Perhaps my view of jail is coloured by my exposure to western culture's depictions: OZ, Let's Go To Prison, Shawshank Redemption, they don't exactly paint a rosy portrait of dignified preservation of a man's ring piece. I could certainly be mistaken, not having experienced it firsthand (knock on wood- oh man, I bet in Uganda that saying gets you a file) but it seems to me that when you lock up a large number of men together, testosterone tends to blur the lines on those lonely nights. One wonders if Ugandan officials have considered the implications of their new proposed law, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. It seems to follow that they're just going to exacerbate the problem that keeps them up at nights, tossing and turning, thinking that somewhere two consensual adults might be *HOLY FUCKING SORDID GASP* having relations.
To be serious though, this is one of the worst things I have ever heard. What we have here is a bored, paranoid, masturbatory government given far too much time to wring their hands, far too little education, and far, FAR too much religion. The missionaries never dreamed they'd be this wildly successful. Already religious leaders in the States are tacitly agreeing with this bill; In fact, the infamous U.S.-based religious organization The Family was one of the co-originators of this hate screed. One might almost feel sorry for these wretched, confused, shrill dribbles of human beings, except for the fact that they want to literally kill people for where they put their penis.
What these people have come so fucking far from that it is laughable, is that we are JUST FUCKING ANIMALS. Seriously, we are all, every last one of us, hard-wired sexual beings. We will fuck anything that even looks like a hole. Even if it doesn't, we'll do our best to fashion a crude approximation. Legislating against hole-fucking is like legislating against McDonald's. It hits so many giant green buttons in our hindbrains that it is literally impossible to stop one's self. Add in the infinitely complex interpretations and sexual identities that are accrued in a lifetime, and there is no hard and fast Gay/Not Gay line. We will have sex, we will look for love, and we will sometimes do that with members of our species that are the same sex as us.
All that this law will do if it is passed, is create a) a massive black market in dangerous, unsafe sex, b) a massive social disorganization and resource drain as thousands of cases are tried, and c) no effect on rates of homosexuality. There is a steady percentage of gay people in a population. There is no way around this fact. All this will do is create fear, social discord, death, and emigration. A country without diversity is a desert, and will eat itself alive, violently, as it sees enemies everywhere, every glance from a stranger misconstrued, every accidental touch from a clerk seen as a crime worth imprisonment, and every loving, consensual, happy relationship between two people of the same sex, worthy of torture and death.
This is a crime against humanity, and while I was going to mention the year that we were living, in disbelief, it seems less and less fitting as I see evil like this happening every day.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Pro-choice, pro-life, it's all about rights.
A lot of reactionary rhetoric comes out of the religious right. While that's my entry in the alliteration understatement category, I also want to use it to preface my discussion of a certain view that seems to be a common consensus for pro-lifers: that if you're not fighting tooth and nail to ban all abortions, shame all aborters and mourn every abortee, you're a sick twisted baby killer who is fit for the pits of hell for all eternity. No matter what the circumstance, every single fetus or even hint of an embryo is considered sacred. However, this view simply can't hold up morally in the real world. It's very easy to label the world black and white, good and evil when it's outside of you're viewing it from your fishbowl of like-minded and rhetoric-perpetuating social circle, but as soon as you're forced to deal with the choice yourself, it's never going to be as simple as it always seemed.
The first thing that breaks down about a pro-lifer's argument is that every life is special and deserves to live. Of course, we are life, we reproduce, and we want to do everything we can to continue to reproduce; but the fact is, that there is no universal mandate that says that we must. This is simply the elucidation of an animal urge, that has been enshrined by religion and continued by literal interpretationists. The universe is NOT pro-human. A human life has literally no meaning in the grand scheme of things, other than being a very slight physics and chemistry equation. This is not a negative thing, it just simply is. The universe is an incomprehensibly vast machine, and we are back-eddies of entropy.
This is anathema to the pro-lifer, who believes that every life is blessed by a creator with a unique soul at the very instant that the sperm meets the egg. The place that this argument breaks down is actually quite simple. Have you guessed it already?
Yep. There is no such thing as a soul.
No, really. It's a pleasant thought when you're scared of dying, which is a natural thing for humans to be, and it's comforting to imagine that you will live on in some way because you're extra neat and special. That's fine, but when you're talking about legislating something to be illegal because of a deathly fear of no-consciousness, well, get the fuck over it. Yes, it sucks that perception and memory cease to be when you die, but why let it run your life? Or, more to the point, other people's lives.
There are so many ways that the gray area of real necessities for legal abortion come up in real life. There are victims of incest and rape, there are ectopic pregnancies that if brought to term will kill both mother and fetus, there are horrible deformities that would destroy lives of families forced to deal with a child that suffered them just to die eventually anyways. There is no good and evil here; just tragedy, and doctors and nurses that do their work because it is needed. The fact is, we know that this is an objectionable part of human life. Now the big question becomes one of human rights. There is a world of difference between something that is morally objectionable to one segment of the population, and something that is illegal for all of them. One group cannot legislate the basic rights of another; reproductive freedom is a basic right for all humans. Fetuses cannot have rights, because they are only potential. Their environment and health status define their viability, not any basic inalienable right. Their parents and doctors have to be the ones to decide if this is a viable human. If we were to assign rights to a fetus, we might as well give them to yeast. It's life, it's growing, it's part of god's plan, right? Not really. Doctors aren't in this business to kill babies. They're in it to help people. Actual people, not an abstract image of a perfect child or a conglomeration of cells. If people decide to abort, it's not a crime. Give them your support, not their condemnation. Give the doctor your condolences for having to perform a difficult duty for the greater good.
Here's a hypothetical for the pro-lifers to help understand how we might feel:
Imagine in the near future, population growth becomes a real problem. Everywhere is feeling the pinch as resources and living space dwindle. A political party rises to power, and part of their platform is restricting births to 2 per couple. I vote for them because I believe this is the right thing to do to, for the greater good. They come to power, and suddenly you can no longer have any more children than the law will allow. Your reproductive rights have just been legislated by a group that you don't agree with, and there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it.
Imagine how frenzied and up in arms you'd be? And you'd never see a trace of irony in it. It would be quite poetic, actually.
The first thing that breaks down about a pro-lifer's argument is that every life is special and deserves to live. Of course, we are life, we reproduce, and we want to do everything we can to continue to reproduce; but the fact is, that there is no universal mandate that says that we must. This is simply the elucidation of an animal urge, that has been enshrined by religion and continued by literal interpretationists. The universe is NOT pro-human. A human life has literally no meaning in the grand scheme of things, other than being a very slight physics and chemistry equation. This is not a negative thing, it just simply is. The universe is an incomprehensibly vast machine, and we are back-eddies of entropy.
This is anathema to the pro-lifer, who believes that every life is blessed by a creator with a unique soul at the very instant that the sperm meets the egg. The place that this argument breaks down is actually quite simple. Have you guessed it already?
Yep. There is no such thing as a soul.
No, really. It's a pleasant thought when you're scared of dying, which is a natural thing for humans to be, and it's comforting to imagine that you will live on in some way because you're extra neat and special. That's fine, but when you're talking about legislating something to be illegal because of a deathly fear of no-consciousness, well, get the fuck over it. Yes, it sucks that perception and memory cease to be when you die, but why let it run your life? Or, more to the point, other people's lives.
There are so many ways that the gray area of real necessities for legal abortion come up in real life. There are victims of incest and rape, there are ectopic pregnancies that if brought to term will kill both mother and fetus, there are horrible deformities that would destroy lives of families forced to deal with a child that suffered them just to die eventually anyways. There is no good and evil here; just tragedy, and doctors and nurses that do their work because it is needed. The fact is, we know that this is an objectionable part of human life. Now the big question becomes one of human rights. There is a world of difference between something that is morally objectionable to one segment of the population, and something that is illegal for all of them. One group cannot legislate the basic rights of another; reproductive freedom is a basic right for all humans. Fetuses cannot have rights, because they are only potential. Their environment and health status define their viability, not any basic inalienable right. Their parents and doctors have to be the ones to decide if this is a viable human. If we were to assign rights to a fetus, we might as well give them to yeast. It's life, it's growing, it's part of god's plan, right? Not really. Doctors aren't in this business to kill babies. They're in it to help people. Actual people, not an abstract image of a perfect child or a conglomeration of cells. If people decide to abort, it's not a crime. Give them your support, not their condemnation. Give the doctor your condolences for having to perform a difficult duty for the greater good.
Here's a hypothetical for the pro-lifers to help understand how we might feel:
Imagine in the near future, population growth becomes a real problem. Everywhere is feeling the pinch as resources and living space dwindle. A political party rises to power, and part of their platform is restricting births to 2 per couple. I vote for them because I believe this is the right thing to do to, for the greater good. They come to power, and suddenly you can no longer have any more children than the law will allow. Your reproductive rights have just been legislated by a group that you don't agree with, and there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it.
Imagine how frenzied and up in arms you'd be? And you'd never see a trace of irony in it. It would be quite poetic, actually.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Kind of exciting to know I'm a criminal in Ireland.
This has got to be one of the worst ideas in legislative history. As of now, it is illegal to blaspheme in Ireland. Arrests, search and seizure of offending books and computers, and fines are now a very real danger to anyone in old Eire who dares to hurt the feelings of any hypersensitive moron who claims with all his little heart that a magic man does live in the sky and fixes stuff here on Earth if you ask. Really nicely. And then, not that well, if at all. But he's better than the scary alternative! Anyways, I digress.
I hereby make it my solemn duty to be public enemy blasphemer number one in the country that I can claim 1/4th of my birthright to, and had hoped to visit someday. I suppose that's out of the question now, as their crack team of Magic Sky Man Police is sure to pick me up right at the airport. Their holy sniffing dogs will surely detect traces of desecrated communion wafers, and only Inquisition can await.
To be serious though, this is so completely fucking ridiculous that it makes me a little ill. If you're wondering why, let me tell you: This is the first crack in the dyke leading to complete annihilation of freedom of speech. Think that's hyperbolic? Why don't you go to Ireland after a couple of years of this and speak out about a hardline Muslim man beating his wife to death? Watch how fast they descend on you. Don't think stoning gays is ok? Don't talk about it! Think (know) evolution is real? Careful! Someone might take offense! Now you're up the river, kid. Again, you may scoff and say it can't come to this, but who's going to stop it? If believers make a big enough stink about it, the law will come down on anyone that they tell to. And trust me, believers can make a HUGE stink.
Now, what I wonder is, when will the Rastafarians arrest the goverment for infringing on their beliefs about smoking marijuana?
I hereby make it my solemn duty to be public enemy blasphemer number one in the country that I can claim 1/4th of my birthright to, and had hoped to visit someday. I suppose that's out of the question now, as their crack team of Magic Sky Man Police is sure to pick me up right at the airport. Their holy sniffing dogs will surely detect traces of desecrated communion wafers, and only Inquisition can await.
To be serious though, this is so completely fucking ridiculous that it makes me a little ill. If you're wondering why, let me tell you: This is the first crack in the dyke leading to complete annihilation of freedom of speech. Think that's hyperbolic? Why don't you go to Ireland after a couple of years of this and speak out about a hardline Muslim man beating his wife to death? Watch how fast they descend on you. Don't think stoning gays is ok? Don't talk about it! Think (know) evolution is real? Careful! Someone might take offense! Now you're up the river, kid. Again, you may scoff and say it can't come to this, but who's going to stop it? If believers make a big enough stink about it, the law will come down on anyone that they tell to. And trust me, believers can make a HUGE stink.
Now, what I wonder is, when will the Rastafarians arrest the goverment for infringing on their beliefs about smoking marijuana?
A serious symptom
One of the most distressing things about the time that we live in, is that no matter who you are, or what completely wrong, fallacious, and nonsensical drivel comes out of your mouth, your opinion has a good chance of being heard and respected, simply because it's too damn politically incorrect to tell you that you're a moron. I hear people all the time spouting off about karma, and chakras, and energies, and I just want to vomit. People eat it up too, because it twigs some little spot in their needy little brains, that says, "Oh, that makes sense, as long as I don't look too close and keep a respectful air of mysticism around it... and thank goodness, cause it's so much easier than learning!" This respectful air of mysticism allows for lies and deception to profit off the misery and confusion of others, and far from being isolated whackos spouting off, it's actually getting worse. The number of books, infomercials, websites claiming to have "The Answer" is only growing, and their victims concurrently.
These are the New Dark Ages, except that this time it's not the church that is oppressing rational thought, it's a collective sad little fear that we'll hurt some idiot's precious feelings. (Well, the church is still in on it too, but I'll get to them another time.) It's been a slow but steady decay of rational thought. Just because someone tries hard to be heard, does not make their statements any more valid. It's tempting to generalize an inverse relationship between the two, but I'd like to think that those on the side of right can prevail if we are heard as well. Now, this sense of "everyone is right" is being exploited by anyone who wants to speak up, and we're all expected to kowtow to it and give them their due time and respect.
When I was in school, being smart had such a stigma attached to it, that I had to hide my brains, or risk being socially ostracized. This trend has continued today, where all the unsure, uneducated and loud people that were insecurely persecuting the intelligent in their school, are now in the real world, and they are scared to death because they have no idea what they are doing in life. They grasp for any meaning, and spout off their chosen meaning to anyone who will hear, and disparage loudly and with threats of litigation anyone who knows better and questions their surety.
The fact is, there is a very clear cut reality. There is no doubt to me, and there should be no doubt to anyone who has the ability to look critically at the world around them, that there is only one answer. There are no chakras or energies in the body, there is bone and muscle and blood. There is no karma, we are simply tribe-living apes in a cold, harsh world, where ostracism for societal infractions meant death. There is no afterlife, there is only advanced agency detection in our frontal lobes that ponders what dead people are doing (protip: rotting). Anyone who speaks out about the truths of science should not be silenced; but they should be as silent for the deafening scorn and derision of those who know that there is one reality.
These are the New Dark Ages, except that this time it's not the church that is oppressing rational thought, it's a collective sad little fear that we'll hurt some idiot's precious feelings. (Well, the church is still in on it too, but I'll get to them another time.) It's been a slow but steady decay of rational thought. Just because someone tries hard to be heard, does not make their statements any more valid. It's tempting to generalize an inverse relationship between the two, but I'd like to think that those on the side of right can prevail if we are heard as well. Now, this sense of "everyone is right" is being exploited by anyone who wants to speak up, and we're all expected to kowtow to it and give them their due time and respect.
When I was in school, being smart had such a stigma attached to it, that I had to hide my brains, or risk being socially ostracized. This trend has continued today, where all the unsure, uneducated and loud people that were insecurely persecuting the intelligent in their school, are now in the real world, and they are scared to death because they have no idea what they are doing in life. They grasp for any meaning, and spout off their chosen meaning to anyone who will hear, and disparage loudly and with threats of litigation anyone who knows better and questions their surety.
The fact is, there is a very clear cut reality. There is no doubt to me, and there should be no doubt to anyone who has the ability to look critically at the world around them, that there is only one answer. There are no chakras or energies in the body, there is bone and muscle and blood. There is no karma, we are simply tribe-living apes in a cold, harsh world, where ostracism for societal infractions meant death. There is no afterlife, there is only advanced agency detection in our frontal lobes that ponders what dead people are doing (protip: rotting). Anyone who speaks out about the truths of science should not be silenced; but they should be as silent for the deafening scorn and derision of those who know that there is one reality.
A bit about me, and starting the controversy off right...
Hey everyone, welcome to my blog. I've been wanting to start one for a while now, because I've been more and more political and outspoken lately and I don't have many places to express myself in the small town I live in. This blog will mainly focus on civil liberties, atheism, and combating the rampant mistrust and the frank rejection of science in the modern world. However, I have many other broad interests including art, video games (that's a biggie) and just all around cool/nerdy stuff.
I work on the west coast of Vancouver Island in B.C. Canada, at a salmon farm. I've been doing it for 6 years or so, and I absolutely love it. However, it can also be a source of frustration for me when I'm forced to deal with an uneducated, biased, and frankly hostile opposition to an industry that is sustainable, efficient, and actually quite low-impact on the environment. The local media whips well-meaning but gullible hippies and environmentalists into a frenzy about imagined dangers, and we are on the front lines defending our industry from hype and propaganda. The fact is, salmon farming is incredibly well regulated and researched, and almost all complaints about the industry are easily debunked with a small amount of research, much like creationist myths are easily debunked by even a small amount of biology knowledge.
If you have a story of media or culturally induced antagonism to true and scientific principles in your area, please feel free to share. The decrying of scientific criticism in this society is frankly disgusting, and people need to stand up and SHOUT, that they will not have it.
I work on the west coast of Vancouver Island in B.C. Canada, at a salmon farm. I've been doing it for 6 years or so, and I absolutely love it. However, it can also be a source of frustration for me when I'm forced to deal with an uneducated, biased, and frankly hostile opposition to an industry that is sustainable, efficient, and actually quite low-impact on the environment. The local media whips well-meaning but gullible hippies and environmentalists into a frenzy about imagined dangers, and we are on the front lines defending our industry from hype and propaganda. The fact is, salmon farming is incredibly well regulated and researched, and almost all complaints about the industry are easily debunked with a small amount of research, much like creationist myths are easily debunked by even a small amount of biology knowledge.
If you have a story of media or culturally induced antagonism to true and scientific principles in your area, please feel free to share. The decrying of scientific criticism in this society is frankly disgusting, and people need to stand up and SHOUT, that they will not have it.
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