Ep 13 -Meddling, Antidepressants, and Kalgoorlie
Audio version of this post is available here.
Western Australia passed a bill in the lower house to allow child sex abuse victims to sue their abusers. I reckon this should also be an option for people who were physically, mentally, and emotionally abused as children also, but this is a good start.
I am glad that the vote was unanimous and there are high hopes for this being passed in the upper house as well. I honestly would not have even thought to sue. You might seem to just be for a monetary gain, but this could bring closure to a lot of people who were victimized in their childhood.
***
Australia isn’t ranking so well in the global corruption rank which is pretty disturbing. I believe they rank 180 countries in total, and Aus is currently 13th least corrupt. Its measured on a score system of 100 points. The article says that the lower the score, the more corrupt the country is. In 2012 we scored 85 but last year we dropped to a score of 77 which is kind of a big deal in my opinion.
New Zealand was ranked number 1, followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland. Canada, Luxemburg, UK, and Netherlands were tied at number 8. The US tied are 16 with Austria and Belgium. The surprising one for me was Saudi Arabia at 59. I thought they would’ve been way lower. I was also surprised that North Korea scored the rank of 171, but I guess it makes sense with the bottom of the list comprising of Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
***
The aussie ABC News reported on catholic family clinics in Papua New Guinea. The fact that these clinics are religious is horrifying to me. Papua New Guinea has enough issues with an estimated 55% of women being forced to have sex at least once in their life. Abortion is illegal unless it needs to be performed to save the mother’s life. It is also estimated that 67% percent of women experience intense domestic violence. So, what do the Catholics there do? They set up so-called family planning clinics.
These clinics are suspected of not providing all services because of their religious position. Family planning clinics are supposed to help but these clinics are pushing the point of birth control = bad. There have been reports of bishops sending preachers into more remote errors discouraging people from using contraceptive methods that are man-made. There are calls to use non-denominational, or just get non-religious groups to run these clinics so that all services can be used by the people who need their help.
In a country where they have a lot of issues with domestic abuse and sexual violence, it is disgusting to serve up sexual health services as a side to your preaching and propaganda while pretending you are there for the people. This honestly makes me feel sick.
***
Anti-depressants: Major study finds they work. No fucking shit Sherlock. I thought we already knew this? I guess they spent a butt load on this study to try and shut up the haters and doubters, but they will still complain.
522 trials with 116,477 people were analysed and found 21 common anti-depressants were significantly more effective at reducing symptoms of depression than the fake shit. Who woulda thunk it hey. I guess now we can prove its not in our head and big pharma isn’t tricking us. I doubt this will be the end of it though. You just know that someone will find a way to argue with this.
***
Gordon Klingenschmitt is such a weird guy and his last name sounds like a super dirty taboo fetish if you ask me. What does this guy look like? …. yes, he looks like he has some sort of illegal fetish. Anyway, right-wing watch posted an article titled LGBTQ Activists Are Forcing Christian Business Owners to Participate in A ‘Perverted Threesome’. To be fair, he would probably think all sex acts that aren’t the missionary position are perverted.
Apparently not being allowed to discriminate against LGBT+ people is the same thing as a forced threesome. what?
“This lesbian couple, like so many other activists, they are not content to have their sin in private, they have got to flaunt it in public,” Klingenschmitt complained. “And not just in any public, they have got to come into the Christian business owner’s place of business and force them to join in a sort of perverted threesome … Those demonic purveyors of sodomy are trying to force Christians to participate and in them is the spirit of persecution.”
What is with the amount of super popular nutball preachers in the US? Calm your tits, American conservatives.
***
There seems to be a big issue with racism in Kalgoorlie. It’s being spoken about after the death of a young indigenous boy. He was hit by a car driven by a white man who chased him down after the kid stole a bike. That man should have been done for murder, but he wasn’t. In fact, he might get parole soon. It’s been about 6 months or thereabouts. He takes the life of an indigenous kid and he gets six months. I guarantee that if the races were reversed, he would’ve got a much heftier sentence and there would have been outrage.
The boys’ grandfather planned a peaceful rally with the release date of the man approaching. They walked through the streets of Kalgoorlie with signs held high. They were met with nasty flyers and posters saying this like cull a thief day and “If a thief was to steal my motorbike … I would run him down with my Nissan Navara”. Firstly – that second part couldn’t be more bogan if it tried. Secondly – a life for a bike. That’s what you are saying? Someone takes something that isn’t theirs, and they deserve death? I didn’t realize I was living in a developing country with severe death penalties.
Victor Smith is a health worker that tries to help the indigenous youth with health-damaging behaviours like smoking and drinking.
He said “All these blackfellas here; we all work, we all pay taxes — my whole life I’ve put two dole forms in. But we all get painted with the same brush; this bloke doesn’t work, that bloke doesn’t work. If a white bloke can run a kid over and walk out in 18 months, what does that say about Australia?”
Too fucking right, Victor.
– Donna Down Under
Further reading
Child Abuse Sue Bill
https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-politics/bill-allowing-child-sex-abuse-victims-to-sue-abusers-passes-wa-lower-house-ng-b88752416z
Corruption Index
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-22/australia-slips-in-global-corruption-rank/9472114
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017#
Papua New Guinea
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-21/family-planning-in-papua-new-guinea/9455454
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_violence_in_Papua_New_Guinea
Antidepressants
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43143889
Shiny Red Ball
It’s been a super long time since I posted anything or recorded an episode for the podcast. Since leaving my job in December I’ve been pretty distracted in general. If I wasn’t so easily distracted by games and social media (and wasn’t a mental nut) I would be covering the bullshit that is the marriage equality postal vote.
There has been some real bullshit flying our around about marriage equaliyy and the gay, hasn’t there? Its not surprising thar use of LGBTQIA support services has risen by 40%. There was even a straight lives matter protest in Sydney. All this for a 100 million postal vote that is just a glorofied opinion poll, it won’t impact on the laws and the government can ignore the result.
What a waste of time, money, and mental health. Fuck the libs.
My Problem With Onision
If you watch a lot of youtube or follow Jaclyn Glenn, then you probably know who Onision is. His real name is Greg and he has been described (by people across various platforms) as controversial, troubled, psychotic, and a cancer of the internet. I discovered UhOhBro around a year ago and have been following all three of this channels since. In my usual fashion, I looked at his older videos before making my way to his newer ones.
At first, I really enjoyed his videos and he often made good points about various topics. I couldn’t agree with everything he said, but that can be true for anyone who happens to share their opinions without any filter. I am not really here to address his older videos, but really his videos from the past 6 months or so.
For a little backstory – his wife (Lainey) and he were dating a young woman named Billie and it has been up and down (and on and off) for pretty much the entire time and at first I really did not care about this. I saw it as just another pile of drama for him to be able to get views from (which he has admitted to in the past). The problem that I have seen with this situation has more been within the last 3 months or so. His attitude and expectations seemed to be way off.
Let me explain. Greg claims that they kept breaking up with Billie because of her untruthfulness or lies, but then would bring her back because they missed her. Again, I didnt really have concern for Billie as she is a grown woman that can make her own decisions about her relationship with the couple. The issue is what Onision told her she should do to prove that she loved them and that she could be trusted. Sounds pretty OK right? Not really. I personally think it is far from OK. He mentioned all these things in his Onision Speaks channel so it is all there for you to see.
He asked her to…
– Get a tattoo of the flower that is a favourite of his wife
– Get a tram stamp tattoo that stated she was a liar
– Make a video apology on YouTube for all to see
– Not see her family for a year except on holidays
– Give up seeing her best friend (that one was a while ago)
– Be chained up in the basement for humiliation
The fuckedupness does not end there. In one video he stated that they kept taking her back because they found her attractive, which is pretty gross but if I recall correctly, he then stated that her best friend was ugly and if she had looked like her then they wouldve called it quits ages ago which is just not cool. Onision shared secret and personal info on both Ayalla (the best friend) and Billie which they had not consented to. He was asked not to share that kind of information but he did anyway.
Billie came out with her own video addressing Onision and stated the following (sourced from eoliveson on tumblr).
“I know that a lot of people are going to tell me that I shouldn’t make this video. But, I’m honestly sick of not standing up for myself, I don’t have to deal with this situation anymore. So, Onision, please stop harassing me and my best friend. I’m tired of seeing your tweets, tired of being tagged in your tweets of you just harassing us and telling us we’re awful druggy people.
Please, leave me alone. Stop talking about me, don’t speak about me in your videos. I’m done. Like, I hope you’re happy, you completely destroyed all of my pride. You told me to get a tattoo saying ‘I’m a liar’. Like, a tramp stamp. You told me to shave my head, you told me to dye my hair green, shave off my eyebrows and get an ugly tan. Like, is that not abusive to you? Do you think that’s a fair trade for me telling you that I smoked weed? Like, that’s what you think is okay? I betrayed your trust? You fucking betrayed my trust, you told everyone secrets about me. Fucking everyone, like what the fuck is wrong with you?
You wanted to chain me up in your basement, and then manipulated the situation to tell me that I was boring, so I would agree to it because you made me feel bad. And on top of that, you told everyone that you only thought I was really attractive and that’s why you stayed with me. Like, so I was just like a play thing? You didn’t actually love me? So like, why are you talking about love like you even know what love is?
You’re mentally abusive to everyone around you, you call people names, you make them feel bad about themselves. I don’t understand how you can do that and not feel bad about yourself. Like, does that make you happy? Telling people that they’re worthless and that they’re cunts? And that they should die because they smoke weed? Like calling them an idiot because they don’t agree with you on something? That’s not a sane person. Like you shouldn’t do that to people.
You called Ayalla ugly. You wanted me to not see my family for an entire year except for on holidays. And you tried to manipulate your way around it by saying ‘drug users’. Telling people to do things for you to an extreme is not what love is. Like, you’re mad because I lied to you and betrayed you. My lie was that I smoked weed, I decided to smoke weed on New Years and I guess I fucked up your relationship contract. So now it’s all a big deal, because contracts are so important and they should totally be in relationships in the first place.
Like, you fucking ruined me. Ruined me. Like I’m not even talking about online, I’m talking about me as a person. Like, the fact that you put such private information online for everyone to see, that was so confidential. I’ve told five people. Five; and you told all of the internet because you’re a salty ass motherfucker? No! Like that’s not how this should work. Like, you don’t feel bad at all that’s the worst fucking part. Like you’re just a shitty fucking person who likes to destroy peoples lives because they’re salty. That’s it. If someone doesn’t agree with you, you automatically hate them.
You’ve put me through so much shit that like, there’s no way, there’s no way that this is even real. The thing that bothers me, not even the thing that bothers me the most, because, you fucked me over. But the thing that really bothers me is the fact that you’re talking about ‘legality’ of it. But I was told by your significant other that if I would’ve asked, I could’ve smoked weed on new years. But I shouldn’t have had to ask for permission anyway.
I’ve heard so many bad things come out of your mouth. That it’s ridiculous. Like, I can’t even fathom why you think that you’re in the right for this. Like, at all, I don’t understand. Like, this fucking blows my mind.
I’m not a bad person. I’m just, I’m not a bad person for smoking weed. I’m not, I’m not sorry. I will not apologize. Like, I owe you guys nothing. Like, you guys ultimately fucked me over. Like, you’re the worst human being I have ever experienced. Like, I’ve never met someone so shitty and so fucked up and so willing to just destroy people’s lives just because they’re insecure about something. I just can’t get over the fact that you’re that shitty of a person. Like, that’s how low you had to stoop just to try to prove that you’re right. But, in actuality, you fucked yourself over.
Weed helps people. You basically just told every cancer patient that you hope they die because you’re salty about weed. *Sigh* I just like, I can’t get over this. I’m sorry that I’m so mad (don’t be sorry) but it’s just the fact that he put all my private information online. He called my best friend ugly, he basically called out my family and told everyone to send the cops to my house. He may have not ‘said it’, but he definitely hinted it.
But I’m so fucking sick of them, I’m sick of it. I’m done. As soon as he put out that personal information about me, like, go fuck yourself. You’re the worst fucking person I have ever met, you’re a scumbag. Like, I fucking hate you. I hate you. I’ve never hated someone so much in my entire life.
Like this has had so much effect/affect (I’m sorry I never know the right word for that) on my mental health. That I can’t take it. This is so fucked up. I just, I don’t even know how to deal with this situation because the fact that like he just publicly posted all that stuff about me. Just out of pure spite, *sigh* like, how is that supposed to make me feel? Like, I am never going to feel happy again. I had, what? One private thing, one really private thing and he just told everyone.
Thank you guys for watching, um, fuck you. You know who you are.”
Ayalla also made a video in tears asking him to stop talking her about her in his videos or he was going to be reported to the police as she was tired of the harassment.
I know there are people who will disagree on my views in regards to this but I think there are several things going on here. It is my personal opinion that Onision possibly has some mental health issue in which he lacks empathy but he also seems to be a massive control freak. It seems to me that he can be manipulative and nasty when it benefits him. The YouTube and Twitter Cyberbullying that has been described above is just the icing on this sad sad case. I personally hope that Billie and Ayalla can support each other through this, ridding themselves of the toxicity that is the married couple and regain their former energy.
– D
Episode 11
It’s 9 months late but the second episode of the year is here. Click the icon to get to the episode!
Dear fellow Atheists….
I am wondering how many knew that Paris wasn’t the only one that had terrorist attacks?
Kenya lost 147 people at a university and there have been attacks in the places in my profile picture.
Kinda makes me mad that people are debating about whether people should pray in response or not, or debating the little details of levels of human involvement in religion.
None of this is new. Religion has been a foundation for wars and attacks since forever ago. Islam, Christianity, Catholicism – you name it.
It kind of makes me sad that people use these events as a debate platform or boasting platform when hundreds of families are grieving for the loved ones they have lost, and the victims who survived are trying to cope.
Just my 2 cents.
Ep 06 – Energy Psychology Facepalming
The Herd Mentality Ep 33
I am listening to on older episode of The Herd Mentality (33) where a godly man is being interviewed by Adam and the topic of homosexuality comes up (which fits the title). As a homosexual, this was a frustrating episode to listen to!
First he makes the point that since bumping uglies was “designed” for procreation that it was a sin for two people of the same gender to bump uglies. A ridiculous argument really. I don’t see childless couples being judged for bumping uglies and not procreating.
He went on to say that he did not think it was wrong for two men to love each other deeply and live together but the intimate act was wrong. If this was the case there would not be such an objection to marriage equality since the main argument by opposing religious folk is that it is a sin for two men to lay together etc.
Then there was a comment that in a situation where Adam knew his exchange hosts in France were homos that they advertised it and promoted it so therefore it was not a good thing etc. Apparently being comfortable with your sexuality is the same as promoting it. Also ridiculous. This seems to fit the mindset that I see of a lot of religious folk from christianforums.com where they seem to think that we should feel lucky that they allow us to be gay but that we shouldn’t show it or talk about it in anyway. Maybe these folks should move to Russia if they feel that strongly about it? What the hell does it mean to promote it anyway…its not a social club with special members benefits. Or maybe it is and no one has told me yet o.O
Then starts the argument that it is a natural perversion, that it does not fit with the natural laws and does not contribute to society. I need to find a new word for ridiculous. Firstly, it is not only humans that have homosexual activity. It can be found in many species and is considered fairly normal by science as far as I am aware. When people use the term natural laws, they really are referring to what they consider to be natural rather than what is actually natural. Therefore they are making it sound like fact when it is opinion. Nothing new there. And that it does not contribute to society. I’m sorry, since when did sex ever contribute to society? It doesn’t, does that mean people should stop doing it all together unless there is some sort of high purpose to it? Do I have to point out that if sex was purely function we probably wouldn’t have those pleasure spots or lust at all which is not that common, as far as I am aware, in a lot of species.
Then comes the question of what good comes from homosexual relationships. The answer would simply be the same thing that comes from heterosexual relationships. Just because the genders are not opposite does not mean the relationship is entirely different. The dynamics may change slightly, but you see this in heterosexual couples as well. We are not an alien species. I will also add that in 99.999% of the arguments to do with homosexuality and whether it is moral, good, sinful etc focus entirely on two men. It makes me wonder what way the conversation would go if it were two women that were being discussed.
The inevitable topic of HIV/Aids springs up. *facepalm* Adam makes kick butt comments in regards to this. I always find it sadly laughable that gay guys get blamed for HIV and Aids. I am pretty sure heterosexual African rapists and their victims have a bigger issue with it than Australian gay men. Also, gay men use connies as well. Just saying. The comment made by the guest indicates that it hurts people when gay men do the dirty. This would be the case if one was forcing himself on another man. Only then would it be hurting another person. Two consenting adults, protection and care. It is 2014 after all.
I agreed with the guest to a certain degree that he should be able to simply state that he was not in support of marriage equality if others can state they are in support it but it pretty much ended there. I also do not believe that churches should be forced to marry same gender couples and I do not know anyone who would want to be married in a church that didn’t agree with the union in the first place.
Awesome effort Adam, I think you dealt with the questions and responses in the best way anyone could.
Capital Punishment OK?
I always wonder about “lawful” executions and capital punishment in general. We do not have it here which may be why I find it hard to wrap my head around it.
Do people see it as moral or ethical? I have heard reports of communities in the US celebrating over how many people have been executed under capital punishment laws. This seems a risky way to carry out justice in my point of view. If you make a mistake and execute an innocent party, you cannot undo it. How
Big Chesticles! 