Bleargh!

[nolawitch58]

As I strolled into the library this afternoon to do some research for my proposal, which will be finished some time this weekend, a former member of the writers' group shouted at me. We chatted for about an hour about writing.

Toward the end of our chat, he mentioned that he wasn't a male chauvenist in response to someone else's remark to him that he must not like women. I idly mentioned that it was a shame the rest of the country seemed to have a problem with women in charge. He then said I must be for Hillary. I said I liked her policy ideas and her toughness, but I could see the allure of Obama; he's got charisma out the yin-yang. Then the guy said something that floored me: he said he would have to vote for McSame because of his Catholic faith.

I said I loved the Constitution too much to want any damned religion established and that the Repblican party's kowtowing to the religious right amounted to establishing a religion. I said the gay marriage thing was exactly the same and that secular law shouldn't be based on religious principles alone. I wanted to ask him how he could be so unAmerican, but he seemed to realize he had hit a nerve.

He really doesn't like women. He just doesn't know it. He thinks that all women have no objection to being slaves to their reproductive organs, even though he's met someone--me--who speaks openly and strongly about women having options that don't include motherhood. He's not stupid so I can't really figure out what drives a guy like that to such a severe cranial-rectal inversion.

Comments

[wyldraven.livejournal.com]

Then the guy said something that floored me: he said he would have to vote for McSame because of his Catholic faith.

Does he know about McSame and Hagee of the "Catholic Church is the Great Whore" comment? Un-f***ing believable.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Got one even worse on Hagee! McCain had to reject Hagee's endorsement because Hagee said that Hitler was doing God's will by forcing the Jews to come together and go to Israel, thus fulfilling Biblical prophecy!

[wyldraven.livejournal.com]

Yep, saw that. But Catholics typically don't care about Jews. They should however be incensed about the "Great Whore" commentary...

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

That comment is nasty. However, every fundy douchebag makes that comment.

That was the first time I heard anyone, outside of neo-Nazi types, say that the Holocaust was a good thing! I want to shove that guy inside an MRI, give him a brain scan, and then douche out his head.

[real-skeptic.livejournal.com]

You're assuming, of course, that there will be something there to be scanned.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

"He really doesn't like women. He just doesn't know it. He thinks that all women have no objection to being slaves to their reproductive organs, even though he's met someone--me--who speaks openly and strongly about women having options that don't include motherhood. He's not stupid so I can't really figure out what drives a guy like that to such a severe cranial-rectal inversion."

Or this guy could be so religious that there is a disconnect between himself and reality. I have experienced this myself. If you spend all your time at work and church, you are isolated from reality, because you are never outside artificially controlled and rigidly structured atmospheres. I actually spent most of my time in school (later work) or church until last year. (When I say "church," I mean any organized religion.) This isolated me to such an extent that I still appear unworldly to this day, and I'm almost 34. Maybe that's this guy's problem; too much church, not enough reality.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

I thought he was fairly worldly. His former career involved, shall we say, public speaking and travel. I would have thought even former show business folk were more enlightened, even the ones in the less glamorous fields.

Try as I might, I can't blame isolation. Though he lives in a burb, he's still in the Greater New Orleans area. I don't think even the most uptight Uptown Catholics really vote against abortion so much as for their old money birthrights. He's old, though. Sometimes they can't let go of stupid shit they learned in their youth, even if that was so alien to modern life.

Like I said, I'm puzzled.

Im thinking its his religion talking ...

[ozdragonlady.livejournal.com]

Like the guy said, give them a child until hes five and hes theirs for life ...

My otherwise intelligent and educated very-lapsed Catholic friend still had some odd issues about sex. Your friend only has to have gone to a catholic elementary school to have come out thinking that way. There is a tendency for the brainwashing to take efect at a gut level. I had for a short time a friend who considered that since I was Anglican, I couldnt possibly have any morals. He was totally at a loss when I fell about laughing at that and similar pronouncements.

[ms-issicran.livejournal.com]

Independent thought complacency, for some it's just too easy to let your religion think for you.

[real-skeptic.livejournal.com]

People can't separate their religion from the way they think. And the monotheistic religions generally include the belief that the god created man for a purpose. So man has to fulfill that purpose. Replication is perceived as part of the god's plan, because if you do not replicate, that god will not have the pawns needed for his Grand Plan in the coming generations, would he?

So a woman who does not wish to replicate basically goes against the god's plan.

Also, religion moves everything from the domain of opinions and wishes, where you have to accept that different people think different things, into the domain of absolutes. If the god endorses one way of thinking, it becomes the absolute correct opinion and any other view is incorrect and shouldn't be tolerated.

The stronger your tie to that kind of religion is, the closer you are to believing in absolutes, to being intolerant, and to labeling people.

[saminz.livejournal.com]

No idea what's eating that one - apart from religion...

But better get used to quite intelligent people having a penchant towards sort of "neglecting" parts of their world-view...
I have found that just the very intelligent ones tend to give in to absolute authority gladly - at least in parts that lie outside their immediate expertise. Maybe they have to lead(or think?) too often. So that they are glad there are fields where others do/have done all the necessary thinking for them already...?

I have dropped my "FP" like a hot potato after hearing him express admiration for Nazism under the influence of a new "father-figure".
Maybe you will do better :-).

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

And I haven't forgotten about you or your MSS.

My problems with Hillary aren't centered on her genetalia; it's her old-boy network that she's inherited from her husband. I really want to give a whole new set of people a chance at ruining running things.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

This was supposed to be a reply to the main post. Not that I don't like talking to you, Saminz :)

[saminz.livejournal.com]

No worries.
I'm kind of relieved I wasn't supposed to make sense of this, to be honest :-D!

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

I know you're right. The reason the current crop of cockstains is so good at the thievery they've perpetrated is because many of them go back to the Nixon Administration. When you've had three decades to hone your evil skills, you'll be pretty good at it.

Obama is fresh air AND Times Square. The shithole he would inherit is so horrible, I don't know if he would have the stomach for the enormous cleanup involved. I think she knows exactly how shitty it is and is willing to do all the dirty work necessary to clean up the Bush mess. I feel that she would be more apt to go to the American people with unpopular but important changes we all need to make. He makes me feel good about the country, but is that enough?

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

You like Hillary's policies?!? And yet you deride McCain by calling him McSame? Hillary's as in the pocket of big insurance as Bush is in Big Oil's.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

I like that she wants health care for EVERYBODY straight out of the box; none of the piecemeal kinda crap that others propose. Like pulling a bandage off a wound, you don't tug and worry at it; you give it a firm, decisive yank and it's gone. It hurts once and then you get used to the air hitting the scabbing and scarring. The whole "let's cover a small chunk of people first and then expand it" concept is ridiculous. When the PROBLEM is that every person doesn't have health care, you can't make the solution be give some of them health care and to hell with the rest.

I will never again vote for ANY Republican until such time as they've tossed the religious wingnuts' agenda out of their party platform. Unlike some idiots, I will vote for whichever Democrat eventually gets the nomination because he or she will be infinitely better than a Republican.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Umm, you do realize her "solution" is to mandate that you purchase insurance? Whether you need it, whether you can afford, she doesn't care. She is solely a big health insurance shill, and THEY'RE THE DAMN PROBLEM.

Another thing I don't like about her is how she seems to be willing to abide by any rules that will make her the nominee, and when a particular set of rules disappoints, she's perfectly willing to disregard it and adopt another. That's about as much respect for the rule of law Mr Bush has.

Surely the real flaw is the entire system of Gubberment you have there

[tomo2k.livejournal.com]

America calls itself a Democracy, but it isn't.

The choice of a President isn't actually made by the people - it's made by the individual state delegates.
I'm not entirely sure how the Senate and Congress are actually chosen though.

Plus you have a two-party system. That's always going to be fundamentally broken - two poor options is not a choice.

The UK isn't much better, but at least we have three viable parties.
- On the other hand, the Queen technically has the legal power to dissolve Parliament!
I doubt she would though, as the last King to do that finished his career about six inches shorter...

Re: Surely the real flaw is the entire system of Gubberment you have there

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think having the right to choose between which of two candidates is going to represent the Lockheed-Martin company's views in congress is meaningful democracy either. And it's rather shocking how monopolized the political system is by the two major parties, and how few people actually realize the massive barriers there are to entry by "third parties". There are actually different election rules for the two major parties vs other parties, and they're extremely skewed in favor of the entrenched Democrat/Republican parties.

The choice of a President isn't actually made by the people - it's made by the individual state delegates.

It sorta is, I have no idea what you mean by the second half of this. It's not a direct popular vote, and there are good reasons for that. Sure it gets people panties in a wad when someone's candidate wins the popular vote, but them's the rules for a reason.