Let me start by saying that I have seen these cartoons and I don't find them funny in the least. If you don't know what cartoons I am referring to I recommend not going to search for them as they are a waste of the paper they were originally drawn on. I'm not a Muslim but I was offended by them.

 

Some Danish cartoonists for some reason felt the need to draw a dozen or so caricatures of Muhammad and print them in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten. One of the cartoons depict Muhammad with a large bomb in his turban, another shows Muhammad on a cloud telling two newly arrived dead suicide bombers "Stop, we have run out of virgins." These cartoons were then circulated around the globe, causing riots and violent protests everywhere, especially in the Middle East.

All I have to say is :

What the hell did you think was going to happen??? You take a religious icon that is very important to a large percentage of the globe and make insensitive, insulting, and blasphemous cartoons... and you didn't expect people to get angry?? Are you stoned or stupid? First off I'm going to let you in on a little bit of information that apparently these Danish cartoonist didn't know: In the many Muslim traditions it is considered sacrilege to draw/paint/create a likeness of Muhammad. It may seem odd to a lot of people who are used to having seen many pictures of people of worship (eg. painting of Jesus Christ). So mistake #1 was just drawing Muhammad. Mistake #2 was drawing an insulting charicature of Muhammad. Mistake #3 was printing this in a paper where many Muslims will see it. Denmark does have a substantial Muslim population and they were obviously furious. I mean it was the worst possible thing to draw at the worst possible time. Presently a large percentage of the rest of the world is trying hard to create peace in the middle east, you just hit a hornet's nest with a baseball bat. Mistake #4 was picking the worst possible time in history to unveil these drawings. Your mama must be damn proud of you.

I'm not all for censorship or anything but this really isn't about censorship... this is more about stopping a hate crime. I am all for freedom of speech but there is a difference between freedom of speech and promoting hatred and bigotry. If Hitler were alive today would we give him his own column in the newspaper to write about whatever he wanted? Hell no! He would write anti-Semitic propaganda. That is a hate crime and hate crimes are not freedom of speech. These cartoons constitute a hate crime. They were drawn to deliberately provoke, offend, and aggravate Muslims during a time of great strife and turmoil for those people.

Hypothetical situation... lets say I work in a large newspaper in  the southern USA. Right after 9/11 happens I draw a few cartoons in the newspaper. One cartoon depicts the Pope sodomizing Jesus Christ dressed as an altar boy while the Pope shouts "Yeah, take it bitch! I'm gonna make you squeal like a pig!" and Jesus is crying. Another cartoon depicts a trailer trash couple with the barefoot and pregnant wife crying telling the drunken husband "Honey, I've lost the baby." and the caption underneath reads "God loves abortions."

Can you imagine how many Americans would come to my house and lynch me? Cartoons like those would never have been printed, especially at that point in time, and it's not because of censorship, it's the stopping of a hate crime. Those example cartoons have no merit, there is no message in them, other than hatred. The same is true for the Muhammad cartoons. To be entitled to freedom of speech you must have something worthwhile to say. Most of the Muhammad cartoons have the feeling as though they were drawn with a poison-filled pen. This is not freedom of speech, this is slander, this is bigotry, this is a hate crime.

Locally a university professor posted a few of these cartoons on his office door sparking protests from Muslim students and some of that professor's colleagues. You'd think a supposed educated man would know better than to do something so stupid.

A high school student posted a few of the cartoons in the most recent copy of his school newspaper. The newspaper has been terminated and the boy was told to write an apology. He said in an interview that he doesn't believe he did anything wrong and doesn't feel he should apologize. His parents should smack some sense into that kid. Racism should not be tolerated. Bigotry should not be tolerated. Oh how I wish I had that kid's email... I'd send him this rant. I hope that he learns to open his eyes and see the destruction and anger things like this can cause. This is the reason that there are a few limitations to freedom of speech. I don't mean that everything that might possibly offend someone needs to be censored, far from it. What I mean is that something that OBVIOUSLY will enrage a large population and does nothing but breed more hatred and bigotry should be censored. It does nobody any good to be the cause of violence. This kind of stupidity gives me a headache.

I hope that those of you who read this can see what I'm trying to say... I don't like censorship any more than most people but there is a point where you have to draw the line to stop an inevitable violent outbreak. There were more than 40 Danish cartoonists contacted to submit drawings of Muhammad and only 12 responded... those who didn't should be congratulated that their "Bad Idea" alarms are in working order. Thank you.

 

A final note to Muslims and to the rest of the world: Please, please, please calm down... violence does nothing but beget more violence. Please use words, not fists, and be constructive. An intelligent, thought-provoking rebuttal will go a lot farther than you think.

 

Ok, right off I'm going to say that this rant is not about my dislike of his music.

 

He divorces his wife. Then he writes songs about beating her up, killing her, and stuffing her body in the trunk of a car. Then he remarries her. WTF?? I feel bad for her, does she have no self esteem? This makes no sense and I just had to get that out of my system.

 

He has a sense of humor that I am not a fan of. He seems more to want to aggrivate those he "pokes fun". I get the feeling of maliciousness whenever I see one of his videos where he is making fun of someone. Then he tells people who get angry to lighten up and get a sense of humor.

Mr. Mathers makes fun of other rappers (eg. Ja Rule), dog puppets, easy targets like Michael Jackson & Madonna, and even Christopher Reeve. Why Christopher Reeve, you may ask? Nobody really knows. He was a humanitarian and an inspiration to many, even before his tragic accident. He brought so much awareness and so much money towards finding a cure for spinal cord trauma. He did a lot of good things in the world before his passing... and eminem for some reason makes fun of him. I don't get it. He, of course, says to lighten up. Another of his targets is a rubber dog puppet named Triumph. This has got to be the easiest thing to make fun of because all he needed was to get a puppet that looked like Triumph and have it do stupid things in his video. Such a simple and brainless way to be spiteful, and the timing of the video was about 3 years after Triumph poked fun at eminem. Little late on the comeback? Of course any two year old can make fun of Michael Jackson or Madonna, another easy target. MJ was pissed an even said some stuff on air saying he didn't appreciate the mockery. Eminem responded again with lighten up.

 

When the tables are turned, it is an entirely different matter. When someone else is poking fun at him the person is the target of Eminem's anger. When Triumph poked fun at eminem, instead of laughing he retaliated. It took him 3 years to do so but he retaliated. He seems very petty and vindictive when it comes to people poking fun at him. Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of his 8-mile song and eminem got pissed. Anybody who has ever listened to a parody by Weird Al knows that there is no mockery at all for the original artist. Al is the embodiment of the saying "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." If you've heard the song Couch Potato he's not making fun of eminem at all, however he was still pissed off. Seems as though he can dish it out but he can't take it. He really should practice what he preaches.

 

Ok can somebody please explain to me what the fuck is EMO? I'd never even heard of it a year ago and now everybody's going around "Oh Emos suck. We hate Emos. We'd never be caught dead at the Hot Topic like a whiney little Emo." I seriously don't get it. The first time I heard of it i was like "Emo Phillips? Who wouldn't want to be Emo Phillips? He's hilarious!"

So anyway I don't get what the difference between Emo and Goth is, and I've been told there is a *Huge* difference. They both wear nothing but black, they both dye their hair, they both like dark poetry, a large percentage are into self-mutilation, dark music, making out with members of the same sex even though they claim to be straight... I am seeing a lot of similarities here but most of them are stereotypes.

One of the differences that I have seen is the age group. A lot of the goths I know are age 20+. A lot of the people I have seen that I've been told are emo or claim to be emo are under 17, with the majority being ~14.

So... emos are wannabe goths in training who just haven't learned the A Simple Plan sucks and Sisters of Mercy are awesome?

I still don't get why they need to be hated so much? Did you forget what it's like to be 14? You weren't the perfect epitome of everything goth were you? No, you were a whiney little wannabe just like everyone else. You were struggling to find your place and your voice and your identity. I mean take all the so-called emo kids and teleport them to 1994 and see how everyone at their high school says "Oooh look at those goths. Goths suck. We hate goths."  

When did being goth mean becoming so closed-minded and snobby? Goths used to be so open-minded and tolerant of people's differences because they knew what is was like to be ridiculed. Now they are among those doing the ridiculing? I don't say that you have to like whatever these emo are, I'm asking what good will it do to put them down like you've been put down in the past? What will this accomplish? It reminds me of little brother syndrome... you know "Me too me too!" Do you think that a little education instead of insults would help the situation?

 

I saw this video about emo and in all honesty I don't get what the big deal is. So they dye their hair black and cut it short... is emo a hairstyle? So they write dark poetry... does that mean everyone who feels depressed and confused during their teenage years and writes poetry as a creative outlet is an emo? I don't think so. I mean, I remember 10 years ago when I was in high school I wore all black, wrote dark poetry, cut myself a lot, listened to dark music, dyed my hair, and was all angsty and broody all the time... did that make me emo?

No. It didn't.

And why is that, you may ask? Because emo didn't exist back then. I looked that way, acted that way, and listened to that music because I was having a hard time in school, I was feeling alienated, and I needed a way to express myself that mirrored those feelings. Doesn't that sound like just about EVERYBODY in high school?!? When I was in school the social outcasts like myself would pick on a few social groups that we felt were deserving of our ire: namely the Preppies, Rapper-wannabes, etc. We hated them. We would make fun of them in our best "Clueless" voices: "Like, oh my gawd! I was talking to Kiersten who was talking to Amber who was talking to Brittany and she said she, like, saw someone wearing the exact same shoes as me! Like, couldn't you just die! I mean, like, who does she think she is? Like, helloooo?"

Or, we would do our lamest (to use a term I generally dislike) 'wigger' voices: 'Sup homie, I gots to go borrow my mom's mini-van and go down to the timmie's for a coffee before fourth period, yo." 

Yeah, you were sooo the suburban gangsta.

Why, oh high school goths of the present day, why are you berating these emos when there are far more deserving subjects in the world? Why not the jocks who think that just because they made the team they rule the school? Why not the wanksters? WHY NOT THE PREPPIES?!?! You know they sooooooooo deserve it more than these emos. So they may act like your annoying little brother always copying you and never quite "getting it"? Guess what, you're on the same side! There's always been a war and there will always be a war between the preps, the jocks, and the wanksters Vs. the goths, the skaters & slackers, the nerds & geeks, and the other social outcasts. Now aim your misdirected fire at those Britney Spears cheerleader bitches and those muscle head assholes who always slam you into lockers when passing you in the hall. 

So a lot of these supposed "emo" bands suck. So what? Are they worse than Hillary Duff or Jessica Simpson or 50 Cent? Fuck no! I'm sorry but given the choice between listening to Lindsay Lohan or Good Charlotte I'd take Good Charlotte. There are way worse bands out there than emo bands and there are much better targets of mockery and hatred. Fuck Ashlee Simpson!!! WANNABE FUCKING TWAT LYPSYNCHER!!! Ya make me wanna *stab* *stab* YARGH!!!! KILL PARIS HILTON!! FUCK HER! FUCK HER RIGHT IN THE EAR!! See? Isn't that better?

 

Oh, and what's wrong with Hot Topic? I don't get why shopping at that store is so wrong? I mean I can see why shopping at the Gap or Old Navy is wrong... but why Hot Topic? I live in eastern Canada and, suprise suprise, we don't have a Hot Topic anywhere within a 2 hour flight from us. I've been to their website and some of their stuff isn't half bad. Some of it is damn fugly but on the whole the store doesn't have the obvious "Preppy" overtones that immediately turn me off like those two other stores I mentioned. I seriously hate all you people when you say "Oh only poseurs and wannabe emos shop at Hot Topic. I hate that store, I get all my gothwear at another store which is waaay better." Do any of you people have any idea how many of you I'd kill to get a Hot Topic to open up in my city?!? Seriously, to get any clothing that's even remotely gothy I have to shop at either the local Comic Book shop or Le Chateau of all places!!! If you can't find anything there you have to MAKE IT YOURSELF or take a chance on not getting ripped off on ebay if you're lucky enough to have a credit card! You have no idea how lucky you are to be able to have a store like that.

 

I am not emo. I am not goth. I am not punk. I am not... whatever. I try not to be categorized because there really isn't any category I fit into. Such a category doesn't exist and if it did it would be a category of one called "WeirdMetalSlackerGothGeekSarcastibitch."

Yeah. Now THAT's a category.