America, Land of the Offended

Alright, it takes a lot to offend me.  I’ve been called pretty much every name in the book and I can take the abuse mostly because I don’t LOOK to be offended.  Somehow, many other people do the opposite and are offended at the slightest hint at anything that can be remotely considered an insult.  Ugh.

It’s gotten so bad that I really don’t know what to say to anyone.  Everything needs to be qualified these days, especially since every subgroup of the population has found some sort of identity in what makes them unique, whether it be blacks, whites, gays, anti-gays, christians, etc.  I don’t know, I’ve always had a “live and let live” attitude toward most people, so long as you don’t “live” in my face and do your “living” in the privacy of your home.  No one cares about your ethnicity nor your lifestyle, religious beliefs, etc, etc, etc, unless you try to ram it down our throats.  But that’s another discussion for a different day.

Back to the Land of the Offended.  OK, let’s start with a hypothetical, but very real example.  I have a friend who’s Jewish.  If I refer to him/her as “a Jew”, is that considered offensive?  I take it, it IS, but I couldn’t for the life of me explain WHY.  Somehow, “they’re Jewish” vs. “he’s a Jew” walk some fine offensive scale and one tips the scale while the other doesn’t.

Another example is saying someone’s black.  Apparently the Political Correctness Committee has decided on this whole “African American” label, which is just absurd.  Of all the black people I know, none of them is from Africa, nor have they ever been there.  I’m proposing we then use the term: “AMERICAN African American” to denote those people who are really just Americans, but have the same color skin as those people from Africa who then may have migrated to the United States.  Yeah, silly idea, right?

You can’t even say “you’re gay” anymore, without pissing someone off.  Of course, gays, like all subgroups that have identified themselves as a separate group from the rest of the population, have taken their knocks and undue abuse.  Unfortunately that just comes with the territory, like the fat kid in school getting verbally/physically abused; it sucks, but the world ain’t gonna change and I don’t know what to do about it (and if you’re going to complain about my view, then YOU offer a solution).

I like to joke around, but it seems like everyone these days takes everything so freaking seriously that no one can see humour in anything and they just look to be offended.  Virtually anything you say can be taken the wrong way and very few people actually consider your intended message before taking on the defensive view.  Sure some jokes go way too far and certainly sometimes you say something unintentionally offensive, but jeez, can’t people approach things as adults and address the issue?

So, I’ll plod on and continue to joke around knowing that sooner or later someone will get upset and I’ll do the damage control as needed.  That said, I hope all you homos have a great Xmas.

Yes, that was a joke, except the Xmas part, which I hope offended someone.  Please let me know, although I’m SURE you will.

Prop 8 (Gay Marriage Ban) Passes…

Prop 8, for those of you living under rocks, was a recent ballot proposition in California to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex (I’ll call it “gay”, cuz it’s just clearer) marriage.  Basically, if you’re FOR gay marriage, you’d vote NO.  Understood?  Fine, but it goes much deeper.

Apparently for the California State Constitution, a simple majority of votes is enough to pass the amendment.  The people voted and by a slim margin, Prop 8 passed.  That is, NO gay marriage in California.  Way to go, guys, now the Constitution is a vehicle for discrimination AND the religious nuts had their say…. so much for Church and State being separate.

I’m not really sure how to interpret this whole issue or the outcome.  Simply stated, I’m all for any two, three or however many people that find love and security or whatever in one other’s lives to have the right to be together, live together or whatever.  If two women want to be together as a couple, fine by me (please send me video!!), and same for two men (I’ll pass on this video).  Really, I believe that two adults of whatever persuasion should have the same hospital visitation rights, tax breaks, health benefits, etc… as you or me or your neighbor and our respective spouses.  Jeez, what’s the problem?

Leave out sheep and/or children and definitely MY kids and I think that ‘consenting adults’ are big enough to make their own decisions about who they want to partner with, and they should reap the same ‘rewards’ the totally failed and ridiculous institution of marriage offers.  Sure, I AM a married person, but it’s a pathetically arcane institution and, in its present state, is a complete failure and it’s only going to get worse and worse, but that’s another entry.

So, Prop 8′s passing created a lot of heated debates and angry protests, as well it ought.  I mean, this whole idea of gay marriage is throwing a HUGE wrench inside the institution of marriage and, well, the dinosaurs aren’t just stepping aside.  The religious right are coming out in full force against gay marriage and, for now, have a small victory.

HOWEVER, the world is changing.  We have a black (or black-African or Black-American or American-African or whatever it’s called today) President, we’ll probably end up with a female Secretary of State (the lovely (ugh) Hillary Clinton) and it’s only a matter of time before there’s even more “allowable” diversity in America, so it’s just a matter of time before the pendulum swings the other way (no pun intended).  Life is too short to fight for something that’s bound to happen very soon, anyway, simply because the world IS changing.

So pack up your protest signs and spread love everywhere you can.  Let the religious freaks do their campaigning and let them develop ulcers; after all, they’re MUCH more worried than you about the outcome.  Just sit back and wait patiently and before you know it, some day soon we’ll all wake up in the proper century.

Everything Happens For… Thingies!

“Everything happens for a reason” is one of the silliest phrases I’ve ever heard.  Alright, fine, you’d like to think that every good thing that’s ever happened to you is part of some grand plan, but wake up; stuff just happens, good or bad.

Think about it; how would one go about proving that ‘everything happens for a reason’?  Picture two eggheads on a stage battling this out.  Forget that… let’s start with this statement, courtesy moi: “everything happens because thingies rule”.  Like it?…well, I do.  So now let’s prove it.  My proof is simple: thingies do rule and stuff does happen… therefore stuff happens because thingies rule…

Q.E.D.

Alright, my “proof” is a bit (read: majorly) flawed, but it’s just as flawed as the silly statement I set out to discredit, no?  Stuff just happens and you can apply any reason or no reason for its happening and stuff STILL just happens.

Let’s say your car battery dies and AAA is coming to tow you.  Now the AAA-approved tow truck driver is kinda cute, so you agree to go out with him.  Years later you are now married to the guy and you have kids, a nice home and life is good.  So you tell all your bored-with-your-story friends how the battery dying happened for the reason of introducing you to this guy.  Sounds poetic, right?  Ugh.  Fast forward another couple of years and Mr. Tow Truck is towing some younger, hotter, childless chick and he’s hooked up with her and left you holding the bag and the kids.  Now, tell me, did that happen ‘for a reason’?  No, of course not, because it’s something horrible and you’re living it.  

However, if you then turn things around and meet Mr. CEO, who is much nicer (read: richer) than Mr. Tow Truck and settle into a newer, bigger home, then that chance meeting will likely be termed as ‘happening for a reason’.  Apparently the phrase only can be used if: a) things are currently good or b) things are good and they were formerly bad or c) you’re an author/motivational speaker/priest/etc and stand to benefit in some way by people who listen to your sermon.  It sort of parallels religion like when someone gets terminally ill, if they survive, then everyone thanks god, but if they die, no one blames god.  And no one every blames god for getting them sick in the first place, but this is a whole different blog post and I digress.

There can be some good drawn from ‘everything happens for a reason’, but it’s limited to those who look inside themselves on a regular basis (not just when things suck) for any chance to improve.  If you get fired, for example, you can whine about it or you can try to figure out why you were blasted and turn your life into something better and maybe even start a whole new career.  Or if your family falls apart and stops talking to you, you can look inside yourself and see what led them to that conclusion and make things better going forward.

Things happen every day, but it’s not for any specific reason; they simply happen just as the sun rises and sets, which, ironically, does happen for a reason.  I guess everything does happen because thingies rule.