Religious shenanigans

So, I just realized that I'm tired of hearing about religion on Facespace. Seems like once an hour, I'm either having an Atheist(1) challenge me to "prove the existence of my invisible friend", or someone else wanting me to repost "if Jesus is welcome in your house"(2)

Folks, this is one of the major problems we're having in our country: y'all are taking that stuff WAY too seriously. Not everyone in the world has to have the same views as you do. And some people (most of them) who have differing views from you are not complete morons. Nor do they want to hear constantly about how they're doomed to Hellfire.

Worship a kumquat for all I care: if it gives you solace/happiness/whatever, knock yourself out. But do you HAVE to broadcast your faith to the world?

(1) I always try to capitalize the name of any religion. And, at this point, Atheism qualifies

(2) Jesus is perfectly welcome in my house. Like any other visitor, He's expected to say "thank you for dinner", and haul Himself out the door when the evening is done. A short stay is even ok, but rent gets charged after one week. Privateer policy

Change to Comments

Sorry about the posting: work's been interesting.

Some may notice a change to the posting permissions aboard here: I'm no longer allowing anonymous comments. There's a reason.

Take a look at the first comment about Squeaker's baby. Looks VERY much as if this douche followed me back from Holly's, and a post she made about "childfree people". And felt the need to take a shot here too.

Now, I'm all for freedom of speech. And I have no trouble with someone wanting to take a shot at me: folks have tried everything but actual gunfire, and I'm still standing. But asshats making snide comments behind the anonymity of their computer screen shouts out "coward". And I'll not abide cowardice here. ESPECIALLY when it's aimed (however ineffectually) against a child.

So... new Privateer policy: if you're going to say something, you're gonna have to own it. If you can't, or don't want your name attached to whatever you're spewing, then piss up a rope.

It's good I don't have kids...

Because of things like this. The story:

BARLETT, Kan. -- There's controversy at a Kansas school after a teacher shaved the head of a 6-year-old boy because of his haircut.

Derby McReynolds had his hair cut in a short Mohawk.

Bartlett school officials said that was unacceptable, and sent him home.

His parents trimmed the boy's hair to what they said resembled a military cut.

The next time Derby went to school, the principal had a faculty member shave the boy's head.

"They said we were being unfair to Derby, by letting him cut his hair cut that way. He wanted it that way. If you ask me, they were being unfair to Derby by not allowing him to keep his hair the way he wanted it," said Casey Sandusky, the boyfriend of Derby's mother.

"The school district in general is always trying to balance that student's individual right of expression with the expectations of the building of each of the teachers, of parents and other students," Labette School Superintendent Dr. Chuck Stockton said.

His parents said Derby is wearing a hat until his hair is long enough to cut into a Mohawk again this summer.

Reminds me of a case here at home, where the daughter of a friend of the family was overheard telling a friend she thought she might be pregnant. Word got back to the guidance counsellor, who took it upon himself to restrict her to his office until she took a pregnancy test.

Now I don't know about y'all, but if a child of mine had something like this happen, I'd be looking for some time alone with whichever school drone was the perp. And chances are, they would think long and hard about EVER doing something similar to another kid.

Yes, children don't enjoy the same set of rights as adults. But things like this go way beyond what's acceptable. The sad part is, parents don't fight back, to keep the admins in check.

Kinda like how we let the gooberment keep getting away with stuff...

H/T to Jay G

Relationship lessons

You know, I'm a pretty good councellor: I listen well, and give pretty good advice. Usually, when someone tells me they're going through a break-up, I tell them to cut the ties completely. I didn't follow my own advice with Squeaker, and I just got reminded why it's a good idea...

Don't misunderstand: I've been wanting her back. But I had pulled back, trying to give her space for her new relationship to work. Tonight, I sent her a text (related to work), and found out she was drinking: in her words, "to bring her problems to the surface".

Now, I don't know 'bout any of y'all, but that sounds (to me) like someone who could maybe use a little help, who's in pain. And I can't see someone in pain without trying to help.

I'm an idiot that way.

So... I spend about an hour, hour 'n' a half talking to her, via texts. She mentioned how "nobody can help me, not even myself", which sounded (to me) like she was giving up on herself. So I kinda hammered on that for awhile. And she responded with "I'm not giving up! I'm his"...

To me, this sounded like she thought the entire time I spent trying to help, was only an effort to "win her back". Made me feel like a complete idiot.

I could've been spending the time with Spoon. Or working. Or stabbing myself in the testicles with a rusty icepick. Instead, I was trying to help. And I got my emotional ass handed to me for my troubles.

Fuck that!

Up to this point, there was a part of me that really wanted her to come back. To try and make things work. That part just got locked away by the rest of my mind, in a deep dark hole. Kinda the way society used to deal with the mentally handicapped, which is kinda what that part of my brain is...

I know she occassionally reads this blog. And maybe, she hopes things can be cleaned up. Honestly, I don't trust her anymore. And without trust, there can't be love...

So folks, let this be a lesson: when someone leaves you for another, cut them out of your life as completely as possible. Maybe, at a later date, things can be revisited. But if you don't make that clean break, you're in for a world of hurt...

Bloody frelling...

So... good time for a bad week.

Our April kick-off party went well, except for coming up $100 short of our expences. First time we've LOST money on an event. Of course, not having ads up until a week and a half beforehand probably didn't help...

I had mentioned that we had a case coming up: went in for the pre-trial meeting between the DA and our girl. And yep... the trial's been postponed again. Getting tired of this ballgame...

Good news is, we got our state returns, and I should be getting a few more contracts signed over the weekend. So maybe I CAN make a decent go of this job...

ego massage should be done with a chain mace

Via Bitter at the Bitch Girls, we get this.

To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure.

Now, I don't mean to go on a rant here. But if someone is failing at whatever their job is, you say "Hey: you're failing". If I'm not selling ad space, i expect a call from my boss pointing out that I'm not succeeding at my job. If this state's BACA chapters get way out of line, I expect a call from National asking what the problem is. What I do NOT expect (and would piss me off) would be either one coming up with some sugar-coated term for "failure".

Here's a REALLY novel idea: when one of these schools isn't performing up to snuff, call 'em on it. Identify what the problems are, and attack those problems.

Oh hey... looks like one of the students, who sits on the board, had that idea:

Zachary Tsetsos, a senior at Oxford High School and the only student on the board, said he finds the debate frivolous.

"Why are we spending time on this?," said the 17-year-old. "I don't want to tiptoe around the issue. I'm not concerned about what title we give these schools. Let's work on fixing them."

Want to massage the tender egos of failing students, and the teachers/administrators who are partly responsible? Haw about using a chain mace, or a hickory switch, or any of a number of similar "motivational tools" that have proven effective over the years.

Ye gawds... and these are the folks shaping the minds of future leaders?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot news...

Via Jay, we get this stunning lil' piece...

Lemmie make sure I understand how this all works out.

Corey Saunders, convicted of charges of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and attempted rape and abuse of a child under 16. He pled guilty and received four years and one day in prison, with a 12 year probation on top of that.

He served his time, and was released. The release was against the advice of three different psychologists.

Well, Corey ended up finding a six-year-old boy in the public library of New Bedfor MA. The boy's mother was working at a computer less than 10 feet away, thinking her child was safe in the children's reading room.

She was wrong.

Corey had his way with the child, finishing the act before suspicions were aroused (although a librarian took note of him). When the child told what had happened, Corey was arrested quickly.

The result of this is the proposed legislation, to enact "child safety zones"?

Yeah... THAT'S gonna work. Just like "Gun Free" zones, and "Drug Free" zones


We wonder why we have such a severe problem with crime in this country. Sear the facts of this case into your mind, and see if you can figure out why this would be the case.

News flash: history repeats itself. Film at 11.

Was having an interesting discussion over coffee tonight. Got to talking about great generals over the years, and a stunning revelation...

In WWII, we had awesome generals (Patton, Eisenhower, Mac Arthur, etc), who Washington left in charge of the war effort. The Germans, on the other hand, while they had some great leaders (Uncle Erwin leaps to mind), Hitler kept sticking his nose in. As we all know, the Allies won.

Hope y'all are keeping up: the side that let the generals run things without dealing with politics won.

In Korea, we still had Mac. In talking with veterans of that conflict, I have yet to hear from one that doesn't agree that Mac was a bastard... But he should have been allowed to actually fight the war. Instead Mac got fired (and we had at best a stalemate). See a pattern?

Let's step right along, to our next big encounter: Vietnam. Heck we didn't even get into the conflict before politicians messed up. And can we remember how THAT whole game played out? Yeah... We let the politicians run things...

Step forward again... Gulf War I. Schwarzkopf was doing a hell of a job, but we had what holding him up?

Class? Anyone?

Yep... Political concerns kept the job from being finished properly.

What... Did we defeat Hitler because we wanted to steal his style?

Have you actually studied your religion?

You know, I once had a conversation with someone convinced that Christ was "Christian". No matter WHAT I said, this person was adamant that Jesus Christ fllowed the teachings of that great man, ummm... Jesus Christ. Because Christianity was the oldest religion on Earth, don't ya know. I thought that ignorance was the ultimate in bliss.

I was wrong.

Via LabRat at Atomic Nerds, get this clip:



My gawds... how does this woman come up with this?I assume she's a Christian herself: did she NOT study her Bible any better than an irritated Satanist with an agenda?

This is the problem with WAY to many "religious folks": they don't actually study what they're claiming to practice.

Here's a newsflash for anyone that didn't know: Jesus was a Jew living in the Mid East many centuries after the Greeks had their heyday. Yes, he was a Jew: in fact, he was a Rabbi. And there was a LOT of history that predated his birth (hence the whole "BC" thing).

I'm frelling WICCAN, and I know these things. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?

On Bots

If anyone can tell me who the schmuck is that created the program known as the SPAM Bot, please let me know: I'd like to discuss his invention with him, over a baseball bat!

I'm a mod on a pagan forum (timerift.net). In the past three days, I (and a couple other mods) have deleted somethng in the vacinity of 300 posts by the same bot, using the name(s) abby***. Should I ever find the culprit behind this lil' bit of fun, I'm willing to bet the charges against me will included violating the "cruel and unusual punishment" restriction...