4
Clackamas Print
Commentari
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007
Both extremes in the wrong
Dustin Ragsdale
I The Clackamas Print
You know what really boils
my blood?
The fact that Bible-bashers
think they’re any better than
Bible-thumpers!
This is not an attack against
religion or other forms of spiritu­
ality, nor agnostics and atheists.
This is an enthusiastic pair
of middle fingers in the faces
of religious and anti-religious
extremists — those who would
save/destroy the world by parrot­
ing exhausted clichés and engag­
ing in sophomoric mudslinging.
Bible-thumpers: psychos who
dwell on the extreme edge of lit­
eral interpretation and dogmatic
law. They are zombies who hear
and repeat without listening or
considering, involving only their
mouths and egos as they regur­
gitate and befoul well-meaning
ideals.
Again, this refers to a minor­
ity of religious and spiritual peo­
ple - mostly those waving or
wearing signs on the streets of
downtown.
A sufficiently pungent stink
has already been raised about
unthinking, holy-book-wielding
automatons and their hypocriti­
cal practices - so no additional
slamming is needed here.
However, not enough noise
is blasted back into the ears of
superficial, anti-Jesus scream­
ers.
Bible-bashers: losers who
dwell on the extreme edge of
anti-religious “activism” and
malicious slander. These crea­
tures remain blissfully ignorant
of the fact that they embody
the very thing against which
they claim to stand. They differ
from Bible-thumpers only in that
which they preach.
It is thoroughly exhausting;
listening to broken-record bitch­
ing that thinly veils an adolescent
sneer towards authority figures.
Grow up.
It is one thing to have one’s
own beliefs, or even
to choose not to
believe any­
thing
at all.
However, it is a different mat­
ter entirely when one chooses
to overtly attack the beliefs of
religious people.
Anyone who displays and
spews ant-religious propaganda
is just a backwards-evangelist,
hereafter referred to as an “ada-
mangelist.”
There are an infuriating
number of anti-religious zeal­
ots that have not even bothered
to read the holy book(s) they
clafrn to understand well enough
to contest. This means that any
thoughts on the actual meaning
of said texts are strictly second­
hand. They are zombies who
hear and repeat without listening
or considering, involving only
their mouths, egos and etcetera.
Nobody is impressed when
an adamangelist quotes a pair
of unrelated snippets without
context from a religious text
and points out “flaws” or
“hypocrisy.” That sort
of critical “think-
' ing” ceased to
be funny in
early
‘90s.
The most glaring example of
adamangelism is an all-too-fre-
quent spectacle. Someone will
approach a person or group, greet
them, ask about their day, listen
to the response and politely ask
if they could spare a moment to
talk about God.
The response is an inflamma­
tory remark, often leading into
an abusive tirade.
A simple “no” would do just
fine, or one could simply walk
away.
The evangelist in question
honestly believes in their heart
that they are attempting to help
someone find a path to salva­
tion.
To summarize, one can not
claim to be an individual stand­
ing against something while
remaining ignorant of that enti­
ty’s nature. Aping the protests
of others makes you no less a
mindless follower than your ste­
reotypical counterparts.
In essence, black wool makes
one no less a sheep.
Chaoscius says, “To have a
clear voice of revolution, one
must know the heart of old songs
to be changed. Otherwise, one
sings with the voice of
a jackass.
Jack Thompson
compares himself
to known vigilante
When it comes to tryinl
to control peoples’ lives, and
spewing conservative big­
otry, nobody does it bet®
than pinhead attorney Jack
Thompson.
Thompson came into the
limelight in the late ‘80s and
early ‘90s for trying to bag
rap albums released by 2 Live
Crew and N.W.A. in Florida
because they were “indecent.®
He would send photocopies
of his driver’s license to his i
“opponents” with a picture of I
Batman pasted over his owl
face.
When
asked
whl
Thompson sent pictures of
Batman to his opponents, heI
responded, “I have sent myl
opponents pictures of Batmal
to remind them I’m playing th«
role of Batman. Just like Bruc«
Wayne helped the police in the]
movie, I have had to assist th®
sheriff of Broward County.” I
After his stint pretending to 1
be Batman, Thompson joinel
up with the psychotic, pin«
headed Oliver “Should-be-i®
prison” North and his disgust«
ingly patriotic group, Freedol
Alliance. Around this time«
Thompson was going after th®
song “Cop Killer,” by Ice-lj
claiming that it advocated thfl
killing of police officers.
Besides going after rap«
pers, Thompson has alsl
attacked radio personalities®
Most notably, Thompson cal
be blamed for Clear Channel
pulling Howard Stem off
the air in Florida by filing a j
complaint to the pinhead gov«
emment agency, the Federal
Illustration by Katie Wilson & Dustin Ragsdale Clackamas Print
Conflicts abound over resources
dedicated to mountain rescues
. Laura Cameron
11 The Clackamas Print
I knew it would happen.
The moment the news
broke that eight climbers
were “lost” on Mt. Hood, I
knew - with the cold cer­
tainty that only cynicism can
bring - that there would be
another spate of anti-climber
rage in the media.
It arrived, right on time,
two days after the climbers
were brought safely down off
the mountain.
“Why would anyone be
so stupid as to climb the
mountain in the winter?”
one letter to The Oregonian
read. Many people couldn’t
understand
why
anyone
would want to go climbing.
Almost all demanded manda­
tory Mcruntain Locator Units
- MLUs - for anyone going
above Timberline, or mak­
ing stranded climbers pay for
their rescues.
Hardly surprisingly, none
of the people yelling are from
the mountain climbing com­
munity. Not only are they
not climbers themselves, but
they show an amazing Uck
of knowledge about the sport
for which they want to set
the rules.
Safety on Mt. Hood is an
important subject and should
be debated. But first, let’s
take'a look at the actual facts
and hopefully dispel some
misconceptions about haul­
ing yourself up a mountain.
First: Why would anyone
go climbing in the winter?
Answer: Because that’s
the safest time to do it.
No, really. The mountain
climbing “season” is the late
fall, winter and early spring.
This is because the snow­
fields and glaciers melt dur­
ing the spring and summer.
Climbing up a melting
glacier is not safe. Melting
glaciers tend to crack, shift
and spill off large chunks of
themselves. Also, the rocks
that make up the top of the
mountain are mostly held
together by ice.
Again, this ice melts in the
summer - that’s why you see
more rockfalls on Mt. Hood
in the summer than in the
winter.
True, the weather in the
winter tends to be inclement.
But, honestly, it’s easier to
get out safely in the face of
a growing storm than it is in
the face-of am avalanche.
Mostly, though, people
don’t understand why anyone
would want to climb moun­
tains in the first place. They
don’t see the point. •
I don’t see the point of
golf, but plenty of people do
that.
Some people jog. Some
people knit. Some people
hike. To quote the sadly
defunct TV show Firefly,
“Some people juggle geese!”
It’s a hobby. Just because
it’s not something you would
do doesn’t mean it’s not a
worthwhile pastime.
Remember: Each year,
more snowboarders get lost
than climbers. I’m not saying
that snowboarders are inher­
ently stupid. I am, however,
annoyed at how every time a
snowboarder decides to leave
the bounds of the snow park,
gets lost and has to be hauled
half-frozen off the mountain,
they are treated like a return­
ing hero. But when a group
of climbers get in trouble,
do what they are taught to
do to get out alive, and are
therefore quickly and easily
rescued from the mountain,
they are vilified.
Maybe we should require
everyone who sets foot on the
mountain to wear an MLU.
Or, maybe we should just
shut up and let the climbers
climb.
Communications Commission I
(FCC).
Thompson was offendel
by Stem’s vulgar show, and j
said that “Either broadcaster!
will accept the light harness of I
decency that has been the law!
for decades and start cleaninl
up their acts, or the public’s 1
deepening outrage will foster I
more fearsome governmental
response.”
Okay, I will admit that al
lot of what Thompson tries t| 1
ban can be described as “ind®
cent” However, Thompso®
needs to realize that it’s nol
up to him, and especially nol
up to the pinhead government
to dictate what people can or I
cannot listen to, read, watd®
write, perform, say, etc.
Thompson believes tha®
violent and sexual image®
words are the root cause of all I
the violence in the world. NaI
I’m sony, but the root cause (HI
violence is humans. Human®
make stupid decisions all th®
time, and bad parenting andl
poor education make for eve®
worse humans.
If we want to rid ftie worl®
of violent behavior and ign®
rance, let’s be better paren®
and have an education syfl
tem that actually does som®
thing. Oh, and banning Jad I
Thompson, and other peopl I
of his ilk, from existend I
wouldn’t hurt either.
Jack Thompson’s pinhea I
rating: Thompson is such a
pinhead he breaks the scale of
pinheadery.