April 1 – This day in history:
1392 – earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness: an ambiguous reference in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Let the pranking commence. I’ll take a large order of “You’re an idiot!” with a small cup of “I can’t believe you fell for that!” Hold the aggravation.
1663 – Gemert fines unwed motherhood (50 guilder penalty). WTF? Men suck.
1792 – Gronings feminist Etta Palm demands women’s right to divorce. Because men suck. Aggravation alert! WOOP-WOOP-WOOP!
1836 – Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle reaches Cocos Islands. Which is awesome, except that his findings and conclusions are still argued about over 175 years later, due to the ignorance propagated by religious freaks.
1853 – Cincinnati became 1st U.S. city to pay fire fighters a regular salary. Cool — but why weren’t they already being paid? *grrr*
1876 – 1st official NL baseball game (Boston-6, Philadelphia-5). I don’t love baseball, but my does, so I included this date for him. You are welcome, my love.
1970 – President Nixon signed a bill into law banning cigarette ads from radio and television. I’m glad. I’m a smoker, and I’m glad. Stupid tobacco industry, I hate you. I’d like to roll you up in a doob and smoke your ass for the aggravation you have caused millions.
1985 – The long-awaited album, WE ARE THE WORLD, was finally released.
2004 – President Bush signed the “Laci Peterson” bill making it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an attack on the mother. Probably the only good thing that dumbass got right. I cannot hear his name without my aggravation levels topping out.
2010 – publishes the first A to Z Blogging Challenge post, inviting others to participate and beginning an annual tradition. THANK YOU, ARLEE BIRD!
2013 – America, the land of the free and home of the brave, is still trying to dig itself out from under religious oppression — from its own freaky citizens.
Seriously, people.
The aggravation I suffer as an American is enough to make my brain cells explode. In the year 2013, we should not still be arguing over equal rights for human beings. Women should be treated the same as men (or BETTER, since their bodies are set to endure monthly hardship while men can’t even endure seasonal allergies without turning into big stupid babies!). Darker-skinned races and/or cultures should be treated the same as pale-skinned folks, without being forced to assimilate and lose their language and historical roots. Life partners should be legally recognized as such, regardless of the physical sex of the parties involved.
Why are we so lucky?
My hubz and I, a heterosexual couple, got married a year before we held our actual ceremony. Not because we simply couldn’t keep our hands off each other, but because his place of employment provided medical insurance whereas mine did NOT. He wanted me and my kids insured, plain and simple. Without diving into the mess of America’s rotten and diseased healthcare system which forced us into that predicament in the first place, all I can think is THANK GOODNESS that was an option for us. If I had instead fallen in love with a woman, my kids would be shit-outta-luck, because of religious principles to which I do not hold. It’s bad enough that now we have to deal with the aggravation of trying to remember which anniversary we’re celebrating — May is our fifth *legal* year of wedded bliss, but only the fourth year since our ceremony.
History is fun! Now go learn it, doodoo-brain!
Many would claim America was founded on Christianity, but this is a falsehood. America was founded on RELIGIOUS FREEDOM — a freedom many of my dearest friends are unable to enjoy because they fell in love with the “wrong” person. It’s quite ironic that the very religion which drove people to leave England etc. now stifles the land to which its practitioners fled. The lesson here? Oppression is wrong — unless you’re the oppressor, in which case it’s a wicked good par-tay! Love me some evil cult leaders! Pass the wine!
That is a bunch of bullshit right there, you guys.
And that’s one of the many reasons I blog. This kind of thing — injustice, lack of equality, illogical behavior, cruelty, etc. — ticks me off to no end. I can’t contain my aggravation. It’s hard to be excited about how far we’ve come as a society when I see how far we still need to go. So long as people are still unable to celebrate freedom from religious persecution, America’s claim to be the land of the free is a false one. And I’ll be here to rant about it… along any other aggravation that gets me riled up enough to puke. Consider yourself vomited upon. You are welcome.
