The Catholic Church, Inc

Don't be fooled by religious dogma. Anyone with a brain knows that organized religion is big business controlled by wealthy interests with desires for social and political influence.  Every religion is like this.  Every one.

We don't have humble religious disciples spreading God's good word.  We have corporations selling consumers a product so they can make a lot of money and get a lot of power.  And it's always been that way from the Greek pantheon to the founding of Christianity.  Why? Because religion didn't come from God. It came from man and man is greedy.  Man is selfish.  Man uses God every day as an excuse to do whatever he wants and still morally justify it for the God fearing public.

But in this blog, I'm ranting on those crazy Catholics again.

A special Vatican senate is currently in session in order to change current church policies that are deemed outdated.  They call it "modernizing" the Catholic church.  What it really is is the Catholic church revamping an increasingly unpalatable image to something fresh and more likable in order to stay in business.  These policy changes are nothing more than a corporation, Catholic Church Inc in this case, revamping its image to bring in more customers.  Why?  Money and power.

So when they say they're going to start allowing openly gay people to take communion, it's not because the Bible is suddenly ok with gay people.  It's because the Catholic church sees a new market among the LGBT community.  When they say birth control is fine now, it isn't because they suddenly accept women should have a say in their own health care decisions (or make any decisions that doesn't involve doing whatever a man says).  They're really just trying to appeal to female consumers.  Divorced people can come to church now because divorced people are potential customers.

And the more customers Catholic Church Inc has, the bigger its profits.  The bigger its profits, the more influence it can buy.  Citizens United was made for the Catholic church.

But in the end it's still just a lie.  Man made religion. God made God.  It's ignorant on your part to assume that you can only have a relationship with God through some ritual man invented or even by sitting in a fancy building every Sunday.

I'm not arrogant enough to say whether God is real or not, but I do know that if He is real, WE GOT IT WRONG.  God doesn't need your money.  He doesn't need your temples.  The whole damn world is God's temple and you can't buy your way into His favor.

Organized religion just uses your faith in God as a way to take advantage of you.  Why keep letting them?

Idiots with guns

Look, I understand this is a crazy world and a person has the right to defend themselves any way necessary if their lives are being threatened.  I'm not against owning a gun.  I'm not advocating abolishing the second amendment.  And it isn't fair to accuse me of being a socialist destroyer of freedom simply because I disagree with the open carry movement.

Because open carry is stupid.  Dangerous and stupid and history is on my side there.

Has knowing a person could have a gun EVER prevented a crime against them?  NO.  If anything, it just makes criminals more violent. The news is littered with tales of home invaders and potential muggers being shot.  They still tried though.  History proves me right.

But the bad guys didn't win.  That's the excuse we keep hearing.  Yeah, but they still tried.  So has having more guns decreased crime? Resounding no.

But that isn't even the point anymore.  There's always going to be crime no matter how well armed we are.  Again, nothing wrong with defending yourself if you're life is being threatened, but unfortunately, gun or not, you still have a good chance of facing danger. That's the nature of our world, sweety.

What I'm against is stupidity in gun ownership.  Does anyone outside the military really need a rocket launcher?  Do they really need armor piercing bullets?  Grenades? Clips with a hundred bullets?  Who are rednecks going to war against?  I'm sorry, but if you need a machine gun to go deer hunting, you suck at it and you need a new hobby.

The ONLY kinds of people who stockpile military grade weapons are dangerous people, conspiracy nutjobs who cream at the thought of taking down the government and taking over the country.  Do you want these kinds of people in charge?  Doomsday preppers are stockpiling, but they're just as nuts.  The Walking Dead isn't real, people.

In other words, the only people who need these weapons are the people who SHOULDN'T HAVE THEM.  No sane person wants or needs military grade weapons.

So there's no point to buy them.  If anything, there's EVERY REASON not to have them available for purchase.  TO KEEP THEM OUT OF THE WRONG HANDS.

Please don't tell me we need to defend ourselves against the government or those invading Mexicans.  Take your medication.

Which brings me to my next question.  What the hell is so wrong with background checks?  I don't care how criminals get their guns.  If you're a law abiding citizen like you claim to be, a background check is no problem for you.  End of debate.

As for you open carry idiots, do you feel safe when someone waves a gun in your face?  Then don't wave one in mine.  You're not defending your second amendment rights.  You're just being stupid.  You're just scaring people.

Let's be honest and admit a lot of the fear we have is a product of NRA propaganda and a sensationalized media playing on our emotions to sell their products.  The NRA isn't fighting for gun rights.  They just want your money.

There's nothing wrong with owning a handgun or a rifle.  It's the American way.  But we don't need crazy people running around with missiles.  We have to recognize that guns aren't our saviors and that a culture built on violence will only create more violence.

You really want to stop school shootings?  Stop teaching kids that guns are cool and teach them that they're dangerous instead.  Teach kids to respect guns and to be responsible with them.  You aren't being respectful to anyone or remotely responsible waving your guns around Walmart.

We need a little less gun waving and a little more common sense.

Assholes

There are some people who go out of their way to make others miserable.  They're called assholes and there's nothing you can do about them.  Like it or not, the world will always be full of assholes.

Why do people become assholes?  There are MANY reasons.  Rich people are assholes because they mistakenly believe money makes them better than others.  It doesn't so don't feel inferior to them.  They are no one of consequence to you.

But let's take time to acknowledge that most people aren't assholes ALL THE TIME, but only when they're in a bad mood.  Second, let's recognize that EVERYONE has bad moods and can potentially become an asshole.

Sometimes, you have a bad day.  Something bad happens or someone's rude to you and you get angry.  When this happens, it's human nature to lash out at others.  Should you?  The polite answer of course is no.  Will you?  Odds are you probably will.

That being said, there are MANY people who are so miserable with their own lives that they HAVE to share their misery with others.  People who feel oppressed want to feel power too and the only way they can do that is to be shitty to the only people they deem lower on the totem poll than themselves.  That's why the service industry gets the brunt of the assault.  Most customers only feel empowered when they get to boss around the poor kid whose entire job is to do whatever the customer tells them to.  They know the kid can't say anything back.

And that's what keeps assholes going.  Knowing that most people will either be forced to accept their behavior or will be too nice a person to get in their face about it.  We're told to ignore the bully.

The problem is, ignoring the bully doesn't make the bully go away.  It just tells them they've won.

Sometimes people can't see over their own lives and don't realize they're being assholes.  In that case, is it really so wrong to politely inform them?

A simple,  "Well, that wasn't very nice" or a "I'm sorry you're having a bad day. How can I help you?" can be quite a wake up call to the unintentional asshole.  It brings attention to their behavior and it isn't rude so they can't really complain to your manager.  Most people will recognize when they did wrong and apologize.

And for the intentional asshole, your politeness pisses them off.  It tells them you aren't fazed by them.  They have no real power over you.  They can't win.  They are just as big a nobody with you as they are with anyone else.

And that's the best revenge.

Blacks are racist too

I'm so sick of black people assuming I'm racist against them because I have the audacity to criticize them for things they themselves admit are wrong within their culture.  Black folks know they have problems.  They recognize that many of the issues I've mentioned in previous posts are very detrimental to them.  Yet a lot of these same people get offended when someone who isn't black AGREES with them.  How hypocritical.

News flash: black people can be racist too and not all white people are racist.  Racism is not an ethnic identity for all white people any more than crime is an ethnic identity for all blacks.  It's time to acknowledge that racism is actually perpetuated by a continuously decreasing number of morons, that the majority of people have learned better and that it really is time to move on if it's ever going to die out for good.

It's also time to admit black people aren't innocent victims any more and that some of them DO use race as an excuse for their own inaction.  It may not give you a warm, fuzzy feeling but it's still the truth.

For proof, look no further than your own accomplishments.  Look at all the successful black people out there.  I don't just mean the rap stars and ball players.  I mean the black doctors and lawyers and policemen and teachers and business owners and politicians.  Do you really expect me to believe they're all flukes?  No.  Successful black people didn't pull a fast one on the white man.  They got off their butts and made something of themselves.  No one can do that for you and, with all the anti discrimination laws in place, no one can legally stop you.

It's like your ancestors fought for you to have equality and once the Civil Rights Act passed, you stopped caring.  YOU are holding yourself back because of the choices YOU make.  YOU are the reason black advancement is at a stand still because YOU would rather blame white people than do something to help yourself.

And how dare you accuse me of racism for acknowledging that.

There will always be hateful people in the world, but if you allow them to dictate your life, you're the only one to blame.  If you don't like the way the police treat you, you'll get no where by teaching your sons to be confrontational.  Teach your sons to become cops instead and change it by setting an example in the community.  If you don't think government is representing you, take a more active roll in it.  But don't NOT do anything and blame the white man.  Don't riot in the streets tearing stuff up and then blame the white man.

Because we HAVE come a long way and black lives HAVE mattered for a very long time.  By the way, white people were in those protests in Ferguson and New York too.  White people want blacks to be equal too and are fighting for it.  Are they racist?

It pisses me off when someone says that pushing for us to not focus on race is somehow pretending slavery never existed. No.  It's acknowledging that we learned from the mistake that slavery was and it's time to put it behind us.  Instead of thinking the white man still owes you, maybe you should acknowledge that most white people aren't your enemy anymore.

The truth's hard to admit sometimes, but that doesn't make it any less true and the truth is some black people are racist against whites and most white people aren't the racists you think they are.  Slavery is dead and the only way to get past racism is to stop giving it so much control over our lives.

Is there really white privilege?

There is no working class white person living in the US who has ever felt privileged for being white.  They still struggle to find decent work, to pay their bills and feed their families.  There are millions of white people on welfare, living in the projects and, yes, being victimized by the police.

The media are quick to ignore this.  It's better ratings for them to play up race as a defining issue.  Give the people what they want to hear, not the truth.

So they tell black people that it is their skin and their skin alone that is keeping them from being successful.  They ignore the other issues holding the black community back such as poverty created by the greed of the wealthy elite - who have many ethnicities among their ranks. Or the thug mentality espoused in every rap song that encourages black youth not to bother with education, says drugs are cool and tells black men they must be confrontational to everyone they meet, but especially police.  They don't want to admit that in the 21st century, the biggest thing holding the black man down is the black man.

Is it really the white man's fault that more black people don't take part in politics?  We had years with the voting rights act in place for the black community to vote in their representatives, but historically, a large portion of blacks don't bother voting.  Few blacks run for office.  What happens when a lot of people don't bother voting or taking part in their government?  The extremists take over.  Our deplorable lack of fair representation in government is our own fault.

But more than that.  Is it really the white man's fault the hood is a high crime area?  Are white people really forcing black people to turn to crime?  Right and wrong is a personal decision.  You always have a choice not to rob someone or join a gang or drop out of school or be a promiscuous slut at 16.  The white man isn't making black people do these things, but they get the blame and the media overlooks black on black crime because no one cares.

But is there really white privilege still in America or is it a perception created by the media to get a juicy news story?  Are blacks the victims of white oppression or are they really victims of their own laziness?  Wow.  What an inconvenient thought.  Best ignore it.

But for every racist that still exists, there are thousands of people who AREN'T racist.  Because we HAVE learned our lesson.   We HAVE grown morally.  There HAS been progress in racial equality and black people ARE better off than they were.

But we gladly ignore this because the white man is the enemy.  The news never shows the white people protesting for justice for Michael Brown but they're there.  Whites marching with blacks for black equality in every protest that is taking place in our country.  Whites are speaking out against police brutality, are shouting "black lives matter" and "I can't breathe" just as loudly as their black neighbors.  There were whites who marched with King in the 1960s.  Whites ran the underground railroad and a whites pushed for the end of slavery.

But we're told white people are racist, oppressors and the enemy of the black.  It's naive.  It's only an excuse blacks use to justify their own racism.  It's only a scapegoat to excuse their own failings.  We all say we want to have change, but then go back to our video games and celebrity gossip having done nothing about it.  Then blame the lack of change on white people.

Whatever excuse works.