If You Don’t Know, Shut Up

Editorial

Today, the Interwebz are full of people calling out the Olympic boxer who won by tap-out. They’re saying a transgender male has no business competing in a women-only category.

Which is, by and large, a fair statement. After all, equality only goes just so far. If we have a special protected competition for women only due to the muscle-producing effects of testosterone on the human physique, it makes perfect sense to disallow biological males. There are those who disagree with this statement, and I’m willing to discuss it.

But it does not apply here.

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Sports Desk: You’re ALL Dumbasses, Sport

“Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future.”
– Raoul Duke, Christmas Eve 1972

Late last night, while I was engaged in my regular sacrifices and oblations the Great White Porcelain God Whose Name Is Ralph came a pounding on the door at the damnedest moment imaginable. They broke in, and my feeble gestures of resistance notwithstanding, they did their evil deeds and left. Imagine my shock when I recovered myself enough to stagger into the living room only to discover six cases of beer, an IBM Selectric, a recently reconnected Mojo Wire, and enough speed to charge a rhino. The Editorial Enforcement Division had visited again and caught me at a weak moment. I might have said with my pants down, but that would be an abuse of the metaphor. I’m the one being abused and I don’t want to detract from that point, so I’ll avoid the figure of speech and just get right to it.

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The Great Cracker Barrel Collapse

NOTE: I’m not an investment advisor. This isn’t investment advice. This is my opinion. Take it with as much salt as you care to.

Those of you who aren’t in the stock markets may not even have heard about this, but Cracker Barrel’s share price has tanked recently. There are reasons, and they’re addressing them, but…

…Ah. Yes. I’ve been reminded that some of you don’t have a clue what Cracker Barrel is. Either you’re not from the United States or you live in the wrong part and don’t do road trips. Okay; so let’s start there.

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Joe Biden Is Not Evil

This headline by itself will draw hate from millions of pro-Palestine folks, which just goes to show: partisanship is the death of thought. Many of them won’t even know what the Romeo is or why it’s important.

(If you’re curious, I wrote about it a couple of months back. Go — read and learn.)

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about, at least not today.

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Where Do I Stand?

We see it all over the internet, on people’s profiles and posts: “I stand with Israel!” “I stand with Ukraine!” Pick your champion; someone’s standing with them. Safely outside the line of fire, mind you, but still.

Don’t mistake me: It takes courage to make a moral stand, even online. You lose friends, families get torn apart. People like me, who use their internet accounts to promote their writing/art/business, get blocked and lose customers. As a result, it’s usually also a stupid thing to do, especially since your brave stand with Ukraine doesn’t kill a single Russian soldier.

The difference between courage and stupidity is often so fine a line as to be nonexistent.

And yet…

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They’re Stealing the Truth

“Trump said it, so it must be a lie!”

That’s really not a terrible axiom. Oh, it’s not 100% accurate, but most of what he’s said over the years has ranged from mild exaggeration to only true in certain circumstances all the way up to a bald-faced whopper. He repeats the lie often and loudly, and some will come to believe him — and others automatically disbelieve.

Herein, however, comes a problem: Sometimes, people end up disbelieving what he says even though there’s some truth to it.

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Why Are You…?

People keep asking me (online, for the most part) why I’m on this side or that. I tell them I’m not, and do my best to explain, and they remain confused. It goes like this:

“Why are you defending Israel? They’re committing genocide!”
“I’m not talking about genocide. I’m talking about [insert abstract topic].”
“That doesn’t matter! Israel is evil!”

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White Phosphorus In Gaza

Every few months, the organization “Human Rights Watch” releases a report accusing a major anti-Iranian nation of using white phosphorus rounds against civilians. It’s consistent, well-documented, factually correct, and a flaming lie all at once.

“But how could that be? Is it white phosphorus or not? Is phosphorus illegal or not?”

Glad you asked. I’ll tell you.

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“When Will Israel End Its War?”

I read this question this morning, and it caught me off guard. I examined it, and the context in which it was posed. This was the premise of a thought piece in major media.

And it struck me: People, even those who really ought to know better, really have no idea what’s going on. Strange as that may seem to some of you — especially those with firm, settled opinions — it’s frighteningly, terrifyingly true.

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