Kieffe & Sons: Sit Down & Shut Up

This appeared on my livejournal friends list originally, but its from The Consumrist. Apparently a Ford dealership in California – Kieffe & Sons – has been running this lovely ad for almost five months now.

Did you know that there are people in this country who want prayer out of schools, “Under God” out of the Pledge, and “In God We Trust” to be taken off our money?

But did you know that 86% of Americans say they believe in God? Now, since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians who believe in God, we at Kieffe & Sons Ford wonder why we don’t just tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up. I guess maybe I just offended 14% of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case, then I say that’s tough, this is America folks, it’s called free speech. And none of us at Kieffe & Sons Ford are afraid to speak up. Kieffe & Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond: if we don’t see you today, by the grace of God, we’ll be here tomorrow.

I don’t even know how to respond to this one considering 21% of California is non-religious. I think that they are the second largest group as far as religious demographics go, actually. I’m sure that 21% of the consumers you just alienated can just take their business elsewhere? On top of just that spectacular trainwreck, you just assumed that the rest of 86% are Christians? What about the Jews? Muslims? Polytheistic religions even? Oh man, there’s a phrase on the part of the internet I hail from that best describes this: EPIC FAILURE.

There’s another saying I’m always told, “Just sit back and watch people sink themselves. Sometimes you wish you had popcorn!” Pretty accurate! Sadly frequent.

Moral of the story: If you want business, its not best to offended a huge potential customer base? Oh, and you probably shouldn’t group all them other religions in with the Christians. Might offended one of those pagan gods. 

In other news, I really dig this guy’s name, even if he was a crazy cult leader. Then again, he’d have to be to even want that name. Mmm, Sacrilegious.

Apartment Woes

It’s about 60°F outside, probably a few degrees less inside, and I’m in flannel pajamas. At almost four in the afternoon. Why? Oh, I just took an ice-cold shower. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been optional (or it was 90° and humid), but then again, it wasn’t. Welcome to the joys of apartment living? I guess since its included in my rent, I should be grateful to have it at all, huh?

To put it bluntly, I haven’t had hot water for over a week, teetering on almost two weeks in a day or so. If I want hot water for a shower, I’m out of luck. If I want it for dishes, I have to boil it myself and fill the sink, which is always a losing prospect as by the time you’re done, half the water is already lukewarm. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe it.

It could be worse, oh sure, but considering I’m paying for it, I’d like to be able to have, you know, my options. I’ve reported the problem to management three times by now and still nothing was done. Well, no, that’s not totally accurate. They called out a repair man, who – just guessing here – didn’t repair anything? I’m starting to not blame them. Part of me is starting to wonder, since I’ve started monitoring the showering habits of the tenants around me (thin bathroom walls are pretty awesome), if it isn’t a mechanical problem after all.

Recently, I’d say in about March, we had a new tenant move in beneath us. Before him, one of my close friends occupied the space until she ended her lease and left. This new guy is supposedly sick, but other than being devoid of an actual personality from what I can tell, he seems perfectly fine. And I’m sure he does have a personality, somewhere, but I’ve yet to see it, so I can’t be certain about it. From his bumper stickers on his car, I can tell you he likes David Bowie, AFI, and global warming.

When he first moved in, he hammered all the time. For the first month, all day long, it was all I heard. Eventually that annoyance subsided, thankfully, as I started to not be able to tolerate the constant headaches. Unfortunately, that problem transitioned elsewhere.

He takes, oh, three showers a day. And this was a few months ago. My mom told me today she heard him taking two of them; one at 12:30pm and the other at 1:30pm. When I went to take one at 3:30pm, he was in there again! I’m willing to bet, based on recent observations, he’ll take one at 7:00pm or so, as that’s a usual, and probably again at 9:30pm. He used to do it where it was one during the mid-afternoon and two at night. Now its constantly. Five showers. A day. What the hell? No wonder we don’t have any damn hot water!

I miss having a house like you can’t imagine right about now.

No Plz Kthnx

You. Boss person for whom I work for.

Giving me a hard assignment to complete over a holiday weekend? On a holiday weekend when I have to meet up with relatives who only come up from Georgia twice a year? And I get my first summer trip to the farmer’s market?

Oh, I don’t like you right now. I’d wag my finger at you, but this is the internet and it is generally useless.

I Love Anonymous vs. Scientology

The girl they had to voice this Anonymous video on the human rights in the Rehabilitation Project Force (another branch of Scientology), really hit the mark. And by hitting the mark, I mean hitting the mark of being ridiculously creepy. If you don’t agree with the content, I sure hope you can agree on that!

Speaking of Scientology, I found this amazing website through the Anonymous cause:

Its long, but read Kendra’s account at least. Her wit, combined with the Orwellian nature of the environment in which she grew, worked, and eventually escaped is really quite engaging. Also, sorry if this sounds rushed, by the by. I’m trying to get dressed and write at the same time. I need to get some gardening supplies. :)

Pseudo-Orwellian

Upon waking up today and checking my livejournal friends list (yes, I have one of those), PZ Myers brought something interesting to my attention. Namely this interesting little article:

Moles Wanted
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

This interests me in paticular as one of my best friends is an active member of Socialist Alternative, both in the Madison and Minneapolis branches. Continuing the chain, one of her closest friends helps maintain the aforementioned Madison branch, but also is a founder and an active player in the Youth Against War & Racism (YAWR) movement. YAWR constantly campaigns and has very successful turnouts at their protests. I certainly won’t be surprised if they have something in the works for the Republican National Convention.

It feels somewhat pathetic that I feel that I will have to pass this news to them as not only are they peaceful, they are probably groups that the FBI might label under these new “terrorist group” guidelines. I won’t call this one Orwellian yet, but its certainly not a step in the right direction. I also finally get to add an “Orwellian” to my blog! Heck yeah.

Jesus Camp

I finally sat down and watched Jesus Camp. I’d been meaning to do so for quite some time but I only just got around to it now as it was on Bio and seemed as good a time as any.

 
Would it be dramatic of me to say that this was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen? Not for content, because the content is really quite amazing, but sitting through the movie is so exceedingly difficult for me. It makes me completely and utterly enraged. I hate evangelicals who do this to their children. I hate people in general who do this to their children, be they christian, jew, muslim, or any other faith. They are children. They should be allowed to be children. Instead, these poor souls are locked away in a homeschooling environment where their beliefs don’t get a proper challenging and worst of all, they don’t get interaction from other children their age. Let alone children their age who have, oh the horror of it, different opinions.

What this inevitably creates are a population of children who are completely and utterly inept at being able to cope with the real world. It sets them up for long-term stress and perhaps even mental illness due to poor coping. Crippling depression when they hit their teen years, for example. Explicitly said in the documentary by a family, was the belief that science “knows nothing.” Science knows nothing? These are the same families, who, when a member is sick, flock to the doctor for medicine to make themselves better. That’s certainly science. And it certainly knows how to make you well again.

This is another huge qualm with this sort of belief that drives me mad. They call people who aren’t completely devoted to the cause “hypocrites and liars.” Okay, so you can pick and chose which parts of science you like and are to your benefit, but you sure don’t see the hypocrisy in that? If you tell your children to go all the way, then come on, you guys, why don’t you go the whole way, too? Oh wait, that might make you more backwards than the Amish. Which, actually, is a group I give a lot of credit. Now that’s devotion to your religion, and boy, the Amish don’t bother anyone in the process! Take a page from them, you guys!

Here it comes again, but its worth mentioning again and again. While religion was in my life from a young age, I am so very, very thankful that it was not pushed on me. Eventually I came to my own decision, and while many people don’t like the decision that came to me, I’m grateful to be allowed to have had to opportunity to have it happen that way. Though I suppose in some instances religion was commonplace and overbearing. Overall however, religion does get a bit of distaste when way you hear about it is largely through the mouth of an illiterate misogynic racist, but that’s another tale for another day.

I suppose that this is a bit all over the place as I’m horrifically tired, but still. Jesus Camp certainly made me upset for the youth of certain parts of our nation. I wept for them, though they’d probably be unhappy to hear that. I just wish that I had known indoctrination like this was going on so close to home sooner than I did.

Jonestown Massacre

Originally written around six this morning.

Sorry if this seems disjointed. Its six in the morning and watching Most Evil specials on this sort of thing makes me a bit cantankerous in the morning.

One thing that never ceases to bother me whenever I hear about it, is the massacre at Jonestown. What bothers me more, is that a good portion of my generation has no idea what it is. I simply cannot fathom how anyone my age can simply not know about the systematic murder of over nine-hundred people that Jim Jones essentially caused due to his paranoid delusions. That just seems beyond ignorant of history itself. Also, I’ve been told before that calling it outright murder is too judgemental, as it supposedly a mass suicide.

Why? What’s the point of dumbing it down? Yes, there were suicides, or as Jones himself put it, revolutionary acts, committed there. Still, these people wouldn’t have killed themselves on their own. It was Jones who pushed them to do it, and if they didn’t, according to most survivors’ accounts, they were injected against their will. Its sick. All of it is sick.

Although Jonestown contained no prison and no form of capital punishment, various forms of punishment were used against members considered to be serious disciplinary problems. Methods included imprisonment in a 6x4x3-foot (1.8 x 1.2 x 0.9 m) plywood box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside-down. For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as Thorazine, sodium pentathol, chloral hydrate, Demerol and Valium were administered until they “came to their senses,” with detailed records being kept of each person’s drug regimen; . Armed guards patrolled the area day and night to enforce Jonestown’s rules. Some local Guyanese, including a police official, related stories about harsh beatings and a “torture hole,” the well into which the children were placed when they were perceived to have misbehaved.

I have so, so much stuff about Jonestown on my iPod. I tend watch it when I feel apathetic about the world. It reminds me that I can’t stop caring, as when we do, stuff like this can and will happen again. That is unacceptable. Mass cult murder-suicides are some of the most tragic things I can think of.