Be More Skeptical, Look Less Stupid

Below is an email I received and following that, my reply. 

"Recognize this guy?

And now you see the rest of the story !!

The Media in our country is agenda driven

No wonder George Zimmerman was scared for his life , 

I would have been too! 

Sure different than what we see on TV.

Recognize this guy?

Do you know who this is? 

It is Little Trayvon Martin !

At 17 yrs of age.

Don't know how much coverage this story has had in your area,

but, if it has, here's a new look at it!

For those of us who thought we were well informed

and weren't .... quite the realty check.

That old adage applies here: "there are two sides to every story."

We don't always get the truth from the media. 

One of my favorite rants - the media, television news,

newspapers, magazines, radio; all continue to show 12 year 

old Trayvon; 

NOT 17 year old Trayvon.

They continue to show the 5 year old picture BECAUSE 

it helps to cement in your mind the cute, little, hoodie-wearing youngster who was stalked by this monster.

In reality "little Trayvon" at the time of his death stood 

almost 6'2" tall and weighed 175 muscular pounds.

He had numerous run ins with authorities (both at school and local police), had been stopped and almost arrested

two days before his death for smacking a bus driver in the face

because the driver refused to let him ride for free. He was released because the driver was told not to press charges by the bus company and to continue on his route.

When "little Trayvon" was suspended at school it was not only because he tried

to bring a little marijuana in with him, he was in possession of wedding rings and other jewelry, watches, etc. that he said he "found"

along with a large screwdriver while on the way to school that day. 

The jewelry was turned over to the Police by the school.

I am not trying to say this was a good shooting.

I am not trying to say this kid deserved to die. I am saying the media

in the USA is controlled by those who twist and distort what you see and hear

in order for you to see things their way.

Not a single paper has printed RECENT photos of this kid, 

because it would not keep your interest in this case.

Not a single paper will admit that this kid was a marijuana dealer.

His friends on Facebook all say he had the "best plants". 

Not a single paper will show you any of his recent photos where 

he shows off a mouthful of gold teeth and all of his tattoos.

Not a single newspaper will tell the news like it really is...

and NOT how they want you to think it is...

The President looked at the FIVE year old photo the

media chose to show the Nation and said, "If I had a

son...he would look like Trayvon.." 

So from that comment should I assume you did not bother to

look for the facts in this shooting..or should I assume you want 

a son who is a 17 year old drug dealing, gold teethed, tattooed thug whose name

on one of his facebook profiles was "Wild Nigga" 

who 'finds" jewelry and burglary tools on the way to school?

A fair and impartial news media in the USA ? One that does

not follow an agenda? Is NOT looking to further

divide this already fractured Nation?

I didn't compose this. I'm only passing it on.

Never trust the news media for anything."

And, my reply:

That image is of rapper Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known by his stage name The Game. Google him to see for yourself. 

His photo became linked with the story because he commented on it.

Read more here: http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/martin.asp

Now then, will you forward this again with the correction? Is the truth as important to you as forwarding your agenda is? Will you hold yourself to the standards you just claimed to hold the media to? I'm guessing no. 

Be more skeptical. You'll look less stupid. 

 

I can hear the fireworks going off from the baseball stadium and I thought "Hurrah, We're celebrating the very small chance that maybe we're not dying quite as fast as it appears."

Congratulations.

This past weekend I went to my first marriage of a same-sex couple. Congrats Jaye and Jo. I should specify, this was the first marriage of a same sex couple I'd been to since it became legal again. I'd been to several shadowy, underground weddings. Will we rhapsodize about the exciting days of illegal weddings?

I have a problem with the FB app on my Android phone. It keeps linking new posts with events even days after they've passed. So yesterday I remember that I'd snapped a selfie while sitting on the toilet and I decide to post it with the caption "Pooping" because I'm classy like that. Just a dumb Facebook joke. But my damn phone strikes again and...

I'm "Pooping at Jaye and Jo get Married."

I have a lot of friends from many different parts of the country and from many different political stripes and most of them are cool with marriage equality, otherwise we probably wouldn't be friends, but many of them don't actually know any gay people and aren't likely to be attending a marriage of a same sex couple anytime soon. So, they look at my posts and they get a peak at a world that is foreign to them, and now they associate it with pooping. Oops. Sorry. I'm a pretty poor choice for ambasador.

For the record. I did NOT poop at Jaye and Jo's wedding. They got married in a park and I'm not too big on public bathrooms but especially public bathrooms in parks. I pre-pooped. It was a lovely wedding though, and again, congrats to the couple.

Y Tu Mama Tambien!

So... tonight was... um... fun.

I get onstage and I'm in the middle of my first joke and a woman starts talking to a man at the table next to her, but she is on the opposite side of her table, so she's yelling and just the audacity of it, to start yelling to some guy in the middle of a comic's set, it floors me and so I say, "Hey shut up." Not a great heckler put down, but then again she was not a great heckler.

Well she is livid, just appalled that I'd be so rude as to tell her to shut up when she's trying to have a conversation. She glares at me during the rest of my set, which does very well, I was really pleased with how some newer somewhat personal material went over.

I get to my last joke, a light pun that I want to close with and now she has gotten up and is talking to the dude again over in another part of the cafe, loudly.

I say, "Excuse me. Are you really still talking?"

She is oblivious to having become a part of the show again, does not realize I'm talking to her at all but as I get louder she has to lean in and put her hand over her ear to hear the dude she's talking to. And with that, I'm off.

"I'm sorry, is it too LOUD IN HERE? IS IT HARD TO HEAR? IS THE COMEDY SHOW TOO LOUD MAKING IT HARD TO HEAR EACH OTHER OVER THE COMEDIANS?"

Here is where it gets complicated. Her daughter works there. She was behaving this poorly while hanging out in red skinny jeans at her daughter's work. And her daughter yells at me, "SHUT UP!"

I keep going, I'm on a role, I used to work for Spike and Mike and haven't had a need/chance to flex these muscles in awhile. "YOU WANT ME TO SHUT UP? THE GUY WHO THEY GAVE THE MICROPHONE TO? THE GUY PLUGGED INTO THE SOUND SYSTEM, WITH ALL THE SEATS FACING HIM, STANDING ON A STAGE WITH STAGE LIGHTS AT A SHOW WITH HIS NAME ATTACHED THAT THESE FOLKS PAID TO SEE, HE IS THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO SHUT UP?"

Mom kept calling me an asshole as they huffed down the hallway. Each asshole getting a thunderous laugh. I took a deep breath, told the last three lines of the joke she'd interrupted, and said goodnight and THAT my friends is why you don't miss a single Comedy Night at Luna's.

UPDATE: She is giving me what for on my FB page now: https://www.facebook.com/kljfans/posts/10151839047697873?comment_id=30152949&offset=0&total_comments=102

Ten Reasons Why Your Rape Joke Isn't Working Bro

10. Too believable. You're coming off too rapey. Some say the best way to fix this is not to tell rape jokes. This is what's known as The Rape Joke Paradox.
 9. Liberal Left Wing Agenda.
 8. Too many pussy whipped dudes in the crowd with their wives or girlfriends.
 7. ABC's The View
 6. You didn't yell the punch line loud enough
 5. You didn't actually repeat the word rape enough times
 4. They hate your freedom
 3. Feminists have no sense of humor
 2. They're frightened (and kind of excited) by your house arrest anklet
 1. You're too nice.

Was gonna add "They're gay. They're fuckin' gay." But I realized that in Bro-Speak, #7 already covered that.
Also, I'm pretty sure Obama had something to do with it

Couple of Orwell Jokes

Double Plus Good Enough

Who wouldn't want a big brother? 

Hey Gay, You're A-Okay! Gimme a G, Gimme a A, Gimme a Y! YAY GAY!

When I see a two dudes walking through Disneyland holding hands I do the right thing, I leave 'em alone. I just let 'em be gay at Disneyland in peace. But I know that they're being brave, and I know that they get shit, and what I WANT to do is run up to them and say, "Hey! I for one, am totally cool with you being gay! I think it's great! Here, be gay in front of my daughter. I don't mind. I love it. Look honey, see the nice gay guys, aren't they great!"

I know this would be inappropriate and I know it would get tedious having your Magic Kingdom experience interrupted repeatedly so you could help straight dudes address their hetero guilt (Is that a thing? Did I just coin that?) but wouldn't it also be kind of awesome? On some level? Maybe?

Couldn't there be something like what sports fans have? When my brother sees a Dodgers cap or a Rams jersey he comments on it and has this instant almost tribal camaraderie. I guess I just hit on why we liberals love bumper stickers so much, but then we feel guilty for driving. I could wear a rainbow flag t-shirt but that's false advertising and being a tease (cause we all know what I got going on is HOT!) and those "Straight but not narrow t-shirts" just seem a bit too close to saying "I'M NOT GAY! Not that there's anything wrong with that."

So, um, anyway, dudes holding hands at Disneyland, I hope you had a good time, and also you HELLA cut in front of us for Small World. Not cool.

We did in fact get the healthcare.

Lady at HR helping me enroll in insurance plan some years ago: Okay, so that should cover both you and your partner. How long have you and Bryan been together?

Me: Um, that's actually Bryna. My girlfriend's name is Bryna.

Lady: Oh..., I'm sorry. I thought...

Me: Yeah that's fine, I get that a lot. We still get the healthcare right?

Splendor in the grass...

Because sometimes nature is disgusting, and hilarious.

Please, no felafel for Superman!

Walking through San Francisco, maybe my favorite city I've even been to, munching on street vender felafel, definitely my favorite food in the world, and digging the business and music of a street festival on a beautiful day. And then... Much to my amazement I pass a lady, clown, face-painter torturing some poor kid with slam poetry. "You can call me, I am clown You can call me, I am magic You can call me, I am..." The faulty grammar alone was killing me. If I had jumped in right then and grabbed that kid away from her, and delivered him back to his confused and helpless parents, I'd have rightly been called a hero. But I had my hands full of felafel that I was not willing to sacrifice. Maybe things are so rough in the middle east because that's where the felafel is at?