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Since I first watched Perez Hilton’s video rant against Carrie Prejean I’ve been musing over just why it infuriated me so very much. Today it occurred to me why I’m so inordinately angry at this pervert.
He’s an irrational, hateful bigot.
But even more than that, he encourages irrational, hateful bigotry in others.
Still worse than that though, he encourages irrational, hateful bigotry in others and pretends that he stands against irrational, hateful bigotry.
Even beyond that, he purposefully muddles the very concept of what is and what isn’t irrational, hateful bigotry. He’s a part of the reason why few people seem to even understand what irrational, hateful bigotry even is anymore.
I really do hope that Perez Hilton has never really experienced that brand of hatred. Because if he has then it says something pretty horrific about his character.
Let me tell you a story. I hesitate to tell this story and I’ve never shared it here before precisely because I’m certain almost no one will understand how I feel about the events I’m about to relay. But I’ll explain when I’m done, if you can bear with me.
Many years ago I met a young woman who I’ll call Jane. I met Jane at a little cafe, thought she was cute and struck up a conversation on a lark, not really intending to “pick up” anyone or anything. I just thought she was cute. We hit it off right away. Ended up talking for over an hour and, when I found out we both haunted some of the same local spots, made plans to bump into one another here and there sometime. And so we did.
After spotting her at a bar I frequented just a couple of days later, we spent the night partying together and had a grand old time. And with a little eye contact and whatnot I had the impression that Jane might be open for a bit more than casual friendship.
Now flash forward a week or two and Jane now knows I’m a lesbian. And I know that Jane “experimented” a bit in high school. And I had reason to believe she might be interested in “experimenting” a bit more. Which was fine and dandy with me because I was working on a nice little crush by then. So when she invited me out to her folk’s home for dinner one evening, I naturally accepted.
There I got to meet some of her family. Most notably her older brother, who we’ll call Bill. Bill didn’t like homosexuals and was pretty vocal about that. Especially when I was stupid enough to make absolutely no secret about which side of the seat my little feet were swinging from.
I managed to keep peace with Bill for Jane’s sake as well as the rest of the family, not wanting to make any waves for the very cute waitress I wanted so much to ingratiate myself to. I smiled and laughed and nodded agreeably at all the appropriate points. I even let on that there wasn’t anything between Jane and I to be concerned about. We were just friends, you see.
Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.
So a couple more weeks later when I’d managed to get to the kissy face stage of my relationship with Jane, Bill was not at all pleased. We never let him actually catch us at it or anything but it’s rather a difficult thing to hide from family members when you’re making out with one of their own. He wasn’t quite stupid enough to miss all the obvious signs, I suppose.
Bill decided he needed to take action to forestall any further progress of my relationship with his little sister. Looking back on the whole thing I get the impression that everything that followed stemmed from a particulary bizarre relationship between Bill and Jane. One which I’m not especially motivated to ponder over.
He invited me to tag along while he made a beer run one evening while we were all hanging out at the family home. Now being the sort to avoid being alone with any man at all unless absolutely necessary, I didn’t like the idea all that much. But the look in Jane’s eye convinced me to smile and tag along, I think because Bill had made an effort to appear accepting all that day. And that I think precisely so he could get me alone with him.
Once we were on the road and alone with one another Bill couldn’t help but make a few bitter remarks that made it clear he was working himself up to a good, solid round of telling me exactly what was one his mind. And that it largely consisted of hating me and the various reasons why.
It was a rather a “you just had to be there” kinda thing. The hatred and fury rolling of this man was simply frightening and the look on his face made his state of mind pretty evident. He wasn’t at all rational and there would be no reasoning with him, of this I was sure. I got frightened pretty quick. Enough that when he suddenly pulled off the road for no apparent reason I started to tremble.
Bill started in on me right away and I admit he had me intimidated pretty quickly, grabbing me by the wrist and literally shaking me to emphasis each point he communicated. He called me all the obscene names you might expect. Accused me of seducing his sister (which, really, was actually true I suppose), taking advantage of her (again, probably true) and even brainwashing her. The brainwashing thing I can at least deny, as I really haven’t much more than the vaguest notion how to go about brainwashing someone.
Now Bill was a fairly big boy and having him literally in my face, cursing and threatening while wrenching my wrist hard enough to bruise was enough to stir up every terror I had. But being the kind of person I am, that meant responding aggressively myself, despite being nearly so terrified as to void my bladder right there in the front seat.
So it naturally got violent. I cursed him and he punched me on the side of my head. I hit him back and we proceeded to tussle for a minute. But Bill was a fairly big boy, as I mentioned. And it wasn’t long before he had me dragged from his car and was grinding my face into the dirt on the side of the road.
Bill threatened to rape me. In so many words. It was never explicitly stated but I’ll leave it to your imagination as to how he communicated this to me.
And I think the only reason he didn’t is that I convinced him that he’d have to kill me if he did because I would certainly kill him otherwise. I at least was clear in communicating my threat. This was the incident that prompted me to begin working out in earnest and start boxing.
But he had to think it over before deciding to leave me on the side of the road to hitch a ride. I remember him standing over me, while I was still prone in the dirt, considering it – while his eyes burned with a hatred few people have the misfortune of witnessing directed at them.
He decided against it and left me there though. And I reported the entire incident to the police, though it naturally came to nothing in the end. Still, I ran into him again later, when I’d long since gotten my feet under me again. So I laid his jaw over his shoulder for him and put his face in the dirt that time, making sure he was too afraid to get up while I was still standing there.
There’s much more to this part of the story but I think you’ll excuse me if I skip over it all. Nothing to make the matter any more horrible, just details.
Now, the reason I hesitate to share this story is that it could (and almost certainly will) be construed as a plea for tolerance for homosexuals. I plea for no such thing. I believe we as a people should be completely intolerant of homosexuality and I don’t want to be any part of confusing compassion for homosexuals with tolerance of homosexuality.
Homosexuality is a disease. It’s a mental illness. A sexual dysfunction that causes a hell of a lot of suffering. We should have no more tolerance or acceptance of it than we have for any other destructive psychological condition. Yet I also think it unassailable that we should have compassion for those afflicted with it.
People like Perez Hilton though…these folks encourage irrational, hateful bigotry. But because they mask it behind a seeming intolerance of bigotry itself and thus thoroughly muddle the whole issue, few people can even grasp this position that I hold. And since I feel this is the correct position to hold toward homosexuality and homosexuals this angers me quite a good bit. Because of people like him and the stunning success they’ve had in propagating their hatred most people cannot fathom hating homosexuality while holding compassion for homosexuals. The two things have become melded together as one in order to prevent anyone from speaking against homosexuality without seeming a bigot. The irony being that these folks spew the most blatant bigotry toward those who oppose homosexuality.
I think Perez Hilton and those of his ilk have never experienced anything like true irrational, hateful bigotry. Because if they had then they would have to be almost unfathomably self-centered and selfish to encourage it in others in order to score a few points for their side. No decent human being who has ever experienced it first hand would ever consider using it to further their cause, whatever that cause might be.
This is why I say that I can only hope Perez Hilton has never experienced true hateful bigotry. Because if he has and yet still wields it himself to further the cause of promoting acceptance of homosexuality…then he’s as evil a human being as they come.
I’m not stunned too often by something good but I was able to experience that today when I heard Carrie Prejean, first runner up for Miss USA had given an honest answer to the question:
“Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suite? Why or why not?”
First off, let’s point out the obvious.
Who the hell approved that question for this pageant?
I mean they didn’t really think there was no possibility of some nasty controversy here, did they? Or has it become expected for contestants to lie and give a politically correct answer to such a question, even if it’s not what they believe?
But that aside, check out this vid. I want to point out something here. Check out the comment starting at the 0:27 second mark on this vid:
Drama? Courtesy of Carrie Prejean? Seriously?
How is she the source of this drama exactly? From what I understand, Perez Hilton is the source of all the drama. And the pageant itself as well, if rumors that she lost the crown due to her answer to this question are true.
Be forewarned: You all find the crude language one should expect from a homo when confronted with anything other than fawning over their sexuality in this vid.
She got boo’ed? That’s not what I heard. I didn’t hear any boo’ing at all. I heard a lot of cheering. A lot more than the begrudging, scattered applause you got for your token-homo politically correct question in the first place.
You do realize you were the token homo here, right Perez? I mean, no one is under the impression you just happened to be assigned this question at random, are they? You aren’t thinking you got picked for this job for any other reason, are you?
And she alienated people? She did? No, you did, you pervert! If she’d answered the way you insist she should have then she (and the pageant by extension!) she would have alienated many more people! You were the devisive one. You were the one bent on alienating all who oppose the abomination of same-sex marriage.
Now maybe she didn’t do such a great job answering the question but…seriously, who does? Those poor pangeant ladies routinely flub those questions. It’s a tough spot to be put in and “I want world peace, tee hee!” isn’t always the best response.
Really, she didn’t do that bad. I would have fallen out of my chair if she’d actually mentioned God at all but I was still completely stunned at the answer she did give.
A few points:
Her answer got a lot more applause than the question did in the first place, more than you’d expect if you listen to all those folks who honestly don’t seem to realize not everyone agrees with them. She got a solid round of support for her answer the moment she gave it. It was clear a lot of folks in the audience were surprised and quite happy with her answer. Shrug that off all you like but you’re just shooting yourself in the foot pretending the people are all onboard with the politically correct stance on this issue.
What the hell was Perez Hilton doing on that panel anyway? Who though that was a good idea?! I mean, really. Is anyone surprised at his response on his blog? Do you think we wouldn’t see something tasteless on his blog following this pageant even without the controversy?
What the hell is a gay man doing judging a beauty pageant anyway? When did that start making sense to people?
I gotta give major props, two big thumbs up and a grin, to Carrie Prejean for her answer. Anyone else I’m sure would have stumbled over some politically correct answer rather than stumbling over an honest one. You may have lost that little crown but darling you’ve got others coming to you. 
Can someone point out how exactly why this woman was “harassed”? Come on, it shouldn’t be hard.
She shouts down the person she’s interviewing, for crying out loud, argues with him, editorializes and generally shows such dripping elitist disgust for the people at the protest that she couldn’t have made that any clearer if she’d intentionally vomited on someone.
Which is exactly the sort of thing these folks are fed up with! Of course it pissed them off! It pissed me off and I wasn’t even there, I was just watching on television!
I was absolutely shocked at this reporter’s behavior and I’m someone who already has no respect for mainstream journalism. Can you imagine a high school journalism student conducting an interview and displaying any portion of this woman’s interviewing technique and not getting ganked by her teacher for it?
And yet it’s acceptable at CNN? A major news network?
What the hell?
I’m sure this isn’t some profound insight for anyone else and likely won’t make a huge impact or anything…but man, it sure struck me.
All this week I’ve been on a potato chip sammich kick. By that I mean I’ve eaten a potato chip sammich just about every day, sometimes two a day. In fact, I hate three yesterday. Not all at once, mind you. Two for lunch and one for an evening snack. Because I didn’t cook dinner or anything.
What’s a potato chip sammich? Well, it’s your basic ham sandwich with plain potato chips tossed in there for some crunch.
Yeah, I know. Weird, right? Kinda my point.
So my hubby spots me eating this the other day (like, Friday I think?) and gives me an odd look. Because I’m clearly eating an unusually crunchy and munchy ham sammich.
Which was weird to me because….you’ve never seen me eat one of these before? I’ve been eating these since…well, since I started eating solid food, for crying out loud. I don’t eat ham sammich while there’s plain potato chips in the house without tossing some in there. Some people gotta have mayo. I gotta have pototo chip.
Finally he asked me, essentially, “wha?” And I explained what I was eating.
He stared at me for a bit, much like you’d expect someone to stare if you’d suddenly, casually picked up a bug and eaten it.
I thought this was a bit funny at first, then a bit embaressing. Finally I was a bit disgruntled. I don’t fuss about your habit of wearing socks in your underwear, do I?
Well, not much anyway.
So shaddap then.
I didn’t say that, naturally. But I was prepared to; and to throw in a patented scowl along with it, if he made a fuss.
But after he’d satisfied himself by casually pointing out that that he was sure a potato chip sammich violated some undefined natural law or other, he went back to watching t.v. with me and left it be. And I ate my noisy, crunchy, munchy ever-beloved potato chip sammich in peace. He didn’t even fuss about all the noise.
And it is noisy, I must admit.
The thing is…
He did the grocery shopping this week. And he bought ham sammich fixin’s. And two bags of plain potato chips.
Of course I knew why he’d bought them right off but I had to ask anyway. Because you never know. And it’s just swell to make ‘em say it, yeah?
Of course he bought them so I could make potato chips sammiches. And because he knew I was apparently suffering some kind of massive potato chip sammich deficiency this week or something.
And I thought…well, that’s the stuff innit? That’s how it’s supposed to be.
When your mate does something kooky but otherwise harmless, you don’t make a big deal out of it. You don’t try to correct them or fix them. You don’t grumble or pick on ‘em about it.
Your grin because you know you’re lucky enough to have someone who’s kooky enough to eat potato chip sammiches. And you make sure they have plenty of potato chips.
I don’t know why this suddenly makes me want to iron his socks, though.
I mean that really would be weird.
So I’m in a tricky position. I can’t really complain and yet I want to anyway.
I’m currently on dial-up for my internet access. Medical problems kept me away from home for a long while and in the meantime my husband just cancelled the whole internet thing to save a few bucks. He practically never uses it. Me? I’m on just about every day, for at least a while.
But Fast Access DSL was costing us something like $40 a month. Obviously the first chicken to get the cleaver when you need meat on the table, eh?
So I called today after looking at all these “bundles” they’re offering, where you combine DirectTV, cell phone plan, DSL and your regular phone stuff. According to all the catalogs and promotions I’ve been getting in the mail you can save a lot of money, right? Well, I looked at it and gave ‘em a call.
In the process of all this the very nice lady I spoke with came up with a way to get my DSL turned back on (since I still have the modem and everything) really cheap. She even quoted me a final phone bill of something like $60 a month or so. Which was real nice. I liked that. Because I’m paying $70 a month just for the phone itself right now. How can I pass up adding DSL and saving $10 a month?
So I called the DSL folks to confirm this. And apparently the other lady had already placed the order. Even though I didn’t actually order it.
Well, no biggie. I told the second person that’s fine. Let’s see what we’ve got because I’ll probably be ordering it anyway. I mean, good deal, right?
But let’s cut to the chase. After a lot of confusion and erroneous assumptions on everyone’s part I got a final bill total of about $80 a month or so. And since I’m already paying nearly $70 a month just for the phone itself, that seemed a pretty darned good deal.
So that gives me DSL Extreme, which is the third package running at about 50x the speed of your average dial-up.
But…wait…FastAccess DSL (the slowest DSL, at about 10x dial-up speed) runs about $20 a month. So…can’t I just get FastAccess DSL ($19.95/month) instead of DSL Extreme ($37.95/month) and actually save some money on my phone bill?
Well, no. Gotta get DSL Extreme to get that special deal that lets them shave off all kinds of little fees and end up with a $80 a month total bill.
Okay. Good. Great. All in all, still a great deal. So I took it. I’ll be surfing dah interwebz with Extreme DSL in a couple of days.
But here’s the thing.
Before I went in the hospital…for like two years up to the point even…I was paying nearly $70 a month on my phone and about $50 a month for FastAccessDSL. That’s something like $120 a month on those two things.
Now I’m getting my regular phone plus Extreme DSL for $80 a month.
So why was I paying so much before? Is it not perfectly clear that I was getting gouged outrageously before? Clearly they can provide both services for $80 a month and clear a nice profit or they wouldn’t be promoting it now.
You know…it really shouldn’t be all this complicated. There shouldn’t be all these ridiculous loopholes nor the prospect of knuckleheads like me throwing down $120 a month for something when they can get it ever better for $80 a month.
Yeah, I know. These folks are a business and they have to make a profit…which includes taking advantage of idiots like me…but…sheesh.
So I’m in this weird position where I’m real grateful to the two folks at Bellsouth that jumped through hoops to get me such a great deal here. And yet still ticked off that I’ve been throwing money at Bellsouth hand over fist for so long unnecessarily.
Basically, harumph.
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