Gay Mariage Redux

It baaaaaack. The fight over "gay marriage", that is.

If you follow my blog or any of my public personality postings, you likely already know where I stand - or can guess. It's not even an issue. A gay couple should have the right to marry.

I wrote an essay years ago - I think 1997 or 1998, I can't find it right now, not even on archive.org - about this issue. My stance was pretty much the same back then.

In Vermont, yesterday there were hearings in Montpelier listening to apparently over a thousand people (well, in attendance, not all spoke) opposed to and in support of legalizing gay marriage (in Vermont).

From the news I heard near sobbing from gay people and having to fight for the same right others just have. I hear dumbass ignorant bigots lay out arguments about "it being against god's will". And this time around, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington pleading to keep those dirty nasty ungodly beings from joining in any such marital fashion. (he didn't say that, I'm paraphrasing his dopey ignorance and bigotry). Many other clergy have stood strong in support of gay marriage already. I couldn't tell if they spoke out yesterday. But what's it really matter? The claim of "against it"-clergy is that it's not what "god intended". Do they also invalidate my marriage? I'm a friggin atheist. I think they are loopy in the first place. I was married in a civil ceremony, not even the mention of a deity or a savior (though I'm sure mom was praying :) ) in the ceremony. Do I not have a marriage? It was utterly and completely outside the church.
They keep spouting a fear that clergy will be forced to marry gays. Grow up and pay some attention. No reasonable person would say that. It's a legal thing, not a religious thing, in my view. The clergy aren't required to even marry their own parishioners if they feel they don't support the marriage in question are they? Right. I think I heard a collective "oh yeah". So how are they suddenly going to be forced to marry a bunch of sodomizing sinners? Hm...

As I would expect... they are full of crap just trying to scare the ignorant masses.
As well with the argument of "jettisoning" the "traditional meaning of marriage that has been culturally accepted for 6 millenia"... yeah, I saw that in the paper. In other words, we have bible literalists telling the rest of us how we are supposed to live and that we must follow their bible's laws. Assholes. This is the U.S. of A., you have a right to freedom of religion and I have a right to freedom from religion. That means keep your crazy out of the public square and I won't tell you how to believe your fairy tales stories. That includes you not being allowed to say that gays can't get married because you are uncomfortable with it, or insecure with your marriage to the point that your tiny mind would actually believe that two men or two women getting married would somehow magically lessen your marriage. Face it, you haven't a leg to stand on with that argument. You're a liar and a fraud.

So, the sheep do as they are told. The faithful (I don't know any atheists/agnostics who are against gay marriage - not to say they don't exist, I've just not met any... who weren't against marriage as a rule - and let this be clear, I know more faithful who are pro-gay-marriage than not) cling to their bibles and lash out at people who are different. Worse yet, they argue things like "we can't let a minority make these changes". Again, who the hell are they? I suppose they are against blacks still too... they are still a minority. How about this, from polls I've seen, bible literalists are a minority. That means you freaks who believe Noah's Ark was a real thing are a minority. Those who believe the world is only 6000 years old... minority. How about we start limiting your rights? Oh yeah, "this is a Christian nation"... so as long as you declare that "jesus christ is your savior" then you are above the law or expectation of equality for all. Shut up! You are poison. You might likely be raising children who are poisoned and will poison the world they way you do. Because this isn't just about gay marriage or gay rights, it's about being a bigot and declaring that your way is the only way. It's about you not realizing that your way might be the right way... for you and yours, but that you have no right to rules others' lives when those others' actions do in fact not impact your life in any way. Gay marriage has no impact on you. It just doesn't. Stop lieing. Stop pretending. Stop. If your marriage is weak enough that another's marriage will ruin its meaning, then you need to end it. You are not ready anyway. My marriage will be stronger knowing that the institute of marriage I have will be shared with a larger group of people who believe as I do... that marriage is about sharing your life, love, and everything in between with another person, with rights, responsibilities, privileges, hopes, desires, families, jobs... everything you have. How can you hold the one single difference between the you and "them" as the litmus for something like marriage? When it comes to human rights, a simple majority rule has no place in deciding who gets to use those rights.

I've insulted a lot of people here, it's nothing uncommon. Feel free to hate me, that would be justified. But hating those I am sticking up for in this is not justified. Supporting gay marriage is supporting marriage and family.

Uni Presies and a Lower Drinking Age

The question I just heard on the TV.. "why are college presidents pushing for lowered drinking ages?"

My simple answer... they don't want to be held responsible for the most entitled, bratty and ill-raised children in a very long time going to higher education and getting screwed up and giving the schools a bad name... or a good name on the "party school" lists.

These presidents don't care about the communities their schools are in.

But they sure do look cool to kids who wanna get their drink on legally - perhaps those presidents preside over schools that are cooler to those needy brats. Boom. Higher enrollments.

And if your argument FOR it is that "if they can die for our country, they should be able to drink"... well, I think 18 is too young to decide your future in a war. It's a false patriotism and encouraging kids to join the military under the guise of "dieing for your country" is sick and twisted and what I'd expect from terrorists and Israeli or North Korean soldiers - and the poor, who also unfortunately probably suffer fro higher percentages of alcohol related deaths, violence and crime.

But I'm straightedge, so who really cares what I think? And I know I didn't have a drop as a student, yet I wasn't a perfect student either. But I also never threw up in a public restroom, trashed a neighbor's yard, walked into some random persons home uninvited - at 3am, and I didn't sexually assault anyone.

To top it off, I read last week how many states/communities are thinking of changing their alcohol sales laws. Sure, the laws are religiously dogmatic relics, but just because the economy is in the crapper... oh wait. See, that's the point. The guise is that it's to generate more income via taxe. I don't buy it one bit. Well, that's not true, I'm sure some view it that way, especially those in Utah thinking about it - Mormon attitudes aside. No, I think it's about making sure people have easy access to one of the essier ways to drown your sorrows without legalizing other drugs. Yeah folks, I think people want us drunk. Progressives with the same ideals would rather we get high instead. either way, they hope we stop thinking for a while and go with the flow.

Everything is big picture - small picture stuff is a cloak.

"Hero"

So, as always I'm johnny come lately when it comes to posting about recent event. Too busy to put thought to finger to keyboard, but this news item annoyed me and brought up feelings that have annoyed me for quite some time.
Last week US Airways pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger successfully brought his plane down on the Hudson river after the engines we supposedly destroyed by birds. All over the news we heard about "Sully" the hero and his amazing feat. Ok, you've likely heard it all by now, seen the pictures, joined the facebook groups and said your meaningless prayers - maybe even sent around a chain letter about it.

But, is he really a hero?

Over at Merriam-Webster you will see a number of definitions for hero. I think the only two that people might be attributing to "Sully" are:

• c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities
• d: one that shows great courage

Let's break down each one a little bit with respect to what very little I know about "Sully".

c) acheivements and noble qualities:
He's definitely acheived something more Americans have not. He is a professional pilot. I always wanted to be an astronaut. I knew I'd need to be a pilot first (at least back then that was the expectation). However, the reality that I'd have to either join the military or have a significant amount of money to do that set in quickly. Yeah, for the vastly most part folks, you have to be wealthy or come from money to become a pilot. I don't know that enlisted "men" can be pilots, I should ask my dad - who was a jet mechanic for a while early in his Air Force career.
Noble. Is he more noble than most? What makes him such? I know that there have been a significant amount of nice things said about him by his friends, family and neighbors, but what are they going to say about a man who the media is calling a hero? Catch-22 if you ask me.
Were his actions noble? Well, it was his job to make sure his passengers didn't die. That's not noble, that's called employment.

So, to sum up the first part... he couldn't have even been a part of this "heroism" if not for it being his job and what his career was about - flying planes.

d) one that shows great courage:
This one confuses me. It's really a chicken and egg problem. Of course it takes courage to not choke when a plane is facing the possibility of crashing and killing everyone inside. But then again, isn't that what a pilot is trained for - not crashing a plane? Is it courage that has him at the helm in the first place? Well, like I said, I'd have just as much liked to be in that position.
For the most part, his job is pretty damn safe though. Modern planes practically don't even need pilots. The truth is, once you're up, unless there are odd circumstances, a plane is a very safe place. I believe Mythbusters proved that a novice could be talked through a relatively safe landing.
Therefore, what was there really to be afraid of that he hadn't already been trained for?

Part d summary... woop de doo. Again, his training to not screw shit up kept him calm enough to not screw shit up.

Now, to the question, is he a hero?
I enthusiastically say, no, he is not. What he is, though, is a competent man who did his job and did it well. He was put into a situation where the trouble was sudden and unexpected. But he did his job. He saved the lives of the passengers and realistically, the lives of others who might have died had he not been around or easily accessible to the river instead of say a road or park.

There we have it. The media is wrong. You might be wrong. The man isn't a hero. The man did his job. In fact, if he had crashed the plane and everyone buy him died, he'd likely have lost his job for not doing his job correctly. There would have been an investigation into it where someone would have tried to find a way to blame him for it. That's how things in the US work. Hero worship is about making certain type of people heroes but in strange twists of fate, those same people can be looked at as monsters or cowards or just plain old regular people.

I do not attempt to detract from his professionalism. He doesn't seem to be taking the "hero" speak to heart too much, he's been caught off guard as much as anyone.

I'm not done.

We're still in a war. In fact, we're still in a war that involves no one that invaded our own land. We invaded other countries. Bush lied, thousands died, right? Well, why are we constantly expected to call our military personnel "heroes"? Really, explain this one to me. Because they die for our freedom? Well, sure thing, if our freedom is in danger from the forces being fought - which it isn't, our freedoms are only compromised right now because of a lying fear/war monger who just left the Whitehouse.
So, we are barraged by media and religious nuts and right wingers and "patriots" constantly calling our soldiers heroes. Don't get me wrong, I respect the military. I was an Air Force brat for 14 years - my dad was a 20 year career Air Force man, I was plenty proud of him. He never killed anyone, but if he joined the military to kill people, he wouldn't be a hero to me, just a mad man.
And then there's the current situation.
Take this example. I have a student who wants to join the Marines when he graduates. Forget that if he can't work harder to get passing grades he might not even get in - or he shouldn't get in, morons with guns are plenty dangerous. His plan? Front line. He wants to kill people. So, let me get this straight. A kid plans in advance to join up with the military with the full intention of being sent over to a war-zone (that is not, in my liberal opinion, a legit war) and being on the front lines to shoot people, and we're in the end supposed to treat him as a hero? Fighting for our freedom?
Obviously there are military men and women who are fighting because they are told to. They enlisted before the war or enlisted not expecting to be sent off to fight and now they are doing the executive branch's wishes - my understanding is they don't particularly have a choice once that order is set. There are plenty who are over there helping to rebuild what others destroyed and looking to create positive relationships with civilians who are just caught up in it all unwillingly. Are they heroes? Hard to say. But with respect to the killing itself, the only heroes are those who refuse to fight an illegal war just because the president told them to. And if your solider son ever comments on "killing those 'rag-heads'". Rest assured... he is far from being a hero.
This will make me insanely unpopular, I'm sure, but as I pointed out above, if it's your job, you're not a hero.

Another example that's always gotten at me. Firefighters. Two types that I know of. Career firefighters and volunteer firefighters. You already know my reasoning for saying that those who earn their living by fighting fires are not heroes. If they didn't save someone would others say "you're so not a hero". Maybe, but more than likely, there would be a job security issue.
However... a volunteer is a hero. My bro joked that the volunteers are just fire-bugs.
I'm not sure I can laugh about that, as I'm sure there are lots of fire-bugs fighting fires, some of whom set their own fires, but I doubt highly that is even remotely the standard. But a man or woman willing to plunge into a burning building to rescue others, putting themselves in obvious danger, by the shear nature of some set of altruism, they are heroes.

I could go on, but I won't, not on that line of thought.

Who are heroes?
I've hear people call teachers heroes because they (we) can save the world by training the right people for the future. Well, I care about what I do. I went into teaching to make a difference, but if I do anything remotely "heroic", assume it's because I thought it was the right thing to do in the line of my duty as a teacher. Perhaps some day I'll step outside my comfort zone as a teacher and do something well over and above. I'm not sure what that would be for me to consider it "hero"-worthy, but that will be then. For now, I do what I am supposed to do and really hope it's the right thing.

Snitches. OK, this is where the kiddies and punks will get all defensive and say trash like "snitches wear stitches" and other shit like that. With respect to reporting some illegal acts - like acts of violence or other crimes that effect the greater community, or just some poor soul, it is black and white. You're either a hero or a coward. If you know and do nothing about it, you are a coward. It's easy, and I hold no ill will toward you, unless you are only being a coward because you know that someone else has something on you, etc.. But those who step out of safety and speak up are protecting the greater good. In business and government they are called whistle-blowers. They are people who very well may be scumbags themselves, but are doing the right thing in situations where something better or right should come of their actions.
When you see someone committing an illegal act on another - not of their will, even though I think it is a moral imperative to do something about it, I still think it's heroic.

Anyone who speaks up against their own better good for that of others is being heroic.

What do you consider heroic? Do you think I'm wrong? Are you offended by my thoughts (imagine that)? Feel free to comment. I have to admit that I do not hold these thoughts as absolutes and I could easily find some holes in them just as quickly as others. There's always exceptions to the rules, but my main point is that too many people use the word "hero" far to easily and quickly. It's a big word - too big to be thrown around like penny candies.

I Thought Vermont Was Friendly

"I thought Vermont was friendly"

Believe it or not, I was told that quote yesterday by someone from (I'm guessing) Florida. I'm guessing Florida because that was where the license plate on her car was from. Her car that was parked behind our cars blocking them in the driveway. Which we only noticed when we needed to get out to pick up our Wings.

Yeah, we walk out to get a move on, guessing another 10 minutes for them to be ready and about a 5-10 minute drive.

As you can see in the image, nicely recreated if I may say so myself, there are 3! empty spots in the lot. If anyone can point out ANY logic for why one would even remotely think her parking where she did was the right thing, or even reasonable.
But what followed was even more strangely stupid.
After we walked around to the other people's who share the parking lot apartments to see if it was of their friends, to no avail, we called the towing company (scumbags in their own rights) to tow the car away. As Karen was on the phone, a girl came out of the apartment with a gaggle of other students and walked toward the car.
I asked "is this your car?" She said yes. I then sorta laid into her, "are you insane? Why would you park blocking us in like that. There are open spots and you chose to park behind two cars blocking them in?!"
"I'm sorry" she said. But frankly, I wanted to her to feel stupid and ridiculed, or at least embarrassed. She didn't. She had NO conscience about it.
"I figured you could just parallel park out of the spot."
Say what?!? We were parked about 6 inches from our front car and she was about 1.5 feet behind us. Perhaps I could have made it just fine - I'm not so great at the parallel parking. But who is this moron to tell me I have to do such an extreme thing just to get out of MY space???

"I'm trying to be nice." She said. As if I did something to her and she was doing me a favor. In sane. Followed by "I though Vermont was friendly" and even "I thought Vermont was nice" while I was still trying to get her to understand that I didn't understand why she would choose to park behind us when there were open spots - not to mention it is a private lot where she had no right to be parked in in the first place.

It's funny. People give me a strange look when I comment that I'm more or less a misanthrope, but people like this and situations like this only prove that people are stupid and can only really be trusted to do the most selfish things in the end. I feel like I need to track her parents down and slap them silly then ask them if they feel comfortable having raised such a stupid child. Then find out which college she goes to so I can make sure I never recommend that anyone ever apply to a place that would accept such an idiot into their student body. Yet another case of entitlement strikes again.

If you are a parent, please teach your child/ren than they are not infact the only important people around and that they are not exempt from some common decency and that if they pull this kind of crap on me, I will lay into them like you apparently never did.

Look ma, no hands.

So lately while playing DDR on the Wii I've been getting access to new "challengers" after scoring A's on certain songs. I looked into it and found info saying what amounted to it being too early for me to be getting them, having not completed more than ONE songs with an A in the difficult level - forget about expert. The tracks are "Super Samurai" and "tokyoEvolved" (I think, they could be "artist" names.. doesn't really matter to me at this point). They are pretty cool. Samurai is a neo hip hop thing... tokyo is a hyper pseudo-industrial-hardcore techno track. Both challenges are hard as hell, and frankly, I'm not ready for them.
So, I went to youtube to see if anyone posted some tips on how to get better at doing the complicated steps and such. I found people who aces these songs, yet interestingly, they all turn the hand motions off.
Say what!?!
Yeah, one main point of the Wii DDR is the use of hand motions, turning it off is lame and well, in my opinion, cheating. So, I'm certainly impressed with the scores, but they are leaving out an important part... I guess I'll have to reserve some judgment on their merits. Hey, I doubt I could score well yet without the hands anyway.

On that note, I can't condone when people post their amazing scores when the camera is pointing only at the TV or.... you can hear them hitting buttons on their controller instead of stomping on the DDR pad. For real... what are you bragging about?

I'll set up a cam one of these days to capture me my attempts at DDR superstardom. They'll be real and honest... and hopefully I don't have to censor my rage attacks when stuff doesn't work.

If we put you there, don't screw us!

In less than 14 hours I'll be going to vote, primarily in the Democratic primary, but also for local stuff - school board, councilors, permission to explore a re purposing of a dilapidated local landmark.

Over the last few years, I've been looking forward to this election cycle in a massive way. Brattleboro (I believe) Vermont is putting on their ballot a vote for whether to indict W if he sets foot in their jurisdiction. I wish Burlington had the same thing. I think back 3 year and then 7 years and I have to believe that more and more of those people who voted for that scumbag realize they royally screwed up and royally hosed America in the act. The least patriotic people I could imagine - those who unquestionably supported this criminal over and over.

So, now I'm expecting the tide to turn and a democrat to take over the White House - and coupled with the Democratic majority in the House and Senate a reclaiming of what's important for the success of the country, and not just rich people, oil men, libertarians and poor people who actually believe that making their bosses wealthy will trickle down. Um, watch the movie "Idiocracy". The only thing that appears to be trickling down is brain damage resembling lack of foresight and common sense.

That said, if/when a Democrat recovers the White House, s(he) better not fuck it up. I swear, unlike Repugs, we need to hold our elected officials accountable. No more bullshit like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Obviously, as recently stated, I'm voting for Barack Obama. I have a feeling he's representing more of what he'll actually do an less of what we just want to hear. I hate people who are happy to have politicians say what "we want to hear" and forget that "show and prove" is more important.

Dumbldore is gay... and some people are just assholes

Perhaps it was intentionally not "big news", but I mostly only caught that Harry Potter author JK Rowling announced that Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore was gay by chance listen on the news. I was shocked at the announcement, but frankly, after reading Deathly Hallows, who is really shocked about the fact??? For real. As a young wizard he totally had a boy-love relationship with Grindelwald. My only disappointment is that there wasn't a better hint. No need to explicitly state it, as it really had no bearing on the story, but I had a feeling and it would have been cool to have just a tiny hint more to make a better educated guess. But so fargin what? I still found the book amazing and will forever be happy I was pushed into reading the series. Bravo JK.

The second after I heard the news, I knew for a fact that the ignorant masses that are homophobes would freak out about it. Boy did they. I'm looking right now at the comments section to a posted article at The Leaky Cauldron where I see lots of support, but lots of ignorance and homophobia.

To bring things closer to home... I have played the Harry Potter Trading Card Game for years. Actually, I've had it for years, but rarely play. It's a fun game though. I joined a Yahoo! group for players of it and have gotten some info and advice from the list. It's a low traffic group, but still served its purpose. This morning however, the original creator of the group sent this final message to the group:

Due to Rowling's decision to turn HP into a series for homosexual
propaganda, making the series unsafe for children, this group is being
shut down.

Um, you asshole! I realize she created the group, but in the real world, if a group thrives even without the direction of the creator of the group, who is the creator to destroy it? Especially since the server is was supported by was not hers.

In any event, I was shocked to see such an abrupt message and that when I went to check if the group was still there, it was already gone, so she really did kill it off quickly. I'm honestly guessing she wanted to hurt it by making sure we couldn't easily get the member list so if a new group would be created, the previous members could be directly invited. So I responded to her in a not nice way - screw it, homophobes are not deserving of respect when they do something specifically to make negative issue of homosexuals - and then wrote to one of the group members who is much a group leader. Another person already started a new one and he was added as a co-owner (a good idea BTW, in case someone flips out - I got booted off the LG-V6000 group because I made a comment about the group creator making some religious comments) so he invited me.

I was in the car going out to lunch with my mom a few years ago, possibly even 6 or so. She had the radio on a Christian talk show. They happened to be talking about how evil Harry Potter books were and how kids should not be allowed to read them; they should be removed from school, and all that stuff. I asked what my mom felt about it (being an evangelical xian) and she didn't really have an opinion. I don't recall too much more, other than stating the positive the books have done even to get more kids reading (statistically debatable from what I've heard) and questioning if she had a problem with The Lord of the Rings -something she knew I had had interest in strongly for a very long time. She hadn't formed an opinion. As of last year, I'm certain her opinion was aligned with the rest of the religious zealots. It's a shame. She even talked my dad out of wanting to see Order of the Phoenix at the drive in. Eh, what can I say. The point is, the wingnut fervor died down for a while, or at least wimpered, and now they are at it again - and it has hit my inbox yet again.

So yeah, Dumbledore is gay. It's cool, and it's not... it just is. Being an asshole is a choice, however.

Cough cough cough

Burlington city counselor Ed Adrian has proposed that Burlington's Church Street Marketplace be smoke free. This is something that for years I've been hoping someone would do. Yeah, I guess I should be someone who tried to get this going, but not being a politician and having to earn a living get in the way of all the social causes I would like to get into.

Anyway, I was going to let the issue rest in the hands of the counsel and others who could make it to open meetings, but then my local list had people who were actually sticking up for smokers violating our lung freely downtown. I couldn't resist... had to write to the list:

If I had a spray bottle with arsenic in it and I sprayed people with it downtown, I'd be arrested. If I spit on someone, I'd possibly be arrested. If I hit someone, I'd be arrested. So why is it that a smoker's right to put their poisonous cloud into my lungs is so often defended by smokers and non-smokers alike? Does seriously believe that people who smoke around others are not doing harm? Still?

I'm also sick of the "the government is always trying to protect us from ourselves" argument. That's shortsighted at best. How about protecting children from you? We're at the point of arresting child predators just moments after the [thought] crosses their mind to offend, but a smoker can directly pollute every child's lungs around them with impunity.
And step a few feet away from the smokers? Why? I suppose if you can't move away from my fist fast enough then it's your own fault if you get hurt, right?

Just Church St.?!?! Be happy it's not being pushed all over the outdoors. When I go running on the *bike path* - you know, sort of an epitome of where to try to be healthy - there are people smoking. Nothing like the smoke and related chemicals burning my lungs when I'm gasping for air as it is, or having to hold my breath til I nearly lose it.

We've had no less than two smokers living in our apartment building whose smoke and odor seeped into our entire apartment.

I have never smoked in my life, but I grew up with smokers around me, so I believe I'm paying much the same price with my own respiratory problems.

No, sympathy for smoker's rights just doesn't make any sense when it amounts to allowing them to choose to poison others.

I believe that smokers are specifically committing acts of assault on others when their smoke interferes with them in any way.

So, as I always do, I write a long winded response to issues that matter to me. And now it's here.
I decided to not attack the same counselor on his intent to support lowering the drinking age at UVM to 18. How friggin stupid is that? For another time.

School mugg

I haven't had a school picture taking in a very long time. Actually, that's a lie. I had one taken last year, but they didn't offer a comp package of pix I could actually see and I didn't buy the yearbook (might still get a left over one though). Oh, I'm still lying, I had to get a new picture for my ID at UVM this summer. Man, I'm just full of lies aren't I? Well, the point is that I have an actual useful picture of myself that is up to date... and frankly, I think shows the weight loss I've accomplished in the last 5 months.
The scanner did a crap job, so I had to correct it like mad, and sadly, they didn't do any other "corrections", ahem, so I did them too. Not a bad picture. I haven't compared it to my previous pictures, but my face is definitely thinner. Yay! Now I'm waiting for my new school ID with this picture. Who knows when. This package came pretty quickly. The wife's school hasn't even done picture day yet.
I'm relatively sure I'm violating some copyright issues by scanning and posting this picture, but I don't care. I didn't ASK for the package, it was offered. I didn't sign anything, I figure, it's me, I own me, so if someone captures me on film, I reserve the right of reuse of those images. I somehow doubt they'll come after me though. They seemed cooler than the previous photojocks that did the school picture service... who didn't offer teachers squat - not even the option to buy a set of pictures. Sheesh.

Vicks Vapo Rub

So, NFL player Michael Vick has finally plead guilty to being an asshole. Ooops, I guess just to killing dogs that he had set up to kill each other. Wooopeeee... right?

Why is this here? I hate football. I loath professional sports, for the most part... pampered, over-paid social leeches... kinda like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton.

No, I'm posting because he states that he "has found jesus". Argh!!! Do Christians actually buy this shit? Oh, wait... yes, they do. I know some who personally will likely hate him for the evils he did against animals raised to be murderous sport fodder, but they will sure find a place in their hearts for him since he found jesus(R)(tm).

So, my message to Vick, and anyone else like him expecting that they are above the laws and above general morality, and then declaring they found religion (I guess he was atypical in that he didn't find Allah, as is apparently more common for many blacks in prison... but I'm guessing more poor black men, as Christianity is the capitalist's religion) , is that I hope a baddass, abused battle dog named "jesus" is set to rip you apart. Let it be a lesson. I'm not a PETA freak [I in fact despise PETA], but in this culture dogs are off limits for game killing. I hate dogs - I'm a cat person - but I'm getting tired of the current culture, often pushed by hip hop, of obsessive immorality while also claiming jesus... yar, and yes, glamorizing vicious-bred dogs!

All that said, Vick isn't the only shithead involved in all of this. If his partners are getting off and all the people who were betting and attending and letting it happen are just as guilty. Plea deals or not, there should be justice. I'm tired of seeing celebs getting away with murder, especially in a case where that is literal.

Oh, Lindsey... you're trash.

Don't think I'm attacking Vick because he's a black man. Trust me, if you know me, you know that couldn't be the case... I hate celebs equally. ;)

Lucky lucky lucky... shut up

So, today is 07/07/07 (no matter where you are viewing this on the globe) and all day during news casts have been commentaries about this being a "lucky day". Couples getting married in Vegas and all over because it's a "lucky day". For crying out loud people... you are stupid!

7/7/7 is a cool day, as numbered representations of days go. Not as cool as 6/6/6, hehehe, I'm sure xians all over were a little shaken that day. However, I can't say there's much really notable about the date... if I recall correctly (and I'm too lazy now to look it up for reals) today is Prince's birthday - erp, forget it, I looked it up and damnit, I was a month off. Yeah, it's that kinda year.

So, back to the nutjobs who are superstitious about something that is already knowable. Yeah, unless someone thought human civilization would be gone by now, it was already known that the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year into the new millennium. OMG, just wait until 2077, people will really lose their minds. Whoa, how about 2777, man thing will just be rockin. And 7777? Ferget about it... the party of the 78th century. Man-bot will marry man-bot hoping that their binary nuptials will be praised by all the good luck in the multi-verse.

Am I making too big of a deal about it?
I guess I made my point then.

I did accomplish a good chat with the guy (Bob) at NAPA this afternoon. I'm planning on repainting my motorcycle. He's gonna put in a call with the paint tech peeps to figure out what will be needed to create the color plan I want for my bike. I was disappointed to find that I'll likely not have a cheap method for airbrushing some detail work on it, but I guess we'll see what happens.

I started to repaint my mini toy model of the bike with a bright orange from my minis paint selection. Doesn't look so good... not smooth, but hey, it's just for fun. Hopefully I can start painting the real thing by late next week.

Night and day...

So, I teach kids with emotional and behavioral disturbances. The truth is, under most of the hard crusts, most of them are at least good people. Sometimes you just have to carve much deeper to find that good person, but then it's often worth it.

My other side, with respect to being a part of the high school community is that I have been an assistant track coach (I believe I blogged about it before). I am coaching high school kids who are in a sport that loves individual accomplishment and thrives on encouraging each other. Boundaries break and people just get along, even if they have to try a little harder.

So, today was a very long and strange day. Only one more real academic day and a review day are left. The rest is a field trip and finals. So on this next to last real class day one of the kids who has been having a lot of troubles in the last month and a half decided to go the wrong way. If you're an adult, how does it feel when a 14 year old kid says "fuck you" TO YOU? Well, I experience it from time to time at school with these kids, but today, this one student accumulated more "fuck you"s in one day than I have gotten this whole semester. To top it off (actually, since it wasn't the last straw, I can't say it tops it off) he decided it would be funny to fart in the class. He does it often. I'm not sure if he has GI issues or if it really is intentional, but he is never apologetic and never seems to care that he always causes one other student to leave the room angry, another student to no shut up about it - therefore being distracted from doing actual work, and causing me to need to step out of the room. No, he's downright proud of such an accomplishment. The accumulation of all the crap and verbal abuse turned into a suspension for the rest of the academic days and restricted access to time to do his finals. Truth is, two months ago I would have felt very bad. Tonight, I think he's getting better than he deserves. It's still a question if he'll be back in the program next year. While I think he could succeed in our program, I think the cost would include bringing other students down and creating a hostile environment. The benefit of one nowhere near comes close to being more important the benefit of the whole or others.

To contrast is a freshman, about the same age, on the track team. He's an athletic high achiever, but he is still a normal kid. He's respectful and kind to me and even cares about what I think, about his running, but other things. He has his head on straight, even for a sometimes "airheaded" (as another person put it) freshman boy. Sorry, this is short on description... it doesn't need much. It's really that simple.

The connection? The father of the second boy is a guy I graduated high school with. He was an asshole to me a number of times. We didn't hang out. We didn't do the same sports. He wasn't college track, so we didn't even have a single class together. He just found a few reasons within the four year time span to be an ass to me. I never understood it. He was a few steps better than the first boy. I finally got to meet him again tonight and chat about his kid and him. He's changed. He sees what he was at that age and refuses to allow his kids to be that way. He was super positive and completely owned his past - and like me still know how to hold a proper grudge, not against me that is - and was a pleasure to speak with for the nearly 10-15 minutes it must have been. I told him I think his kid is great and he told me I have permission to keep his kid in line if he seems to be going in the wrong direction. I doubt it'll need to happen, but hey, he's a frosh, there's lots of time for things to change or even go wrong. I'm an optimist tough.

I said my good-bye and good luck for the summer to boy #2, wishing him a healthy and active summer, and looking forward to seeing him next year. Boy #1 is currently nowhere near to getting such a positive release statement. Of course me being me, I'll likely change my tune and come next Thursday (I won't be there Friday) I'll give him my best wished for the summer. I suppose that means, in all reality, "I hope you don't get locked up over the summer".