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So, here's a thing that bugs me: wolves are being taken off the endangered species list. Now that their population is around 1,500, the government is going to soon take them off federal protection, opening them up to be hunted. I, of course, oppose this. Have we as a species learned absolutely fracking nothing from history? For started, the rubes in the states where wolves now live are still ignorant hicks that know nothing about wolves but still want to kill them anyway. State leaders want to "thin their numbers significantly." What, just so they can be put back on the endangered list? What in the goddamn hell is wrong with you people?? We just about wiped them out once before, and now you want to do it again? What other species should we exterminate methodically? I propose new legislation: we hunt every backwards-hick hunter that goes after wolves, especially those that do so illegally.

Here's something else that bugs me: religious jerkwads. I've met plenty of nice religious people. One of my best friends here at college is a staunchly conservative Christian (we're constantly poking fun at each other's choices for candidates and such; he loves Huckabee and detests Obama, and vice versa.) But this is the kind of thing that just makes my eye twitch:


And this is how Baptists want Christians to be seen? If you oppose our views or actions (not unlike how they oppose other religions and lifestyles, hm...), we'll pray for God to smite thee? What kind of butt-backwards Christianity are they practicing, anyway? I mean, come on. This is like, fulfilling every single stereotype of Christians, southerners, and Southern Baptists all in one. For crying out loud, it's Christ we're talking about! He asked God to forgive the people who killed him! You can't pray to God to bring harm upon anyone, even an evil person. We are to love even those who would hurt us, no? This prevailing attitude is definitely one reason I don't consider myself Christian anymore, apart from the whole "you're gay and going to hell, repent now, deny who you are, don't love a man, and force yourself to live a lifestyle of lonely misery that usually leads to suicide."

This, however, is more like it:


If you want to win someone over to your faith, you don't force them, lie to them, or emphasize what you're against. I mean, what you expect telling me that I'm going to hell unless I leave the man I love and lead a "straight" life is going to win me over? Fat chance. Stop being hateful jerkwads that try and use the Bible to justify your misogynist, homophobic, or racist beliefs and saying why everyone else is beneath you and going to Hell, and start showing the compassion of Christ. I'm looking at you, Focus on the Family. Man, if someone could give me just 5 minutes in a room with a baseball bat and James Dobson, the man behind that wonderful little group, I'd be eternally grateful.

It's why I like a book I read recently called "unChristian." It's by a team of Christians who used both scientific surveys and anecdotal interviews to research how different age groups and groups, including Christians and non-believers, see them. It goes into great detail about several of the biggest labels (anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, etc.), why people see Christians that way, why it's often deserved, and what can be done to change it. I didn't always agree with him, of course, but the overall message was like a refreshing breeze; it gave me hope, for the first time in a long time, that maybe all the hate and bigotry would disappear. That maybe we can just learn to respect each other as human beings and let each other live our own lives without interference.

Then of course, it gets thrown in the can when I see the Westboro crazies trying to picket the funerals of students from the NIU shooting, and churches doing absolutely nothing to stop them.

Not to mention how I'm reading that homeschooling is "completely illegal" in California. I suspected an underhanded twist, and I was right. It's only illegal if the parents aren't credited and registered, and even then, it's not in effect yet, and is being contested. I was urged to sign a petition to stop this, but before I did, I researched the group advocating it. Want to know what I found? That's right: a "non-biased" advocacy group run by Christians that also advocate hard for traditional marriage to be permanently etched into law. Why does it seem that EVERY Christian organization, even if it's not remotely related to the issue, MUST take a hardline stance on gay marriage and become obsessively vocal about it? It disgusts me so much that I end up not wanting to support them, even if their ultimate goal is similar to mine. I haven't donated to the Salvation Army since they fired every homosexual and non-Christian they could, and it's frustrating, because it's like I'm being purposefully slapped in the face even as I want and try to support them. So they basically spit in my face, even though I support them (if I have children, they'll be homeschooled; I wanna save them the bigotry they'd face for having gay parents)... so I'm not signing the petition on principal.

I just don't get why other people get to tell me what I can and can't do based on a religion I don't believe in, when it's pointless anyways? Why make my life more miserable? I'll be gay whether or not I can marry. Give me my secular rights, treat me with dignity and respect I deserve as a human being, and let God sort me out. It's His call anyways, innit? Render unto Caesar...

I remain ever hopeful, though, that things can work out. I feel like a veteran coming home from a long war. I'm sick of the fighting, the arguing, and all the bigotry and hate on both sides. It makes me want to move to a remote island just to get away from this place. I'll stay in the U.S. as long as I feel welcome, and I'm hoping attitudes change, but who knows.

You know what else bugs me? Campers. Not the kind in tents, but the kind in video games that stay in one spot. Why? Because they lack the skill to play the game as it was meant to be played (moving around), so they have to sit in a corner and shoot at everyone else. Everything I've seen in COD4 supports this: when a person camps, they'll do well, but put them in a map where there no good camping spots, and they'll do terribly. This isn't sniping, mind, because that's what you have to do in sniping. I'm talking about people just perched in a corner, waiting for someone to try and run past or toward them.

Also on the subject of games, specifically MahMorpAhGahs (MMORPGs): grinds. I hate them. Very much. I love playing the games, and the community aspect, but grinding nonstop for days and days and days? It's just not fun. Which is why I'm excited for All Points Bulletin, a cops v. robbers MMO coming from the guys who made Crackdown. Deep character customization, no leveling or grinding, and lots of interaction with other people? Count me in. I am looking forward to designing my character's tattoos and shirt designs!

I'd also like to take a potshot at licensed games. Seriously though, what the hell? How can you take a great show or movie, with set characters and a well-defined world, and then muck it up so badly? In this case, I'm talking about the game Lost: Via Domus. As a fan of the show, I got excited by the premise. And as licensed games go, it's rather good. They had some of the official actors do the voices, they had high production values and pretty good graphics, and an intriguing plot. But they squandered all that on spotty voice imitators (Sawyer and Locke sound horrifically bad), an infuriatingly lackluster ending, boring "step-and-fetch-it" gameplay, and took several great ideas (a barter system, fr example) and then kill the balance by making it too hard to get money for the first half of the game and too easy in the second. What's that about? It screams "they rushed me out the door and axed half my features."

Lastly, how about a rant about Top Chef? I usually like that show, but watching it last night with my mother, they spent like two minutes on this reveal about how two of the contestants weren't just lesbians, but actually a couple, and they "came out" to everyone else. For one, I'm angry at them for how awkward that made it between my mother and I. Here we are, trying hard not to bring up my sexuality for discussion, and we get slapped in the face with it. But what really makes me mad is how they handled it. Before, they never made a deal out of it, which is how I like it. Yes, people are gay. So what, ya know? Unless it's central to the plot of a movie or show, there's no reason to make a huge fuss about it, instead of just treating it naturally; usually it just came up without much ado sometime during the show, and at casual mention. But no, now they instead parade it around like a freak show, saying, "SEE?! LOOK!! LESBIANS!! OMG!!" I'm sorry, I'm not a freak, and I don't think our lives should be treated like some sort of "avant garde" exhibit, robbing us of our dignity.

Anyways, there we go. Congrats! You made it through my entire rant. :D Now... who wants cake?! *dishes some up for whoever actually reads this whole post*

EDIT: Just came across this. I'm just... I can't even say anything about it. I'm too furious and too hurt for words. Just see what y'all think...

Rep. Kern's Recent Speech

I agree about the wolf thing, after we save them we turn around and hunt them? I don't [censored]' think so! I think we should turn the gun on those legislative [censored] and everyone that DOES hunt the wolf and hunt THEM instead! I think HUMANS are outnumbering everything else and we should thin OUR numbers instead.

:shock:


*bows down to you*

I love you. You've summed up some of my frustrations and slapped people in the face with it.

<3!!!!!!!!!!!

I absolutely agree. Our numbers are getting rather out of hand, especially in America, China, and other such countries. As for the religious jerkwads, Here here! I fully agree with you on all points, Kinuki.

On a side note, and sorry I didn't notice it before, great new av.

*wry grin* I don't think we'll be outnumbering some things for, well, ever (most varieties of bugs come to mind really easily :P). The wolf thing is ridiculous, but, like Kinuki says, it's because the people involved are lazy, and often not that bright. I'm a bit sympathetic to them risking their livelihoods, but wolves tend to get blamed for problems they are obviously not the cause of, and it's not all that difficult to make getting to livestock (for instance) hard enough that the wolves don't consider it worth the effort. And I'm going to disagree that the human population is out of hand. Some people are better stewards of the Earth than others (to bring my religion in on this thing ;)), but most parts of the world (including the US) isn't really in any position to need population control. China, well, they're doing it already, so they must feel the need for it.

As much as the religious jerks bother you, Kinuki, they bother the religious too. If you're a Christian, you've got to deal with most of the non-Christians (Atheists in particular are just plain mean) and with the "Christian" groups espousing particularly un-Christian values and generally making you want to violate some commandments on them. Westboro, for instance, is a horrifying embarrassment, and I'm sort of glad that I don't have to see them around...I'd probably end up in a fight when I try to beat sense into them with their own protest signs. *sigh* But my views on the topic are probably as well known as yours by now.

What you're dealing with on Top Chef is something that irritates me as well. There's a strong current of exhibitionism in the GLBT community, and when it's coupled with the freakish desire some people have to point out how non-sexist, non-racist, non-homophobic, et al. they are, it produces terrible spectacles which just alienates virtually everyone else. Besides, the media loves a spectacle, and the more train-wreck like, the better, since they figure people won't be able to look away. At one point in time (heck, it's been during my lifetime), having celebrities publicly "out" themselves contributed to the acceptance of the lifestyle (I believe I first decided gays were okay folks when the lead signer of REM came out in the '90s). But at this stage, it's just an obnoxious grab for attention. It demonstrates the childishness, the adolescence of the movement. "Everything needs to be about me!" If the goal of the GLBT movement is to have their lifestyle accepted as something "normal" and they just want to live "normal" lives without people acting "weird" around them, it'd contribute greatly to that goal if there'd be an effort put into living like normal human beings rather than constantly trying to draw attention to how different they are.

But that's a difference between our generation and the generation before us and the generation before them. We are considered to be the most tolerant and "blind" (in a good way) generation yet. But the leadership of the various movements is not having a good time -- while they've largely won the war (this is less true for the GLBT folk specifically, but their remaining fight is different than the one they've been waging), they can't handle suddenly being totally unimportant. (Re: Hillary's very questionable decision to bring Gloria Steinem in during the Democratic primaries here in the US).

For you, you want to just live a quiet, accepted, normal life. The generation ahead of you is actually working at opposite aims: they're still loudly screaming, "Gay people exist! They're not all perverts! Or at least they wouldn't be if you people weren't so intolerant!" But that battle's been fought, and won. It's time to focus on the low level acceptance of the lifestyle -- that gays are people, just like anyone else, and they want to love and be loved, just like anyone else.

A very quick summary of my opinions on this.
1. We need to thin out the Human population (honestly, it'd solve a lot of problems if people stopped have so much goddamn sex).

2. Don't pay religion any mind. Ahem... 'God loves everyone; especially the deviants.' There. With just as much authority as any religion in the world, I've proved that God loves everyone.

3. Camping is a touchy issue. In most cases, it's lame, but if it ends up being something like 4v1, then I can accept camping from the lone player assuming it's a short match (I usually see it in Rainbow Six 3, so the matches are pretty short).

My opinion now!!

1] With the human population business... I don't think that's going to be something controlable. Well, maybe. If people start raising their kids with COMMON SENSE AND DICIPLINE.

2] Religion.... I agree with Sable Dove.

3] Camping is entertaining when there's only 3 people in game TOTAL. xD Especially when you're me. I camped in COD4 while my 2 friends came after me. "THIS IS MY HOUSE. GET OUT" *blam* ^_____^
Otherwise, yea. It does suck.

1. No. Sex good. You bad.

2. /eyeroll

3. Camping = t3hPWN@g3333!!!!!111oneonelolbbqsauceeleven

As I always say... A good player never dies to a camper in the same spot twice. ;)

Let's face it, People are idiots and tend to follow a herd like a sheep, because simply most people can't think for themselves and by forcing people your own views on why they shouldn't do such and such, just makes you no more worse than a jenova's witness, for an example. The only way for people to understand is to grow into the "weirdness" and learn what is wrong and right ourselves.

So by my standards, I find human society is already f'ed, unless we -ALL-learn to take a punch to face for no apparent reason and say "It was my fault that you punched me and hope we can still be friends."

Exactly. I find it truly distressing when people know more about what we Christians are against than what we're for.

Some relevant verses:

Mathew 23:13 (and others) -- Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying too...you give a tenth of your spices...but you have neglected the more important matters of the law -- justice, mercy, and faithfulness...you are clean on the outside, but inside you are full of greed and sulf-indulgence...and everything unclean, hypocrocy and wickidness...You snakes! You brood of vipers!...

Mathew 6:7 -- Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Isaiah 29:13 -- These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Some of you may have skipped over those, but let me give the strongest commandment that Bible gives. It's in Mark 12:31, and it states that the second most important commandment in the Bible is to love your neighbor as yourself (the first being loving God). What these so called churches are doing -- these hypocrites -- is breaking a commandment of God, and making the rest of us look bad in the process. People hear of things like this, and they assume all Christ followers are like this. I don't consider homosexuals (or anyone, for that matter) worse than me (quite the opposite, actually).

Sure, homosexuality is a sin (see Leviticus and Romans 12), but so are slander, hypocrocy, anger, hate, and many other things we're all (epically me) are guilty of. God doesn't weigh one sin more heavily than other (James 2:10), so neither should we. As far as I'm concerned, being gay is no worse a sin than being prideful (of which I have been guilty of on many an occasion).

Also, on behalf of all the silent Christ followers out there, I just want to apologize for these kinds of things. Some of us have given up reason and basic reading skills to seek after our own personal agendas. Some of us are actually halfway decent folk, if you give us a chance.

Thanks for the comments, all.

Insomniac: Thanks, I'm glad this avatar's been so well-received. ^^

avwolf: Wondered when you'd come by. ;) I agree whole-heartedly with most everything you say. Just thought I'd share a few further thoughts on what ya said.

Be mindful of why atheists can be mean (after all, not all atheists, agnostics, or deists are mean); they're often regarded as immoral humanists who care only about themselves, are untrustworthy, etc. I certainly don't condone all the nonsense of lawsuits over every mention of God, but in instances where it truly is without warrant (the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, the phrase Under God in the pledge, etc.) then I don't disagree. But that's another debate for another time. XD

As for the show Top Chef, it wasn't as much the contestants making a big deal out of it as the show. Reality shows love to carefully edit things together to make them more dramatic and confrontational or such then they really are, and I suspect that the two contestants were coming clean that they knew each other, rather than grasping for attention; it's the reality show that edited in people's reactions and had them comment on it later, their impressions of it all, etc.

The one instance though where I believe the GLBT community is allowed some exhibitionism is in pride. When you're made to feel inferior much of your life because of an uncontrollable aspect of your life, you end up using that identifying characteristic to define yourself. You see it a lot in history for various ethnic and cultural groups. Psychologically speaking, taking pride in yourself for something others deride is one of the most common methods of coping.

I know that sometime in my future I plan on wearing some sort of a gay pride identifier, something adorned with a rainbow or something. Is this bad? I don't think so, no moreso than wearing a jersey of your favorite sports team, or, really when you think about it, wearing a cross. It symbolizes the same thing: not just pride in that fact, but also comfort in openly expressing how you identify yourself.

I'd only consider it bad if a person's being confrontational over it or something, or it's made into a huge deal, or something, you know?

I do want a normal, quiet life, of course. But I also want a life full of change. During my lifetime, I want to evoke the changes that I wish to be brought about. Whether I'll do so through my dream of writing, or by being directly involved (I've dreamed of participating in a March on Washington for gays, something akin to MLKJ's), I don't know. I just want to make the world a better place so that, well, quite frankly, so that no one has to go through what I have with my family, and that gays can be fully equal members of society. I would love for our children to lok back on this era and wonder why anyone ever cared about race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Although, I do plan on burning Focus on the Family to the ground, but that's another matter entirely... :)

Ryusen: A good post, thanks for sharing. That's a great quote from Matthew, and one I wish more people heard or took seriously. While I may not agree on whether it's a sin or not, I think you make a valid point: if homosexuality's a sin, then it's a sin like any other, no worse than any other, and the people who commit it deserve no more ire or ill will than any other sinner. After all, how many times do you see people being judged if they're divorced?

Well you summed up a few of the world's problems very well. On a subjective level, I despise hunting too. Of any animal, but since I respect and admire wolves, I guess I'm biased to disdain the hunting of them more than other animals. And being agnostic, of course I don't like seeing politics and religion combined.

On the subject of gays and lesbians, I have a mixed opinion. I certainly have nothing against it, so don't start thinking I'm one of the people, I have a couple of very close friends who are anything but straight. My only issue is with the ones who enjoy making a big deal out of it, repeatedly. "Hey! Look at me! I'm gay and it's ok! Everybody respect my gayness!" Those people. I don't run around screaming about how incredibly straight I am, and ask for people to respect my sexuality. I don't think homosexual people need to do so either. It's almost a decade into the 21st century, most people by now will respect your personal choices and not discriminate. Live your life in peace and modesty and everything is a lot easier, in my humble opinion. **Edit** In all fairness, because I realize I might be sending a point across not intended - I have nothing against gay pride parades. Those I just see as something that happens infrequently to remind the general public that there's nothing wrong with homosexuality. Now, say they happened *every day* in the same place to get the point across, that would tick me off. It's repetitive and unnecessary displays of sexuality (or really anything for that matter) that irk me. Hell, I'm in the Army, and we parade our pretty uniforms around towns all the time. So please nobody think I was doing any bashing on the subject of gay parades.

So on a personal level, I agree with most things ranted here (I guess I can't technically agree on the videogame part, because I don't play any). Problem is, this world is full of problems and people who want to perpetuate them instead of solve them; because those people don't see them as problems. Only people like you and me see hunting wolves as a problem, a lot of other people don't, so there's the conflict which can't be easily solved without taking the issue to a very high political level. I guess I'm really just saying it's easier to live with and accept problems like this. It's not enjoyable to do so, but if we can't solve it ourselves or by our actions then we're not doing anything except stressing over something which we can't fix.

Well, imagine my surprise when I came into work and Kinuki had a full page rant up. It took me a bit to get through it without completely ignoring my other responsibilities. :P

Pride is fair enough, provided that the ability to hold a public parade espousing your beliefs and identity is not reserved solely for, say, minority beliefs. I certainly won't blame you for wearing a rainbow or whatever; I've got a shamrock earring in right now to signify my support of drinking heavily. ;) I agree with you: it shouldn't be an issue unless it's used for generating confrontations (and that's the intent of the item -- if some idiot gets upset because you're wearing say a T-Shirt that says, "I Taught Your Boyfriend That Thing You Like," and starts something then that's their problem, not yours). Pride parades are a hair iffier propositions, but if they're within reason (i.e. "an all ages show") I'm not really opposed to that sort of thing. Things like the Folsom Street Fair (which is effectively a celebration of deviant exhibitionism) is far more questionable in my mind. To wit, I'm in support of keeping the public (the government) out of your bedroom, but I'd also like it if you kept your bedroom out of my public. :P

You're also totally right about the show. Like I said, the media loves a spectacle. I should have added that they'll make one up if they have to sometimes.

Sometimes change is necessary for a quiet life. ;)

I'm going to admit right now that I only skimmed the rant and a few of the replies. I feel lazy today, and I just don't get as enthusiastic about debating the same thing for 10 pages anymore. However, I would like to offer a few points. First, the wolf thing sucks. People need to stop hunting them, outright. I personally think the government just needs to ban hunting certain animals.
As for religion... it's been said. Over, and over, and over, and, well, you see where I'm going. I would never deny your right to rant, but that gets to be a very old topic. And lastly, on camping. It sucks, UNLESS... you're defending. Then it's legitimate strategy. Or if you're a sniper, then you have a take time, though a good sniper will relocate to avoid detection after a shot.