"Hi" redux

A while ago I wrote a piece here titled “hi”

In that piece I explained how annoying it was when I’m on social media sites and I receive the “hi” message from strangers.

I’m probably going to just start replying to those messages with a link to that blog post.

It’s one thing if you know me and start a conversation like that. We already have something in common, it’s quite another thing if we don’t know each other.

Look at the scenario.

Person A Sends a message to person B

hi

Person B gets an email or text notification that they have a message.

They stop what they’re doing, log on to the site where the message originated, navigate to the email and they read the mind bogglingly intelectual message from Person A.

hi

Now Person B checks out the online profile of Person A.

Person B thinks “Hey they’re kind of cute” and despite the fact that the social media site has ample space for Person A to describe themselves and their interests they have refused to provide any information at all except the requisite gender and location.

What is Person B supposed to do? What response can be formulated? As I see it there are four options.

  1. Respond with “Hello, thank you for your message.” and hope that Person A can in fact carry their end of a conversation.
  2. Respond with an equally inane “hi”
  3. Respond with “Hello you’re cute, did you want to get together and fuck?” 
  4. Ignore messages from Person A
I’ve tried all four responses with varying results.
Oddly response #4 elicits the most interesting behavior. Person A continues to send messages that simply say “hi” over and over again until I block the moron.
Options #1 & #2 are about equally ineffective. Person A responds to each with a one to four word response. The response is usually chosen at random from the following list.
“hi”, “sup”, “what are you doing?”, “hows it hangin?”, “where are you?”, “what are you into?”, “stats”
These short responses go on and on until I simply can’t be bothered anymore. By the time Person A gets around to saying anything interesting I’m over them and no longer reading their messages.
At least the multiword choices demonstrate some grasp of the language. I personally find “Stats” offensive but it IS honest in that it’s obvious the sender is looking for a quick hookup.
Response #3 most often generates a distinctive silence. The honesty of “Stats” is apparently acceptable, but putting my desire into actual words is somehow too nasty.
I’m a man… I want to fuck, I want to shoot my creamy load… and why shouldn’t I be honest about that desire?

If you’re saying nothing more than “hi” you’ve left me with nothing to build a conversation on so why not cut to the chase? You want my dick and I’m willing to let you have it.

The most ironic bit of all this is, I’m listed as seeking friends and chat in my profile.

The people that most often send “hi” say they want to chat too. Perhaps my first clue is that these people can’t be honest enough with themselves about what they’re really wanting. Maybe I’ll change my profile to “Seeking Kinky SEX “

At least then the people contacting me might have a clear idea about what they’re after.
The problem is, that I really am looking for local potential friends…

I’m going to have to start hanging out at the local bar, at least then the person saying “hi” is prepared enough or drunk enough to respond with a sentence… or by paying for the drinks!

Gay People Are Not…

…Looking to convert anybody

Why on earth would you seek to convert someone’s sexuality? Especially if you knew that you were condemning the person or persons successfully converted to a life where hatred, ridicule, violence (in word and deed), and where federally mandated loss of constitutional rights was all they had to look forward to. No one is that cruel. Especially not Gay people.

…Child Molesters

In the main, gay people do not molest children. Straight People do!! After all Jerry Sandusky isn’t gay is he? Nor is Bernie Fine. In fact, I defy you to find a significant number of gay people within the larger group of identified child molesters. Contrary to what the Christian Right would have you believe, once someone comes to grips with their gayness they tend to get over the guilt and put together a life that is positive instead of one where they simmer in self loathing. Fundamentalist Christianity has done more to harm in this area than help. Shame and Guilt are not useful controls of human behavior they only serve to create a dark shadow world fueled by self hatred.

…Always Effeminate, Hairdressers, Interior Designers, or Fashionistas.

Gay people are in every walk of life. They are scientists, doctors, lawyers, house painters, machinists, magicians, singers, dancers, truckers, pilots, steel workers, boat captains, and auto mechanics. Pick ANY profession and you’ll find a gay person there. What the media often portrays as representative GAY people is the equivalent of the wonderful “Crazy Eyes” photos of Michelle Bachmann. (except SHE IS Crazy)

…Weak

Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that Gay people are not weak.

Many Gay people are, or were soldiers. Just because the Government and Christian Fundamentalists like Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Mit Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Tony Perkins, and Fred Phelps convinced themselves that dishonorable discharges were the only fit punishment for Gay soldiers…
It in no way means that the training those soldiers received was erased when their military careers were.

Those men and women are a resource and they’ll train the rest of the gay community if necessary to defend themselves.

In the main, gay people are pretty peaceful and liberal. A segment of the gay population is downright anti-gun, anti-war, & anti-volience, at any price. BUT… and this is important… Gay people come from all walks of life, and every single state and community within this country.

So all you Christian Fundamentalists out there, Picture your redneck cousins from Arkansas in your uncles truck with rifles. Toss in a couple of Desert Storm, Desert Shield, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans. Sounds like a great time hunting Elk doesn’t it?

Now imagine them as ALL GAY. Scary?

If the fundamentalist, bible thumping, child molesting, sons of bitches, ever try to take basic rights away from Gay people or try something even more stupid like imprisoning people because they’re Gay…

Be assured that scary image is what they’ll be looking at. Think long and hard about it.

Oh, the Gays will be stylish, and will do you the courtesy of shooting your bigoted asses with the finest ammo money can buy.

But the bottom line is….

BRING IT BITCHES!


I can assure you that this is not 1939 Germany.

Demonizing a segment of the population for political gain won’t work with our political system.

We are not a theocracy. We separate church and state precisely to prevent the kind of religious purges we SAY we’re trying to prevent in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.

So Please! Will all the presidential candidates stop pandering to the Fundamentalist Christian Fringe and start addressing the real problems of the Country?

The FRC Has got to be kidding!

When I started writing this, I was annoyed, and very sarcastic. As I wrote I calmed down and the sarcasm level dropped. I went back and removed or re-worded the venom because I’d like this not to be a rant as much as I’d like it to be something that people read and say humm, I hadn’t thought about it that way.

The FRC (Family Research Council) published an article on their web site expressing their concern about modifications to the UCMJ (Universal Code of Military Justice).

They used a headline that reads “BESTIALITY SHOULD GIVE LEADERS PAWS IN TROOP BILL” saying they’re concerned about congress changing the UCMJ so that it wouldn’t include bestiality as an offense. 

The idea that our congresspeople wouldn’t understand how to edit a line like this is preposterous, but it gave FRC something to rattle cages with.

Specifically they’re concerned about the line that reads;

“Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy.”

I pray to God these folks review their Christian beliefs and consider the following; 

Not all troops are gay. Those that are gay, really worked hard and sacrificed a lot for the privilege of serving their country.

Yeah, most Gay Soldiers I’ve talked to think of it as a privilege.

Sadly, gay troops sometimes face open hostility from other gay people because they’re soldiers.

So much of the gay community is so far to the left that sometimes gay soldiers are treated like traitors or criminals. (You should see how the gay community reacts if you’re a Republican! You’re not even dateable.) This from the very community that is supposed to be inclusive and proud of them…

Yet they serve, without complaint, without drama, they just do their jobs.

The conservative religious people are effectively asking that America reward that kind of dedication and love of country with what?

Lies? Fear? Never being able to dance in public with their loved one? Revulsion? Being treated as something “Less” but good enough to die? It doesn’t seem very Christian to me, and it’s sure as hell not American.

The bottom line for all of our service members regardless of sexuality is this;

They shouldn’t have to lie, to serve.
They shouldn’t have to live in fear, to serve.
They shouldn’t have to live a half life, to serve
They protect our way of life and should be respected and treated fairly and equally due to their service.

The FRC will wrap itself in the flag, talk about equality and fairness and vehemently defend its rights while at the same time hypocritically denying others their rights.

But they’ll never answer the simple questions “Why are you afraid, and of what?”

Is it any wonder that so many people look at religion and religious institutions with suspicion?

Is Social Media Bad?

Several weeks ago, After reading of  another suicide by an all too young man who had been bullied incessantly I found myself thinking about Social Media.

Social Media inherently is neither good or bad on it’s own.

It’s the WAY that people use it for that cause the problems.

The young man who recently killed himself over being bullied brought home to me a major difference between when I was in school and now.

While I was bullied a bit when I was AT school, When I got home I didn’t have to think about being bullied at all. I was on my own turf. I had a break, and the bullies were far too lazy to walk the three blocks over to my house to bully me in person.

There was a built-in system of checks & balances. I only had to put up with those assholes while I was at school and I could use the afternoon and evening while I was pretending to do my homework to figure out the best way to avoid the bullies for a couple of days.

Bullies being what they are, if you’re out of their sight for a day or so you’re typically forgotten for several weeks. Oh don’t worry, the bullies would always come back around to you again.

I was a redhead when I was younger, I got to deal with taunts about my hair color, “I’d rather be dead than red”, taunts about my sports inability, “You (run, throw, catch) like a girl”, and later “the ever present “Faggot!”.

In my defense, once my legs and arms slowed down in their growth I suddenly became a lot more co-ordinated, and no longer ran, threw, or caught like a girl.

With Social media and the 24 /7 connectedness each of us deals with, we find it harder to retreat.

As an Adult I know I can turn off my cell phone, and I don’t feel compelled to be on Facebook, or Twitter, Tumblr, or any other system that invades my privacy except on my terms.

Our children don’t seem to understand that connectedness is something that they control.

It may be more proper to say our children, being social animals and craving approval simply don’t have the maturity to exercise their right to to retreat by turning off the electronics.

Maybe that’s the real lesson.

We know that parental controls probably won’t work, and we really shouldn’t expect the schools to stop all bullying. I’m firmly against so called “Zero Tolerance” policies.

These policies are unenforceable and in fact often punish the wrong persons. Saying Zero Tolerance to most teenagers is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

Perhaps we should instead teach that technology, while essentially a good thing does have a down side and that each of us needs to remember ultimately we have control over what we see, hear, and participate in.

Social media isn’t bad, but it is certainly prone to abuse. Dealing with that abuse is as simple as blocking people that are abusive and forbidding anonymous posts.

This isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply exercising your right to limit what you have to put up with.

HPV Vacine for Boys? It’s a good idea!

Was reading an article this morning about vaccinating boys against the HPV virus.

The author mentioned that the rate of vaccination for girls was somewhere around 33% (Defined as girls having all three shots). Then the article goes on to say that the vaccination may be a hard sell for boys.
I don’t get it.
If, as statistics suggest 75% to 80% of all adults have been or will infected with HPV then it’s kind of a no brainer to give protection to our kids so that they’ll never have to worry about HPV as adults.
Since transmission goes both ways shouldn’t we be treating this like measles? 
The author points out that the low vaccination rate for girls may have to do with parents not wanting to think about their daughter being sexually active. Wake up morons!
Unless parents are going to put their daughters in a convent…  A simple vaccination is preferable to the alternative. 
The “hard sell” aspect for boys seems to be that HPV appears to be linked to throat and anal cancers. Therefore parents don’t see the need… Especially since their son isn’t gay and won’t be gay.
This view is completely unrealistic, and based on the fallacious argument that missionary sex is the only kind of sex ever engaged in.
We as Americans MUST get past our puritanical (and hypocritical) beliefs about sex.
How many men have not enjoyed a good blow job? Raise your hands… Now go find someone to suck your dick and tell me it’s not a lot of fun.
How many women haven’t had a man go down on them? Raise your hands… Then smack your husband! Women in general like it just as much as men and they deserve it, so men if you’re not doing your woman you need to get down there and eat some pussy!
There is absolutely nothing new in sex. 
Boys have always gone for the record when they figure out how to jack off. 
Most women seem to do the same when they figure out how to please themselves.
Objects and organs of various sizes, have always found their ways into the vaginal, oral, or anal openings of both sexes. 
It’s a fact of life and denial serves no purpose except to insure that sexually active people contract diseases needlessly every day.
My parents don’t need to know all the situations where I’ve been skin to skin with someone. They sure as hell don’t need to know what I was doing after I got home from school!
Thankfully, they had the presence of mind to realize that I was probably going to be just like them…
… I was going to be a horny little fuck & I was going to have an active satisfying sex life.
They were wise enough to make sure that I had all the information necessary to enjoy my sex life without too many complications.
I can’t believe that after 35 years or so we’re still having dumbshit discussions about sexuality in this country. This is not the 15th century… and even then people were going at it as often as they could.
Look around people, there are more humans now than there were even 30 years ago. We do know how that happens, and it’s a sure bet that not every little darling was an immaculate conception. 
People FUCK.  We always have, presumably we always will. 
Realistically would you deny your children the joy, ecstasy, and unrivaled pleasure of having sex with another person? I didn’t think so… 
So why is it so hard for you to make having those experiences as safe as possible? 
Vaccinate, provide all the information your children need to make informed decisions about their sex life. 
Think about it another way, do you want your son or daughter having their first experience thinking something stupid like if they pee right after sex they won’t get a disease or pregnant?
Wouldn’t it be better for you to give them accurate information? Would it have been better for you?
I was lucky and I thank god my parents were forward thinking. They gave me all the information I could use and they did it without being judgemental. All I knew was that Gay, Straight, Bi, or whatever they were going to love me. 
As an aside… Dad, it would have been nice if you’d given me a little more information on jock itch, and creepy crawlies that can infest body hair…
Of course, you couldn’t anticipate everything but you were in the Navy! And the same goes for my beloved stepfather, actually it goes double for you… You were a Marine!