God Hates You, But I’m Not Judging

So a former middle school associate of mine turned pastor posted a status on Facebook today, basically saying “Hey if you’re gay, I don’t hate you, but God does.” That’s definitely a paraphrase, but it’s pretty much accurate. 

Under the post, several people commented, most agreeing with him, and a few that did not. I of course, was one who did not. I pointed out the book of Leviticus (which is the most often cited verse condemning LGBTQ people) also condemns eating shellfish, wearing a mix of two fabrics at the same time, cutting your hair, or shaving your face. 

The majority of Christians who I debate about this issue all pivot to the same point. “Leviticus is the Old Testament, we follow the New Testament now because Jesus brought the new covenant.” 

I just want to say, that this is the most ridiculous argument ever. EVER. The reason being, that when you go to church, why do pastors still teach LESSONS out of the Old Testament? They never teach it as if it’s simply the history of what was going on before Jesus arrived and fixed all his Dad’s mistakes. They present them as if there are valid lessons that still apply in today’s society. So that negates the whole “that’s old bro, we on a new type of time now” argument.

The other thing I want to bring up is the fact Jesus literally NEVER said anything about gay people. He didn’t condemn it, he didn’t support it, he completely left the topic alone altogether. As a matter of fact, there were only 6 references in the entire New Testament, and it was Paul, not Jesus who spoke about gay people. 

Final thing, people say it’s wrong because it is impossible to produce life through gay sex. Let’s accept that premise (even though there’s adoption, artificial insemination, and plenty of other ways for LGBTQ people to have children). So by that standard, should heterosexual people who have medical issues that prevent them from producing children not be allowed to have sex? Are old people who still get it in sinners? What about people who are married, were both virgins and waited until marriage to have sex, but choose not to have children and use condoms? Are they sinning too? This is dumb.

I’m not saying whether or not you should believe in God, Jesus, religion, or any of that. That’s on you to figure out the truth for yourselves. All I’m here to do is make you aware of one of MANY things in the book that’s premise falls apart with even the slightest bit of scrutiny. In other words, a lot of this shit makes no sense when you really think about it.

Final Final thought, as a straight man, I believe it is my responsibility to treat sexual/gender minorities with respect, dignity, and to show others that they deserve everything that we take for granted. 

Also, stop saying things like “You’re going to hell, God hates what you’re doing, but I’m not judging.” 

Yes the fuck you are.

I Hate Ben Shapiro

I can’t stand Ben Shapiro. 

I basically hate everything about the man. I hate his political ideology, I hate how religious he is, I hate his voice, and I hate the stupid look he always has on his face. 

But most of all, what angers me the most about Ben Shapiro is his Trump-like ability to be a complete and utter hypocrite without even the SLIGHTEST thoughts of irony when making his statements, as well as his Trump-like ability to be arrogantly incorrect. Let’s go thru a few quotes, which I will then debunk/rebuttal with ease. You can listen to him talk fast and confidently (which is basically his whole strategy for conning the masses), or you can read his quotes and after, read my correct viewpoints and see for yourself who has a more compelling/accurate argument.

“This is the most important moment in Black American history. Not Martin Luther King, not Frederick Douglass, not the Civil War, not the end of Jim Crow — none of that — not Brown v. Board, the most important thing is that Chadwick Boseman puts claws on his hands and a mask on his face and runs around jumping off cars in CGI fashion.”

Alright, first and foremost Ben, you are purposely being dense. You are acting as if it’s simply the fact that a superhero movie has a black protagonist that had black Americans so excited. No dumbass, it’s the acknowledgement that we are rarely represented as anything other than savages and criminals in movies, so to have a black man as the hero shows that we too can be the good guy who all children look up to (as evidenced by the number of white kids who dressed up as Black Panther for Halloween last year.) It’s also about the fact that all of those people and events you named are events children read in history books, not something they could ever see for themselves. Black Panther was a modern day representation of black excellence, and that is what bothers you Ben.

“We heard this about Barack Obama when he was elected, too. ‘Now that Obama has been president, Black Americans will feel like they too can be presidents. It’s a transformative moment.’ Yet, all we hear now is that America is deeply racist and that Black people are still systemically discriminated against and that Black people are still victims in America society. So, it turns out it didn’t mean anything.”

Ben, both things can be true at the same time. Is it true that Barack Obama becoming the first Black American President gave hope to hundreds of thousands of young people of color that they can do anything they dream? Yes. Is it also true that man white Americans let their bigot flag fly? Of course, how do you think Trump became President (remember he got his major political start as the main champion of the birther movement)? Having a black President did not “fix” America’s racial issues, it simply magnified them in a way to show we haven’t come as far as we all would like to think. Also, it’s PROVABLE that black American’s and other people of color are systematically discriminated against. 

“How about the idea that if you’re black in America there’s a white supremacist hierarchy that is keeping you down? 

(Continued) The idea that black people in the United States are disproportionately poor because America is racist; that’s just not true, at least not in terms of America’s racism today keeping black people down. It’s just not the case.”

Oh? Let’s look at some numbers and see if that’s the case. 

According to NPR, “The Federal Housing Administration, which was established in 1934, furthered the segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African-American neighborhoods — a policy known as "redlining." At the same time, the FHA was subsidizing builders who were mass-producing entire subdivisions for whites — with the requirement that none of the homes be sold to African-Americans.” 

So, in other words, black people returning from the armed services were not given the same economic opportunities as their white counterparts. No property to pass down, therefore no wealth to build on. And also considering the fact that between 35-45% of all wealth is passed down generationally, you can probably see why the previous acts of discrimination have created challenges that we still face today. 

Then of course we have the ACLU, who found that “Blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.” 

OR the fact that currently (rather, as of July 2018) there are 1135 black death row inmates, compared to 1153 white death row inmates. Also, in multiple studies (here, here, and here) show that A. Black people are more likely to receive the death penalty than white people for the same crime, and B. When the victim is white and the criminal is black, the criminal is way more likely to be sentenced to death than the reverse scenario.

And lastly…

“Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.”

Now go read everything he’s said about Rep. Ilhan Omar on his Twitter. I rest my case. 

Hypocrite to the max, and egotistically stupid.

#JUSTICEFORANTONIO

The following videos were taken at the #JusticeForAntonio protest at Tempe City Hall. Antonio was 14 years old and was shot in the back as he ran from the police. He had a toy gun that he may or may not have stolen.

Question for Team MAGA

I have some questions for the MAGA people out there.

Not the people who voted for Trump and either are indifferent now or are no longer actively supporting him. I’m asking those who currently, as of February 28th, 2019, still think Trump is good. Here goes:

If someone who was sued (and settled out of court) by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for discriminating against black and Hispanic (potential) tenants, how do you describe this behavior?

If a man was elected President and just so happened to be the first Black American to do so, who was born in Hawaii which is a state in the United States, and a second man constantly said that he wasn’t born here (with no evidence other than a foreign sounding name), but the second man NEVER did this to ANY other President, how would you describe this thought process?

If 5 young black Americans were convicted of rape, and then DNA evidence PROVED that they weren’t the ones who committed this crime, and the same second man from my previous statement continued calling for the death penalty EVEN THOUGH THE CONVICTION WAS OVERTURNED BY DNA EVIDENCE, how would you describe his sentiment towards black Americans?   

If a person states that he wants to ban an entire group of people from his country, called the countries that the majority of said group live in “shitholes”, and is focused on a border wall to keep out Hispanic immigrants (even though about half of undocumented immigrants achieve that status due to visa overstays, and a lesser known fat is more visa overstays occur from Canadians, not Hispanic people), what would you say is the main motivation here? 

If your conclusion is anything other than ethnicity, race, skin color, or any other way you can say it, then you are either being willfully blind, you simply don’t care about bigotry as much as you care about other issues, or you are also a racist. There is literally no other explanation. If you disagree with my assessment, then I don’t know what to tell you. I guess bigotry isn’t a thing outside of saying the N-word to a black person with the hard ER. Nothing else is racist apparently, if the above 4 questions didn’t qualify.

Make America Great Again. Like when blacks had no rights. Wasn’t it awesome? 

In the words of my man YG…”Fuck Donald Trump.”

Bernie Sanders 2020

It’s a wonderful day to be a lefty. 

No, not you weirdo’s who aren’t right handed, I’m talking about being a progressive/social democrat/populist left-wing voter.  Not only do we have AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ro Khana and RashidaTalib just straight gooning up on the opps, but we have real progressives running for President in 2020. Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, and……..

BERNIE MUTHAF**KIN SANDERS.

The godfather of modern day social democracy has finally officially announced that he’s running for President in 2020. And with that announcement, I hereby announce that he has moved into the number one spot. Tulsi is my number 2, and Sen. Warren is in 3rd place. 

Think about it, we would not be having a conversation about Medicare for All or Free College if OG Bern wasn’t around in 2016. Ending all of our Nation Building wars disguised as humanitarian efforts? Bernie’s our guy. Climate change awareness? Mr. Sanders. Income inequality? You already know. Social justice which can be achieved through policy? Remember, this is the man who got locked up with Martin Luther King Jr, fought for trans rights in the 80’s before people even knew what a transgender person was, fought for gay rights in the military in the early 90’s in Congress. That is all Mr. Sanders. Fight for $15? Bernie.Fighting against corruption and influence of big banks/wall street? Bernie. 

And to think, he overcame a HUGE gap against Hillary Clinton (he started at less than 25% of the vote, ended around 48%). And keep it real, unless you were a huge political junkie prior to 2016, did you even know who Bernie was? Not unless you lived in Virginia. Now, he’s the most popular politician in the country.

Assuming there is no DNC fuckery this time around, we will be announcing the victory of President Bernie Sanders in about a year and a half. 

#FeelTheBern

Ilhan Omar is My New Hero

I am so freaking proud of Rep. Ilhan Omar. I love everything she’s doing right now, and I hope she doesn’t let the smears and disingenuous attacks slow her down. She’s doing everything that we have been wishing progressive politicians would do for YEARS. 

First example was her calling out ISRAEL (not Jewish people, which the establishment loves to conflate). She stated plainly that AIPAC has had a corrupting influence over United States politicians for some time now. She stated that Israel (not Jewish people) is committing atrocities against the Palestinians with U.S. support, and they have the world blinded. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Then, she called out Elliot Abrams for all of his various war crimes throughout the past few decades, including Iran-Contra (which HW Bush pardoned him for), and a slew of coup’s in South America. War crimes, civilian casualties, theft of natural resources? He’s about that life, and for the first time, he was called out in Congress and he couldn’t answer for his actions. It was beautiful.

People like Ilhan, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, AOC, and (Michigan’s own J) Rashida Talib are bringing the entire Overton window back to the left, they are actually representing a TRUE left wing ideology that would help our country in a tremendous way if their ideas can be implemented. 

For the first time since Tiny Hands got elected, I feel somewhat optimistic about the future of American politics.

State of the Union Address 2019

So last night, The President of People who Consider Kraft Mac and Cheese a Meal, Donald Trump, gave the State of the Union address. What did he do? What did he say? The same shit he always says. EVERYTHING and NOTHING.

A lot of his message seemed to be about lowering healthcare and medicine prices, even though he is against Medicare for all. He brought out a little girl who had to crowd fund $40,000 for cancer treatments, because, we don’t have Medicare for all, which he doesn’t want. He talked about “eliminating AIDS/HIV in 10 years”, and tackling childhood cancers. What’s he gonnado about all this? He’s still talking that same “erase the statelines, increase the competition for insurance companies” bullshit that all republican politicians talk about. Which ultimately would result in all the insurance companies just going to the state that charges the lowest tax rate, and then….nothing else changes. 

He also advised us, his wonderful constituency, of his plans to “withdraw” from Afghanistan and Syria (which he basically took back within the same sentence if you’re listening close). He said he wanted to stay in Iraq to “watch Iran”, and he wanted to do “counter-terror intelligence” in Afghanistan, which basically means, we ain’t going anywhere. All the “great nations don’t do endless wars” shit he was talking is clearly a lie. Like most things Trump says.

As expected, he fear mongered telling anecdotal stories about undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes (which statistically happen less frequently than those crimes of natural born citizens), and thusly, promoting his favorite easy to get around/under/over piece of building structure, the wall.

In addition to this terrible stuff, we also heard him endorse the privatization of schools. Yeah, Trump’s a charter school guy. 

Then there was just an obnoxiously long tongue bath that several older troops and police officers received by President Tiny Hands. Oh so much pomp and circumstance. The EmEffer also had the nerve to forget multiple common sayings to close out his speech (which I just thought was funny), but overall, he said nothing that we didn’t already know, sprinkled in with some crazy lies, but again, this is normal for 45. 

Hopefully we will only have to listen to one more of these SOTU speeches from him, and the first one after he is no longer the Prez is either being given from Tulsi Gabbard or Bernie Sanders. We can only hope.