And now for something completely different or Porkbrains kin haz thoughts?

Porkbrains and Milk Gravy! YUMMY!

     Words from my less famous brother which includes words he stole from me.  Visit his blog, enjoy his quips and wisecracks.  Throw him money, just not rolls of quarters.  Those hurt.

GETTING REALLY ANNOYED or Mansplaining 101

True Locker Room Talk

 Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock...with no WiFi…Smoke signals...two coconuts to bang together has now heard of the Toupee that walks like a man’s comment about grabbing women in places associated with felines without their permission. The Trumpservatives in the Good Old Obnoxious Party (GOOP) have been doing their best to somehow mansplain away the remarks with the usual “He was only joking” and the more recent “Well every guy says things like that when he is alone with other guys.” The idea seems to be that we shouldn’t be mad with the Donald because the things he said are perfectly normal for men and that we should just get over it.

As a man (53 years old now so I am pretty sure that is what I am. Well except on every other Tuesday when I think I am a pickle. Don’t ask, my therapist is working on it.), I can assure everyone that the disgusting things that Cheeto Face said are not the norm. I played football/Baseball/Basketball (Badly) in high school and very rarely did you hear such talk come out of anyone’s mouth. Generally if someone did say something like that, we just looked at him funny and moved on with our lives.

The idea that talking about groping women in their “pussy” is somehow okay to do and the even more absurd idea that it is something that all men do is insulting and the fact that all men aren’t screaming at the top of their lungs for justice is a sign of just how deep the Rape Culture in America and in the whole world runs.

The idea that it is okay to assault women (or men for that matter) with words and actions is entrenched in our culture and our beliefs. Look at any given rape trial. The defense’s arguments invariably devolve down to what the victim did to deserve to be raped. “The way she was dressed..” “She was drinking too much...” “She led the man on...” are pretty much cut and paste for rape trials. The fact that a man can rape an unconscious girl for over 30 minutes and only get a few months jail time proves that Rape Culture is alive and unwell in the USA.

Among some of the things I have seen posted to try to defend our future Oompaloompa In Charge (OIC! Get it!? No? Moving on…) is memes mentioning 50 Shades of Grey. The idea is how can a book that is a story of a Man and Woman practicing BDSM (Not going to spell that one out, there might be children reading this...or at least childlike people reading this.) be so popular with women if they are are offended by Trump talking about grabbing people in the kitty cat. The idea is that if a woman enjoys reading FICTION about two people involved in a CONSENSUAL RELATIONSHIP then she shouldn’t be upset and insulted by an arrogant man yelling that he could grope the fuzzies of any woman he wanted, whether she was actually willing or not.

Similar memes show images of various stars and famous type people who are kind of well known for their more (ahem) creative expressions such as suggestive lyrics, erotic dance moves and just plain naked pictures and suggests that women cannot be offended by Don Don’s (Watch Cannonball Run to get that joke.) commentary on grabbing felines because they enjoy such stuff.

Now the problem with this kind of “logic” is a pretty simple one. The big difference between Ricky Manage singing, “I need a bigun raht now” and placing her hand twixt her nether regions and Trumplelupagus talking about groping is that 1. It’s Ricky’s body so if she wants to touch it, she is kind of allowed and 2. The song is (ready for this) about CONSENSUAL SEX! That’s right, not about some greasy haired orange dude coming up behind her and grabbing her where the sun don’t shine.

In closing and trying to sum up this somewhat rambling rant let me just state things as clearly as I can. (Which knowing me, might not be that clear but what the heck, lets try!) Real men don’t say the things that Trump said, even in private. Adolescent boys may say something like that to try and prove their manhood and there are indeed Adolescent boys running around in wrinkled old men skins like Trump who do indeed say those things. Any real man who hears this sort of crap should be offended as heck, not try to explain it all away as “Lockeroom talk” or “Well all men say that sort of thing.” Real men should imagine creeps like Trump groping their mothers, daughters and friends and be outraged.

Until men stop defending people like Brock and Trump (and yes, Bill Clinton too), nothing will ever change. Men will keep justifying their violence towards women and the world will keep accepting it. We have to change, but that change has to start with not just letting the crimes pass by.

End of Rant

Footnote: It strikes me as sadly amusing that the same men who go on and on and on about how other cultures condone the rape and abuse of women under a certain religious sect, but are perfectly okay when the same crimes are visited upon the women and girls of their own culture. If you are getting upset about women being raped in other countries, then shouldn’t you get really honked off about your own countrymen doing the same or worse? Just a closing thought.

Your opinion is invalid or REALITY CHECK!

     For those of you who haven't guessed it yet, I am an Author.  I write, people give me money for the crazy things that go on inside my head.  Heck even this blog earns me money from people who read it thanks to the various ads you occasionally see along the sides or the bottom.  I have been writing and getting paid for it since I was 16 years old and sold my first article (Appropriately called “If you don't vote, don't complain”) to the old GRIT newspaper.  (Not going to try explain the GRIT.  If you are curious, research it)
     So having said this, let me put this as plainly as I can.  If an Author writes something, but offers no commentary on it, then you may feel to interpret its meaning anyway you like and even think you are right.  HOWEVER, if the author plainly tells you exactly what his intent was and that intent disagrees with your interpretation, YOU ARE WRONG!  Period, fini, end of discussion.  You don't get to say what his intent “actually was.”
See that is the arrogance of non-creative people.  You all think that your reality is more important than the people who create those worlds and words that you could never hope to create on your own.  You take someone else's work and impose your rules and delusions on it.  You think that you have the right to make the rules and interpretations about other people somehow fit into your own limited world.
     Like I said, if an author/painter/sculptor puts a work out there with no background or explanation of intent, then anyone can be free to interpret its meaning to their hearts content.  Hells, if said creative type person does put out the intent of the work, you are still free to interpret but you are not allowed to say the creative person's intent is wrong.  You aren't allowed to say, “Well I know what she said she meant” but I know what she really meant.
So the next time you want to say, “That ain't what he really meant,” check yourself before you wind up looking totally stupid.  Oh I know you didn't think you looked totally stupid, but I am interpreting what you REALLY meant, and that was that you look completely stupid.

Calling A Spade A Spade or "That's so wacist" the sequel.

     (My wife asked me to tate on something that had been working at her headparts for days and I agreed to do it so that got me to thinking (A dangerous thing, especially when I am unsupervised) about of different things that kind of grew off of what she talked about.  So it actually took me two or three days to cogitate a suitable rant about all of the things she mentioned and all of the things that occurred to me later on.  The following rant is the result of all that thoughtifying.  I hope you enjoy it.  As usual well worded praise or even critique is welcome.  Creative trolling is also enjoyed.  Read on, MacDuff!)
     Let me start this rant with a simple statement.  I am a Racist.  I always tell people that I am prolly the truest Racist they will ever meet.  Why, because I apply the terms racist and racism in the sense they should be used, not the lazy sloppy way people like to use it today.  See, Racism by its very nature means you hate a specific race.  Good example is a Facebook friend of mine, John hates Hobbits.  (Don't ask, I never do.)  He hates a specific race therefore he is a Racist.  There is only one Race of humanity and that’s well, the Human Race.  Everything else, where we are from, what color our skin is and what faiths we might believe in, are all imaginary divisions we created because OH MY GOD MYRTLE!  THOSE FOLKS DON'T LOOK LIKE US!
     Every human being on the planet is pretty much the same critter as every other human on the planet.  We can mate and make babies no matter who we are.  So there is only the Human Race.  When people say they are racist or someone is being racist, they actually mean bigot or bigoted.  Now me, I am a pure Racist.  In the 53 years I have been alive, I have learned one thing (Wow that sounds kind of sad when you put it like that.) and that is that HUMANS SUCK!  That's right, except for a very small minority (Huh pun), Humans are a greedy, selfish and evil lot that are more interested in themselves and how they can make their lives better than actually making a difference.  Now I have been blessed to know and be friends with individuals who ignore that mold, but for the most part, people suck.  Since I despise most of humanity, I can honestly say I am a Racist.
     Okay now that the disclaimer is out of the way, ON WITH THE RANT!
     Now I am going to put this as bluntly as I can.  (Cause we all know how I am usually so shy and polite right?)  If you put up pictures of Barack Obama and his family or any Black People portrayed as Chimpanzees or Apes, You are Racist (Using your usage here not mine.)  If you think that said pictures somehow funny, you are Racist.  Now let me flip that card over.  If you put up pictures of Donald Trump as an Orangutan, you are a Racist.  If you think said pictures of Trump are funny, you are a Racist.  If you put up pictures of an Anus with an orange toupee and call it Trump, you are not Racist, but not very creative.  If you put up pictures of Obama as Black Hitler Devil with big boobs (Don't laugh someone actually wore that costume during Obama's second election), you are being Racist, but you are very confused.
     Some images are historically extremely racist.  The portrayal of Black People as Apes or Chimps predates the Civil War and were used (Are still used) to imply that the Black man was less than the White Man.  There has never been a time where portraying a Black person as a monkey or ape wasn't as insulting and racist as you could possibly get.  Even after the actual images became less common, the portrayal of the Black person would always including exaggerated features that made them look more apelike.
     People who post charming pictures that portray the POTUS and First Lady as Chimps are racists and no one can defend them by saying they aren't.  If you defend them, then you should probably take a very good look at yourself, because odds are pretty good that you are just as racist as they are.
I think that amuses me the most about the Racists who keep posting this crap and the people that support them is that if the situation was reversed (Wait wouldn't that be noitautis eht?) they’d be screaming bloody murder.  Using Trump (Hey he's loud and he's orange so he's a convenient pawn) as my example, if people suddenly started posting pictures of Trump decked out in the robes of a Grand Dragon of the KKK and his followers wearing robes and holding burning crosses, people would be honked as hells.  They'd be screaming DISCRIMINATION at the top of their lungs.  But the analogy would be just as accurate as the Ape one for Obama.
     (Side note here.  I despise Trump and personally think his followers are short a few synapses in the headparts, but I do not associate him or all of them with the KKK.  This is just an example.  Besides, we all know Trump would never wear a hood because 1. It hides his face so people can't see him and B.  It might make the muskrat on top of his head mad.  Like I said this is just an extreme comparison.)
     So if you want to use things like apes to insult Black People, feel free to do so, but keep in mind that no matter how you try to justify it, you are being racist.  If you sit there at your computer screen and guffaw at those images, you are being racist.  I cannot stop you, not would I.  It is a free country and even hate speech is protected under the 1st Amendment.  But don't sit there and pretend that you aren't being racist.  Either change your way of thinking or be okay with idea.
     As a final note, I personally not only find people who use racial stereotypes as insults racist, but also lazy as heck.  It takes no effort or creativity to use the same old tired tropes that have been used for decades.  If you are going to be insulting, at least be creative about it.

You keep using this meme... or Are you all really paying attention?

You might be a Conservative if you actually believe this

So I have been seeing the above link in meme form for a couple of weeks now and the level of stupid it puts forth is downright mind boggling. The proposal is that certain groups are absolutely insane if they actually vote for Clinton. Since the vast majority of the people posting it are rabid Conservatives, the assumption is that the groups mentioned in the memes (Usually Gays, Women, Blacks and Immigrants although it can vary.) should instead vote for members of the GOP, presumably Donald Duck...err Trump and that is where the stupid comes into play.

Let's ignore (Much like the GOP) all of those groups but the first one. GAYS...GAYS...GAYS! (Wow what an echo!) The memes merely suggest that Hilly Clinton would be a horrible choice for Gays, but the video linked above actually gives demonstrations of how horrible Clinton is about Gays. While the videos (Many from years ago) seem damning and ignoring the fact that people can change their opinions about stuff (Well some people can. After all we have had 9 Benghazi Investigations and people are demanding a 10th), I think the people posting it all are missing an important point and its a kind of big thing.

NO MATTER HOW BAD CLINTON MIGHT BE, THE GOP AND CONSERVATIVES ARE A MILLION TIMES WORSE!

Here are the facts. I know it bothers some of you to hear them but get over it. This is my blog after all.

1. The vast majority of GOP Politicians oppose same-sex marriage. Donald Trump, Clinton's counterpart says that if he is elected, he will destroy the SCOTUS ruling that allows Same Sex Marriage. A majority of GOP Politicians want to not only strike down SS Marriage, they want to reinstate the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA for short) which would once again state that the Federal Government's definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. (The knee jerker here is that most of the people demanding this are currently screaming that the Fed has no right to define marriage for the entire country, but that it should be the State's right to decide. Hypocrisy much?)
2. The vast majority of GOP Politicians (At least on the sate level) actively oppose Same Sex Adoption of children. On a national level, several GOP members have tried to pass items that expressly state that children are much better with “Traditional Families” than with Same Sex ones. Local GOP Goons have even gone so far as to compare SS Parents to child molesters and perverts.
3. The GOP crowd also want to reinstate the rules that prevent LGBT individuals from openly serving in the US military. They want Don't Ask Don't Tell reinstated so that LGBT individuals will have to hide who they are and who they love again. The GOP clings to the lie that openly serving LGBT are destructive to the military and dangerous to our preparedness for trouble if it should arise. Never mind that in the time since DADT was removed, all of the things that the GOP has claimed would happen hasn't happened.
   Now I could go on and on about other things mentioned in the video, but I think I covered the truly stupid one. I am not saying that you should vote for Hillary Clinton. Hells, I'm not saying that you shouldn't vote for Donald Trump...Wait! Yes I am! Don't do it! ITS A TRAP! However any member of the LGBT community that truly believes that voting for ANY Conservative Politician is a good idea that will insure that their rights are protected really should get serious mental therapy done. Just sayin...
   End of Rant

"Freedom of Religion" or "You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean"

So I live in a neighborhood that is one of the most culturally diverse ones that I have ever lived in before. Of course given the fact that I am from the Deep, Deep, Deep South, that's prolly not saying much. We got people from England, Russia, all over the Middle East, all parts of Africa and who knows where else living in a fairly close area. It is truly interesting and inspiring.

One of our neighbors is Muslim and performs his daily prayers in the morning and in the afternoon from the deck behind his townhouse. I generally hear him when I go out in the afternoons to go to work and actually enjoy listening to his prayers for a few seconds before I get in my car.

So yesterday as I was leaving for work, he was out giving his prayers and the elderly couple from across the parking lot were standing in front of my house (for some strange reason not in front of their own house) and they were staring in the direction of the gentleman praying. The woman said, “I don't like that. He shouldn't be doing that.” The man replied with a nod, “I am going to complain about it. He doesn't have the right to do that.”

Now folks, keep in mind what this old White dude just said. “He doesn't have the right to do that.” That statement should scare the living crap out of you. An American (Presumably anyways) stated that another American (confirmed, I have spoken to the gentleman before) stated arrogantly did not have the right to practice his religion. Can you grasp how fundamentally (Pun intended. Get it?) FUGGED up that is?

I see a lot of that these days. People who have the attitude that their faith is the only one covered under the 1^st Amendment. They feel that they have the right to say, “Well I don't like your religion (or lack there of in the case of Atheists) so you don't have the right to practice it.” An even larger group seems to have the attitude of “Well, you can practice your faith, but not where I can see it or hear it.” (Huh Same Sex relationships and Religion...whodathunk it?)

Folks, that ain't the way it works. That's not the way any of this works. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (Sorry apparently its a bold/italic kind of day.)

A follower of Islam has the exact same right to worship as a follower of that carpenter guy...Jessie...Josie...err somfin or another. They can stand on their porch belting out prayers to their hearts content and there is nothing you can do about it. If you find the sound annoying, go inside or go for a walk until they are done. I personally find the prayers a lot less annoying then the loud, canned Christian music blaring out from loudspeakers every hour on the hour from churches. When you can hear that crap from 8 blocks away, it is too danged loud. Just saying.

The almost overwhelming attitude among a lot of “Christians” today is that only Christianity is covered under the 1^st Amendment. Well, Christianity and Judaism since they kind of use parts of the same rule book. Atheists are actually banned from holding public office in many Red States and many of our so called leaders push for laws that prevent Muslims from holding any sort of office, including POTUS and SCOTUS. They want Christian Law to be the ONLY law of the land. (Sharia Law West anybody?)

Before the US of A was even...well the the US of A, it was built on the very foundation of Religious Freedom. People came here so that they could live, love and worship however they please without fear of persecution or punishment. When this country was founded, the wise men who forged it saw the evils of a “State Religion” and made sure that no one religion would ever be the only recognized one. At least three of the Founding Fathers weren't even Christian and of the remaining ones, the diversity in Christian Denomination was mind boggling. So the idea that people today want to limit the religious rights of others while forcing their own beliefs onto everyone is about as UnAmerican as Borscht (The mind boggles over the fact I spelled Borscht correctly the first time. Must have been channeling Donald Trump's Same Sex Lover, Putin.)

What it boils down to is something very simple. You don't have to like someone else's faith. You don't have to take their faith seriously. You are even allowed to think that their faith is stupid and even evil. You are not allowed to ban their faith. You are not allowed to stop them from publicly practicing their faith. So the next time you or anyone thinks or says, “They don't have the right,” I have one bit of advice. Suck it up, Buttercup! (Wow, bold, italics, underlined AND a bigger font.)

End of Rant.

End of Rant.

A shield against the storm

     A wise man once wrote, "no man is an island."   Another wrote something along the lines of "a house built upon the sand."  Both spoke of how we will always be stronger when we have those we can depend on and always trust to "have our 6."  It doesn't matter how strong a person is or how independent he thinks he is, he is always stronger when he has family backing him up.
     I have been blessed with a handful of friends that are as close to me as family.  People who I know quite literally call at 3am in the morning and say, "I need help" and that is all it would take for them to be on the road to aid me.  If you have never known that incredible gift, I feel sorry for you.
     Recently, my family suffered a terrible loss.  The sudden shock was a brutal blow to us.  I reached out to one of those "family by choice not by blood" just for a sympathetic early.  This Brother not only gave me that ear, be offered so much more.  I told him how we might not be able to afford something very important and this Brother that I know can ill afford the extra cash said "we can help with that if you need it."
     That is the rock that my house is built on.  Friends, some I have known forever and a few I have only known as short time, that I know will always be there for me.  That is my greatest gift and my greatest responsibility because I must be the same rock for all of them.

No Rant This Time, Just Gratitude.