Days that rhyme with Faith in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Happy Friday to everyone who gets to treat Fridays like the end of the work week!
Notice: To those who participate in the archaic and arbitrary practice of Daylight Savings Time, we lose an hour this weekend. Load up on coffee, 5 hour energy, and whatever else you’ll need to be alert next week.

For me today promises truly very little. So little in fact that I wore jeans to work. So here I am.. suit coat, button up shirt, no tie, blue jeans, and dress shoes. lol. Yeah. At most today will involve me reading a lot of reports to prepare for my 22 Juvenile Hearings on Monday. In fact, I anticipate being so… I won’t say “bored” but… so unconstrained by busy work related issues that I may just risk embarassing myself. Which is to say… writing some erotic lit in my Explicit Book. That could be embarrassing due to things like: my work computer is a remote server and I don’t honestly know if there is a key-logger or some other vulnerability that would allow what I type to be publicly viewed or broadly distributed. Allegedly. the argument could be made that as an Attorney what I do shouldn’t be freely accessible to anyone but then, working for the government has interesting nuanced legal traps.

For example:
If you use your work computer to access Political Statements and you don’t work for the government; they can fire you for ‘political activity during work hours’… especially in Right to Work States.
If you use your work computer to access Political Statements and you do work for the Government; you can sue them for firing you over ‘political activity during work hours’ because The Government is not supposed to be allowed to Infringe Upon Your Rights to Speech and Political Association.
That being said… it is a lawsuit matter because those rules have nuanced exceptions and the Courts must decide whether your specific case meets any of those exceptions. FOR EXAMPLE, if I access Kamala Harris’ website over my lunch hour because I plan to attend a rally of hers in the state; my Government Employer cannot fire me and doing so is actually a violation of my Constitutional Rights. HOWEVER, if I access an Anti-Steve King website while I’m in court, there could be legitimate argument as to why being terminated for that is legally allowed.

That being said… being a Prosecutor and being a Writer means that no matter what computer I’m using… my Google Searches make for interesting reading.

Speaking of reading, I find the parabolic arc of PB bookmarks fascinating. Every Monday, I return to between 34 and 59 Unread Bookmarks. Every Monday, there may be only 4 or 5. I suppose it makes sense. Most people work during the work week and so write during the weekend. Were it not for my Wife, Counseling, DnD, and Video Games… I suppose I could be more of a weekend writer as well. But all of that is to say that I quickly read all of the unread bookmarks this morning. Then read some of my past entries, an article from Salon, a few BBC articles, two CNN articles, and three Cracked.com articles.

By the way… my mind is melting. Proud Boys and Incels make me want to go full Red Hood Jason Todd “justice with homicide.” SERIOUSLY!

The Proud Boy initiation rituals are both bizarre and overtly political. In order to be accepted into the first level of the group, men - the group is only open to biological males - must recite: “I am a Western chauvinist and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.”

The second degree involves getting hit by fellow members while shouting out the names of five breakfast cereals, along with committing to avoid porn and masturbation - the group says they erode traditional relationships. The breakfast cereal angle is not expressly rationalized, but can be guessed at. White Nationalist Movements have taken to using Milk as a mascot representation of White Purity. From that, White Nationalist Movements have declared Breakfast Cereals as a meal mascot. In other words, shouting out the names of five breakfast cereals is a subtle way of connecting the Proud Boys to White Nationalism. To progress to the third degree, members get a Proud Boy tattoo.

There’s also an honorary fourth degree. Various Proud Boys told me that it is bestowed for defending the group, fighting anti-fascists in the streets or getting arrested.

THIS is the world now? The Proud Boys officially announced their existence in 2016… Trump’s election year. This, painfully, is the push back of a Black President and a world trying more and more to say, “Maybe women are people, too? Maybe a person’s gender doesn’t determine their worth? Maybe a person’s race isn’t a biological determinant of their potential?” THOSE ideas… which I would say are such No Shit ideas as to be basic… THOSE ideas spawned worldwide movements that celebrate violence?!?!?! What the fuck, humanity?

Honestly… might be time for a serious culling.


Damn.

Now I find myself in that dark place of contemplating why the world sucks and how basic decency is now seen as political and it’s getting me both depressed and riled up. Like… I’m genuinely ANGRY that there are people in the world who honestly don’t give a shit about rape. That there is a full cultural movement that says “violence against women is caused by women who do not submit to sex upon request.” I’m genuinely ANGRY that there are people in the world who honestly think that skin color is directly related to a person’s ability to be a human being. Like… are you fucking kidding me?! I’m genuinely ANGRY that there are people in the world who honestly think that religious beliefs can make a human being void their status as a person. We worship different Gods and literally have nothing to do with each other… but lets make sure we kill as many of you as possible! WHAT?!?

Human Being. Species.
Hominidae Homininae Hominini Hominina Homo Homo sapiens Homo sapiens sapiens
We don’t consider the females of the species to be a different type… we don’t consider the different races to be a different type… and religion (as far as our definition for it) is not a genetic or biological construct. If you can’t see another person and think “Human” then you’re the broken one. NOW… beyond that? Yeah… human can be enemy. Yeah… human can be attacker. But this absolute dehumanization that we’ve done to just about EVERYBODY we dislike or don’t agree with? I mean… what the fuck, man?