It's Only a Joke if it's Funny

I’m not on Twitter. I don’t tweet nor do I follow those who do. I manage to say enough stupid things without access to yet another outlet that seems designed for people to say stupid things. Like the old line about NASCAR, I think most people follow tweets waiting for a car crash to happen.

Spikes is insisting that his homophobic/arachnophobic tweet was “a joke.” We should all just chill out. Okay. Brandon Spikes is a professional football player, not an elected official, not a spokesman for a political party, not a captain of industry or a religious leader for any of the major world religions. Should we be surprised that a professional football player is homophobic? Does that mean we should just shrug it off?

I don’t think so.

By the time this has been posted, Brandon Spikes may have realized that telling us all we were too dumb or sensitive to get the joke wasn’t really where he should’ve gone. Maybe he will have posted the apology he needs to make.

I hope it isn’t one of those “If I hurt anyone’s feelings…” non-apology apologies.

Just say, “I’m sorry.”

Just say, “My words were thoughtless and hurtful and I apologize to those I offended.”

Just say, “I’m not a perfect person but I will learn from this and strive to do better. I hope those that I hurt can forgive me.”

At the very least, admit it wasn’t a very good joke.

Can We Really Make God Feel Sad?

I’m generally suspicious of people who say they know what God is thinking. Mostly because I’m an atheist and so what I think is, “Oh, you have an imaginary friend named Yahweh who tells you what to do. That pretty much ticks all the boxes on the crazy questionnaire, doesn’t it?”