Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Michigan Just Did The Dumbest Thing...

...in the history of dumb things:

They passed HB5711! I am literally crying right now. What the fuck is wrong with these people? I'm moving to Chicago or somewhere not as against my rights. Maybe Windsor, ON.

Kari

Thursday, December 6, 2012

The Warren Nativity Scene Will Be Going Back Up

Here's the thing: I live in Warren, MI. We have this ugly nativity scene that was put on public property that's been gone for four years, but now it gets put back up.


The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued. The U.S. District Court in Detroit told the family that they couldn't put it up, so they appealed and won. It's like mom saying no, so you go ask dad.

Here's more information on it.

I would write more, but I have finals next week and I need to study.

Kari

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Troll in My Western Religions Class

Well, one of the people that I thought wouldn't make it through the semester has stayed in the class. Good on ya, blonde lady! Unfortunately, "guy-with-a-southern-accent-who-reminds-me-of-my-scary-great-uncle" did not make the cut. He stopped coming after the professor admitted to being a secular humanist. Well done!
So yesterday, in class, we were supposed to be studying Islam. I was looking forward to it. Then the conversation got derailed by this Catholic guy in class who apparently wanted to talk about Catholicism. It was like I was living in a Facebook debate. STFU Catholic guy! (Someone called him Captain Catholic. I think that will be his new name forever.) I get that the professor is supposed to shut that shit down, but there is only so much he can do in the face of trolls.

Kari

Friday, November 16, 2012

Remember Savita

I had another blog post about the new World War Z movie and how much I hate Brad Pitt ready to go up. Then I heard about Savita.


Her family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.Her husband told the BBC the termination was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat.
Savita died on October 28, 2012.
This is what happens when your country makes laws based on a 1,500 year old holy book. People who do not ascribe to that book's teachings get their rights trampled on. This woman was a happy person, excited to become a mother. She and her husband moved to Ireland because of the low infant and mother mortality rate. 
The Irish government and the Catholic Church are responsible for this woman's death. 
Kari


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Gender Neutral Bathrooms...



I was on the news last night!
And my classmates were on Fox!
Here's the Facebook page for that.
I'll try to have a video of that as soon as possible!
EDIT: Here's the video.

So, in case you hadn't read my post about this yesterday, we are trying to get one unisex bathroom in every building on campus. This would make it safer for transgender students at Oakland University, as well as making it easier for people who are handicapped or people with small children that they can't take into gendered bathrooms. This is a win/win for everyone!

Kari

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

I'm Back!

So I have realized something this semester: wedding planning + school + work = no social life. Good times.

Anyway, in one of my classes we have to do social advocacy. Our cause this semester is to get one gender-neutral (also called "Family") bathroom in every building on campus. This would make it safer for trans* people as well. We are having an event on Monday, the 26th called Gender Bender. Anyone who lives in Michigan is free to come. It's at Oakland University, in the Oakland Center at noon. It will be great!

Also, I'm speaking at the Flying Spaghetti Monster Dinner put on by Atheists at OU. You are welcome to attend, it's on November 28th at 6 pm, also in the Oakland Center.

Kari

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Dear Senator Rouzer...

What is wrong with being a girl?


ROUZER: When we get [Romney and Ryan] in you are going to see a big change, you’re going to see number one that America is going to be respected again around the world. You’re going to see all this turmoil that’s taking place, you’re going to see them look up and say guess what, the American people have spoken and maybe we need to cut it out a little bit, maybe we need to tone it down a little bit,because now we have real men in the White House.AUDIENCE MEMBER: No girly men!
ROUZER: That’s right, no girly men.
Sexist much? Are you you saying that it's bad to be a girl? That girls are somehow inferior to boys? Well, let me tell you something: being a girl kind of sucks right now. Do you know why? BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU! You and your comrades have made it difficult for women to  get birth control, equal pay for equal work, and all around equal status in our society. You are a terrible person. Way to represent the women who voted for you!

You can fuck right off!

And now it's back to my Intro to Queer Studies homework.

Kari

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Karma Chameleon

So on September 30, 2011, I walked into the home improvement store where I work and all the cashiers were freaking out because a lizard had jumped off of one of the tropical plants. The way that they were acting, I thought a Komodo Dragon was wandering around the store, eating people. At the very least, I thought it was a good size lizard, maybe a gecko. I look under the registers and see this tiny little lizard that was about two inches long and about 1/4 inch thick. After making fun of my colleagues for being afraid of something so harmless, I put her in a bucket and declared her my new pet. My friend (who for the purpose of this blog will be called J) had her mom bring up the terrarium that used to house her tarantulas and gave it to me. We decided to call her Karma after the song, Karma Chameleon. Now, I am aware that Karma was a Cuban anole, not a chameleon, but I love 80's pop music, so I didn't care.
Karma, just relaxing.

 
Karma, next to a penny.

Today, September 10, 2012, I turned Karma's heat lamp on and started spritzing her new terrarium down with water to wake her and the crickets that we had given her up. Usually, when I mist the tank, she ran under her plant to get away from the water, but today I saw no movement. I looked around the tank and there she was, floating in the little pond that I built for her new, bigger tank. I cried and called for my fiance. Then I tried misting her, just to make sure. It didn't work, she was dead.

As I write this, I'm going through the grieving process. I know it's weird, grieving for a tiny lizard who hated me and I'm pretty sure wanted me dead, but I was attached. As atheists, we must go through watching the people and pets that we love die with no hope of seeing them in an afterlife. This makes it harder to deal with death, I think. I know that I won't see my loved ones after I die, but it makes it so much sweeter because I can fully appreciate the time I had with them here. I can remember the silly times with my grandpa and uncle, that first time I laid eyes on my amazing puppy that I would love for 17 years, and the time I rescued a lizard from eventually dying of starvation or cold. These experiences make us who we are, and I'm glad that I am having them without religion clouding my memories.

Kari

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Dear Victoria Jackson...


What the fuck is wrong with you?

"And guess what?" she continued. "If I got raped, I would have the baby. And if I didn't want to keep it because I had these [mocking tone] horrible nightmares, I would adopt it out."
   
     That's nice and all, but you can't tell me how you would actually respond psychologically if you were raped. Do you know why? Because you have never been raped. You said so. You don't know if you will dread living every day because they might call you. You don't know what it's like to have your own father ask "Well, what were you wearing?" You don't know what it's like to have your family be friends with the person who took away your feeling of security. You don't know what it's like to be afraid every day that the person you love will leave you because they don't want to put up with your random freak outs and having to have the therapist on speed dial.
     You are a terrible person. Fuck off.

Kari

PS... UHF is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it now, I am going to think of this. You suck. That is all.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Bill Nye is Awesome!

I love this man:
Taken from article
 

 
And now I have even more reason to love him:
 
"And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can - we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.
"It's just really a hard thing, it's really a hard thing. You know, in another couple of centuries that world view, I'm sure, will be, it just won't exist. There's no evidence for it."
Taken from this article on Yahoo. I miss his show. On the bright side, I've found a website that has all of the episodes.

Back to laundry!

Kari

Friday, August 24, 2012

First Day of School!

Hey everyone!!!

     Today my fiance and I started the class that we are taking together. Fortunately, the class is with one of my favourite professors (Hey, Prof! You should give me an A. Also my Walking Dead compendium. I want it back). The class is Western Religious Tradition. It's about the Abrahamic religions and I am super excited about taking the class with my guy.
     Here's the thing, I've taken a lot of religion classes (my minor is World Religion), most of them with this professor (I call him Prof). This, combined with my extensive experience with Christians, has led me to read who will excel in classes about religion and who will struggle or drop the class. As my fiance (who will be known as FH from now on) and I walked out of the class, I turned to him and said "I bet you fifty dollars that the older blonde lady will drop the class by the halfway point." I said this because Prof asked "If God knows everything, how can there be free will?" during a game that he calls "Coffeehouse Atheist" in which he says cliche phrases that a lot of atheists spew out. He's not saying that these are not valid questions, just that there are a lot better questions that you can ask. Anyway, this lady had a mini identity crisis during this "game." It was totally nuts. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her god is not all loving. She even said "I'm thinking things that I shouldn't be thinking!"

In other words, she has never thought about her religion academically. She has never questioned her faith. I started questioning my Pentecostal faith at 9 years old. I can't imagine going through my life without questioning things that people tell me.

I'll keep everyone updated on what happens!

Kari

Monday, August 20, 2012

This Just In: People Are Morons!

I think it's because I like controversy...

So, my mom's cousin posted this on their facebook wall and hilarity ensued!


My family is weird. 

Kari

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

What Do You Think God Would Look Like?

I have found God, and He is here on Earth!

Brian May

65 years old and he still rocks the socks off of everyone in the room! Look at this:

It's Brian May Jesus!

That would be an awesome action figure, right?

Rock on, Brian!

Kari

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Chicago, Here I Come!

The great thing about having time off and a Megabus stop right near your place, is that you can take little trips. My friend and I are going to be in Chicago until 3:30 PM on Wednesday. Yay Field Museum!
One of the last times I was in Chicago, I met Dr. Chris Lintott at Adler Planetarium. Dr. Lintott wrote a book with Dr. Brian May and Sir Patrick Moore. Since I am a HUGE Queen fan, my brain went kind of like "Oh my god! HE WORKED WITH BRIAN MAY!!!" But I didn't tell him that I only knew who he was because of Brian May, because that would probably hurt his feelings.

More later,
Kari

Friday, July 27, 2012

Michigan Senate, Y U No Like Women?

I woke up to this:
And then I found this:


These bills are what I was protesting last month. I love how legislators actually listen to what their constituents say (sarcasm). My own senator voted no on the bill. I really hope that Governor Snyder vetoes this.

Kari

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I Just Registered For My Capstone Course!

I'm really proud of myself! It's a little less than a year away, but I'm excited about my topic. I'm doing a study on the first season of The Walking Dead! I even have the title picked out: "They're Coming To Get You, Barbara: A Study of Gender in The Walking Dead."
Now, before you get all worked up, yes. I know that the line is from The Night of the Living Dead. I was going to do a study of The Night of the Living Dead, but there was not really a lot of character development in that film, so I changed the topic. I just really like that line.
The main thing that thrills me about this is that when I'm half way through my capstone project, I am going to start looking at master's programs at different schools. I'm also really nervous.

Kari

Monday, July 23, 2012

Really?!

This guy is an asshole.
Most people don't understand what "gun control" means. It literally means controlling who can get a gun. If there were absolutely NO gun control, that means that the following people would be able to get firearms:

Children
Felons
Terrorists
and
Gang members.

So the next time someone says that "gun control" is evil, bring this up. Then you can watch them stutter and try to come up with some answer trying to explain what they "really" mean.

Fuck Russell Pearce.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims of this horrible tragedy.

Kari

Saturday, June 23, 2012

My New Kitty!

                                         "Hello! My name is Bindi! I can haz packing material?"

     So, she's not exactly new. She's three years old and we've had her for about a month, but she's fairly new...

     She enjoys fetch, laser pointers, and the piping on my comforter. She also likes walking in on people in the shower, and then she freaks out from the water. She's a voyeur, an adorable voyeur.


Kari

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

VAGINA!!!

Today, I had so much fun! I went to Vaginas Take Back The Capitol! Eve Ensler was awesome (Seriously, I was like a 13 year old girl around Justin Beiber)!
I had never seen the Vagina Monologues before. It was so moving. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures because I don't have a camera, and my phone died. But here's what I got:
Huge crowd!

Signs are funny!

Rebekah Warren

Lisa Brown


Barb Byrum and Lisa Brown


The video is something I found on youtube. Great pictures! Hopefully, all of these people being here will change the mind of some of the legislators...

Kari

Friday, June 15, 2012

Protests, Vaginas, and Religious Freedom.

On June 12, I went back to Lansing to protest House Bills 5711-5713, which would make it next to impossible to get an abortion in the state of Michigan. Unfortunately, I caught something that day and was confined to my couch feeling miserable until last night, so I didn't get to go to the second protest that was yesterday. However, I found out that one of my favourite legislators of ALL TIME was banned from speaking because she said the word "vagina." I had no idea that vagina was a dirty word. I swear like a sailor all the time and was never aware of this. Maybe I should just start slipping it into conversation? "Oh hi, grandma! How's your vagina, today?" On second thought, that would be weird because I'm pretty sure that my granny is post-menopause. Anyway, here's the video:




As I said before, I love Lisa Brown. I have had the pleasure of speaking with her a few times and I find that she is a fiercely intelligent woman, as well as being possibly one of the nicest legislators I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I also think that this shit is on. Someone finally and officially stood up to the jackasses who have been running our country into the ground. You rock, Lisa!

Unfortunately, the fuckers (who know who you are) passed the bills. *sigh* I guess I'll have to go back in the fall to the Senate and protest again.

Here are some pictures:
(Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press)





















Kari

Friday, June 8, 2012

The Internet, Michigan House Legislature and My Adventures in Lansing

So, I've been out of commission for a while. I did not have internet for about a month and a half, and then I was still really busy moving in. That is why there have been a lack of posts.
And now, on to more important things. Yesterday, I (along with some friends) went to the Michigan House Committee on Health Policy hearing for bills 5711, 5712, and 5713. These bills limit what abortion providers can do and basically will make abortion inaccessible in Michigan. One bill requires that doctors have a million dollars in malpractice coverage and another limits a woman's choice to have an abortion at 20 weeks without exemptions for rape, incest, life of the mother or fetal anomaly. Can you imagine finding out that your child will only live for a few minutes and then being forced to give birth?
I then found out that one of my own representatives (who I voted for), Lesia Liss, has voted in support of all anti-choice legislation after running on a pro-choice platform and being supported financially by NOW, Planned Parenthood, and a host of other feminist and reproductive rights organizations. I will not be voting for her again.  All she said when I called her out on it was "I've learned so much in the past few days..." Which I assume to mean that Right to Life showed her pictures of miscarried fetuses and said that they were from abortions.
On the bright side, we did have some fantastic legislators standing up for women's rights. Kate Segal asked fantastic questions of all of the people who were speaking at the hearing (a lot of them ended up being of the "citation needed" variety), and Jimmy Womack uttered the best line I have ever heard when referring to a clause in one of the bills that would prohibit the dispense of the abortion pill via telemedicine, which anti-choicers were calling a webcam abortion: "What exactly is a webcam abortion? I mean, webcams cannot perform abortions..."

All in all, it was a very scary day for Michigan women. We can only hope that it will not pass the Republican controlled Senate.

Kari

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Exciting News!

I proposed! Even better: he said yes!!!
Also, we are moving out! We were approved for an apartment!

There have been a lot of changes in my life very quickly! I am so excited!
That being said, I have a question for you:
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to plan an atheist wedding in December? In Michigan, you either get married in a church or outside. You can not get married outside in Michigan in December and as far as a church goes... I'm going to let you work on that. So my apocalyptic wedding on December 21 is out. Oh well, next May is good, too!

Kari

Friday, April 6, 2012

Moving Out

So...my parents are upping my rent to $400 a month. I can't blame them, I was paying $100. However, I would rather pay the extra money and have my own space. So that means that I will be moving out, but not buying my house. :(  My boyfriend and I will be getting an apartment.

More later...


Kari

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I Wrote a Paper for My History of Rock Music Class About Reason Rally!


Reason Rally

On March 24, 2012 Reason Rally was held on the National Mall. It was a gathering of about 20,000 atheists, the largest gathering of it’s kind in the world! At this rally there were a multitude of speakers, videos, and musical artists who were amazing. All of these people had the same messages: it’s okay to not believe, there are a lot of us! I even got to meet my favourite blogger, Hemant Mehta (The Friendly Atheist)! There were many artists, but I’ve only chosen three to write about because they are the three that have stuck with me.
The first artist (as in the very first person for the day) that performed on the stage was Andy Shernoff from The Dictators. He sang “Get On Your Knees For Jesus ‘til He Comes” and “Ready to Rapture.” Both of these songs were comedy songs and they were hilarious! The crowd sang right along and got really into it. My favourite part was in “Ready to Rapture” when he said:
“…judgment day is come,
are you ready to rapture?
Our saviour, you have spurned,
he loves you forever,
but the unbelievers must burn…”
It brought back my first memories of me questioning in Sunday school why people who were good but not Christian weren’t going to Heaven. It was a great performance to kick the rally off with. I always say that the quickest way to unite a lot of people is either with food or comedy, and the organizers chose comedy.
The next musical artist that came the stage after a speaker was Shelley Segal, who is totally adorable. I had never heard of Shelley before and at first I thought that she was a complete folk singer because it was just her and her guitar, but I have since bought her album entitled “An Atheist Album,” and she is much more folk/rock. She played songs called “Saved,” “Eve,” “Apocalyptic Love Song (for Hitchens),” and a brand new song called “My Morality.” “Eve” really hit a nerve with me, since I’m a feminist, along with being an atheist. This song is about how the Bible tells women that they are not as important as men and that they need to be subservient, even there is no scientific, empirical reasoning behind it. It’s also about how just because Eve ate an apple, she and all other women are punished with painful childbirth, as though shoving something the size of a watermelon out of a hole the size of a lemon would be anything but painful.
I really think that Shelley was my favourite artist of the day. She sang with honesty and an earnestness that a lot of mainstream artists don’t really have anymore.
The final artist that I want to mention is Tim Minchin. He was someone else that I had never heard of, but I immediately fell in love with him when he walked on stage. My boyfriend says it’s because I like guys with weird hair and/or a lot of eyeliner, but I digress. From what I remember he played “Thank You God (Sam’s Mum),” “Pope Song,” “Confessions” and a 9 minute beat poem entitles “Storm.” “Thank You God” is about faith healers and how instead of getting medical treatment and praying for something useful like ending famine in Africa, getting people out of poverty, or bringing Freddie Mercury back to life, they pray for things like finding the peanut butter and fixing middle class people’s cataracts.
“Pope Song” is about the pedophile priests and it contains the word “fuck” about 80 times, which makes it one of the best songs ever.
All in all, it was a great event. I had so much fun and made a lot of new friends and discovered music that I now love and scare my grandma with. I feel as though the music really pulled the event together, because music, like comedy, is one thing that everybody loves.

-----------------------------------

I love being in a class where I can write a paper that's like a blog post!
Kari

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Terry Jones in Dearborn

So Terry Jones (you remember him, the guy who burned a Quran on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks?) is suing the city of Dearborn because he wants to hold a rally in front of the Islamic Center of America and the city wants him to sign a liability waiver saying that the city holds no responsibility if anything happens during the rally.
I really don't know how I feel about this. They have made other people who wanted to have events in the city sign this waiver before. Jones' argument is that he would have to buy insurance for the event in case of anything happening, he can't afford the insurance, which means he won't be able to have the event.
The city claims that they are doing this because of the location of the center and how there really is not a lot of space for a rally to take place.


I guess I can see their point. If it ends up being a large rally, there really is not a lot of space for people to be without impeding traffic, parking or pedestrians. I guess he could have the event on the strip of grass between Altar Road and Ford Road, but I don't even know if that is public property.

More on this story as it progresses.

Kari

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Pro-Life Protest in Detroit

I love it when my three topics come together in union. *sigh* I just wish they wouldn't do it while I was out of town, on my birthday, no less!!!
On 23 March, there was a "pro-life" protest. You can read about it here. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Are you back? Good, I was worried that you may have at the same reaction I did, which was to ram my head into the wall of my room. Now I just have one thing to ask:

Really? Really?

In a city with 19 percent unemployment, rising crime rates, and a quarter of the population leaving the city in the last ten years, you want to complain about the insurance that I would pay for having to cover my birth control?

I seriously can't even quote parts of  the article because I would end up quoting all of it. I will only quote one bit because it is the dumbest quote in the article:
Heidi Zimmer, of Roseville, has a Baptist background. But she came to the Detroit rally today after hearing about it from a Catholic friend. Over the years, she's turned against contraception after listening to arguments from Catholics.
"When you take the pill, it screws up your hormones," she said. "A lot of people think, oh, you're a fanatic. But there's a logic. I, too, am now against the pill."
I'm really trying to stop talking like a teenager, but I'm going to lapse for just one second:
WELL DUH!!! That's why it's called "hormonal birth control!" It messes with your hormones because THAT'S HOW IT WORKS!!! There are side effects, but there are side effects with nearly all medication. And you know what screws up your hormones? Your period. You know what helps with that? Birth control. You know what else screws up your hormones? Pregnancy. You know what prevents that? Birth control.

I really need to calm down or wash my eyes to get the stupid out of them. I'm going to make some tea and do my homework for my Rock and Roll History class. I get to read about my favorite band this week.

Kari

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

Three Things That People Are Afraid Of...

As you may or may not know, I am a stand-up comic in my free time...sometimes. Most of the time, I lounge around the house reading my Walking Dead comics or Harry Potter, but sometimes, I'm a comic. When I'm on stage, I talk about the three things that people are most afraid of: feminism, atheism and Detroit. There are many misconceptions about each of those things.

People from out of state are afraid of you if you live in Detroit. Now, I live about 2 miles away from Detroit, but I just want to clear up that not all of us are murderers. I have never seen someone get shot and I have never seen a crime be committed (unless you count that one time my best friend in first grade stole a candy bar from Farmer Jack). In fact, that only time that someone I know was murdered, I lived in the boonies about an hour and a half outside the city. People have seriously asked me this. These are actual misconceptions that people have told me.

As far as misconceptions go, here's another one: I am a good person. I donate to charity, I help out with different things in my community and as far as I know, I have never eaten a baby. I am a vegetarian, so baby carrots are the closest I get. My atheism has nothing to do with morality.

I also have never burned a bra. I wear lipstick, I shave various parts of my body and I even have a boyfriend. I don't hate men. I do have a cat, but I also have a puppy and a lizard. I really don't fit into the stereotypes.

Seriously. If you think you know everything about these things, but you don't know someone who's a feminist, or an atheist, or even from Detroit, you should probably do a little research. To be honest, you probably already know an atheist or feminist.

Think about it.

Kari

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Welcome

Hello!!! Welcome!!! My name is Kari and I have started this blog to expand on atheism, feminism and other things that I think are important or just plain silly or funny. I am doing this because I just got back from Reason Rally and one of the things that was said at the rally was that we need to "come out of the closet" about our atheism. Well, the people that are closest to me already know. I do not hide my atheism, I will tell you if you ask, but I am still terrified at what will happen if certain people find out. Today I decided "no more," as soon as I got home I changed my facebook "religious views" from "Rock and Roll" to "None (atheism is not a religion)." I am waiting for the fallout.


Kari