Tag: Idiots

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The difference between the young morons and us older morons.

Dogs…

Let me tell you a story. I’m out walking my dog on his “retracto” leash and we’re having a really good walk.

Up ahead, I see a human. The human is maybe 1/4 of a mile away, and I can see that the human is facing me due to the reflection of light on its face. I can’t tell at this distance if the human is Male or Female because they’re moving in and out of shadows cast by the trees along the trail.

Suspecting they may have a dog, and wishing to avoid my dog attempting to drag me at top speed toward the human at the very least and the potential dog, I choose another path. The new trail intersects the trail I’m on, at approximately where the human walking toward me, is at this moment.

My dog hasn’t noticed the human at this point, so I count myself lucky and think that we humans will pass well out of reach of each other. Potential dog entanglements will also be avoided.

Jesse and I continue on and he’s having a blast sniffing along the trail that we don’t usually take.

Rounding the last bend, guess what?

The human is still there. Yep they haven’t moved, and goodie! They have a full blooded husky about Jesse’s size and age who is off leash, and slowly approaching from the concealment of a thicket.

So now we have one dog on leash, and one off leash, Jesse wants to go sniff and do all the dog things, but I don’t know this dog. Will the dog be aggressive? Are we trespassing in territory that this dog considered his? How will Jesse react?

Oh and let’s not forget that part of this walking regimen for me is rehabilitation on my knees which have both been troublesome for 2 years. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve been able to really walk any distance without pain.

So I’m trying to hold Jesse back and the other dog is advancing. Jesse has his ears laid back but is still slowly wagging his tail. (Mixed Signals!)

Then things advance, now there is jumping and circling, I’m being dragged over uneven terrain, and trying to keep from becoming entangled in the leash. I hear growling beginning.

At this point the other human moseys on over to regain control of their dog.

“He’s just wanting to play,”

I have fire in my left knee. And I have .8 miles going uphill to get home. Truthfully going uphill is easier than going downhill.

Walking home, Jesse is very sweet he’s not rushing, or dragging me. He knows something is wrong with daddy’s knee.

He’s been checking on me since we got home. I’ve got the ice pack on my knee. I’m using it without the usual fabric cover because I don’t want to put a pair of shorts on. This way my sweat pants are taking the place of the cover. That’s the good news, the bad news is that I have nothing to keep it in place.

I digress…

All of the above brings me to the differences between my generation and this most current crop of “adults”.

We were taught to fucking think!

Let’s evaluate the situation shall we?

Had a Boomer been the Human approaching us on the main trail, they would have continued walking because they’d have accepted, for reasons known only to me, that I was trying to avoid them. They wouldn’t have taken it personally. The assumption would have been that I perhaps know my dog, and my physical condition better than they do, and that would have been fine.

A Boomer upon realizing that my dog was on a leash would have perhaps thought, “Maybe His dog is aggressive, Perhaps his dog isn’t off leash trained.” Either way another Boomer would have put their fucking dog on a leash, you know, the one they were carrying. Just to avoid any potential injury to either dog or humans.

Another Boomer would have thought, “If our dogs try to get to know each other, that guy is going to be fighting to not get tangled up.” And they’d have put their dog on the fucking leash in their hand.

Another Boomer seeing the obvious white beard on my face would have thought, “ You know, that guy looks a tad older, maybe it’s not going to be good for him to be at the heart of dog play or a dog fight.” Another Boomer would have put their dog on the leash as a simple courtesy.

But the other human approaching Jesse & I, was not a “Boomer”.

He was a young adult in his late 20s or early 30s and therefore completely bereft of the ability to think ahead, courtesy, or common sense.

I know youngsters think Courtesy and Common Sense are antiquated notions.

I would instruct all you children thusly.

Courtesy is an outgrowth of conflict avoidance.

If one is courteous then typically there is no conflict. If there is no conflict, then one or more people do not end up with broadswords sticking out of their chests. Barmaids are also happier because getting bloodstains out of rough hewn wooden floors is a real bitch of a job.

Courtesy goes further though.

Courtesy is an acknowledgment that no one can know all the factors at play in any encounter with another person.
Did that person have a fight with their spouse?
Did that person just get out of surgery?
Is that person grieving a loss?
Is the person trying to rebuild strength after an injury?
Does that other person have health insurance?
If they’re injured out in this rural area will paramedics be able to get to them?
What happens in the case of the unexpected?
Is the person prone to heart attacks?

These are just a few of the potential issues.

Being courteous allows you to avoid these and many other possibilities and allows you to absolve yourself of all responsibility for what happens next, to the person your’e being courteous to.

If you’re a young person who wants no responsibility…

Being courteous allows you to turn your back leave with your dog on a leash, and ignore the “Thud” you hear from behind and never look back. After all you were courteous and whatever that noise was… It’s none of your business.

See courtesy can be fun!

Just as an aside, I may have the underpinnings for courtesy all wrong, but thinking of courteous behavior this way has allowed me to implement courtesy in my daily life rather than beat or insult the living shit out of every dumbass I’ve encountered.

It’s kept me from saying things like;

“Does your whole family have the same intelligence level as you? It does? Wow, there’s a family tree that needs to be chopped down!”

“You’re a load your daddy should have jacked down the toilet, oh wait, right… your mother is a cum dump of a toilet!”

“You’re in favor of abortion? So am I… Retroactive Abortion! Here, let me put this plastic bag over your head. Now breathe deep, it will all be over soon! It’s for the planet, there, there, sleep.”

These are just a few of the things that go through my mind dealing with people. Without courtesy, imagine all the sad little snowflakes I’d have traumatized through the years.

Courtesy is a mobile safe space, it’s like a vaccine that protects us all…

 

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There’s no place else to go.

CherI saw Cher spewed some comment about leaving the USA if Trump was to be re-elected. See YA!

I’m not trying to be mean about it but I recall a lot of Hollywood saying they’d leave the USA if Trump was elected in the first place. They’re all still here so I suspect either they’re a bunch of liars (Possible & Likely…) OR a lot of these loud mouths figured out that there’s no-place else to go. 

No-where on the planet would they be as free to act the way they act here. Most other places wouldn’t allow them to shoot their mouths off about the leaders of the nation, and most wouldn’t allow these Hollywood types to indulge in their various vices either.

Where are you gonna go Cher?? Really?

I too have wrestled with this question. Not over Trump, but over Obama!

About half way through Obama’s first term I concluded that the Hope and Change he’d promised wasn’t actually making things any better. I felt we’d only handed the reins of power over to someone else who was more about the power than the people.

I was very disappointed. I had high hopes that Obama could and would make changes that benefited everyone. I thought this was probable because of Obama’s upbringing. I was wrong…

That’s when I really began to feel very alienated. It wasn’t about his race it was about the way others responded to his race. All I wanted was someone to bring the government to heel, I honestly didn’t care about the person’s color or gender all I wanted was better, smaller, government. Boy, did I bet on the wrong damn horse!

I started looking for places to move. I tried to convince my other half that we’d be better off someplace else. I was thinking other countries. I was looking for someplace where the law was in fact the law. Where rules meant something, A place where no-one gave a shit about your race, gender, sexuality, or whatever. The only criteria that mattered was what you as an individual brought to the table to contribute.

My other half being much wiser than me said, “When you find a place, babe we’ll discuss it.” He knew I’d never find a place that met my criteria. Because he knew intimately the failures of humanity and the best and most redeeming qualities as well. He saw people through a lens of religion at their best and worst.

He wasn’t a Saint, but I’d say he could give a lot of folks in the running for sainthood, some stiff competition. 

For all the fucked up mess that we’ve allowed to become the norm in this country, The USA is still the best option. Aside from the fact that you’re double taxed if you’re a citizen living abroad, and that if you choose to give up your US citizenship the USA makes you buy your way out… Both situations I REALLY am opposed to!

Being in another country may not be the best way to go. There’s a cultural context that is hard to get around. We Americans are loud, we’re bossy, we’re arrogant, and it’s not that we’re trying to be any of these things, it’s that we are used to having so much, that when we’re confronted with any limitations, we get obnoxious. Some might say childish.

In my travels outside the USA I’ve witnessed more Americans than not, being assholes unintentionally. It’s usually been due to something fundamental in the culture of the country we were visiting, that my fellow Americans or I missed.

Magnify those social faux pas by thousands and you not “getting” why things are done a particular way in another country and over time, you’re going to feel not at home. Sure you’ll adapt to a lot of things, but you’ll never “get” it all.

It’s tough to feel like you never really belong. Oh, at first you don’t really notice that you don’t belong, you think over time you’ll blend in. To some extent that is true. But the more different the culture or local beliefs the less you’re likely to really blend in and feel comfortable and at home.

I feel that, in California. I’ve been here 40 years or longer. I function here, but between the basic differences in the way California has always done things, and the accumulation of more radical changes over time, I’ve become less and less comfortable here. This fact was slammed home to me when I noticed my blood pressure dropped 10 points on trips outside California. Imagine waking up in a strange hotel after driving all day long, not eating right, fast food, too much salt, and your bp is 10 points lower than when you wake up in your own house.

Where Will You GoI was on my way out of California 35-36 years ago. My plan got derailed because I fell in love.

My plan’s derailment was made less difficult because when we met, he lived in a little mountain town that was a lot like where I came from. When we moved in together, I moved to that mountain town and was actually pretty comfortable. Over time, my comfort level has diminished because the town has changed right along with California. By California standards we’re a redneck town. Comparing the town today, to the town when I first moved up here, My little town is a lot like what California was 40 years ago. 

I saw the changes in California overall, and in my little town in particular. I stayed because of my other half. Now that he’s gone, I find myself reconsidering the original plan to go back to an area of the country where I am culturally compatible.

My desire to move to another country entirely has abated somewhat. I do still like the thought of a small house overlooking a Fjord, miles from anyone else. This is horribly impractical at my age and while it’s a nice fantasy, perhaps even a bucket list item for a vacation, it’s not something I can see as a permanent residence.

What I can see, is a place in this country where I don’t feel like an alien. I’d like to be someplace where speaking my mind isn’t fraught with the high likelihood that I’ll be involved in an altercation.

As a kid, I was surrounded several times by black kids who tended to bully other smaller kids. They behaved like a pack surrounding their prey then throwing punches when the prey’s back was turned. Since you were trapped in a circle there was no way you weren’t going to get hurt. This led to my not being comfortable in crowds for most of my life. I really need to have space around me and most people notice I’m always scanning the area. My looking past you isn’t meant as an insult, It’s a safety measure. One I was taught at the brutal hands of black bullies who thought it was fun or funny to hurt people smaller than they were. They only stopped bullying me when they thought I’d lost my mind, I started hunting the leaders of “The Pack” and attacking them when they were alone. You cause damage to a bully, and make them fear you then suddenly they stop bullying you.

I’ve been seeing more of this “pack” behavior across the nation, It’s not limited to any particular racial group, it’s become commonplace in larger cities and it seems to be more prevalent in large liberal populations than in places that are more conservative leaning. Of course that’s not a hard fast rule but it’s a general guide. I’m sure that beating the fuck out of the leaders of these “New Packs” would be as effective today as it was when I was in school. I’d prefer to void the problem entirely. One way to do that is to move someplace where the majority of people feel and think like I do.

It’s kind of like the Starbucks rule. If you’re looking at moving into a particular neighborhood, count how many Starbucks shops there are. The more affluent and crime free the neighborhood, the more Starbucks you’ll find. The exception to this rule might be Seattle. The last time I was there, Starbucks shops were on every corner, including four shops in one shopping plaza.

I fully understand that this actually leads to polarization. There was a time when I’d have thought that was a bad thing, but now… Not so much. I’d be happy if the place I choose to live is about a 50/50 mix. But I’m looking for a place that’s more like a 60/40 mix, Conservative / Liberal. 70/30 and I’d be ecstatic.

This is in part driven by the fact that I don’t understand a lot of the rules in play in California anymore. I’m looking to go back to places where most of the rules I was raised with are still in force. I don’t want to have to deal with a pack of humans rampaging, I don’t want to be trapped in a Starbucks by BLM protestors demanding compliance and adherence to their beliefs ever again. I didn’t like that I couldn’t leave, I had no weapons but my fists, and so many other people in the place were effectively saying “Yes Massa”.

I want to be in a place where I can carry a weapon but that it’s unlikely I’ll need to. That’s a funny equation, in places where constitutional carry exists, there are a lot of folks who don’t carry a gun because they know they don’t need to. It’s actually funny because that’s sort of the description of herd immunity. Not everyone has to be inoculated because enough of the population are, that disease transmission is nil.

I want to live in a place where kindness and courtesy are valued. I’d like to live someplace where I know my neighbors and interact with them in beneficial ways.

I decided that no asshole President was going to make me leave my country. They’re only in office 8 years max, so who cares? Obama, Trump, Biden, Bush, Clinton, Nixon, they all came and went but the country remained.

People like Cher should be way more concerned with Congress. Those shitty hacks stay in office long enough to really cause changes and honestly, those changes are a lot more long lasting and dangerous than what the President does.

If she and others like her want to move someplace, Maybe they should consider moving to places in the USA where folks think more like they do. Cher is in California, maybe she should stay here. Soon she’s going to have one less conservative leaning Californian to contend with. I won’t be cancelling her vote for President Dumbass in the next election.

Now, If I could get off this planet entirely… That’s gonna be another story!

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Well that 6 billion sure helped the Iranians

Israel hamas war rockets AP

The Iranians suddenly had 6 Billion extra in their budget and what did they do with it??

Pretty obvious, wouldn’t you say?

They funded the Palestinian assholes known as Hamas. Who then started attacking Israel.

Go Team Biden! Fantastic job! 

So that’s two armed conflicts that Team Biden failed to anticipate or understand. But Team Biden managed to light the fucking fuses on both, through demonstrated weakness and incompetence. Yea Team!!!

Ukrainian and Israeli blood is on the hands of the Democrats in Washington and Biden in particular. 

I’m glad to hear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared War, and I sincerely hope that his forces kill every fucking one of the Palestinians. No Mercy! No negotiations, No peace until Palestine is a graveyard.

Yeah, that’s the kind of person I am about this bullshit. The Palestinians have demonstrated time and again what kind of vile shitheads they are. As far as I am concerned, the Palestinians lost all right to my consideration of their position when they hid weapons in schoolyards, and fired missiles from schools then cried to the UN accusing Israel of firing on children.

The one thing I can pretty much guarantee about Jews, is they wouldn’t knowingly hurt children, even the children of their enemies. But they would fire on the point of origin of missiles pretty much instantly. The IDF will do their level best to prevent loss of innocent lives as they always do. So while Palestinians may richly deserve retribution for harboring and keeping Hamas in power. Not all Palestinians are Hamas.

The Israelis usually know the difference and I have faith that they’ll be merciful with non combatants.

The people that should be worried are the folks who funded this War. The Israelis will not be merciful with them.

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Wait What??? I’m so confused again!

Biden is building the border wall?

Biden

Didn’t he promise America there there’d not be one more foot of wall built after he took office?

Didn’t the Democratic Party tell us that “walls don’t work,” didn’t they call anyone supporting border walls racists and white supremacists?

So how is it that the Biden administration has reversed itself? 

Could it be that all of us who were supporting a border wall are not in fact racists or white supremacists but simply understood that we couldn’t support uncontrolled illegal immigration.

Could it be that Walls do actually work? Could it be that Biden lied in his campaign promises? 

Could all of these “Settled Facts” the Democrats have been preaching to us might actually be wrong?

Say it isn’t so!

Uh Huh…

We See you Democrats!… We see that your words are nothing more than pandering to get votes. We see your lies and deceptions.

Ayanna Pressley

I happened to catch an interview with Ayanna Pressley (who I think is an evil, evil, woman,) where she was trying to slime her way out of questions about The Biden Administration building a chunk of wall.

First she said is was some holdover from Trump Era budgeting. When she was asked why then, the construction had languished for 2 and a half years, and why it hadn’t fallen under the same cancellation order Biden signed on day one of his Presidency, Her story changed. 

The best part of the interview was that the reporter, (surprisingly from MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, or CBS, I wasn’t paying attention,) asked Representative Pressley if walls work. This was after years of “The Squad” saying that they don’t.

Grudgingly Ayanna Pressley actually admitted that walls do work. But if she could have killed the reporter killed with a look, she would have.

Then we have Hillary saying out loud and on the record in a CNN interview that she believes the MAGA republicans should be “Deprogrammed”.

Hillary ClintonThat is another way of saying being “Reprogrammed”. As in those subjected to this procedure, will come out the other side thinking just the way someone wants them to.

The Chinese, North Vietnamese, Russians, and innumerable other dictators and despots can, and probably have written books about reprogramming human subjects.

Stalin and Mao, called it a re-education camp.

In China and Russia, “Reprogramming” or “Deprogramming” had a 100% success rate. Those that didn’t take to the new programming didn’t survive.

All I can say is we dodged a bullet when Hillary lost the 2016 election.

BTW it’s interesting to note that she still claims the election was stolen from her. Yet she’s not being dismissed as a lunatic, nor is she being chastised or denigrated for her assertion that she won the Presidential election.

Stacy Abrams also is an election denier. Yet she’s on the boob tube all the damn time spouting that she won both her failed gubernatorial election bids.

Emperor PalpatineHas anybody but me noticed how truly haggard Hillary Clinton looks these days? I guess fomenting all that hate, vitriol, and evil takes a toll on you.

If she’d ended up in the Oval Office, by now she’d look like Emperor Palpatine

This is why I don’t trust the government. It’s why I especially don’t trust the Democrats.

See I look at it like this, if my other half, a guy who was forgiving beyond belief. A guy who always saw the best in everyone, and who gave even the most evil people, the benefit of the doubt…

If a person like that found enough wrong with the Democrat Party that he left them after a lifetime of association, volunteering to raise campaign funds, and his whole family being Democrats, Then there has to be something seriously wrong.

Needless to say his departure from the Democrat party got my attention! In part, because he wasn’t all that political. For their shenanigans to have caught his attention, and offended him that much says a lot.

No, he didn’t go Republican he went independent. 

Finally, we lost McCarthy as Speaker of the house.

I’ve got very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I applaud holding him to his promises and agreements. You know, those promises and agreements he made to get into the speakership in the first place.

Honestly I’d like to see every member of Congress and our entire government for that matter fitted with shock collars. If the collar determined the person was lying it would hit them with 50,000 volts.

Lie to the American people 25 times and the collar kills ya!

I bet that would put a stop to a lot of the Washington D.C. Bullshit!

I digress. 

On the other hand, I don’t think the timing was particularly good to have to cycle through however many votes it’s going to take to elect a new speaker.

But I did very much enjoy Nancy Pelosi being tossed out of the secondary office that she’d occupied as Speaker of the House. I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall when she heard about that. I’ll bet she swore like a drunken sailor. Yeah, I don’t like her. I admit it!

I’m concerned that the Republicans will or already have screwed us all… again! 

I say that as someone how left the Republican Party for much the same reason as my other half left the Democrat Party. Shenanigans, and the fact that they no longer represented us or our interests and they weren’t, (in our opinions,) serving the people who had elected them.

This particular foolishness and divisiveness among the republicans may have made folks who were considering not voting Democrat this election cycle reconsider which party they’re voting for.

The Republicans have a very thin majority, they really should be using it wisely.

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He tries so hard to be a good boy.

My dog that is,

The poor puppy was so conflicted.

My lower back is spasming and any little movement on my part generates intense pain. Standing is an ordeal, lying down in bed is almost as bad. Sitting is mostly tolerable but getting up & down is a nightmare.

Thankfully I did whatever I did to my back near the end of the day so the pup got his walk.

Sleeping last night was more of a dream than actual fact.

The dog spent most of the night on the bed. He checked on me every time I woke myself up groaning in pain. At one point he lay down beside me with his head on my shoulder. Normally, he’s not a super cuddly pup, so I know he’s aware something is wrong with daddy.

I hope he’ll understand when he doesn’t get his walk today.

Well before dawn, while I was enjoying this rare cuddly moment, the yappy annoyances otherwise known as chihuahuas at crazy pants house started in. There are 5 of them, (I think. It’s tough to count them because they all look and sound alike.) After at least a half hour of this incessant barking we hear from crazy pants herself making some weird noise in addition to the barking chihuahuas.

My dog, had mostly ignored the incessant barking, I suspect that’s because it’s incessant, and even he has come to realize these chihuahuas are running their mouths but not saying anything of interest to him.

At the height of their yapping he’d rolled over on his back and groaned. As if to say, “What the Fuck Now?” Unfortunately for him, the roll put his head at an uncomfortable angle against my arm. He was trying to get comfortable again when crazy pants started in at the top of her lungs.

That was too much.

He had to get up to go see what the noise was about. He ran to the front window trying to see whatever was going on. Then he came back to the bedroom and started working me out of bed. It’s my job to open the slider in the morning.

By this time, crazy pants had begun jabbering words, and making sounds that sounded like grunting, or a human vomiting. That she was doing all this in her yard isn’t surprising, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if I looked over there and saw her taking a shit, or playing with herself. (At which point I’m sure I’d be the one vomiting. Crazy pants has been ridden hard and put up wet once too often. I’m sure the same is true of her privates.)

At this point my dog, try as he might couldn’t stop himself from running between the window and the backdoor. He just had to check out the disturbance and comment on it. Unlike the yappy chihuahuas his comments are more like “ruff” then a random interval where he’s listening to the commotion followed by another “ruff”.

I’m blessed that he rarely barks for no reason. If he’s barking there’s something that I should be aware of. He does howl, if there are other “real” dogs barking about something in the neighborhood.

Last night he’d asked to go out about 2am. That’s unusual and often means his tummy is upset. I was up so it wasn’t a big deal. He’d been down in the yard, taken care of business, then laid down on the rear deck so he could watch crazy pants house. If he doesn’t come right back in, it because his stomach is still unsettled.

I must have dozed off on the couch, because about 2:45 I was awakened by the most soulful, mournful, howl I’ve ever heard from him. I don’t know if he was answering coyotes in the distance, or just howling at the moon. I called his name once, and he came right in. He didn’t even give me a dirty look when I closed and locked the slider again.

Opening the slider this morning, he bolted out and down the back stairs right to the gate. Then he sat looking over at crazy pants place, and the barking chihuahuas, while commenting occasionally with a grumbling “ruff, ruff, ruff,” nothing was going on that deserved a real bark from him. He turned and came back inside the house looking almost disgusted.

I’d poured a cup of coffee for myself when crazy pants starts screaming, “It burns! Then began loudly, sobbing and howling owwww!” My thought was, “Oh my, did someone sprinkle water on her?” Alternatively, I actually hoped that she’d found something fatal in the junkyard that her back yard has become.

That’s not kind.

The dog headed back out to the upper deck for a better vantage point since the chihuahuas had increased the intensity of their barking to drown out crazy pants.

After a few more minutes of her “performance” to no audience, applause, or any other form of attention, crazy pants shut the hell up and wandered back into her house I assume.

I couldn’t see her as she was giving her performance, nor did I see her go into her house.

She’d accomplished her goal… Everyone in the neighborhood was no doubt awake.

I think I’m going to try lying or sitting on the couch with a heat pad to get the spasming in my lower back to stop. I doubt that I’ll get the laundry done, or much more in the way of sorting physical paperwork for the accountant.

But, I might still be productive today by immersing myself in the totally digital realm. I can dive into the data from the other half’s computer looking for any relevant financial information that the accountant might need.

I sincerely hope your night and pre-dawn morning was better than mine.