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Why I'd send Evan Emory a million dollars if I could:
I presume that most of you have heard about this thing with Michigan musician Evan Emory and his YouTube vid.
Briefly, He went to a classroom and recorded himself singing a totally appropriate kids song for a bunch of kids. This was filmed. He went back later and performed a filthy song (with no kids in the room, or in the building at all), spliced the footage, and put it on the YouTube (with disclaimers). Hilarity ensues, right? Not so much...
Mr. Emory was initially charged with a couple of felonies (including Manufacturing Child Pornography!), and they wanted to make him register as a sex offender. I've talked here several times about the sex offender registry and how it's utter bullshit designed to make people feel safer than they are. Don't leave your kids alone with ANYONE you don't know well, rather than assuming someone is safe because they aren't on some stupid fucking list. This case illustrates once again that lots of people on that registry are there for reasons that have nothing to do with children, force, or hurting anyone. Yes, you can get on it for having sex with your spouse in a car, getting caught with a prostitute, making a porno without proper permits, peeing in the park (if someone sees you), and now...singing a song.
Mr Emory is still dealing with tons of shit over this, and the parents are spouting some of the most ridiculous garbage I've ever heard. I will concede that maybe the kid's faces should have been used with permission. But that is hardly a sex crime. Here's a few bits of parental brilliance:
...when she saw her daughter's face, which appeared in the very beginning of the video, she was nearly ill. "I left work," she said, adding that she went to the school and spoke to school officials about the incident.
Translation: I was watching YouTubes instead of doing my fucking job. Then I saw something I didn't like, so I used that as an excuse to leave work. I was suddenly NOT too ill to go yell at someone who had nothing to do with the thing I'm angry about, and could have addressed with a phone call. That's how much I care.
Tony Tague said the felony charge was justifiable because the video was "disturbing" and clearly "victimized" the youngsters in the classroom.
Yes, because either the children already spend a ton of time watching filthy vids (how else would they have seen it?), or they were shown the vid by someone on purpose. Either way, WTF and that makes no sense. Maybe the kids were "victimized" the way Aspinctersayswhat victimized someone. They are the butt of a silly joke for a second...except in this case, the kids were not aware of it--or wouldn't have been, had the parents not gone batshit.
“An innocence was taken, something we as parents try very hard to keep, something we hold sacred and dear was taken from the kids.”
How so? How does this hurt the kids in any way except that instead of paying attention to them, you're focusing on this bullshit? What the hell are you ever referring to here? You *do* understand that the children did not hear the filthy song, they were home for the day when the dirty song was recorded. The song they reacted to was perfectly clean. The vid has since been removed from the internet. I can't even see it, and believe me, I'd love to.
It is well established that regardless of whether or not the comedy is to my taste, that nothing is too sacred to be the stuff of comedy. I have always said that, and I continue to say it. In this case, I can just shake my head sadly and wish that my fellow Michiganians (Michiganders?) weren't so fucking stupid.
If what they want to say is, "I'm pissed that my kid was used in this vid because I'm not comfortable with the subject matter, and I want it taken down," fine. But what they're actually saying is "This kid is a child pornographer who damaged my child and should go to prison as a sex offender so he can be raped by large men as punishment for putting my kid in an internet video that I don't like."
And that, my friends, is fuckery of the highest order.
People bitch a lot online about Free Speech. Most of them don't know what the fuck they're talking about and assert some variation of "You can't disagree with me, I have Free Speech!" They don't seem to realize that Free Speech refers to the government declaring that you are a criminal for the things you say. THIS is the kind of Free Speech we need to be protecting,the kind people want to silence because they don't happen to agree, the kind people make inflated, alarmist, absurd claims about to bolster their ignorant points. It disgusts me, frankly.
So, you parents who are SO offended? Your kids are all in therapy, right? You've taken them to a doctor to make sure their trauma is minimized? You've joined a support group for the parents of children whose innocence was stolen? You've now read numerous books on PTSD in children and are looking for someone certified in EMDR? No?
Oh, you're just sitting on your asses bitching and knowing goddamn well that unless YOU're the one traumatizing them, your kids aren't traumatized at all...so STFU plz thx bai.
On a completely unrelated topic, I finally outlined the end of The Finster Effect. This is big news, since I always have issues with deciding how things should end. I'm super stoked and should have it redrafted in a couple of weeks. Can't reveal too much now, but everything is coming together in accordance with my sinister plan(s).
Briefly, He went to a classroom and recorded himself singing a totally appropriate kids song for a bunch of kids. This was filmed. He went back later and performed a filthy song (with no kids in the room, or in the building at all), spliced the footage, and put it on the YouTube (with disclaimers). Hilarity ensues, right? Not so much...
Mr. Emory was initially charged with a couple of felonies (including Manufacturing Child Pornography!), and they wanted to make him register as a sex offender. I've talked here several times about the sex offender registry and how it's utter bullshit designed to make people feel safer than they are. Don't leave your kids alone with ANYONE you don't know well, rather than assuming someone is safe because they aren't on some stupid fucking list. This case illustrates once again that lots of people on that registry are there for reasons that have nothing to do with children, force, or hurting anyone. Yes, you can get on it for having sex with your spouse in a car, getting caught with a prostitute, making a porno without proper permits, peeing in the park (if someone sees you), and now...singing a song.
Mr Emory is still dealing with tons of shit over this, and the parents are spouting some of the most ridiculous garbage I've ever heard. I will concede that maybe the kid's faces should have been used with permission. But that is hardly a sex crime. Here's a few bits of parental brilliance:
...when she saw her daughter's face, which appeared in the very beginning of the video, she was nearly ill. "I left work," she said, adding that she went to the school and spoke to school officials about the incident.
Translation: I was watching YouTubes instead of doing my fucking job. Then I saw something I didn't like, so I used that as an excuse to leave work. I was suddenly NOT too ill to go yell at someone who had nothing to do with the thing I'm angry about, and could have addressed with a phone call. That's how much I care.
Tony Tague said the felony charge was justifiable because the video was "disturbing" and clearly "victimized" the youngsters in the classroom.
Yes, because either the children already spend a ton of time watching filthy vids (how else would they have seen it?), or they were shown the vid by someone on purpose. Either way, WTF and that makes no sense. Maybe the kids were "victimized" the way Aspinctersayswhat victimized someone. They are the butt of a silly joke for a second...except in this case, the kids were not aware of it--or wouldn't have been, had the parents not gone batshit.
“An innocence was taken, something we as parents try very hard to keep, something we hold sacred and dear was taken from the kids.”
How so? How does this hurt the kids in any way except that instead of paying attention to them, you're focusing on this bullshit? What the hell are you ever referring to here? You *do* understand that the children did not hear the filthy song, they were home for the day when the dirty song was recorded. The song they reacted to was perfectly clean. The vid has since been removed from the internet. I can't even see it, and believe me, I'd love to.
It is well established that regardless of whether or not the comedy is to my taste, that nothing is too sacred to be the stuff of comedy. I have always said that, and I continue to say it. In this case, I can just shake my head sadly and wish that my fellow Michiganians (Michiganders?) weren't so fucking stupid.
If what they want to say is, "I'm pissed that my kid was used in this vid because I'm not comfortable with the subject matter, and I want it taken down," fine. But what they're actually saying is "This kid is a child pornographer who damaged my child and should go to prison as a sex offender so he can be raped by large men as punishment for putting my kid in an internet video that I don't like."
And that, my friends, is fuckery of the highest order.
People bitch a lot online about Free Speech. Most of them don't know what the fuck they're talking about and assert some variation of "You can't disagree with me, I have Free Speech!" They don't seem to realize that Free Speech refers to the government declaring that you are a criminal for the things you say. THIS is the kind of Free Speech we need to be protecting,the kind people want to silence because they don't happen to agree, the kind people make inflated, alarmist, absurd claims about to bolster their ignorant points. It disgusts me, frankly.
So, you parents who are SO offended? Your kids are all in therapy, right? You've taken them to a doctor to make sure their trauma is minimized? You've joined a support group for the parents of children whose innocence was stolen? You've now read numerous books on PTSD in children and are looking for someone certified in EMDR? No?
Oh, you're just sitting on your asses bitching and knowing goddamn well that unless YOU're the one traumatizing them, your kids aren't traumatized at all...so STFU plz thx bai.
On a completely unrelated topic, I finally outlined the end of The Finster Effect. This is big news, since I always have issues with deciding how things should end. I'm super stoked and should have it redrafted in a couple of weeks. Can't reveal too much now, but everything is coming together in accordance with my sinister plan(s).