http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2008198091324
Check out that article. Try to keep your rage in check, the rage is my job, remember? Now, I'm gonna take this step by step.
Can we just admit that the "angry white man" is a fucking myth? They don't exist. They're the mythological ideal held up by racist, redneck hicks that would like to imagine there's a way they can have all the racism, mysogony, and nascar racing without it *really* being mysogony, racism, and not a sport. They'd like to imagine that they can proclaim themselves better than everyone else, smarter, the primary breadwinner, and just plain awesome without being seen as, well, racist, mysoginistic hicks.
But they can't. Because when you proclaim "Press one for English" is a curse word, you're saying that other people are wrong for not speaking the same language you do. When you say that your "Wife is more emotional than rational" and follow up with "and [I] lead [my] family rationally", you're being mysoginistic.
I know what the fuck who wrote this article was *trying* to do. He was *trying* to appeal to the "middle America" concept that's been forgotten. The idea that "most people" are really just work-a-day guys who have a decent house, work to raise a family, and just want to have their lives. And I agree that a lot of politicians are fucking over these guys (and I have all *sorts* of words to say on that, but here is not the place). But the pretend human being being described here needs to be destroyed just as much as the "happy housewife with heels on" stereotype, just as much as the "Yes Massah" black guy stereotype, and just as much as the "Me so sleeeepy" Mexican stereotype needs to be destroyed. Not only are they not true, they activly work *against* those groups getting the rights and privlages they deserve.
So, Angry White Guy? Fuck you in the ass with a rusty awl. And Gary Hubell? You are a racist, mysoginistic prick. The sooner you just admit this to yourself, and stop trying to hide behind this "Oh, I'm just good old fashioned Middle America!" bullshit, the sooner we can all move on and let the adults actually decide policy. Because you are acting like a fucking child who's too fucking petty to share his god damned sandbox.
-Rantin' is also known as The All Powerful Nateboi, God of Holy Wrath and Bullshit, and hosts a weekly rant show on http://www.dementiaradio.org . He has also been known to kick Angry White Guys in the nuts and laugh at their Middle American Pain.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Sometimes there is no evidence
Hello, Gentle Readers. I am writing to you today from the blissed-out planet of Power Intensive. The Power Intensive is a five-day journey of self-discovery run by my teacher, mentor, and good friend, Lynn Woodland (www.lynnwoodland.com), and I have been taking this journey two or three times a year since May 2005. Tonight was the second night, so the group, close-knit from the beginning, has now worked into a wonderful condition of honesty, love, and support. The group seemed to know itself before the start of the workshop, in fact. All of us knew that “Tracy” was going to be in the workshop, even though she didn’t sign up until the last minute. We also all knew that another woman, “Lorraine,” was not going to be part of the group, even though she was enrolled. We knew these things, even though we did not have any evidence to prove what we knew. Until the workshop started last night, and Tracy was there and Lorraine left before the night was over.
What I’m telling you, in my blissed-out and round-about way, is that we are all connected. I don’t claim to know any better than you what the larger force is, but I have seen and experienced enough in my own life to know that there is one. And it connects us. So, I ask you, if your right hand stabs your left hand, who suffers?
I have never killed anyone myself, but I have suffered the loss of loved ones. I have seen and touched the corpses of my family members. I have known, suffered with, and grieved over the finality of death. Rantin’ tells me that this is a minor detail. Perhaps so, in the scheme of things. Perhaps my experience is minute. Perhaps I have never known true suffering or true loss.
As I look at either possibility, however, either my knowledge of the finality of death or my ignorance of it, I can still only come to one conclusion: I cannot approve the intentional taking of a human life by another.
My desire, deep in my heart, is for everyone to dance in joy on this earth. I see that this is not currently happening; yet I know that I must do what I can to make it true. Sometimes I simply must hold the truth inside me, knowing without evidence, until the day when the joy shows up.
— Compassion is also know as Katja Amyx, and does not lay claim to extraordinary Godhood. Just the ordinary kind. She has a web site at www.katjaamyx.net.
What I’m telling you, in my blissed-out and round-about way, is that we are all connected. I don’t claim to know any better than you what the larger force is, but I have seen and experienced enough in my own life to know that there is one. And it connects us. So, I ask you, if your right hand stabs your left hand, who suffers?
I have never killed anyone myself, but I have suffered the loss of loved ones. I have seen and touched the corpses of my family members. I have known, suffered with, and grieved over the finality of death. Rantin’ tells me that this is a minor detail. Perhaps so, in the scheme of things. Perhaps my experience is minute. Perhaps I have never known true suffering or true loss.
As I look at either possibility, however, either my knowledge of the finality of death or my ignorance of it, I can still only come to one conclusion: I cannot approve the intentional taking of a human life by another.
My desire, deep in my heart, is for everyone to dance in joy on this earth. I see that this is not currently happening; yet I know that I must do what I can to make it true. Sometimes I simply must hold the truth inside me, knowing without evidence, until the day when the joy shows up.
— Compassion is also know as Katja Amyx, and does not lay claim to extraordinary Godhood. Just the ordinary kind. She has a web site at www.katjaamyx.net.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
They all deserve to die!
I've decided to institute a new rule, and since I'm a god, I can bloody well do that. This new rule will revolutionize the way this country works, and do wonders for our social structure. You may think I'm exaggerating, but when you hear my wonderful new rule, you'll agree that it will solve many, many problems with our structure.
Here it is. The New Rule!
You are not allowed to proclaim that someone should die unless you have personally killed another human being.
And by "personally killed", I don't mean that you fired a gun into the night and got lucky, 'cause that punk ass was tryin' ta step. I mean you stood there, saw the look on their face as the realization of death came across them. Saw blood and viscera seep out of their body. Had their blood on your hand, wet and sticky. When you've done that, *then* you can talk about how them damn towelheads need to die, and how torture is awesome fun and well deserved.
Because if you haven't been there. If you haven't seen death, touched it, been a part of it, then you have no fucking clue what the fuck you're talking about. You don't. I don't care how many pictures of death you've seen. I don't care how many n00bs you totally pwned at Quake the other day. I don't care how numbed to death and suffering you think you are. You're not.
As soon as we have people who fucking realize that they're not as big as they think they are, and how fucking *final* death really is, a lot of the most annoying shit of this population's social structure will go away.
That's it for today. Maybe tomorrow, I'll talk about how you don't get to invoke Jesus' name if your answer to WWJD is "Lethal Injection".
-Rantin' is also known as The All Powerful Nateboi, God of Holy Wrath and Bullshit, and does a weekly rant show at http://www.dementiaradio.org . He is also known far and wide as the world's foremost pleaser of women and the world's greatest ferret tosser.
Here it is. The New Rule!
You are not allowed to proclaim that someone should die unless you have personally killed another human being.
And by "personally killed", I don't mean that you fired a gun into the night and got lucky, 'cause that punk ass was tryin' ta step. I mean you stood there, saw the look on their face as the realization of death came across them. Saw blood and viscera seep out of their body. Had their blood on your hand, wet and sticky. When you've done that, *then* you can talk about how them damn towelheads need to die, and how torture is awesome fun and well deserved.
Because if you haven't been there. If you haven't seen death, touched it, been a part of it, then you have no fucking clue what the fuck you're talking about. You don't. I don't care how many pictures of death you've seen. I don't care how many n00bs you totally pwned at Quake the other day. I don't care how numbed to death and suffering you think you are. You're not.
As soon as we have people who fucking realize that they're not as big as they think they are, and how fucking *final* death really is, a lot of the most annoying shit of this population's social structure will go away.
That's it for today. Maybe tomorrow, I'll talk about how you don't get to invoke Jesus' name if your answer to WWJD is "Lethal Injection".
-Rantin' is also known as The All Powerful Nateboi, God of Holy Wrath and Bullshit, and does a weekly rant show at http://www.dementiaradio.org . He is also known far and wide as the world's foremost pleaser of women and the world's greatest ferret tosser.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Topic of the Week
Howdy. I'm the "Rantin'" of this thing. My broadcast partner up there is liable to hem and haw for a few days until she comes to some compassionate happy medium for this Officer Dude guy, and I'm cool with that. I think someone needs to find a way to be compassionate to everyone in this day and age, because without compassion yadda yadda yadda.
That being said, I'd just like to point out that I hope they throw the god damned book at the fucker. There's too many fuckers in this country these days that abuse their damn power, and it's nice when one of the aformentioned fuckers can get what they deserve. Now, let me be perfectly clear. I'm all about giving the cops the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I'll even go one step further and say, because of the nature of their job, I don't even mind some minor abuse of power. You wanna turn your flasher's on to get through traffic so you can get to Burger King faster? I don't have a problem with that, because you get shot at so I don't have to.
But there's gotta be a limit. And when you're shoving around a fourteen year old kid for calling you Dude, you've hit that limit. Now, I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who would say "You don't know what those officers have to go through!". To you, Darth Tang and the voice in my head, I say "yes I do" (and if you don't get that joke, you're obviously not from the RPG.Net forums). I've been homeless, as many of you may know, and I've seen some of the worst scum the cops have to deal with. That's why I *don't* mind small abuses of power. They've got a crap job as it is, they don't get much in the way of pay for it, so I don't mind a few fringe benefits. But I think we can all agree that when you're shoving down 14 year old kids, you're done.
You're done being an officer of the law. You're done claiming to uphold the rights and safety of the citizens. You're done getting the rights and privlages of holding a gun and using your flashers to get to Burger King safely.
So to you, Officer Dude, and all the other douche cops out there, fuck you. I hope you get the book thrown at you, and I'm happy that we have this new technology that allows for us to spread far and wide your douchebaggary. We need to have less assholish cops, and I think this is a good start.
-Rantin' is also known as The All Powerful Nateboi, God of Holy Wrath and Bullshit, and hosts a weekly rant show on http://www.dementiaradio.org . He is also known far and wide as the universes foremost killer of all things undead.
That being said, I'd just like to point out that I hope they throw the god damned book at the fucker. There's too many fuckers in this country these days that abuse their damn power, and it's nice when one of the aformentioned fuckers can get what they deserve. Now, let me be perfectly clear. I'm all about giving the cops the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I'll even go one step further and say, because of the nature of their job, I don't even mind some minor abuse of power. You wanna turn your flasher's on to get through traffic so you can get to Burger King faster? I don't have a problem with that, because you get shot at so I don't have to.
But there's gotta be a limit. And when you're shoving around a fourteen year old kid for calling you Dude, you've hit that limit. Now, I'm sure there's plenty of people out there who would say "You don't know what those officers have to go through!". To you, Darth Tang and the voice in my head, I say "yes I do" (and if you don't get that joke, you're obviously not from the RPG.Net forums). I've been homeless, as many of you may know, and I've seen some of the worst scum the cops have to deal with. That's why I *don't* mind small abuses of power. They've got a crap job as it is, they don't get much in the way of pay for it, so I don't mind a few fringe benefits. But I think we can all agree that when you're shoving down 14 year old kids, you're done.
You're done being an officer of the law. You're done claiming to uphold the rights and safety of the citizens. You're done getting the rights and privlages of holding a gun and using your flashers to get to Burger King safely.
So to you, Officer Dude, and all the other douche cops out there, fuck you. I hope you get the book thrown at you, and I'm happy that we have this new technology that allows for us to spread far and wide your douchebaggary. We need to have less assholish cops, and I think this is a good start.
-Rantin' is also known as The All Powerful Nateboi, God of Holy Wrath and Bullshit, and hosts a weekly rant show on http://www.dementiaradio.org . He is also known far and wide as the universes foremost killer of all things undead.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Officer Dude
My attention has been caught by the sad story of Officer Salvatore “Dude” Rivieri roughing up a young skateboarder. (In case anyone has not seen the video, you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc.) I’m going to leave the emotional reactions, of which I’ve had many, aside, and go for a legal viewpoint.
Even if we give Officer Dude the benefit of the doubt and assume that the kids in the video were being total jerks — heck, let’s say that the moment before Officer Dude got out of his vehicle they were taunting him, making rude gestures, and calling him “pig” — there is no evidence that they were doing physical harm to others or threatening Officer Dude with physical harm. They had no weapons. They weren’t waving their skateboards at him in a menacing manner. Furthermore, the young skater was not resisting arrest. In short, there was no duty-related reason for an officer to use force. In other words, this was an assault, plain and simple. Neither a police badge nor a tender ego gives a person permission to assault someone. (Let alone assaulting a youth a third his size.)
That’s right, I’m going to come right out and say it. Officer Dude was wrong, wrong, wrong. He should have kept his angry, grubby hands off that kid, no matter if the kid was the worst kind of foul-mouthed, disrespectful punk there is.
Having said all that, I wonder: Why is this so interesting to me? I usually don’t even watch the news because I just don’t need to be reminded of all the ugliness in the world. What’s revving me up about this case is just the gut reaction about how wrong O. D. was — and how right I am.
Even if we give Officer Dude the benefit of the doubt and assume that the kids in the video were being total jerks — heck, let’s say that the moment before Officer Dude got out of his vehicle they were taunting him, making rude gestures, and calling him “pig” — there is no evidence that they were doing physical harm to others or threatening Officer Dude with physical harm. They had no weapons. They weren’t waving their skateboards at him in a menacing manner. Furthermore, the young skater was not resisting arrest. In short, there was no duty-related reason for an officer to use force. In other words, this was an assault, plain and simple. Neither a police badge nor a tender ego gives a person permission to assault someone. (Let alone assaulting a youth a third his size.)
That’s right, I’m going to come right out and say it. Officer Dude was wrong, wrong, wrong. He should have kept his angry, grubby hands off that kid, no matter if the kid was the worst kind of foul-mouthed, disrespectful punk there is.
Having said all that, I wonder: Why is this so interesting to me? I usually don’t even watch the news because I just don’t need to be reminded of all the ugliness in the world. What’s revving me up about this case is just the gut reaction about how wrong O. D. was — and how right I am.
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