Tony Perkins has always been a douche bag.

That guy on the right is Tony Perkins.  He is the president of the Family Research Council, a right-wing, religious fascist organization that promotes hate, bigotry, and discrimination against homosexuals and women.   

This picture was taken sometime during the school year 1980-81 and was published in the Cleveland High School yearbook in Cleveland, Oklahoma.  Sure, it is a funny picture.  Two guys wearing a huge pair of football pants.  But those pants were made especially for someone and everyone in the school knew it.  The person those pants were made for, who is now deceased, was overweight and gay.  That person endured the taunting, jokes, and bullying that was all too common in those days. 

The truth is kids are cruel and don’t often consider the repercussions of their acts.  So why single out Tony for a youthful indiscretion?  Because almost 30 years later Tony thinks this kind of thing is just fine.  In an NPR online article about bullying and homosexuality Tony suggests that it is not bullying that is causing gay and lesbian youths to commit suicide but because, "These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict."

Wow, he actually used the word science.

Now, I don’t know if this is true or not but his Wikipedia page does suggest that Tony Perkins has ties to David Duke.  Yes, I know that’s dirty pool.  At least I didn’t say he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990 like Glenn Beck did, or so I’ve heard.

For the record, douche bag Tony only lived in Cleveland for 4 years and hopefully he doesn’t represent the people there. 

I really fucking hate Christmas

For years the rampant commercialism behind the celebration of the birth of Christ was enough to turn me against this holiday.  How many people go in debt every year because of this?  Buy, buy, buy!  It's a capitalist's dream come true.  Tie the biggest holiday to ever increasing gift giving.  It starts earlier every year.  Remember when there wasn't any mention of Christmas until after Thanksgiving?  I'm not sure when I first heard the term "Black Friday".  I don't think it was more than 20 years ago.  I never really thought about what it meant until the other day when I asked my wife.  She said it had something to do with business being in the black that day because of the sells.  WTF?  Do our kids really need all the shit that we buy them?  We can't pay our fucking taxes but we got enough fucking money to have a television in every room, a cell phone in every pocket, and a new Lexus in the drive with a fucking bow on top.

There was, however, still a little bit of the meaning of Christmas.  Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men.  That was until a few years ago Bill O'Reilly decided to come up with the term, "the war on Christmas".  So now the right-wing douche bags have done to Christmas what they did to patriotism.

When I was in the first grade back in 1971 my first grade teacher explained to the class that "Happy Holidays" was synonymous with "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".  And why wouldn't it mean that?  None of new about Hanukkah or Kwanzaa and Fetivus hadn't even been invented.  So Bill O'Reilly comes along and says that happy holidays is meant to include all holidays around this time of year and, of course, all the ignorant pin heads who watch Fox picked up on this and in their simple minds decided that Christmas was a republican holiday and that anyone who didn't celebrate it was unamerican.

So, you pretty much fucked up anything good that was left of this pagan holiday that was stolen by the church and renamed for your deity.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Let's face it, if you want to find people who are christ-like the last place you want to look is in a church.  Maybe I'm being a little too harsh and maybe I'm generalizing too much and stereotyping too much but come on, isn't being Christ-like being inclusive?  Do you numb-nuts not comprehend what you read in the new testiment?  Love your neighbor as yourself?  How can you love your neighbor if you boycott his store because he has a Happy Holidays sign in the window instead of Merry Christmas?

This is what has become of Christmas, commercialism and religious fascism.  That is why I'm not celebrating it anymore.  Oh, I'll still buy presents and cook the Christmas dinner and sing Christmas songs and wish everyone a Happy Holiday but in my heart and in my secret fantisies I'm kicking ole St. Nick in the balls until his red checks turn blue.

Democracy is Over-rated.

I'm always amused when election time rolls around and there is a big message to get out and vote.  People always say it doesn't matter who or what you vote for just as long as you vote.  If it doesn't matter then why bother?  Why do we want people to vote who are completely ignorant of what is at stake?  

When we have elections we almost always have two types of ballots, candidates running for office and referendums.  Both of these types of ballots come with their own weaknesses. 

Our form of government which we commonly refer to as a democracy is actually a Constitutional Republic.  The constitution part lays out the division of power among the branches of government establishing checks and balances and guarantees the rights of individuals.  The republic part establishes a representative form of government.  There are several reasons why we have representatives instead of every person voting on every issue.  Besides being unmanageable it is also unwise to trust important decision to individuals who are not educated to make those decisions. 

So if we have a Constitutional Republic then why do we have state referendums?  Because people are uneducated.  Everything I’ve written above comes straight from Political Science 101.  We have referendums because people get petitions to put questions on ballots or because Politians lack the will power to do their jobs or, something that has occurred much more often lately, to score political points.  By this I mean putting a question on a ballot which is obviously unconstitutional but caters to the base prejudices of the populace.

We have a representative government so that laws can be debated and passed according to a strict procedure that involves a bi-cameral legislature and an executive.  These laws are debated and molded, compromises are made and consensus is strived for.  When we have referendums none of this takes place.  What we usually get are emotional generalities on some political commercial.  Then we end up with a law that was not debated professionally and is unconstitutional which quite often denies people their constitutional rights before it is challenged in court, ultimately being overturned.

Have you ever gone to the voting booth and read a state question and not understand what it means or what the effects of it might be yet they want you to vote on it immediately?   What do you do in that situation?  Is it wise to make up your mind at that exact moment without researching the issue? 

There is nothing logical, rational, or wise about this process.  Years ago I decided personally to always vote no on referendums as a policy whether I agreed with them or not. 

Seriously, do you really want your redneck neighbor Jethro, who drives the 4x4 with the confederate flag license plate deciding constitutional amendments to the state constitution? 

Greetings

Having been on Facebook for a couple years I’ve found there are a lot of things I want to write about and share but the format and purpose of Facebook doesn’t really allow for it.  Plus, I’m always concerned that I’m going to offend someone that I don’t want to offend.  So I’m not going to hold back here.  Many people may be extremely offended by the things I’m going to write.  My perspective on social and political issues is definitely different from most. 

So who the hell am I to even have an opinion?  Well, I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology with and equal amount of course hours in history.  I have studied Political Science, Philosophy, Law, and World Religions.  I’m also an Information Technology Specialist and an Oracle Database Administrator.  The only thing I consider myself to be an expert on is history. 

Anyone offended yet?  Well fuck you.  I forget to mention that occasionally I may discuss penises and vaginas too.  Hell, I may even talk about Jesus’ penis.