Hardesty, Oklahoma, wretched hive of scum and villainy

[Ogre]

So Shodan and Liberal are essentially blaming the victim for taking a stand on social inequality. It’s OK that they don’t believe in your magical Fairy, as long as they’re quiet about it? Shameful. The young lady in question obviously has strong feelings about the matter, as she has been taught by her father. Good for him, and good for her. Standing up for what you believe, no matter how controversial, shows moral fiber. The citizens of Hardesty that tried to railroad them are spineless slugs, barely worth their contempt. Fuck them, and fuck ignorant bigotry, now and forever.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

I have a new hobby, checking out places in the news on Bestplaces.net.

Hardesty Oklamhoma is a remarkable dump. Well worth a look.
–edited to add–

Gee, this worse than I thought:
Blacks 0%
Jews 0%
Asians 0%
Eastern Orthodox 0%
Muslims 0%

These people think the Olive Garden is exotic.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

More data pouring in:

College graduates 4.24% (US average 15.1%)
High School Graduates 64.24% (US average 79.6%)

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

Interesting link. It says the population (2007) is 275 people. Yet it also says, under education, that there are “11 pupils per teacher, 0 students per librarian, and 776 children per counselor in Hardesty, OK schools.”

Math optional, I guess.

[Taber]

@Hilarity N. Suze

Interesting link. It says the population (2007) is 275 people. Yet it also says, under education, that there are “11 pupils per teacher, 0 students per librarian, and 776 children per counselor in Hardesty, OK schools.”

Math optional, I guess.

there’s infinite librarians, and a counselor who only works part part time.

[1010011010]

@Taber

there’s infinite librarians

It’s more likely they have no library. I mean, shucks, since they all already have a copy of the Bible, what would they need a library for?

[Voyager]

@redtail23

Jenyoowine born and bred Okie atheist checking in.

Thanks to you and the other Okies for giving the facts.

The most unbelievable thing I found in the article was the claim that none of the good Christians in this school would harass an atheist girl in any way. Not one. I think the odds are better that Jeezus will arrive tomorrow myself.

Am I right?

BTW, some of the crap mentioned here wasn’t only in the South. In the '50s my wife never went to church, her father being an atheist. In third grade the teacher started quizzing people on where they went on Sunday, and she felt so singled out as the only person not going that she decided to go just to fit in. She’s recovered, but it took decades. I’m from NY, and most of my teachers were Jewish, and I never experienced this kind of crap.

[Liberal]

@Ogre

So Shodan and Liberal are essentially blaming the victim for taking a stand on social inequality.

So you think the girl’s father is “the victim”. That’s bizarre even for this thread.

[Harborwolf]

@Liberal

So you think the girl’s father is “the victim”. That’s bizarre even for this thread.

Not really. From here, a biased cite but we are looking at events here and not opinion.

Her father, Chester Smalkowski, tried to meet with the School Principal who “struck Plaintiff Chester Smalkowski repeatedly without warning or provocation.” Incredibly, a warrant was filed against Mr. Smalkowski who was arrested and scheduled for trial. Officials with the District Attorney’s Office in Texas County, Oklahoma then offered a deal where charges would be dropped if the Smalkowski family agreed to leave the jurisdiction…

A school board member and her husband, a Texas County Deputy Sheriff are identified and charged in the lawsuit as conspirators who “attempted to hire, coerce, or otherwise convince, for payment of money or other consideration on school property, one Jerry Kelly to inflict personal harm on Plaintiff Chester Smalkowski in retaliation for his religious opinions and in further retaliation for Plaintiff Chester Smalkowski’s attempt to defend his daughter and family against the false and malicious allegations…”

Another charge focuses on a Deputy Sheriff who ostensibly ordered the submission of falsified policy reports and attempting under false pretext to have Mr. Smalkowski re-arrested. Other allegations listed include:

¶       Attempts to coerce the bail bondsman to withhold bail without charges.

¶       Improper meetings and private conferences involving local officials.

¶       Efforts to coerce the filing of a "groundless restraining order" against Mr. Smalkowski. 

¶       Efforts to obtain false statements from students "in order to create a false cause for arrest." 

¶       Harassment

¶       Efforts to coerce the giving of false testimony.

If that looks familiar, it’s because Diogenes posted it way back on page one. Have to say that I’m puzzled as to why you’re finding this so hard to understand. Is it possible that you’re knee jerking to the term “atheist” just as badly as you think Diogenes is to the term “christian?”

[coffeecat]

.01% eastern faith X 275 people = .0275 people.

One guy who’s not sure what he believes? A Christian with a rebellious left pinkie?

[Czarcasm]

@coffeecat

.01% eastern faith X 275 people = .0275 people.

One guy who’s not sure what he believes? A Christian with a rebellious left pinkie?

One husband who bought his wife a kimono for Mother’s Day mistaking it for a fancy bathrobe?

[Shodan]

@Ogre

So Shodan and Liberal are essentially blaming the victim for taking a stand on social inequality.

Nah, you’re just making shit up. She wasn’t kicked off the team for her stand on social inequality; she took someone’s shoes without permission. (And allegedly made threats against someone else.)

But, she’s an atheist, so y’all instantly assume she must be pure as the driven snow, the whole town is rednecks, she is the innocent victim of persecution, blah blah blah, world without end, amen. Flip the respective faith positions, and the Usual Suspects would reverse themselves without a second glance.

Her father probably likes to make trouble. No doubt he egged her on to join the boy’s football team, hoping they would refuse her so he could sue for that, too. That didn’t pan out, so now they have moved onto something else.

Regards,
Shodan

[Taber]

@1010011010

It’s more likely they have no library. I mean, shucks, since they all already have a copy of the Bible, what would they need a library for?

but then there’d be undefined students per librarian.

[redtail23]

So, pretty much, all of us who have actually lived in Oklahoma have imagined everything that’s ever been done to us, because the good little Christians would never, ever, ever do anything wrong.

Shodan and Liberal know ever so much more than we do, being Christian and always right, you know.

:rolleyes:

[FordPrefect]

Only if your dad seems a bit pushy and angry about the treatment you have received. That’s how you know he’s making it up.

[Czarcasm]

@Shodan

Nah, you’re just making shit up. She wasn’t kicked off the team for her stand on social inequality; she took someone’s shoes without permission. (And allegedly made threats against someone else.)

But, she’s an atheist, so y’all instantly assume she must be pure as the driven snow, the whole town is rednecks, she is the innocent victim of persecution, blah blah blah, world without end, amen. Flip the respective faith positions, and the Usual Suspects would reverse themselves without a second glance.

Her father probably likes to make trouble. No doubt he egged her on to join the boy’s football team, hoping they would refuse her so he could sue for that, too. That didn’t pan out, so now they have moved onto something else.

Regards,
Shodan

It’s nice to know where stand when it comes to the facts of the case vs. supposition based on nothing but spite and innuendo.

[tdn]

@Shodan

Nah, you’re just making shit up. She wasn’t kicked off the team for her stand on social inequality; she took someone’s shoes without permission. (And allegedly made threats against someone else.)

Dude, you’re a fucking idiot. When are you going to learn to read? She borrowed the shoes and then returned them. The girl she borrowed them from thanked her. When it came out that she was an atheist, that’s when someone claimed she made a threat. No actual proof of that has been offered. Not even in a court of law. Learn to fucking read, moron.

But, she’s an atheist, so y’all instantly assume she must be pure as the driven snow, the whole town is rednecks, she is the innocent victim of persecution, blah blah blah, world without end, amen.

No one has claimed that. Your fevered imagination is in overdrive. Once again.

Flip the respective faith positions, and the Usual Suspects would reverse themselves without a second glance.

You’ve been wrong about pretty much everything before. Do I need to remind you that you’re wrong again?

Had this been a town of atheists, and a Christian family was threatened, railroaded, and asked to move out of the state, do you really think that the “Usual Suspects” would have found that acceptable? If so, what the fuck are you smoking?

Just because kneejerking is a way of life for you doesn’t mean that everyone does it. Asswipe.

Her father probably likes to make trouble. No doubt he egged her on to join the boy’s football team, hoping they would refuse her so he could sue for that, too. That didn’t pan out, so now they have moved onto something else.

That’s an unbelieveably assholish assumption to make. You are beneath contempt. How the fuck do you live with yourself?

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I’m still waiting for anyone to support the allegation that either the girl or her family ever tried to prevent anyone else from praying.

[Liberal]

@Harborwolf

Not really.Have to say that I’m puzzled as to why you’re finding this so hard to understand. Is it possible that you’re knee jerking to the term “atheist” just as badly as you think Diogenes is to the term “christian?”

Not hardly. Ogre said I was “blaming the victim”. The only person I’ve blamed in this thread is the girl’s father. Ergo… Ogre apparently thinks the father is the victim. I haven’t said anything bad about the girl, but about the father’s manipulations of the girl. I compared how the father used her to how Fred Phelps used his children. I don’t like it when Christians do it either. Meanwhile, Diogenes compare her plight to the Jews in Nazi Germany. Was there any outcry over that from anyone? From you? Do you think the survivors of Auschwitz deserve to be trivialized that way?

@Redtail23

Shodan and Liberal know ever so much more than we do, being Christian and always right, you know.

I’m wrong as often as I’m right, but what I’ve done in here is give my opinion of the father as I saw him on TV. I haven’t said anything bad about atheists, atheism, or the girl, but only about her father. Are you offended by that, or just joining the circle around the wagons without thinking?

[FordPrefect]

Liberal - She chose to “ostracize” herself, simply because she didn’t want to pray.

Diogenes - Kind of like how the Jews “chose” to ostracize themselves in Nazi Germany?

Dictionary - Hyperbole:

1. obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”