The pen is mightier than the sword every time

A few days ago I was verbally assaulted by a group of kids. They were between the ages of 10 and 12 probably and had a ring leader who was the same age but physically bigger than the rest - the head bully. They decided I was fair game for singling out and I was assaulted with a barrage of foul words and not-so-subtle threats. What did I do to deserve their wrath you may ask - I was driving my car and stopped so they could cross the street in front of me. The head bully thanked me for giving them the right-of-way with words that no child should even be aware of their existence - "f***ing white bitch"...."f***ing c**t".....more "f****ing bitch"...just while he and his lapdogs were crossing in front of me.

Apparently I made the mistake of making eye contact with the kid with the golden tongue. My second mistake was rolling said eyes, an action eagerly pointed out to him by one of his lackeys. The head bully faced me, put his hand into his pant's pocket, slowly drew it out again and raised his hand toward me - the hand was now shaped and positioned like a gun - and said to me, "you dead, bitch".

At that point, there was a break in traffic and I was able to drive on. These kids screamed obscenities at me until I was out of earshot.

The experience left me a tad shaken but I found the entire incident quite disconcerting. I was left with the impression that they were more angry with my gender than my race even though they used street language for both. I was left wondering where they had learned such misogyny...such disrespect. The answer is glaringly obvious: they've learned all this behaviour from watching and hearing and seeing how the male elders in their lives treat the mothers of these kids and their sisters and maybe their grandmothers.

So like I said, I was left with a feeling of consternation but they didn't manage to hurt me. After all, they were just kids....right?

But then earlier today someone did manage to hurt me with words. He didn't resort to gutter-speak like the kids did but what he wrote to me was certainly the adult equivalent and so much more cutting than any child could manage. The kids were strangers...he is someone I had come to respect and admire. The kids' attack confused me and will be eventually forgotten....his attack saddened me and will stay with me for a long time.

Words, eh? They can make you soar and they can cut you in half...

What happened to intelligent debate?

I'm a conspiracy theorist. Yeah that's right, I'm a nutjob, a moonbat and I'm intellectually challenged. Oh and I suffer from a mental disorder. At least that is what I've been called of late by others who are of the opinion that their particular thoughts and beliefs must be shared by all. It seems that fewer and fewer people want to debate and discuss and even argue a contentious topic, they just move directly to the ad hominems.

Example: I do not accept the official government line surrounding the events of September 11. 2001. There are a plethora of unanswered questions along with "official" explanations that simply do not add up.

I run a discussion board which centres on current events and topical issues. Recently a topic was started by a member of this site that eventually merged into a discussion about 9/11. Suddenly other members of the board who already entertain conservative viewpoints on most subjects, begin posting with insults and threats of actually leaving the site altogether if this topic is not ended immediately.

They spout the official line verbatim and will not tolerate any dissenting or alternative viewpoints. Some even go so far as to compare people like me to holocaust deniers.

I have to wonder if this attitude of censorship by threat and intimidation is limited to a small number of people or is this attitude reflective of a larger segment of society - those who are falling hook, line and sinker for the widespread suppression of our freedoms and rights as it pertains to expression and thought.

Or maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong people. After all, they do worship at the alter of Stephen Harper.

'Nuff said.

Deadbeat Sperm Donor Psychopathic Stalkers

I refuse to call them deadbeat "dads". Dads love their kids, provide for their kids, protect their kids and would put down their lives for their kids; dads do not abandon their kids.

When a man will only work under the table or for cash so he doesn't get nabbed for child support, he's not a "dad".

When a man places his child in peril in order to get to the mother, he's not a "dad".

When a man doesn't even send a card to his child at Christmastime, he isn't a "dad".

When a man is heard shouting, "I don't give a fuck about him!", he definitely isn't a "dad".

But what do you call "a man" (and I have been using that word very loosely) who is of the deadbeat variety but who has further devolved into a stalker of the child's mother? "A man" who will plead, cry, promise and when all else fails, threaten, to get back into the mother's life? Not for the child but because he has become obsessed with owning/controlling her?

What do you call someone like that? Psychopath comes to mind.

And who gets hurt when someone like that decides that it's his life goal to make life as miserable as possible for all involved? Who gets hurt the worst?

The child. Not right away but eventually when he discovers that many of his friends in school have dads and he doesn't and no matter how the child's mother might white-wash the reasons for his absence, that child will conclude that his "dad" left him behind. The child will ask himself, "what did I do to make my "dad" abandon me?"

This is the legacy of deadbeat sperm donors - all the children who will wonder what they did wrong...

But do deadbeat sperm donor psychopathic stalkers care about the child? Of course not. To a deadbeat sperm donor psychopathic stalker, the child is merely a means to an end. To a deadbeat sperm donor psychopathic stalker the most important person in their life is THEM.

So please, let's all stop calling them deadbeat "dads".

DL's Book of Assholes

What kind of people toss their trash out the car window? Were they raised by wolves? Almost daily I see McDonald's bags strewn on the roadsides and even smack dab in the middle of the road. Then there's the ubiquitous Tim Horton's cups just about everywhere except where they're supposed to be - in the garbage.

I would love to talk to someone who feels they have the absolute right to throw their trash out their vehicle windows. I'd like them to try to explain to me what goes through their heads as they finish off that hamburger and drain the last drop from that large pop, stuff all the packaging back inside the bag, roll down the window and just toss.

Until then, people who throw their garbage out their vehicle windows are number one in my Book of Assholes.

Come to think of it, I don't want to talk to a garbage tosser....there's nothing they could say that would shed any light on the workings of their tiny brains.