I think many of my blogs may have come off as anti-Christian or anti-religious.  Frankly that’s the wrong impression.  I really respect many people of many different faiths.  I think religion can provide strong morals, such as ‘love thy neighbor’, and other wisdom to live by.  In fact if I were surrounded in a world of practicing Christians, I wouldn’t be so bitter all the time.  The fact is though, there are a lot of people in America who, under the guise of religion, spread hate and discrimination.  That is what I cannot stand.  If you’re going to say you believe in something, actually take the time to know what you’re believing in and practice it.

Why were women so restricted 200 years ago?  Because people used the Bible to justify the housewife position, women only existed to serve their husbands and procreate.  They could not do ‘a man’s job’.  Perhaps that is why our country was founded on the principle of women not being allowed to vote for their own president, they didn’t have as much going on up in their heads as men.  Then the Bible was used to defend slavery.  There are extensive topics regarding the subject, all pointing to the absolute obedience of a slave to his master.  White supremacy ruled over our nation and churches did nothing to stop the vast injustice.  Now we come to a new century.  One in which two people in love aren’t allowed to get married.  The World Health Organization has already ruled that, no, I do not have some medical illness.  No, more likely that I won some sort of genetic lottery.  Or, as current science is looking into, was affected by a mix of hormones while I was developing in the womb.  A little less sin, a lot more born the way I am.

So.  There are a lot of Christians in my life whom I love and do truly respect.  Please note that any bitter rants about religion are not directed at you.  But the great thing about America is that you can choose whatever religion you want.  And I can too.  This isn’t some system where beliefs are stifled.  This is a country that is fertilized so that its population can believe what they want.  That is the absolute beauty of our system here.  Why some conservative right wing [neo Nazis] want to push THEIR views on a multicultural, multiracial, multireligious nation is up in the air.  Would I ever want to push legislation banning religion because I personally am agnostic?  No.  In fact I find the timeless quote going along the lines of ‘I may not believe in what you say, but I’ll give my life so that you have the freedom to say it’ outstandingly true.

A lady came in to Guest Service on Monday and talked to me for 20 minutes.  It was a complaint.  Why?  Because we sell the Fischer Price dolls that apparently say ‘Islam is the Light’.  Ok, yes, if you listen and are looking for words out of baby gurgling, you can hear that.  Or you could hear ‘Salami is so Right’.  What do you think the media is going to sensationalize though?  Anyways, she sits there and very seriously says how awful this is that we still have it on our shelves.  KMart and Wal Mart have apparently taken them down.  Then she drops a political bomb on me:

“This is America”

REALLY?!  You’re going to sit here and tell me that you don’t want a product sold because you don’t agree with what it’s saying?  IN AMERICA?  In a land that was founded because a group of people were persecuted for their religion?  There are millions of Muslims in America.  They are AMERICAN.  They are no better and no worse than anyone else in this country.  That is OFFENSIVE to them.  That is one of those ‘beyond-words’ its so offensive.  It was offensive to me, not as a Muslim, but as an American.  A patriotic American who believes in freedom for all, even if I’m not going to agree with them.  And she has the FREEDOM to believe that America has to follow HER rules and bow to HER will.  But it is not, in any way shape or form, her right to impose her beliefs on anyone else. 

Really?  This is over a toy.  She’s going on, threatening to talk to churches boycotting Target stores, etc.  I don’t care.  If people want to discriminate against another religion, I don’t want them anywhere near me.  Grow up lady.  Grow the hell up.

The real kicker about all this?  I held a straight face.  I was sympathetic.  I assured her that I would pass the complaint on internally and that I could see where she was coming from.  She actually told me that I was much better than workers at ANOTHER Target who had treated her rudely.  Not just a worker, the manager of toys.  Then when the store manager was called over, apparently they were rude to her too.  Wow, I wonder why.

But I stuck by the points I’m making here.  It was by no means my place to tell her that, no, I thought she was dead wrong and ought to be hung out to dry by real and honorable Christians throughout the country.  She can have her beliefs, I can have mine.  The difference is that I use a personal blog to express myself and she tries to change what a store sells so that she can feel comfortable and secure in her religion.

I don’t consider her a Christian, and I don’t consider anyone else who is willing to use their religion as justification for pushing their beliefs onto other people.  I’m hoping that people reading this will see the difference between expressing yourself and your opinions vs trying to graft your will onto a nation with a diverse population.

The picture above is Sally Kern, who got re-elected to senate in Oklahoma or something.  Her and her husband want me to be sent off to a “Re-Education Camp” (direct quote from Mr. Kern) because the way I am does not fit with their beliefs.

It is better to give more freedoms and let people take advantage of them on an individual level than for a majority to withhold rights from a minority because they may not agree with them.

Good photo editing though, right?  All the Devil horns ‘n stuff look superb.  Photo-realistic if I must say.  Then taking a Zombie head and putting it on her “pastor” husbands head…wow.  No one could tell that was a human beforehand.  Those people are not Christians in any sense of the word.  They can say they are, but honestly, according to their own beliefs, it will be Jesus who decides that.  And Jesus has preached nothing but love.  Spreading bigotry and hate was not part of his gospel.

PS- If anyone wants to read the article that finally made me write all this out, it’s here. Remind me not to ever vote for a politician just because they’re KERN-servative.

PPS- I’ve always wondered why Muslims don’t do more to discourage radical behavior like terrorism that draws so much hate their way.  Now I’m left wondering how Christians are any better when their base is rallied to vote in the embodiement of hate into our government.

PPPS- This article was written by a Christian. Are you the same kind of Christian as him? Comment on this post. Is he really the voice of today’s Christians?

You're born how you're born

Not only has she said more stupid things than should be allowable, her recent comments about Barack Obama have been disgusting.  I don’t call McCain ‘anti-American’, nor Palin.  In fact it seems to be the right who like to judge about what being American is all about.

Second half of the title is I would ask all California voters to vote NO on Proposition 8.  Homosexuality exists in almost all species of creature and is not some random perversion that occurs in humans.  The only reason we seem to view it as such is because of preconcieved notions that we were taught through different venues.  Medical and Psychological associations have all agreed that it is not a mental disorder, not some sort of illness, nothing.  It’s time that we stopped hiding behind hate and just accepted everyone for who they are.

Seriously, it’s society’s own doing that we feel it is innappropriate to see two guys or girls together.  Same reason we saw it innappropriate to see women in anything but dresses.  Or interracial couples.  Or teachers in school while they’re pregnant.  Something biological that one cannot change especially is important to recognize as a valuable difference that makes us unique, not something to shame and cause undue hardship for the person.

A fair number of people know how difficult my life has been because of my choice to face myself.  It’s a hard thing to do, which is why some men end up coming out after having a life and family already.  And it’s not easy.  So when society tells you you’re second class because of the way you were born, well, it’s no wonder there’s such a high suicide rate among GLBT teens.

And if you don’t think sexuality is biological, I’d like a good response on why you decided to be straight.  Including your struggle with looking at males and females equally and your decision to choose the opposite gender.

PS- I cleaned a lot of garbage out of my car!  Yay! </random note>

We failed at perserving the definition of voter.  It is an assault on white adult males everywhere and I’m going to lobby congress to not let this despicable amount of tolerance go unpunished.

I think I was too optimistic.  I don’t think America will last much longer frankly as the world super power.  This post actually has 5 good points.  We can’t cooperate with each other, we’re dedicated to holding our own beliefs and not budging.  Why?  Probably because just like the Middle East we have hugely religious backing in most areas which leads to people believing something without knowing why they are or how to actually understand what they believe in.  Whatever.

Also there are now rumors that Congress met in March to discuss the imminent collapse of our economy in late 2008.  Right now I’m not going to vouch for the authenticity of the news article…but that’s scary.  It was apparently a closed door meeting (which would be the 4th in our 200 year history) which discussed the possiblity of a civil war breaking out as a result.

Oh yeah, and in addition, the news source above discussed an advance round up of insurgent US citizens.  Sounds like we’re headed towards a Police State.

Well, good luck.  It’s not like anyone would rescue us anyways because we’ve stocked up on so many weapons.  So basically we beefed up our defenses, but turns out we were only locking ourselves in.  Haha.  In a way I kind of like the irony of this possible situation.

<3 Paul

PS- Bush has ruined our country.  I want to send out a special thank you for those of you who voted for him.  Twice.

I’m not sure if many of you have heard, but Viacom sued Google for all the user’s information on YouTube because of some copyright issues.  This is why I don’t like the current set of Media Conglomerates.  They don’t care about the consumer. All they care about is the profits they’ll make off of you.  Obviously any sane company would work with Google to get copyrighted video clips off of YouTube.  Money crazed media companies however want to play big brother and monitor every single video you watched and every single video search you performed.  And sadly, they won that suit.  How can such a gross violation of privacy like that be allowed?

It’s just like the RIAA.  They sue everyone who they think has downloaded music illegally, sometimes winning and sometimes not, but artists have seen none of the money.  The whole point of the suits, according to the RIAA is because bands, artists, performers, etc are losing money.  Yet any money they win does not filter back to the artists at all.

Our American economy is out of control.  Just like the artificially inflated gas prices at the pump.  How can the oil companies be taking in record profits if they’re only raising prices because of global demand?  That would only result in the same profits coming in if they were taking the same margin.  Obviously they’re not.

Money makes the world keep spinning <3

Is it my faith you seek, because you already had it, or was it just my simple starry eyed admiration that you wanted to keep with your propaganda machines constantly telling me over and over what my ideals are and what my beliefs are and who I should hate and who I should love and who deserves the war that we bring to them, only because they have brought it unto themselves in the first place, is it that or did you just want me content as you went on your little rampage taking me for granted, trying to keep me in a coma as the chaos ensued around my hospital bed but you kept my ears plugged and my eyes covered, well, you tried but somehow I got the remote and turned on the TV, and even with the poor reception I saw what you never intended me to see and what you never wanted me to hear, and I saw how you deceived me and I heard the illegitimacy of your lies and suddenly my mind was clearer than it had ever been before and I was simply a slave and you were my master and the whole situation was no longer something innocent it was a rape of my innocence and you were over me panting and I still had it in my head that no meant no but there comes a point when your voice just stops working because you’ve been screaming so much and through it all you never heard me you covered my head and did you work and somehow everyone else looks past me and looks to you and supports you and I shout out again for help but people tell me to be quiet and I look in your eyes and wonder how I could’ve been one of those people who told others to hold their tongues when they cried for help and I wondered how I was the one who saw your bloody hands and somehow managed to be silent when mothers screamed that their children were being slaughtered and after all I’ve been through who am I to ask for anyone else’s help, who am I to expect anyone else to listen and suddenly the responsibility is falling on my shoulders because now I sit back and do nothing as your followers bow and bow again, defend you as the blood pools around your feet, fight for you as the blood pools around the world, and they just keep on chanting in time with you and I can’t for the life of me understand this madness that everyone is caught up over, I can’t understand why I’m no longer in the land of the free, I can’t understand why people are holding guns up to their heads and pulling the trigger when they could swear to god they’re pointing it at the enemy.

Honestly though, what does it hurt?  This is just about as moronic as men striking down women’s rights in recent history, or looking back, the South supporting segregation.  Or just look at any idiotic motion to support any sort of discrimination at all throughout history.

Gay marriage does NOT affect straight marriages AT ALL.  The biggest complaint I’VE heard is that people will just do it for tax breaks.  Well you know what?  There are a great deal of white (majority) straight (majority) couples popping out kids for welfare money.  There are a great deal of straight couples that can stay married just to get tax breaks.  Is this a game of who can outsmart the government and who can’t suddenly?  Frankly people who would do this sort of thing are going to find a way no matter what.

Seriously.  These people look like monsters.  “Ok, yes, this is the land of the free.  But what about FAMILY VALUES?!”  Yeah?  What about them?  Last time I checked this was not a country that was supposed to have a government influenced by a SINGLE religion, let alone any religion at all.  The founding fathers did NOT approve of that model and that is what we ESCAPED from in England.  He who fights the monster must becareful lest he become one.  America, observe said proverb.  In fact we make a big deal about the Muslim government in middle eastern countries…yet we’re fine with being hypocrits.

I think at some point during my travels abroad I saw how backwards Americans really are.  No wonder almost every other country in the world hates us.  There’s a reason folks.  I’m not even sure if we can reverse the pervasive ignorance around us.

Grow up folks.  Intolerance was so 1800s.  We’ve made it through slavery, we’ve survived through women suddenly wearing pants (GASP- THE HORROR!), we’ve stumbled through Japanese internment, now we just need to jump through the recent immigration discrimination and the treatment of homosexuals.  I still think love is love and people are people.

To the editor:

I just want to say a BIG thank you to Representative Steve Drazkowski and his work on health care.

America has the greatest health care system in the world and if anyone has their doubts, go to Canada or England and they will tell you how they have to stand in line to get to a doctor. When a friend of mine from Canada told me that she had a problem with hemorrhaging and the doctors told her to get in line and she said she was so “thankful” she could come to the states to get help. How much blood can you lose before you are dead?

Well, it seems under government controlled health care you can die and that’s just too bad! I am so thankful for people like Representative Drazkowski who has some common sense and really cares about people and not just an agenda like so many do today in government.

E. Salzman

Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.

Then also also a Mr. Ed Nobach has again proven that some conservative people have their heads screwed on backwards.  He constantly assaults Democrats for the country’s problems, completely ignoring the fact that Bush started a useless war or decimated our economy or destroyed public relations, etc.  It’s irrelevent who caused the problems right now because we have to remedy.  I would GLADLY vote for whatever party has the most comprehensive plan to restore America to what it should be.

Democrats vs Republicans is not what is supposed to be going on.  We have parties in this country so that citizens have more choices in a democratic process and the party not holding office has the responsiblity of being ‘watchdog’ in government.  They were never meant to be good vs evil or, even worse, actually HINDER the political process because they cannot agree.  We’re all here to work for the betterment of our country so I would say people should start acting like it.  Both parties may have different ideas, but that’s part of the process and how things become refined throughout the process with input coming in from both sides.  And hopefully the end result is a more balanced piece of legistlation that represents the most people possible.

It is completely irresponsible to start mudslinging from any party to any party.  That makes YOU part of the problem and can only delay a solution.  If people stopped and took time to actually use their brains to construct something together then perhaps our world would not be facing so many crisises.  Instead we all see to like to get what we want and we all want to be right.  But what’s right for us may be wrong for everyone else.

COMPROMISE.  It’s a bipartisan term.