Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist to protest Eve Carson’s memorial service
March 17, 2008 on 8:38 am | In rants | No CommentsThe University gave them permission to protest in McCorckle place, while the memorial will be at the Dean Dome. Note that their flier advertises the protest location will be at the Dean Dome.
From their promotional flyer:
“God Hates American Colleges.
They are filthy, anti-God, arrogant,
debauched, decadent & depraved.
This victim was student body pres.
We will picket Eve Carson’s
memorial Tue., Mar. 18, ~:30 p.m.
Yes. In religious protest and warning; to wit:
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” Gal.
6:7. God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers. Ergo,
God hates N. Carolina Univ. It is a cesspool of
iniquity – throughout; top to bottom – staff,
administration, faculty, alumni, student body.
There is no fear of God before their eyes, and
hence they are irreversibly doomed. American
universities are God-defying, Satanic, and vile.”
more of their rabid vomit at http://www.godhatesfags.com/written/fliers/20080311_eve-carson-memorial.pdf
wellington ridge doesn’t recycle
August 27, 2007 on 9:43 pm | In rants | No Commentsafter weeks of calling the city to complain that the recycling trucks don’t swing through our complex, i’m throwing in the towel. they did come back through once, but quit again because my recycling bin and about three others were the only ones to show up on the sidewalk on recycling day. i’ll be taking mine to arch’s each tuesday night.
i came home from work late last week, the day after raleigh entered phase 1 water restrictions, to find workers power washing the building across the driveway from mine. never have i been more tempted to call the city and complain, but any fine would have simply come from my homeowner’s association.
volvos are hot!
July 19, 2007 on 12:48 pm | In rants | No Commentsnot hot as in commodity, but hot as in snowbirds. the 100 degree, steamy north carolina summer is making my car dream of montreal. so much so that its temperature sensors intermittently read -40F, a typical winter-time low in provincial quebec. i wish i were on vacation too, but i’m not – and as my car thinks its cold outside, the air conditioning system smartly turns on the heat.
trip 1 to crown volvo in chapel hill got the sensors tested and cleaned. it was fine for about two days. i called them, and was told i needed a replacement part.
trip 2 gets not the replacement part but a software upgrade. it was fine for about 24 hours. then the windows quit working, leaving me on walnut street with an A/C stuck on heat and no ventilation. i remembered the case notes from trip 1 read that they removed the driver’s door, and cleaned and greased as necessary. i open and close the driver’s door, and the windows work again.
trip 3 gets a few hours of testing in the sun and in the shade but my car, fearing disassemblage, shapes up for the duration.
i’m headed to pick it up in about an hour. we have a heat index of 105 today. i hope ford sells off volvo soon.
self-preservation
April 28, 2007 on 9:26 pm | In rants | No Commentsso, a few things that have happened in my personal life in the past week or two have shaken me to the core, shattering the little bubble in which i had sort of nested myself. once i progressed through the appropriate stages of flipping out, grieving, and a few days of being very, very angry, i have made a vow to myself that i will no longer be walked on, no longer be manipulated, and that i will remove negative influences from my life.
if flakiness counts, four people are removing themselves from my social rotation.
on H493 [Filed]
March 7, 2007 on 8:01 pm | In rants | 1 CommentYesterday, House bill H493 was filed by Moore, Crawford, Hill, and Johnson. The meat of it says:
SECTION 1. Article 14 of the North Carolina Constitution is amended by adding the following new section:
“Sec. 6. Marriage.
Marriage is the union of one man and one woman at one time. This is the only marriage that shall be recognized as valid in this State. The uniting of two persons of the same sex or the uniting of more than two persons of any sex in a marriage, civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar relationship within or outside of this State shall not be valid or recognized in this State. This Constitution shall not be construed to require that marital status or the rights, privileges, benefits, or other legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried individuals or groups.“
My first thought was, “If you don’t want gay marriage, don’t enter into a gay marriage.”
But on second thought, this is great! My fair legislators are about to save me a lot of money! Because surely if I can’t marry and can’t adopt and can’t receive the same benefits my married co-workers receive, I shouldn’t have to pay over 50% of my property taxes to support the public school system, since there is no possibility I’ll have children to attend it. I should get a credit from the state because my domestic partner, if I ever do have one, won’t be eligible for health insurance or any other spousal benefits from the state. Hell, he won’t even be able to see me in the hospital if I’m in the ICU under “family only” restrictions. Who wants that?
What I don’t understand is why Crawford, Moore, et al. are so intent on augmenting this restriction into our state constitution, since gay marriage is already disallowed in North Carolina, and there is really no restriction on marriage that our legislators could put in place that couldn’t be overruled by some judge, for some reason [N&O].
So. Since they’re not sponsoring this bill to save the state money (and with all the problems we have in our state today, I am perplexed that they see this as a valid expenditure of state funds and legislative time. But what do I know) and they aren’t doing it to protect North Carolina from having to recognize same-sex marriages from other states, why are they?
Why, to protect their Judeo-Christian belief system, of course. I consider myself a believer in the most prominent faith of our state, Protestant Christianity. Since I believe in it, I even read about it. My reading leads me to believe that Moore, Crawford, Hill and Johnson, if they read their Bibles, are missing some pages.
So, what does Jesus say about homosexuality? Nothing. Doesn’t mention it.
What does Jesus say about divorce? Does he say that God hates divorce? Over and over and over? Is divorce responsible for the dissolution of, what, 60% of marriages in this country? If they want to protect the sanctity of marriage so damned much, why don’t they outlaw divorce?
If they want to write the Old Testament laws into North Carolina law, why don’t they protect rape victims? Rapists must repay for their crimes by paying a paltry sum to the father of the victim, then marry the victim, without option of divorce. We should make it law. It’s in the Bible (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT).
Opponents of gay marriage constantly point to the Sodom and Gomorrah story to justify their disproval of homosexuals and gay marriage. But how, then, are they horrified with adult men who have sex with their teen-age daughters? Most people don’t read and aren’t told what happens after Lot and his daughters flee to the wilderness. They spend a night in the next town, abandoned presumably because of the earthquakes and glowing purple brimstone from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. They’re afraid to stay, fearing robbers or possibly the destruction of this abandoned town just as the day before. So they wind up sleeping in a cave.
Lot’s daughters, knowing that they’re now isolated and will have no one to grant them children, know what they must do. On one night, the older daughter produces a flask of wine she had hidden when they fled, gets her father drunk, and rapes him while he’s passed out. On the next night, the younger daughter does the same. Presumably they eventually venture out from the cave, and their children turn into a new tribe, or more likely they assimilate into some nearby tribe. But the fact remains – Lot’s daughters rape him, and I bet 95% of the self-professed “Christians” pointing to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in defense of the “defense” of marriage don’t know or care.
So, Moore, Crawford, Hill and Johnson, are you taking notes? Rape victims must marry their attackers without the option of divorce, incest is perfectly acceptable if performed in the name of procreation, and no divorces, ever! From any of your wives, because the Bible clearly condones polygamy. Ritual human sacrifice, slave ownership, the slaughter of rape victims (after they’ve been married off, I suppose) – it’s all in the Bible. You have quite a number of amendments to propose.
What a wonderful state you and our Bible will have created for the citizens of North Carolina! Congratulations on an excellent use of my tax payments.
le plus ca change…
January 6, 2007 on 5:58 pm | In masonry, rants | No Commentsabout to head to dinner to conclude a somewhat strange afternoon.
continued our yearly tradition of attending my dad’s lodge installation, this time as his first time not being installed as secretary in 32 years. the installation ceremony was the same as it has been in previous years. the pot luck lunch was wonderful as always. but some things were a little different:
- a latino gentleman was installed as the next position up in the chain towards serving as master of the lodge. he is friendly, gregarious and genuinely likable. to everyone except the member that quit because he thought “spics” didn’t belong in the lodge. in 2007.
- seeing water spurting up at the curb in the front yard, i asked one of the past masters if a water hose had been left running. “no, it’s the sump pump,” he said. “you should see it when the niggers walk by, it really makes ‘em jump!” in 2007.
- on a lighter note, today marked a first for every member of the lodge. the newly installed tyler was apparently shirking his responsibilities, as not once but twice the neighbor’s cat darted in the open lodge front door and open lodge room door, interrupting the service and putting a smile on everyone’s face.
even my own mother, who was born and raised in ohio, described some sort of nut for my nephew, saying “we always called them nigger toes.”
next up is dinner at cracker barrel, long known for firing minorities. who says you can’t go home?
lord prepare me, to deal with the pork-tuary…
December 31, 2006 on 11:32 am | In organ, rants | No Commentsi love it when people get married in my church. they always do it on a saturday afternoon, and the wedding planner, who always treats the sanctuary as a showplace rather than a place of worship, always leaves the church in such a state that it takes me around 45 minutes to get the place ready for service. today i did nothing. as my friend bud has said:
The Altar table is solemnly consecrated in a lengthy service which has its roots in the consecration of the Second Temple … it includes washing the altar, anointing it, sealing grains of incense in five crosses cut into it with hot wax from the paschal candle, lighting a FIRE on it, either directly (in the case of a stone altar) or in a brazier (in the case of a wooden altar) in which is burned cedar chips (in memory of the consecration of Solomon’s Temple), the Five Nails from the Paschal Candle, and the rest of the solemnly-consecrated Holy Oils, wine, and incense used for the anointing and consecrating of the table. Altars are NOT flower-stands.
apparently for yesterday’s newly-married and hopefully happy couple, the altar was a trash bag stand – and the organ bench was a trash can. my pastor’s bible was to be thrown on the floor in the corner of the hallway behind the nave – it didn’t belong anywhere near the pulpit. folding chairs were to be left folded, and stacked sideways in the foyer. the burger king bags and cigarette butts on the front porch were a nice touch.
a few years ago, i would try to balance the church’s sound panel back to some usable state for weeks each time little hands played with it, but couldn’t get the console moved where i wanted it in the first place so that i could get to it during the service. finally i began leaving things broken, so that the minister at the time had to do the service with no microphones for himself or the choir. the console was moved the next week.
under the same M.O., i simply gritted my teeth today and cleaned nothing. it physically hurt to walk past the abuse heaped on the only sanctuary i’ve ever known, the only church i have ever called home. but i am tired of picking up after the mess left by the children, and i absolutely refuse to clean up after the adults, most of them afforded the title only due to their age.
when sherri moore-mott held the pulpit there, i was a believer. since she left i have struggled both with my own faith and the constant temptation to leave and find a real church, now more than ever. the church is again on the campus that i consider my home, and is less than a mile from my parents’ house, so attending there makes it very, very convenient to see my parents each week. now that we’ve switched to a praise-and-worship format i am expected to do less than ever with the salary. but i’ve come to regard my attendance here as a game, to see whether i can be driven away from christianity by the various pastors we’ve had in the past five years, and driven away from playing the organ by the criticisms and insults handed to me by the adults that have passed through.
so far, i’m still winning.
next? what next?
December 22, 2006 on 9:30 am | In rants | No Commentssometimes i face a dilemma between choosing the free, environmentally-responsible bus system versus chunking a mortgage payment’s worth for an on-campus parking permit. unfortunately i ignored my co-worker’s suggestion that i park in the commercial lot on rosemary street for the day, as the gates were up and there was no attendant.
i ignored his suggestion because i was already at the park and ride, staring at the next bus marquee telling me that the S would arrive in 4 minutes. it had been counting down from 15 minutes since i got out of the car. an HU bus pulled up. “you probably want to get on,” the driver told me “cause the S ain’t runnin today. you gonna be waitin here all day.” the HU couldn’t take me where i want to go in any directy way because of road construction, and i couldn’t walk from where i got off of the HU to where i wanted to be because of more construction blocking off the entire block, but walking from the hospital up to sitterson then back to manning is preferable to standing at the bus stop, sucking on a lollipop.
how much did chapel hill/carrboro pay for the blessed next bus system, the astonishing real-time bus tracker that estimates arrival times for routes that aren’t running, the one that discourages drivers from waiting on would-be riders running to catch up to their bus because they’ll get in trouble if next catches them leaving behind schedule?
they would have better spent that money on raises for drivers like jerry, the HU driver who went way above and beyond to make sure that each of his passengers knew how to get where they needed to be despite the various road construction sites, despite reduced bus service due to the impending holiday, and the fact that chapel hill transit has no holiday schedule or route alteration notices posted on their web site.
the heads of every organization i have ever worked for have stressed that it is the people who make or break the group. it appears that chapel hill transit is no different.
alone.
November 4, 2006 on 3:15 pm | In peeps, rants | No Commentslistening to thomas datt’s “alone” whilst lifting weights is paying off. after a slightly harried week at work i’m spending a wonderful sunny saturday afternoon on my couch, watching the world through the patio door. my place is a little junked up as my roommate is packing to move out, but in the long run i think i’m going to be much happier.
his empty, to-be-packed boxes are piled up beneath the painting that my grandmother gave me, the painting he told me looked “tacky.” beneath the boxes is the area rug my mom picked out, the one he told me was “heinous.” by my front door, his stinky golf shoes sit in my getabako next to the pair of adidas i just bought, the ones he told me made him “so glad that i finally bought a pair of shoes that are fashionable.” he’s more than doubling his living expenses to move into an apartment complex built in the 30s that has baseboard heat and no A/C, but i hope he’ll be happier there than he has been here in my “crappy little place” (again, his words). it will be nice to be able to come home and relax, rather than walking on eggshells lest any side comment i make give him more ammunition to criticize me or my clothes or my place or the way i’ve decorated it.
i’ll miss the friend i had up to, maybe, three months ago, but i won’t miss the person i know today. so the trick is to try to remember what our friendship used to be, and forget the rest. never a simple trick for me.
woe is me…
October 24, 2006 on 7:48 pm | In peeps, rants | No Comments…or more accurately, when it rains it pours. in the past few days:
- my dad found out he has a 2″-3″ aneurysm in his aorta, and they want to operate immediately
- my roommate told me he is moving out, and i *hate* being alone in my place at night
- we’ve had hours-long outages for a high-profile site at work, due to a totally unecessary and recurrent reason
- the weather is getting colder, my skin is getting drier, and it’s getting dark way earlier. whine whine whine
my dad should be fine, though he’s going to stew over every bit of his treatments. they’ve opted to do radiation instead of chemotherapy or surgery for his cancer, which is good. they found the aneurysm, so they can take care of it, which is good. weird part: if i understand my dad correctly, and my dad understands the doctors and his medical charts correctly, they knew he had the aneurysm and told him about it four years ago when he had his open heart surgery. i hope i don’t understand him correctly.
on a brighter note, i love my job more than ever. it pays well, it’s rewarding, the people are smart and fun and interesting. now if i could get my life outside of work into the same lane, i’d be in good shape! i think selling my place in cary may be a good first step – i can reclaim nearly two hours of my day if i can get rid of that damned commute. i might even be able to use that extra time to take organ lessons from the University, and be able to practice again. i’ve got to find a place back in chapel hill…
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