Shit that Pisses Me Off: Shit that Pisses Me Off, #1

By Peg Tittle

Should you need a license in order to become a parent? What's wrong with calling people Ms. and Mr.? Why is casual day at the office insulting? Why should you take down the flag? Is women's fiction really women's fiction? Should we have professional jurors? Why should you boycott marriage? Why shouldn't athletes take performance-enhancing drugs?

Philosophy with attitude.

Because the unexamined life is dangerous.

"... smart, witty essays that challenge the intellect ... her razor sharp words will slice and dice the cerebral jugular." Laura Salkin, Thinkspin

"… It's all thought-provoking, and whether or not you'll end up agreeing with her conclusions, her essays make for fascinating reading." Erin O'Riordan

"Tittle's pieces are atypical of philosophical writing in the best ways: of interest to non-specialists, yet instructive and profound, yet entertaining." Ron Cooper, Professor of Philosophy

"… a passionate, stylistically-engaging writer …" George

Note: All of the pieces in the Shit that Pisses Me Off series (4 volumes) have been anthologized in either Sexist Shit that Pisses Me Off (2nd edn) or Just … Think about It! (2nd edn), along with almost a hundred additional pieces (in each case), and both are available in eformat and paperback.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magenta
• Release date: Sep 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781926891309

Peg Tittle

Peg Tittle is the author of several novels: Fighting Words: notes for a future we won't have (Magenta), Jess (Magenta), Gender Fraud: a fiction (Magenta), Impact (Magenta), It Wasn't Enough (Magenta), What Happened to Tom (Inanna), and Exile (Rock's Mills Press). Both Gender Fraud: a fiction and It Wasn't Enough were Finalists in the Eric Hoffer competition; What Happened to Tom is on Goodreads' list of Fiction Books That Opened Your Eyes To A Social Or Political Issue.  Her screenplays (including What Happened to Tom and Exile) have placed in several competitions, including Moondance, Fade-In, GimmeCredit, WriteMovies, Scriptapalooza, and American Gem. Aiding the Enemy was produced by David McDonald. She has also written several nonfiction books: Just Think About It (Magenta); Sexist Shit that Pisses Me Off (Magenta); Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason (Routledge); Should Parents Be Licensed? Debating the Issues (Prometheus); What If? Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy (Longman); Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries, Cases, and Readings (Broadview). She was a columnist for the Ethics and Emerging Technologies website for a year ("TransGendered Courage" received 35,000 hits, making it #3 of the year, and "Ethics without Philosophers" received 34,000 hits, making it #5 of the year), The Philosopher Magazine's online philosophy café for eight years, and Philosophy Now for two years.Her short commentary pieces have also been published in Humanist in Canada, Links, Inroads, Elenchus, Forum, and The Humanist. Her longer pieces have appeared in Free Inquiry, The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, New Humanist, The New Zealand Rationalist, The Humanist, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, and Sexuality & Culture: an interdisciplinary journal. And she's had a list published at McSweeney's ("Why Feminist Manuscripts Aren't Getting Published Today"). She blogs sporadically at pegtittle.com and hellyeahimafeminist.com. She has an M.A. in Philosophy, a B.Ed., and a B.A. in Literature, and has received over twenty Arts Council grants.

Book preview

SHIT THAT PISSES ME OFF

by

Peg Tittle

Smashwords Edition

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Published on Smashwords by:

Magenta

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Shit That Pisses Me Off

Copyright 2011 by Peg Tittle

www.pegtittle.com

Cover design by Donna Casey based on a concept by Peg Tittle

Thanks to Ben for the series title

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

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Acknowledgements

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Also by Peg Tittle

Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason

What If…Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy

Should Parents be Licensed? Debating the Issues

Ethical Issues in Business—Inquiries, Cases, and Readings

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Contents

1. You Oughtta Need a Licence for That

2. What’s in a Flag?

3. Casual Day at the Office

4. Drugs and Sports—What’s the Problem?

5. Mr. and Ms.

6. Profit and Loss—and Marbles

7. I’m not a feminist. Feminism is so over. We live in a post-feminist world.

8. On Demonstrations

9. An End to War

10. The Weather Report

11. Women’s Fiction

12. In Commemoration of the Holocaust

13. Hockey Brawls and other Cockfights

14. A New Three-Strike Law

15. Bang Bang

16. Who Owns (the) Land?

17. The Good Wife

18. Why Don’t We Have Professional Jurors?

19. Bambi’s Cousin’s Gonna Tear You Apart

20. Being There

21. Marriage: a Sexist Affair

22. I’m too drunk. No I’m not.

23. From Romeo and Juliet to ‘Ass’ and ‘Hole’

24. Kids Behind the Wheel

25. Short Men

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You Oughtta Need a Licence for That

We have successfully cloned a sheep; it’s not unreasonable, then, to believe we may soon be able to create human life. Despite Frankenstein visions of a brave new world, I’m sure we’ll develop carefully considered policies and procedures to regulate the activity.

For example, I doubt we’ll allow someone to create his own private workforce or his own little army.

And I suspect we’ll prohibit cloning oneself for mere ego gratification.

Doing it just because it’s fun will certainly be illegal. And I expect it won’t even be imaginable to do it ‘without really thinking about it’, let alone ‘by accident’.

I suspect we’ll enforce some sort of quality control, such that cloned human beings shall not exist in pain or be severely ‘compromised’ with respect to basic biological or biochemical functioning.

And I suspect one will have to apply for a license and satisfy rigorous screening standards. I assume this will include the submission, and approval, of a detailed plan regarding responsibility for the cloned human being; surely we won’t allow a scientist to create it and then just leave it on the lab’s doorstep one night when he leaves.

Thing is, we can already create human life. Kids and addicts do it every day.

And though we’ve talked ourselves silly and tied ourselves in knots about ending life—active, passive, voluntary, coerced, premeditated, accidental, negligent—we’ve been horrendously silent, irresponsibly laissez-faire, about beginning life.

We wouldn’t accept such wanton creation of life if it happened in the lab. Why

Reviews for Shit that Pisses Me Off

[gmtapublishing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Book Title: "Shit That Pisses Me Off"Author: Peg TittlePublished By: MagentaAge Recommended: 18 +Reviewed By: Kitty BullardRaven Rating: 5Review: This book had me laughing and had me nodding my head in complete and total agreement with a lot of things Peg Tittle wrote about. When you sit down and think about all the things in life that stumps you or really gets to you, you realize just how insane the world can be! There are so many things out there that often have us scratching our heads as to why people do the things they do and only a few of them are touched on in this delightful, and candidly honest book.I enjoyed it completely and I can't wait to read her next installment which I have the good fortune of knowing it's on its way! So I say to Peg, thank you for the chance to read this informative and honest view of life and what is so wrong with it! I urge others to read this book, there may be some things you don't agree with, but I bet you'll find a lot that you do! If you like blatant honesty with some humor tossed in for fun then you'll love "Shit That Pisses Me Off" by Peg Tittle.