Sunday Facepalm

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Thousands of couples have married across all 50 US states since last year’s Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell V Hodges, which brought equality to all 50 states.

But the National Organization for Marriage is still not happy – and plans to march on DC later this month to protest the decision in a ‘March for Marriage’.

A release confirmed: “This year’s March will protest the outrageous, anti-constitutional and illegitimate decision of the US Supreme Court redefining marriage.

“This was a decision wholly unsupported by the law and lacking any legal foundation. The majority simply legislated from the bench, imposing their own values on the country.

“In the process, they stripped over 50 million voters and countless legislators in states across America of their sovereign right to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”.

They did? How did they do this? Wait, I have sovereign rights? Okay…I have a sovereign right to define marriage as the union of adult people who love one another! Hey look, that works. No idea what their problem is, perhaps they aren’t proclaiming correctly or something.

It adds: “The 2016 March for Marriage… will send a powerful message to the elite, including those in Congress and on the federal judiciary, that the American people continue to believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and that we reject the dangerous gender-bending ideology that has been the inevitable aftermath of redefining marriage.

Gosh, I have sovereign rights and I’m elite now. That seems about right, since going by the above, I’m not an American person, as I do not believe in that one man/one woman shite, nor do I reject gender-bending of any kind, even when it is wicked…fun.

“We must focus our elected officials and the American people on reversing these developments, and the March is a tremendous opportunity to do so.”

And I will do everything in my power to see that you keep being reduced to irrelevant cranks on the sidelines of life.

PinkNews has the story.

And, an infuriating Sunday Facepalm:

Alex Radita on his 15th birthday. He weighed 37 pounds due to untreated Type 1 diabetes (Court exhibit/CBC)

Alex Radita on his 15th birthday. He weighed 37 pounds due to untreated Type 1 diabetes (Court exhibit/CBC)

A 15-year-old Canadian boy suffering from severe effects of insulin-dependent diabetes died because his religious parents refused to seek proper medical care, the CBC reports.

Emil and Rodica Radita are on trial for first-degree murder after their son, Alex, died in 2013 from what prosecutors say were the effects of his parents’ refusal to seek medical care and rely on prayer and home treatment instead.

Alex was diagnosed with diabetes as a 3 year old. The condition can be controlled by monitoring blood glucose levels and giving insulin. But his parents believed that doctors caused the condition by treating him for it and left his diabetes untreated.

[…]

Soon after his diagnosis, Alex had been seized by child services for a year after he had been hospitalized three times because his parents refused to treat his condition. But he was returned to them. They complied with a court order to treat his condition with the help of a doctor — until they failed to show up for an appointment, the CBC reports.

The family could not be located, until they were discovered to have moved to a different province — but there was no communication between the two social service departments.

When in the hell is this going to stop, allowing parents to willfully murder their child, just because it’s in the name of a religion? Not only murder, but torture. This poor child’s life, from the time of diagnosis, had to be such misery. This could have been a happy, healthy child, but apparently, not one person cared enough to stop this in time to save Alex’s life.

Via Raw Story and CBC.

Aaaaaaaaaaand, one more. This one is brief:

God paid him [Muhammad Ali] back with Parkinson’s disease.

Christians. You can all go fuck yourself.

McCrory: I’ll Stand Firm.

Andrew Dye/Journal.

Andrew Dye/Journal.

Gov. Pat McCrory said he will continue to fight for a “respect for privacy” in the face of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over the state’s controversial “bathroom bill.”

McCrory was speaking at North Carolinians for Home Education’s annual conference, being held this week at the Benton Convention Center.

McCrory praised the several hundred families in the crowd for their choice to home school their children. He said it’s important for families to have choices about educating their children and for leaders to respect all of those choices.

[…]

“One other advantage of home schooling is you aren’t going to have the president, the attorney general or the mayor of Charlotte telling you what bathroom (to use),” he said, to a standing ovation.

[…]

McCrory said he would support unisex bathrooms for transgender students, saying that we should give kids with “special needs and unique needs” an option.

“But don’t change the norms that have been working for generations,” he said.

“Special needs and unique needs”? FFS, how dense can McCrory get here? This is as simple as it gets: transgender woman = woman. Transgender man = man. Transgender girl = girl. Transgender boy = boy. It’s quite interesting how McCrory thinks that unisex lavs are great…for those weird people. Not so great for actual people, eh, Pat? I have a question about these wonderful, unisex, transgender persons only lavs, Pat – who is going to police them to keep all the cis people out? Perhaps all cis people should be made to go through years of red tape to get a special identification, and absolutely must be karyotyped!

McCrory blamed the kerfuffle on Democrats, saying there were no issues with bathroom rules until the Charlotte City Council passed a nondiscrimination ordinance to provide legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people that included language would allow transgender individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify. HB2 was passed in a one-day special session to reverse Charlotte’s ordinance.

Tsk. You’d think those ‘norms’ that had been working great for generations wouldn’t have gotten knocked down by a bit of non-discrimination. Also, this is a “kerfuffle”? People’s lives. Legislation of hatred, fear, and bigotry. Inciting hatred and harm. Kerfuffle. Fuck you, McCrory. I hope you go down in a blaze of shame, a sad footnote on the rigid, atrophied thinking of a conservative bigot.

Via Winston-Salem Journal.

Finding Middle Ground For Bigotry and Fear.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith, the interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has resigned from her position because she does not support the organization’s fight for the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Smith reportedly said the ACLU is advocating for trans rights at the expense of safety for women and children.

[…]

Smith claimed that transgender rights have “intersectionality with other competing rights, particularly the implications for women’s rights.” She said that when her young daughters shared a bathroom with transgender women, it made her worry the children would be harmed. “I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults over six feet with deep voices entered,” she wrote in the statement.

So, if three young adults, over six feet tall, with deep voices, who were afab entered, that would be okey dokey? This couldn’t possibly be about your own perceptions and prejudices, right?

She went on to say that her “children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.”

So, you’re ill-prepared. What you should have done from there was to embark on an education, learn, go out and meet a few transgender people, listen. Share that education with your children. Oh, but no, can’t have that! Instead, your lack of learning must be enshrined, and your willful ignorance paraded about, spreading fear and lies.

“Despite additional learning I still have to do, I believe there are solutions that provide can provide accommodations for transgender people and balance the need to ensure women and girls are safe from those who might have malicious intent.”

Because transgender people might be people, but they can’t be women! You just can’t take the chance of allowing a woman in a womens’ lav, too dangerous.

In an interview with Atlanta TV station WXIA, Smith argued that cisgender (nontrans) women should not have to share bathrooms with trans women because it could be”traumatic.” “If we have all-gender restrooms which will accommodate trans folks, what do we do about women who are the survivors of rape, for whom it would be traumatic to share a public restroom where you take down your underwear, and there’d be men in the bathroom,” she said.

Auuugh, no, no, no. You do not get to hold up rape survivors as free PR, claiming to care about us, while having the nerve to speak for all of us. By the way, Ms. Smith, a lot of transgender people, including trans women, have been raped. Are you speaking for them, too?

Smith has launched a website called Finding Middle Ground that features a video of a young girl talking about “boys in the girls’ bathroom.” “There’s some boys who feel like they’re girls on the inside and there’s some boys that are just perverts,” says the young girl in the ad. A caption appears on the screen after she speaks that reads “How do we keep ourl ittle girls safe and prevent transgender discrimination?”

This is the same exact shite Ted Cruz was putting out, with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

Full Story Here.

OK, then go in the bushes…

Stacey Dash.

Stacey Dash.

Get ready for a whole lot of  Stacey Dash.

I had a “who?” moment here, I’m terribly clueless when it comes to entertainment personalities. It seems Ms. Dash is an actress, who plays the mayor of Chicago in the upcoming “Sharknado” sequel “The 4th Awakens.” Golly. I’m not surprised  at being clueless in this case. Ms. Dash is also a rabid conservative who loves guns and has a whole lot of hate to share.

When asked on Wednesday about a passage in her book that criticizes Caitlyn Jenner, a fellow conservative, for using women’s bathrooms, Dash — who supports a North Carolinalaw that requires transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth sex — didn’t hold back.

“It’s tyranny by the minority,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Why do I have to suffer because you can’t decide what you wanna be that day?” Dash said.

“OK, then go in the bushes,” she continued. “I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m not gonna put my child’s life at risk because you want to change a law. So that you can be comfortable with your beliefs — which means I have to change my beliefs and my rights? No.”

I’m not comfortable with your beliefs, Ms. Dash. They are ugly, hate-filled, bigoted beliefs. No one is putting your child at risk, either. If you’re so worried about that, though, I have an idea – when you and your child have to pee, I suggest you find a convenient bush.

Full Story Here.

Sunday Facepalm: The Great, Straight, White Hope.

Oh, pardon, that should be The Great, Straight, Christian, Male, White Hope. Dave Daubenmire says so.

“The attack that’s going on in America today is against the white, heterosexual male,” he said. “That’s the battle. If Satan can get control of the family, if they can get the white, heterosexual male removed from the scene, if they can get him ‘de-balled,’ if I will, if they can do that, there is nothing to hold back the forces of darkness in America.”

“It’s not racist, it’s the truth,” he added.

Daubenmire then argued that the war on poverty caused fatherless African-American households because the government became the parent. Now, he said, the government’s “sights are set on the white, heterosexual male.”

He declared that there are “forces of darkness that are working to overthrow this nation and overthrow this world on behalf of the prince of the power of the air, the prince of darkness.” To control the world, Daubenmire argued, these forces will first have to defeat white, heterosexual, Christian American males.

That’s not all! Ol’ Dave also weighed in on transgender issues:

On “Talkback with Chuck Wilder” this Tuesday, Ohio Religious Right activist “Coach” Dave Daubenmire suggested men today need to “man up” with “pitchforks and torches” to fight transgender people’s use of bathrooms that match their gender identity.

“What would our forefathers have done?” Daubenmire asked. “What would they have done two generations ago if the president of the United States tried to tell them to let men walk into their kids’ bathrooms?” Daubenmire answered his own question: “There’d have been pitchforks and torches. They’d have gone downtown and they’d have gotten things straightened out.”

“They would say, ‘We need that committee that was talking to the Salem witches,’” Wilder said. Wilder and Daubenmire then discussed whether witches are male or female. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Daubenmire said.

“What’s wrong with us, Chuck?” Daubenmire asked. “How is it that we’re so sissified that daddies are going to let perverts violate their daughters’ restrooms?” He agreed with Wilder’s statement that that “political correctness” and “insisting on diversity” are the main problems that led to this. Wilder said that under Obama, areas require “X amount of Chinese, black, white, I’m sure we gotta get the Syrians in there now. Diversity, I’m telling you, it’s scary. You know, let America be America without any prejudice, and it should work perfectly.”

Yes, I’m sure that would work wonderfully. You just have to get all the non-Christian, non-white, non-hetero people to leave. Perhaps if you ask nicely? My guess would be no.

Pork-dipped Bullets and Armed Idiots.

Texas militia member -- (AJPlus screen grab)

Texas militia member — (AJPlus screen grab)

In a video posted to Twitter by AJPlus, weekend warriors in Texas explain that they will be using bullets dipped in pigs blood or smeared with bacon’ grease when the time comes to stop the “Arab uprising” they believe will overrun their state.

In the video, one unidentified militia member explains the importance of using pork-dipped bullets.

“A lot of us here are using either pig’s blood or bacon grease on our bullets, ” he explains, adding, “So that when you shoot a Muslim they go straight to hell. That’s what they believe in their religion.”

Added another militia member, “Don’t f*ck with white people,” before showing off his shooting prowess with a shotgun.

I don’t think I can say anything remotely reasonable about these people, so I’ll just go with Fuck. Scary.

Via AJPlus and Raw Story.

The religion of fundamental social justice…

Student activists during a nationwide "Hands up, walk out" protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif.

Student activists during a nationwide “Hands up, walk out” protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Photo: Reuters/Adrees Latif.

Another day, another screed. This one certainly gave me a good laugh, as it seems I now have a religion. I guess we SJWs are upsetting everyone these days. Tsk. Be sure to put your melodrama meters away, critical levels here, of the “I’m a libertarian, of course I’m right!” kind.

NEW YORK — There’s a new religion exploding on the campuses of American universities and colleges, says Thomas Cooley professor of ethical leadership at New York University, Jonathan Haidt. And if it isn’t stopped, it might just be better to shut them all down in the next 10 or 20 years.

The religion of fundamental social justice sweeping across college campuses is so alarming, intense, and dripping with such extreme liberal fundamentalism, says Haidt, it has created an existential crisis for American academia while punishing heretics with public shame.

“There is an extremely intense, fundamental social justice religion that’s taking over, not all students, but a very strong [space] of it, at all our colleges and universities. They are prosecuting blasphemy and this is where we are,” Haidt warned an audience about the religion at a lecture billed “The American University’s New Assault on Free Speech,” organized by the Manhattan Institute in New York City this week.

[…]

When social issues like racism or sexism are treated as sacred, he says, it becomes difficult to have honest conversations about them.

“So if that’s the basic psychology and as religion itself has been retreating and kids are raised in a more secular environment, then what takes the place of that? There are lots of sacred spaces. Fighting racism, a very, very good thing to do, but when you come to sacred principles, sacred, this means no tradeoffs,” Haidt said.

“There is no nuance, you cannot trade off any other goods with it. So if you organize around fighting racism, fighting homophobia, fighting sexism, again all good things, but when they become sacred, when they become essentially objects of worship, fundamentalist religion, then when someone comes to class, someone comes to your campus, and they say the rape culture is exaggerated, they have committed blasphemy,” he said.

This religion of fundamental social justice is so frightening, even liberals are worried about it. But they aren’t speaking up, says Haidt, who describes himself as a libertarian.

“The great majority of people are really alarmed by what’s happening. There is a small group on campus of illiberal people. The illiberal left against the liberal left. The liberal left is uncomfortable but has so far been silent,” Haidt said. It is this illiberalism on campus that has given rise to groups such as Black Lives Matter where “nobody can say no to them.”

[…]

Haidt, however, doesn’t think life will continue down this road for American academia pointing to a growing counterculture movement involving projects such as the Heterodox Academy. […] So we are doing all these projects to use market forces to swamp the illiberals and basically take advantage of people’s disgust with the current situation.”

The two page screed is here.

He choked like a dog. . . . Once a choker, always a choker.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

Trump continues his ‘strategy’ of mouthing off, about everyone. How anyone can take this clown seriously is beyond me. I just don’t get it.

A fresh string of attacks by Donald Trump this week on rivals in the Republican establishment — including one delivered against a prominent Latino governor in her home state — raised new doubts about his ability or desire to unite the party’s badly fractured leadership.

[…]

The intraparty skirmishing began with an attack on New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) during a campaign rally in Albuquerque, where Trump blamed her for mismanaging the state’s economy and suggested that she was shirking her responsibilities to her constituents.

[…]

Next, during a campaign event Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif., Trump rattled off a string of attacks that played like a greatest-hits collection from the raucous GOP primary. He knocked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s decision to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), mocked former Florida governor Jeb Bush for his energy level and blasted 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a “choker.” None of the three have endorsed him.

“Poor Mitt Romney. Poor Mitt. . . . I mean, I have a store that’s worth more money than he is,” Trump said, adding later: “He choked like a dog. . . . Once a choker, always a choker.” He also called Romney “stupid” and joked that he “walked like a penguin” on stage.

There’s much more story, and video here.

Forever Marked with a Scarlet “C”, Oh My!

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Oh, the hysteria. The drama. The overwhelming glurge.

If they hate Jesus, they’ll hate you—and they certainly hate Jesus. I’m talking about the American Left and its unyielding war on Christianity.

And so is my good friend Matt Barber.

In his fiery new book, Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity, Barber reveals how secular progressives are waging an unrelenting fight against Christianity in America. Perhaps more importantly, he explains how Christians can fight back.

“Just a few short decades ago, a church-going man who publicly supported the right to life, backed laws protecting marriage and spoke freely of Christ’s love for fallen man would be universally recognized as a fine and upstanding citizen,” says Barber, an associate dean with Liberty University School of Law and an attorney concentrating on constitutional law. “He would be welcomed anywhere, including at the highest levels of power. But things have changed. In today’s America, the ‘progressive’ left actively endeavors to destroy such a man.”

Well, no. Generally speaking, such fine, upstanding men of god do a fine job of destroying themselves.

[…]

With great detail, Barber explains the Modern American leftist war strategy. It starts by vilifying Christians. They then begin scheming, quite often with success, to get Christians terminated from employment and forever marked with a scarlet “C” to inhibit any future prospects for employment.

We’ve seen this over and over. [What follows is a list of known bigots losing their positions, such as Gen. Jerry Boykin, who was fired, but rehired almost immediately.]

[…]

Next, Barber says, the radical left simultaneously attacks the family and works to tear it apart, at once sending a warning shot over the bow of other Christians and pushing them to the fringes of society. The ultimate goal? Conform to their pagan demands or face incarceration.

“What’s worse is that progressivism has, like a deadly cancer, fully metastasized into what passes for the church in America,” Barber says. “There is a great falling away afoot, and apostasy reigns supreme.”

As Barber sees it, the secular left doesn’t merely have a disagreement with Christianity. He explains these are not people with whom one may reason, compromise or even disagree; they are dedicated to evil; and they demand nothing less than the abolition of the biblical worldview, and the destruction of Christ’s followers right along with it.

Holy fuck, I’m about to overdose on melodrama here. Secular and pagan are now the same thing? I’m secular, but not pagan. I have zero interest in making any theist conform to my demands, and even less interest in forming some sort of prison for those who don’t comply to whatever. That sounds more like a religious thing to do. As an atheist and a humanist, what I do want is for Christians to go about their lives as they wish, while keeping their religion the fuck out of everyone else’s lives. Simple enough. Stop trying to enforce religious law every 5 seconds, and withdraw your collective nose out of people’s genitals. Learn to mind your own damn business when it comes to private medical decisions. Realize that freedom of religion doesn’t mean Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. If you don’t like that horrible public education, send your kids to private school, or home school. Pray privately, as your own holy book tells you to do. Stop insisting on show prayer everywhere, all the time. It doesn’t impress anyone. Stop wailing over granting basic human rights to all people. No one is at your door with chaps, a whip, and the notorious Gay Agenda.

“Now is the time to fight back. If you are someone, Christian or not, who refuses to see Christianity wiped out—like it ever could be—and your children indoctrinated into pure evil, then sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option,” Barber says. “We live in dire times. But with Christ, it’s never too late to turn the tide!”

Emphasis mine. Right, so why the fucking hysteria? Why the overdose of drama? I can clue you in, Matt. It’s called loss of privilege. People get upset about that, which is perfectly normal. What you need to do is adjust, adapt. The world is moving on, whether you like it or not.

I’m believing for transforming revival that changes America from the inside out. Sure, there will always be a radical left, but when some of the proponents of a godless nation get radically saved and speak out about their passion for Jesus, the tide will begin to turn.

The devil knows his time is short. Let’s keep praying.

Oh, I’m sure that will work. Yes. Stay in your houses, and pray. 24 / 7.  Show that Lucifer.

Full Court Hysteria Here.

Transgendered Orders from White House.

donald-trump-claims-accommodating-transgender-people-is-too-expensivex750_0

Bill O’Reilly and Donald Trump had a nice little chat about that whole transgender business, which didn’t take long to devolve into the same old, same old. “Eh, this bathroom thing isn’t necessary”, “this isn’t human rights”, and “shockingly expensive”. I’ve run right out of eyerolls, they need new lines.

Trump told the Fox News host that he supports leaving the issue of transgender rights up to the states. “You know Obama’s getting into a very tricky territory,” he said, referencing the guidance issued by the Obama administration. “The amazing thing is so many people are talking about this now and we have to protect everybody even if it’s one person… but this is such a tiny part of our population.”

O’Reilly asked Trump if he provided gender-neutral facilities in his properties. “No, we don’t have that,” replied Trump. “I hope not. Because frankly it would be unbelievably expensive nationwide. It would be hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Trump did not elaborate on how he arrived at this estimate, nor did he acknowlege that in many cases, gender-neutral bathrooms could be established simply by removing gender-specific signs from doors. Additionally, allowing transgender people access to the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, as Trump previously advocated, costs nothing.

[…]

Trump said he wasn’t sure about whether trans rights are “human rights,” but providing gender-neutral restrooms would be “an unbelievably expensive thing to do,” he told O’Reilly. Instead, the country should be “spending money on other things,” said Trump. “Frankly, the number of people we’re talking about is really a small number. Again protect them — but it’s a very very small number,” said Trump.

Full Story Here. Watch Trump discuss transgender rights, begining at 4:09.

https://youtu.be/IUq70p-PnV0

Trump’s Christian Liaison is…

Frank Amedia, an extremist asshole of the worst kind. Calling him a flaming doucheweasel would be a compliment.

Frank Amedia.

Frank Amedia.

Donald Trump has appointed a “liaison for Christian policy” — a minister who has said AIDS is caused by “unnatural sex” and threatened to withhold relief from Haitian earthquake surviviors if they continued to practice voodoo.

Frank Amedia, pastor of Touch Heaven Ministries, arranged a meeting earlier this month between Trump and several other ministers, Time reports. They discussed the “erosion of religious liberty,” the magazine notes, along with Israel and immigration — the latter being a focus of Trump’s presidential campaign, with his call to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and his plan to deport all undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Catering to the religious right, on the other hand, has not been a priority for the presumptive Republican nominee, and he has made some missteps in his references to the Bible. But now with Amedia, he’s joined up with a representative of the conservative Christian fringe.

[…]

In 2010, Amedia was in Haiti distributing food to earthquake survivors, but said he might make further aid contingent on Haitians giving up the practice of voodoo. “We would give food to the needy in the short term, but if they refused to give up voodoo, I’m not sure we would continue to support them in the long term because we wouldn’t want to perpetuate that practice,” he told the Associated Press in a story quoted by Right Wing Watch. “We equate it with witchcraft, which is contrary to the Gospel.” He later tried to walk back the comments, saying AP had not told “the full story,” but still appeared willing to cut off aid if Haitians did not embrace Christianity, according to Christianity Today magazine.

[…]

Go to Right Wing Watch for more on Amedia, including his role in the bribery case; he was never charged, but admitted to attempted bribery in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Some other ministers who met with Trump have similarly extremist views. Rick Joyner of Morning Star Ministries has blamed gay people for Hurricane Katrina and likened Trump to Christ. Sid Roth has said homosexuality will cause a nation to “vomit out” its people. Mario Bramnick, pastor of New Wine Ministries Church in Florida and a representative of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, last year hosted a meeting that called for the “mobilization” of Christians in response to the “demonic shift” brought to the nation by the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling.

The Full Story is Here. Here’s a sample of Mr. Amedia:

LGBTTTQQIA Plus Another A People.

Joe Mavretic (N.C. Spin/screen grab)

Joe Mavretic (N.C. Spin/screen grab)

…“I’m a little unhappy with the four of you,” the former Speaker sarcastically told his fellow panel members. “Because clearly you’re not with it.”

“What we’re talking about here is not four letters of the alphabet. We’re talking about L-G-B-T-T-T-Q-Q-I-A plus another A if you want to be an ally!”

“Are you going to explain that?” host Tom Campbell asked.

Mavretic revealed that the letters stood for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirited, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual.”

“Now, here’s the issue,” he continued. “What we’re really talking about is the body vs. the brain. We’re talking about that issue — we’re talking about biology against psychology. And we’re also entering the me su arena of politics where narcissism is prevalent. People want to be me. ‘I want this for me.’ I’ve not heard anybody talk about the common good since this first hit the headlines.”

Biology against psychology? So the brain isn’t biological in nature now? “Common good”. I’m getting this full body slump weariness whenever I see or hear the word common. Rapidly becoming one of my least favourite words.

“It’s all about me!” Mavretic opined. “Well, can a white person want to be a black person and then get minority contracts? Can a female want to be a male and go to the beach and and not have to wear a top like males do?”

According to Mavretic, the United States was “bordering on being the most narcissistic-me-individually-oriented culture on the planet.”

Mmmhmmm, and you certainly are trying to get attention for your particular views, right, Joe? That might be considered an all about me! thing. I’m pretty sure that transgender people existing turning into some sort of ohmygods topless on the beach is strictly a Joe thing. I don’t know of anyone else, anywhere, who is concerned about that. Or even thought that. Right. Let’s see if we can get back to something like transgender people are like everyone else, and deserve the same rights. . .

“I think it’s offensive to call them narcissists when they’re just trying to live their life,” Fitzsimon said.

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Mavretic shot back angrily. “We are not politically correct anymore and I can call it what I want to call it. And that’s what free speech is all about.”

I guess we can’t. I think we can safely say that Joe “I can call it what I want to call it” Mavretic is on the self-centered side. Full story here.

The Selfishness of Selfies

I’m not a “selfie” person, and I shudder when I see “selfie sticks”, those things look like cattle prods to me. I don’t see the virtue in constantly taking photos of yourself, but if that’s what makes you happy, go for it. Just leave the art out of it. A great deal of art work gets damaged by those seeking selfie perfection in the never-ending I can top that! selfie competition.  The latest victim to selfie-ism is a statue of Dom Sebastiao, who ruled Portugal from 1557 to 1578, at Lisbon’s Rossio train station.

The statue of Dom Sebastiao before it was destroyed. Courtesy of Peter Burka, via Flickr Creative Commons.

The statue of Dom Sebastiao before it was destroyed. Courtesy of Peter Burka, via Flickr Creative Commons.

The statue of Don Sebastiao was broken by a young man taking a selfie. Courtesy of Infrastructure Portugal.

The statue of Don Sebastiao was broken by a young man taking a selfie. Courtesy of Infrastructure Portugal.

The 126-year-old statue shattered after a 24-year-old man reportedly knocked it over while climbing on it to take a photograph. The suspect, who has not been named, is said to have attempted to flee the scene before being apprehended by police.

A spokesperson for Infrastructure Portugal told the Daily Mail that he did not know when the statue would be repaired. Before the unfortunate incident, the sculpture was perched in a niche between two doorways at the station, which is a protected monument.

[…]

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Last May, a pair of tourists damaged a statue of Hercules in the northern Italian city of Cremona while taking a photograph with it. In 2014, an Italian student tried to pose sitting in the lap of a 19th-century cast of an ancient work at Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, only to smash the sculpture in the process.

Some museums have taken steps to protect their art by banning selfie sticks, which extend the reach of the photographer, and may increase the likelihood of inadvertently striking a work of art. (Even without selfies, accidents happen, like the boy who lost his balance and punched $1.5 million painting, or the woman who tripped and smashed an ancient Greek vase.)

Artnet has the full story.