More Shit that Pisses Me Off

By Peg Tittle

Why do men spit (and women don’t)? What’s the real problem with cellphones? What’s wrong with wedding leave? Do you remember Grade Ten History? Why isn’t being a soldier more like being a mother? What did God really promise? And let’s talk about sex...

"... 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, Amazon

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: Apr 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781926891316

Peg Tittle

Peg Tittle is the author of several novels: Fighting Words: notes for a future we won't have (Magenta, 2022), Jess (Magenta, 2022), Gender Fraud: a fiction (Magenta, 2020), Impact (Magenta, 2020), It Wasn't Enough (Magenta, 2020), What Happened to Tom (Inanna, 2016), and Exile (Rock's Mills Press, 2018). Both Gender Fraud: a fiction and It Wasn't Enough were Category Finalists in the Eric Hoffer Book Award 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 has been produced as a short 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 (her "TransGendered Courage” received 35,000 hits, making it #3 of the year, and her “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. In addition, her short commentary pieces have also been published in Humanist in Canada, Links, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Inroads, Elenchus, South Australian Humanist Post, Forum, and The Humanist. Her longer pieces have appeared in Free Inquiry, The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, New Humanist, The New Zealand Rationalist and Humanist, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, Sexuality & Culture: an interdisciplinary journal. And she's had a list published at McSweeney's (“Why Feminist Manuscripts Aren’t Getting Published Today”). She now 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

MORE SHIT THAT PISSES ME OFF

by

Peg Tittle

Smashwords Edition

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Published on Smashwords by:

Magenta

More Shit that Pisses Me Off

Copyright 2012 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.

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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

Shit that Pisses Me Off

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. God Promised!

2. Suicide, Insurance, and Dead Sugar Daddies

3. Cell Phone Syndrome

4. Whose Violence?

5. If she can wear perfume in public, I don’t have to wear a shirt

6. School Crossing Signs

7. Wedding Leave

8. Freakonomics Indeed

9. The Arithmetic of Morality

10. King of the Castle

11. The Smiths and their Biochem Cubes

12. Vested Interests and Cancers

13. Inner Peace is Disturbing

14. Figure Skating: A Very Gendered Thing

15. We are the Champions

16. Let’s Talk about Sex

17. Grade Ten History

18. Making Kids with AIDS

19. Why isn’t being a soldier more like being a mother?

20. Why Do Men Spit?

21. Guns

22. Christmas Elves

23. Free to be—Offensive (You are such an idiot.)

24. First (and last) Contact

25. What if the right to life…

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God Promised!

With such regularity, it really should be the refrain of every national anthem, we hear something along these lines: ‘The land is rightfully ours. God promised it to us.’

Yeah well, God lies. Or at least he changes his mind.

Consider this: And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying... ‘And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.’ It’s from Genesis 17:3,8. Genesis 13:15 and Exodus 32:13 say pretty much the same thing. But check out Acts 7:5, which says And he gave him none inheritance in it...yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him... Promises, promises, eh? But of course the retraction is in the New Testament, which isn’t recognized by those of the Jewish faith.

No matter, there are lots of lies and changing of God’s mind in the Old Testament:

• God said that Adam would die on the day he ate the apple (Gen 2:16,17), but he didn’t—read Gen 3:17 and Gen 5:3.

• Jehoiakim was told that he wouldn’t have a son (Jer 36:30), but he did—read 2Kings 24:6.

• God promised Jacob that he would return from Egypt (Gen 46:3,4), but he didn’t—he died in Egypt (Gen 49).

• Nebuchadnezzar was to have captured and destroyed Tyre (Ezek 26:3-5,7,10,13-14), but he didn’t (surprise!)—Alexander the Great did.

• ‘I am merciful,’ saith the Lord, ‘and I will not keep anger for ever’ (Jer 3:12); Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever (Jer 17:4—well, which is it?

• Israel shall rise again (Jer 31:4); Israel shall not rise again (Amos 5:2). She loves me, she loves me not.

• They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me (Prov 1:28); nope, I lied—"They that seek me early shall find me" (Prov