Only Korans? - Part 3, unfortunately

[04/16/2012] - I feel like I've learned a lot since I wrote this, and it now no longer 100% represents my views on the subject; they aren't enraged because we burned some books.


"Worse than useless" is the most concise way I can think of to describe that bigot Terry Jones.

That's all I have to say about him.

In Afghanistan many people have now been murdered because of a Youtube video of a Koran being burned. I'm disgusted by the bigotry of the group that burned that Koran. I'm outraged that those people were murdered. There is nothing to justify what has happened, though there are certainly explanations. Understanding their outrage is not a reason to sanction their actions. Understanding the maliciousness of the original offense does not mean that any part of the retribution should be forgiven.

When I made the original post I titled it "Only Korans?" to imply that no so-called Holy Book should be safe from burning in an act of defiance. Now though I'd like to repurpose that title for its other meaning.

That book is merely a Koran.

To Hell with the accommodationists and strict-multiculturalists. Their wretched hypocrisy, essentially born out of pity for murderers and tyrants, is nauseating. I have no respect for you or your opinions if you can look at the events that have just occurred in Afghanistan and say, "See? This is why we must forbid insulting Islam."

Fuck it. I have nothing left to say.

I'll quote Madison-area band Erebus instead:

(From 'God Loves Us')

The bones of infidels

Of countless human souls

How could the world forget

The graveyard it’s built on

This earth is drenched with blood

In the name of God

Surely the work of the Lord Has been Done

Let us pray for the 3 million children a year,

That are destroyed by the holiest butcher

Let us pray for the billions of infidels

That were created,

So they can burn in hell

Has he the will but not the power?

Impotent

Has he the power not the will?

Sadistic

Just fucking end it all

I’m blessed,

you’re blessed,

we’re fucking blessed

I’m saved,

you’re saved,

it’s fucking great

Grab mom and dad and grandma too

Cuz it’s true,

God loves me and you!

Why keep a prison

When we’ve got one here on earth

What can we expect at the gates?

When you’ve turned your back on us?

You wash your hands

And sit in judgment

Or are we just fuel

For the Flames

Let us pray to the god that has betrayed us all

Born a sinner, you will die nothing more

Pray to the tyrant, laughing on a throne of despair

Demanding all from a world too poor to give

We are controlled by guilt and fear

Suffering

Gambling on a roll of the dice

Cowardice

What are you waiting for?

I’m blessed,

you’re blessed,

we’re fucking blessed

I’m saved,

you’re saved,

it’s fucking great

Grab mom and dad and grandma too

Cuz it’s true,

God loves me and you!

How much worse can it get?

I’m disgusted

I don’t want your paradise

Send me to hell

Hypocrisy

Rereading some of my posts I stumbled on something that I want to amend. In the post 'WikiLeaks' I wrote:

Even if they take out Julian Assange with a bullet or drone strike or that bullshit rape allegation I want to make sure that as many people as possible can access this information.

Emphasis added after-the-fact to the part I feel guilty about. It was completely hypocritical of me to simply dismiss those charges. I think that Michael Moore explained a much more sensible stance to take when he defended his decision to post Julian Assange's bail on the Rachel Maddow Show. Basically; while Assange deserves a chance to defend himself those charges still have to be taken very seriously.

Randomized Dissonant Cognitions (or..uh, something)

I was planning on writing a bunch of posts about the election; I guess I've simply become too burned out when it comes to politics. Writing about video games and music is much more fun than politics or social issues lately.

This is only the second major election I'll get to vote in. Maybe I just wasn't paying close enough attention in the past, but I honestly never thought I'd see the type of insanity that is consuming the elections this year. During the 2004 election I thought it was ridiculous that Howard Dean was discounted as unelectable because of his 'yee-hah' moment.

I wish we could go back to that type of thinking.

One candidate I'm particularly displeased with is Ron Johnson. It's probably unfair for me to single him out. Nonetheless there is plenty to be disgusted with.

Check out the video on the "Meet Ron Johnson" page. It's all of the nauseating rhetoric you could possibly hope for from conservative talk radio, neatly repackaged as a political... something. It's not a bio, it's not an endorsement; the video gives me a creepy 'propaganda' vibe.

*updated again (4/7/11)* See this post for important information about the next section!

Especially distasteful is what Charlie SYKES [sic] has to say at the 2:20 mark. Actually, it's a little after that, but 2:20 is where you should start.

I always felt that my personal freedom would be protected. I could trust that our constitutional checks and balances would work. But then a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the 2008 election.

You'll miss the reference if you're not familiar with Sue Williams's well known "A Funny Thing Happened" [MASSIVE trigger warning].

I don't see how there can be any doubt that Mr. SYKES was alluding to that drawing. The wording of what he said fits perfectly and is too awkward to simply be something he'd say in that context. Is he saying that the 2008 election was as bad as rape? Probably, it's well documented that many conservative media figures like to use rape metaphors to describe liberals and progressives.

I doubt that Ron Johnson even knows enough about feminist artwork to understand the reference. I find it harder to believe that nobody in his campaign caught that while they were reviewing content to use in the video. But even if they're all cheerfully oblivious I'm still disgusted that they would seriously consider SYKES to be a good person to go with.

Also worrying is the "Preserving Wisconsin Values" section on his site, which reads thusly:

“I’m a pretty traditional guy. I believe in a culture of life, and I believe marriage is between one man and one woman.” – Ron Johnson

Ron is pro-life, pro-family, and believes that freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion. Ron will take these principles with him to Washington and will stand up to those who would attack these cherished traditional values.

Ron is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman who believes strongly in maintaining a clean and healthy environment. He believes Wisconsin’s sporting traditions and the Constitution’s 2nd Amendment should be protected.

Ron and Jane have been married for 32 years and together they have three children.

Hey Ron, Utah is that way.

Also, what the fuck does "freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from religion" even mean? How can you have one without the other? And this man has a good chance of being my senator *shudders*

A few Random Final Notes. I've been rereading Orwell's 1984 and listening to Meshuggah's Obzen (the link is to the album's lyrics) and generally have been thinking about cognitive dissonance a lot lately.

I love violent videogames, books, movies, and music. I deplore the casual use or acceptance of actual violence. I spend a lot of time analyzing the rhetoric people use and absolutely despise hypocrites.

I'm not sure what to think about all of that. After I've had more time to think I want to write something much more in-depth on the topic. For now I'm just going to presume the power to dedicate Meshuggah's song "Combustion" (off of the afore-mentioned album) to this year's conservatives. And possibly to myself o_O

Also, what's up with drinking bleach? I thought that was just a funny Metalocalypse sketch.

*updated* : originally wrote that Johnson was running for governor; actually should have read senator.

Only Korans? - Part 2

[04/16/2012] - I feel like I've learned a lot since I wrote this, and it now no longer 100% represents my views on the subject; they aren't enraged because we burned some books.


Funny story; my internet died about an hour after I posted last time.

I really am starting to hate Charter Communications with the type of passionate dislike that I usually reserve for classmates who, upon buying hot chocolate, proclaim that it tastes, "Too much like coffee."

Anyways....

I guess what I was trying to say before is that burning the Koran = bad

Threating to kill people over burning the Koran = Worse

I hate to boil it down to a doltish formula like that, but over the last week I realized that I really don't care. I much prefer drawing the Prophet; rather than destroying something Islamic you are creating an image so as to express yourself. And when I see how upset the global Islamic community becomes over petty insults I honestly believe that the only reasonable response is to continue the petty insults in the most benign way possible.

The fact that Molly Norris has had to go into hiding is an absolute travesty. I don't care that most Muslims are great people. I don't care that they will be insulted too. And it doesn't make sense to say that we should all treat Muslims with respect rather than insult them. Until the Islamic faith and community can be freely mocked or critiqued without fear of death it is impossible to truly communicate with them in a respectful way. Politeness at the point of a gun is a survival mechanism, not respectful dialog.

So I say that drawing the Prophet Muhammad is a good thing. It's a peaceful way of saying, "Welcome to the civilized world. You will be mocked. You will be insulted. And until you learn to deal with it in a civilized way nobody will have any respect for you at all."

Nobody should be exempt from that either. Freedom of speech is not a promise not to be insulted.

More importantly Halo: Reach is a quality product that I readily endorse :D

I'm going to go play it now.

Classy

The official website for the Texas GOP is pretty amusing. The front page contains all of the dignity of a tabloid; a huge picture of Bill White (I assume, I don't live in Texas) accompanied with "Keeping up with LIBERAL BILL!"

Also of good comedic value are the comment sections [update - 07/22/2012: removed a link here, they deleted the page it went to] on all of their posts. Every single one has "0 comments" listed. I don't know if it's always been that way, but I'm going to assume that they locked and deleted everything shortly after experiencing the horror of what happens the "t3h 1nterwebz!" speaks its mind.

The best part though is their party platform. There isn't one. They had it up earlier today and you can still find where people have mirrored it. However, at the moment their website remains mysteriously platform-less.

I've been a little heavy on the name-calling so far with this blog and some day I intend to force myself to stop that. Until then may I suggest, however, that the Texas GOP is a bunch of cowards. They spew hatred and intolerance, preaching homophobia and misogyny with pride.

And then they cry and lock the comments when people respond with what's on their minds.

At least they deleted that diseased manifesto they were calling their platform. Otherwise they'd be worse than cowards. If they didn't allow comments because they didn't want people using obscene language and left their platform up for all to read they would be hypocrites .


Edit/Update: Apparently the big banner on their front page is randomly selected every time you load, so you may not experience the delight of viewing the 'LIBERAL BILL' thing until you refresh the page a few times.

Update 2: I was stupid, my original post had a link to Theocracy Watch's analysis of the 2004 Texas GOP platform. My bad.

Dead Men Don't Rape

Trying to read the posts on Glenn Sacks' website is an exercise in intellectual masochism. The goal of overcoming cultural and legal systems that are harmful to males is admirable and necessary. To claim that struggle is anywhere near being as important as feminism is absurd.

Basically the entire so-called "Men's Rights" movement needs to collectively quit their pathetic whining. By essentially taking a stand against feminism they not only encourage direct harm against half of our species, they also create a cry-wolf scenario that prevents productive discussion on important issues.

Are rapes by female aggressors much more common than reported?

The answer: NOBODY GIVES A SHIT BECAUSE YOU WON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP! We get it. You're losing your precious patriarchy. It hurts any time you lose power. But you're just embarrassing yourselves with your crazy ranting*.

Especially when they start talking about false rape reporting. That link leads to an article by the above mentioned Mr. Sacks where he states;

The 2% claim originated with Susan Brownmiller in her book Against Our Will which was published in 1974. Where'd she get the figure? As Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game is afoot!" In other words, that's where the mystery lies. But solving it is like feeling in the dark. All who have tried - and there are more than just Greer - come away with empty hands.


Fuck you. According to the this 2007 report on rape in the US 18% of american women have been raped at least once and only 16% of rapes are ever reported. As far as I can tell every credible study in the US and UK has found that false reporting for rapes is at the same level for other violent felonies, around 2%. That number rises to 8% if you look at cases that are considered "unfounded", meaning that cases where the victim drops charges or refuses to cooperate with in investigation are included.

In that light any attempt to discredit or call into question the testimony of Rape victims is utterly contemptible. Glenn Sacks is a disgrace to the entire human race.

Thanks a lot Sacks. Now I'm going to have to listen to "Dead Men Don't Rape" a few times to scrape my brain clean of this insanity. (I'm mostly talking about Red Harvest's cover of the G.G.F.H. song, but 7 Year Bitch also has a song by that name that's pretty good.)

That's all I have to say right now, so adios!

*Yes. I am familiar with irony.

Update: Originally said that it was an FBI study, it isn't. It was funded by the Dept. of Justice and published by the NCJRS.