I hate everyone right now.

I believe it is time for another installment of Things That Annoy The Crap Out Of Me: War on Women Edition!

But first - a couple of hot topics I've been meaning to blog about but forgot. The Egyptian revolution! Oh man, how exciting has this been? I've been sort of loosely following it, and I am pleased that Mubarak stepped down and all, and I'm very excited to see how things go from here. And now there are all these other things happening in other places, so it's a very interesting and exciting time.

Also, all that crap about "redefining rape?" Yeah, WHAT THE EFF IS THAT. If it's sex with an individual who does not want to have sex with you, IT IS RAPE. And it is NOT OKAY. And if you get pregnant, you should not be FORCED to have the baby. Grr. >_< Which actually leads right into my TTATCOOM rant! Yaaayyy segues.

So, as some of you may have heard, the House of Representatives just voted on whether or not to remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood, which is the largest provider of abortions, sure, but ALSO provides much-needed and often hard-to-obtain health services for countless women, men, and children. It is much more than abortions. It is birth control, which would eliminate the need for so many abortions, you geniuses; it is health care for poorer women and children, which they can't get any other way; they provide screenings for several serious diseases, sexual and not, for men and women; and they are often the only resource for teen mothers or single mothers. So obviously, it's a bigger deal than abortions. And now they're trying to cut the funding for it, which just doesn't make any sense to me at all. I understand that you don't want people to ever have sex ever, conservative Christian Republicans, but newsflash - THEY'RE GONNA. And when they do, they should have access to birth control, STD tests and medication, screening for reproductive diseases and cancers, and general health care for pregnant women and infants. Good to know you're trying to take that all away.

On a similar note, JUSTIN FREAKING BIEBER. Have you guys heard about this? He was interviewed for Rolling Stone and asked, for some ungodly reason, about abortion. And he said he didn't believe in it, which is all fine and dandy, whatever Justin Bieber, UNTIL they pressed him about it and asked "What about in cases of rape?" and HE REPLIED THUSLY: "Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason." ... SERIOUSLY, JUSTIN BIEBER? I mean, okay, if you're saying that you shouldn't abort the baby because the pregnancy resulting from the rape happened for a reason, that's slightly better, but STILL. It could have been worded better. BUT THEN. (Disclaimer: I don't know if this is actually true, but I saw it on the internet, so it probably is, right?) Apparently he tweeted, "To all of my fans who are getting mad over my views on abortion: if you were true beliebers (what he calls his fans, I know, right) you would agree with me." Yes. If you were truly FANS OF MY POP MUSIC, you would AGREE WITH EVERYTHING I SAY. This is how cults happen, people. He's got 7 million followers on Twitter, most of them teen girls who will soon be voting, and he's feeding them this crap. Awesome. Screw you, Justin Bieber.

Third, Lara Logan, the reporter who was sexually assaulted in Egypt last week, and the comments surrounding her attack. Specifically, the ones who are saying she SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED IT, or that she is SOMEHOW TO BLAME. Victim-blaming is never cool, okay? EVER. No one should EXPECT to get raped - people shouldn't have to assume that if they do something, they will get raped. It should not be like this in our world. And the people saying that it's because she's an attractive female who was in a Muslim/Arab area? NO. Just NO. So many things wrong here - first, not all Muslims or Arabs are rapists, you idiots; second, because she was in this area, she deserved to get raped? I don't think so; third, we don't even know who the attackers were - for all we know, it could have been a white Christian man; and fourth, SHE WAS RESCUED BY MUSLIM/ARAB WOMEN AND SOLDIERS. So eff that theory right there. I can't even believe that these things are being said. A woman is BRUTALLY ASSAULTED and people are making it about her looks, her being in the area, the attackers' presumed religion? I cannot even believe this.

What kind of world are we living in where these things have to be issues? It is TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN, PEOPLE. This is NOT the fifties. This is NOT the 1800s. Women are PEOPLE, and we have RIGHTS, and people shouldn't be able to just take them away like this. We're living in a country that doesn't want to allow abortion because SOME of our citizens believe in a God who thinks it's wrong (though they don't follow all of the rules that God laid down), but they don't want women to be able to access birth control or health services. We're living in a country that thinks it's the victim's fault if he or she gets raped or attacked, but allowing gay marriage would destroy our morals. We're living in a world where ONE IN SIX WOMEN has been sexually assaulted or raped, and somehow that's all right? Somehow, we're focusing on redefining the terms of terminating pregnancies caused by rape, instead of focusing on, I don't know, STOPPING RAPE FROM HAPPENING? We are more concerned with the "lives" of these parasitic, clump-of-cells fetuses, than we are with the ACTUAL LIVES AND SAFETY OF THE WOMEN CARRYING THEM.

What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with the world?

I can't even think about this anymore.

Today's post is made possible by SCHOOL. Where you LEARN.

I should probably start a segment called "Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Me." Or at least make it a tag or something. =/

Today's TTAtCOoM is college students who a) don't try, b) don't listen, or c) think that the classes should be really easy and they shouldn't actually have to write papers or do homework or, you know, learn anything. I mean, you're PAYING FOR THE CLASS. Why not actually do the work and learn the stuff?

My Spanish class is extremely annoying, for many reasons. It's a 101 class, which means that very few people have actually taken Spanish. That's to be expected - I don't have an issue with people not knowing Spanish right off the bat. BUT. When we do "Como te llama?" and "Me llamo ____" for THIRTY STUDENTS, by the time you get to the 30th, they should have some idea of what's going on. I mean, hearing the teacher ask every person before you "Como te llama?" and hearing EVERY PERSON reply with "Me llamo" and THEIR NAME should kind of give you a clue as to what you're expected to say. You don't even have to know what it means! It's repetition!

There's this girl in my class who was talking about how she wanted to switch out to a different teacher, because OUR teacher had the CRAZY IDEA that actually SPEAKING SPANISH TO US would help us learn. She was like "I hear that the 155 class is taught in English. I mean, she comes in here and starts speaking Spanish and I don't know what she's saying! We don't speak Spanish yet, jeez!" (Not an actual quote.) Apparently the 155 class spends the first few weeks just learning the alphabet. Yes. WEEKS. On the ALPHABET. I would die of boredom in that class. And seriously, what could you possibly learn in a class that spends so long on the basics? If you don't want to learn Spanish, DON'T TAKE SPANISH.

I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't be calling people out like this, but seriously. It really bugs me when I hear students complain about stuff like this. You're paying to learn, okay? So what if the paper due date gets pushed back after you've already finished it? You're done with it, who cares if you have to wait a week to turn it in? Don't complain about stuff like that. And don't be surprised if the teacher expects you to actually take something away from all the hours you spend in class. Why are you even here if you're not expecting to learn? There are lots of people out there who can't afford to go to college, and here you are wasting it. Why even bother going?

It makes me mad. =/ Unfortunately, not everyone in our country is able to get an education, and when I see people BS-ing their way through classes or not doing the work, complaining about the homework or tests or whatever (unless it's actually unfair, like the prof makes really crappy tests), it just upsets me. It's the same for teachers, too - teachers who don't teach right annoy me because I've paid to be here, and you're BEING paid to be here, so why don't we actually get something done in class, eh? I don't want to sit here for an hour and hear you talk about your life when you were a kid, or read in class for an hour, or have you try to trick us on the tests instead of just seeing what we actually know. It's stupid. It cannot be that hard to be a good teacher, really.

Bah. Anyway. That's today's blog post, the first official installment of Things That Annoy the Crap Out of Me. I'm totally making it a thing. XD