"You Got To Touch His Freakin' Heart"

A video of Jeff Bliss, a Duncanville High school student, going off on his teacher has recently gone viral. Here's the video if you haven't already seen it.



The teacher is now on leave with pay pending an investigation of the incident. You can watch an interview with Jeff here.  I've felt this kid's frustration before when I was in high school (and in college at times). Some teachers just hand out material for you to learn and the students regurgitate it on a test (I personally tend to forget what was taught after taking a class taught like this). Although he probably could have delivered his message in a more appropriate manner sometimes rants like these have to be expressed and witnessed by the public to get to the root of the problem.

I enjoy classes where there is interaction between the teacher and their students. Not every student learns the same and some need more involvement from their teacher. If the teacher hadn't brushed off the student ("you're wasting my time", "get out") the video probably wouldn't have gone as viral as it had. A student's success depends on all parties involved: the parents, student, and teacher. In this case Jeff was frustrated because he values the importance of a good education. He wants to succeed but feels that this specific teacher was not making any attempts to hear him out let alone teach beyond passing out worksheets (err, "packets"). I know the education debate is complex and I don't believe that cutting a teacher's pay (the "stick" approach) is going to resolve our nation's failures in education. I also don't want teachers teaching me or my kids with such an extreme lack of enthusiasm for their job that it causes an outburst like this one. At least in college you have some options towards choosing your teacher and I've seen some students, prior to their appointed registration time, research professors on ratemyprofessors.com. I've personally never used the site prior to today and don't really plan to in the future but felt it worth mentioning. When a student like Jeff, who returned to school after dropping out, feels this strongly about the education system then you know there are issues to be addressed. If the kids (with the help of parents) are truly trying their best then the least the teacher can do is try to inspire the kids. Jeff said it best, "you got to touch his freakin' heart".

Why Do You Get 18%?

This image has exploded on the interwebs and even hit the news. I've seen some humorous (and plain awful) restaurant receipt images but what's sad about this one is that this pastor played the religion card to justify not giving a tip (although Bell and company claimed they left a $6.29 cash tip on the table).

She apologized stating she's embarrassed by her lapse in judgement, but frankly, as many in online forums have stated, she wanted someone to see it she's just ashamed that her unchristian behavior went viral. So let's break it down shall we?

"I give God 10%"
 Bell is boasting how faithful she is to God by proclaiming she renders to God what is God's. This holier than thou attitude is a cry for attention and acceptance. We all want to be loved but why go out of your way to get someone fired over your wounded pride?

"Pastor Alois Bell"
I understand why some doctors prefer being called doctor, they worked hard for their title (as long as they don't let it get to their heads), but why mention you're a pastor on a restaurant receipt? Writing pastor on a receipt is not a get out of jail free card,  they're not going to look at that and say "she's not being rude, she's a pastor". It doesn't allow you any special privileges in society. It's like walking into a room and "declaring bankruptcy", it's not anything.

"Why do you get 18%"
This reads "why should I be more generous to you than I am to God?" Forget that she's a pastor or even Christian for a moment, and focus what this says to you as a human. This is saying my loyalties to my ideals and beliefs deserve more of my attention and resources than my fellow man. Everything is second to _____ and if anything threatens or is elevated above _____ then I will reminder you/ it of your/its place. If you can't connect with or even have a shred of compassion for your fellow man (never worked in food service but I'm sure it is rough) then you can't call yourself a pastor.

I feel for the fired waitress, even though she did break corporate policy, who only posted it as a comical example of a bad tipper. Hopefully she won't be out of work for too long but this is a clear reminder how interconnected we are to each other and even the smallest of actions can have serious consequences.

Served!

Somewhere there are kids in church reading slang words into the Bible while snickering during the sermon. Satan just got served! (Or was it the cardinals getting served?)

(via FailBlog)

After a little digging on the interwebs I located the original artist, Cosmo Sarson, and work here. Apparently this was inspired by a  Polish youth group which breakdanced for Pope John Paul II.

El Papa approved! As long as it's not pole dancing for Jesus.

Education I Haz It

I thought I would share a couple of gems floating around the internets. Although you might receive a slight headache afterwards, enjoy!

(Both via Unreasonable Faith, I love you guys!)

One Nation Under God, Not Allah

I know I post a lot of videos and I don't want to become dependent on them to make my point but this one today, oh boy. This one would make me want to drown mankind in a torrential flood if I were god. I know I'm all sunshine, rainbows, and "let's hold hands in brotherhood" kind of guy but this video screams of so much hatred I just want to chuck my laptop into the river and boycott all media (except cartoons) for the rest of my life. But ignoring the problem won't make it go away, if anything it'll get worse.



(h/t Unreasonable Faith)
This video makes me want to vomit. How can there be this much hatred in a "God-fearing" America? And what really broke my heart were the worried expressions by the children entering the building at the 2:00 minute mark. If THIS is America, I don't want to stay. One of the protesters shouted "One Nation Under God, Not Allah" to demonstrate, I suppose, the righteous anger of God (the Christian god) for worshiping a false god (the Muslim god). I guess the protesters thought that if they shouted at non-believers and their children long enough they (the Muslims) will understand the protesters belief in a God who hates non-Christians for being born to parents of a different faith. Everyone knows that even though you may be born and raised within a different culture YOU HAVE TO leave the culture, faith, and traditions of your parents behind when you come to America. Oh, you can bring your delicious food, wise sayings, and herbal remedies with you when you step on American soil, but everything else is banned. It's simply un-American to be different, you gave up that freedom when you entered the land of the free.

And what really gets under my skin is that the event being protested was a charity fundraiser held by the Islamic Circle of North America to raise funds for disaster relief, women's housing, and other causes. If this is truly one nation under God I hope it's not the god of these protesters who shout at families going to charity events to raise funds for those in need. I would say God Bless America but if immigrants are more loving and empathetic to their neighbors than "real Americans" then I'd rather say God bless everyone BUT Americans.

Fundies Say the Darndest Things!

It's videos like these that I thank Allah every day for Youtube.



 Fundies Say the Darndest Things is a website dedicated to archiving the most outrageous, irrational, and mind-numbing comments made by fundies from online forums. A quick perusal of the archives at first brought me to a light chuckle but after a few minutes these quotes quickly became depressing when reality began to sink in: these are quotes made by real people. You forget that sometimes while perusing through the internet.


Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"The only thing a kid will learn in an American public school is that homosexuality is good, and America is bad. There is no way, under any considerations, circumstances, or conditions, that my kid will attend one of our leftist public brain laundries." Wolseley

["The Hebrews crossed the 'sea of reeds'. Most Jews agree on this. After all, the first 5 books are theirs."] 
"The first five books are theirs? Um, no. Moses was a Christian. Sorry."  prosperousindividual

"That's the beauty of Heaven... we can leave our brains behind." Lainy68

"Are... are you now disputing the existance [sic] of DNA???"

Yes. DNA can never be proven. Evolutionists are obsessed with it because they always say ''chimps share 97% DNA with modern man'' etc. That's great, however you would then need to prove DNA is real. Asycthian

When Did You Choose to be Straight?

If you don't already follow Unreasonable Faith, then you're missing out. I love watching gems like these. Thanks to Daniel Florien at Unreasonable Faith for sharing this street interview video on choosing your sexual orientation.

Religious Venn Diagram (According to Google)

Google, what would we do without you.
Praise be Google. Google Almighty knows best!

(HT Blame It On the Voices)

I guess Christians and Muslims have more in common than they thought.