Civil Sarcasm---A civil rights blog---

The folks over at WND have always struck me as a little out of touch with reality.  Sometimes downright retarded.  Other times sociopathic.  Generally though, the only time I wander over to those murky, jeebus filled, holier-than-thou parts of the ‘nets is when I see a ridiculous headline on Fark.

Today was one of those days.

There’s a column up at WND talking about a horrible story in which young women are taking chemicals on their own to induce abortions, and risking killing themselves in the process.  That part is good; it’s seriously something we should all be concerned about.  Where Bob Unruh misses the point (perhaps “misses” is the wrong word - Bob is unaware of the point, thus can’t shoot for it, and is instead running around in circles screaming Jesus), is when he begins to blame Planned Parenthood, and America’s “culture of death” (note that in Jesus-land, the “culture of death” only extends to abortions; minorities being killed by cops, and bombs being dropped on third world nations are part of our “culture of freedom”).

Sorry fuckstick, but you want to know the real reason these women are risking their own lives to carry out some misguided abortion?

It’s because you idiots publicly shame and harass them when they try to get an abortion done in a safe manner.  So they turn to what they feel is the next best thing; which in reality is really, really stupid.

The efforts and actions of these “pro-life” organizations are the reason that women feel pressured to discreetly carry out an abortion, and aren’t comfortable going through a safe, supervised procedure.  Between their picketings, bulk mailings, propaganda suggesting that abortion clinics are unsafe, and the nutjobs (well, the even more unbalanced nutjobs) amongst their ranks bombing and shooting up these clinics, it’s a wonder that any woman is brave enough to set foot inside one at all.

If they truly cared, at all, about the women who need to have an abortion, they wouldn’t dissuade them from going through a safe organization.  But they clearly don’t care.  And as a result, they drive these young women to poisoning themselves.

The fact that women are doing this at all highlights and emphasis the fact that abortions are going to happen regardless of if it’s legal or not.  The only difference is, if it’s illegal, the women are going to end up get hurt on a much more consistent basis.

Congratulations assholes.  Your war on abortion is once again causing casualties.

I feel like I need to print stories like this out, and carry them with me as a defense against the zealots who can’t understand why some people don’t want anything to do with their religion.

How fucked up do you have to be to put your imaginary friend’s selectively moral rules ahead of the safety and well-being of a little girl?

I am running out of words in my limited vocabulary to use to describe how disgusted I am with the state of society.

Well, it would seem we’ve managed to elect Obama, by a significant margin.  Perhaps this will encourage the GOP to rethink their choice of tying their platform to the moral imperitives of the Christian Right.  If the Replubican party honestly supported smaller government, and encouraged small business growth, like they say they do, I imagine I’d vote for them.

Another great outcome of the election was the rejection of every anti-abortion measure (as far as I’m aware - do correct me if I’m wrong) put forth by any state.  I know the Christians will just try again next time, and the time after that, and the time after that, but at least we’re safe for now.

The major downer so far though has been the extreme hate displayed towards the gay community this time around.  Last I saw, every anti-gay-marriage initiative on a ballot was passed, some with huge numbers.  That isn’t good.  At all.  I’ll save that tirade for another time.  Perhaps soon-to-be President Obama will enact some national laws supporting gay marriages, in one way or another.

I voted today.

Yes on Obama.

Yes on Markey.

No on 46 and 48.

Now the waiting starts.

I’ve read recently about new “gay-friendly” schools being created.  These are schools where gay students can enroll to avoid the harassment present in traditional public schools.

And I’m really conflicted about my feelings on the matter.

In one light, there’s the fact that this indicates a systematic acceptance of gays.  It acknowledges that the gay community is not treated fairly in normal situations, and that their rights as human beings are being trampled on.

However, at the same time, I can’t help but think about segregation.  Separate but equal, right?  Decades ago this country fought to integrate one minority into the majority.  And now we’re carving a different minority out?  I hesitate to go further with this, because I don’t want to start a slippery slope argument, but I just feel this is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly, and celebrated without consideration of the consequences.

Awesome.  Connecticut made gay marriage legal today.

I, for one, am pretty disgusted with America right now.

The DOW continues its downward plunge.  A friend and I, at the beginning of the week, joked about drinking this weekend, and taking a shot for every 100 points the DOW goes down over the course of the week.  With the index as it is now, we’d be dead.

The term “Muslim” has become synonymous with “terrorist.”  I honestly believe there are people out there who have no idea that it could refer to a religion.  People are terrified of having a “Muslim” in the White House (even though Obama is not a Muslim).

Palin and McCain have convinced many voters that Obama is, in fact, a terrorist.  At rallies people scream “kill him!”  In lines outside rallies, people insist that Obama is actually a terrorist, and has terrorist friends.  Not only is spreading and encouraging this rumor disgusting, it’s irresponsible.  There are already enough disturbed individuals in the country that are livid at the thought of a black man being president.  We needn’t piss off anymore people with terrorism rumors.  How long until some nutjob takes things a little too seriously, and shows up at a rally with a weapon?  All because McCain can’t bear the thought of losing another presidential run.

20/20 wants young Americans to believe they’re too stupid to vote.

My lovely state of Colorado is purging voter lists.  Just a couple of months before the election.  Assuming that their purging followed proper criteria, and didn’t target a specific voting demographic, it’s still not OK in my mind to be doing it so soon before one of the most important elections of some peoples lifetimes.  This should have been done after the elections, and if it were feared that one of these voters was going to commit voting fraud, their names should merely have been flagged, and then required them to provide more identification information at the poll.  Not flat out disqualify them, giving them a small window in which they can re-register to vote before the election.

One of our leading presidential candidates treats people like they’re idiots, on national television.

The same candidate disdainfully referred to funding for a $3 million ‘overhead projector.’  Here is a picture of that ‘overhead projector.’  And his supporters eagerly ate it all up.

Lastly (that I care to write about), voters outside a McCain/Palin rally (2nd video) scare the everliving shit out of me.  Especially the parts where they say that a rape victim should have died, or should have been charged double for her rape kit.

I desperately want Obama to win.  I want him to follow through on even half of the promises he’s made over the last year.  And if all goes well, I want another Democrat to take his place in 8 years.

I don’t want America to continue down the ignorant, hateful path it’s walking running down.

I’m a well-informed consumer.  Friends might describe me as a consumer whore, but that probably just goes to show the quality of my friends.  Regardless, when I go shopping for electronics I want to be left alone up until the point that I need a case unlocked so I can get my product.

So, imagine my annoyance when I spend 10+ hours over 2 days reading all about DSLR cameras online, narrowing my selection down to 3 choices, and then having a blue shirted asshole lie through his teeth to me for 10 minutes, in the most condescending manner possible.

I had no intention of buying an overpriced camera from a store here in town (unless I could get some sweet discounts).  I also wasn’t horribly interested in ordering one online without seeing it in advance.  So I wandered over to Best Buy during my lunch break today, and began fiddling with the cameras I was looking at.

Three different employees asked if I needed anything; each of the later 2 were easily within earshot of me telling their predecessor that I didn’t need help.  They asked anyways though.  Because they’re just that helpful.

After a few minutes, the first guy (a real sleazeball that likely just finished his shift at a used car dealership) came back, toting along an older couple, and a college-aged hipster type gal.  He came right up to me, shattering my tiny personal space bubble, and asked “are you done with that?” - speaking about the Nikon D40 in my hands.

No, you fucking asshole, I’m not done with it, it’s in my goddamn hand, I’m looking at the screen at menu options, do I look fucking ‘done with it’ you stupid shit?

“Uh, sure.”  Some things are better left unsaid.

Blueshirt Shithead then, in the most condescending tone he could muster, said “Well why don’t you stick around, I’m going to show these guys what there is to know about these DSR’s [yes, that's how he said it], maybe I can help you make up your mind.”

Too stunned (and polite) to do anything else, I stuck around, while Blueshirt Shithead informed us that all ‘DSR’ cameras shot at least 10 frames per second (most low end ones shoot 3-5 per second… for the first second, then they slow down a ton), all had at least 10 mega pixels (the D40 he was holding has 6.1), and could zoom way better than non ‘DSR’ cameras (arguably true, if you drop thousands of dollars on a telephoto lens - otherwise, a $400 superzoom camera with 10-12x zoom can easily out-zoom a DSLR).

In about 5 minutes of his retarded rambling, the only thing it seemed he didn’t lie about was the price of the camera.  Hipster girl bought a Rebel.  The old couple were talked into a Nikon D60 and a 3 year protection plan.  I was immediately ignored when I said I was going to keep looking.

What’s with this shit?  How is it that stores get away with a) treating their customers like idiots, and b) lying blatantly about the features of their products.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this.  Walking through the computer aisles and listening to the sales pitches there makes me die a little inside each time.  Circuit City is just as bad.  And then these stores turn around and complain about the competition posed by internet retailers.

Here’s a thought:  There’s a lot less stress involved with purchasing something online, without a pushy sales dipshit ruining the experience.

Supposedly, some guy was reading this piece over at the Wall Street Journal, and saw an untimely ad on the page.

The ad is a McCain ad, claiming that he won the debate.  You know, Today’s debate.  That’s going on tonight.  Like, in 7 hours.  Yeah, that one.

Now, I’ve refreshed the page in question several times, and have not seen the ad yet.  I have better things to do than keep trying to stumble across it, especially in the likely scenario that it’s been removed.  It will be interesting to see if identical ads trickle out over the weekend, after the debate has actually happened.

Still, it’s a little depressing that I wouldn’t be surprised to discover the image is legit.  That’s how classy the political landscape is here.

In another stunning display of ridiculous journalism, Newsweek ran a list of the 10 best selling video games of all time.

Which was probably more like “the 10 games I’ve seen my son play recently.”

The game they claim as being #1, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, is in fact #11, having sold millions fewer copies than any of the real top 3 games.  The other 9 games that the author pulled out of his ass aren’t even in the top 20.  Some probably aren’t even in the top 50.

So, way to go Newsweek.  either you’re too lazy to care about the accuracy of what you report, or that fancy new ’Google’ thing is too confusing to operate.