Join us for our weekly meeting at Fisher Student Center in the Sunset Beach Room (#1025) this Thursday at 5:30 PM.
Goals for this meeting:
- Open Discussion
Minutes
- Pre-meeting Playlist:
Cog — 99¢ Special (Live): Referencing wild early days of Steve’s youth and not being shy.
Gummy Bear Song: In talking about the worst music that was popular.
Crazy Frog — Alex F: Comparing with popularity with previous song, and noticing the missing original version when the frog had a tiny penis hanging out. - In discussing the Puritanical slant in the US, there was a mention of a claim made by James Randi that the US refused to adopt the metric system because it was created by atheists. While researching this, only anecdotal mentions were found, but interestingly, Congress pass into law in 1975 the Metric Conversion Act which stated that metric should be used only as a suggestion. The Metric Board was abolished by Ronald Reagan in 1982, but George H. W. Bush signed an executive order encouraging the use of metric within the government.
- Discussion on sentiments toward the military actions ordered by governments, while recognizing that the enlisted are charged to follow orders.
- Mention of creation of the “Fuck Bush” wristband as a result of Bush’s reelection in 2004.
- Discussion on politicians quoting the bible in session as reasoning for denying climate change. This lead to mention of the recent incident in which Bernie Sanders stopped a fight in which Senator Markwayne Mullin acted ridiculously.
- Discussion of biking around Wilmington, safety risks, deaths, and distracted drivers. Brought up was the incident in which a drunk driver ran over a cyclist near Wrightsville Beach, left him to die on the roadside as she dumped her car, and hid until the morning, then turned herself in when the police could no longer prove that alcohol was a factor. By doing so, she callously reduced the severity of her punishment as killing someone as a drunk driver is a higher class of felony. She got about 2 years rather that 7 as a result.
- Also mentioned was the two teens in a stolen car that intentionally ran over a cyclist for fun, sending the man flying over the car and onto the ground as they laughed. The man died as a result of this, and the pair had hit another cyclist as well as side-swiped vehicles as they drove for fun.
- A return to the conversation about Israel, Zionism, and the oppression of Palestinians. Played a video of Israeli Border Police harassing a crying child, accusing them of stealing a bike, only to toss it into the bushes after they chase the kids away.
- Discussion of the Children of God group that encouraged sex with children as part of their spreading of their Christian god’s love. Brought up the troubling video of Ricky Rodriguez’s hour-long statement in which he explained why he was ending his life and about to kill one of his abusers. As a toddler, he was the poster child for the organization. They printed materials with photos of his abuse as part of their teachings. He would be severally traumatized by the abuse that he suffered due to his adoptive parents who were the leaders of the cult.
- The cult also employed “Flirty Fishing” in which they directed the females of the cult to go out and have sex with the intent to lure new members in.
- The discussion went on to discuss rape and sexual assault, how most attackers never see any real punishment, the vast majority never even being put in jail.
- Brock Turner was brought up, whose father made a statement in court that his son would lose his future over “20 minutes of action.” Brock has “sexually assaulted” a passed out woman. Mentioned was that in some states, “rape” was classified such that only a man can rape a women, specifically the federal government limited it a penis entering a vagina until 2013, and everything else was the lesser charge of “sexual assault.” But since this falls to state laws, the definition varies from state to state. This this might be why counts 1 (rape of an intoxicated person) & 2 (rape of an unconscious person) were withdrawn by the prosecution. Brock would serve only 3 months of his 6 month sentence.
- On a lighter note, Christian radio host Harold Camping’s prediction of the end of the world and rapture happening on May 21st, 2011 served as a great birthday party theme of “Apocalypso” in which it was one part apocalypse and one part calypso, complete with Harry Belafonte at the house party and drinking from a pineapple half at the continuation at a bar.
- The night was ended with reading favorites from the bible, including Deuteronomy 22:28:
- If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
- Corinthians 11 and it’s “fool” talk and contradictions.
- Timothy and the scripture against women speaking or wearing gold.