The Sad State of Society: Part One of a Billion Parts

It would appear that this new location for my website has finally reached the "critical mass" or whatever where it starts to get visitors who aren't directly solicited by me posting links to it. One of them was from Salt Lake City (shocker!) and one was from Le Seyne, France (a bit less predictable). I'm going to have my testimony posted in French someday for the benefit of such international visitors, but I don't actually know much French, so Marie is doing it, and she's busy going on dates and stuff, so it will take a while.

It's no secret that the internet is full of men who send sleazy pickup lines and innuendos to women they've never met in person, and then become mean and threatening when rejected or ignored. It's all very bizarre to me, that they think the lines will work or that they think their subsequent reaction will change a woman's mind. But the only reason I bring it up is because I read an article recently by a woman who decided to do an experiment by reversing the roles and doing the same thing to men she had never met. The experiment did not meet actual scientific standards, but it was intriguing nonetheless. All of the men were very flattered and pleased by the attention even when she kept escalating it in deliberate attempts to freak them out. A lot of them thought she was joking but they didn't really care if they thought she wasn't.

So, I guess part of the reason men think women will like that behavior is because they like it. But the only reason I bring that up is because I'm part of the problem. True, if I had been part of this experiment I would have ruined the results by freaking out. I would have assumed that the woman was mentally unstable and on drugs. But in ninth grade, a couple of twelfth grade girls thought it was funny to sexually harass me by calling me sexy, making a show of checking me out, asking me to do the bend and snap from "Legally Blonde", etcetera. I encouraged this behavior because I liked it. Even though it was obviously a joke, it felt really good.

I think the difference is that if I had been a girl and they had been boys, I would have had to worry that they might actually sexually assault me or something. With the positions reversed, the need to worry about that was virtually nonexistent, so I could just relax and enjoy it. Of course that wasn't nearly as extreme as many of the things said online, but I think that's why men like that sort of thing and women don't. I have mixed feelings about that because, while that stuff is disrespectful and it's not exactly a tragedy that women don't like it, fear shouldn't be the reason, because they shouldn't have to be afraid. But they do because the world is a horrible place. Sigh.

Planned Parenthood is facing some heat from Congress for selling aborted baby, I mean fetus parts. If you're wondering how a "lump of tissue" can have parts, then you're not the only one. If you're wondering how a wonderful organization like Planned Parenthood could be involved in something so shady, then no offense, but you're pretty clueless. But sure, it's all good because we still need them to teach our children about sex, because that's the only way our children could ever possibly learn about sex.

Also, apparently one night while I was sleeping I somehow entered an alternate universe where same-sex couples have a constitutional right to have their wedding cake provided by one specific business, and are entitled to throw a tantrum and drive it into bankruptcy if it declines on moral grounds, regardless of how many times it has previously sold them pastries. Honestly. I have witnessed hatred and bigotry toward the LGBT community, to be sure, but I have witnessed far more from it, and this only the most infamous of several similar situations playing out right now. And of course, by redefining "religious freedom" to only apply within church buildings, idiots can still claim with a straight face that it isn't being infringed upon when people are forced to violate their consciences or lose their livelihoods.

Maybe someday I'll get married (okay, suspend your disbelief for a minute) and go to get a cake, and the bakers will decline because they don't believe that Mormon weddings are morally acceptable. And on that day I will shrug, say "Suit yourself" and go somewhere else. Of course, it will help that I'll already be rich from book sales, so the temptation to lie about suffering a bunch of health problems as a result and sue for a ton of money won't be so overwhelming.

I guess it's obvious now, but when an internet survey aligned me 81% with Marco Rubio and 78% with Rand Paul, I realized that I still am mostly conservative after all. As related before, I wasn't sure how to self-identify after my views became more nuanced and variable. But I still don't really want to stick that label on myself because then people will make assumptions about my views on every issue. I must think creationism should be taught in schools, I must think all illegal aliens should be deported immediately, I must think there are no acceptable circumstances for an abortion, etcetera. Even worse, people might assume that I think the Repugnantcan Party is any less corrupt than the Dumbocrap one.

Saw this gem on Facebook and had to share:

At the start of a recent multi-religion gathering, a secretary rushed in shouting, "The building is on fire!"
- The Baptists cried, "Where is the water?"
- The Methodists gathered in a corner and prayed.
- The Quakers quietly praised God for the blessings that fire brings.
- The Lutherans posted a notice on the door declaring the fire was evil.
- The Catholics passed the plate to cover the damage. 
- The Jews posted symbols on the doors hoping the fire would pass. 
- The Congregationalists shouted, "Every man for himself!" 
- The Fundamentalists proclaimed, "It's the vengence of God!" 
- The Episcopalians formed a procession and marched out. 
- The Christian Scientists concluded that there was no fire. 
- The Presbyterians appointed a chairperson, who was to appoint a committee to look into the matter and submit a written report. 
- The Unity Students proclaimed the fire had no power over them. 
- The secretary grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out. 
- The Mormons arrived ten minutes late to the meeting, and so missed the fire completely.

Speaking of Facebook, you know what's really annoying? Getting seventeen notifications from one friend posting the same thing in seventeen different groups. Unfollowing them doesn't make it stop.

And also, I just noticed that in the prologue to my next book, which I posted last week, I wrote "gulfed" instead of "gulped". Why didn't anyone tell me? I'm so embarrassed right now.