IT IS NOT A MOSQUE

Reposted from my Tumblr.

Yes, "Ground Zero Mosque" opposers, to support Islam is to support terrorism. Just like supporting Christianity is supporting the Crusades, neo-Nazis, Salem witch hunts, and child molestation by priests. It's also supporting the persecution of Jews, Native Americans in North America, Native Americans in South America, Africans, other Protestants, other Catholics, and women to name a few. You ask why all terrorists are Muslims. I don't know, why are all neo-Nazis Christians? JESUS. LOVES. HOLY CRAP WHERE WAS THAT UNCLEAR. YOU CANNOT DODGE THAT "LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR" BIT BY REFUSING TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO MOVE IN NEXT DOOR.

Let me show you something.

That is the "mosque." You may note that it does not look like this...

...or this...

...when the brilliant minds at Fox News and the Internet Hype and Scandal-Making Machine would have you believe it looks like this:

AND THAT RIGHT THERE IS GOING TO BE BUILT ON TOP OF WHERE THEIR BROTHERS IN AFGHANISTAN CRASHED PLANES INTO THE TWIN TOWERS. IT IS A SLAP IN THE FACE, PLEASE REFUDIATE, OUR CHRISTIAN DEAD ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR OWN DEAD WHO CERTAINLY AGREED WITH WHAT THOSE TERRORISTS DID.

What, Muslims died in 9/11? NOOOO, certainly not! The only people who died there were pretty, Republican, 31-year-old mothers of 3 with last names like Adams and Jackson who were on the phone with their Army husband of ten years saying the Lord's Prayer when the plane hit the building! No EMTs named Salman Hamdani, who disappeared on 9/11 and were naturally investigated as a terrorist before their remains were found next to his EMT bag, having died doing everything he could to save the people around him. No pregnant women named Baraheen Ashrafi prayed next to their husbands in the morning that Tuesday only to have them never come home and give birth to a fatherless child two days later. No women named Rahma Salie, also pregnant, died on the plane, only to have their family members be kept from flying to her memorial service because her name put her under suspicion as a terrorist. No 69-year-old retired nurses named Touri. No Ahmads, Alis, Hussains, Jamals, Khans, or Samirs. No one with those names can hope to be prayed for at the place they died.

Now that I've gotten that bit through with, you should also know that IT IS NOT EVEN A MOSQUE. YES, NOT A MOSQUE. It's a community center to promote "inter-community peace, tolerance and understanding," precisely what we were refusing to give. The plans include a swimming pool, a restaurant and culinary school, childcare services, and a September 11th memorial. Yes, there will be a mosque, run separately from the rest of the Park 51 community center and open to all visitors. Jewish community centers are not called synagogues. Christian community centers are not called churches. But this is a mosque, because that gets the biggest rise out of xenophobic America. Also, it will not be at Ground Zero. It will be some blocks away. It will not at all be visible from the site.

thinkinghappys.tumblr.com">thinkinghappys.tumblr.com

Yes, "Ground Zero Mosque" opposers, to support Islam is to support terrorism. Just like supporting Christianity is supporting the Crusades, neo-Nazis, Salem witch hunts, and child molestation by priests. It's also supporting the persecution of Jews, Native Americans in North America, Native Americans in South America, Africans, other Protestants, other Catholics, and women to name a few. You ask why all terrorists are Muslims. I don't know, why are all neo-Nazis Christians? JESUS. LOVES. HOLY CRAP WHERE WAS THAT UNCLEAR. YOU CANNOT DODGE THAT "LOVE ONE'S NEIGHBOR" BIT BY REFUSING TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO MOVE IN NEXT DOOR.

Let me show you something.

That is the "mosque." You may note that it does not look like this...

...or this...

...when the brilliant minds at Fox News and the Internet Hype and Scandal-Making Machine would have you believe it looks like this:

AND THAT RIGHT THERE IS GOING TO BE BUILT ON TOP OF WHERE THEIR BROTHERS IN AFGHANISTAN CRASHED PLANES INTO THE TWIN TOWERS. IT IS A SLAP IN THE FACE, PLEASE REFUDIATE, OUR CHRISTIAN DEAD ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR OWN DEAD WHO CERTAINLY AGREED WITH WHAT THOSE TERRORISTS DID.

What, Muslims died in 9/11? NOOOO, certainly not! The only people who died there were pretty, Republican, 31-year-old mothers of 3 with last names like Adams and Jackson who were on the phone with their Army husband of ten years saying the Lord's Prayer when the plane hit the building! No EMTs named Salman Hamdani, who disappeared on 9/11 and were naturally investigated as a terrorist before their remains were found next to his EMT bag, having died doing everything he could to save the people around him. No pregnant women named Baraheen Ashrafi prayed next to their husbands in the morning that Tuesday only to have them never come home and give birth to a fatherless child two days later. No women named Rahma Salie, also pregnant, died on the plane, only to have their family members be kept from flying to her memorial service because her name put her under suspicion as a terrorist. No 69-year-old retired nurses named Touri. No Ahmads, Alis, Hussains, Jamals, Khans, or Samirs. No one with those names can hope to be prayed for at the place they died.

Now that I've gotten that bit through with, you should also know that IT IS NOT EVEN A MOSQUE. YES, NOT A MOSQUE. It's a community center to promote "inter-community peace, tolerance and understanding," precisely what we were refusing to give. The plans include a swimming pool, a restaurant and culinary school, childcare services, and a September 11th memorial. Yes, there will be a mosque, run separately from the rest of the Park 51 community center and open to all visitors. Jewish community centers are not called synagogues. Christian community centers are not called churches. But this is a mosque, because that gets the biggest rise out of xenophobic America. Also, it will not be at Ground Zero. It will be some blocks away. It will not at all be visible from the site.

A friend loves at all times. Love each other as I have loved you. Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. These may sound familiar because God said them. I don't see some kind of exception there. We are all His people, correct? So try loving some. Hypocritical Christians give me heartburn.

YOUR VAGINA IS NOT A CLOWN CAR

Repost from my post at http://oneyearexperiment.tumblr.com/

Now, I chose this topic because there is a veritable encyclopedia's worth of things that make me want to punch something in the face. But I have chosen the top 5, in no particular order, for your reading pleasure.

1. The "Quiverful" Movement

These people make my blood boil. If you've never heard of them, look up the Wiki article. They believe that God will decide how many children you are meant to have, not silly things like whether or not you have the income or sanity to support twenty slimy crap-machines. The man makes all of the decisions in the house, including whether or not they will be having children now, et cetera. Depending on the man, he may also be dictating exactly what she wears, how the house is cleaned, where she can go. Older siblings are responsible for the younger ones, shoving children into parental roles long before they are ready. The overabundant "arrows for Christ" are then trained in intolerance and elitism before they are carefully courted off into marriages. Note that their daughters must have their parents' permission to be married, and no one moves out unless it is to marry. If you've got a really strong stomach, look up some of the blogs from women who got out.

2. Fred Phelps

Nothing else to say.

3. People Who Cannot Distinguish Between "Good" Things and "Fun"

I read these books before the movie came out. I was kinda like, meh, not good, but entertaining. Then came the movies and all the people hailing it as THE BEST THING EVAR. NO OTHER THING IS AS GOOD. OH MY GOD. The same is true of the Mortal Instruments series, the Sookie Stackhouse books, the movie Mean Girls, the Jonas Brothers and Ke$ha. These things are not "good." "Good" implies that they are intelligent and thought-provoking. They are entertaining. Fun. Not good. And so help me the next time a Twilight movie comes close to outdoing a Harry Potter movie I will personally put a hit out on Robert Pattinson.

4. Good Musicians Who Are Huge Assholes

Even more than that strange alien child of David Bowie and Elton John, though, is Beck. God I want to hate Beck in all of his Scientologist, hipstery uppitiness. But have you heard the music he did for Scott Pilgrim? IT'S SO VERY GOOD. You want to refuse to listen to them or buy their records to punish them for being dicks, but the music is so good you can't resist! That's why I will never listen to The Used. I can't run that risk.

5. People Who Think Celebrities Should Be Exempt From Jail

Roman Polanski. R. Kelly. Michael Jackson. Eminem, Hugh Grant, 50 Cent, Sean Combs, Charlie Sheen, Chris Brown. What do all these people have in common? They have all committed really nasty crimes of various sorts, and all of them have been the focus of "free this unjustly imprisoned person" for no reason other than the fact that they are famous. Yes, Roman Polanski made really great movies and survived the Holocaust. Due respect given. Does that mean that he shouldn't be punished for sleeping with a 13-year-old girl? NO. WHY WOULD IT. WTF.

Vomiting alligators et al.

When I was a kid, I read a lot of Animorphs. In one book, one of the Animorphs develops an allergy to some of the animal genetic material she had picked up, specifically, alligator DNA. In a scene that in retrospect is not at all fitting for a children's book, she throws up said "genetic material" in the form of AN ENTIRE ALLIGATOR in a zoo bathroom. Yes, she vomits an alligator. Now, I want you to imagine the sounds that would accompany vomiting a full-sized alligator. Think really, really hard. Got it? Okay.

Those are exactly the sounds I listen to all day at home. My father has acute pancreatitis, which makes you violently ill. However, a surgery years ago left him unable to throw up, so he can't actually be sick. Just the noises.

I would love to pity him but a number of incidents make this difficult, so mostly I just worry. I am the oldest of three, and we are aged 19, 16 and 8. I am in college, my sister will soon be going to a very expensive college, and some years after that my brother graduates and (hopefully) goes to college. Between the pancreatitis and the fact that my father is currently on his third or fourth hip, he cannot hold a job. We are living off of disability and my grandparents' insurance money and somehow we still keep going on expensive vacations. Even better, he keeps planning them!

For some mysterious reason my mother tells me I am not supposed to worry about having to support my entire family within the next five years. Apparently there is some magic fountain of money tended to by unicorns that keeps us, but she can't tell me for fear I will betray its location to the evil vampire wizard and his horde of werewolf ninjas.

I would keep a horde of werewolf ninjas.

Marriage < casual sex...?

So a girl I went to church with just posted ultrasounds today. She is 18 and just got married in April. And I don't know if this applies to her, but knowing the environment she grew up in, it probably does.

I can almost understand raising your children with that wait-until-marriage attitude. Almost. Probably because I was raised that way. But I've noticed an awful lot of people who were taught that sex is between a husband and wife end up getting married awfully young. I want to know this: how do you think marriage is LESS life-changing than premarital sex? Youth is a time for you to be free to make mistakes, major in philosophy, go on dates with losers, get drunk and have sex with some douchebag frat boy, experiment with your hot roommate, try weed, and did I mention be free? Why would you ever tie yourself down this young, especially if all you're after is sex? It's like buying a house so you can bake a cake!

Now, I've just realized I've done none of these youthful things up there. Off to rectify this.

Ah, QAF

I think Queer As Folk may actually have a negative effect on my cognitive functions. Every time I watch a bunch I end up prancing around and talking like Emmett.

Good Things About Eclipse

So, my sister's friends ditched her and she cried because she had no one to see the new Twilight movie with, so I sucked it up and went to the midnight premiere. I want two hours of my life back. Or at least the last half hour. So, I proudly present to you..

Good Things About Twilight, and the Bad Things That Ruined Them

-Charlie giving a sex talk was hilarious

-Edward's comment about Jacob: "Doesn't he own a shirt?" was chuckle-worthy

-The vampire "breaking" effect was pretty cool

-There was a lot of ass-kicking, some even from the pussy vampires

-The actors who play Jasper and Alice have great chemistry, and their scene was great

-Jasper and Rosalie's backstories get to show that once they were awesome. Especially Rosalie.

-The new Victoria

-They learned how to style Alice and Rosalie's hair better and they looked much cuter

-Bella and Edward trying to have sex and every mom in the theater clamping their hands over their nine-year-old's eyes. Somehow very steamy without removing any clothes. PROVES TWILIGHT IS PORN FOR PRETEENS.

-The line: "I kissed Bella...and she broke her hand...on my face."

-The trailers were awesome. Chiefly, Dawn Treader and Deathly Hallows. They played the one right after the other and I thought I was going to have a seizure.

That being said. Bad things about Eclipse.

-The flashbacks were very clumsily handled

-Lautner, Pattinson and Stewart still can't say a full sentence

-Ruins an entire generation of woman for functional relationships, as they will expect their boyfriends to be like Edward and he will SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR THEIR EVERY NEED and they will NEVER HAVE FIGHTS and if they do THEIR LOVE WILL SEE THEM THROUGH PROBLEM-SOLVING IS FOR NOT REAL LOVE

-Jacob turned into a huge dick overnight

-Everything after the Volturi killed Bree Tanner draaaagged. That's the half hour of my life that I'm insisting be refunded.

-"This was never a choice." Really? Cause the trailers and the screaming fangirls in this theater say otherwise.

-Speaking of which, the fans at the theater. I played "you rage you lose" and lost within thirty seconds of stepping inside, when I saw a girl walk past wearing a "Mrs. Emily Cullen" shirt.

-Movie teaches you that deciding to make a permanent choice that you really, really can't undo at eighteen is a wonderful and applaudable thing to do if it's because you REALLY REALLY LOVE HIM SO MUCH WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART and what you want today is exactly what you'll want in ten years, five years, six months, as anyone who's followed their boyfriend/girlfriend to college can tell you.

-Every scene between Jacob and Bella and Edward reminded me of how creepy Jacob's relationship with Nessie is. "You know, honey, once I tried to kill your dad! And your mom and I made out! Twice! And once she didn't even punch me for it!"

-So newborns are daaaaangerous and very very bad and yet somehow you didn't lose a single person in the fight? Just because you like the characters you shouldn't make them functionally invincible. I still hold that Jasper should have died in Eclipse, and SOMEONE should've died in Breaking Dawn. Preferably a whole lot of those useless side characters they introduced for, in the end, ABSOLUTELY NO REASON.

-FLAT CHARACTERS.

-Every time Edward says he's bad for Bella/shouldn't be with Bella etc. God kills a kitten.

-Once again, they devoted disproportionate screen time to the angst and the fight lasted like a minute. That was a cool fight. It could've taken up the space of about three angst scenes. Or most of the time they spent in that tent bitching.

-They don't use their decent actors. Rosalie got a scene, Carlisle got a couple lines. What about Jacob's dad? He's a pretty cool guy. He played the part of Mr. Exposition and Foreshadowing, and that was about it. Bella's human friends, including the Academy Award-nominated one? Two scenes.

-"It's Victoria." THANK YOU WHAT A BRILLIANT LEAP OF LOGIC THAT EVERYONE SHOULD'VE MADE ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES AGO.

-Needless side plot with Victoria and that guy. Riley, I think. Rileys suck in every vampire show they're in apparently.

All in all, there were some good bits, but they didn't make seeing the movie worth it. It was still less painful than New Moon. But I think childbirth may be less painful than New Moon. Also possibly shorter.

Camping...

Just back from camping near Wildwood in New Jersey with my family. It was...an adventure! A week with your family is always a test of willpower and this one was exceptionally testy, if you will. We get there and I start setting up the tent and try to conscript my sister's help. She sees an ant, squeals and disappears off to the pool, leaving me to set up our massive 3-room tent alone.

I should point out that for this whole trip I was wearing plaid shirts and hiking boots and very obviously checking out girls at the beach, and my incredibly dense familia has yet to pick up on my blatant lesbianism. I'm out to my sister (16) and brother (8), and have actually come out to my parents many, many times, but they keep forgetting. Most of our exchanges went like this:

Mom: Ooooh, girls, look! *Mom points at crowd of shirtless jogging men, Father rolls eyes*
Savannah: Very nice, very nice! I take one home!
Captain: Remember to feed it and cut a hole in the box. *watches the girl tanning nearby*

Ah, family.