her guy friends. Brothers do this to sisters, they're intentionally annoying. So he cracks on her hair, her freckles, her grades, her glasses, her braces etc. all in front of her guy friends, and then just goes and stands next to them while they shrivel up like kicked puppies.

Now I’m the oldest of the family, if I feel like it, I go stand next to my little brother standing next to my little sisters friends and say “sup,” and he smiles like a little kitten and walks away. I love the power that comes with being the oldest and the strongest, it gives me the power to laugh hysterically at bullies, mostly that’s what I do though when it comes to my siblings, sit back and watch the entertainment. I will admit that my little brother’s behavior borders on the slightly ass-hole, so when my sister’s friends leave, I ask him about it. Here’s what he said.

“If he would have stood up to me, I would have just been cool with it and given him a hi-five, at least he’s got some nuts, but they all just shut up like little bitches.”

Oh, I see. My little brother’s boyish antics towards other boys are primitive pecking order rituals, 15 year old boys test other 15 year old boys’ strength, which is measured not in physical prowess, but in wit. I’ve noticed the guys that my brother hangs out with are just as witty, they trade insults with each other, and they can keep up with each other. Apparently status is measured by how good you can spar with half-hearted insults, spar, mind you, not fight.

But through all this, my little sister is enduring emotional turmoil, having her self-esteem tramples on in the midst of my brother’s pecking order ritual, seeing as she’s the object of ridicule. Her hair is getting pointed out, which she spends hours doing to avoid such ridicule, her freckles are being analyzed, which she uses gobs of unhealthy chemicals to cover up, everything about her is being pointed out and laughed at, and she doesn’t care about the boy-things going on between the lines, all she knows is that she’s getting picked on. That sucks.

So given what I know from watching and listening to both my little brother and my little sister’s point of view, if I were one of her little friends, I’d stand up to my older brother. Seriously. Say “hey, don’t talk to her like that!” and be firm about it.

My little bro is of course going to stand up tall like an over-exaggerated alpha dog and go “or else what?” or “do something.” Classic GQ bully wannabe stuff. Just ignore him!

“You shouldn’t be talking to her like that!” just repeat it over and over again. “She’s none of those things you say she is. She’s nice, smart, beautiful and funny and she’s everything you’re not. You’re an asshole for treating her like that.”

Observe: You didn’t get dragged into an insult sparring match with my bro, or goaded into something that could end in physical violence which my bro would obviously win (unless you’ve got some secret ninja tricks hidden up your sleeve for dealing with bullies), you stood up to him showing your “nuts” and at the same time complimented my little sister. You exhibited two things that are attractive to women, confidence and strength.

At this point, after you’ve said the above, my little brother, being the clown he is, would have backed down, given you a hi-five and never bothered you again. Unfortunately, he still would have cracked on my sister, just not as hard because the game would be over, and you would have won. You’d have won much more than just respect, you’d have caught the eye of a very attractive popular girl (girls fantasize about guys who stick up for them).

Now, let’s say if the scenario had been some other less intelligent guy than my little brother who really was punking around a girl because that’s the only way he knows how to communicate. Standing up to dumb bullies is an insult to their pride, which may very well end in physical violence no matter which way you spin it. It all comes down to how much you’re willing to endure for the heart of a girl or for your morals in general. `If you stand up to a dumb bully, you might get your ass kicked, but here’s the real kicker. If you get your ass kicked standing up for a girl, you’ll win the heart and the sympathy of said girl. She’ll gush all over you because you got hurt and because you stood up for her. Give it your all of course, fight like a wild dog and at least try to look like you got at least one good shot in, but how much of a slap in the face would it be for the dumb bully to know that you’re dating his sister or you have a girlfriend and he doesn’t. You win.

So, in conclusion, confidence is the key to success. Endure a little scrutiny and stand up for your beliefs and you will be swimming in female fondness.

Uneducated Christians Hold Progress Back

2009-03-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

I realized why zealous Christians will never stop criticizing science no matter how much empirical proof is thrown at them. The majority of them have never even taken a science class in their lives, to them, science is just another religion.

In a country where only 10% of the population graduates from four year institutions anymore (ALL four year institutions, including high schools), children are exposed to church basically from birth, but may never step foot inside a biology class. The foundational principals of blind-faith are ingrained in them from baptism and hard study of scientific principal is not explored in-depth at all until at least the ninth grade. Schools are charged with undoing 15 years of damage, which is very unlikely to happen in one semester, or in the week max that students spend studying evolution.

The conclusion, no wonder science doesn't make sense to zealous Christians, they can't understand it. In this country's education system, that's no surprise. On the flipside, biology class can't be much more boring than church can it? The same people who will begrudgingly leave a bio lab for God will go sit in church for fear of damnation if they don't. Well, damnation to hell in a second life that may not even exist for not going to church is obviously more convincing than damnation to poverty for not staying in school. Obviously.

I tried to have a conversation with my dad about Humanity's origins, I explained that we started as unicellular organisms that split and multiplied to create multicelluar organisms and eventually changed into their present day forms over millions of years to cope with their respective environments. "That's how babies are formed, from single cells that split and multiply," I explained. It's not the best argument, but it's an analogy that him, being uneducated from Albania, might understand. He was outraged.

"I don't come from an amoeba!" he touted. "Just look at how complicated living things are! No mistake in nature could have come up with such a sophisticated and complicated system!"

Um, yes, it can and it did and the fact that we're standing here today is proof that it did. No theoretical conceptualized logic-proof (a proof and to prove, two different things btw) that Descartes wrote can undo the fact that we're here, he himself said "I am, therefore I exist."

The only shred of empirical proof that Christians have for God stems from the lack of proof scientists have for certain scientific phenomena. "Oh well explain this, explain that, hah! You can't! Therefore God must exist." We can't explain magnetism either, does that mean it doesn't exist? We can't completely explain evolution but we can see that it has happened and can see it happening just like magnetism, but until you can throw it under a microscope, Christians will not be satisfied, and even then, they'll find a way to keep looking away. It's like how cheating spouses will deny they cheated until you show them a video of them in the act, or how criminals will claim innocence until you show them the surveilance video.

Christian faith in an external God is ironically based on a lack of faith in an internal self. Of all the wondrous and amazing things that the Human mind, body, and spirit are capable of, people don't have the self-confidence to take credit for their acts or abilities, so they attribute it to an external inspiration-source to qualify their feats. It people would start believing in themselves, the need for a God would disappear. Maybe the churches know this, which is why they strive to hold people down and tell them they're incapable worthless shmucks without God--to keep their jobs.

Even professed "experts" who take up the study of scientific principals for the sake of refuting them, religion still came first. Religion set its roots, held its influence, and did its damage long before the school tried to intervene and failed. For some people, there is no hope and no escape and the only thing they can do is what they are programed to do--convert people. Yet for some, they see the light, realize that the ultimate aim of religion is to make good people and decide that they can be good people without proverbs or worship. Some people need religion, and that's okay, but some people don't, and that's fine too, just please someone graffiti over the billboard on the 105 Freeway that says "Pull the Plug on Atheism," I don't want to have to be subjected to this ignorance in this anti-intellectual society anymore.

Who Watched the Watchmen?

2009-03-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

Rotten Tomatoes gave Watchmen a 64%. What! RT complains that Snyder didn't stay true to Allan Moore's "vision" by spicing up the fight scenes, beautifying everyone, and changing dialogue.

First, let me throw it out there, this is a hard movie to understand if you have not read the novel. If you have read the novel, do not go see this movie with someone who has not, they will not get it and will ruin your experience.

This movie is essentially making fun of superheroes. The infamous Rorschach is a parody of the Question, and breaks the superhero code of honor: Superheroes don't kill people. Watchmen puts a grungy spin on the superhero by portraying it as if it were an actual profession, making the unreal completely realistic and they pretty much go around acting like rogue Blackwater operators.

But despite its namesake, Watchmen is NOT a superhero movie, it is a Human-hero movie. In the end when the twisted, completely f-d up climax of the whole movie is finally revealed, and all of those superheros with their psychic powers and technological turmoils are finally faced with the age-old dilemma of "what should we do," Rorschach, the guy in the trench coat with his only claim to superhero-dom being a sock over his face, was the only one who got it right.

A greater good in which even one person has to die unwillingly is not a greater good. Two wrongs don't make a right. "If you would have cared from the beginning, none of this would have happened."

Dr. Manhattan, the idealized image of "God," discovers the value of Humanity, which is one of the prime epiphanies of the movie. This is a Human-hero movie for the Y2K generation, who has never witnessed anything like this before.

People who were alive back when the cold-war was a reality and the doomsday clock was actually in the papers complain that this movie wasn't true to the original concept and has instead spun off into a cheap action thrill-ride. Well, I've got a bit of a newsflash, THIS MOVIE WASN'T FOR YOU! If Snyder would have made this movie for you, he would have made no money. This was for 18-25 year old's who literally just saw The Dark Knight like a second ago, that's what they're going to be comparing it to whether we like it or not. That is the reason for the hyped-up fight scenes and the dramatic undertones, the enhanced athleticism of the characters from fat, paunchy, average joes to actual superheros so that they didn't look like they were parading around in Halloween costumes, and unfortunately also for the raunchy porno sex scenes (18-25 year old wank-off's expect that from a movie made by the guy who did 300 because of Leonidas' patootie scene). Honestly, what is this new "purist" movement going around? Who wants to see movies that are too akin to real life? If I wanted to see a movie about an insurance salesman and his problems in life, or a senior analyst living an average life, I'd save myself the cash and just look outside. I go to movies to be entertained, and this movie still managed to be entertaining given the fact that it was basically charged with portraying a dead message (who the heck is afraid of the Soviets anymore).

In conclusion, this movie had a lot of turn-off's. The bone-crushing fight scenes and the porno sex were very annoying, but I understand why they were there. You have to be intelligent to understand this movie, Allan Moore's comic did not hand you the meaning on a silver platter, the majority of American's with a 6th grade reading level would have come out of the theater completely unentertained if they couldn't at least say there was some cheap sex and shoestring action to top it off.

The book hit hard, there is no doubt about the fact that Watchmen changed people, but my generation just isn't living in the cold-war, and this movie wasn't about the war on terror. It would have gone completely over our heads and for the most part, did. Take away about 1/8 from the books hit and that's about how hard the movie hits. For the time constraints, this movie still showcased all of Allan Moore's morals and original story epiphanies, the deeper meaning is there, unfortunately you will have to sit and think about it on your drive home to get it, it will not pop out at you.

Definitely go see this movie, but take it with a grain of salt.

Prop 8 WILL be Overturned...The LA Times Miscalled It

2009-03-13T23:45:00.001-07:00

The LA Times has wrongly called oral arguments against Prop 8 before the Supreme Court last Thursday a lost cause. Luckily, I was there when it happened with an in-depth analysis of the case regarding Proposition 8—a measure that amends the California Constitution in a way that strips homosexuals of the right to marry.

Last year, the High Court ruled that Prop 22—a part of the Equal Protection Clause in our Constitution that recognized marriage as only between one man and one woman—was unconstitutional because it stripped a suspect classification of a fundamental right. Now Prop 8 has been called Prop 22 turned into an amendment. The Supreme Court will have to decide whether Prop 8 constitutes an amendment or a revision to the California Constitution in determining its validity.

Shannon Minter of the ACLU argued that not only did Prop 8 take away “the fundamental right to marry from same-sex couples...without compelling government interest,” it enacted a “wide-sweeping change in governmental structure.” Minter argued that the case of “Livermore v. Wade” held that amendments cannot change the core underlying concepts of our Constitution (the Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution is a core underlying concept). Furthermore, it was argued that the people cannot use the initiative process to reinstate a statue the Court has ruled unconstitutional, instead it must follow a separate process outlined in the Livermore case called the revision process, where parts of the Constitution are revised in order to make a proposed statue mesh with the existing framework of the Constitution.

When asked by Chief Justice George about how the case “People v. Frierson” played into his argument, Minter retorted that Frierson “did not strip a fundamental right from a suspect classification. Instead it reinstated a remedy clear across the board.” Raymond Marshal followed up on that point arguing that Frierson was a ruling on “the definition of cruel and unusual punishment,” not the case of an amendment vs. a revision. What happened in the Frierson case was that the death penalty was ruled cruel and unusual punishment and was hence repealed. The people recalled three Justices of the California Supreme Court, replaced them with Justices who ruled the death penalty was not cruel and unusual punishment and hence reinstated it. Dad said no, so they ran to mom.

The Supreme Court went on to ask Theresa Stewart of Lamda Legal how the case “Raven v. Deukmejian” does not affirm the people's ability to remove fundamental rights from a suspect classification. Steward argued that the Raven case constituted a revision because it “removed the power of the State to interpret its own Constitution” but still “did not take personal rights away from one group.” Raven was Prop 115 which stated criminal's rights could not be interpreted any differently than the US Federal Constitution dictated them. That constituted a revision and was thrown out on the grounds that it was a revision, not that it removed rights from a suspect class. Both of these cases restored remedies. What that means when compared to Prop 8: Apples to Oranges.

According to Chief Justice George, since the High Court has never had a case like this before, under the second prong of the 2 part test the Court has established for determining a revision (prong one a quantitative test; prong two a qualitative test), the Court is not limited toonly structural changes in government, and leaves open the possibility that fundamental changes in social rights may constitute a qualitative revision. In fact, it even articulated a possible ruling that “an initiative that alters a fundamental right of a suspect classification constitutes a revision,” according to Justice Corrigan.

Assistant Attorney General Chris Krueger's argument was slightly more novel in that even if Prop 8 is an amendment, it is an ultra vires amendment that the Court has no compelling state interest in upholding. “Amendments cannot be used to take away civil liberties without a compelling State interest,” argued Krueger citing the Raven Case. Courts can indeed strip fundamental rights from suspect classifications, but only if there is some very very good reason pertaining to a State's governmental structure and the ability to run itself. What possible benefit to our governmental structure could not recognizing gay marriage have? Kenn Starr of Pepperdine University, who represented the Intervenors, thinks he has an answer.

“The will of the people is sovereign even if unwise,” argued Kenn Starr. When asked by Chief Justice George if an amendment could be enacted to repeal the freedom of speech, Kenn Starr replied “as long as the people knew what they were voting for, yes.” To quote a movie featuring another famous code of laws, “they're more like guidelines anyway.” “It is the people's right to decide what is wise when it comes to their own legal structure,” argues Starr. My response: then what do we have Courts for? This constitutes a HUGE sweeping change in governmental structure. It takes the power of the Courts and puts it in the hand of the people. The end result: Mob Rule. Out of all the Justices, only one, Justice Kennard, vocally expressed a somewhat agreeable opinion that the people were sovereign but prefaced it by saying “in my opinion.”

According to the Preamble of our California Constitution, Theresa Stewart of Lamda Legal argued that “we the people came together to enact a legally binding document called the Constitution, and we understood that we the people meant all people because it says so in the Preamble.” In response to Starr's argument, this means that all people came together in a legally binding agreement to follow the rules and procedures they set forth in the Constitution, and that there would be a uniform process for revising or amending the Constitution. That is a core underlying principal which Prop 8 upended and went around.

“What I'm picking up is that this Court should willy-nilly disregard the will of the people,” Justice Kennard insenuated. Stewart answered that accusation by saying that the people could likewise not willy-nilly disregard the rules they placed upon themselves. The people do in fact have a “very broad power to amend their Constitution” but must do so in the way they entered into a legally binding agreement to do. If the people don't have to follow their own rules and they don't have to follow the Court's rules, whose rules do they have to follow? What's the point of even having a Constitution if the people have some inalienable right to “willy-nilly” disregard it at will? “Enforcing the statutes while ignoring the reasons they were enacted is like protecting the moat while allowing the castle to burn down,” argued Stewart.

“Doesn't Prop 8 only take away the nomenclature of marriage?” asked Chief Justice George. In a resounding hypothetical, Petitioners suggested that women in California cannot serve on the Judicial Bench, and addressing the Justices themselves, “Justice Corrigan, Justice Kennard, you would be called Commissioners (given your gender), while Chief Justice George would be called a Judge.”

“Justice,” the Court corrected.

“So what, it's only nomenclature right? It's not that important.” That point hit home and even got a laugh out of the Justices. Shannon Minter of the ACLU argued that the elements of marriage are organically intertwined and removing any element changes the entire institution.

Kenn Starr believed that while “denying only the recognition” of marriage did not take away any other rights of same-sex couples, people can wake up tomorrow and find they're not married but it shouldn't bother them because they have the putative spouse remedy. That was the argument Kenn Starr used to attempt to invalidate the 18,000 same-sex marriages already performed, to which the Court said “that was the law of the land at the time, and if the people cannot rely on this Court to tell them the laws, who can they rely on?”

The most important reason why Prop 8 should be invalidated according to the Petitioners is because of the foundational guarantee of equal citizenship. Prop 22 is still unconstitutional, the issue being looked at is do the people have a right to carve an exception out of equal protection? “A conditional guarantee of equal protection is no guarantee at all,” argued Stewart.

“Kenn Starr is arguing a system of Democracy, fortunately it is not this state's system of Democracy,” said Mark Rosenbound, Legal Director for the ACLU in a post-hearing press conference. “California is not a system where minorities' rights are subject to the whim of the majority. If Proposition 8 is upheld, there is no limit to the discrimination that can be mandated by the Constitution.”

Erik Dutch, a long time resident of North Hollywood, seems to agree. “If they want to get married, go for it, let them be miserable just like the rest of us!” However, the hate among some supporters is so ingrained that when Kenn Starr was asked by the Court if calling all marriages in California “civil unions” would satisfy them, Starr said it would. They would give up the right to marry completely before sharing it with homosexuals. Go for it! Then after all this has blown over, lets change the nomenclature of civil unions back to marriage!! (Just nomenclature right?).

When I personally asked Mark Rosenbound about Kenn Starr's comparison of gay marriage to pluralist marriage, Rosenbound responded that “being gay is not a lifestyle. A homosexual individual can turn around tomorrow and choose to be straight as easily as a heterosexual individual can turn around tomorrow and choose to be gay.”

If it's an amendment, it flies. If it's a revision, it dies. Essentially, here are the two side's arguments in perspective: one side, “they're taking away my right to marry the person I love.” The other side, “they're taking away my right to take their rights away.” The Court will decide which right they do and do not have. For everyone who was scared by the LA Times' lack of comprehension in reporting on this case, DO NOT WORRY. Do not stop believing in what you believe because it is unpopular and no matter what the outcome, get ready for rippling repercussions. As the ACLU and opponents of Proposition H8 have so unanimously resounded, “win or lose, this is just the beginning.”

MILK: Go See It

2009-03-01T02:04:00.001-08:00

Even if you're not all into the Gay Rights Movement, go see this movie. This is a story about Political Activism. It is a story about one man making a difference and fighting the powers that be. This movie was heartwarming and there was also a personal side to it, it makes you want to get up and change something. At the very least, it will make you want to go out and vote.

When the movie ended, everyone just stayed in their seats. For at least a whole minute after the credits came on, it was all dead silence. No one moved. We were caught in some freeze frame, some time warp that left us all wanting to applaud, but yet we all stayed quiet as if were actually there when the event happened. The feeling was surreal.

There are lots more hot guys kissing in this movie than there were in Brokeback Mountain though, so be wary about taking your old fashioned father out to dinner and a movie.

Indie 103.1 Is Off the Air!!!

2009-01-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option — to play the corporate radio game. We have decided not to play that game any longer.

Well damn the only good music station that actually played new and cutting edge music for cutting edge people has caught an edge and crashed. Indie was our connection to UK rock, punk, grunge and music that gets overshadowed in the KROQ sk8tr rock emo ballads exclusively for screaming teenage girls.

I hate screaming teenage girls. In fact, if I ever start a screamo band, I'm going to call it "Screaming Teenage Girls," and if any rock bands pop up in the near future with that name I'm going to punch them in the face. I'm going to punch somebody, anybody if I am forced to listen to anymore One Republic and Blink182 from like 2001 on my drive home everyday!

Well apparently advertisers are reluctant to advertise on a station that plays a diverse intelligent mix of alternative for diverse and intelligent people because intelligent people don't buy shit. Hah, that explains why it was converted to a spanish-language station!

Join the Indie Revolution and listen online to keep Independent Music alive!

Official Supreme Court Case Filings on Prop 8

2008-11-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

High Court Denies Requests to Stay Enforcement of
Proposition 8 and Agrees to Decide Issues
Arising Out of Proposition 8

Here is the Official Filings for the California Supreme Court on Prop 8.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/highprofile/prop8.htm

This is complicated politics and this is simple politics. The argument against Prop 8 seems to be that it is a Constitutional Revision instead of a Constitutional Amendment, and has not gone through the proper channels that a Constitutional Revision must go through in order to be enacted.

So far from what I have read, the simple politics is that in 2008 the California Supreme Court struck down a law called "Family Code 300" and "Family Code 308.5" because it violated the California Constitution's "Equal Protection Clause" and the right to marry. This led to the striking of Family Code 308.5 from the California Constitution all together in June of 2008. The High Court found that Family Code 300 was sexual orientation discrimination and that sexual orientation is a suspect classification, which is basically affirming it as a minority.

Here is the ruling in that Case. Apparently, the High Court went back and asked the question "what is marriage?" In order to answer that question, they determined what the aims of marriage where. The aims of marriage were for two adults to love each other in a relationship, establish an officially sanctioned family, and if they so desired, to raise children within that family. The High Court ruled that being of opposite sexes is not a necessary prerequisite for those conditions, that two adults of the same sex are capable of forming a loving relationship and raising children. Therefore, Family Code 308.5 was a hindrance to their ability to do so successfully as residents of the State of California.

Now, Prop 8 adds a provision to the California Constitution that is identical to former Family Code 308.5 stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." Essentially, the voters are trying to reverse a decision that the Supreme Court ruled on.

What it means to strike something from the Constitution or rule something "Unconstitutional" is to say that "it never should have been there in the first place." The fact that Family Code 308.5 was on the books means that it was interfering with the Constitution, and in 2008 High Court finally affirmed that it was and had it stricken from the books.

Now essentially what Prop 8 wants to do is put it back on the books. BUT here's the deal. If Prop 8 is put on the books, the Constitution will not work because not everyone will have the same equal right's that the Constitution guarantees them. That's why the original law was struck down. You cannot put a law on the books that makes the Constitution not work, so, since Prop 8 passed and now has to go on the books, the Constitution would have to be REVISED in order for Prop 8 to work. Therefore, Prop 8 is a REVISION to the California Constitution.

A REVISION to the Constitution cannot be passed by popular vote, it needs a 2/3 majority vote in the California Legislation. Prop 8 did not go through the proper legislative process, therefore it cannot be added to the books, and must be ruled "Unconstitutional" because it would make the Constitution as a document ineffective.

Now, to pass Prop 8 the legal way, it would have to be submitted as a Bill to the California Legislature and they would have to vote on it with a 2/3 majority, and then it could be submitted to the people for passage or non-passage. Prop 8 did not follow this route, therefore it should be deemed Unconstitutional now, be rewritten as a bill by whoever cares enough about it to rewrite it and resubmitted through the Legislature for approval or disapproval.

Do you see now? So to anyone who says "the People have spoken," no, the Mob has spoken. American is not run by Mob Rule, which is what pure Democracy is.

Fremont Muslim Church told Members to Vote Yes on Prop 8

2008-11-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

Sam Saleh, a store owner who is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, said that the prayer leader at his mosque had told members to vote yes on Prop. 8 during the Friday sermon.

Now do people believe that this was a setup? Churches are not allowed to get involved in politics. That is was "Separation of Church and State" means. However, flat out telling people to vote a certain way is the definition of church interfering with legislation. Churches tell their members to jump, and millions ask blindly "how high?" Thank you to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference-- the only organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- for speaking at the Impact Rally on Saturday against bigotry in the name of God, and being one of the brave few religious institutions to stand up for Equality.

Here is an updated list of Protests around the nation.

Thursday, Nov 20th

Concord, CA
Candle Light Vigil Against Prop. 8 And For Equality
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Where: Downtown Concord, CA. Intersection of Concord Ave. and Salvio St. next to the Concord 14 Brenden Theatres. This is the point where Concord Ave. turns into Galindo St.

Santa Monica, CA
7:00pm - 11:00pm
3rd Street Promenade
equalitynation@gmail.com

Friday, Nov. 21st

San Francisco, CA
Time: 5:30pm - 9:00pm
Location: In Front of the Ferry Building
4 Embarcadero Center
onelovesanfrancisco@yahoo.com

Front Steps of Burlingame High School
Street: 1 Mangini Way
City/Town: Burlingame, CA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93382880491

Saturday, Nov. 22nd

Sacramento, CA
California State Capitol Building
California State Capital Building
10th Street and Capitol Mall
Saturday, 2PM
info@californiaoutreach.com

Evanston, IL
5:00pm - 11:00pm
Century 21 Theater
1715 Maple Street near the" Davis" Purple Line Stop
3128235727
runwayrebel@yahoo.com

Pasadena, CA
Old Town Pasadena, 5:30PM
Colorado Blvd/Fair Oaks Blvd.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=47106896109

Oceanside, CA
CANDLELIGHT MARCH FOR EQUALITY
Oceanside City Hall (330 North Coast Hwy, Oceanside 92054)
Saturday November 22, @ 5:30 the Gathering
6:00 the March (Down to the Pier and bring your own candle.

Orange, CA
Candlelight Vigil to Repeal Prop 8
6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Orange Circle, Intersection of Glassel and Chapman, Orange, CA
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=110050460272

Sunday, Nov. 23rd

East Los Angeles, CA
12:00pm - 3:00pm
Mormon Temple
10777 Santa Monica Blvd

Cambridge, Massachusetts
2pm Cambridge City Hall
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA. 02139

Friday, Nov 28th

Mission Viejo, CA
10:00am - 1:00pm
Crown Valley, in front of Mission Viejo mall
alackofwit@yahoo.com

Sacramento, CA
Rally in front of the State Capital building
10:00am, fossilman104@hotmail.com

Saturday, Nov. 29th

West Hollywood, CA
Motorcycle Riders & Passengers For Equality!
10:00am - 6:00pm
San Vicente between Melrose and Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood Park
2138041157
mrhys@flash.net

Long Beach, CA
7:00pm
Long Beach Performing Arts Center
300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

Monday, Dec 1st
2nd Class Isn't Classy - Throughout California
http://www.2backofbus.com/

Sunday, Dec 14th

Pasadena, CA
8:00am - 10:00am
Pasadena Rose Bowl
littledykeboi@yahoo.com

Mormons Contributed Millions to Hate Legislation

2008-11-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pe2023SzWXxE8wYX5qWeoIw

And here is the proof. I challenge anyone to tell me where in the bible, the Torah, the Koran, hell even the Necronomicon where it says God hates Gays. I don't care what some cleric two thousand years ago who got a bid to publish his views in the Bible said about gays, Clerics aren't God. Do you know how many people God has supposedly spoken to? Enough people to write several Scriptures in several versions on. I challenge anyone to tell me where God put his seal of approval and signature on the books that were published in his name as well, but the fact of the matter is that the Church has once again pushed their narrow world views on the American people illegally. The Church encouraged members to contribute to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign. That sounds like the church getting involved in politics to me, which should lose it its tax exemption status.

People are saying "the people have spoken." This is NOT a democracy, this is a Republic, we elect smart people to speak for the stupid people because the stupid masses will take away freedom in an instant. Pure Democracy is mob rule, the "will of the people" is Mafia law. Instead, in this country we have a concept called "majority rule, minority rights," which coupled with the concept of "Equal Rights" means that the majority can have whatever they want as long as it does not infringe upon the EQUAL RIGHTS of the minority. Prop 8 is a violation of the American way because the people have not spoken, the Mob has spoken, and the People got their rights taken away.

This is mixing a moral issue with a legal issue and it's just wasting everyone's time. I hereby publicly condemn the Mormon Church and everyone else should as well.

Prop 8 is H8 and Here's an Upd8

2008-11-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

Democratic legislators ask state Supreme Court to void Prop. 8

I am COMPLETELY AGAINST PROP 8 and am so angry I want to go beat up a Mormon with a baseball bat. I'm not even going to go into my reasons or even debate this one because it's just common sense, you don't take away someone's rights just because you feel like it, and yes it WAS gay's right to marry in California UNDER LAW for like 2 seconds and then it was TAKEN AWAY. If that's not injustice, then I don't know what is.

Here's the latest update on the lawsuits. Apperenetly 43 Democratic legislatures have signed a brief that asks the High Court to void Prop 8. Arnold didn't sign it but denounced it, seems like he's MIA to me. I'm not sure of the argument they're using but I think they're saying that the ballot measure won by a small margin of 500,000 votes and that a small majority is not entitled to take away the rights of a large, constitutionally protected minority. The ballot measure won 52% to 48% btw. Three counties including LA County and San Francisco have filed lawsuits as well as a ton of individual married couples. The fight is far from over.

I was at the Long Beach Protest on Friday and that was amazing, there were a lot of young people at that Protest and TONS of street support, everyone was holding up signs, people came out of their houses and bars to support us, at least 5000 people. In Silverlake, 15000, yes thousand people marched through Hollywood and shutdown Santa Monica Blvd. It was a small army and even some police officers were cheering us at the same time they were stuck on duty doing crowd control. I carried a sign that said "I'm Straight and I don't H8" and lots of people stopped me and said thank you for my support. A few counter protesters on the other side of the police line (like 3 guys) held up signs that said "Gay sex is a sin" and "God does not love you the way you are," as if they know who God loves. They were so outnumbered that it was ridiculous, and we were all yelling at them "hey come a little closer and hold your sign! Cross the police line and say that!" In LB we sat in the street! People held candles. My friend called me from Utah during the rally and said that angry crowds were also marching around the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. They're marching all over the country as we speak. The Mormon Church donated $20 million dollars to support Prop 8 and everyone, myself included, is calling for an end to their tax exempt status. When the President of the Mormon Church issues an order for branches to support Prop 8 in any way they can, that's a violation of the Separation of Church and State, tax 'em! Gays were not just the victims of Prop H8, everyone in the country is a victim of this measure because it's theocracy mixing moral issues with legal issues, apples to oranges. Everyone who believes in Equal Rights needs to stand up and denounce Prop 8 so that right and wrong cannot be bought with enough hate money. Write your reps and make a sign and get "out of the bars and into the streets!" Here's a schedule I found online of Protests in California:

Tuesday, Nov. 11th

Rancho Cucamonga CA
Rally at 1pm. We're meeting at the corner of Haven and Foothill.

3:00pm MN State Capitol (Meet on Old Main Lawn)
Saint Paul, MN

Redlands
4:00pm - 6:00pm
In front of the Redlands Mormon Temple
1761 Fifth Avenue
Redlands, CA

Rally on Santa Monica Pier
5 pm Meet at the pier, hang on the beach, show that we won't go away.
321 Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica, CA 90401 Map

March to Fresno Courthouse
5 pm Meet at Fink-White Playground
Amador St and B St Map
(Needs Organizer, Please email brandon@milliongaymarch.org if interested)
IN DANGER OF CANCELLATION!

San Francisco, CA
Time: 5:00pm - 10:00pm
San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr Carton B Goodlett Pl
San Francisco, CA

San Diego, CA
5:00pm - 10:00pm
Mormon Temple
7474 Charmant Drive

March on Mormon Temple in San Diego
5 pm Meet at Doyle Park
8175 Regents Rd
San Diego, CA 92122 Map
(Needs Organizer, Please email brandon@milliongaymarch.org if interested)

Los Angeles
LA CIENEGA BL. AND CENTINELA AVE @ 6PM

Wednesday, Nov. 12th

Encinitas, CA
4:00pm - 7:00pm
Corner of Saxony and Encinitas Blvd.
Phone: 5305759264
dancewithwolves@wildmail.com

West Hollywood
Protest Prop 8 - Rally 7 PM West Hollywood (Santa Monica & San Vicente)

New York, NY
Peaceful gathering 6:30pm, Manhattan Mormon Temple
125 Columbus Ave at 65th Street

San Diego, CA
St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral
2728 Sixth Ave.
"On the Side of Love" 7:00 p.m.
For more info, contact Chris Harris at (619) 298-7261 or harrisc@stpaulcathedral.org.

Protest at Rancho on HAVEN and FOOTHILL.

Thursday, Nov. 13th

No On Prop 8 Protest - Irvine, Thursday 11/13 4:30pm
Corner of Campus & Culver Drive, Irvine
Marching to Culver & Alton.

Friday, November 14, 2008

UC San Diego, La Jolla
12:00pm - 3:00pm
9450 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California

San Francisco
TIME: 6:00pm
PLACE: San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St.

Saturday. Nov. 15th

Join The Impact!
Nationwide.
On the steps of your City Hall on November 15th at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST, our community WILL take to the streets and speak out against Proposition 8.

San Francisco
10:30 A.M. at City Hall.
1 Dr Carton B Goodlett Pl
San Francisco, CA 94102
http://protest8sf.wordpress.com/

Orange County, CA
12:00pm - 5:00pm
South Coast Plaza
Bear Street (Where the mall, Crystal Court, and Metro Pt. meet)
Costa Mesa, CA

Anti-prop 8 New York Protest
1:30pm - 4:30pm
City Hall
260 Broadway
New York, NY

Valencia
Santa Clarita / Stevenson Ranch – 4PM
Corner of Valencia Blvd & McBean Pkwy, Santa Clarita
http://www.myspace.com/noonH8

Friday, Nov. 21st

Front Steps of Burlingame High School
Street: 1 Mangini Way
City/Town: Burlingame, CA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93382880491

Sunday, Nov. 23rd

Cambridge, Massachusetts
2pm Cambridge City Hall
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA. 02139

Saturday, Nov. 29th

No On Prop 8 Peaceful Protest & Candlelight Vigil - Long Beach, Saturday 11/29 7pm
Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

Monday, Dec 1st
2nd Class Isn't Classy - Throughout California
http://www.2backofbus.com/

Girl Pushups are for GIRLS

2008-10-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Push Ups and Pull Ups are great and you gals can all learn to do them too!

Well, my response to these beloved sources of inspiration?

Screw it, No We Can't!

-Cranky Fitness

It’s the year 2008 and even Arnold Schwarzenegger says that human muscle is human muscle, whether you are a man or a woman, and it responds to one thing and one thing only…hard work.

Well shucks now that it’s the year 2008, women hitting it up with the dudes is almost common place with the advent of Crossfit and the addition of Women’s Wrestling in the Olympics. Now I see girls repping out pullups on Youtube who aren’t even super Romanian Weightlifters like the stereotype of the 90’s said they would have to be. Now we’re seeing more and more girls hop on men’s football teams in high school and movies are being made idolizing girls who hit it up with the boys.

This is a good thing right? Equality of the sexes. Finally! After so long as being viewed as “the weaker sex,” we can finally do anything a man can do AND have children. Hah! Just when you thought being a girl had its drawbacks.

So why are some girls complaining about how “the bar has been raised?” Now girls aren’t just doing pullups and pushups, they’re expected to do pullups and pushups. There’s no more “girl-pushups.” No more “modified-pullups.” That’s so last decade. If women want equality, well hop damn they’re going to have to work for it just like the men do. Guys have to work out at the age of 13 when their growth pallets are still forming just to be accepted by society, so what makes women think that we should be any different if we want the same treatment?

“Oh but we don’t want to have to work hard like the men do,” yeah we just want the preferential treatment no strings attached. This is why men hate girl’s on guys teams, they think they won’t want to do the same work they will, and hence they try to isolate us into our own environments. Every men’s sports team trains harder than the women’s sports team, even in college. I trained with the guys swim team and it was hell compared to the girls practice, I gained like an inch on my arms after one workout.

Here’s the deal, we all campaigned and complained for our civil rights for over a century and now that we’re getting them, let’s not screw it up. If you can’t do a pullup, don’t worry, just practice, start by hanging and doing negatives. But if you’re too fat to do a pullup, stop eating. If you’re too weak to do a pushup, hit the bench. The “oh I can’t do it because I’m a girl” excuse isn’t going to fly anymore. You wanted girl power, you got it.

Now earn it or shut the hell up. (And yes that's me in the vid doing one-arm-pushups.)

Obama's a Muslim and Hilary's a Bitch

2008-08-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

DAYTON, Ohio - Republican John McCain introduced first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate Friday, a stunning selection of a little-known conservative newcomer who relishes fighting the establishment.

The point of having a woman in the oval office is for her to be a bitch. Seriously, bitches know how to throw their weight around, are tough on policies and get things done. Hilary Clinton was a bitch, which means she was strong, steadfast, and if her amazing comebacks against Obama didn’t convince the world that she was cut out to be President, nothing will.

I haven’t been keeping up with this race like I should be, usually I’m all over it. But I can’t really stay silent much longer and I really just have to say what I’m thinking.

Firstly, the only reason Obama beat Hilary NARROWLY was because of the “youth vote.” In other words, 18 year olds put him in power! I’m 21, I was only just 18, and let me tell you, 18 year olds don’t know JACK about ANYTHING! Most of them are still living with their parents or going to college, they don’t pay taxes to the same degree that the rest of society does, social security is a foreign language, and they’re running around chanting “World Peace” just because their friends are, either that or they don’t understand the issues. They’re kids, kids are stupid. I’m a kid so I know.

So here comes Obama saying we’ll be out of Iraq by 2011, why the hell would we want that? More people are going to die when we leave, but at least they won’t be our people right? Who cares about Iraqi people, they don’t matter to liberals. “War” is a dirty word for kids, what are they going to say when we start sending troops into Darfur as part of the UN? That’s a war that is literally none of our business, in a country that has nothing against the US, and here are the liberals going “Save the Children.” Morons!

Not that I’m not for going into Darfur, it’s just that we’re going to get shot at a lot more over there than we are in Iraq, a country that DID infact have ties to Al Qaida and shipped all their Weapons of Mass Destruction to Syria (did anyone ever think of that one, NO!). And now here we come electing a Presidential candidate named BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA.

What the heck? I’m not being racist but seriously a country that won’t let Muslims board airplanes anymore is electing him? He DID go to school in a Madresa and yes we can cite his record all the way back to when he was 8 because a lot of morals I learned when I was 9 and 10 shaped who I am as a person today. I’m not saying he’s consorting with foreign terrorists whom he probably has no way of contacting even if he wanted to, I’m just saying that him being indeed a MUSLIM will put him in a vulnerable position to be taken advantage of, which would undermine all of our safety. But National Security isn’t an issue for liberals, World Peace is. We don’t even know where Obama’s father is and yet here we are touting his praise.

The people wanted Hilary, the Super Delegates wanted Obama, so guess who we got! What does that say about politics in this country? The same thing happened with Al Gore, does the government think We the People are stupid or incapable of choosing for ourselves? In some issues, maybe since the majority of the population is composed of high school dropouts, but the other half is highly educated, this feels unfair.

So now instead of picking Hilary as a running mate which would have sealed his Presidential Victory, he picks this guy Biden for his “foreign policy” stance not to appeal to Hilary supporters, but to kiss ass to conservatives!

This race is crazy. McCain comes out of left field selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate! I found out this morning and I near fell over. Who the hell is she? I mean I know she’s a woman and all which no one was expecting from the chauvinist Republicans, but she’s a senator from Alaska, from a town with a population of 6500 whose biggest concern is if there will be enough snow for the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. Hilary was a “Progressive,” but this girl is appealing to hockey-moms and Evangelicals! Are we trying to go backwards? At least Obama is touting change.

And what kind of “Change” are We the People really looking for? This past decade has been a rocky one, with a lot of racial and classist issues being thrown around. Right from the get-go in 2001, a war broke out that had us targeting Muslims, so Muslims were oppressed. Then we got into a war with no front lines where women were killing and dying in combat, which they STILL aren’t technically allowed to do thanks to Evangelical voters, so a big public outcry gave Senator Duncan Hunter the steam he needed to pass legislation pulling women off the battlefield. Women were targeted. Then Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans, and aid workers couldn’t stay there too long because the city was completely taken over by the most vicious gangs in the Nation. New Orleans being overwhelmingly black-majority, people saw all the violence. Black people were targeted. No one has ever cared about Mormons and I still don’t care about Mormons, so when Mit Romney comes along, who do you think they’re going to vote for?

Everyone has been stepped on in this past decade. Absolutely everyone has felt repressed in this past 10 years in some way, shape, or form. No one should ever vote for someone because they are black, or just because they are a woman or a Muslim, but with the memories of ridicule and oppression sill fresh in our minds, it’s really hard not to. I think the idea is that someone who looks like them or was raised like them and has been where they have been will know what it is like for them and help make it easier. But in actuality, anyone, regardless of their race or gender, who sits in the Oval Office should be making it easier for EVERYONE in the country, no one demographic should be priority over another (that’s the definition of equality). But the American people also need to step up and work their hardest and give it everything they have, that’s the definition of Capitalism.

So this race is going to be a reflection of all We the People have been through in the past 10 years. Nothing is wrong with citing race or gender this time because we’ve all been stepped on. But what is wrong is citing ONLY race and gender. If that is how we are going to be doing it this election, then this is how I’m going to be doing it…

The only black man I am ever going to vote in for President is Colin Powell, and the woman I want to see as John McCain’s VP or as President herself is Condoleeza Rice. I refuse and I want We the People to refuse to pick the lesser of two evils YET AGAIN like we did between Al Gore and George W. Bush. As a first time voter, I’m going to exercise MY right to vote for whoever I want to like my forefathers fought and died for me to be able to.

I’m going to write Hilary in.

Sex IS the City

2008-08-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

"Everything we like doing has some kind of thing to do with sex. We like to listen to music - they talk about sex. We like watching movies - they talk about sex...that's why it's in our minds all the time."

-Sex and Young America

Why are we such a sexualized culture?

You know why? I’ll tell you why…

OUR PARENTS!

That’s right. The Gen-X slack-off Baby-Boomers who grew up on Anarchy and Teenage Angst, in an age of Cold War and Riots where life was the moment, so seize it while you can. Where words like race and gender were still war-cries and Thug-Life was real life. GenX-ers were rebels who lived in a time where it was cool to be defiant. Society told them one thing, fashion told them to shove it. So automatically anything their parents said, they did exactly the opposite, like have lots and lots of teenage sex.

Sometimes I feel like I turn on the TV and all I see is sex, sex, sex. Women are sex objects on MTV and the Disney Channel is responsible for more teen sluts than some porno studios can brag about. But then again, in an era where a comic book Batman movie can be a contender for best picture with a supporting actress portraying a female cop (or DA, whatever manly job title she had), I think we’re actually coming along.

The world is changing. GenY-ers are a little different today. We’re the Millennial Kids, our parents fought for freedom and now it’s up to us to enjoy it. So far, we’re more technologically savvy than any generation has ever been, we’re more literate thanks to Harry Potter which suddenly made reading cool along with more challenging young-adult literature, we’re into volunteer work thanks to the music scene getting involved in saving the planet, and 70% of us are college-bound or see college in our futures. We’re seizing the moment, but we’re also looking ahead, and I think that’s a sign of maturity.

The real reason Girls Gone Wild tapes are selling like mad…because middle-aged men are buying them. Damn straight, GenY guys don’t need them because they’re practically in them and go to the colleges anyway. It’s the past-their-time GenX men who make up the majority of child molesters and sexual predators that propagate this sick sex-trade and keep it in business. Looks like the Anarchy-days finally caught up with them and they learned the hard way that when you go against society and live the rebel-loner lifestyle, you’ll eventually find yourself ostracized and, well, alone. So now that Generation X has finally calmed down, they want to get back in and try again? I’m sorry, no you can’t live vicariously through me, seek some counseling for your sick fantasies about having sex with girls young enough to be your daughters, when you probably even have daughters of your own…and I wonder what morals you’re teaching them.

I consider myself pretty laid-back as far as sexuality is concerned. I’m not threatened at all by gays, I know my own sexuality, I’ve got nothing against casual sex but also nothing against meaningful relationships. And c’mon I mean is it so wrong to ask Last-Gen-Men to please date within their own age-category? 5 years, give or take? Quit seducing young women already!

I think society puts an unreasonable amount of pressure on men to carry the weight of the world, when really that’s just also last generations morals talking about things that we just don’t find attractive anymore. Millennial girls take care of themselves, like guys who are flawed, and both like to have a good time as well as consider the long-run. I’m not even that liberal, there’s got to be a slew of others who think exactly like me.

Unfortunately, the “good time” seems to be all that last-gen was concerned about, and now look what they’ve taught us. But as the Indie Scene is replacing Hip-hop and R&B and more white rappers like Flobots are actually singing about things like change, we’re getting away from the hateful angst and trading it in for EmoRock which ironically seems to make something positive out of a negative because it’s suddenly cool to be negative, and hey cool is cool. Can’t argue with that.

I think we’re getting better. The “attractive male” in most magazines is starting to be portrayed as a cool-kid type, likely to be engaging in things like, I dunno, surfing, skateboarding, music, all these things that do make a statement, but not as bold of a statement as last generation’s hard-out middle finger to the world psychothriller greaser status. And now, the good thing is that the girls in those “attractive male” magazine adds are most likely into the same things as the men. There’s very few old-boy’s clubs among GenY-er’s because they’re just not cool anymore. We’ve finally begun to put ourselves in the shoes of the people excluded and realize “that sucks.”

As I turn 21, rounding the bend of young-adult and seizing my own power in my own generation, I realize it really is MY generation now. All you 40 year old shmucks who are still out there trying to live the dream, guide us, or get out of our way. It’s our world now, we can change an election, we can make a choice, we’re smart, beautiful, sexy, creative, ridiculous, heroic, and even slightly odd. But at least I know the difference between odd and wrong. Back off Gen-X, go back to your wives, stop buying barely legal porn, get some psychological help, and stop hindering our progress on the tracks you laid but missed the train for.

Kanye’s Mom’s Gone to Heaven (and now we’ll have to put up with his whining)

2007-11-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

Nooo! Not Momma West! First Anna Nicole and now Kanye’s mom? All Hollywood’s momma’s are leaving us! Whose next, Britney Spears??

Rapper Kanye West’s mom died on November 11^th due to get this…complications from Liposuction. Well at least it wasn’t a Stingray through the chest like some famous parents decide to go out on.

Now here’s my prediction for the future of Kanye West, and how his mammie is going to come back as the Angel of album sales…

Kanye is going to go off into seclusion for like a year. Not going to be seen at parties, avoid the public, maybe even leave the country. Then he’s going to emerge as a “whole new Kanye” and go public about his experience with losing his mom. How he was battling inner demons, very depressed and talk about contemplating ending his life. Then he’s going to peddle it into a book and generate absolute fandom and use the craziness to announce the release date for a new album. Then he’s going to just bust out and completely blow everyone away and it’s going to go like quintuple platinum and he’s going to thank his mom on stage.

Dang. If only I were that smart. (???) The downside is that now we’re going to have to sit through all of his lyrics preaching about how we should hug our loved one’s more and be better people.

Writers can Strike?!

2007-11-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is news to me. Seriously, I didn’t even know writers could strike! I mean, they’re self-employed on commission aren’t they, who are they going to strike against? Themselves? Weird.

BBC NEWS- There is no end in sight to the increasingly bitter Hollywood writers strike. Union members and their employers, the studio producers, are rigidly sticking to their position that they are not to blame for the deadlock.

Okay, so apparently every screenwriter in Hollywood is refusing to write. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives will purportedly suffer the hardest (as if these shows are well-written anyway, I’d rather watch Scrubs and Chickfights on Youtube). And Oh No! The Jay Leno Show is going to have to air re-runs! NOOOOOO!!!

Writers are ticked because apparently with the inundation of digital media like DVD’s and TIVO and internet broadcasts, Networks are doing things like airing shows online or selling DVD’s of the series and not paying the writers every time they do so. Writers want what are called “residuals” for when their media is used outside of a regularly scheduled program, even though they’ve already been commissioned and let go.

What they heck, so they want to get paid for work they’ve already been paid for? O.o

And even actors are walking off their jobs to support the writers! Someone please tell me what actors have to do with this? No one’s more air-headed than actors nowadays, they strike for jobs they don’t even have. Hah, I’m going to laugh when they get sued for breach of contract.

You know what, I’m a firefighter. I spent the summer fighting raging wildfires in the worse fire season in California history. I got paid about $12 an hour. I’d sure as heck like to make a little more money seeing as I’m like, you know, risking my life and all. But hey, that’s what they pay me, and I took the job. What am I going to do? Refuse to go fight a fire until they pay me more?

So now there are a bunch of writers wandering around Hollywood with red shirts that say “On Strike.” I’m temped to get a red t-shirt that says “Go Back to Work” on the front, and “8 Cents” on the back.

Right now, if I were an up and coming writer, I’d jump on the opportunity to be a scab for a big show right now. Screw the Writers Guild’s threats of retaliation, use a pen name and get your foot in the door while everyone else is at home sleeping.

Will You Marry Me...Boy?

2007-07-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

My older sister has been waiting 4 years for her boy toy to propose to her, and I keep telling her, but she doesn't listen. Chica should ask him already! But NOOOO girls don't propose to guys, that's like the ultimate in degrading right? I mean a girl is supposed to be "given" away like chattle to a man by her father. If a daughter doesn't take her husbands last name, she takes her father's last name, never having her own identity. Ain't that the way it's supposed to work? Well blow-me-down!

On Orango Island off the coast of Africa, it's the gals who chose their pals.

Apperently what the hipster girls of Orango Island do when they like a boy is bring him a steaming bowl of really well prepared fish, and the boy is powerless to refuse. Wow, imagine that, instead of a useless rock that you wear around your finger, you get a delicious home-cooked meal with spices and herbs and fresh fish! I mean c'mon guys, you're always talking about how it's not about what she looks like, it's about what she cooks like! And not only do women in Orango chose their husbands, they also build their own house out of palm beams and grasses, and only once the house is finished can the marriage be consumated. Man, who'd have known that cooking and cleaning for a woman would be so empowering?

Matriarichal societies apperently still exist in pockets of remote areas around the world, and apperently also the concept of divorce is rarer in those societies! Kinda gives credit to the saying "happy wife, happy life," don't it? But as these traditional societies are being invaded by the modern world, the old ways of life are disappearing. Men chasing after women in these societies is an abomanation in their culture, but its happening more and more frequently, even on Orango Island.

Missionaries who go to these societies leave their "morals and values" there, and according to one local girl, "Protestant church has taught her that it is men, not women, who should make the first move and so she plans to wait for a man to approach her." OH GOD!...why is it always God that screws things up?

Man, all I know is that you boys better watch'aself, cuz imma learn how to make some freaking fish, and if you'll be "powerless to refuse." hehehe.

Virgina Tech University Death Toll is 32

2007-04-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The new details added to a chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean student who massacred 32 people and then took his own life at the university on Monday in the deadliest shooting spree in modern U.S. history.

32 students were shot dead at Virginia Tech University

in what has become the worse school shooting in history. In Columbine, 13 students died at the hands of 2 students. The Virginia Tech shooter acted alone.

There’s a certain degree of horror to a situation, but especially when a killer acts alone. Authorities have described Cho Seung-Hui as a “troubled Loner.” People are left asking why this all happened.

Why did this all happen? I would not have been surprised if something like this happened at a High School, but I’m appalled that it happened at a College. Isn’t college supposed to be the healing point from high school? The best years of your life?

What happened?

The shooter chained doors behind him to prevent escape, used two hand guns that he purchased legally, and fired into classrooms, shooting to kill. He then took his own life on a stairwell.

I grieve and morn for the students dead. Individually, they probably didn’t do anything at all to deserve what happened. But now I am going to say something that will anger and offend most of my readers, most of the people involved, and most people anywhere.

I don’t blame the Killer.

I don’t blame him at all. I don’t endorse what he did at all, I condemn it to the fullest extent humanly possible, but I don’t condemn him. I think if anyone deserves forgiveness, it’s him.

What happened to the souls of Barry Loukaitas, Klebold and Harris, and Cho Seung-Hui to make them so unbelievably enraged that they wish for death? Not just their own death, but the death of everyone?

Barry Loukaitas was the first school shooter who acted alone. His fall is described as slow, methodical abandonment and isolation by close friends, peers, and teachers. A well liked kid started all of the sudden being left behind. These things can destroy a mind and a heart. We’ve all felt bits of what a school setting can do to a young person, but because we’ve all felt it, does that make it justified?

Cho Seung-Hui was a loner, whom according to reports did not choose Lonerism. He apparently tried to fit in, tried to be accepted, but was ultimately rejected. A police report says that 2 female students complained of him annoying them. I know from experience that most socialization techniques of Loner’s tend to be annoying to everyone else, but the Loner doesn’t know that, and hence is shunned for reasons he is completely oblivious to.

Can you imagine having everyone hate you and you not having the slightest notion of why?

I can, and that is why I sympathize with the shooter. I would not have stood by him while he did what he did, I do condemn his action, I would have handed him over to the law, but I also would have hugged him, because apparently someone else forgot to.

I do believe that someone who knew him, a roommate or distant friend, saw what was happening to him and ignored it. I believe lots of teachers sat witnessing his fall, and watched and did nothing. I think in the back of their hearts everyone saw this coming when they looked at this young man, but no one cared. No one cared.

I believe that suicide is murder by a mass group of people, people who thought it not their duty to step in and do something, 2 kids died in my graduating class. This was indeed murder, but I want everyone to realize that this killer was not a murderer. Cho Seung-Hui was a young man who snapped. I am dearly sorry that the students at Virginia Tech had to pay the price for what may have been too many insults from jocks or too many put downs from a few dumb ass students and no shoulder to lean on.

We all need somebody to lean on.

The coming investigation will reveal what exactly pushed him over the edge and many more people will say what I just said and that will make it okay, but in the meantime, my heart goes out to the students at Virginia Tech University.

To ALL the students.

Oh My LORD!

2007-04-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

PARIS (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, elaborating his views on evolution for the first time as Pontiff, says science has narrowed the way life's origins are understood and Christians should take a broader approach to the question.

Help! Religious Zealots are trying to push their crazy ideas on me again! Particularly Catholics who are all about “God created everything by snapping his fingers and saying Let There Be Lightbulbs!” Hence giving humans the ability to “think.”

Theists somehow believe that we can’t use our brains without God. They are so perplexed by this seemingly awe-inspiring thing called consciousness and our ability to do the simplest thing imaginable (think) that they’re ultimately confused. They have a thought and they’re like “Wow, where did that thought come from,” and then they start thinking about it and are like “whoa! There it is again! Where did it come from! I can’t see where it came from, so therefore God must have put it there!” It’s like that one episode of the Simpson’s where the Mayor was searching for who was stealing the water (it was going down the drain).

Catholics in particular are mesmerized by the simple innate ability to just plain think, and their reasoning is that since we can’t throw a thought under a microscope, it must be divine. They think that means that the burden of proof is on the scientific community to disprove God and they can go ahead and keep turning a blind eye to all the progress we’re making with science because “science can’t explain the ability to think.”

Okay, maybe your biology professor lost you in college, so maybe you weren’t paying attention when you were studying this thing called a brain, which is an actual organ that if I shoot you in you die, it’s responsible for intelligent thought. Since you seem to only understand idiot-speak, I’ll dumb it down for you. There’s a bunch of things called neurons and lots of other cells with big long names, and the electric charge they create allows you to think. Now, I know this is sounding very farfetched to you people who believe the earth was created sometime in the last ten thousand years, but I think it’s a much better rational explanation than “an invisible man in the sky is controlling our minds.”

That’s the thing with you guys, you never listen to reason. We can throw all the evidence in the world at you, but if a single “i” isn’t dotted, you blow us off and stay in denial, which is ultimately what you’re doing right now. Ever since Science came up with a rational explanation, even if only in theory, for just about everything, you wannabe-philosophers have picked your brains to come up with weird theories that aren’t mentioned anywhere in the bible like “Intelligent Design” and whatnot. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there has never been ANY empirical evidence to hint at the existence of God, the only thing that’s ever given you your case is the lack of empirical evidence to disprove him. You still have absolutely nothing!

So when you start talking about things like Evolution like they are theories, it really starts to get old. I mean Evolution sometimes take millions of years, how do you expect us to recreate that in a laboratory? We’ve already come up with mountains of scientific evidence that we can pretty much see what the picture on the 5000 piece puzzle is without needing the other few missing pieces, why can’t you? You still cling to the idea that some entity magically created us, and then accuse scientists of saying the same thing. Well no, actually they’re not, finding Dolphins with remains of legs and finding animals like mudskippers who bridge the gap from fish to frog isn’t exactly magic, it’s empirical evidence. Yet you downplay it and say that we really don’t have that much evidence! OH GOSH what more do you want? Domestication is an example of evolution, and though we show you a marine iguana and a desert iguana, you’ll still staunchly sit there and insist that they weren’t at some point in time related. You’re too proud to admit that man is an ape and an animal with a scientific name, and I’m convinced that you’ll never be convinced.

"Just who is this 'nature' or 'evolution' as (an active) subject? It doesn't exist at all!" the Pope said.

Okay well if you want to take that approach, neither does your “rationality” or “conscious thought” for that matter since you can’t throw it under a microscope. Therefore your God doesn’t exist either if he is the God of thought and thoughts don’t exist. But thoughts DO exist in the same sense that nature exists, but if there is thoughts but no nature…isn’t there a word for that?...oh yes.

I smell a hypocrite.

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason and thus brought us new insights," the Pope himself seems to agree with me on most cases as well. "But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need. Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it," okay, basically you’re saying that the only thing religion is good for is a tool for exercising thought…or those “dimensions of reason” that you’re talking about. Wow, from the Pope’s own mouth, religion is nothing more than a philosophy, an ideal!

So Religion teaches us to be good people, and supposedly without religion the world would be filled with hate and crime and evil etc. Well the funniest thing I ever saw in a movie was a gang banger going to church. Not so funny when it’s a Muslim extremist blowing himself up in the name of, oh, GOD!

You’re still clinging to ideas that were created before running water was invented and trying to make me cling to them too! Well sorry, I’m a little more practical. I know you have a “whole other world” of existence to explore, but I do to, it’s called my imagination. And if God is thought, and thought exists, then I guess we agree…God is all in my imagination!

(Thank you, I’m here till Thursday)

You can believe whatever you want to believe, but in that case, so can I. Don’t push your crazy ideas on me. It’s really starting to get annoying.

Cure Autism! NOW DAMMIT!

2007-04-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes I feel angry when I read about attempts being made to 'cure' autism. I do not wish to be 'cured' from my autism, and many autistic persons who are able to communicate their feelings, say the same thing."

I’m sure a lot of you know people who have young autistic children. The kids that are absolute brainiacs and can do prime factorization like a computer but have weird mannerisms and stare up at ceiling fans for hours or don’t sit still. You haven’t seen autism until you’ve seen an Autistic teenager!

They’re hopeless! Weirdo’s from some other dimension who speak in binary code and think that the way to make friends is by going up and saying “my shirt has a kitty on it.” Oh gosh the speech pathologists are shaking their heads going “no Billy, complement their clothes not your clothes.” These kids can’t hold a conversation for their life, are masters at murdering jokes, are the people in the group that always manage to humiliate themselves in a way that it humiliates everyone else in the group, and are just plain strange.

I’m not talking Napoleon Dynamite strange, I’m talking Napoleon without the Dynamite, kids that are so messed up that they have no cute qualities about them, no attractive personalities, repelling auras, but an insane knowledge of every species of gymnosperm on the planet. They often have no friends because they’re not stupid enough to be special ed, so they sit in regular ed classes at the back of the class. Even geeks make fun of these kids, they're so incapable of socializing that they've even been rejected by the rejects! They’re often the object of kids ridicule, and at lunch they read a book instead of hang out with friends. They excel at repeated activities, everyone remembers the autistic waterboy who scored 27 points in a high school basketball game.

We all know someone like this, and chances are that 5 times out of 10 (since now one in 250 kids are born with some form of autism), they’re autistic. But the strangest thing about a lot of kids like these who know they have this disorder, who’ve been on meds and hospitalized for this disorder, wouldn’t want to be cured!

This is not the first person with autism I’ve heard say they don’t want to change, I used to be the same way. Autistic teens somehow get it in their mind that having this disorder makes them special and makes them who they are, and they wouldn’t want to change who they are. Oh god forbid, don’t make me part of the “collective!” “I’m original!”

“I’m Special!”

You stupid loners! You have no clue what you’re talking about! No, I’m not afraid to call you stupid because I’m one of you, I know how your inverted mind works! You don’t know what society is really like because you’ve never been in it. You don't know what it's like to have people who have your back no matter what and someone to go to the mall with and a group to have fun with. The ride is so much funner if you're sitting next to someone you call friend. You’ve never integrated yourself into a group of people, so you don’t know what it’s like to be part of a group of people. You don’t know what you’re missing because you’ve never had it. But some like you have had it, and some like you have had it and lost it because of your “special” people skills. You’re amazing ability to drive people away and award winning joke killers are astounding, why, you’re practically a joke sniper! You shoot down girls without even knowing how, and you insult peers without even knowing you have. Your existence is in itself offensive, but you don’t see it because you’re stuck in your own little Autistic world and you think that’s okay!

Maybe you’d march straight up to the doctors and researchers working on a cure and say to them “No Thank you, I’m just fine the way I am.” But then of course I’d come over and punch the living daylight out of you, you stupid ingrate crack-babies. In sci-fi novel’s you’re all euthanized! You don’t know how horrible it is like to be cursed against friendship and intimacy!

So the hell with all you disabled kids, Cure me dammit! I want to be part of the collective, I want to join society! I don’t like who I am, I don’t want to be autistic anymore! I don’t want anymore meds or counselors or psychologists or evaluations or peers avoiding me like the plague. I don’t want special education and home aids, or learning programs designed for the autistic brain, or weird looks when I say something insane. I want groups of cool friends who tell funny jokes and say cool things and hang out with me and don't dress like losers or punks. I don't care, make me a poser! But God please no longer a Loner! I’ll throw away my alternative humor and fall in line, I swear I will! Love me people, please oh please! Take me to movies and hang out with me!

If I had all the money in the world, where can I go to get rid of me?

I don’t want to be Autistic, please cure me!

<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>
UPDATE!!!

I found something interesting on Youtube. This is for the parents of SEVERELY AUTISTIC children, the ones who I'm not ragging on in the post above. A hospital in Costa Rica is doing work with Adult Stem Cells on Autistic Patients and claims to have pretty much a CURE. In case the vid doesn't work properly, it's called the Institute of Cellular Medicine in Costa Rica.

Fucking Mother Fucker Fuck The Departed!

2007-03-05T01:23:00.000-08:00

Oh My Fucking GOD!

You know when you went to see the movie Alexander and they had Alex full-on macking on another half naked guy and you couldn’t help but squirm? Or how about in the Ladykillers where everyone freaking DIES! Except in the Ladykillers they at least pull it off in style and you don’t really like the guys who die anyway.

The Departed is a movie about rats and cops. Long story short, a rat is in the police force and a spy is in the mob, and they’re both trying to find each other, only to all get shot in the end! On top of the rat and the mole, the head boss turns out to be an FBI informant who had more than one mole in the police force, who was friends with the rat, who went to the police academy with the mole, and they all fucking die in the last 5 minutes of the movie! Fuck! The rat—who was sleeping with moles girlfriend—catches the mole, and the FBI informant shoots the rat, and the mole shoots the informant, a random guy gets shot, and then finally the mole gets shot in his apartment by the x chief of police, who resigns.

WTF!

DON’T see this movie!

Let Prince Harry Bloody Fight

2007-02-21T03:13:00.000-08:00

LONDON - He's a freckle-faced royal rascal who has led a life of privilege. But Britain's Prince Harry is also an army officer — and he could soon be heading to Iraq to face the realities of combat.

Well, looks like Prince Harry is going off to bloody Iraq (not that Iraq isn’t bloody, but bloody is what the Brits say instead of “fucking” like us Yanks).

Prince Harry got his royal arse through Sandhurst Military Academy last year and is now a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry (I think that means he’s a Cavalry Scout…they ride the Bradley’s.)

But Royal Officials are apparently having a field day about the “security headache” the presence of a member of the Royal Family would be.

Okay, well if Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio joined the Army and were going to war, would we make the same fuss? The Royal Family is really nothing more today than a bunch of celebrities and they don’t have that much power in government at all. It's not like it would be SUCH a security risk like they captured the Prime Minister or the President of the United States. "The presence of a member of the Royal Family could increase the risk for his comrades." Well no shit we're actually getting shot at over there, what kind of a war are we fighting if our strategy for the entire campaign is "hopefully we'll get lucky and they won't shoot at us."

The arguments they’re making about Harry are the same arguments they’re making about women and Jews in Iraq. “Oh it will make them more vulnerable to attack.” Well what are you going to do, go hide in a hole? You’re going to get shot at, so maybe if the Coalition Command would give our troops permission to shoot back unlike they’ve been doing (“Winning Their Hearts and Minds”), we might actually be able to fight something that resembles a war!

For bloody sakes let the kid do his job.

Football is LAME!!

2007-02-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

I mean seriously, why “football?” When exactly in football do you even use your feet? Your feet don’t come in contact with that sorry excuse for a ball shaped like a lemon at anytime! Unless of course you are the kicker, in which case you are the WEAKEST guy on the team!

I remember we always used to make fun of our kickers on football. Firstly they weren’t even football players, they were the varsity soccer players! Go figure.

And as for soccer, a sport that is the only sport played in absolutely every country by everybody, we insult it by jacking its name and calling it “soccer.” We give the prestigious name of “football” to our own silly version of Pop-Warner Rugby with pads. Man, Rugby players eat “football” players for breakfast!

I guess the football/soccer thing is like the whole Iceland/Greenland thing, trick by the Vikings. Darn those Vikings!

Well all I know is that I hate football, and I played football! Believe me, its not a tough sport. Most of practice you’re just standing around in the sun like an idiot, and when you are getting in for plays, you’re running around in circles for about 5 whole seconds and then lining up and doing it all over again (it gets you dizzy).

Not to mention you see so much dick when you play football! It’s nasty. Guys will lift up the bottom of their shorts and take a leak right there on the sidelines, the girls locker-room is shut for the summer so you’re changing with the guys…btw the boys locker room smells like penis, which smells like ham and sweat, and I know this because it only smelled that way when all the guys were naked (and no its not as great of an opportunity as you girls might think).

But really most of the time the guys were in their boxers and I made friends in my bra and panties which sounds ridiculously sexual but ironically wasn’t.

Football is also a boring sport. The entire climax of excitement comes when one guy runs it in for a touchdown from all the way across the field, and it has to be from all the way across the field or else its just another point and you’re just getting up and cheering because everyone else is!

I’ll give football some props: you lift hard, you work hard, you hit hard, and you party hard, but football is not hard!

But watching football is hard! I remember our cross-town rival game, I couldn’t sit through the whole thing, after the 1^st quarter it got boring and repetitive…no make that the first down!

I’ll be honest, I watch the Superbowl for the Half-time show! Who the hell is Payton Manning, why is he so ugly, and what kind of name is Payton!? Oh gosh the worse name I have ever heard in my life is an NFL player named Dick Butgus (sound it out), I mean I swear these guys got so tough from being picked on in grade school! Poor guys.

Well, I was rooting for the Bears because my little bro was rooting for the Colts, and he nearly cried at the kickoff, and I was LMAO!!!

Gosh, maybe the reason we get into so many wars is because our favorite game is a war game! Football, Yuk!

What The...??

2007-01-25T01:25:00.000-08:00