Month: December 2013

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Gotta love a good Tweet War

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While I was waiting to see the dentist on Monday, I saw a venomous tweet directed at an acquaintance. 

I thought “Wow, was it really necessary for that lady to call him a douchebag?”

I sent him a message that read “I see you’re making friends again.” 

I figured he’d laugh, and he did. 

What I wasn’t expecting was the venom from this lady who describes herself as a “balanced liberal” directed at me.

I suppose my levity wasn’t appreciated by her I ignored her.

My bud sent back greetings and said not to pay attention to her she did this kind of thing all the time.

I said OK.

Next thing I knew she was firing off all kinds of comments. Culminating in her, calling me an uneducated, hillbilly, redneck.

And threatening to report me to Twitter because my bud, said she was a bigot on par with the Aryan nation.

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I said she was an insult to the Aryan nation. And she called me a racist, uneducated, hillbilly. 

I responded that she’d misunderstood.

Since the Aryans dogma (albieit hateful) was at least consistent and her dogma was inconsistent she would therefore be a insult to them.

After all if you’re going to insult someone you should be clear about it.

Then she got really nasty!

I was laughing, she was entertaining while I waited to have my teeth drilled.

She threatened to report me again and my Bud did it for her. I told her that If I ended up in the twitter gulag I’d be joining a long line of good people who’d been sent to the corn field. 

Then I came up with this,

I sent;

“I find your characterization of my hillbilly kin as somehow “Less Than” in comparison, tantamount to HATE SPEECH and that I’d happily go toe to toe with you with the Twitter judges.”

Suddenly she was gone!

I figured I could use her own rules couldn’t I?

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As I understand Hate Speech, it’s speech that seeks to selectively call, imply or compare a group of people to something negative.

Usually the term hate speech is applied to negative comments about specific ethnicities. More often than not these groups are non European, but sexual preferences are also included in legal protections.

It occurred to me that so called “Hillbillies” might be considered a distinct ethnic group. As such they should be afforded protections against hate speech. One might also extend the definition to occupants of so called “Flyover States”.

Hey why not? 

Thiz means that the negative attacks on Conservatives, Republicans, or people of Faith, so common on Twitter can, and should cause the Gulagging of the liberals who so quickly and easily fling epithets and hateful comments toward these groups.

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After all what’s good for one group should be equally applied to other groups!

I’m totally egalitarian about it.

I’m thinking I’ll try to get the next Liberal that attacks me gulaged using this argument. It might be an interesting test of Twitters fairness policies.

Worst case scenario I’ll end up silenced and that will give me a reason to bail on Twitter altogether.

God! I must be really bored!

LOL

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Christmas Eve

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Many folks will be off work, others will be doing 1/2 days. Those in Retail will of course be working their fingers to the bone!

I’m planning on going to a party then being home pretty early.

The other half is going to be at a couple of Christmas services. then we expect to be home for Christmas.

We’re hoping it will be a quiet couple of days.

I like Christmas, but I also look forward to the season being finished.

It just gets so crazy that unless I’m taking really deep breaths, or I have a love lunch & drinks with a friend prior to shopping I get and stay really grumpy until Christmas eve night.

I’m going to take the rest of Christmas Eve and all of Christmas day off, from technology. I may have the computer on, but I’m not blogging, or Tweeting.

I’m just not going to be up for a tweet war during the holiday.

Have a safe and very happy holiday.

All the best.

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I was Marathon Man today!

Today, I spent about 2.5 hours in a dentist chair. A filling dropped out of my head last night and my crown came in, as an early Christmas present.

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I had them do the work without anesthetic.

WHEEEEE!!!!!

I guess I like pain!

After they’d been grinding on my teeth for awhile, I couldn’t feel anything clearly. This may have resulted in a slightly high spot on the crown.

I may be going back to have it worked on a bit, but I couldn’t really tell what was going on after a while so we called it good for the time being.

My whole jaw is aching right now. That’s obscuring my ability to really sense what’s going on.

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I’m hoping a good nights sleep and letting the newness of the crown wearing off will allow everything to settle so I can get a good read on the whole mess.

My dental insurance isn’t really all that great and based on what they’ve paid for thus far I’d have been better off stashing the premium in a savings account.

The premiums I’ve paid would have paid for all the dentistry I’ve needed this year. As it is, I paid the premiums AND now I’ve had to pony up the cash for the filling and the entire crown. So I’ve essentially ended up paying double for the work.

I suspect that I’ll be looking at the same equation when my health insurance is cancelled. 

Even if some resolution comes with the health insurance debacle, I’m definitely going to cancel the dental portion of the policy.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve 

At least I’m going to be able to eat the Christmas goodies!

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The presents are placed under the tree…

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BIG DEAL!

I admit I do like the Christmas Season.

I like the tree, I enjoy the memories. I do wish I was spending it with my Mom, it’s just been too damn long since I was home for Christmas.

I suppose if I left now and drove like a bat out of hell (legally of course) I could be there by late on Christmas Eve or early on Christmas Day. That would mean leaving like RIGHT freakin now!

Honestly, I’m not up for it. I have no desire to deal with the TSA and their jack-booted, draconian approach to security.

Maybe if we controlled our borders we wouldn’t have to have an organization like the TSA feeling us all up if we, for whatever insane reason decide to climb into the cattle cars in the skies.

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That’s a discussion for another time and regardless of what I and 75% of the rest of the nation believe, the Congress will no doubt suck the collective Illegal immigrant dick in appeasement, and their continued selling out of the American people.

That too is a discussion for another time.

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I have a love-hate relationship with this season.

I love the beauty of the trees and the decorations. I enjoy and appreciate the sentiments of peace and good will. I enjoy spending time with my friends and  those folks that I call my family even if they’re not genetically related to me. It’s a good time of year.

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I hate this time of year because while it does bring out the worst in some people, it’s also the time of year that I begin collecting information for that most hated of days. April 15th.

I used to spend time each month carefully detailing records and entering transactions so that I could simply hand it all to the accountant after I’d gotten my W2 forms.

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It was bliss to have my taxes completed and ready to go by March 1 or earlier.

Over time and with the combination of my finances with the other halfs, now we’re lucky if out taxes are filed by Oct 30.

The other half can find the most creative and innovative ways to procrastinate! As I type that I’m looking at the Christmas cards yet to be signed and mailed…

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After many years of careful collection of data and not being able to file until some completely random date, I stopped the meticulous record keeping.

After all why bother? Nothing I did was going to make it any more likely that we’d actually be able to file on time.

Now I’m out of the habit of doing all the record keeping monthly. I have a years worth of paper and receipts that have been scanned but not organized or that remain to be scanned and organized.

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Heck! I haven’t even downloaded the transaction records from the bank in 4 months.

While I’m alone and it’s quiet I’ve been trying to whittle away at the record keeping nightmare.

I don’t feel like I’m making any headway, it just means there’s more time I’m spending in front of the computer.

The scanner is whirring, the shredder is purring, the kettle is boiling, my tea is cooling. My backup drives are spinning, and I’m thinking “I’d rather go outside to play.”

I had the same problem doing homework.

I think I’m going to bag the tax stuff for today.

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I’m going to empty the shredder, take out the trash, and watch a movie.

Yeah, I won’t get stuff done I should get done, but what the hell it’s the holidays and why shouldn’t I take some time off?

Oh wait…

Ok I’ll take some MORE time off

Look! Squirrel!!!!