Monthly Archive for April, 2006

FOX vs. the crazy lady

Published on April 28, 2006 in Random. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

You’ll probably never hear me say this again, but I love Sean Hannity. Why? Because of this.

God, I hate people like that. If I could somehow track this woman down and run her over with sharp pointy studded tires and get away with it, I would.

[Future Cody's note: Not only is the video no longer there, but I can't even find another version. Basically, Sean Hannity was trying to conduct an interview with some lady from the Westboro Baptist Church, but it wound down to him blowing up at her for being such a bigoted and crazy woman. Of course, that was when she even let him get a word in edgewise.]

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Internships, college, and a rant

Published on April 27, 2006 in Random and Rant. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Before I begin on another rant (yes, I’m mad about another thing), I’d like to give a little update on my life. Sounds exciting, no? Well, on Tuesday, I went in to talk with this company about doing a little internship thingy with them over the summer. They want someone to design their corporate website, and my work on my own site and the upcoming Burlington-Edison band website apparently impressed them enough to ask me. The problem: I don’t seem to get anything in return. Originally, this type of internship was meant to give students at Skagit Valley College (a community college across the river in Mount Vernon) credit towards one thing or another. Since I don’t attend there (I don’t even do Running Start), I don’t get the credit. And yes, I did check out possible internship->credit programs at UW, but you have to do the internship whilst attending the university, and I don’t plan on doing this any longer than the summer, if even that (it really shouldn’t take me that long to make a website). And I don’t get paid, either. As it is, the company’s only a two and a half man operation (two brothers run the gig and there’s a semi-part-time guy who comes in every so often to drink coffee), and they’ve got boxes all over the place from their freight salvage operation, so I doubt they really can afford to pay me in anything other than coffee and high-speed Internet. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, except for the fact that I hate coffee. Meh.

In other news, I’m going down to UW tomorrow for the Husky Experience 2006. I get to miss a day of school to hear a bunch of things I probably already knew! Isn’t that fun? Ah, anyways, I probably will learn a bunch of interesting things that I didn’t learn on the campus tour I never took. Heh, I know more about Western than I do about UW, and I’m actually going to the latter. Oh the irony. Or is it irony? Perhaps it’s an extended feminine metaphorical simile indicating the underlying cause of the blog post…agh! AP English is invading my head! Must…escape…!

…I’m back. Now, onto the rant! My target for tonight is good ol’ affirmative action (or as the Brits call it: positive discrimination). To put it in a nutshell (this is for you folks who like to read Cliffs Notes and such), I hate it. I’m white and male, therefore I’m automatically screwed over. Oh, and I’m middle-class (well, lower middle-class, but hey, who’s keeping track?) so that screws me over for a few things, too, namely scholarships.

In essence, affirmative action forces people (say, businesses and colleges) to adhere to a completely insane policy of hiring/admitting a certain number of “underrepresented” groups, such as minorities (blacks, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, good Scottish tennis players, etc.) and women in order to make up for some historical or overexaggerated socioeconomical differences. I’m really not quite sure why this policy even exists other than to piss people off. Some companies even have quotas as to how many women or minorities they must hire to avoid being labeled racist or sexist. So they are forced to hire underqualified people just to meet the quota. In other words, a Hispanic woman newly immigrated to the country and without an ounce of understanding of the English language or any experience in a work environment whatsoever is more likely to be hired than a perfectly qualified white guy. Okay, that’s a little bit exaggerated. For the most part, qualified individuals are hired over unqualified people. But if a woman or a minority is put in the same applicant group as a white man, and the two people are perfectly identical in skills and abilities suited for the job they’re applying for, the woman or minority will most likely get picked for the sole reason that they’re a woman or minority. Sickening.

Now, I’m not racist, nor am I blind. I realize there are differences between racial groups. Heck, I get that racism still exists in some places. Just a little ways east down Highway 20, there’s a town called Concrete where I’ve seen blacks get chased out of stores for the color of their skin. And with that kind of attitude, I doubt any of those storeowners would hire a black man or a Hispanic immigrant. But what of it? It’s their store; let them run it how they want. Obviously, they wouldn’t appreciate it if the government stepped in and told them they had to hire a certain number of minorities, or something along those lines. Luckily, though, racists are a lot less prevalent now than, say, forty years ago. Good riddance, I say. Anyways, affirmative action merely reinforces the aforementioned differences. Basically, it’s saying that women and minorities can’t get employment or get into college solely on the basis of their qualifications. Instead, they need a little boost because they’re “underrepresented.” Positive discrimination indeed.

Yeah, anyways, I don’t quite remember where I was going with this rant. I’m tired and annoyed at all the kids in marching band who couldn’t stay focused during practice tonight (or at any practice, for that matter). As I keep telling Q, we need a big bottle of Prozac in his office…or tranquilizer darts! Even better! And we could give the gun to Alvin…excellent…

Yes…er, I highly doubt if any of you will understand that. Well, Becca probably would. She knows Alvin. And she knows Francis. That says it all right there.

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Freedom of speech goes only so far

Published on April 23, 2006 in Rant. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

This may be getting old for those of you used to me babbling on about my latest hijinks in school and other similarly pointless yet amusing things, but the Religion section in the newspaper every Saturday always seems to bring up some issue I have to rant about. Today, it’s the conflict between free speech and intolerance. Gray areas are always fun!

As many of you hopefully know, the United States is based on the near-complete freedom of speech. Everyone has a right to speak their piece. This does not, however, apply to racists and other intolerant sorts. So really, free speech is only free if you don’t have anything degrading or intolerant to say. No, it’s not quite fair, but let’s face it, complete freedom of speech would result in civil war against the whining tree-hugging hippie Communist gay-loving liberals and the closed-minded Bible-thumping gun-toting war-mongering hateful fascist conservatives. The South would still segregate blacks and whites, and homosexuals would be nailed to fenceposts across the Midwest. Bush would probably not be in office, and Clinton would have been exiled (or worse) instead of simply impeached. No, complete freedom of speech doesn’t work. But then, where do you draw the line? Is forcing people to be tolerant of homosexuals being intolerant of their religion? I don’t see how, but apparently 60% of the United States does.

The article in the paper I read about this in was about a 22-year-old Georgia Tech student named Ruth Malhotra, who is a Christian, and who’s suing the school for the right to speak out against “shameful homosexuality.” Georgia Tech, along with many other liberal-minded colleges, bans this kind of speech that puts down others based on their sexual orientation. Fair enough: everyone has the right to get an education without hearing that they’re going to hell every day. Who would want to hear that? But there exists a growing number of people who are calling for an elimination of such policies from public schools, state colleges, and private workplaces. Anyone with half a brain can see where this will lead: a rather large increase in the number of teen suicides, not to mention a rise in unemployment (all the gays and lesbians who can’t get jobs) and possibly even public stonings. Okay, maybe that last one is a bit extreme, but you never know.

Because Malhotra’s religion apparently compels her to speak out against homosexuality (I never learned that in Sunday School), she feels that being told she can’t do that is discriminating against her as a Christian. And a number of self-important Christian pastors agree, claiming that religion is under attack in the United States, and that Christians will have to stand up for the right to be Christian. Now, I personally abhor this kind of “Oh, I’m being persecuted!” behavior. It’s whining, pure and simple. Let me spell it out in bold: the world’s not attacking your religion. What we’re attacking is your lack of compassion and pathetic attempts at being human. What kind of hypocritical religion goes around spouting things like “Love your neighbor” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and then turns around and condemns a group of people simply because they are different? And people wonder why I turned away from Christianity…

All right…deep breaths. I didn’t mean to get so scathing there. I try to keep my cool when I rant like this, but sometimes my emotions get the better of me. Of course, it’s not too hard when I read about people like this Malhotra character who apparently have no shred of decency. No wonder the ACLU seems to be anti-religion (even though they aren’t; they’ve often defended religious institutions in lawsuits). This culture of intolerance has pervaded nearly every religion.

Argh, I did it again. Sorry. Now, I’m going to sit on the fence here and provide the big problem with banning intolerant speech. Freedom of speech means you can say whatever you want without worrying about the government showing up at your doorstep and escorting you to Siberia. This includes the right to be racist, bigoted, intolerant, and a whole host of things that the majority of people dislike immensely. Why are neo-Nazis allowed to organize rallies? Freedom of speech. Why are Christian pastors allowed to preach against the “evils” of homosexuality and liberalism? Freedom of speech. Why are atheist authors allowed to write books skewering every religion ever thought up? Freedom of speech. The list goes on and on. But as I said earlier, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Degrading speech or discrimination of any kind (whether it be based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation) causes problems and can be extremely harmful, not only to the people being degraded, but to society as a whole. I can’t think up any examples off the top of my head…well, I just killed that argument. Meh.

Well, that whole rant was apparently a jumbled mess of arguments and examples with no point to draw it all together. I think it’s sufficient to say simply that everyone has the freedom to do and say whatever, so long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s right to do the same. In other words, if you (the theoretical you) see fit to degrade someone based on their sexual orientation, don’t start whining when someone does the same to you based on your religion. I think that’s worthy of a “duh,” don’t you?

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Of Catholics and condoms

Published on April 21, 2006 in Rant. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Catholics amaze me. I’m sorry if anyone who reads this is Catholic, but your church leaders have got to be the stodgiest old farts who ever managed to reach a position where they can tell people what to do. Take, for instance, the Catholic church’s ban–yes, ban–on condoms. Um…does anyone else fail to see the logic behind that? Apparently, condoms are “evil” and the only method two people should use to avoid pregnancy while still having sex is to not have sex at all. Now, this doesn’t really seem like a good plan to me. People will have sex. It’s what people do. Telling them that they can’t use condoms will only result in one thing: more babies. If they were going to use a condom in the first place, it’s obvious that this is something they don’t want. Ergo, it would be in the world’s favor to allow people to use condoms in order to keep the population level down, especially since the Catholic church refuses to allow single women to adopt. Or something like that.

The Catholic Church will, however, allow limited condom use for couples with HIV/AIDS, to prevent the spread of the disease. Considering that latex condoms are highly effective when it comes to stopping HIV, this seems like a much better idea than mere abstinence. Sex isn’t the only way HIV gets around…

At any rate, this is just one more thing I don’t like about the Catholic church. Again, I apologize to any Catholics who happen across this. It’s just that I prefer to do things my own way. Religion is one thing, complete control of peoples’ life choices is another.

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1957

Published on April 19, 2006 in Random. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Comments Made In The Year 1957
==============================

I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $20.

Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long before $2000 will only buy a used one.

If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.

Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?

If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.

Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.

I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying, “damn” in “Gone With The Wind,” it seems every new movie has either hell or damn in it.

I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.

Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the president.

I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.

It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.

It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.

Marriage doesn’t mean a thing any more; those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.

I’m just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.

Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to Parliament.

The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.

There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend. It costs nearly $15 a night to stay in a hotel.

No one can afford to be sick any more; $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood.

If they think I’ll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.

—-

It’s amusing to see how much life has changed since 1957. Ah, 29 cents a gallon would have been nice…

There are sometimes where my mom just amazes me. And not necessarily in a good way. Take, for instance, tonight’s episode of “House,” which featured a lesbian couple. My mom commented on how the show was getting “too progressive.” Real life is too progressive? My, what has the world come to? Of course, when one of the partners commented on how she wanted to lay in bed with the other as old ladies, I couldn’t help but shudder at the mental image, but even so, I find nothing wrong with the idea. Regardless of whether or not homosexuality is a choice, it’s still natural. Romantic same-sex love has been around for millenia. There are accounts of accepted homosexuality in the ancient Greek and Roman empires, as well as in various Asian civilizations. It was around before the Bible passages condemning it were even written by men who somehow found it against God’s will. How someone could possibly know whether God cares who you love is completely beyond me, but that’s not the point of this entry. The point is that people are going to love who they love. You may not like it, but as House would say, tough. That’s life; deal with it.

Anways…I also won $20 in a contest. Go me!

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