I wanted to spend a few minutes with a quick rant about the goings on on the West Coast these days. If you aren't familiar with what has happened there, someone in a fit of Christian zeal stole a sign that read, and I paraphrase, that you should be nice during the season for the sake of being nice, that there were no heaven or hell, no gods or devils, and that religion promoted closed minds and ignorance.
Fair enough. I might not agree with this sign, but in the United States of America, they have a right to post it.
The mainstream media, including the LIBERAL CNN, or as it is referred, put a massive spin campaign on this story. Headlines on their website read things like "atheist sign ripped from nativity scene" and "atheist sign taken from nativity scene found in Washington state." Please.
First of all, I'm not going to give you any links to this story. I'm not even going to quote the story. I'm simply going to bitch about it. Why? Because it's not the story that infuriated me. It's the attitude behind it.
But first let me get something out of the way. This sign was not taken from a nativity scene. It was taken from a holiday display, you know that sort of thing that is supposed to be a safe display for ALL beliefs, or lack thereof. The headlines should have read something like "atheist sign removed from holiday display." But those idiots at CNN, who do as many others, continue to promote the belief that atheists and homosexuals are out to destroy your very soul and want you to be infuriated. Therefore, they make the reader think that some handjob came along and plopped a sign down onto a private nativity scene, leaving it as an insult to all believers in Christianity.
It was not that way. The sign did not attack Christianity. It attacked all religions that believe in demons and angels, heaven and hell. Christianity does not have the monopoly here.
Back to attitude. First of all, I am not an atheist. However, the actions of many "christians" are beginning to force me that way. Whatever happened to lead by example? Again this nasty concept comes up. And whatever happened, as one CNN article had the guts to point out, to "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL?" Lost in the tarnish, I guess.
There seems to be this attitude out there that Atheists, Homosexuals, and abortion advocates are out to destroy your soul. They are like Al-Quaeda, existing in sleeper cells in our community, ready to bomb us into submission. Or perhaps that child pervert who lives in the perfectly manicured house who stares at your pre-teen daughter through the window as she walks home from school. They are in our schools, preaching something to our children that will lead them down the path to hell. Evolution, Homosexuality, Depravity, Abortion, Atheism. All heathens.
This is the United States of America, the land of opportunity, the land of the free, where you have freedom of religion, and more importantly, freedom FROM religion.
Yet some people think that if we have a majority of believers, hell with all the others, let's burn them at the stake because they don't believe what we believe. After all, it is a democracy, and majority rules.
No, not quite.
In this country we are supposed to protect and defend the rights of the minority. That is what makes this country great. And don't give me that crap about majority ruling in an election, because that's voting and politics. Respecting one's right to not believe in God and to place a sign up in a holiday display is cultural. And if you believe that culture is politics, then you follow nationalism, and you've got a bigger problem on your hands. You might as well throw a swastika on your arm and learn to goosestep. And please for the love of god learn the difference between nationalism and patriotism -- that's another post.
As for the homosexual/atheist/abortionist invasion, I think if these members of the right who spent all this time trying to stall the rights of, fight or take away the rights of, or even murder (through bombing of clinics) human beings, would spend more time in charity, at a food bank, building houses for habitat, giving out birth control, or just being damn sensible, this world would be a better place.
But I guess we should smack the cheek of our neighbor when he smacks us. Hell that's what Jesus said, is it not? I have a strong sense of deja vu here. No, it's not me being redundant. It's the simple fact that this idiocy keeps cropping up.
As for schools and society, are Christians so afraid that their beliefs are without merit to the degree that someone reading a book about a child having two mommies will lose their soul to Satan? This is a conversation I have often with my wife, who, as you know, is a card-carrying Atheist. I'm proud of her and her stand. She's the most Christian person I know, being nice simply because she wants to be nice and not because she thinks she should. I may not agree with her stand on the existence of God, but her soul, as innocent as it is, is blessed, in my opinion. But if it even were a question of tolerance, her soul is her own, and is therefore her responsibility. I can answer her questions of WHY I believe what I believe if she asks, but I will not force my beliefs on her, as I do not wish her to do to me. I can not save her soul for her. To be honest, I don't even know if she has a soul to save simply because she's the best one I know. You idiots out there who give me crap about how nice souls will go to hell anyway can just shut the hell up. I've seen too many of you who say the magic words and then step on the backs of the downtrodden. Yours are the souls who will burn. Not the pure ones. Is this just my twisted belief? Maybe. But I believe in a loving and forgiving God. Not one who stands at the door and lets anyone into the club who has a stamp, no matter where they were stamped.
I do, feel at times that I believe that the club's doors are locked forever. And no, it isn't her evil influence causing this. It's yours.
But back to the point. I have confidence in my son that as I show him how to live properly, how to be charitable, respect his neighbor's opinions, not to judge PREMATURELY, and just overall be a humanistic HUMAN BEING, that no matter what he is subjected to (e.g. drugs, unprotected sex, alcohol, tobacco, nationalism, porn, etc.), he will come out on top and safe. I'm not worried about any slippery slopes because I know that through seeing how I live my own life he will live his. So let him see people smoke. Let him know about drugs and sex and unwanted pregnancies. If I actually educate him about these things, he won't do them. If I stuff them into a closet, he will.
I won't waste my time on homosexuality, atheism, or signs that should have been left where they were. I'm not afraid. Are you?
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
OH LIFE, HOW BEAUTIFUL
I thought you guys might like this picture. We took it back in the Summer. You can see it is a road sign located in Sollway, in Knox County, Tennessee, right before the bridge on Highway 62 into Oak Ridge. It was originally spotted by my wife and I went back later to take the picture. The picture is copyrighted and cannot be used without my permission. Enjoy how ironic life can be.
Monday, October 06, 2008
RANTS AND RELAXATION
Well, my happy readers, I've been hiding in a cave for almost a year now, but it seems I need to stick my head out into the noonday sun once again, not because I've been destined to blow my top, but because I had a discussion with someone close to me recently who, surprisingly, told me he still checked my blog daily to see what I was going to write about. After one year, checking daily, I must admit I felt somewhat ashamed. So, with El Destructor in bed, I feel it my obligation to continue this rambling paragraph as best I can, and hopefully find something of note to utter somewhere in-between.
First things first. The past year has had its ups and downs. We're all still alive, we're all in relatively good health, the wife's job is going well, I'm trying to get work done on a novel, yada yada yippity doo and there that's done.
I recently took up drawing as well and have discovered I have quite a talent for it. Here are a few examples:
This is my picture titled "Sayi." I drew this from a picture of a lady's eyes that I had for some time. The eyes seemed to tell a story to me, and as I drew the eyes, I added the headwear. The picture, of course, means something to me, but what is most important is what it means to you.
I love pictures of dancers, and this was my first attempt at putting a dancer on paper. I wish I knew how to rotate the picture so that you can see it properly. Maybe one of the readers will be gracious enough to point out how to do that and I will fix it. As expected, both these pictures are my property, and as such fall under the copyright laws of the United States.
I have many more drawings completed and maybe someday I'll post some more.
I like to draw as much as I can. It seems to be a sort of meditative exercise for me, clearing away all the mental chatter and twisted emotions that can run rampant through my mind and body. It brings me a sense of calm, refreshes me, and gives me strength and will to return to the stress of daily life.
Stress, for example, caused when the reverend John Hagee decided to speak out against stay-at-home dads. That one really got to me, obviously. I kept the feelings inside, bottled up, until I could draw or write, and the emotions eased away, but I still had a desire to give that man a piece of my mind.
Mr. (and I say Mr. because whatever respect I would have had for this man as a minister is GONE) Hagee said: "...for others it's laziness. you are too lazy to work and support your children. I'm talking about men. You call yourself Mr. Mom, God calls you a Bum. St. Paul says you are worse than an infidel. Let me look you right in the eye and tell you that hell is your future home. If all you do is sit on your backside and let your wife support you in your life."
They had the verse of 1 Timothy 5:8 flashed on the screen, so i decided to look it up and see what it said.
From the Holy Bible, NIV, 1 Timothy, 5:8:
"You should provide for your relatives. Most of all, you should take care of your own family. If you don't, you have left the faith. You are worse than those who don't believe."
Yeah, sounds scary. But then I noticed that it didn't say a thing about working outside the home. It says "those who don't provide". To me, that's a dead-beat dad. That isn't a stay-at-home dad. Is there a difference? Well, I decided to write a little letter to John Hagee.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Captain Fatbody
Google Blogger
fatbody.blogspot.com
Mr. John Hagee
False Minister and False Prophet
Some Kooky Church
Some Kooky City and State
Regretfully, in the U.S.A.
Mr. Hagee:
I recently heard your description of a stay-at-home dad as being lazy, a bum in God's eyes, when I saw a clip of your wonderful evangelical program on the internet. I felt I needed to respond, despite the response falling on deaf ears, to these horrible allegations.
First of all, I feel you may have misrepresented the Bible verse. According to 1 Timothy 5:8 it is a man who does not provide for his family that is destined for hell, not a man who provides for his family by providing through work at home. Surely, we must have some confusion over the definition of provide , so I decided to help you out a bit.
While it is clear to me that one as experienced as yourself in the ways of marriage would find great understanding of the relationship between a husband and wife and their roles as providers in the household, I feel that perhaps your first wife could have given some pointers to you about some things that, just maybe, you didn't realize.
First of all, to say that a stay-at-home dad is a bum is to say a stay-at-home mom is a bum. Both perform the same actions, and to not respect the work of the former is to not respect the work of the latter. As implied by your discussion, a good mother is one who stays at home, so therefore, in your words, the work of all mothers is lazy, and all mothers are bums in the eyes of God. I'm sure the sudden absence of your first wife would have given you a slight indication of the error in your judgment, had you not been blinded by your own pride and self-righteousness.
It is obvious that you have no understanding of the work that a stay-at-home parent performs, whether it is a stay-at-home father or a stay-at-home mother.
A stay-at-home parent does not sit on his or her rear on the sofa all day eating cheesy-puffs and watching soaps in between loads of laundry. The work of a stay-at-home parent is not a 9 to 5 job. It is a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. When not sitting on the sofa eating cheesy-puffs, the stay-at-home parent is ensuring that your child is getting 3 or more nutritious meals per day; is helping him learn to read; is comforting her and taking care of her skinned knee; is taking him to the emergency room in the middle of the night when he has a 103 degree fever; is teaching her how to toilet train; is sitting up with him when he is sick, gladly shrugging off the vomit and excrement just so you can stroke his hair and help him feel better; is doing your dishes; is washing your clothes, is cleaning your toilet seat because you can't seem to not miss when you pee; is ironing your shirts, is taking your kids to school; is picking up your crap from the dry cleaner; is going to the grocery store and cooking your damn dinner and most importantly, is keeping his or her mouth shut when they listen to your misguided bitching about something that you know nothing about.
Who are you, sir, to demand of stay-at-home dads to repent from their ways and provide for their families? Only a drooling moron would not see the providing performed that I have mentioned, and, to use a cliche, that really is the tip of the iceberg.
And what of you, sir? What do you provide? Do you take all of your children to their baseball games? Do you have your picture made with them when they win first place on their debate teams? Did you build your daughter a dollhouse? Did you teach your older children to drive? Did you have an intelligent conversation with your children about how bad drugs can be? Did you even approach the topic of sex at all, or did you just hope it was covered in the child support check?
What kind of work do you do, sir? You stand behind a podium and bitch at people and make them afraid, so afraid that they give their blood, sweat, and tears to you in their tithes? Is that work? I know for a fact I could do that. Would you like to trade jobs with me? Trade your podium and narcissism for martyrdom and stinky poopie diapers?
If you'd ever really like to talk about this, as adults, my blog comments are always open.
Thank you very much and have a nice day.
Cap'n Fatbody
First things first. The past year has had its ups and downs. We're all still alive, we're all in relatively good health, the wife's job is going well, I'm trying to get work done on a novel, yada yada yippity doo and there that's done.
I recently took up drawing as well and have discovered I have quite a talent for it. Here are a few examples:
This is my picture titled "Sayi." I drew this from a picture of a lady's eyes that I had for some time. The eyes seemed to tell a story to me, and as I drew the eyes, I added the headwear. The picture, of course, means something to me, but what is most important is what it means to you.
I love pictures of dancers, and this was my first attempt at putting a dancer on paper. I wish I knew how to rotate the picture so that you can see it properly. Maybe one of the readers will be gracious enough to point out how to do that and I will fix it. As expected, both these pictures are my property, and as such fall under the copyright laws of the United States.
I have many more drawings completed and maybe someday I'll post some more.
I like to draw as much as I can. It seems to be a sort of meditative exercise for me, clearing away all the mental chatter and twisted emotions that can run rampant through my mind and body. It brings me a sense of calm, refreshes me, and gives me strength and will to return to the stress of daily life.
Stress, for example, caused when the reverend John Hagee decided to speak out against stay-at-home dads. That one really got to me, obviously. I kept the feelings inside, bottled up, until I could draw or write, and the emotions eased away, but I still had a desire to give that man a piece of my mind.
Mr. (and I say Mr. because whatever respect I would have had for this man as a minister is GONE) Hagee said: "...for others it's laziness. you are too lazy to work and support your children. I'm talking about men. You call yourself Mr. Mom, God calls you a Bum. St. Paul says you are worse than an infidel. Let me look you right in the eye and tell you that hell is your future home. If all you do is sit on your backside and let your wife support you in your life."
They had the verse of 1 Timothy 5:8 flashed on the screen, so i decided to look it up and see what it said.
From the Holy Bible, NIV, 1 Timothy, 5:8:
"You should provide for your relatives. Most of all, you should take care of your own family. If you don't, you have left the faith. You are worse than those who don't believe."
Yeah, sounds scary. But then I noticed that it didn't say a thing about working outside the home. It says "those who don't provide". To me, that's a dead-beat dad. That isn't a stay-at-home dad. Is there a difference? Well, I decided to write a little letter to John Hagee.
+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+
Captain Fatbody
Google Blogger
fatbody.blogspot.com
Mr. John Hagee
False Minister and False Prophet
Some Kooky Church
Some Kooky City and State
Regretfully, in the U.S.A.
Mr. Hagee:
I recently heard your description of a stay-at-home dad as being lazy, a bum in God's eyes, when I saw a clip of your wonderful evangelical program on the internet. I felt I needed to respond, despite the response falling on deaf ears, to these horrible allegations.
First of all, I feel you may have misrepresented the Bible verse. According to 1 Timothy 5:8 it is a man who does not provide for his family that is destined for hell, not a man who provides for his family by providing through work at home. Surely, we must have some confusion over the definition of provide , so I decided to help you out a bit.
While it is clear to me that one as experienced as yourself in the ways of marriage would find great understanding of the relationship between a husband and wife and their roles as providers in the household, I feel that perhaps your first wife could have given some pointers to you about some things that, just maybe, you didn't realize.
First of all, to say that a stay-at-home dad is a bum is to say a stay-at-home mom is a bum. Both perform the same actions, and to not respect the work of the former is to not respect the work of the latter. As implied by your discussion, a good mother is one who stays at home, so therefore, in your words, the work of all mothers is lazy, and all mothers are bums in the eyes of God. I'm sure the sudden absence of your first wife would have given you a slight indication of the error in your judgment, had you not been blinded by your own pride and self-righteousness.
It is obvious that you have no understanding of the work that a stay-at-home parent performs, whether it is a stay-at-home father or a stay-at-home mother.
A stay-at-home parent does not sit on his or her rear on the sofa all day eating cheesy-puffs and watching soaps in between loads of laundry. The work of a stay-at-home parent is not a 9 to 5 job. It is a 24 hour, 7 day a week job. When not sitting on the sofa eating cheesy-puffs, the stay-at-home parent is ensuring that your child is getting 3 or more nutritious meals per day; is helping him learn to read; is comforting her and taking care of her skinned knee; is taking him to the emergency room in the middle of the night when he has a 103 degree fever; is teaching her how to toilet train; is sitting up with him when he is sick, gladly shrugging off the vomit and excrement just so you can stroke his hair and help him feel better; is doing your dishes; is washing your clothes, is cleaning your toilet seat because you can't seem to not miss when you pee; is ironing your shirts, is taking your kids to school; is picking up your crap from the dry cleaner; is going to the grocery store and cooking your damn dinner and most importantly, is keeping his or her mouth shut when they listen to your misguided bitching about something that you know nothing about.
Who are you, sir, to demand of stay-at-home dads to repent from their ways and provide for their families? Only a drooling moron would not see the providing performed that I have mentioned, and, to use a cliche, that really is the tip of the iceberg.
And what of you, sir? What do you provide? Do you take all of your children to their baseball games? Do you have your picture made with them when they win first place on their debate teams? Did you build your daughter a dollhouse? Did you teach your older children to drive? Did you have an intelligent conversation with your children about how bad drugs can be? Did you even approach the topic of sex at all, or did you just hope it was covered in the child support check?
What kind of work do you do, sir? You stand behind a podium and bitch at people and make them afraid, so afraid that they give their blood, sweat, and tears to you in their tithes? Is that work? I know for a fact I could do that. Would you like to trade jobs with me? Trade your podium and narcissism for martyrdom and stinky poopie diapers?
If you'd ever really like to talk about this, as adults, my blog comments are always open.
Thank you very much and have a nice day.
Cap'n Fatbody
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