OMG Santorum Actually Said that?!?!?

                                            Source: Facebook
 

THIS IS RIDICULOUS! HOW CAN ANY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SAY THIS… oh wait… it’s not real.

That was my reaction when I saw this ad because, as much as I dislike Santorum, anyone who would make this statement is mentally unstable. I thought this until I saw who the creators were: Americans For A More American America (a political satire site); however, I actually believed that Santorum said this for a second, just like a lot of other people on Facebook.

But I’m smart enough to point out satire when I see it, so why did this take me a while? This is because Americans For A More American America was clever when parodying Santorum. For the first part of the statement, the group used language that was similar to the way Santorum spoke. He actually said on his website that the Obama Department of Justice “seems to favor pornographers over children and families.” This is almost word-for-word with the first sentence of the parody, making at least the first part of it very believable. After that, the message becomes exaggerated with emphasis on gay pornography and calling the gay lifestyle a “deathstyle.” But what really made me feel stupid after realizing that this was fake was the last sentence: “This is the one of only a few things I see eye to eye on with the Taliban.” That hit it home for me and turned my rage into laughter. He’s crazy, but he’s not that crazy. But given what people already know about Santorum and his gay bashing and views on homosexuality, the statements aren’t that unrealistic. This causes people to think, “Yeah, he would say that,” which leads people to believe that the quote is real… that is until they read the last sentence… hopefully.

The thing I find interesting about this is that AFAMAA (I don’t feel like typing out the whole name again) was very sneaky in this parody with the gradually increasing exaggeration. This makes the audience not fully aware that what they’re reading is really a joke, thus causing anger in those who haven’t caught on yet.

Still, the name, Americans For A More American America, should trigger some questions about the legitimacy of the quote.

r/Atheism

I am addicted to Reddit.com. If you haven’t heard of it, it is basically a website where users submit links to share with the world. The links can be sad, funny, serious, stupid, political, religious, etc. Within Reddit are “subreddits,” which host links that cater to certain audiences. For instance, there is r/Gaming for video gamers, r/Politics for government nerds like me, r/Nosleep for those who like scary stories, and many others. There is one subreddit, however, that just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s called r/Atheism, and it’s exactly what it sounds like plus some.

Usually I don’t have a problem with atheists or agnostics, but some of the links on r/Atheism are just plain insulting and some of the users are straight-up bigots. Instead of talking about secular subjects (like perhaps public policy, scientific theories, or whatnot), they dedicate their time to bash and belittle anything religious with snarky and insulting messages. They generalize the entire Christian community by focusing on religious lunatics and non-mainstream Christian groups. In my eyes, this group of users is a bunch of bullies; they try to make themselves look smarter and better than everyone else by trying to break the spirits of everyone else.

Don’t believe me? Check out this picture that was posted 15 hours ago on r/Atheism and has gotten 565 up-votes since:

This is insulting because this guy thought that religious people were simpletons before visiting the site, and now he wants to avoid them like he’s afraid of them. Religious people aren’t idiots and we shouldn’t be feared, or avoided, or whatever that Yao Ming face means. R/Atheism creates bigots and this is an example of such an instance.

So, instead of bashing people of faith, why don't these people talk about useful and productive things? I know some religious groups give Christians/Muslims/etc a bad name,  but you're not doing any favors for the reasonable atheists' and agnostics' name, either.

If you want to check it out for yourself, here’s the link: http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism

Controversy! Woot!

So this week we read about controversy, and since I’m bored with advertisements, I’m going to give my two cents on some hot issues that have Americans talking these days.

Gay Marriage:

            Why not? What’s so wrong about it? As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t heard a single, valid argument that proves same-sex marriage is perilous to the United States. Well, I haven’t heard any arguments that didn’t hide behind religion. Many of these Republicans and conservatives that oppose gay marriage are backed by religious-right groups and only state religious reasons for their political actions. Under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, this is not acceptable in American politics and I don’t see why they can’t see that. I have a friend who is fairly conservative and he said that he doesn’t support gay marriage only because it’s not what the word means. Please. Words change all the time (I won’t go into details because I’m lazy). Also, marriage itself is viewed differently, culture by culture; some people have more than one wife/husband even though it’s not as usual as a union between one man and one woman.

            I don’t really understand why Republicans are so caught up on this issue. Instead trying to figure out a way to make health care affordable (they complain about Obamacare… what’s their suggestion?), or bringing jobs back to American soil (because “job creators” are so reliable on that), they are trying to fix social issues that have no effect on the well being of the country.

Abortion:

            I don’t like it, but that doesn’t mean that it should be illegal, at least not during the first trimester. By this time, a woman should be able to decide whether to keep the fetus or not if she is at all questioning it; however, in cases of incest and rape, there should be no restrictions on a woman’s right to choose. But then again, I am not a woman, so I have no credibility to voice my opinion on the matter. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: this is a woman’s issue. It’s not a politician’s and not even the government’s.

Immigration:

            Immigrants built this country, and it’s dumb to forget that fact. This is why we should welcome anyone who wants to live here by giving illegal immigrants a way to gain citizenship instead of threatening them with deportation.

Medical Marijuana:

            There have been studies that prove that marijuana does have some beneficial properties for people with certain medical conditions. If people have good reasons for using marijuana for medical purposes, I have no problem with it. In fact, I support the legalization of marijuana with government regulation (similar as with alcohol). Not only would it cut crime rates, but also drug cartels and drug rings would die off because of lack of business. Plus, think of how much tax money the government could make from marijuana sales. A lot of people have a bad image of marijuana because of the perceived health risks involved, but the fact is, no one has ever died from an overdose, nor have any non-chronic users developed health issues from it. You know what’s a lot worse for people? Alcohol… people have been known to overdose on alcohol and that’s legal. Cigarettes are legal as well, even though there’s a strong connection between those and lung cancer. Let’s get away from rumors and misperceptions and look at the facts.

Contraception:

            It prevents the spread of STDs/STIs and it prevents unwanted pregnancy. Sounds pretty good to me! It should be taught in schools because kids are kids and they’re going to do what they’re going to do. I don’t believe an abstinence-only curriculum is effective because it doesn’t recognize that fact. Over 50% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 said that they have tried marijuana at least once in 2004 and that number is growing, and they have been told to not do it at all numerous times by schools. Just telling people to not have sex at all does not work. Yes, I know that the only 100% effective way to not get pregnant/contract an STD is to not have sex. Duh. But if I’m feeling stupid enough to try it anyway, I should probably know about the next best option.

            On the question of whether birth control should be covered by insurance companies, I believe it should. Besides from being a contraceptive, birth control pills can be an effective medication for certain health conditions. So, for the sake of health, not contraception, insurance companies should cover “the pill.”

Wow. This is a long post… so I’ll stop here. If you want to read more of my ranting, go to my passion blog. If you want, you can even start an argument with me! Those are always fun. :)