Ron Weasley

Tonight it occurred to me that for the normal fan Ron Weasley is an easy choice for the least popular of the Harry Potter trio. He is the little brother, the least special, the least likable in many aspects. He also, very notably, acts like a total dick to Harry despite being his best friend. You know, he freaks out on Harry for speaking snaketongue, he suspects Harry is lying to him when he is named by the Goblet of Fire. He abandons Harry in the forest in book 7. He is nowhere near as clever, or helpful, or brave as Harry or Hermione, and he is an easy guy to spit on.

He was my favorite of the trio growing up.

Ron wasn't anything at all like Harry and Hermione. Where Harry is the chosen one and Hermione, in comparison to her parents, is so extraordinarily gifted that she is a life-independent 12 year old. They are special little kids. Ron is not. They are talented where is normal, and they are brave when he is weak. 

Now Ron meets Harry on the train, and they're fast, best friends. He seems almost the opportunist. Enamored by Harry's celebrity and his charm. He is crushing on Hermione.

But Harry and Hermione have something in common that sets them apart from Ron so dramatically that even if he was every bit the equal in courage in talent, which he isn't, he still could never compete with them for greatness.

Harry and Hermione have nothing to tie to them to the generation that came before them. Harry's parents are dead. He knows nothing of family. He is the kid-slave turned into celebrity hero overnight. He is a little boy thrust into a literal dream come true. By all measure, Harry is probably spending the first 3 books on a the most serious endorphin high you can imagine. Going from nothing to everything must feel like falling in love every single day, over and over again. His life is a whimsical dream that keeps going and going.

Of course, this is bad for an eleven year old, and yeah Harry will be tortured for it, but Harry's torture is well-explored in the books. Ron's is not so much. 

Hermione is on the same life changing rush, but one or two notches dialed back. Her parents are ordinary dentists, and she is so gifted. She is smart, with a sense of independence most won't know until they are adults, oh and she can perform magic. She loves her parents on some level, but its apparent very quickly that her parents have no impact on her anymore.

   

Imagine how free they must seem to Ron.

Good family is an incredible support system. It is also a burden. I would never trade it in, personally, but it strikes me that Ron would have to be dead to not experience jealousy so strong that he has to question everyday he spends with the other two friends.

Harry doesn't get that he has 5 older brothers, all of them remarkable. His dad is a potent man. And lest we forget Ron has one job in his family's eyes, and that's to watch out for the little sister. She almost gets murdered by a damn snake, thanks in large part to the existence of his best friend. 

Harry Potter as a best friend is a bad life decision. He demands a lot Ron's time. He threatens everything the Dursleys stand for. He loves Harry, but objectively Harry is a poison. How many times should I risk my life for this mysterious, talented stranger? How many of my loved ones should die because I can't make the smart move and stay away from you? Why should I continue to suffer for you, and envy you, and twist my good normal life around for your damned Chosen One sonofabitch face? 

Ron is the common man. Uncommonly common.

17 Things You Should Never Say to Gay Person

#1-27

Nothing. We don't need you to tip toe around. Words don't scare us.


- Alex Price

We're Evolving!

Its weird, but I just want to talk about   evolution    for a second here if I might.

I don't -- but when I see people say evolution isn't real, I want to tell them, like, open my mouth and  let them know that they are mistaken. Not because I think that they are stupid, but more from the childish part of me that is saying “I know something that you don't!”, because I have, first hand, seen evolution with my very eyes.

The reason I know evolution exists is because one day, a responsible adult in my life took me to a thing called a museum. In this museum, I saw with my own two eyes, an ancient, medieval, real-as-shit, suit of armor. Like King Arthur, oh my god, this is stuff that knights wore, and my little brain probably exploded with wonder. And while I gawked and pondered, someone close by asked a good question.

“Uhhhh, why's it so short?”

Holy poop. He was right. That suit of armor was like, maybe five foot tall at best.

A keen adult then told us, very matter-of-factly, “that's because people didn't grow nearly as tall as back in the medieval times.” Okay, that makes sense. Why? I don't know, changes in diet maybe, who fucking cares? The proof is right there in front of me. Its a suit of armor that's about 500 years old, and its clearly made for a short person.

BOOM. Evolution! It's right, fucking there, evolution means change. We we're once short, now we are tall. That is change. Evolution. Done-zo. This discussion is over.

Okay, but monkeys?

Of course it's not over. Because a clever man might say “whoa whoa whoa, just because we got taller in 500 years does NOT mean people came from monkeys.

Ahhhh. Quid pro quo.

I mean you've got a point, clever man, the monkeys thing is quite a leap. But first of all I didn't say we came from monkeys, I said that I know evolution is real. Species evolution means change in species. We are a species and we have changed.

But since you asked, clever man, I will get to the monkeys thing, but first, we need to talk about how old the earth is. The bible, according to many people, has estimates that the earth is as young as 6000 years old. Modern science seems to put the age a bit closer to 6,000,000,000,000 years old. Let's throw out both those numbers and say that we have no fucking idea, because lets face, both you and I are just going off what we heard from our friends, right?

But we can agree that Earth is old, way fucking old. Older than we can really imagine. We've only been reliably keeping track since Ancient Mesopatamia, so, about 5000 years ago. (3000 BC), and we can all agree that it is as least older than that.


What we know...
 

1. Human beings are changing. We were once shorter than we are now.

2. That height change took place in about 400 years.

3. The human species is over 5000 years old.

Now seriously, this is important, I want you to go online and look up Australopithecus sediba. Find a picture of it's skull – it looks a lot like this one!

Now compare it to a human skull.

Wow! They sure look similar! They clearly aren't the same, if you'll notice. Look at the eyebrows, how they protrude on the top skull, but not on the bottom? Look at the nose. Look at the upper lip.

HOW ARE YOU GONNA TELL ME THAT ONE DIDN'T COME FROM THE OTHER ONE? Seriously, how are you going to say that? Knowing that the Earth is old, and knowing that the species does in fact change... How are you going to look at these two skulls and say that one didn't come from the other?

When we find 500 year old skeletons, they're shorter than modern skeletons. So by logical conclusion, we should be stumbling across some skeletons that are both much older, much shorter, and look even more different, AND SON OF BITCH, WE FOUND EM! Deus ex machina! Or whatever, I don't really understand Latin.

So let's just take all of the skulls that we have found, and let's pretend that science is stupid, and carbon dating doesn't work, and we have no idea how old any of them are. If we just put the ones that look alike next to each other, maybe we can see some sort of pattern?

HO MY GOD, ITS ALL THERE. The change in teeth! The shrinking eyebrow bone! The upper jaw! The increased cranial capacity and thickness! It's all fucking there. Patterns! Logic! It works!

Are there any questions? Please, if you still aren't convinced that human evolution is real, please tell me what you know that I don't.

Invisible Magic

I lol'ed.

Ypsilanti gas station clerk tells robber to "wait in line"

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120709/METRO/207090399/Ypsilanti-Twp-gas-station-clerk-tells-armed-robber-wait-line?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Because that's how we do it in Ypsilanti. Ya'll gotta wait your turn.

Allan Chambers: "Exodus does not believe same-sex attraction is sinful."

I was doing a little bit of netsumbling today, when I came across this gem...

Allan Chambers, President of Exodus International finally admits that trying to cure homosexuality is dangerous.

In a nutshell, one of the most dangerous anti-gay organizations in the world has changed its views. They used to believe that have attractions to the same-sex was wrong. Their new stance is that the act of homosexual sex is evil, not the attractions themselves. 

Greg the Terran breaks it down.

BACKGROUND:

If your not familiar with Exodus International, they were, up until today, basically the largest driving force in homosexual reparative therapy. They were essentially the kings of the ex-gay movement (no queens allowed). I did a little work on them back in the day for a "gender and sexuality" class back in the day, I'm trying to dig it out.

Ah. There it is. If you're already familiar with exodus or the ex-gay movement, you should check this out.

What is homosexual reparative therapy? Basically, it's the attempt to change people from gay to straight through Christian based consoling. Young queers would go to visit a minister or a christian therapist, who would tell them that the Bible condemns their gayness, but luckily, WITH THE HELP OF JESUS, they could change.

Exouds International was the largest and most influential organization that used homosexual reparative therapy. They claimed, of course, not to hate gays, but to love Jesus so much that they wanted to get rid of all of us queers so as not to make baby Jesus cry anymore. They also claimed that they had cured tens of thousands of people from homosexuality, and that they could cure you too! (and me too!) if only we all just believed.

For years you could visit the Exodus website, and read from hundreds of testimonials from ex-gay people. These are people who claimed they were once gay, but had been cured. Mostly they would talk about how dissatisfying the gay lifestyle was, and how God didn't approve and how now they were happy, well-adjusted heterosexuals that hadn't had a dirty thought in years! (Oh Joy!)

THE FUCKED UP PART WAS:

As it turns out, telling little queers that "it's just a phase" and that if they really love God, their faggotry will go away is actually quite damaging to the human psyche. It doesn't work. It's very confusing. The problem with ex-gay therapy is that the "solution" is to pretend like gayness is just the devil trying to trick you.

So little Tommy is trying not to be gay anymore, but he's got this voice in the back of his head saying "Come on Tommy, if weren't gay, you wouldn't be driving to a clinic and paying someone to talk to you about your gayness, NOW WOULD YOU?"

And Tommy's therapist says "BUT WHAT ABOUT JESUS?!"

That's even more confusing, because Jesus has not-shit to do with any of this (Unless Jesus was the name of a mexican man that Tommy boned in a bathhouse).

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

Allan, a former homosexual himself, now happily married with two children, used to claim that others could change their homosexual ways like he had, and that they would be happier. However, in a string of recent interviews, as well as speech at an Exodus annual meeting, Allan Chambers announced that his organization would no longer try to cure homosexuality. He admitted that ex-gay therapy offered false hope to a group of people who are already surrounded by misinformation, and was very potentially dangerous.

Only a few years ago, Mr. Chambers was featured in advertisements along with his wife, Leslie, saying, “Change is possible.” But now, he said in the interview, “Exodus needs to move beyond that slogan.”

He even went so far as to admit that he himself still harbored sexual feelings for the same sex, and that basically every ex-gay he had ever met still did. The Exodus website has been revamped, and now there are only a select few of the ex-gay testimonials still lying around. The leftovers do less to condemn homosexuals as perverts and more to show people simply struggling with their homosexual sin.

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?
This is of course a MAJOR victory for homosexuals, but it is also oh so much more than that.

This shit is awesome. This is a victory for the whole friggin world. Up until now, Exodus International was the enemy of the homosexuals. They were snatching up our own kind and turning them against us. Many of them hated us, and many of us hated them right back. Could you blame us?

Allan has raised a white flag. He's calling a truce. I still don't agree with the man 100%. The man still thinks that the Bible condemns homosexuality and he still thinks its wrong to have sex with men. 

I think the Bible is pretty much full of shit, and that everybody should be having sex with men, but you know what? At least I don't hate the guy anymore. He did the right thing, and if your a Christian, who is struggling with your own homosexual feelings, maybe Allan is the right man to talk to.

Again, I'd still recommend just accepting your queerness as something wonderful, but nowadays you can do worse than Exodus International.

Bravo. You intolerant bastards.



 

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An Essay from back in the day

Alex Price
Professor ******** ********
WGST 202
13 April 2010

Ex-Gay Movement: A Movement Like Any Other?

    Exodus International was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization, and has grown into the world’s largest ex-gay organization. Exodus’s mission is to educate the population about the teachings of Jesus Christ, and how they relate to homosexuality. At its core, Exodus is an organization of ministers and church consolers who offer consoling to lead people away from the gay lifestyle. Those who claim to have been saved from homosexuality by church consoling are known as ex-gays. There has been much debate concerning the ex-gay community and whether or not the treatment to turn someone from gay to straight has any actual merit. Personally, I find the idea of gays being turned straight to be offensive, but I firmly believe that the LGBT community as a whole needs to extend a hand to ex gays and organizations like Exodus. Despite our differences, both communities have a lot of interest in discovering the truth about homosexuality, and both communities deserve the tolerance of each other.

    The first time I encountered the ex-gay movement was surfing the internet for more information about my own developing homosexuality. I think I was in my last couple years of high school because by then I had already accepted my own sexuality and no longer had any desire to change it. Had the timing been different, the idea of becoming an ex-gay might have been pretty tempting, but that was not my fate I suppose, and I don’t wish to dwell any further on the subject. Regarding my first encounter though, it was just a link on a Wikipedia article that first introduced me to the whole notion of ex-gays. At first, I was revolted. I had finally, just learned to cope with my sexuality, and here were these jerks jumping around telling the world “No, it’s okay! We can change!” It seemed like a betrayal to me. How could someone who had went through what I went through turn their back on the only people who would have supported them the way they naturally were?

    After my initial discovery of ex-gays I read a few studies that were unflattering to the ex-gay movement, and I sort of pushed them from my mind. Now, years later, after coming to Eastern and really starting to get a proper education on these issues, I looked into ex-gays again. Exodus’s home website is a VERY interesting place. The website has a section where ex-gays can share their stories with the world, and some post updated journals on their struggle to shed the homosexual lifestyle. Reading these stories has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride. On the one hand I see so much wrong with the things they are saying. The misconceptions about gays being shallow and materialistic, the belief that gay people cannot stick with monogamous relationships; all things that I heard before, but never from people who had once been actively involved in a gay community. On the other hand, I’m starting to see that perhaps some of these people truly believe what they are saying. And that is a profound thought.

    Ex-gays and LGBTs have one thing in common at least. We both just want to know the truth. There are things that LGBTs think they know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that ex-gays believe the complete opposite of, with the same conviction. If I can sit here and know, down in the depths of my heart, that I can live a moral, decent, and happy life as a homosexual, surely the beliefs of the ex-gays is equally powerful ? And if it is, what do they know that I don’t? What do they think they know that I don’t? Something profound has happened in their life that has caused them to see the world completely different than how I see it, and isn’t that worth investigating?

But the LGBT community has no patience for ex-gays. They’re traitors, after all. Their preaching is some of the best ammunition for the arsenal of heterosexism. That’s a pretty big obstacle to overcome. It is really difficult to give respect to a group of people who destroy everything you work for. Difficulty is no excuse though. If we cannot accept that these people used to be gay, and no longer are, how can we ask heterosexuals, who have no concept of homosexuality, to just believe that we are in love with the same sex and we cannot; will not change that? Science has not proven sexual rigidness or fluidity, so it is unfair to say that people cannot turn to a life of heterosexuality.

When it comes to human sexuality, a lot of what we assume is still just theory and speculation. So much of the world has put so many taboos on sex, it’ s very difficult to get factual information on certain subjects. Because we do not know, we must be willing to be objective with many different ideas, even ones that seem offensive or ridiculous. Ex-gays and LGBT people can learn to respect one another, just like different religions and political factions must respect each other also. If we don’t, we are only holding ourselves back by spreading more hatred, and denying ourselves someone who might turn out to be among our best allies.