Since my comment left on their site will probably be removed...

Look what lil' ol' me did to poor innocent Uthman.

This blog entry was really quite foolish, Ed. Before going off about me being a Robertson acolyte, or attributing me to what Claybonga wrote about the Iraq war, or taking a blind shot at my own religious beliefs, you should have spent the few minutes it would have taken to read my own blog and find out how I feel about Robertson, zealous Christian assholes and the Iraq war. Everyone who regularly reads my blog knows that I think the Iraq war is wrong, and that Robertson and his ilk are a frightening bunch. They also know that I think taking the Bible literally is nonsense. You can manage to navigate Freedom Chat, so before lying to people about what I think go ahead and learn the facts.

What's even more disturbing than the shot-in-the-dark method of attacking me is this - The Beast, and Uthman in particular, use various levels of venom and "biting" humor when it wants to get a point across, but when someone calls Al Uthman a fat ass or says he would pay a price for saying the same things to someone's face you shrivel up and all of a sudden become hyper-sensitive. The really pointed way your publication approaches various subjects seems to be a point of pride, and yes it does differentiate you from the other Alternatives who are rather boring. If you can dish it out like you do, you shouldn't cry foul when one guy out of X Beast readers pipes up about one of your Editors. What's good for you is good for everyone else.

About your premise I am mad because Uthman challenges my religious beliefs - again you are horribly mistaken. Uthman isn't challenging my religious beliefs - he is challenging the beliefs of people who try to use the Bible as a science text! He isn't talking about the pros and cons of religious doctrine, he is talking about fundamentalists who use their doctrine in an attempt to describe something best left to scientific inquiry. I agree that people who use the Bible this way are awfully misguided and wrong.

So then what DOES upset me? The assumption that every person who calls themself "Christian" is a Jerry Falwell, or a religious zealot blindly doing Bush's bidding, or someone who is intellectually vacant. Learning even the smallest tidbit about modern Chrsitianity would lead you to the conclusion that "believers" are largely fragmented. There is very little unity at all among the various denominations. People who believe in a higher power aren't blindly following Bush, they aren't unified in their beliefs, and yes they do have a brain in their head. Not every person who believes in God is a Jerry Falwell, and that kind of narrow-minded thinking will turn people off to you when they might otherwise consider the things you say about social welfare, health care and other issues. When you say those kinds of things about people it shouldn't come as a surprise or a shock that someone would object.

About Uthman - Ed, you have twice failed to correctly process what I wrote, instead going for the sensationalized writing style The Beast is known for. I never overtly threatened the man. There was a condition attached which you conveniently ignore. What I wrote was, and you have it up on your own blog so you should be able to understand this - if the guy were to directly insult me in the same manner that he does when he is behind the safety of his typewriter he indeed would pay the price. It is my experience that pseudo-journalists with loud mouths fold like a cheap card table when they have to be accountable for what they say.

Anyway, is it really that upsetting and unacceptable to you that someone would take a shot at Uthman? Okay, you poor, poor, innocent publication which has never done anything to remotely upset anyone. I apologize.

PS - Yes I can co-exist with Uthman and the rest of you Beasties. I thoroughly enjoyed your beer and pizza at the last Beast Bash.

I have pics from the surprise ninja-photo op at Kuni's. Coming Soon!!!!

Jason

I have ZERO respect for assholes who hide behind "Guest" and start bitching about the site. This moron said they were an adult - you know what adults do? They make their name public and stand up for what they say. That's what I did. Only a Grade A pencil-dick would hide themselves and get on with the hate. That's the same thing the suburbanite pussies do when they yell shit at me and then drive off in a hurry. They're not man enough to stand face-to-face with me and tell me what they think. So it goes with the anonymous hate in Freedom Chat.

This person bitches about Artvoice. So do I but I actually make arguments concerning what it is I'm complaining about. I'll bet that jerk works for The Beast, based on the extent to which they are intellectually cross-eyed and lacking in the guts department.

Jason

I've talked about this before, but I wanted to show you an article from Fox News about how female rapists and sex offenders get coddled by the government and the media:



Look at the example of the woman rapist who had sex with a 16 year old boy and received NO prison time, and did NOT have to register as a sex offender! Equal crime, Equal time? No. Whoever said it is a man's world LIED TO YOU. Who cares about the kids? They're just boys.

Jason

Yesterday I went to Gordon's to check out the Bills game with my man Kick Dawg. It was cool, but one thing I noticed is that there were lots of girls huddled around the TV as well. They were hanging with their boyfriends who were busy watching the game. The chicks were doing homework, chatting about makeup, talking about fashion and all kinds of other non-football related nonsense. One of the guys I sat with said "Damn, looks like it was Bring Your Girlfriend Day." LOL. They couldn't have cared any less about the game. Well except one of them, I saw one of them at the Green Bay preseason game so I know she's a fan. I just don't know why you ladies would want to go with your boyfriends to watch a game you're not interested in! I wouldn't want to bring a girlfriend to a bar to watch football if she didn't like football. I would just be like, "I'm sure there's something else you'd rather do. I'm going to hang with my buddies, call you later." Is that wrong?

Jason

I am at my father's house in Jamestown right now, and my family REALLY wants us to stay here another day. I'm really sorry I can't be at (e:theecarey)'s party tonight to chill with you all. I hope everyone has a good time. I'm also really sorry (e:Ladycroft), we'll have to chill sometime soon. I am cutting my hair then going to an event with Dad and (e:Joshua). Take it easy (e:strip)!

Jason

I was in a conversation today with various people, and a post from one of them shocked the hell out of me:

"The south wont vote for a Yankee but theyll take our money. Watching bushs speech it looks like he's gonna ask me and my people in the north to rebuild an area of the country that disrespects my area and wont even vote for a guy if he's from here. Screw em. I vote no. Maybe some other time."

After being called petty, he responds:

"Petty is why they wont vote for Yankees. My post is more of a vengeful post. Get it reicht"

I'm stopping it here for a minute to note how if you disagree with him he will bring up the Nazi card. Typical liberal debate strategy.

I say fine, no problem but now that you need us pardon me if I don't just jump up and throw money at them.

My response?

Nobody is obligated to vote for anyone from any particular region of the US. The argument is null and void. Clinton was a redneck, Carter was a redneck....it matters less where the person is from than who the person is and what they stand for. This "You won't vote for my guy so I refuse to help you" is some of the worst, petty political BS I've ever heard.

And if you want to know why nobody wanted anyone from Ohio, think back to Kucinich's idea to get rid of the Department of Defense and replace it with a Department of Peace. Yes! Get rid of the military! What a brilliant idea, especially now! He was and is a fringe leftist. Bring some better candidates to the table, jeez.

(After that I noted how Kucinich's idea to abolish the military and replace it with a "Department of Peace" was directly out of Howard Zinn's playbook from the short book Terrorism and War. Therefore it isn't surprising nobody would touch him with a ten foot pole)

But the bottom line is, Jesus Fucking Christ people - who cares what part of the country they are from! How can anyone be this petty!! I could slap the yellow off of that asshole's teeth.

Jason

I know I'm going to get in trouble for this one. I don't care, it's pretty funny.





That looks like it's perfect V-Day candy made by a guy. After all, the romantic feel-good nonsense is what we do for the women. In the end (lol) what we look forward to the most is the boning aspect of V-Day.

Jason

Is it true that nobody gave (e:Ladycroft) Her Birthday Spankings? Are you guys telling me she made it through that crazy party without someone doing what's right and giving her 30 heavy hands on the ass? F-ing A, isn't that part of what a birthday party is about, bending the person over and embarrassing them by spanking their ass?

Jason

PS - Where I come from, people don't get spanked, they get punched in the arm. And my friends wouldn't lighten up either, they would go WHAM and hit me really hard. Just when I recovered from that hit another one would be on its way. I think that's called "tough love".

I haven't had the chance to give my input into the Artvoice Best Of awards, but I do want to talk about our own category and how things have gone down.

Firstly, the fact that there is even a category for blogs is a good step for our community because a lot of people don't realize they can have a say. Most people feel they are helpless in this respect, but blogs give voice to our own concerns where other media have failed in doing so. In addition the fact we were in Artvoice means that the spotlight is on us, and gives us the kind of exposure that we cannot afford through normal advertising. I'm not upset that we didn't win. It is so difficult for people to say what is best because the blogs up for vote each have a different focus. It doesn't matter that we didn't win - what matters is that hopefully people now realize there is a FREE outlet available for them to blog about whatever is on their mind. To my knowledge (e:strip) is the only way for normal local people like you and me to give voice to our concerns, and we should be proud of that fact. It does no good for anyone to start bashing the other blogs, because in essence we all are here to make a difference in our community. It makes absolutely no sense to me that each blog should be chiefly about itself - there is no reason why blogs can't work together to achieve a common message. This kind of thing happens all the time and we should embrace it.

One thing I can say with ABSOLUTE confidence is that if it were up to the site that is coded the best, (e:Paul) would win in an avalanche (I guess landslide wasn't a good enough term for me to use). Although I hate hate hate when people affiliate the word "designer" with the word "programmer", because in nearly all professional programming environments they are separate duties, I can tell you all that (e:Paul) does an outstanding job with both aspects of putting this site together.

Don't take criticism so harshly. When someone says it is hard to navigate, we should look through the eyes of a new user. It is not unreasonable to expect that if someone comes here, they may want to browse articles dealing with X, Y, and Z. While "per-user" this is achievable, on a more broad scale it is not easily achievable. Please correct me if I'm wrong. After all many of our discussions are community discussions, and there is value in being able to piece our journal entries together to make a more "complete" discussion for people to browse.

I want to take some time to talk about (e:BuffaloPundit). You know it is really nice that I can write (e:BuffaloPundit). I hope you can read this because I want to compliment you. My brother, (e:Joshua), has had contact with you lately. Based on what I saw in your response to him, I have to give you tons of credit. (e:BuffaloPundit) is neither an ideologue nor a partisan. This becomes evident when someone reads your blog. For what it's worth I think your blog rightly deserves to be called one of Buffalo's best. I also REALLY HOPE that you continue to particpate in (e:strip) in some way, although you have your own site. Please come back and say hello every now and then. Oh yeah, I couldn't possibly agree more with what you wrote recently regarding the Teacher's Union. Unions are a kind of "untouchable" in Buffalo, and I'm glad you're willing to point the finger when it is deserved.

Jason