As More Bullying Victims Commit Suicide, Right-Wing Groups Decry Anti-Bullying Policies As ‘Gay Agenda’ Ploy

By on October 6, 2010 in News 46

As a sort of follow up to my post yesterday, from Think Progress:

Many states across the country are taking laudable steps to enact measures that bolster administrators’ ability to protect students who face such harassment. However, despite the evidence supporting the need, right-wing lawmakers and activists insist that anti-bullying measures are nothing more than insidious tools of the “homosexual agenda”:

  • The American Family Association of Michigan has spent years decrying a proposed anti-bullying measure as “a Trojan Horse to sneak [homosexual activists'] special rights agenda into law” and to “legitimize homosexual behavior” which is “a practice scientifically proven to result in a dramatically higher incidence of domestic violence, mental illness, illegal drug use, promiscuity, life-threatening disease, and premature death.” The bill “died in 2008 in the state Senate because senators could not agree” on whether to address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the measure.
  • In Minnesota, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer said he would not sign the anti-bullying Safe Schools For All bill because “I don’t want the government” instead of parents to be on “the front line of defense of our children.” Indeed, Emmer voted against and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) vetoed the same bill in 2009 after the right-wing Minnesota Family Council pushed legislators to reject the bill in 2009 because it would “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
  • The right-wing Christian media ministry Focus on the Family is attacking an anti-bullying standard on the federal level. Insisting that bullying prevention is being “hijacked by activists” who are “politicizing or sexualizing the issue,” Focus on the Family’s Candi Cushman claims that the anti-bullying bill currently before Congress “cater[s] to a narrow political agenda” that “becomes a gateway for homosexuality promotion in school.” In their current back-to-school guide “equipping” parents with tools against the “sneaky” gay agenda, Cushman told parents to look out for bullying seminars, diversity lessons, and “cute little pictures of furry animals” as “red flags” signaling the “gay agenda.”

So does that make Republicans the equivalent of D student schoolyard bullies?  Read more here.

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  • TheMessenger

    I didn’t write this, just reposting an oldie-but-goodie from USENET days gone by:

    I know that many of you have heard Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell and others
    speak of the “Homosexual Agenda,” but no one has ever seen a copy of it.

    Well, I have finally obtained a copy directly from the Head Homosexual.

    It follows below:

    6:00 am Gym
    8:00 am Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
    9:00 am Hair appointment
    10:00 am Shopping
    12:00 PM Brunch

    2:00 PM
    1) Assume complete control of the U.S. Federal, State and Local
    Governments as well as all other national governments,
    2) Recruit all straight youngsters to our debauched lifestyle,
    3) Destroy all healthy heterosexual marriages,
    4) Replace all school counselors in grades K-12 with agents of Colombian
    and Jamaican drug cartels,
    5) Establish planetary chain of “homo breeding gulags” where over-medicated
    imprisoned straight women are turned into artificially impregnated baby
    factories to produce prepubescent love slaves for our devotedly
    pederastic gay leadership,
    6) bulldoze all houses of worship, and
    7) Secure total control of the INTERNET and all mass media for the
    exclusive use of child pornographers.

    2:30 PM Get forty winks of beauty rest to prevent facial wrinkles from
    stress of world conquest
    4:00 PM Cocktails
    6:00 PM Light Dinner (soup, salad, with Chardonnay)
    8:00 PM Theater
    11:00 PM Bed (du jour)?

  • TheMessenger

    I didn’t write this, just reposting an oldie-but-goodie from USENET days gone by:

    I know that many of you have heard Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell and others
    speak of the “Homosexual Agenda,” but no one has ever seen a copy of it.

    Well, I have finally obtained a copy directly from the Head Homosexual.

    It follows below:

    6:00 am Gym
    8:00 am Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
    9:00 am Hair appointment
    10:00 am Shopping
    12:00 PM Brunch

    2:00 PM
    1) Assume complete control of the U.S. Federal, State and Local
    Governments as well as all other national governments,
    2) Recruit all straight youngsters to our debauched lifestyle,
    3) Destroy all healthy heterosexual marriages,
    4) Replace all school counselors in grades K-12 with agents of Colombian
    and Jamaican drug cartels,
    5) Establish planetary chain of “homo breeding gulags” where over-medicated
    imprisoned straight women are turned into artificially impregnated baby
    factories to produce prepubescent love slaves for our devotedly
    pederastic gay leadership,
    6) bulldoze all houses of worship, and
    7) Secure total control of the INTERNET and all mass media for the
    exclusive use of child pornographers.

    2:30 PM Get forty winks of beauty rest to prevent facial wrinkles from
    stress of world conquest
    4:00 PM Cocktails
    6:00 PM Light Dinner (soup, salad, with Chardonnay)
    8:00 PM Theater
    11:00 PM Bed (du jour)?

  • Butter Knife

    The real tragedy is that there is a legitimate reason for conservatives to oppose these regulations: they are of questionable efficacy, but grant the state tremendous power to monitor our lives and speech. Most of them explicitly give school administrators and police agencies the authority to snoop through private online correspondence regardless of whether such communication actually occurred on school property.

    Aren’t they supposed to be about reducing the size and power of government? Aren’t they supposed to be in favor of personal liberty (except where such liberty might be exercised to pursue non-traditional sexual preferences, use of arbitrarily prohibited substances, practice of a non-Evangelical Christian faith, opposition to the government or military, discussion of subjects they simply don’t like, being “un-American”, etc.)? Aren’t they supposed to oppose unnecessary and ineffective legislation simply on the basis that more laws are inherently worse than fewer laws? Don’t they advocate letting local governments and authorities resolve their own problems?

    With all of those perfectly good reasons to oppose anti-bullying legislation, they still insist on being homophobic morons. Way to go right-wing, you’ve sunk so low you can’t even uphold your reasonable values anymore. On the bright side, I guess I’m no longer quite so disgusted by your hypocrisy.

    Even if they just can’t drop the “homosexual agenda” thing (we all know how fixated they are on gays…), they could at least focus on the issue of failing to protect heterosexual bullying victims, or even on the potential for all such victims to be officially labeled as homosexual regardless of their actual sexual orientation. Both of those would be valid issues, but since neither supports their preference for bashing gays, it’s an obvious non-starter.

    Oh, and people, check your statistics: teen suicides are down, as are teen homicides, teen assaults, and most other negative statistics over the past 20 years. That’s right, the anti-bullying and anti-school shooting crusaders are hell-bent on stripping all Americans under the age of 25 of virtually all civil liberties for the purpose of solving a problem that doesn’t exist. screw it, let’s just give everyone what they want, and we can all be born into mandatory minimum life prison sentences without possibility of parole. That ought to make everyone happy.

    • Quit_Crying

      Yeah, you CANT give some people more protection/rights than others. That opens the door to restricting all free speech, meaning anything that the government deems to be extremist/bullying/whatever. I have gay friends that agree with the right on this one…. So quit whining, everyone has problems, if you are gay, be proud don’t LET anyone bully you. Stand up or shut up, don’t infringe upon MY rights or I’ll have to start gay bashing to the extreme lol. That’s my point of view anyways. But in reality, we have bigger worries, so stop bitching and deal with it or dont be gay I guess.

      • gemmarama

        ha! “don’t let anyone bully you.” spoken like a true, well, bully. most bullying that occurs in schools is wholly supported by the teachers and the educational establishment itself. i speak from personal experience here.

        we have bigger worries? i’m guessing you mean the economic situation. i’m not sure how you can prioritise this above the persecution and abuse of children, but there you go.

        “or don’t be gay i guess.” here’s a word of advice: don’t guess. you’re obviously an idiot.

        • damg

          when i was a nipper i was the weird one in class. actually, most people thought i was gay until i joined a band in 5th year (yes, apparently gays cant join bands unless they wear glittery sashes and play synth).
          anyway, Scotland is a horrible place to be a kid in school, or it was in the nineties anyway. I remember being forced to play shinty in PE class when i didnt want to, and was deliberately made to feel like an outcast – as did anyone else who objected. I also felt sorry for the girls being forced to do ballet. Its 1958 in the scottish school system…aye, best days of my life yer arse!

          • gemmarama

            yo homie!

            aye i went to leith academy in edinburgh – as in the “trainspotting” school (it’s not mentioned in the film, but in the book, when spud goes for a job interview, renton tells him, “dinnae say you went to leithy, you’ll never get the job”!). it was basically 900 neds versus me: the bird with the cropped hair in the german army shirt with lines of rimbaud scrawled on the back, sartre novels poking out her pocket… perhaps i was asking for it a little, but it still wisnae nice. i was variously a lesbian, a swot, a “sweaty”, a hippy, a freak, etc. ad nauseum, and (most of, there were a few honourable exceptions) the teachers did little to discourage my treatment at the hands of the inbred, foetal-alcohol-syndrome hordes.

            it certainly had a lasting effect on me. thankfully my parents instilled me with a near-obnoxious sense of self-belief but i still take a while to really trust people as friends.

            i did get the last laugh though. all my former classmates are now either working in the co-op supermarket, mothers of six, or dead from a smack overdose.

            and that was in the city. i can only imagine what it must have been like growing up up north. if your bit was anywhere near as bad as skye, it must’ve been horribly oppressive. no wonder all the kids run away to the city as soon as they leave school.

            yaaaas i’m back in the weege for good as of saturday. cannae wait!

          • damg

            get in! shame you’re not back tonight – im playing a show in Bloc. I’ll also be playing solo shows and others with the other band im in. im a music slag. You should come along to one sometime.
            The most depressing thing about adolescence in the sticks is the fact that the majority of people end up joining the death squad *cough* i mean “Armed Forces”. i knew many people who ended up just leaving school at 16 so they could become “heroes” – its like one extreme to the other, really black and white. if you’re smart you go *here*, if you’re not you go *here*. Theres very little in the way of choice.
            By the way, i know its cliched to say but the book is waaaay better than the film isnt it? :)

          • gemmarama

            s’always the way. i have mixed feelings about literary adaptations being a film graduate and total bookworm. i think perhaps there should be some kind of time bar on filming certain books, but then i do have some slightly fascist tendencies…

            yeah totally i’ll come see you play sometime! i remember words&pictures is the solo act but what’s your band called? i’ll look out for it in the skinny/list or something as unfortunately i don’t think the bastards i’m working for are going to let me keep the laptop… boo hiss.

            oh sweet glasgow… how i’ve missed her. i shall never take the greatest city in the world for granted again!

            so yes, on a general note to all disinfonauts, you’ve probably only got two days of my sterling banter left to enjoy, after that i’ll be internet-free for some time… enjoy my bile while you can!

          • damg

            well i do Words & Pictures and i self released the album. i do Blood Blood as well (http://everythingischemical.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-blood-blood-autumnharvest.html)
            im also working with “United Fruit” but thats early days just now, and the band im playing with tonight is called “my father’s Moustache” (yeah, i dont know either)
            don’t worry about your fascist tendencies, i shit myself with rage on a regular basis when it comes to book to film adaptations!
            we’ll miss you on here, you should use internet cafe’s. totally anonymous bile!!

          • gemmarama

            from the review it sounds totally up my street – i pretty much grew up on pavement, daniel johnston, sonic youth, etc. so lo-fi is definitely an aesthetic i can dig… shall have a listen when i get home later. interesting band names! and i like the hand-painted cassette package. nice work.

            you into free noise at all? check out my wee bro’s band – muscletusk.
            http://www.myspace.com/muscletuskband
            they’re pretty out there, but awesome. he actually played a gig with thurston moore last year, which will probably be the absolute pinnacle of his musical career as his sound’s not exectly what you’d call commercial…

            i have no interest in anonymity – i’m actually quite proud of my rants! so much so that i’m gonna fuckin get real and sign up for some creative writing courses when i get back to the big city. even if i find i’m not good enough at it to turn it into any kind of paid work, it’ll be nice to have an outlet, just for myself.

          • Catapult_dave

            I heart noise. the label i put out the blood blood record on is a DIY noise label, they have some great stuff on the roster right now. i’ll listen to muscletusk when i get in after work. although i love noise it doesnt go down well at a funeral place!
            love sonic youth. i met thurston moore in the tolbopoth in Stirling one night of all places, waaaaay too nervous to actually speak to him though…

          • gemmarama

            weird timing – just finished listening to your blood blood stuff. your tunes are lovely dude. especially like autumn, lumb and naked.

            aye my bro and his missus bumped into thurston at an alternative comic book convention in the US (i know, too cool for school), when she was wearing… her sonic youth jumper. cringe… he loved it though, took a picture and everything!

          • damg

            thank you! i improvise all my stuff so i always end up in the weird situation of having made a record…and then teaching myself how to play it!
            an alt comic book convention is far too cool for school, i wish they had that kind of shit here…alas, the closest i ever get to cool comics is the jumble sale at the 13th note (if im lucky). God i hate that place for being so expensive. its like £3.50 for a pint of tennents, thats FUCKING RIDICULOUS. grr.

          • gemmarama

            if you’re into weird comics have a look at malcy duff’s shit. he’s a pal of my bro’s and also plays in the noise scene’s answer to punch and judy – usurper – one of my favourite live acts ever. they’re hysterical.

            http://www.missingtwin.net/
            http://www.myspace.com/usurperr

            £3.50 a pint in the freakin note? they’re gettin ideas above their station! tis a fine bar though, when i lived in the merch city years ago my pals fi and al worked there and i practically lived in the place. another one to try for jobs when i get back i suppose…

            one sleep to go! fuckin yaaaaaaaaaaaas.

          • damg

            are you here yet? bloc and the captains are still looking for folk i think…im gonna look at those links after work. i hope yr not looking for employment too long? i can probably find you a soul destroying office job if you want?

          • gemmarama

            hey yo i’m back in the big city, and now nursing three-days-worth of hangover – you just can’t get champagne and manhattans on skye. ugh! am beginning to think it was just glasgow rather than my former career that almost drove me to alcoholism…

            the captain’s rest you say? interesting… cheers for the tip-off. i shall try bloc as well, although i’d rather keep it west end. can get a bit hectic in town (i had bad experiences working at the arches in the past!), although in saying that i was gonna try that new jamie oliver place too just cos the tips will be awesome so i could maybe cope with it for a short while.

            thanks for the offer but i can’t do office jobs, i’m quite practical so they drive me insane… last time i ended up with a bad back and a permanent cold too. i rarely stop talking either so i tend to do everyone else’s head in in an office envionment!

            s’awffy nice to be back, cannae get holda ma man but which is a slight worry, although most likely he’s just on a poker marathon… plus the constant background noise is grating a little, i give it a week till i’m on a bus to somewhere random in the country for a nice long walk! cannae handle the general environment in the glasgow, cannae handle the folk on skye, where to go?!

          • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

            “the bird with the cropped hair in the german army shirt with lines of rimbaud scrawled on the back, sartre novels poking out her pocket… ”

            yer so feckin cool I aint even got words…if its any comfort…Id’a hired you on the spot…(nothing says awesomeness aplenty like Rimbaud lines penned across a shirt.)

          • gemmarama

            hehehe… cheers dude. well that was me at 16, at 31 i am now the bird with the bleached blonde hair, cats-eye glasses and red lipstick in the stripey t-shirt, skinny jeans and biker jacket… typically anyway. the rimbaud lives on in my bookcase!

            me and my friends have a phrase, “peaked in high school”, to describe the bastards who were popular and “straight” then, and just plain dull now. i’m proud to have been a freak.

            aaaw i’m gonna miss you guys. 24hrs and i’m laptop-no-more. you have no idea how much your chat has kept me sane during a long, long summer on a wee island where no one seems to have adult conversations. i shall endeavor to pop in now and again whenever i’m near a computer, but in case it’s a while, it’s been an absolute pleasure (even vox penii)!

        • Quit_Crying

          No, I’m not a bully at all, very far from it. When I was in school, I was pretty neutral I talked to everyone and on many occasions, I STOPPED bullying. I always hated seeing people be miserable just because the “bully” is a miserable person and takes it out on everyone else. I do NOT retract my above statement. Nobody deserves any more rights than the next person. MAYBE, if we could educate these dumb kids and get them off the mainstream shitculture, they would realize that bullying is a sign of weakness. Anyways, I see where you are coming from but you read me wrong. Trust me, I dont agree with anyone being harassed be it for their sexuality or otherwise. (unless they are a politician or banker etc.)

    • Landruc

      There are a few illogical statements in your last paragraph. First of all, the fact that statistics are down doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem doesn’t exist, just that there is less of one. Also, the fact that statistics are down may be evidence that anti-bullying campaigns are working, not that they are unnecessary. And, of course, your second to last sentence is just a whopper of a straw man.

    • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

      Some people worry about metal detectors, random searches, pee drop tests and even strip searches intruding on kids privacy and well being…

      …but when they might be introduced to the concept that homosexuals are human beings and that beating the shit out of anyone different is at least theoretically bad…awwww shit…now we got trouble!!!

      As for the Jesus Crispies…the only people I’ve ever known who were more obsessed with gays…were face down in the laps of other gays.

  • Butter Knife

    The real tragedy is that there is a legitimate reason for conservatives to oppose these regulations: they are of questionable efficacy, but grant the state tremendous power to monitor our lives and speech. Most of them explicitly give school administrators and police agencies the authority to snoop through private online correspondence regardless of whether such communication actually occurred on school property.

    Aren’t they supposed to be about reducing the size and power of government? Aren’t they supposed to be in favor of personal liberty (except where such liberty might be exercised to pursue non-traditional sexual preferences, use of arbitrarily prohibited substances, practice of a non-Evangelical Christian faith, opposition to the government or military, discussion of subjects they simply don’t like, being “un-American”, etc.)? Aren’t they supposed to oppose unnecessary and ineffective legislation simply on the basis that more laws are inherently worse than fewer laws? Don’t they advocate letting local governments and authorities resolve their own problems?

    With all of those perfectly good reasons to oppose anti-bullying legislation, they still insist on being homophobic morons. Way to go right-wing, you’ve sunk so low you can’t even uphold your reasonable values anymore. On the bright side, I guess I’m no longer quite so disgusted by your hypocrisy.

    Even if they just can’t drop the “homosexual agenda” thing (we all know how fixated they are on gays…), they could at least focus on the issue of failing to protect heterosexual bullying victims, or even on the potential for all such victims to be officially labeled as homosexual regardless of their actual sexual orientation. Both of those would be valid issues, but since neither supports their preference for bashing gays, it’s an obvious non-starter.

    Oh, and people, check your statistics: teen suicides are down, as are teen homicides, teen assaults, and most other negative statistics over the past 20 years. That’s right, the anti-bullying and anti-school shooting crusaders are hell-bent on stripping all Americans under the age of 25 of virtually all civil liberties for the purpose of solving a problem that doesn’t exist. screw it, let’s just give everyone what they want, and we can all be born into mandatory minimum life prison sentences without possibility of parole. That ought to make everyone happy.

  • William Xavier McGarley

    You’ve got to admit them Right-Wingers has a point. Since the time of that damned tofu-smoker Abraham Lincoln it’s been gittin’ harder ‘n harder to get a decent torch-wielding mob together. Damn-ed rule of law.*

    “When men take it in their heads to-day, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they should recollect, that, in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded.”

    Abraham Lincoln, “The Lyceum Address”, 27 January 1838

    * This is a comic statement intended for ironic polemic effect. If you prefer a civil society whose discourse is bounded by respect for the rights of others and intellectual integrity, please do not get upset. Consider the possiblity that the Tea Partiers it parodies may actually be the clearest sign that the Right-Wing is finally collapsing.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/LZNJUGQUKQ5GBYR3FZ3D4FJF7I Donald

      Which would be good (insofar as one thinks), as long as the rest of the USA doesn’t collapse along with it.

  • William Xavier McGarley

    You’ve got to admit them Right-Wingers has a point. Since the time of that damned tofu-smoker Abraham Lincoln it’s been gittin’ harder ‘n harder to get a decent torch-wielding mob together. Damn-ed rule of law.*

    “When men take it in their heads to-day, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they should recollect, that, in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded.”

    Abraham Lincoln, “The Lyceum Address”, 27 January 1838

    * This is a comic statement intended for ironic polemic effect. If you prefer a civil society whose discourse is bounded by respect for the rights of others and intellectual integrity, please do not get upset. Consider the possiblity that the Tea Partiers it parodies may actually be the clearest sign that the Right-Wing is finally collapsing.

  • Quit_Crying

    Yeah, you CANT give some people more protection/rights than others. That opens the door to restricting all free speech, meaning anything that the government deems to be extremist/bullying/whatever. I have gay friends that agree with the right on this one…. So quit whining, everyone has problems, if you are gay, be proud don’t LET anyone bully you. Stand up or shut up, don’t infringe upon MY rights or I’ll have to start gay bashing to the extreme lol. That’s my point of view anyways. But in reality, we have bigger worries, so stop bitching and deal with it or dont be gay I guess.

  • Landruc

    There are a few illogical statements in your last paragraph. First of all, the fact that statistics are down doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem doesn’t exist, just that there is less of one. Also, the fact that statistics are down may be evidence that anti-bullying campaigns are working, not that they are unnecessary. And, of course, your second to last sentence is just a whopper of a straw man.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    Some people worry about metal detectors, random searches, pee drop tests and even strip searches intruding on kids privacy and well being…

    …but when they might be introduced to the concept that homosexuals are human beings and that beating the shit out of anyone different is at least theoretically bad…awwww shit…now we got trouble!!!

    As for the Jesus Crispies…the only people I’ve ever known who were more obsessed with gays…were face down in the laps of other gays.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/LZNJUGQUKQ5GBYR3FZ3D4FJF7I Donald

    Which would be good (insofar as one thinks), as long as the rest of the USA doesn’t collapse along with it.

  • gemmarama

    ha! “don’t let anyone bully you.” spoken like a true, well, bully. most bullying that occurs in schools is wholly supported by the teachers and the educational establishment itself. i speak from personal experience here.

    we have bigger worries? i’m guessing you mean the economic situation. i’m not sure how you can prioritise this above the persecution and abuse of children, but there you go.

    “or don’t be gay i guess.” here’s a word of advice: don’t guess. you’re obviously an idiot.

  • damg

    when i was a nipper i was the weird one in class. actually, most people thought i was gay until i joined a band in 5th year (yes, apparently gays cant join bands unless they wear glittery sashes and play synth).
    anyway, Scotland is a horrible place to be a kid in school, or it was in the nineties anyway. I remember being forced to play shinty in PE class when i didnt want to, and was deliberately made to feel like an outcast – as did anyone else who objected. I also felt sorry for the girls being forced to do ballet. Its 1958 in the scottish school system…aye, best days of my life yer arse!

  • gemmarama

    yo homie!

    aye i went to leith academy in edinburgh – as in the “trainspotting” school (it’s not mentioned in the film, but in the book, when spud goes for a job interview, renton tells him, “dinnae say you went to leithy, you’ll never get the job”!). it was basically 900 neds versus me: the bird with the cropped hair in the german army shirt with lines of rimbaud scrawled on the back, sartre novels poking out her pocket… perhaps i was asking for it a little, but it still wisnae nice. i was variously a lesbian, a swot, a “sweaty”, a hippy, a freak, etc. ad nauseum, and (most of, there were a few honourable exceptions) the teachers did little to discourage my treatment at the hands of the inbred, foetal-alcohol-syndrome hordes.

    it certainly had a lasting effect on me. thankfully my parents instilled me with a near-obnoxious sense of self-belief but i still take a while to really trust people as friends.

    i did get the last laugh though. all my former classmates are now either working in the co-op supermarket, mothers of six, or dead from a smack overdose.

    and that was in the city. i can only imagine what it must have been like growing up up north. if your bit was anywhere near as bad as skye, it must’ve been horribly oppressive. no wonder all the kids run away to the city as soon as they leave school.

    yaaaas i’m back in the weege for good as of saturday. cannae wait!

  • damg

    get in! shame you’re not back tonight – im playing a show in Bloc. I’ll also be playing solo shows and others with the other band im in. im a music slag. You should come along to one sometime.
    The most depressing thing about adolescence in the sticks is the fact that the majority of people end up joining the death squad *cough* i mean “Armed Forces”. i knew many people who ended up just leaving school at 16 so they could become “heroes” – its like one extreme to the other, really black and white. if you’re smart you go *here*, if you’re not you go *here*. Theres very little in the way of choice.
    By the way, i know its cliched to say but the book is waaaay better than the film isnt it? :)

  • Quit_Crying

    No, I’m not a bully at all, very far from it. When I was in school, I was pretty neutral I talked to everyone and on many occasions, I STOPPED bullying. I always hated seeing people be miserable just because the “bully” is a miserable person and takes it out on everyone else. I do NOT retract my above statement. Nobody deserves any more rights than the next person. MAYBE, if we could educate these dumb kids and get them off the mainstream shitculture, they would realize that bullying is a sign of weakness. Anyways, I see where you are coming from but you read me wrong. Trust me, I dont agree with anyone being harassed be it for their sexuality or otherwise. (unless they are a politician or banker etc.)

  • gemmarama

    s’always the way. i have mixed feelings about literary adaptations being a film graduate and total bookworm. i think perhaps there should be some kind of time bar on filming certain books, but then i do have some slightly fascist tendencies…

    yeah totally i’ll come see you play sometime! i remember words&pictures is the solo act but what’s your band called? i’ll look out for it in the skinny/list or something as unfortunately i don’t think the bastards i’m working for are going to let me keep the laptop… boo hiss.

    oh sweet glasgow… how i’ve missed her. i shall never take the greatest city in the world for granted again!

    so yes, on a general note to all disinfonauts, you’ve probably only got two days of my sterling banter left to enjoy, after that i’ll be internet-free for some time… enjoy my bile while you can!

  • damg

    well i do Words & Pictures and i self released the album. i do Blood Blood as well (http://everythingischemical.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-blood-blood-autumnharvest.html)
    im also working with “United Fruit” but thats early days just now, and the band im playing with tonight is called “my father’s Moustache” (yeah, i dont know either)
    don’t worry about your fascist tendencies, i shit myself with rage on a regular basis when it comes to book to film adaptations!
    we’ll miss you on here, you should use internet cafe’s. totally anonymous bile!!

  • gemmarama

    from the review it sounds totally up my street – i pretty much grew up on pavement, daniel johnston, sonic youth, etc. so lo-fi is definitely an aesthetic i can dig… shall have a listen when i get home later. interesting band names! and i like the hand-painted cassette package. nice work.

    you into free noise at all? check out my wee bro’s band – muscletusk.
    http://www.myspace.com/muscletuskband
    they’re pretty out there, but awesome. he actually played a gig with thurston moore last year, which will probably be the absolute pinnacle of his musical career as his sound’s not exectly what you’d call commercial…

    i have no interest in anonymity – i’m actually quite proud of my rants! so much so that i’m gonna fuckin get real and sign up for some creative writing courses when i get back to the big city. even if i find i’m not good enough at it to turn it into any kind of paid work, it’ll be nice to have an outlet, just for myself.

  • Catapult_dave

    I heart noise. the label i put out the blood blood record on is a DIY noise label, they have some great stuff on the roster right now. i’ll listen to muscletusk when i get in after work. although i love noise it doesnt go down well at a funeral place!
    love sonic youth. i met thurston moore in the tolbopoth in Stirling one night of all places, waaaaay too nervous to actually speak to him though…

  • gemmarama

    weird timing – just finished listening to your blood blood stuff. your tunes are lovely dude. especially like autumn, lumb and naked.

    aye my bro and his missus bumped into thurston at an alternative comic book convention in the US (i know, too cool for school), when she was wearing… her sonic youth jumper. cringe… he loved it though, took a picture and everything!

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    “the bird with the cropped hair in the german army shirt with lines of rimbaud scrawled on the back, sartre novels poking out her pocket… ”

    yer so feckin cool I aint even got words…if its any comfort…Id’a hired you on the spot…(nothing says awesomeness aplenty like Rimbaud lines penned across a shirt.)

  • gemmarama

    hehehe… cheers dude. well that was me at 16, at 31 i am now the bird with the bleached blonde hair, cats-eye glasses and red lipstick in the stripey t-shirt, skinny jeans and biker jacket… typically anyway. the rimbaud lives on in my bookcase!

    me and my friends have a phrase, “peaked in high school”, to describe the bastards who were popular and “straight” then, and just plain dull now. i’m proud to have been a freak.

    aaaw i’m gonna miss you guys. 24hrs and i’m laptop-no-more. you have no idea how much your chat has kept me sane during a long, long summer on a wee island where no one seems to have adult conversations. i shall endeavor to pop in now and again whenever i’m near a computer, but in case it’s a while, it’s been an absolute pleasure (even vox penii)!

  • damg

    thank you! i improvise all my stuff so i always end up in the weird situation of having made a record…and then teaching myself how to play it!
    an alt comic book convention is far too cool for school, i wish they had that kind of shit here…alas, the closest i ever get to cool comics is the jumble sale at the 13th note (if im lucky). God i hate that place for being so expensive. its like £3.50 for a pint of tennents, thats FUCKING RIDICULOUS. grr.

  • gemmarama

    if you’re into weird comics have a look at malcy duff’s shit. he’s a pal of my bro’s and also plays in the noise scene’s answer to punch and judy – usurper – one of my favourite live acts ever. they’re hysterical.

    http://www.missingtwin.net/
    http://www.myspace.com/usurperr

    £3.50 a pint in the freakin note? they’re gettin ideas above their station! tis a fine bar though, when i lived in the merch city years ago my pals fi and al worked there and i practically lived in the place. another one to try for jobs when i get back i suppose…

    one sleep to go! fuckin yaaaaaaaaaaaas.

  • damg

    are you here yet? bloc and the captains are still looking for folk i think…im gonna look at those links after work. i hope yr not looking for employment too long? i can probably find you a soul destroying office job if you want?

  • gemmarama

    hey yo i’m back in the big city, and now nursing three-days-worth of hangover – you just can’t get champagne and manhattans on skye. ugh! am beginning to think it was just glasgow rather than my former career that almost drove me to alcoholism…

    the captain’s rest you say? interesting… cheers for the tip-off. i shall try bloc as well, although i’d rather keep it west end. can get a bit hectic in town (i had bad experiences working at the arches in the past!), although in saying that i was gonna try that new jamie oliver place too just cos the tips will be awesome so i could maybe cope with it for a short while.

    thanks for the offer but i can’t do office jobs, i’m quite practical so they drive me insane… last time i ended up with a bad back and a permanent cold too. i rarely stop talking either so i tend to do everyone else’s head in in an office envionment!

    s’awffy nice to be back, cannae get holda ma man but which is a slight worry, although most likely he’s just on a poker marathon… plus the constant background noise is grating a little, i give it a week till i’m on a bus to somewhere random in the country for a nice long walk! cannae handle the general environment in the glasgow, cannae handle the folk on skye, where to go?!