The Kwanzaa Post - and a SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT

Today, my children let us discuss what a holiday is in the USA.

hol•i•day [hol-i-dey] –noun
1. A day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
2. Any day of exemption from work (distinguished from working day).
3. A time or period of exemption from any requirement, duty, assessment, etc.: New businesses may be granted a one-year tax holiday.
4. A religious feast day; holy day, especially any of several usually commemorative holy days observed in Judaism.
5. Sometimes, holidays. Chiefly British. A period of cessation from work or one of recreation; vacation.
6. An unintentional gap left on a plated, coated, or painted surface.


Please note that the definition 5 states it is primarily a British thing. Also, definitions 1 and 2 both have a similar theme – a day off from work. The topic as it comes does not allow for a day off from work, so they are void as well. Definition 3 is close to 1 and 2, and also not applicable. I don’t even know what the fuck 6 is – never heard of THAT before. This leaves us, friends, with definition 4.

Kwanzaa is a religi—Wait, no, it has nothing to do with religion.
Fuck.

Here’s the breakdown:
Kwanzaa was made up – yes, MADE UP – in 1966 by a black man named Ronald McKinley Everett, but better known by his black alias of Maulana Karenga. According to interviews with him, he wanted to "give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." Um… didn’t we just go through damn near a century of fighting to provide black people with the same rights as the whites? In just two more years, would we not push through the Civil Rights Act of 1968, ending segregation? So why the fuck is this man trying to drive a wedge between the races by concocting a new “holiday” just for the black people??

Sorry, the rant took over.

Anyway, Kwanzaa celebrates the Seven Principles of Blackness (I am controlling the rant). They are:

• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

During the early years of Kwanzaa, this socialist fucktard said that it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas, that Jesus was psychotic, and that Christianity was a white religion that black people should shun. But, as the mainstream ate it up, he backed away from that stance. Why? I’m not saying I can read his mind or anything, but I’m thinking he wanted it to become VERY widespread so he would have the power and money that came along as befits the founder of a semi-national holiday. It gained steam and prominence in a society to afraid of speaking out against stupidity that things were accepted and embraced by the sheep that pushed political correctness. “If I say I don’t agree with Kwanzaa, I will be labeled a racist and outcast from polite society. I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”

Wish me a joyous Kwanzaa and I will thank you, but my response is going to be Merry Christmas. If you are offended, tough shit. Get the fuck over it. If you take a moment to get to know me, you will understand that I am actually tolerant, but feel that the idea and/or the word “tolerant” has become over used and misused. I thanked you for your genuine well wishes – I tolerated your sheep-like following of a non-holiday, power/money grabbing idea that flourished with the Cosby show. Tolerate my genuine well wishes for the season. Think what you will, just say, “thank you”, and nothing more.

A friend of mine, Bruce from Atlanta, explained to me that he liked the ideas of Kwanzaa. I explained I can completely support it, but – aside from the 7 days of Kwanzaa every year – never see these principles in practice. Bruce is a devout Christian black man that continues to this day to celebrate Kwanzaa, in spite of the religious differences he has with the founder. After all, this “holiday” is not religious. It is merely a celebration of black people by black people… and the relatively few members of other races that are full of political correctness.

So, it is with great excitement that I announce my OWN made up “holiday” – BASTARD’S DAY!!

The third Saturday of August will be National Bastard’s Day. I foresee Bastard’s Day cards:

To commemorate Bastard’s Day, I thought of the bastardiest bastard I could… and I IMMEDIATELY thought of YOU!

Bastard’s Day candy in lewd shapes – but don’t eat the chocolates! They are NOT chocolate!
Bastard’s Day gifts, like diet books and fashion tip books, Groupons for etiquette classes, or resume building software. You know, free or cheap things that point out flaws in other people.

It has potential. With the fall of the political correctness attitude (a slow and painful death, but I believe that people are getting sick of it as it only hurts the society as a whole), it is a prime time to start up this little franchise!


** UPDATE ** UPDATE ** UPDATE ** 
Please see the post located here for a change to Bastard's Day
http://rivertouch.blogspot.com/2013/12/update-to-bastards-day.html

This is NOT a dick joke

Ok, so Rep. Weiner made a mistake. He took some pictures of himself and sent them to women he was flirting with on line. Big fucking deal. He didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t develop a drug or alcohol problem. He didn’t plane seeds of discontent among his constituency (more than any other political figure). He is not treasonous. He’s a man that thought with his dick and made a bad call… a LOT of bad calls. I believe I can speak for all men when I say, “been there, done that”.

From this point on, it is easier to do one of two things:
1. Pretend I live in his district and voted for him
2. Take for granted that I am generalizing about ANY elected official, just using his specifics to illustrate my point

So why the Inquisition? I asked that when it rained down on Clinton as well. I don’t give a flying fuck what the man does with his own body or within his own family. It is his POLITICAL AGENDA with which I am concerned. I voted for his support in what I believed was best for the country (abortion, immigration, inflation… all the important “-tion”’s out there, whatever they may be). He may be the strongest advocate for smaller federal government there is, but because he did something that the hypocritical majority deems “immoral”, he is being pressured into quitting his post as a people’s elected representative. How fucking absurd!

We (as a nation) are not going to give him an opportunity to redeem himself. No. We are going to say, “You did a bad thing that we can’t fire you for, so we are going to lean on you until you quit”. I’d say he has a strong case for a Hostile Work Environment suit. I wonder how many of these upstanding moral and political beacons of righteousness have a chick (or dude) on the side. I wonder if any of them are saying to themselves, “Damn, that could have been me!”

I think Pelosi is just mad because no one will send her pictures like that, nor does anyone want to see that skin-stretched-tighter-than-a-drum train wreck of a hideous face/body in anything less that a full face and body covering burqa. OMFG Can you even imagine that perpetual shocked face looming on your computer screen. I just ruined my keyboard with my own puke.

I digress.

This was a “scandal” – and I use that term VERY loosely – that involved a few people and nothing like selling state secrets. He took pictures of his body and cock and sent them to women that expressed an interest in seeing them. He’s a moron for not being able to tell the difference between a tweet and a direct message. And an even bigger moron for even tempting fate by not using a direct email address but using Twitter instead. Really?? What the FUCK were you thinking??

And, in closing, to all of you people that defend forcing him to resign with the argument, “What else has he lied to me about?” do you honestly think that the other politicians are telling you ONLY the truth?? Look at it this way, you know one thing now that you didn’t know before. Can you say the same thing about ANY other sitting politician?

If you had a job that you worked into a career over a long period of time, one to which you were dedicated and in which you were respected and made the mistake of being unfaithful to your wife, should you go to your work and quit?

Really??

I think all of you guys had better put down your rocks. He got caught, but you haven’t…yet. I do not like the idea of the morally bankrupt being the ones to call “ethics violation”. The blind and the blind, you know.

My two cents, do with it what you will.

Thought from this morning

I was driving to work and saw this younger man (probably early 20's at most) walking along with the waistband of his jeans around - I shit you not - the BOTTOM of his ASS. Keep in mind my windows are rolled up and I passed way too quickly for him to have heard/understood me even had they not been, but I still (and do every time) yelled out, "Pull your fucking pants up, you lazy ass gang-banging cocksucker!!"

Does anyone else do that?

It irks me.


It is very irksome.

Tolerate THIS!

What the FUCK is up with people? I am not saying that my opinion is more valid than another person’s, or I am better or more important than any other person, but why does everyone think the fucking world revolves around THEM?? Let me just clear up a few misconceptions the general public seems to have:

1. Just because you CAN turn right on a red light and you are in the right hand lane does not mean you HAVE to turn right from that lane at a red light. The exception, fuck-wits, is if it is a TURN ONLY LANE. Honking at me and yelling “GO” in your enclosed car (I can read lips, but sadly do not have the hearing of Superman) is not going to make me turn right from a lane that is not specifically marked as turn only unless I am going that way – which I wasn’t that morning. Running late, asshat? Leave 15 fucking minutes earlier or just deal with being late.

2. When getting on an elevator, the people getting OFF have a kind of “right of way”. It is just common sense as well as common courtesy as they have VERY limited space in which to maneuver, while the people on the outside of the elevator have much more space. My girlfriend and I were exiting an elevator at the mall – or trying to anyway. This snot nosed little bitch – no more than 16 – and her group of BFFs (please note the sarcasm used with that annoying fucking term) decided to shove their way onto the elevator before we got out. I would have normally made a very passive/aggressive comment after the fact, but instead said something to the effect of, “people getting off go first, so get out of the way, assholes”. Yeah, I was rude, but no longer shooting comments to empty air. I want the offenders to know that they are offensive.

3. When you are walking, as you would in driving, do NOT step in a flowing lane of traffic and come to a dead fucking stop. Really? Are you really so fucking mentally impaired that you can’t figure THAT one out?? It is due to the lot of you fucking idiots that we have traffic jams. Walking down the RIGHT HAND SIDE of the mall (like driving, fucktards!) and this group of 18 ethnic-group-withheld morons come out of a store and make a damn chorus line across the walkway, causing everyone to come to a stop. Then, as if that wasn’t a good enough example of their selfish idiocy, they got irritated when people began to cut THROUGH the line to continue on their way. One went so far as to say (spelled to accentuate the accent), “We’re talkeeng heer.” Well, that just kinda set me off and I responded, “GET the FUCK to the center of the walkway and out of traffic and you will be able to remain stupid and un-inconvenienced as well as continue your no doubt vitally important conversation, dick-for-brains” or something of similar ilk.

Really, when did we decide that the world revolved around preserving the stupid at the expense of the intelligent or considerate? And while we are on this subject, let me give you the definition of “tolerance” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tolerance):

tol•er•ance - /ˈtɒlərəns/ –noun
1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance: My tolerance of noise is limited.
5. Medicine/Medical, Immunology .
a. the power of enduring or resisting the action of a drug, poison, etc.: a tolerance to antibiotics.
b. the lack of or low levels of immune response to transplanted tissue or other foreign substance that is normally immunogenic.
6. Machinery .
a. the permissible range of variation in a dimension of an object. Compare allowance ( def. 8 ) .
b. the permissible variation of an object or objects in some characteristic such as hardness, weight, or quantity.
7. Also called allowance. Coining . a permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coin, owing to the difficulty of securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.

Nowhere in that fucking definition does it say I have to stop doing something because you don’t fucking like it. Don’t like my Christianity? Tough shit. Want me NOT to wish a Merry Christmas or Happy Easter, but rather say Happy Holidays? FUCK OFF. Perhaps YOU should start practicing some mother fucking tolerance and stop using that word as an excuse to bury anything you may not agree with. I tolerate your stupidity and allow you to believe whatever you want to believe. If you wish me a Happy Hanukah or Blessed Yule – or even Happy Kwanza (though it is not a real holiday and more bigoted than anything even the KKK could come up with… I’ll make a Kwanza posting some other time) – I will not be offended. In fact, I will wish you a Merry Christmas. It is a warm wish from me to you to enjoy the spirit of the season, even if you honor a different spirit.

GROW THE FUCK UP and stop crying like a fucking pussy over something so fucking stupid!

Tired of the stupid people.
Want them all to go away.

Happy New Year

I hope 2009 was the best year you have ever had and the worst year you will ever see.
That way, every year will be better than 2009 - the best year you have had.

On Thanksgiving, Jordan and I broke up. She is still without a job or place to live, so she will stay with me until she gets those lined up or until we can't take it anymore. Either way, she will be moving out.
I am now calling all of the shots with Trevor and he is doing better for it. I am not taking a shot at Jordan's parenting skills by saying that, I am just saying that he is not living in a military environment any longer. He is behaving like a little boy should, making the mistakes that little boys make and learning from them.

I have HIGH hopes for 2010. I hope to make some big changes and look forward to sharing them with both of my readers.

English - The UNofficial Official Language

Email from a friend of mine:

Jeff, You know the last thing I'd try to do is look like a total D-bag when trying to explain something. By saying that, I've already guaranteed d-bag status. In high school debate, this came up quite a bit. Using this explanation, I never lost an argument when it came to opposing any official language laws. When read, and explained by defining what is in the text it becomes clear that the First Amendment was written to perfectly guarantee non-officiation of religion, language, or any restriction of press or our ability to bitch about how bad our government is doing.


The First Amendment Of The United States of America's Bill Of Rights:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Prohibit: to hold before, hold back, hinder, forbid
Abridge: to reduce or lessen in duration, scope, authority, etc.; diminish; curtail
Freedom: 2) exemption from external control, interference, regulation,
Freedom: 3) the power to determine action without restraint
Freedom: 6) exemption from the presence of anything specified

By having an official language, there would be a specified regulation on how communication in America is done. Specified Regulation is not Freedom, as defined. The Specified Regulation would provide Americans a restrained, reduced, diminished, or hindered right to speak freely, in whatever language they want. Congress cannot mandate an Official Language as it would reduced, hold back, diminish, or lessen the methods in which Americans can officially communicate (Officially, English only). In a nut shell, if any law modifies the method by which an idea is conveyed from one person to another it is unconstitutional.

I do agree with you that if you come to this country, you should at least learn the language of the majority. Although the Government can not make consessions to force you to learn the language of the majority, it is not the responsibility of the majority to learn your language to make things easier on you. Giving the government the ability to take away such a perfeclty protected right will only bring us one step closer to having any right or liberty stripped away whenever it's convienent for the majority. What happens if English were made the official language because it's the language spoken by the majority, and in 20 years time, it must be switched to Spanish, because spanish speakers have now taken majority in this country? Would you still be in favor of an offical language?



My reply:

You are going by the letter of the law, and you are correct. However, the intent is derived from the cultural context and common sense meaning of the amendment.
By proclaiming an official language for the nation, we are not outlawing or prohibiting any other language from being spoken. At the time of the writing of the Constitution and Bill Of Rights, we were a British colony – all English speaking people. There was never a thought of a multi-linguistic population. That was just not how the mindset of the Colonials was programmed. Since the inception of the Constitution, we have always had a common tongue. Every street sign, public address, news publication (at least the outlets from the government) and law we have enacted has been written in English. It is expected that those governed by this government be able to understand it as it is written.
It is my belief, and that of many others much more educated in Constitutional law than me, that the intent of this amendment was to preserve the ability of the people to speak out against the same government and not be persecuted or prosecuted for their views. Break the law into separate sections and read it:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press
Congress shall make no law respecting the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The third section is often left out of this debate as the writing does not lend itself readily for disection for examination. I have done my best to include it, but it is neither here nor there in this discussion.

Again, by the letter of the law as it is written, you are correct. But I do not believe that this is what was intended by the people that penned the Constitution. The government has made no concessions to force anyone to learn the common language, yet ALL languages are not present in the concessions made for non-English speaking immigrants. I see Spanish, but that is about it.

If Jil wanted to open a Chinese grocery store and have everyone employed there only speak Chinese in it, the government can do nothing to stop it. That would remain the same even if English is declared the official language of the US. The wording would have to be carefully set to ensure this is the case, but it would reduce the demand on the government to cater to any minority, regardless of the language in question.

Just my opinion. I like the debate. I also want to make sure you understand that I beieve the differences in people are what make this country great, as long as there is the ability to communicate these differences.





His reply - tenuous at best, but he knew that and just thought the logic was funny:

In the spirit of debate, I offer the following disadvantage to having an official language:

The establishment of an official language will lead to Civil War.

Here is the Link:

The US Federal Government employed 2,768,886 employees. State and local Governments employed an additional 14,868,380 full time employees, and 4,834,692 part time employees, for a total of nearly 22.5 million people. Wal-Mart, often cited as the nation's largest commercial employer, only has 1.2 million domestic employees (counting everyone from their flagship Wal-Mart greeters, up to the CEO himself)
If the United States were to start officially communicating with Americans in English only, everyone within the federal government whose sole job is to translate documents into other languages would no longer be needed, and would thus be out of work.
Figures for this are hard to estimate, however there are an estimated 110 languages with 5 million or more native speakers, and an estimated 188 languages with more than 2 million native speakers. Assuming we only translate documents to languages where there are more than 5 million native speakers, The Federal Government would need to hire at a minimum 110 people for each department to do translation, and in document heavy departments, this number would have to increase with the work load.

The number of Federal Government Departments and Agencies totals to about 600, and the figure for State and Local governments is nearly impossible to calculate. At the federal level, there would need to be roughly 66,000 translators, if we were to have one translator per department, per language. Some of the broader departments will defiantly need more than one translator, because of the amount of documentation that is required to be converted.

The obvious Departments here would be Department Of Commerce (21 sub departments and agencies), Department of Education (43 Sub departments and agencies), Department of Health and Human Services (28 sub departments and agencies), Department of Homeland Security (14 sub departments and agencies), Department of Housing and Urban Development (13 sub departments and agencies), Department of Justice (47 sub departments and agencies), Department of Labor (18 sub departments and agencies), Department of the State (37 sub departments and agencies), have a combined total of 221 sub departments and agencies. If the 221 'Broad' Departments needed 20 translators for the 110 languages with over 5 million native speakers, and the remaining departments only needed 10, the US Federal Government employs 911,900 translators.
To extrapolate this to the State and Local governments: the 911,900 employees make up 32.93% of Federal Employees. This is equal to 6,488,975 employees. The grand total is 7,400,875 employees whose jobs would immediately be eliminated.

If we were to only translate to the top 50 languages, using the same method above, the total is 3,364,034 employees. Conservatively this is equivelant to Wal-Mart firing all of their employees…three times.



Here is the Brink:

We currently have 15.7 million people unemployed, which is a rate of 10.2%. Elimination of Translator jobs by federal, state, and local governments would add another 3.4 - 7.4 million on top of that, bringing the national unemployment rate to between 19.1 millon - 23.1 million.
The unemployement rate would jump to betweek 12.39% and 15.01%. Furthermore, because the Departments of Education, Commerce and Labor do not offer any documentation in other languages besides english, it will be much more difficult to assist those who were already in the original 10.2% that do not nativly speak english. Housing and Urband development will not be able to assist those in finding government assisted housing, and the department of justice will not be able to fairly prosecute non-english speaking criminals due to language barriers. Also, any non-english speaking convict in Federal Prison will have to be set free because their rights to a fair appeal process has been removed (trust me, the ACLU would have a field day with that one)

With unemployment at the highest it's ever been since the great depression, homelessness at its most epidemic, and crime on a sharp increase, The United States would devolve into Civil War due to the our inability to correct the situation.



I love my friends! They are as twisted as I am and comfortable being such!
Please note - I did not spell check or proof any of the above information, but copied as they were written. The letter of the email, not the intent, I guess.

Had to post this - Not mine, but feel the same way

This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills, CA. in response to the Wall Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that appeared July 31, 2008.

Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I?

I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement. I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.

The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change. Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America , is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair.

Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment?

When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.

I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.

I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company, or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish". WHY? This is America, our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.

I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee . Tennessee , last I checked, is still part of the United States . If Muslims want to live and work here they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.

In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.

I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?

As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California ; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit but when and where does the lunacy stop? Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil.. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags.

So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me.
Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills, California

Something was brough to my attention

May father, a die-hard Conservative, sent me this email:

>I thought this was a great idea.
>>
>> THE PROGRAM:
>> On Friday, September 11th,
>> 2009, an American flag
>> should be displayed outside every home, apartment,
>> office, and store in the
>> United States . Every individual should make it their
>> duty to display an
>> American flag on this
>> eighth anniversary of one of
>> our country's worst
>> tragedies. We do this to honor those who lost
>> their lives on 9/11,
>> their families, friends and loved ones who continue to
>> endure the pain, and
>> those who today are fighting at>
>> home and abroad to preserve
>> our cherished
>> freedoms.
>> In the days, weeks and months
>> following 9/11, our
>> country was bathed in American flags as citizens
>> mourned the incredible
>> losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against
>> terrorism. Sadly, those flags
>> have all but disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us
>> through some tough times
>> and it shouldn't take another attack to galvanize
>> us in solidarity. Our
>> American flag is the fabric of our country and together
>> we can prevail over
>> terrorism of all kinds
>>
>> Action Plan:
>>
>> So, here's what we need
>> you to do .
>>
>> (1) Forward this email to
>> everyone you know (at
>> least 11 people). Please don't be the one to break
>> this chain. Take a moment
>> to think back to how you felt on 9/11 and let those
>> sentiments guide
>> you.
>>
>> (2) Fly an American flag of
>> any size on 9/11.
>> Honestly, Americans should fly the flag year-round, but
>> if you don't, then
>> at least make it a priority on this day.
>>
>> Thank you for your
>> participation. God Bless You and
>> God Bless America !

I got to thinking about it and made a few revelations:

(Buckle up, it gets fun from here!)

I like this concept, but think it should also be done on December 7, for remembrance of Pearl Harbor.
Maybe the citizens will remember that event and how we retaliated in such a fashion that Japan NEVER even THOUGHT about something like that again and start to wonder why Afghanistan is not equally super-spanked!

The dropping of "The Bomb" in Japan was an example of massive retaliation. At that point in our history, we were not concerned with all of the psycho-babble crap that keeps us (as a nation) from making a point and making it painfully clear. Now, we (again, as a nation) want to send aid in the form of food and medical supplies to our enemy so that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and say we are good people. That is bullshit. It is that coddling that has brought us to the point we find ourselves today. If the enemy is our enemy, they need to be pushed to the point of surrender - using whatever means necessary. We should have, on September 12, 2001, dropped so many bombs on Afghanistan that it was reduced to nothing more than glass slag that reflected the starlight in the cool night air of the middle east.

Look at the movies we like, where the bad guy is clearly defined and we want nothing more than to destroy him. Inglorious Basterds is coming out. It is a film by Quentin Tarintino about a group of soldiers that kill Nazis. That is their job. I'm looking forward to seeing it, if only to remind me of a time (before my time) when we held people responsible for their actions and exacted not revenge, but justice. The Nazis were evil. The skin-heads that follow that Aryan path are equally evil. The followers of bin Laden are also evil, but our nation wants to rehabilitate them - not ever realizing that there is NO rehabilitation for religious zealots. We feel bad for them.

"Poor misguided souls thinking that this is their way to heaven. We should teach them that love, not hate, and OUR God are the only way to heaven. It's not their fault. They were taught hate from a young age. We should HELP them, not fight with them. Awwww..."
Fuckhead thinking.

They will say/do whatever they have to to put themselves in a position of killing us. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese forced us to pull our head out of the sand and take action in the events of the world - drawing us into the war. In today's society, we need not have our heads pulled from the sand, but rather pulled from our asses. We need to wake up and see what is happening in the world and in our own country and make changes to become strong again.

In short, we need to revert to a former time of glory in our nation's history. A time when we defended ourselves and sought out those that were aggressive towards us - and SUCCEEDED in bringing them to justice. Our innocence was lost a long time ago, but our naivete seems to be making a comeback. We want to be everybody's friend and have no enemies. A wonderful dream, but impossible. For whatever reason - valid or not - people will hate us. Fucking deal with it! Uncle Sam needs to man-up and start kicking ass like we used to in "the good ol' days".

My father blamed the issue on the current administration and warned of imminent doom and destruction at the hand of Obama. I still think that it is the state of society for allowing the bleeding hearts (of ALL political parties) to corrupt our nation and turn the majority that has the vote to become so mush-minded that flashy smiles, empty rhetoric and promises of positive change sway them (the voters) to put ALL of the current political "Civil Servants" in the positions they have.

When it became inappropriate - even criminal - to employ spankings as discipline to our children, when it became offensive - even criminal - to compliment a person of the opposite sex on how they look, when it became too much for our social conscience to expect people to actually have to work for a living and - instead of continuing to make them do so - create social programs to keep them fed and clothed and housed with medical benefits, when it became all of this, THAT is when we, as a nation, began to throw it all away.

Utopia doesn't exist. We will never create it in this world. All of the people that feel that a hug is what is needed should try going to Iraq and give one of the MANY people there trying to kill us a hug. They will be stopped by one of two things: a bullet or a bomb. Either way, they will not have the voice to put any more soft-headed, greedy, only-out-for-themselves politician in a position to create policy to which the WORKERS of America have to adjust. The problem is not the politicians. The problem is the majority of SHEEP that put them in power.

Me and Prop 8

Ok, so my next post will make one of my two readers kinda mad.
So Prop 8 failed in California, leaving the ban of same sex marriages in effect. I have no problem with this. I also have two different views on it, but both share the same general point: I am against same sex marriages.

Secular :
I am not saying that I oppose same sex couples. I do not. I feel that everybody has a right to live the way they live, for whatever reason, as long as it does not interfere with my right to do the same. I just think that trying to force the government to recognize this type of marriage as legitimate is wrong. This is the line in the sand. It has to be drawn somewhere.
As a nation, we need to understand that the idea of “tolerance” has gotten way WAY out of hand. The morals that make our country strong have got to have a limit or they never really existed at all.
Many states in the US banned interracial marriages prior to the Supreme Court's 1967 ruling in Loving v. Virginia. That ruling was a move in the RIGHT direction, as the color of skin is not a reason for discrimination. An Asian woman will be able to give birth to a white man’s child. The morals of the country were not diminished by this move. The only thing that was hurt was a dying prejudice that was out-dated anyway.
The difference between that and this is fundamental: same sex marriages cannot CREATE children.

From what I can see, the driving forces for the movement to legalize same sex marriages are the financial/legal benefits and protections and for validation. The basic fact is that same sex marriages ARE different from as they will not keeping the family name going – not to mention the propagation of the human race - never produce a child, etc . A marriage, as defined by the primary or first definition at http://dictionary.reference.com, is as follows:

The social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.

In fairness, there is this definition as well, listed fourth:

A relationship in which two people have pledged themselves to each other in the manner of a husband and wife, without legal sanction: trial marriage; homosexual marriage.

I just want to point out that all of the definitions that deal with this type of definition use the phrase “husband and wife”. Says a lot, huh?

The legal/financial perks are in the form of tax rates and adjustments, insurance coverage, death benefits; the list goes on and on. If we set it up to allow this type of union to be recognized and receive these perks, what will come next? You have to be insanely naive to think that this will not lead to other people wanting these advantages for THEIR “special unions”. Do we allow polygamy? Is that going to be the next sub-group to yell discrimination? What about cousins? Or parents and children? I am not trying to be gross, but some people react with the same disgust to homosexuality as you just did to those examples (extreme as they may seem).

It’s a matter of consent! Two adults should be allowed to do whatever they want if they are both consenting!
Yes and no. Yes, two people OF PROPER AGE AND MENTAL ACUITY can consent to almost anything. The “no” comes in when it infringes on other people’s rights or presents a lewd or obscene public display. But consent has absolutely fuck all to do with this issue. The behavior is not illegal. You can have sex with anyone PROPER AGE AND MENTAL ACUITY that is willing to have sex with you. The marriage is not even illegal. It is simply unrecognized by the government. If you and your friends and family recognize it and accept it and deal with you and your significant other as if the two of you were legally married, what difference does it make what the government says? I, personally, have never needed a governmental validation of my feelings for or against anyone or anything. Why is this validation, or lack thereof, such a huge hairy deal? I love this or that is made no more or less valid by a nod of approval from Uncle Sam.

Biblical:
In Romans 1:26-27 (EMTV), Paul writes:
For this reason [idolatry] God gave them up to passions of dishonor; for even their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature, and likewise also the males, having left the natural use of the female, were inflamed by their lust for one another, males with males, committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was fitting for their error.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (TNIV), Paul says:
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Really? Do I need to say anymore? It is a lust that is against nature. Simply put, a spit in the face of God, saying, “I can personally improve upon your creation. Check this out! I can stick this in here! Who needs women?”

Conclusion:
While I could not care less about a person’s sexual orientation, these are my beliefs. Those friends I have that are homosexual know me but may not know these views. They were not judged on their sexuality. They were judged on their humanity. They are my friends because I see more in them than their sexual orientation. I see more in them than their religious, political, ancestral or ethnic characteristics. And they see more in me than a condemning bible-thumper because they know me and know that I am not one to cast aspersions on others when I am so fatally flawed myself.

Thank you for your time.

Official Gene Pool Lifeguard

I am tired of it all.
The stupid people seem to be getting more and more prevalent. So I have decided to become an Official Gene Pool Lifeguard.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
1. Making sure that the human race is not held back by the proliferation of stupidity.
2. Recruiting additional OGPL members.
3. Informing the rest of humanity of the risk they take if they hook up with a moron.
4. Keeping the morons from propagating.

It's like this... if there is someone that poses a danger to the advancement of the human race, such as a welfare addict that will not go out and get a job though perfectly able to do so or individuals that sue over acts of idiocy (such as the McDonalds lady that spilled hot coffee on herself and sued McDonalds for giving her HOT coffee) to get rich quick, a OGPL Citation is issued. They have to go to a court that looks at the issue and determines if they are indeed stupid. If so, they have to pay a fine. These fines go DIRECTLY to the schools of America (in an effort to EDUCATE the kids and keep them from becoming a stupid burden on society).

If an individual gets 3 citations in a single 12 month period, the REAL actions are taken. They have to go get a vasectomy (for men) or the 5 year birth control implant (for women) so that they do NOT have any children. They then have a 5 year sentence to serve where they pose no threat to the rest of the population by breeding.

During that 5 years, they cannot get more than 2 citations in a 12 month period. If they can do that, the vasectomy/birth control implant will be reversed. If they cannot make it, the procedure stays permanent and they will not be allowed to have children that will undoubtedly grow up to be moronic assholes like them.

This is just a rough idea at this point, but be on the lookout for the OGPL shirts and hats. It is an idea that will take off. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell everyone that stupid people's days are numbered!

The Parasitic Thought Process

Do you remember when public pools had diving boards? How about long car trips with the family and lying down in the back of the station wagon to sleep? How about your dad letting you steer the car on deserted back roads while you sat in his lap? Or even riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm afternoon?

I miss those things. I think the reason I miss them is that I now have a son who will never get to experience them. Some of the activities or items listed above were removed from society because of the populace at large not being able to take responsibility for their own actions – more to the point, their own stupidity.

I am speaking specifically about the diving boards.

Little Bobby-Joe climbs up onto the diving board and jumps off, landing in the water and closely supervised by his mother or father, wading in the deep end to encourage him and help him if needed. Next up is Marty. He is in his upper teens and wants to impress a young thing that has caught his eye. Marty’s parents are not at the pool, as he is old enough to swim alone. He jumps off of the diving board and tries to splash the object of his interest by jumping to the side instead of jumping to the middle, like anyone with any sense would. He overdoes the jump and lands with a sickening crack on the side of the pool. The lifeguards jump up and do their job; paramedics arrive and take him away.

Marty’s parents – hell, it could have just been Marty himself – decide that the city of Austin (where the pool is located) and the diving board manufacturer are to blame for the complete loss of use on his right side. So what do they do? They file a lawsuit. Not only that, they win it because the insurance company is the only one that pays, right? It won’t hurt the insurance company. They have TONS of money!

This is a true story that happened at a pool at which my brother and I worked. It is my belief that the inability to accept responsibility for one’s own actions, coupled with a desire to hit a big payday and have no more financial worries, is the reason some – NOT all, but SOME – of our innocence as a society has been lost.

It is further my belief that the loss of this innocence will only continue until we act as a majority to really hit hard those individuals and organizations that file these frivolous lawsuits and try to frame up the “big corporations” to get rich.

These lawsuits are more than ridiculous, they are evidence that we, as a nation, are only in it for our individual selves; that we, as a nation, truly are the laziest people on Earth.

This has no hidden racial or ideological message. People of every race are guilty because this is a SOCIETAL dysfunction. We have to work as a society to rid ourselves of this parasitic thought process. Regain the pride in doing a good job. Make more of yourself than what is expected of you.

I now step down from my soapbox.

The demise of Western Civilization Continues

I have to agree with some of the critics of this "Pizzas for Pesos" marketing plan instituted by Dallas based Pizza Patron: I just don't see the benefit. We are too far from the border to really use the "it's a convenience to our customers who return from Mexico with extra pesos in their pocket" line. Think of the logistical headache of figuring the conversion! Damn! More trouble than it's worth, I think.

Targeting a specific demographic? Not a bad idea, but why now? Why bring out this specific plan right now, when the illegal immigration topic is at such a fever pitch?

It's like they are saying, "Have you just snuck over the boarder and simply haven't had the time to exchange your currency? Being chased by INS and can't risk going into a bank? Hungry? Come on in! You can pay with your worthless pesos!"

Are other companies really considering this tactic? Is this a business plan that we really want to emulate? It seems to me that it is no more than pandering to a special interest group for publicity. In some of my business classes, if I remember them right (it was a couple few years ago that I took them, lol): "Any publicity – even bad – is GOOD publicity. It gets the name out to the public… makes them start talking about the company or product." A few years ago, it was the "black culture" that was in the spotlight. Now it is this.

Wake up, people! Why are we just sitting around, waiting for somebody else to fix the problem? Should the government step in? Can we actually rely on the government to act on our behalf (by "our" I mean, of course all of the LEGAL folks in the country – not just the American citizens)? We put the people that run the country in those positions of power, so why are they not listening to the obvious majority of the voters? Is it the majority that is speaking out against this, or the other way around? Again, for the slow people in the audience, I am speaking of and to the LEGAL inhabitants of the USA.

If things continue to progress in this way, I foresee a lot of American citizens leaving the USA and moving to other countries. Not all countries are 3rd world, even compared to the USA. Some even have enough balls to stand up to the immigrants and make them conform to the country, instead of the American way of having the country conform to them.

I'm just sick of this shit! Everybody is complaining, but no one is actually doing anything. Well, I'm going to take some action on this one. I will start by gathering as much information as I can and then start spreading the truth. I will stir up the masses so that the "elected" officials HAVE to hear the will of the people. I will openly refuse to do business with any companies that use illegal labor or pander to a minority, and strongly encourage others to do the same.

What will separate me from the morons? I will completely respect your right to continue patronizing these establishments. I don't expect everyone to share my ideals, but there are some that would with just a little encouragement.

New Years ponderings

I usually don’t go in for New Year’s Resolutions. I just don’t see the point in waiting until then to make a change in oneself or one’s life. Just seems like a way of delaying having to do or stop doing something. If you are going to delay it, you will most likely not follow through with it. At least, that has been my experience and observation. That is why I didn’t wait until January 1st to quit smoking. I quit – cold turkey, so to speak – in July (I think)… maybe August. Not sure.

BUT

I am making a resolution right now. I resolve to stop thinking that everything will work itself out. I kind of have that problem. I feel that if something is supposed to happen, it will happen. That is not to say that I do not work for certain goals, or try to achieve things on my own, but I do everything that I can and let “fate” take over. I have to stop doing that. I should really try and come up with a way to continue working to get something/somewhere until I do or I am told that it won’t happen at all.

Don’t give up, I guess. Yes, that would be the most succinct way of putting my resolution.

As far as having the old year exit on the right note, I have some things to say:

S – You are an excellent mother and very good friend. I am sorry that things are hard for you, but I cannot do any more to help you. All it is doing is enabling you to be lazy and not take responsibility for yourself. I have gathered the courage to be more open with you, but I just don’t have the courage to say this to your face. I do not want that argument. There is too much at risk for you to feel slighted by my bluntness, but I know that down the road, you will agree that it is exactly what is happening.

J – I am not running. I am going nowhere. I will stop standing idly by while you emotionally shred yourself. You must change that or there will be many conversations about it leading to actually arguments. I do NOT want you to “pretend” that everything is great, either. I want you to realize that you are worth more than the constant barrage of negativity you unleash upon yourself. I will do anything I can to help.

Trolls, haters, and racists – Fuck off and die. Eat shit. Gag on mass quantities of Drano. How else can I put this? You are no better than the KKK or Jesse Jackson. I wish for you in the New Year to be faced with having to rely on someone that you hate to save your life. Yes, I want you all to be beaten, car or airplane wrecked or anything to within moments of death, only to have your worst “enemy” be the one to save you. With your mentalities, it still won’t make a difference.

Motto for 2007: Be good or be good at it!

PISD has me PISSED

My son is 5 years old. This is relevant because my son is in kindergarten in the Plano Independent School District (PISD). The PISD has come out on the subject of Christmas with a “We will not favor one religion above the others, so we will call it a Winter Break and the children can have a Holiday Party” stance.

I feel just fine with that. I think it is ridiculous, but I can live with the complete absence of any religion in the classroom.

Then tell me, why did my son make a menorah in his class? Is that not a religious icon for Hanukah? Is that not a Jewish holiday?

Don’t get me wrong, I really could not care any less if the schools want to have a Christmas party or Yule celebration or have the kids make Kwanza stuff. I want my son to LEARN about the world, so teach in school.

BUT, if you are going to say that children cannot bring candy canes to school for other children because they are signifying the shepherd’s crock, and thusly, Christ as the shepherd and all that shit (yes, it happened a couple of years ago right here in PISD), do NOT have my son make a drawing, cut-out, coloring or anything else of any religion!

I love freedom, but this shit has GOT to stop! No more pandering to the minorities, regardless of whom or what they are. We, the citizens of this country, must take action to get this rampant “political correct” pandemic under control. I fear it may already be too late, but here is what I suggest:

When you see someone trying to take advantage of the system so that they can continue to not have to be responsible for their actions (i.e. frivolous lawsuits, manipulating the Welfare system, trying to set someone else up for a quick and easy buck), call them on it. Get their personal information and spread the word. There is no law forbidding the telling of the truth.

There are more people that are honest than there are that are dishonest. That means, we, the honest folks, are the MAJORITY. Let’s use that weight and force our representatives in power (that we were supposed to have put there) to start SOLVING the problems instead of dancing around them.

I am just so sick of everyone trying so hard to make sure that no one gets their feelings hurt, so no one stands up and says, “You are acting like a child. You are wrong!”

There are people like this in EVERY race and EVERY religion. Call the wrong-doers out and take a stand.

Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919, said this:

"In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

And for shit’s sake, stop getting all up in arms about the stuff that doesn’t matter in the long run.

Thanks for listening. I rambled a bit, but I have had some things on my chest, and now they are off.

Customer Service

Because my job also has me working partly in Customer Service, I have high expectations to any service I receive. I will try to keep in mind that the person on the other end of the phone is NOT responsible for whatever my problem is. I will say things like “please” and “thank you”. Basically, I will show them respect.

I know – first hand! – how frustrating it is to work in this field, so I give a LOT of leeway to the representative or agent I am working with. I also, if the situation warrants, will call to PRAISE the rep that I dealt with to his or her supervisor.

There is absolutely NO reason for ANY rep to get bitchy with me. I remain calm, even if I am not getting the satisfaction I am looking for.

So now, I rant:

I called the power company because the power went out all over my apartment complex. All business and housing AROUND my complex was still operational, but I was in the dark. I checked with neighbors, same situation. I called, and after a long time on hold (to be expected in this situation), I spoke with perhaps the rudest rep ever! She was antagonistic from the get go. She spoke in a short, tight manner as if I was a child and understood nothing.

I usually try and find fault in my half of the conversation for the attitude of the rep to which I talk. Yes, I do lose my temper every now and again. Frustration can only be checked for so long. But this time, I did nothing wrong… honestly!

I got her name and proceeded to inform her that I was only calling to make sure that someone was aware of the issue and, if so, see if there was an estimated time to restoration of power. Her flagrant disregard for civility and manners is a prime example of why her company is losing customers left and right to smaller companies. That and the ridiculous rates they charge the customers. She began to snap back and I interrupted her, telling her that she was not worth the time or the energy it would take to argue with her.

I hung up and immediately called back. When I got another rep, I asked for a supervisor. She tried to assist, but I refused to talk to her or anyone else that wasn’t a supervisor. I did this in a very calm and rational tone. When the supervisor came on, I explained the situation fully and calmly. She said she would speak with the rep and pull the recording of the conversation if there was one.

Will she do it? I don’t know. I really don’t care. I just want to make sure that I, the consumer, am heard.

I advise ALL of you reading this to stop taking poor service. Demand professionalism and respect.

This is ESPECIALLY true for waiters and waitresses. If I get poor service, I tip poorly. I generally start at 20% and the level of service I receive either raises it or lowers it. If I feel that the service I received was truly abominable, I will leave only what coins are left after the change is returned. Conversely, if the service I receive is spectacular, I will (and have done this this very week!) leave as much as 50%. I do not care if you’re counting on my tip; I reward good service and refuse to reward bad service. Want a better tip, provide service worth it.

Gratuity: 1. a gift of money, over and above payment due for service; tip 2. something given without claim or demand.

Where, in that definition, does it say anything about tipping being required? We, the customers and consumers, have the power to change this state of affairs. We can, but only if we stop rolling over and taking what is given to us.

Where you see a cane, I see a crock.
Where you see a crowd, I see a flock.

I got PROOF!

Check this out:

Your Social Dysfunction: Normal Being average in terms of how social you are, as well as the amount of self-esteem you have, you're pretty much normal. Good on you.

http://img.quizgalaxy.com/social-dysfunction-bg.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat;'>

Take'>http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=72">Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

Wow. I never wouold have guessed!

My son, my fear, my problem

My son, my 5 year old, hit (or “punched” as was reported to me) two other children in his class, yesterday (December 14). As if that wasn’t enough, one of those kids was a girl.

A GIRL!!

What the fuck?

I have always emphasized that he, as a boy, NEVER hits a girl – he PROTECTS them from others that would try and hurt them!

Please reference the two entries on Degrading Women for more about how men should behave regarding women.

I asked him why he did it, and he said that they were calling him names. I asked what they were saying and he said that they called him a crybaby. When I went off (and I did) about him hitting a girl (one that was supposed to be his girl-friend), he said that he did it because she told him she didn’t want him.

Get used to that one, son! Some women will totally fuck with your emotions and your head. On the flip side, so will some guys (to women). They are present in both sexes, these assclowns.

I really wanted to spank him. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated and deserves corporal punishment, but I just couldn’t do it. I should have tanned his ass, big time! But, after everything I have been through in the past 2 years, I am afraid. I live in fear that the state of Texas will swoop down and claim me an unfit parent and take him away. I worry that he will mention getting a spanking and then CPS will step in and I will lose him, as I lost my daughter.

My son deserved a spanking, but I am second guessing all of my parental decisions because of my fear of an overzealous arm of a heavy handed state government. This is not a good situation. My son knows better. He has been taught better than this… at least, I thought he had been taught better than this.

I will say this much, if he EVER hits another girl, I WILL spank him for it. I will make sure that my anger has subsided and I am calm and rational, but I WILL make him understand that you NEVER hit a girl, and his ass will feel the sting of a couple of good swats to help him remember it!

Yes, this one will keep me on my toes.

McDonalds has deep pockets

My son loves McDonalds. He’s 5, so he has not developed acute culinary tastes, yet. He likes it for the Play Area. OK. I can suck it up and allow him to romp in an area made just for kids. He’ll have some fun.

Saturday, I take the young one to the Mickey-D’s on Belt Line near Plano Parkway. I pass it on a pretty regular basis and have always thought that the play area looked cool (kind of a central American jungle/Jurassic Park look to it). We get in there and the design is actually the worst in the world.

First off, the tables are tall with tall chairs. Kids that are shorter than 5 feet tall are going to have a problem getting into and out of these chairs. Shit, ADULTS were having trouble! My son was sitting on the edge, as he is 5 and excited to be in the play area, and slipped off the chair, pushing his arm (which was resting on the table) up at an awkward angle and height. Great crying ensued as he was in some noteworthy pain.

Along the back wall is a slide that is about 12 to 15 feet tall. Kids climb through the plastic maze to get to the slide and slide down. Great fun, as my son reported to me numerous times after sliding down. I watch and proceed to get pissed as several kids ranging in age from 3 to 12 start walking up the slide to get to the top instead of taking the ladder-maze thing! Kids are trying to slide DOWN the slide! At the base of the slide is a wall with a long bench on it. This is where the “parents” sit to “supervise” their children. NONE – NOT ONE – of these ….. these ….. BREEDERS (I now know what the CL poster meant by the difference in Parents and Breeders!) says anything to ANY of the children. So I do.

I get up, walk over to the bottom of the slide and yell up to all of the children that the slide is one way – DOWN! Walking up the slide is rude and dangerous to the children doing the walking as well as the children sliding down. I know the offending kids heard me; they all looked at me. I know the Breeders heard me; I wasn’t 2 feet in front of them and yelling over the din of laughing and screaming children. I walk away talking – very loudly to myself (in typical passive/aggressive style) about how I will have to step up and parent everyone’s children as none of them are doing it!

I get back to the table and look back and see that my son is now stuck in a traffic jam as another 10 year old looking fucker is walking up the slide and has stopped traffic 4-5 kids deep. I go get the manager and use key words like liability, safety violation, injury and lawsuit. The manager still says that there is nothing he can do, as the moment he walks away from the kids, they will just do it again.

This apathetic managerial style is unacceptable to me, so I pack up my son and we are out of there. I know that the loss of my patronage will do nothing to impact the profits of this internationally recognized and age-old institution of a fast food chain, but I urge ALL people to voice their disgust at poor to pathetic service.

Bad design, bad parenting and bad managing are making this great looking play area a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Poor Pitiful Bruised Psyches

OK.

Here we go again.

Let’s all jump on the “Poor Pitiful Bruised Psyches” band wagon. I am referring, of course, to the Michael Richards’ (the actor who played the Seinfeld character “Kramer”) outburst at the two black hecklers.

Mikey goes on the Jesse Jackson talk show, “Keep Hope Alive”, as a part of a series of apologies for the incident. What a stupid fucking name for a show that is. The only thing Jackson wants kept alive is racial strife! Without that, he’s out of a job. He says he wants racial harmony, but he’s the first to blow piddley shit like this into the entertainment headline it is today.

Stay on target.

Hecklers. Every comedian has to learn to live with them. It is an art to deal with them properly. I know this from personal experience. I did not have to deal with many hecklers, as I only performed at open mike nights and they were very rare at those. As a professional, I would expect that Mikey has had his fair share of those types of people. But the bottom line is this: If you have the balls to heckle a comedian – one you paid to see – you had better have the ability to suck it up when he rains down upon you.

This pansy-assed hurt feelings bullshit just doesn’t wash when you look at the fact they were the first to open their mouths. Imagine where we would be if Don Rickles, the king of insult comedy, had to deal with this type of shit!

Other minorities can make racial slurs, such as my favorite, Carlos Mencia, and they don’t get slapped with this shit. But a white guy?? Now he’s just being racist!

Stay on target.

Mikey’s publicist “Howard Rubenstein, said Saturday that Richards has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger and understand why he made the racist remarks.” (AP News Sun Nov 26, 2006)

PSYCHIATRIC COUNSELING?? Are you fucking kidding me??!! He made racist remarks because he was angry, provoked, whatever. I guarantee you that these bastards claiming “injury” have let fly several racial epithets at non-blacks!

I realize that two wrongs don’t make a right, but adding another wrong – the highly publicized and blown out of proportion circus we now have, including counseling and acknowledgment “’that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation,’ Rubenstein said. ‘He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful.’"(AP News Sun Nov 26, 2006) – doesn’t help any, either!

Everybody just needs to grow the fuck up! Why can’t we all just get along? I’ll tell you why, Rodney, because there’s no money in it for the greedy! There’s no press for the tired old pimp that trots out the same tired old hookers called “Racism” and “Inequality”. Is this really worth getting all up in arms about?

That’s all I’m saying: Have we, as a society, degraded to the point that this minor rhetorical bullshit is all we have at which to gasp in shock and horror?

I do not think so.

God, I hope it isn’t, or we are in deeper shit than anyone imagined.

XM Radio and MY money

Wasn’t satellite radio advertised when it first came out as commercial free? Am I the only one that remembers this? That was why you were paying for a subscription, so you didn’t have to listen to commercials and you could choose a station that played a much finer selection of music…. Almost perfectly tailored to your preferences.

I’m in the truck with my brother-in-law. We are riding out to do a job. It’s a great day. He has satellite radio – XM – in his plush truck. Music is great! The song ends and the sultry woman’s voice declares the station ID – multiple times.

Yeah, I get it, thank you.

Then a Coors Light commercial comes on the radio. First of all, gross! Coors Light is like sex in a canoe. It’s fucking close to water! Second, it seems to be exponentially longer than those played on the commercial radio stations.

*Hmmmm, I wonder why it’s called “commercial” radio?*

I digress…

And third – and lastly – it is followed by another commercial…Then another.

When did the $20-25 a month become NOT enough for XM? When did they decide that they needed to air commercials on what was introduced and advertised as “commercial free radio”?

Don’t you know? Neither do I!

Do you know what this little peek into the world of satellite radio did? It insured that I will NEVER get satellite radio. I know, XM will not go out of business because they didn’t have MY $20-25 each month, but I only wanted it so that I could AVOID the irritating commercials that insulted my intelligence in the first place.

I wonder what the hullabaloo is all about with HD radio?