Pictured Insanity.

I really hate certain parts of the educational system - particularly deadlines. Like, I had one teacher a while back who a) gave you suggestions of when things should be handed in, but would accept them without penalty until the last day of class b) let you rewrite your essays as often as you wanted until you got the grade you felt you deserved, and c) was understanding if you weren’t able to attend class for a particular reason and did not penalize late work. Meanwhile my current teacher won’t accept any work the second after class has ended, will not let you make stuff up if you were sick, and will fail you for an essay if it isn’t printed and turned into him when class starts. 

Like, seriously, bro. We’re in college. I know you’re making bank as a college professor. Take a few seconds to realize we’re confused teenagers with a lot going on in our lives and when you’re a hard-ass you’re seriously just adding more stress and depriving us of sleep, not to mention the fact that we don’t learn the source material as well. If you’re getting paid that much, the least you can do is help make sure we really learn what we’re supposed to, and studies show that we don’t learn as much when under stress. 

It really irritates me when people start talking about how online friendships/relationships are illegitimate because it’s online. I remember I got in a huge debate with a psych professor at my university because he was saying that “my generation is more depressed because we have no meaningful relationships, since we just spend all our time online.” Now, I think there’s a lot of issues with this. Namely the idea that if any relationship with another person is online it’s shallow and has no real meaning to it. 

I don’t know about anyone else, but some of my closest relationships with other people have been online, simply because I’m no longer afraid of being judged by the person and I can expose myself more than I do face to face. I understand there’s things missing - for example, some people are very quirky/different in real life and you’d never know from talking to them online - but at the same time, I think the fact that you skip all the formalities of face to face conversation and get to see that person for who they are online is what makes it such a unique method of making friends, and is just as valid. I’ve been hearing this a lot lately and just had to go on a mini-rant. Sorry. 

Finally caved in and started selling stuff that I don’t need anymore. I’ve officially moved out of the dorms at eastern because I don’t like wasting money, but the issue is that I have wayyyy too much stuff. Maybe I can do like a giveaway??? idk. But for right now, finally got on craigslist and decided to sell my extra xbox 360. I’m offering it for $150, and it comes complete with all cords, xbox live for a month, 120gb hard drive, skyrim, and a wireless controller and this one guy is like “actually im offering $75 because someone else is offering exactly what you offered for $25. Figured I’d do you the favor and buy yours.”

Haggling: you’re doing it wrong. For the price I’m offering for this, you can get a used 360 of the same make with no controller and no hard drive. estimated cost of bundle: roughly $300. Price: $150. If you have a different offer, take it. skdfjadkls;fjads mfw people are cheap when I’m trying to do them a favor.

Also, random, but would you guys be interested in like some random giveaway of maybe random books or dvds or posters? I have a ton of horror- and marilyn-monroe related junk and I’d love to give it away maybe. What do you think?

republican101:

“Dear Atheists, constantly attacking my faith and promoting your religion of Aetheism over Christianity while at the same time blabbing about amendment one doesn’t make you wise. it makes you someone who is trying to one up your ‘faith’ over someone else’s while stripping there right of free religion. Real mature.”

I… You… what. The main reason most people confront Christianity is due to the fact that we Christians kind of tend to attack everyone first. 

It’s because of how Christianity and the bible is used to define so much of a country that prides itself on religious freedom that people have to resist it. Even looking at modern day political discussions, how can you discuss gay marriage without opponents of the movement using the bible? How can birth control conversations be opposed without those opposed typically bringing up God? Atheists aren’t the ones trying to one up us. We’re the ones dictating their lives (because these issues actually do affect them) with our religion, when it doesn’t follow theirs whatsoever. Where’s their religious freedom there, if their religion is happy with gay marriage or birth control? The fact of the matter is, we’re the ones stripping away their right of free religion. So don’t sit there and point fingers at atheists when you get your feelings hurt for getting called out about what’s being done wrong. 

republican101:

Welfare needs to be fixed! Not abolish because there are too many people on it but fixed. Partly because it adds more to the national debt which worsens our economy, adds more government involvement in OUR lives (which is bad!) and truly makes a lazy lower/middle class…. I have always said two things. To fix welfare you need to not only 

1) add a reasonable time limit to it, but also..

2) Require all members off welfare to set up meetings with an employment office and take an initiative to find a job. Not to get comfortable with the Government money but become responsible, beneficial, hard working members of our society (That doesnt mean require them to get a job even though that would be ideal, but to take a good initiative to find one and to keep trying)

                                   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama goes out today and says, NO! You don’t need a job to get welfare.Am I the only one that finds that scary?? am I the only one that sees the negative impact that will have on our society and economy?? I don’t thinks soo! Actually I think some democrats and Republicans will be shocked at this. I mean WAKE Up! We need to stop this ME ME ME ME ME in politics and start to have a WE WE WE WE WE mentality. Think about what will be beneficial for all and for the future and not just taking from some to give to others just to kinda fix the problem but have negative long term affects.

Let me get this straight… “We need to stop this ME ME ME ME ME in politics and start to have a WE WE WE WE WE mentality” because providing financial assistance to those who don’t have jobs or any source of income is obviously thinking only of ourselves? 

I come from a middle-class family, but I grew up in a lower-class neighborhood where almost everyone lived off of welfare. There won’t be a day in my life I won’t want to give as much as I can to the welfare system because of how I saw it was able to put food on children’s tables who honestly wouldn’t have had it otherwise. It provides people with houses to live in when they might otherwise be homeless. It can give them medical aid if necessary. How on earth is this a “me me me me me” policy when we’re providing this for people? 

I have always said two things. To fix welfare you need to not only 

1) add a reasonable time limit to it, but also..

2) Require all members off welfare to set up meetings with an employment office and take an initiative to find a job. Not to get comfortable with the Government money but become responsible, beneficial, hard working members of our society (That doesnt mean require them to get a job even though that would be ideal, but to take a good initiative to find one and to keep trying)

Welfare needs to be fixed! Not abolish because there are too many people on it but fixed. Partly because it adds more to the national debt which worsens our economy, adds more government involvement in OUR lives (which is bad!) and truly makes a lazy lower/middle class….

Think about what will be beneficial for all and for the future and not just taking from some to give to others just to kinda fix the problem but have negative long term affects.

As many Americans know, sex education has been a part of our children’s schooling for years to much debate. Many state that abstinence-only education is the way to go, and even Obama has recently added his support to this argument. Other citizens claim that teaching safe sex is what’s necessary for teens if they want to live healthy lives. My question is this: why do we even have sex education?

When it comes down to it, we need to ask ourselves what our goal is in teaching teenagers about sex in elementary school and beyond. Are we wishing to reduce rates of teen pregnancy, children born out of wedlock, and abortion, or do we want to dismiss an act that almost all of us partake in as unsafe and only allowable within marriage? I feel like in almost all circumstances the former is what we each strive for. If that’s so, then research shows that educating teens on safe sex proves more effective than abstinence-only education in these regards. 

The United States has the most teen pregnancies out of any developed nation, with a whopping 22% of women claiming to have had a child before they turned twenty. This rate is double that of Canada and almost four times that of France. Despite our predominately abstinence-only education, levels of sexual activity and the age with which it begins does not vary much between the U.S. and other nations. Why, then, do we have such a high teen pregnancy rate? Teens in America are less likely to use contraceptive methods when engaging in sexual activity, whereas in most European countries where they predominately teach safe-sex education, the rates for contraception use are much higher. 

Our teen pregnancy rate, though still incredibly high, has actually decreased over the past two decades. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) researched this phenomenon and discovered that one quarter of this decline was due to an increase in abstinence. The other three quarters were due to an increase in contraception among teens. In fact, teens who were educated about safe sex were more likely to use contraception and, the study goes on to say, teens who consistently use contraception account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies.

With data like this, I feel that it’s necessary for we as a society to embrace safe sex education. Though it doesn’t hurt to continue to tell teens to wait before marriage, this doesn’t change the fact that 95% of Americans have pre-marital sex. With statistics like that, we need to educate society on how to avoid risks such as pregnancy, STDs, etc. 

Though opponents of safe-sex education state that the program, as well as the promotion and distribution of contraception, increase the likelihood of adolescent sexual activity, studies also show this to be false. Discussing and educating our youth on safe sex as well as providing them with contraception will not only prevent teen pregnancy, as has been shown in Europe, but will not increase their sexual activity, and will expose them to less STDs. 

Why, then, do we teach 84% of our teens abstinence education and less than one-third about contraception?  Your guess is as good as mine. 

communismkills:

None on this makes any sense. It’s all contradictory.

I’m sorry, what? You’ve taken an issue and completely missed the entire point of it… Something which, after viewing your blog in further detail, seems to be a running theme for you. 

There’s a distinct difference between these two issues, and I’ll break it down here really quickly because, sadly, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. The reason all Muslims aren’t responsible for 9/11 is because, quite simply, all Muslims weren’t responsible for 9/11. An extremist Muslim group was responsible for 9/11, and taking the actions of an extremist group and inflicting them upon the entire group as a whole is about as blatant as ignorance can be. To say that an extremist group from a religion performing killings is reflective of an entire religious organization would just be like saying “you can blame all Christians for the holocaust.” I’m sorry, but that’s not how it works. It’s not black and white, and people need to realize that an extremist group is not the definitive version of an entire religion. 

Conversely, the reason people say “all whites are privileged” is because people who are white have a distinct advantage in the market place and in our society as a whole. For someone who claims to know so much about economics, one would think you would have run into the economics of poverty and discrimination by now. White individuals are more likely to get higher paying jobs, more likely to live in decent areas, and more likely to get a longer-lasting education. These factors are all obviously interconnected, and it goes back to the institutional racism that’s still present in our society that makes it more difficult for ethnic minorities to gain an education. 

It’s vital when discussing things such as these topics to realize that everything is shades of grey: not all Muslims (in fact, nearly none) are terrorists - the rates are about the same as Christian terrorists, I’d assume. Not all people who discuss white privilege state that we need to spend generations into the future repaying the losses of ethnic minorities. It’s necessary that white privilege is eventually eradicated, however, if we truly wish to strive for what this country is supposed to stand for. 

So, stop generalizing. It shows how little you truly know of what you’re talking about. K thanks bye. 

Oh man. This summer, you guys, prepare to unfollow me. 

I’m writing for a news website now, and they want me to give opinions on shit. And I have a lot of opinions. I intend to post at least one rant a week to make up for my absence. 

SO MUCH SHIT IS WRONG WITH OUR SOCIETY. SO. MUCH. SHIT. 

So, yeah. Prepare for humongous rants from time to time. No one gets to just ask for me to write about my opinions and then expect me to ever stop talking. 

Ever since Washington passed same-sex marriage laws in February, there’s been an uproar through-out the state: “who would allow gays to get married?” yelled one side as the other cried out, “who wouldn’t?” From the beginning, one thing was obvious: the support of Eastern Washington was a necessary part of this process, because we’ve always taken an anti-gay stance in all issues - our representatives in Olympia were part of the crowd that voted against gay marriage in the first place. 

Things, however, seemed to be looking up when Spokane - the largest city in Eastern Washington by far - decided they would hold a city council meeting to vote on if they should support the gay marriage bill or not. A majority in the council seemed to be in support of the bill, and they hoped that by publicly showing their support it would aid in the battle for marriage equality and get people to make the right vote come November if it were to be put up to a vote by the public. That sounds great on paper, until the city council - after hearing over five hours of testimonies and having more than three hundred people show up to the meeting (more than has been witnessed for years) - decided that they would vote to not take a stand one way or the other. According to Mike Allen, a member of the city council, he’s “not sure that the City Council, which is elected to a nonpartisan position, should be weighing in on this issue after all.” If that were the case, that would be nice. However, it isn’t. The Spokane city council has recently held meetings to unanimously show support for easing marijuana laws and opposing native Indian tribes’ requests to build casinos. Both of which fit the same criteria.

As they put it, “this doesn’t relate to municipal government or business.” Why should they be involved then?

Fuck you, Spokane.

Why should you be involved? Because this DOES involve business. The gay people who get beaten up in this city are the same ones that deliver your mail. As we get threatened by our peers, we’re the ones that vote for you hoping you’ll keep our interests at heart. When our parents kick us out onto the street, we’re the ones that find a way to keep on living and get a job, a house, and pay our taxes. We make your drinks. We teach your children. We drive your buses. And you know what? When you walked down the aisle with that special someone, we’re the ones that made her dress. So, yes, this DOES involve business, Spokane. This involves treating the people who work so hard for you as equal human beings. 

This is a christian community, and it’s hell for us. At my university alone, preachers are allowed to come on to campus and yell to me that I’m an abomination that will burn in hell - and they have. On the way home from school people are allowed to stop me as I catch a bus and let me know that I’m not welcome here. They can tell me that fags should burn just like they did hundreds of years ago. They can question my worth, they can question my humanity, they can chide me until I’m numb, and they can beat me until I’m dead. I’ve watched what this town has done to gay people and experienced it first hand. This summer alone, there were more gay hate crimes than we’ve experienced in years, and those are just a few examples. 

So you want to tell me that taking a stand for my rights isn’t business? You want to say that taking a stand when it comes to my liberty is none of your concern? I’m perfectly capable of handling myself, but what about the other gay teens? What about the transgender college students? What about the third gender high schoolers? The more you talk, Spokane, the more you prove to us that we don’t matter, and it’s scary as hell. Our LGBT centers are burglarized. Members of our community are beaten and hospitalized. Many of us are kicked out of our homes and forced to do whatever it takes to earn a living, even if it means resorting to prostitution. Is it so hard - just once - to take a stand and let us know that we actually have support in this dismal town? Is it so hard to let a few of us know that there’s hope for a better tomorrow? We’re human beings. We’re not a special interest group. We are your colleagues. We are your neighbors. We are your children. We are your friends. If you aren’t going to treat us like humans, then it isn’t we who have lost our humanity like so many in this town have claimed. If us getting married isn’t even worth your vote, then you aren’t even worth ours.

So you know what?

Fuck you, Spokane. 

Fuck you and all you stand for.

I’m done with it.