July 30th, 2010 by Jeff van Booven
5 Stupid, Unfair and Sexist Things Expected of Men: on the male side of gender issues, Greta Christina looks at the ways in which men are forced into a narrow gender definition. Besides, anybody who will point out that ”men get a clear social message that, in order to be manly, they have to be tall,” is certainly somebody I will highly consider somebody worth listening to. Trust me, it sucks being short.
We’re one step closer to bringing Anne Rice back into the fold: she’s announced that organized religion can suck it. Basically, since being Christian in America is quickly becoming synonymous with being a right-wing blowhard and Anne Rice, pretty much being a liberal, has had enough and has decided that she will follow Christ in however screwed up a manner as she pleases. Read the comments, they’re nice and full of people shouting “HOW DARE SHE?!” You know, because all the people she hates are either Catholics (as if the Vatican is the only problem with Christianity) or the fringe group that isn’t actually Christian. Cognitive Dissidence, they can has.
And the shocker of shockers, Republicans vote against small businesses and tax cuts. Why, because those mean ole democrats wouldn’t allow them to add such relevant amendments as the estate tax, nuclear loan guarantees, border security, and those Bush tax cuts for rich folk that are getting the boot. But don’t fret, a Republican did say something nice and hypocritical:
“This small-business bill should pass, and it should pass with relevant amendments,” Mr. LeMieux said. “Before I am a Republican, I am a Floridian and an American, and this bill is good for our country.”
So if it’s so good, why not vote for it to pass without such aforementioned, highly relevant amendments?
Categories: Gender Issues, Politics, Religion | 0 Comments »
July 29th, 2010 by Jeff van Booven
The Book Depository, an online bookseller, has an interesting ap that displays what books people are buying based on their geographic location. The one thing I’ve rather garnered from this map based on my extensive use of it to pass the time at work is that The Book Depository caters mainly to Europe, Canada, and Australia. I’ve also noticed that, at the very least, it doesn’t ironically sell books on the Kennedy Assasination in Texas. Though, I think that says a lot about my warped sense of humor that I keep hoping that happens.
Categories: Literature | 0 Comments »
July 28th, 2010 by Jeff van Booven
Showing how much more evil those European socialists are, they aren’t currently eviscerating a politician for publicly announcing that he would be in favor of “atheist” schools. More appropriately, he was referring to Richard Dawkins mention of a school that explicitly taught children to think for themselves rather than indoctrination, but that’s really not the point. A politician (a religious one at that) said this:
Atheists could set up their own schools in England under the government’s education reforms, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.
and the public didn’t go apeshit.
(via bbc)
Categories: Education, Religion | 0 Comments »
July 28th, 2010 by Jeff van Booven
Now maybe it’s just the fact that I’m firmly in the Bible Belt, but it seems to me that just about every local printshop my university has a licensing deal with happens to be run in the name of Jesus Christ. In terms of things Jesus couldn’t care less about, I’m pretty sure screenprinting is rather high on the list. In fact, I’m sure it’s far higher than the outcome of any sporting match.
That said, there’s something about businesses being run for the glory of God that creep me out. They just seem so unnaturally out of touch. They provide a secular service and do very little to actually promote the message of God. They’d very likely not stay in business long if they were extremely overt about it. At any rate, nearly all of their day to day operations have anything to do with religion, yet their mission statements read something like this:
Despite the remarkable success of this business venture, Dwain won’t take credit for any of it. Giving all the glory to God, he believes that [redacted] has thrived as a direct result of God’s blessing on the business. “When I tell people that we should never forget from where we’ve come, what I’m trying to say is that there has been a lot of hard work put in between 1991 and now. God is the one who gave us the work and the sacrifices we made early on are paying off now. I believe that nothing good can be gained without a sacrifice…nothing that’s going to last. The most incredible sacrifice ever given was for sin–on the cross. If it took a sacrifice like that to redeem the sin of the world, how can we expect to be successful in God’s eyes without sacrificing hard work and some time and effort to make his business successful? He’ll reward that hard work. God has rewarded us by continually bringing us faithful customers. They’re loyal to us and we’re grateful for them. That is why we’re successful…and that is why we must never forget from where we’ve come.”
So it couldn’t have been the hard work and the large amount of student groups who print shirts through your lucrative contracts with the second largest university in the state that had anything to do with it at all? I certainly know God had nothing to do with our purchase, but very poor photoshop abilities are going to have a lot to do with us not purchasing. So, you know, add photoshop to the list of things God doesn’t do. And if hard work and sacrifice is what is required to please God to make your business successful, how does that explain the Fortune 500 list?
Categories: Economics, Religion | 0 Comments »
July 28th, 2010 by Jeff van Booven
Your set designer, you may want to get a new one.
Yellow star on a red background, seriously? You do know that you make a living calling everything the democrats do “socialism, communism, and/or Marxism,” right?
(via nyt)
Categories: Comedic, Politics | 0 Comments »
