Have a seat by the fire, relax and read the wisom of the ages.

Surfing FARK, as I am wont to do, I happened across this little gem and I had to share.  Apparently, some lady took exception to something Dan Savage said in a radio interview with a woman who lost her son thanks to the increasing numbers of children being bullied by heartless kids who focus on their sexual affiliation.  It seems gay kids are getting it hard from the anti-gay movement, and some of them react badly and kill themselves. Now, I must say that I am inclined to think there are more issues at work than than the bullying.  It's an incredibly complex situation and no one truly knows why some people are capable of taking the abuse while others cannot.  Having been in the suicidal situation many years ago, I think I can say with an informed opinion that the reason usually comes from many sources.  Life at that age is hard, and anyone who makes it out alive with all the social bullshit has my admiration.

Personal experiences aside, however, I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it must be to be a teenager in today's age of non-tolerance, where a fundamental part of one's identity is attacked and derided at school, at home, and on national television.  There's an entire segment of our population that rejects these teens because of who they love, and I find that sick and of the most hideous kind of bigotry.  I cannot imaging being a teen having to deal with issues like this at a time when wearing the wrong thing has terrible repercussions, much less choosing the wrong person to fall for.  I do believe this is a legitimate problem.  Dan Savage's reply to the lady's letter summarized, I think, many of the reasons it behooves parents to stop schooling their kids in the art of anti-gay bigotry and try to teach them tolerance.  Unfortunately, tolerance is not in the vocabulary for far too many people out there who think their opinions should be shoved down the throats of anyone who disagrees with them.  Hence, while I think Dan was responding more to the issue than the lady's specific letter, I think it was a fantastic opinion piece and am displaying it here.

The letter:
I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and I heard your interview with Beth McDonald. I have been thinking about it a lot since then and I feel compelled to share my thoughts with you. I was saddened and frustrated with your comments regarding people of faith and their perpetuation of bulling. As someone who loves the Lord and does not support gay marriage I can honestly say I was heartbroken to hear about the young man that took his own life after being humiliated by people who should have known better. I think you need to be aware of your own prejuduces and how they might play into your thinking. At best I think your comments were hypocritical.

If your message is that we should not judge people based on their sexual preferance, how do you justify judging entire groups of people for any other reason (including their faith)? There is no part of me that took any pleasure in what happened to that young man and I know for a fact that is true of many other people who disagree with your viewpoint. Please be aware that your words are powerful and people are listening to you.

To that end, to imply that I would somehow encourage my children to mock, hurt, or intimidate another person for any reason is completely unfounded and offensive. Being a follower of Christ is, above all things, a recognition that we are imperfect, fallible and in desperate need of a savior. We cannot believe that we are better or more worthy than other people. I have never in my life know someone who loved the Lord who wished ill will on other people and certainly not death "so that [we] can perpetuate [our own] agenda."

Please consider your viewpoint and please be more careful with your words in the future.

L. R.

I Am A: Neutral Good Human Wizard/Sorcerer (3rd/3rd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-9

Dexterity-10

Constitution-10

Intelligence-18

Wisdom-14

Charisma-11


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Okay, so I've been reading Fanfiction as of late in hopes of inspiring myself to finish Legacy of Merlin.  I was horribly scarred by Half Blood Prince to the point that I refuse to read the final book, and have decided to immerse myself in the AU world of Harry Potter where things make some semblance of sense.  On Portkey.org, a Harry/Hermione website, I found a great author who put a fantastic quote in her author note that described perfectly one of the issues I had with Goblet of Fire and JKR in general.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure...

"in canon, it is so wrong that simply after going to the Yule Ball together and afterwards spending basically no time together, Hermione has suddenly become what Viktor would miss most in the world.   It is simply not realistic to imagine that V/Hr became that serious so quickly when Hermione spent most of the time between the Yule Ball and the 2nd task helping Harry research for the 2nd task—but then again, JKR’s already proven many times over that she wouldn’t recognize a truly meaningful relationship if it came up and bit her on the arse…"

Oh yeah, baby, I am so there with her.  I don't know what kind of relationships she has had, but its not sounding like they were remotely good if her stories are any indication.  I could again rant about how stupid it is to put Hermione with Ron, seeing as they fight worse than I did with the popular girls in high school, but I'm sure you've all heard it and I'll restrain myself.

Anyway, just figured I would share.  If you like H/Hr, check Portkey out.  It's like the last bastion of Harmony shippers and we're a stubborn lot.

Mom sent me this and I just had to respond:

It seems a bit high-strung Republican alarmist to me, but since you guys are all running around screaming "the sky is falling", I should not be surprised.  I highly doubt this is intended to be permanent, like the wartime tax hikes of the last century, but his proposal is not realistic either.  Like jail, I suspect this tax hike is supposed to be a deterrent for the other companies to find another way to retain "the best and the brightest".  I think it's alarmist in the extreme to assume the only people willing to take top jobs are "D-minus students" and a sign of how disconnected from reality the financial people have become.

A bonus of $250,000 in one year is more than the combined AVERAGE INCOME of four households in the US.  Not a lot of people are going to sneeze at that, and the ones that are probably don't need to be running these companies since their uncontrolled greed is a large contributor to this mess to begin with.  I am in no way, shape, or form a "D-minus" student, and believe me when I say that I would be more than willing to have that type of bonus combined with the less than HALF the average salary of millions of dollars (http://www.ips-dc.org/getfile.php?id=262).   People really have no concept of how much money a million dollars is, but you can add it up:  I could, for example, pay off my house almost 6 times over, or take 100 trips around the world with the assumed cost of 10k each, buy 100 of the most bad ass computers I can configure with Alienware, purchase 3 2009 Lamborghini Murcielago, and not have to work a day for the rest of my life.  And the list goes on...

So, the other day, Rush Limbaugh, who can protest all day long that he's not the Republican mouth-piece, decided to continue his blasting of anything Liberal and specifically President Obama.  He had the audacity to state "I hope he fails" while ranting against the "drive by media" and the damned Liberals (link).  What the FUCK is wrong with these people?

You know, I understand that the whack jobs from both sides of the fence are flaming assholes with no real grasp of reality by any stretch of the imagination.  These guys think that Obama will be able to wave his magic wand and fix everything in 3 days, while the other side thinks he is the spawn of Satan.  These are the same people that were freaking about about his middle name and cheering when Sarah Palin called him a terrorist.  On the other side, however, you have the people who want to throw money down the tubes without any real concept of what they are doing, and who worship the ground Obama walks on, thinking he will be able to give us unicorns to ride to work and rainbows to live under.  They all make me weep for the future that there are really that many stupid people in this country.  

But what the fuck kind of asshole do you have to be to hope that the President of the United States FAILS at making things better?  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t agree with this massive stimulus package thing.  I was against the first one.  I was against bailing out the auto companies.  And I think this one is not the best idea either.  Admittedly, I understand why they are doing it, but I wish there was a better solution.  The problem is that a lot of this all boils down to votes.  The Republitards are trying to appeal to their right-wing, whack job constituency by preaching Socialism and the fall of America as a result of supporting Obama.  The Libtards are screaming that this is the only way to save America and that Obama will succeed because he can walk on water and turn that same water into wine.  Both have the blind faith of clueless morons unable to think for themselves and see that the answer does not lie in either direction.