Family values

We were over at my parent's house last week and my mother had the tv on. On the tv there was some show (E.T. as it turns out) about a couple getting married.

E.T. was totally tripping out on this marriage, like the two people were royalty or big time celebrities of some sort. They were neither.

The bride was a 43 year old former school teacher and the groom was a 22 year old guy who used to be her student.

They met when he was in the 2nd grade. They started having sex when he was 12 and she was 34. She was married and had 4 kids at this time.

She got caught and ended up serving 7.5 years in jail for rape. She had two more kids while in prison, both belonging to the former student.

Supposedly E.T. paid them 1 meeeeellion dollars for the exclusive right to cover the marriage. She just got out of prison and he didn't finish high school and is now unemployed. You know the two of them didn't pay for the marriage.

On the show they showed the couple oohing and ahing over all the gifts they were getting, from complete strangers. They had publicized their wedding present list thingie (I forgot what they are called, you know, where you decide what china you want and stuff) and all these random people who were smitten by the 'fairy tale' romance were buying them presents.

Makes me wanna barf.

If that had been a 34 year old MALE teacher having sex with a 12 year old FEMALE student this certainly wouldn't have been happening. Not that I am condoning that either.

Oh well, so long as we don't have dudes marrying dudes and chicks marrying chicks then our sacred institution of marriage will be safe.

Somebody call Mary Kay's first four kids and let them know, ok?

Family values

We were over at my parent's house last week and my mother had the tv on. On the tv there was some show (E.T. as it turns out) about a couple getting married.

E.T. was totally tripping out on this marriage, like the two people were royalty or big time celebrities of some sort. They were neither.

The bride was a 43 year old former school teacher and the groom was a 22 year old guy who used to be her student.

They met when he was in the 2nd grade. They started having sex when he was 12 and she was 34. She was married and had 4 kids at this time.

She got caught and ended up serving 7.5 years in jail for rape. She had two more kids while in prison, both belonging to the former student.

Supposedly E.T. paid them 1 meeeeellion dollars for the exclusive right to cover the marriage. She just got out of prison and he didn't finish high school and is now unemployed. You know the two of them didn't pay for the marriage.

On the show they showed the couple oohing and ahing over all the gifts they were getting, from complete strangers. They had publicized their wedding present list thingie (I forgot what they are called, you know, where you decide what china you want and stuff) and all these random people who were smitten by the 'fairy tale' romance were buying them presents.

Makes me wanna barf.

If that had been a 34 year old MALE teacher having sex with a 12 year old FEMALE student this certainly wouldn't have been happening. Not that I am condoning that either.

Oh well, so long as we don't have dudes marrying dudes and chicks marrying chicks then our sacred institution of marriage will be safe.

Somebody call Mary Kay's first four kids and let them know, ok?

I can't watch tv anymore

I'm trying to be the 'kinder, gentler' Dirk. I used to be angry a lot. Now I'm trying to chill, to live and let live and all that.

It's hard to do when I read about the shit that our government is doing to us. Midnight additions to energy bills that add billions of dollars of pork barrel deals when nobody is around to stop it. Arrogant politicians smirking because they know they can do whatever they want and so long as they say the right key words afterwards, the majority lets them get away with it. "Family Values" "War Against Terrorism" "Support the Troops" "Look, it's the start of football season!"

I get angry just reading about those assholes, if I watch them on tv, I can actually feel my blood pressure rising and my language getting harsher and my voice getting louder.

I honestly think our system is just fucked at this point. The special interests and corporations are twisted around in our politics like a cancer. There is no way anymore to cut out just the cancer. We need a radical 'politicaldectomy'. Cut it all out. Not only is the system completely riddled with this cancer, I don't think the system is really that workable with our current society.

The 225 years or so that have passed since the Constitution was written has seen a huge change in 'how things work'. Maybe we can save some of it, but a lot of it needs to be cut out and updated.

I'm starting to think ugly again. Maybe humans just were not meant to exist in such great numbers. Maybe we are on a cusp right now, where we are straining against the limits of our old human society. Either we don't break through to that other side and we eat each other up in the next few decades, or we breach that barrier and get to the side where we can continue to grow and exist as a race.

Check out this essay by Vernor Vinge on The Singularity.

I can't watch tv anymore

I'm trying to be the 'kinder, gentler' Dirk. I used to be angry a lot. Now I'm trying to chill, to live and let live and all that.

It's hard to do when I read about the shit that our government is doing to us. Midnight additions to energy bills that add billions of dollars of pork barrel deals when nobody is around to stop it. Arrogant politicians smirking because they know they can do whatever they want and so long as they say the right key words afterwards, the majority lets them get away with it. "Family Values" "War Against Terrorism" "Support the Troops" "Look, it's the start of football season!"

I get angry just reading about those assholes, if I watch them on tv, I can actually feel my blood pressure rising and my language getting harsher and my voice getting louder.

I honestly think our system is just fucked at this point. The special interests and corporations are twisted around in our politics like a cancer. There is no way anymore to cut out just the cancer. We need a radical 'politicaldectomy'. Cut it all out. Not only is the system completely riddled with this cancer, I don't think the system is really that workable with our current society.

The 225 years or so that have passed since the Constitution was written has seen a huge change in 'how things work'. Maybe we can save some of it, but a lot of it needs to be cut out and updated.

I'm starting to think ugly again. Maybe humans just were not meant to exist in such great numbers. Maybe we are on a cusp right now, where we are straining against the limits of our old human society. Either we don't break through to that other side and we eat each other up in the next few decades, or we breach that barrier and get to the side where we can continue to grow and exist as a race.

Check out this essay by Vernor Vinge on The Singularity.

Poor bastard

If you believe in karmic justice and reincarnation, ya gotta wonder what this poor bastard did in a former life to deserve the one he has now.

I mean, damn! One part of me is filled with pity for the guy and the other with revulsion. I'm sorry about that revulsion part, but that's the truth. Maybe some day I'll be a better person and won't get the heebeejeebees from looking at that picture of him, but right now, I do.

If I ever start feeling sorry for myself, I just gotta look at Brian there to realize how good I got it.

I'm afraid I'd have committed seppuku by now if I was him.

EDIT: I deleted the link to that picture cause it was bugging some people and I don't feel it was nice of me to point and go 'ewwww' in an internet sort of way.

Poor bastard

If you believe in karmic justice and reincarnation, ya gotta wonder what this poor bastard did in a former life to deserve the one he has now.

I mean, damn! One part of me is filled with pity for the guy and the other with revulsion. I'm sorry about that revulsion part, but that's the truth. Maybe some day I'll be a better person and won't get the heebeejeebees from looking at that picture of him, but right now, I do.

If I ever start feeling sorry for myself, I just gotta look at Brian there to realize how good I got it.

I'm afraid I'd have committed seppuku by now if I was him.

EDIT: I deleted the link to that picture cause it was bugging some people and I don't feel it was nice of me to point and go 'ewwww' in an internet sort of way.