Tag: parents

Huckleberry Finn edited.

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with have the N word removed from it so schools will use it again.

I read about this form a couple cool places.

@avitable wrote about it.
CNN did a little article on it as well

I am just going to make this short and to the point.

Taking the N word out of books so it will be read in schools doesn’t solve the problem.

Our children should read those books as they were written, not as schools are comfortable with them.

In catering to a distinct minority or crying parents, the education of all our children in school is stunted by exposure to abridged material.

This is CENSORSHIP.

Idiots. There are kids in junior high school having sex, doing drugs, and carrying fucking guns.

…and the schools are taking the N word out of a classic.

Don’t get me wrong…the N word is incredibly offensive to me. But this isn’t some ignorant loudmouth with no tact mouthing of…this is a classic piece of literature.

This is like telling the Louvre that they have to cover up the bust of Mona Lisa because I was offended by her bosom…or forcing the Rodin Museum to put shorts on “The Thinker” because he isn’t wearing any clothes.

I don’t think I could ever read a sanitized piece of literature…its like taking the culture and feeling out of a work and leaving only a stick figure (if that sounds right.)

Google News on Censoring of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn




The first step…

A long time ago, I taught myself that the hardest step was the last.

As it happens, that so not true.

The hardest step is the first. We should all want to be better, and I think that that specific decision…THATS the hard one.

The decision that says, “Okay, I might not want to rule the world…but I want to make my part of it a better place to live in.”

Or maybe like whatever happens, you get it in your head that before you move on to greener pastures, you have to be someone’s hero, or be a hero to the world or mother nature, or your kids or your parents…whatever. The need to stop living status quo and move forward, and live by example, or at least live in a manner that isn’t centered on self gratuity that will let me, when than time comes (hopefully a very very long time from now) I will lay my head down with such an amazingly clear conscience that the the universe’ only option will be to sweep me up and show me what I missed.

I’m not sure if that’s some sort of karma, or maybe some afterlife of kundalini. But what I am sure is that I am pretty sure I know what it’s like to be at peace, and while I am not always in that happy place, I know how to get there. The joy in a child’s smile, the love in a girlfriends embrace. They might just be examples but they are definitely good ones. I’ve been such a die-hard loner for so long I think I actually forgot how to be someone’s better half, or even to recognize it when they might be mine.

It’s actually kind of freaking me out. No I am so not having any midlife crisis. I’m pretty sure everyone realizes that a guy with the mental development of a twelve year old doesn’t actually get a mid-life crisis. Perks of being twelve on the inside I guess, I get to make fun of guys driving corvettes my entire life, rather than just the first half πŸ˜‰

Anyhow, back on point. So it’s time. I’ve cleaned up, the only issue I have left to obliterate from my life is my health. I barely drink, I haven’t had a smoke in over a year and know for sure I’ll never need one again. The rest is just painful memories of a different guy that hadn’t figured out some important lessons yet. I can live with that, and those few friends that have learned to forgive and/or love me for the change are still around and I am far far stronger for it.

All that’s left is the physical remnants of depression and overwhelming and repeated loss. Lets see what you’re like after 5 good friends kill themselves in under 2 years…its actually more than that, 2 other people I knew as well…couple that with a couple crazy as hell ex’s and I am completely surprised I’m not in an institution. But…I digress.

This is about the first step. The one where I stop being overly concerned with all of my many many bad decisions and start living with my good decisions. I am working out, paying off the last round of credit, and finally starting to make plans on a house. I am hardly planning for the white picket fence, I don’t know that I’m even a good candidate for it. But I know I am happy when I am helping people, so that the direction this goes. Making myself happy, and in the process hopefully sharing a little of that happy with my loved ones πŸ˜‰

It’s not really a bad first step is it?

-T




Some advice on raising children.

This little diatribe is focused solely around parents who forgo common sense and think that diligence isn’t anywhere near as important as neglecting to educate their kids on acceptable uses of the English language and certain slang that will make said shitheads the subject of rants on my blog.

FIRST…Don’t teach your child it’s okay to use the “C” word. Women get violent when they hear it. Friends of women get real mad as well, and write mean things about parents that think this is cool…or worse, they write about you and depict pictures of angry gorillas flipping you off (see below).

SECOND…If you find that your child has learned of this word, ground them for even knowing it….give them the knowledge that the “C-Bomb” is likely to land them on the receiving end of hell’s hot poker. It will save you time later when they don’t believe how serious you are about never using the word…again, ignoring this leads to an end result being you getting outed on the internet, likely with your foul-mouthed child.

THIRD…Most importantly…When you miss the golden opportunity to educate your child about the taboo of using this word, and they hear it from your kid and your kid was talking about their daughter, the Mom will get absolutely unimaginably scary HOLY CRAP THEY’RE GONNA CHOP SOMETHING OFF violent.

LASTLY…and if you’re the dumb jackass that actually laughed when you found out your son did this…

I am so gonna write about it…and if …on the off chance I run into you in public, I am really gonna run into you…like a great-big-gorilla-ain’t-gonna-let-you-get-past-him-run-into-you. I wouldn’t laugh ever again, grow a pair and take some responsibility for your child. Apologize to the mother, hell cook her family dinner and mow her damn lawn. Show some damn respect.

I mean COME THE F*(&^ ON! Who the hell thinks that kind of thing is funny coming from kids in elementary school?! You have to be some piece of effing work. Said parent is probably some asshat that never thinks they’ll get named or feel any sort of repercussions of an issue like this, so here’s my offer πŸ˜‰ Most people that read my rants know that while I am hardly an internet superstar, people that get named on this blog are inexorably written into the un-deletable and 100% forever searchable annals of the internet archives.

But hey, don’t mind me. I would be much more worried about the really badass Mom you totally pissed off by laughing when you were approached about the issue. The cool part, is I haven’t been told who this was about (yet). I think it would be soooo awesome of said father to apologize in a seriously grovelling manner before some investigative work gives me an identity to associate with this rant. πŸ˜‰

Someone might be wondering why the hell there are pictures of gorillas in this article. It’s because they are far better examples of good parenting than the *&%*&^ that thinks his son dropping the C-Bomb on a little girl in elementary was humorous.

…just sayin.