Pencil Day
April 22, 2008
I warned my kids at breakfast today that the teacher would probably make them do a craft involving trees, clean water and hemp. I told my kids they were allowed to inform the teacher that our family doesn’t celebrate Earth Day. It’s against our religion (that being Reason) and it celebrates non-achievement so that empty humanists can blind themselves into thinking they’re doing something morally good.
We used to celebrate great people and great achievements. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished something great, my children sent home with notes that bitch at me about changing light-bulbs is not heroic. It’s not a sin to litter. It is a sin for 14 year olds to give head in the school bathrooms but they only learn about the sin of littering in school.
Our culture is diverse. That’s supposed to be why our public schools don’t ram a theistic ideology down student’s throats by allowing for school prayer. But if you don’t recycle enough, or if you leave a light on while in the room you just committed the holy of holies and you are going to Green Hell.
I don’t have a problem with the Earth. If the earth wants to grow mold and grass and make lava I have no beef with that. But it’s about as heroic as a pencil, and my pencil probably has more to do with Global Warming than all of the litter in the world.
Now this is addressed to the Christians. I was raised to think Christians weren’t stupid but now I’m starting to have my doubts. Perhaps following Christ really does make one particularly vulnerable to copying every whim the secular culture chooses to treat as a Messiah. Show me a Christian getting hysterical about clean rivers and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t give a flying shit about killing Islamic radical terrorists.
But fighting terrorists isn’t very fashionable these days, it’s a lot easier to terrify children into thinking they’ll be under water in 20 years. America kills 5,000 unborn humans every day and I’m supposed to get pissed at my kids for not reusing our plastic shopping bags. When slavery was legal in America you had Republican Christians fighting to free blacks while the Democrat Christians wanted the right to keep them. Likewise in WW2 you had Christians marching as Nazis for Hitler as well as Christians fighting to kill them. What if in the middle of those very important wars you had Christians fighting for the rights to make good pencils?
Happy Pencil Day.
TenNapel's Weblog 
April 22, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Yeah…I don’t like the scaring kids part of it all. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for anyone.
I’ve always had a respect for nature. My dad is a very good gardener. I helped him plant potatoes today, dead headed flowers and prodded some earthworms.
Oh, and I saved a honey bee, but it’ll probably die, because one of it’s wings was damaged. That’s nature for you.
April 22, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I’m pouring a bottle of Evian on the curb in rememberance of the soldiers who serve our country. Maybe burn a pile of styrofoam and smoke a cigar.
April 23, 2008 at 12:45 am
Last year I somehow landed in a committee organizing a public showing of Inconvenient Truth — they wanted to have a panel debate global warming and asked who I knew anybody interesting and informative. I said “I know some people who argue very effectively that the earth is in no way warming. I know another guy who argues that the earth is warming but it’s not anthropogenic. I personally believe that GW is political and is being used to hurt third world countries.”
They looked at me like I grew a superfluous nipple on my forehead, so I clamed up — apparently it wasn’t going to be that kind of debate. No one was allowed to question the terrible fate that awaits us due to power plants belching CO2 into our delicate atmosphere. The biggest big wig on the panel was a moose expert. He ranted about how GW was causing parasites to be longer lived and this was causing declining moose populations.
During the Q&A a 12year old boy asked the moose expert: “so, like, evolution is all about animals mutating and adapting to get stronger and better, right? So global warming is kinda good because the mooses that survive will have better immunity to the bad parasites and will be able to have baby mooses that are better too. So… uh… what’s the problem?”
April 23, 2008 at 1:50 am
“Earth Day” is also Lenin’s birthday.
That, I do not think, is an accident.
April 23, 2008 at 6:24 am
“I’ll show you a person who doesn’t give a flying shit about killing Islamic radical terrorists.”
I’m right here baby. Also, I love abortions.
April 23, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Doug,
I really like your books, and I remember your stuff for games when I was a kid. But honestly, you have retarded half informed opinions when it comes to political and religious ideology. Do me a favor, and write more about your upcoming works and art in your blogs, because if I want this kind of dribble I’ll babble at my dog while she noms on a cube of ice.
Thanks
April 23, 2008 at 3:27 pm
AwwwBucketHead,
forgive me for blaspheming the Green Fundamentalist Church. I’ll watch my words more carefully in the future to keep my conversations about comics and video games if for no other reason than to hold the gaze of your fickle approval. Forgive me of my green sins.
Abortion is the number one killer of blacks in America. But plant more trees! Amen.
April 23, 2008 at 6:53 pm
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5109a1.htm
You are awesome for letting people know about the black genocide in this country. Above link is to the Center for Desease Control website that monitors abortion in this country — these are good numbers on what is happening that can’t be rejected by the pro-aborts.
Planned Parenthood has always had an agenda to abort as many minorities as possible in the US. For every black person you know there is one who was aborted.
April 23, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Abortion may be the number one killer of blacks in America, but do you care because you love black people so much, or is it just another excuse to hate abortion even more?
April 23, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Do you support pro choicers so much because you like killing the unborn or is it just another excuse to love killing unborn blacks even more?
I believe the unborn have a right to live for the same reason I believe you can’t own another man for his race…even if he’s young, deformed, unformed etc. It’s the same principle. I’m just calling liberal bull-shitters out on the mat for playing the race card.
If you were an unborn black baby, would you want liberals like Obama or HIllary to win the election or an old white guy like McCain? Millions more unborn humans will be killed if Hillary beats McCain and millions more than that will be killed if Obama beats Hillary. Remember that next time you see Obama talking about “hope” while standing in front of a Planned Parenthood sign.
Millions more blacks have been legally killed in this country than were owned by whites in this country. Pro-Lifers are the new Abolitionists and once again the Democrats are on the wrong side. I advocate on behalf of this silent minority.
April 24, 2008 at 6:11 am
VOTE OBAMA LOL
Yea this guy is from 4chan, I remember reading that thread. He is basically trying his darndest to troll. He might be surprised to know that the right wing are not a bunch of morons like the left/99% of 4chan would have you believe.
April 24, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Personally I feel that if you aren’t a woman and have no idea what it is like to carry a child, then your opinion on the matter of abortion one way or another is null and void.
You are speaking on a matter in which you don’t and will never be able to comprehend without a sex change that also allows you to be pregnant and give birth.
April 24, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Lonecow, and if you aren’t a farmer and have no idea what it’s like to depend on a slave to make your economy profitable, is your opinion of abolition null and void?
I’m obviously not speaking on behalf of the farmer/ mother…I’m speaking on behalf of the unborn child. Using your reasoning, is your opinion on destroying that unborn being null and void because you can’t relate to the experience of being a fetus?
It’s true that I can’t experience what it’s like to be pregnant and give birth, but you and I also don’t know what it’s like to fall in love with a child yet we have strong opinions on pedophelia and have no problem exerting our judgments on others regardless of the differences in our experience, especially when innocent human lives are at stake.
April 25, 2008 at 12:46 am
Derp Derp
the first post was trolling, the second was an honest question.
April 25, 2008 at 12:49 am
btw, Tennapel I don’t like Obama.
April 25, 2008 at 12:55 am
OBAMA VOTER,
I got that the second question was sincere. And out of curiosity, who do you support and why?
April 25, 2008 at 12:55 am
I JUST GOT A BRILLIANT IDEA! How about the people who find abortions morally wrong don’t have them, and the people who don’t can have abortions (or not if they actually intend to have a baby).
April 25, 2008 at 1:01 am
OBAMA VOTER,
it would be like saying, “Those against slavery can free their slaves and those who are for slavery can own them.” That’s basically what the south wanted when they succeeded and half of us killed the other half of us in our bloodiest war to date.
The question is, “What is it?” If the unborn is a human life then no reason is good enough to kill it. If it’s not a human then no justification is necessary to remove it.
So let’s approach the unborn human without trying to win an abortion debate. Ask yourself, “What is it?” Look at an ultrasound, or look up in a textbook what it is.
April 25, 2008 at 3:31 am
Except for the fact that the south was basically the only part of the country that actually used slaves.
April 25, 2008 at 4:18 am
VOTE OBAMA,
I don’t know who told you that but you’re wrong (plus it doesn’t change the point I made at all). Tens of thousands of slaves helped settle and work the land of the north, build and run ship-yards etc. So the people in the North should be able to own slaves if they wanted to? If you want to start using reason and logic you’ll be pro-life in no time so be careful.
April 25, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Green Stuff:
I always thought Earth Day was for raising awarness, not really for Celebration. To remind people about how they consume, and perhaps to take more action to keep our home (EARTH) a little cleaner.
Baby Killing:
Where did you get that figure for 5,000 unborns everyday? I’m kinda on the fence about abortion, while I don’t like the idea of killing the unborn, I can see why an abortion would be an option, say if the mother would die from having the baby. The other reason is rape. If someone gets pregnant from being raped, why would they want to keep that child? I know someone who did keep their baby from that, and I commend them for being strong, but that is too much for most people. “Mom, who’s my dad?” How would they answer that? Everyday they saw that child, they would be reminded of that event. So, this is why I’m pro-choice myself.
I’m not saying any of this to be an angry liberal or to play devil’s advocate. I’m genuinely curious. I like well-mannered discussion on this stuff. I think our country could beneifit from people who will have discussions with people who do not neccissarily agree with eachother. It’s like being at a punk rock show and you get “brilliant” political commentary like “fuck bush, Maaaaaaaan.” Not only is it dumb (not that I like Bush at all), but you’re preaching to the drunk choir.
April 25, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I understand where you are coming from and your intent is to take the mother out of the argument completely. But the other options you presented are choices people make. Anyone can be a pedophile, someone of course completely sick, but you could wake up tomorrow and be attracted to children.
But you can’t wake up tomorrow and be a woman. You can’t choose to give birth, or get pregnant. No decision in your life will ever let you be a gender you are not (I’ll avoid getting into sex changes here because that is cosmetic and not genetic).
You can not be raped and get pregnant, therefore you don’t and will never understand the trauma that puts someone through. You can’t ever put yourself mentally in that situation and comprehend what it would make you do.
I know a girl who was born and bred catholic pro-life all her life until that happened to her. Scared and afraid and sick, she strongly considered abortion. She didn’t however (thankfully), but my point is, until you are in that situation yourself (which would again require you to be a woman) you can’t even comprehend what your final decision will be.
It is easy for us, as males, to sit on the sidelines and say, “Abortion is wrong” because we never have to deal with it personally, no matter how close we might be to the person considering it. It’s easy to have strong morals against something when you never have to lift a finger and practice what you preach.
Personally if I met anyone who got an abortion just because they didn’t want to deal with a child, or even if they were under 18 and were irresponsible I would immediately, reactively, look down on them, but in the end it’s not my call to make.
April 25, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Earth Day has gone way beyond awareness, and I can’t think of an issue that we are already reminded of. I can’t pick up a box of cereal, my kids can’t go to school, without being reminded of green hysteria. Like all issues, it’s politicized and I’m just doing my part to push back against the new Pharisees.
The health of the mother is only about 3% of the abortions. Rape and incest make up about 1%:
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/abreasons.html
Assuming it’s okay to punish the unborn human for the sins of the father, do you think allowing 99% of the abortions is a good price to pay to protect the 1%? That doesn’t sound right. As an advocate within the Pro Life movement I’ve actually talked to kids who came into being through rape or incest and guess what? They come out just like you and me!
And I haven’t met the offspring of a rape yet who dreaded the question, “Who is your dad?” to a degree that they preferred to be killed and not get the question at all. So your reasons for being Pro Choice don’t seem like very good reasons. You could avoid the question of fatherhood completely if the survivor of rape put the kid up for adoption, but we’re still talking about a tiny percentage of abortions.
Thank you for your generous response. I agree that some of the rhetoric gets heated, but I understand since both I and my opponents feel like we’re debating over policies that lead to life and death. This is the big stuff, and only the brave step into the arena and actually debate.
April 25, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Ah yes, adoption, something alot of people don’t even think about. Something that can help keep abortions down, I would think, would be better sex-education programs. Thats probably another discussion for another day.
You make a very good case, Mr T. Thanks for the response.
April 25, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Lonecow,
I don’t intend to take the mother out of the argument completely, for even if you left her in I could make a case that the suicide rate is so increased by women who have abortions as to make it a separate health issue.
And while I can’t choose to give birth, a woman can definitely choose not to get pregnant or choose not to have sex. And the morality of the situation still doesn’t hinge on the mother being a woman. For the mother could be a man or a monkey for all I care, if the unborn being is human then it’s a human Civil Rights issue, not a gender issue.
Also, if I can’t understand what it’s like to be raped and pregnant then neither can you. For all you know (given your premise that one cannot have an opinion without personal experience) it’s not so traumatic at all. And you can’t put yourself in the position of a woman who has had an abortion, where I have counseled them and many are suicidal. So the neutral ground isn’t to allow women to get an abortion because we haven’t experienced it.
It’s not only easy for us males to sit on the sideline and say ‘abortion is wrong’ but it’s even easier for the living to disregard the entire life of the unborn and say, “We’ll let him be discarded”. Because we’ve never personally been aborted, we have the luxury of even making such self-refuting arguments. Like you said, “It’s easy to have strong morals against something when you never have to lift a finger and practice what you preach.”
You don’t know what it’s like to be a farmer in the south during abolition but you have no problem telling him what to do with his slaves. It’s because a life is not negated because we lack empathy. This is the exact argument given by the south in slavery, “You’re not a cotton farmer dependent on cheap labor, go run your own state.” But the black man is made of the kind of thing that demands a right to equality that goes beyond empathy.
It’s a non-argument and you’ve just asserted it again without explaining why it has to be. And by the way, I will grant you completely that our culture agrees with your position. There’s something deep inside me, as a member of this culture and as a man close to friends on the receiving end of incest and rape that finds defense of the mother’s abortion powerful. But in the end, when I consider the unborn these arguments don’t hold water logically.
So if I completely cut the mother out of the argument then you are completely cutting the Civil Rights of the unborn out of the argument. I’m an advocate of the unborn. They don’t have a voice so I’m their voice.
April 25, 2008 at 5:24 pm
It seems we both have similar experience with people involved with this topic and from that we took two different opinions. Ultimately, I think adoption is a great solution, my fiance comes from an adopted family with 24 brothers and sisters, mostly adopted. And like I said I don’t personally feel anyone should get an abortion, BUT it’s not me in the situation and I value the already established life of the mother more then the unborn child. I’ve never heard that statistic about suicide being higher on women who have had abortions, and if true then it’s a great point for your argument but unless I see some harder facts I can’t rationally accept it.
Of course we will never see eye to eye on this issue.
On the topic of the environment. I don’t think it would hurt anyone to be more environmentally aware. It’s silly that something as simple as not killing the world we live on is even a political issue, it should just be a lifestyle change.
The annoying part is that all of a sudden being Green is a trend, like American Idol or other fly by night fads. So all these people go on and on about how we need to change and make legislation, etc, but then in a month it won’t be trendy any more and they will be back on their Atkins diet for a month until that gets boring. All this talk about it now is just short term solutions to make people feel better about themselves, but anything involving the environment should be long term and permanent.
In any case thank you for keeping it civil. I have been a huge fan of your work since I was a kid, and honestly when I came to your blog I was shocked at how outspoken you are on issues, and how drastically your views are from mine. It was kind of unsettling to see that side of someone who you always admired. But now that I got to have a civil conversation about some of those issues it helped remind me you aren’t just some faceless entity on the internet and a person with opinions like me just completely different.
I know you probably get what I just said a lot, and I apologize, also for going off topic. But yesterday I brashly and foolishly said to myself I wasn’t going to buy any more of your stuff, but that has changed. So at least you helped change my mind on one topic.
April 25, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Hello, I thought I might chime in.
Firstly, I am a bit on the fence as well in that I am personally against abortion but not sure if making abortion against the law would necessarily solve anything, and it isn’t an issue with me in regards to how I choose a candidate. The main stumbling block with me is while the unborn is deprived of life, they are still unborn and therefore they haven’t necessarily had the chance to experience life as we know it, or even the faculties to experience conscious thought. Do they suffer? Do they have a soul? Do the unborn babies go to hell or to heaven, or are they reincarnated? These questions don’t have definite answers and I think there is a tendecy to simplify the issue down into black and white, when everyone is going to have a different outlook on when a zygote becomes more than a salamander or a kitten zygote, and officially becomes a human being. Ultimately it’s a social, cultural problem that we as individuals need to address, as opposed to the government stepping in and deciding these things for us.
Basically, you keep coming back to the fact that we should ask the unborn human what it’s like to be aborted, to see if he has a problem with it, which is kind of a ridiculous proposition given that we know asking unborn babies anything is impossible. We know that the unborn aren’t capable of conscious thought like we grown-ups are and do not experience reality consciously until they are much further along in their development. I am sure these are arguments you’ve encountered before and I am interested to hear your thoughts on them.
Secondly, I am also curious what your position is on circumcision. We decided not to circumcise my son because we figured it was a consent issue – he wasn’t able to speak up and tell us if he wanted his foreskin cut off or not, or to tell us if it hurts or not (though the crying is probably a giveaway). We used the somewhat of the same argument against circumcision that you do against abortion, so by your logic, wouldn’t it be best for the government to step in and prevent parents from cutting off a piece of their child’s penis against his will?
April 25, 2008 at 8:04 pm
You misunderstand my “what do the unborn feel?” argument. That is to address the absurdity that we can’t make judgments on others unless we can perfectly empathize with them. If a mother wants to kill a zygote or a 2 year old child, I don’t really care what the mother feels, the being has a right to live. So it doesn’t matter if the mother is an emotional wreck, or even a taco, we’re talking about the rights of the unborn.
You can’t see your child who has come up behind you in the kitchen and says, “Can I kill this?” It might be a weed, or it might be his little brother, your ability to empathize with the kid doesn’t play into the logic.
If you look back on humanity’s greatest terrors, it’s been when we gave certain humans 3/5 of the status of other humans. Blacks, Jews and now the unborn are made into less-than-human for political leaders to cook the books. We do not get our humanity from our level of development, for newly born babies are not as developed as a teenager, yet they both have 100% of a right to live.
I’m for circumcision and that’s a bizarre move to not perform this ritual on a baby because of consent issues. Wouldn’t those consent issues AT LEAST apply to the life of the baby unless you think consent of de-foreskinning is more important than consent of de-lifing. If the government doesn’t step in now and keep a parent from killing the baby then I don’t see the moral reason for them to step in and save a foreskin.
You also mention that abortion isn’t an issue in regards to how you choose a candidate, but Obama wouldn’t even support the “born alive” bill where if an abortion is botched and the unborn child lives, the doctors would be forbidden from saving the baby…which is why being for abortion isn’t accurate. The left is not fighting to have a baby removed, they are fighting to have a baby removed and killed. That’s why I’m pro life and not anti-abortion, and my opponents are anti-life and not pro-choice. And I can’t think of a more important basis on which to choose a candidate.
April 25, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Doug, good job staying on target with your responses and not being led off on a tangent such as does the embryo feel anything or such.
Lonecow and Dustin,
The media has a heavy bent to liberal policies, most facts that do not advance their action line will not get aired and thus this distrust of a high suicide rate among mothers who have had abortions.
I heard a radio show interview with Dr. Bernard Nathanson. He was one of the chief advocates of abortion early in his medical career. He went on to run one of the biggest abortion clinics in New York. When ultrasound technology became available, he had an associate do ultrasounds while performing abortions one weekend and record them. Needless the say, this had a profound affect on both him and his associate. Neither of them have ever done another abortion since and the tape went on to become a film called the silent scream.
Dr Nathanson has thus concluded that abortion is wrong from a scientific perspective. I encourage you to look into his life story.
April 27, 2008 at 9:10 pm
wow, you all have way too much free time.
April 27, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Look who makes time to comment on my site. Notice I don’t time to go over to your site.
November 8, 2008 at 4:28 am
Thinking takes time. Too bad some people don’t have time for it. ;)
I think (we as males) are entitled have our OPINION on abortion but it’s clearly a woman’s choice….legally or not. It’s her body and it’s her soul that takes on the burden of whatever choice she makes. Isn’t that why God gave THEM the ability to have children? If women want our opinion on the subject…..we are all here for them.
Murdering a fetus and murdering a fully grown human being are not to be put in the same category, people! Similarly….someone who is in a coma. These are the gray areas that I think anti-abortionists want to label black and white. Besides….who is really FOR abortion? Nobody wants to be in a position where they have to go through abortion. Certainly there are people that are totally irresponsible out there and don’t want to take responsibility for their actions. Too bad they weren’t aborted? I wonder. Anyway, women have illegal abortions whether you want them to or not. Why not provide them with a relatively safe environment and make them PAY to have an abortion. Women aren’t as EAGER to abort as some men think, as well.
One more final point….we are OVERPOPULATED!!! Balance will be restored one way or the other. Nature will be glad to provide us with starvation, a new ice age(fire age?) or pandemic if we choose. I’m not saying abortion is a good thing. I’m just saying we don’t NEED anymore people gobbling up it’s resources, polluting, and making many species of animals extinct. Right now it looks like we are heading towards destroying our own home….planet insanity….Earth. Whatever you want to call it. We’ve got some issues to consider. Put on your thinking caps….