Education Doesn’t Make You Elitist, Dumbass. It Makes You Less Dumb.

And “elites” have not been “telling normal people how to run the country for long enough.” “Elites” haven’t run this country for a long, long time, “normal people” have. And they have run this country into the ground.

Now, I’m going to rant. You’re likely not going to like it, but I need to get it out of my system because reason and logic just aren’t working. So if you don’t want to read it, that’s fine, you’re not required. Just be forewarned, it’s about to get ugly.

Know what? I’ve had it. I’ve said for years, we should reach out to people and try to explain to them and listen to them, because they’re scared and if we just communicated, things would be different. But you bozos aren’t interested in midddle ground. You want to cradle your insecurities and your ignorance to your breasts and pretend you’re hard done by because someone else worked their ass off and put themselves through school and has more than you.

You want things you can’t pay for, like a big ass war where you can shoot all the evil brown people who believe in a different god than you and who are no more fundamentalist/extremist than you are, but you don’t see that because you go to a REAL church.  But you don’t want higher taxes, because it would just be wrong to have to pay for something you should get for free.

You want my kids to be taught some crack pot belief with no basis in scientific fact , and are insisting it be taught in science classes because you’re not capable of understanding the meaning of the word “theory.” Gravity is a theory, too, morons. It’s a scientifically proven THEORY. Just like “the earth rotates around the sun” and evo freakin lution. Evolution is not “Darwinism.” I get that you are so incredibly entrenched in your ignorance you refuse to accept that science is not a religion, but it’s true. Evolution is a part of SCIENCE. It’s a way with which we explain our PHYSICAL world! And Darwin was a scientist, not some heretical prophet of a “false religion.” They’re all false! And no, science does not, at some point, turn into “faith.”

You want your stupid, superstitious backward belief inflicted on the entire country despite the fact the country was specifically set up to NOT have that stupid, superstitious backward belief imposed on everyone in it. NO! I don’t care. I don’t care what the founding fathers believed in. I don’t care what they practiced in their private lives. When it comes to our government, we are SECULAR! Freaking deal with it.

Enough, already. I am tired of being told that my degree in nursing automatically makes me a part of some out of touch tower dwelling race that doesn’t know what’s going on in the “real world.” Screw you. I live in the real world every damn day. I care for people who probably can’t afford the medical bills, but don’t have any choice but to get help. I see teenage girls who are totally clueless about what’s in store for them because their parents won’t teach them anything about sexuality beyond “don’t do it,” and are scared and worried and asking me what to do, even though I cannot make their decision for them. I see small children who, were it not for funding that assholes like YOU want to cut, wouldn’t be getting the immunizations I give them. I see women who, til a couple years ago, had never even heard the letters “HPV” put together as a disease, and are now terrified for themselves and their daughters. But by all means, let’s not do any research on those vaccines or insist that insurance companies cover them, because instead of preventing every single type of cancer women contract, it only prevents a little over half, and that’s just not good enough.

How dare you sit there and pretend superiority over the very people who actually have a hope in hell of FIXING this damn huge hole we’re in the middle of? You would really rather sit there and let the entire country go to hell, just so you can say “your guy” got over on the “elitist libruls.” You. Moron. There are no words for how stupid you are. That you refuse to educate yourself on the facts and are more than happy to accept something some guy on the internet heard from his sister’s boyfriend’s best friend instead just shows how completely unworthy you are of something as precious as a say in our government. I sincerely wish there was a better form of government than representative democracy (HINT, DOOFUS! REPRESENTATIVE democracy! That means someone represents a group of people. Different from a warm body democracy. Read a book, dammit!), but currently it’s the best thing we have going. If only what was being represented wasn’t stupidity, greed, xenophobia, racism and willful ignorance.

Michelle Obama and the Separatist Movement of Illinois

It’s interesting how certain things affect our consciousness, isn’t it? The wife of a prominent politician of the Democratic party, and a separatist organization bent on political and physical secession of their state from the union. Chances are, if you’re thinking about this and you support Obama, you don’t believe the two have any relationship whatsoever. Chances are, if you support “anyone BUT” Obama, you’re now desperately hoping they do.

Let me relieve you all of your suspense. There is no such relationship. To my knowledge, there is no such group in Illinois. Why did I bring up such an inflammatory subject? As a thought experiment. Allow me to explain.

In another blog entry, I explained that we are all, whether we like it or not, in some small way…bigoted. We all harbor negative feelings of “the other.” Whether it’s racism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism, religion…. we all have those feelings and thoughts, and we all respond to them either consciously or unconsciously. It’s an evolutionary tool called “tribalism.” Anyone not of our tribe is initially feared, rejected. Recognizing that, questioning it and being honest with ourselves about its existence goes a long way toward eliminating it. But people KNOW racism/sexism/etc. are bad, so their first knee jerk reaction is “NOT ME!!” To which I reply: “everyone.”

Sorry. I’m keeping you waiting. I have been flummoxed of late. People who claim to love this country to the point of fighting for it, waving flags for it, sacrificing for it, and loathing those who say a word against it….are embracing a candidate whose spouse was, until very recently, part of a fringe political organization whose purpose was the physical secession of their state from the union. No, it was not Michelle Obama. Nor was it Cindy McCain. It was Todd Palin, and up until 2002, he belonged to Alaska’s separatist movement. You are now having a reaction to that. Depending on several things, you are outraged, chagrined, defensive, or exasperated (because you’ve heard it to death).

And if you’re exasperated because you’ve heard it to death… can you then explain to me why…back up there when you so hopefully clicked open this blog entry…you WANTED to believe the same about Michelle Obama? And why it would not, regardless of reasons, been okay for her to have done the same? If it isn’t racism…so be it. But it’s at the very least “other,” under the header “liberal.” And that’s at least as bad, because you just torpedoed your own ethics and principles and justified them away for a candidate you know next to nothing about. All to make sure a “liberal” doesn’t win.

Ethics and personal principles shouldn’t be that easily sold to any political party.

End Times? Again? REALLY?!

I adore my mother in law. I do. I think she’s a terrific lady, and I quite like spending time with her. But DAMMIT! She forms her opinions based more on magical thinking and less on facts, and it drives. Me. Nuts. WE ARE NOT IN THE BLASTED BIBLICAL “END TIMES”!

I swear, you people need to find something else to go on about. I am SO not kidding. What IS it with the whole “end times” thing? I google’d “end times”… 84MILLION hits! I’m sure there are a lot of duplications in there, but still! Holy crap! I then google’d “rapture”…15million. “Second coming” yields 25 million.

Okay. Deep breath. I want you to listen to me very closely. Okay? You need to stop. People have been predicting the end of the world since there have been village squares. The likelihood of anyone actually getting it right is now more remote than the chances of my beloved New York Knicks winning the NBA Championship come June of 2009. It just isn’t going to happen. Let’s look at a few facts.

In 30 AD, Jesus himself predicted the “end times” in the lifetime of his contemporaries. This cannot be a surprise. If any of you have actually bothered to read the Torah, it would be perfectly clear that by claiming himself to be “the chosen one,” son of God, Jesus is predicting the end of the world. That’s what happens. The world ends, game over, and God’s chosen people (guess what? Jews, not Christians) are all swept up, and EVERYone else (including Christians, sorry, you’re not Jewish) will be punished and left to inherit the earth, but won’t be going anywhere near heaven. Now you tell me. How’d that work out?

Okay, yes, I get it, you’re not convinced. Let’s go further. Now that we’ve totally revamped the Torah into the Bible, added an entire new book and all and reworded it to mean what Jesus REALLY meant (because of course, he isn’t going to abandon all his followers), and look at some Christian “end time” prophecies.

This site goes on for quite some time, so I’m just going to c&p a few of them and you can read the rest at your leisure.

ca. 2800 BC According to Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.” This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end.

Okay, I know that one isn’t a “Christian” revelation, being 2800 years before Christ was even born….but if nothing else, it should hammer home the idea that people have been saying the world is ending for a long, LONG time.

ca. 70	The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, may have seen the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
2nd Century	The Montanists believed that Christ would come again within their lifetimes and establish a new Jerusalem at Pepuza, in the land of Phrygia. Montanism was perhaps the first bona fide Christian doomsday cult. It was founded ca. 156 AD by the tongues-speaking prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla. Despite the failure of Jesus to return, the cult lasted for several centuries. Tertullian, who once said “I believe it just because it is unbelievable” (a true skeptic if ever there was one!), was perhaps the most renowned Montanist. (Gould p.43-44)
247	Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
365	Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)

There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the year 1000. For example, legend has it that a “panic terror” gripped Europe in the years and months before this date. However, scholars disagree on which stories are genuine, whether millennial expectations at this time were any greater than usual, or whether ordinary people were even aware of what year it was. An excellent article on Y1K apocalyptic expectations can be found at the Center for Millennial Studies. (Gould, Schwartz, Randi) 1033 After Jesus failed to return in 1000, some mystics pushed the date of the End to the thousandth anniversary of the Crucifixion. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of millennial paranoia during the period from 1000-1033. (Kyle p.39, Abanes p.337, McIver #50) 1184 Various Christian prophets foresaw the Antichrist coming in 1184. (Abanes p.338) Sep 23, 1186 John of Toledo, after calculating that a planetary alignment would occur in Libra on September 23, 1186 (Julian calendar), circulated a letter (known as the “Letter of Toledo”) warning that the world was to going to be destroyed on this date, and that only a few people would survive. (Randi p.236)

This goes on quite some time, and leads us to current day. ReligiousTolerance.org has a rather extensive list of recent and current predictions of the end of the world. As you can all see, none of them have actually come to fruition. Nor will they. There simply is no day written down where the world is actually going to end.

Is it going to happen? Certainly, some day. Either some huge asteroid will get through our atmosphere or we’ll be sucked into the black hole that will be created when our sun goes supernova or (and far more likely in my estimation) we’ll blow ourselves up. But regardless…it will have nothing whatever to do with Jesus coming back.

So. My advice to you is….stop worrying about it! Enjoy your life. Because really, it’s the only one you have. Stop waiting around for something you’ll never have and appreciate what you DO have. Life goes by fast enough….do you really want to miss it?

Prostitution or Capitalism? Virginity on the Auction Block

This week, a 22 year old student in San Diego is auctioning her virginity. Predictably, it has sparked a firestorm on teh intarweb regarding morality.

“Maybe this is the conservative in me coming out, but this seems so wrong,” wrote one blogger, Mike. “Isn’t this prostitution?”

“I must say I feel sad for the future of our society,” said Mike from Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Is it prostitution? Yes. Yes, it is. Rather predictably, it doesn’t bother me. Here’s the thing: prostitution should never have been a crime. Women (and men) are offering services for money. Some people are willing to pay for those services. The fact of the matter is….it’s their bodies. They’re the only ones who should have a say as to whether they sell it or not. I do wonder if there would be quite the black market trade for sex slaves were prostitution legal.

Let’s look at Nevada. Those women (and men)* have health insurance, are clean, are not mistreated, are in many cases earning money to put themselves through school….all legally.

Prostitution law is essentially legislating morality. Now…don’t get me wrong. Prostitution is not something I want my daughter to see as the best way of putting one’s self through school. But we’re not doing ourselves or those women any favors by criminalizing it. And from what I can tell, it hasn’t reduced the numbers significantly. Making the fines stiffer, imposing tougher sentences….hell, even the guy renowned for prosecuting hookers frequented them. And yet we continue to pretend that an adult willingly selling their body^ is somehow a criminal. I realize this may be a bit abstract, but … isn’t there a point where we all end up trading sex for something we want? If we were really honest with ourselves, I’m not sure how many people would be able to say they didn’t trade sex for something or something for sex. Security, marriage, a car, hell… I’ve even heard coworkers talk about giving their husbands blowjobs to get them to do various things around the house. How is that NOT trading sex for a payoff?

We like to pretend that sex is always (or should be) some pure thing, some high emotional transaction, a mingling of souls. When the fact of the matter is….we are human beings. Mammals. Animals. And we are at our most animalistic during sex. An orgasm isn’t a holy union. It’s a biological function. That happens to feel good. And I do not say this to denigrate it. I say this because I think people have turned sex into a false idol. We’ve put it on a pedestal and changed it into a mold it doesn’t fit. Hence all the neurosis. Sex is sex. It feels good, and we like it. But like most things, it’s been totally mangled and demonized by both religion and society.

Let the girl do whatever the hell she wants with her body. If someone finds worth in what she has to sell and she’s examined her innermost self and is okay with the repercussions….so be it. This is America. Where we believe we are free to live our lives as we like. Leave her the hell alone already.

*sorry I keep putting (and men) in parenthases. But I don’t see men prostituting themselves in nearly the numbers that women do. Not sure why that is. On the other hand…I’ve seen the business world. We’re all someone’s whore at the end of the day….

^ I am not talking about those who are forced into the sex slave industry or underaged or coerced people. Obviously, that’s another kettle of fish. I’m only addressing those who choose to do so of their own volition.

My dad died.

Feels weird even typing that.

I’m not looking for sympathy; hell, I don’t even know why I’m typing it out… I guess this is more to gain perspective than anything else. Cheap therapy if you will. Or even if you won’t.

My apologies to those of you who usually read this space for what I laughingly call my atheist/political screeds…I’ll likely be back on form in short order. Today, I’m going to ramble about death a bit.

The first thing I should get out of the way (in case you’re still tempted to feel badly for me, which I appreciate, really…but it’s okay) is that my father and I hadn’t spoken in….oh, now that I actually sit and think about it…. close to 15 years. Not a great guy, my dad. Not what one would call a role model. “aHA!” you think. “So THAT’S what’s wrong with that broad.” Well…yes and no. I was lucky enough to have a step father I loved to distraction, so while growing up was a bit…odd…it was offset by this great relationship I had with him. Thing is….he’d be the first person telling me that I should probably feel something other than relief right now.

That sounds incredibly cold, doesn’t it? I’m sure it does. The angry atheist, and so on. Thing is? It doesn’t feel cold. It’s actually rather comforting. Yes, I’m sure that sounds all kinds of crazy as well. Lemme splain.

I’ve been a nurse for almost 20 years now. 5 of those were spent in an Emergency Room in Oakland, California. Another chunk as a dialysis nurse. I’ve seen a lot of people die. I don’t know what you may have heard or what opinions you’ve formed about professional detatchment. It’s absolutely necessary. Nurses and doctors are well aware that their patients are human. When one of them dies, we’re affected. Detatchment keeps us sane. But…detatchment does not equal total divorce from feeling. I’ve watched patients die slow, lingering deaths and patients who die quickly, within minutes. I’ve held hands and closed eyelids and comforted loved ones. The pain when someone dies…it’s not for that person. It’s for us. For OUR loss. That person is beyond whatever pain we feel. There’s a comfort, however small, in knowing that it’s going to be okay.

We try so hard to keep death from us. To dress it up, to separate ourselves from it….to deny it. Death happens so rarely at home now. I’m not at all sure that’s a smart move. We’re raising kids with no idea how to handle it by “protecting them” from ever seeing it. Death is the natural termination of life. For everyone and everything.

I know that at this point, a lot of people tend to question their religious beliefs. I suppose if this was the first time I was confronted with the trauma of a death, I would likely be doing so myself. But the call I got from my brother last night, in an odd way, confirmed my atheism. I know it’s okay. It was a shock. He was younger than expected (he wasn’t exactly kind to his body). But…it’s what happens. To all of us, eventually. The same thing will someday happen to me. And that will be okay, too. Because I learned from his mistakes what not to do with my kids. I learned to make life count while I’m here, not for when I’m gone.

Whatever meaning life has is the meaning we give it. I’ve always found that thought both empowering and freeing. The legacy we leave behind, the thoughts and memories people carry with them….that’s our heaven. Or hell, depending. So….carpe diem.

This has taken a little over six hours to write. Thanks for bearing with me today.

But I don’t WANT to worship the Constitution.

Today is Giggle-at-the-absurdities-inherent-in-your-philosophy Day. Apparently. I’m not sure how else to interpret the argument I had earlier with a question begging troll. And yet, I kept going back. Entirely my fault for feeding the blasted thing. Assertion: The Constitution is my god, because atheists have to worship something whether they acknowledge it or not and if I follow the law then I worship the Constitution and it’s my god.

Yes, I see your eyebrow raise in much the same way mine did. But he was serious. I think. It was difficult to tell exactly, as his grammar and sentence structure were so horrid.

Tangent: WHY is that, exactly? Why do so many religious adherents, regardless of religion, have such horrible grammar and diction? Is it a prerequisite? Is there some sacred law that was written after I left the church that instructs all believers to be as unintelligible as possible? People! Your arguments are reduced to near worthlessness by your inability to express them in a clear, concise manner. You complain about what your kids aren’t learning in school; you may want to worry about their English skills before protesting for religious classes./tangent

Where was I? Oh, yes. The troll….er….true believer who seems bound and determined to convince me that, even against my will, I believe in god.  That whatever higher power I hold dear, it’s god. I have to admit, this is a new one on me. I’ve never had anyone assert that, being human, I *must* believe in something, and that thing is god, because that’s what natural law is. 

I haven’t replied to his latest post yet; I’m simply agog that all he did was C&P his original post to me without actually addressing any of the points I made (the US Constitution being laws made by and for men being chief among those). I get the impression that he thinks if he just keeps repeating himself over and over, he’ll wear me down and win. To brighten your day, I’ve included his post below.

 I understand your need for cognitive dissonance against that which you do not believe. The fact that we are all considered equal comes from the Authority of God and that is where the equality concept came into being for the United States of America. Yet! If there is no god/s then there is no higher authority that will hold us all equal and accountable. If you hold to the law of this land then to recognize equality of being is to also recognize that there must be an Authority to hold all accountable. So even if you don’t believe in God then the law of the United States is your god.

Lovely, huh? If anyone speaks fundie and would like to advise me as to how I can combat this (logic isn’t working), I’m open to suggestions.