I couldn’t help but think, as I watched snippets of this thing, that the main reason most of those people were there (with notable exceptions, I hasten to add) was to make themselves feel better. I thought that Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder were fairly genuine. Stevie Wonder especially. Brooke Shields’ comments seemed to ring true to me. I saw a replay of her as she spoke and she was obviously moved. And then there was Al Sharpton.

See, the amazing thing about Al Sharpton is that he NEVER misses an opportunity to inject race into something. Given his track record for such things, it is hardly a surprise that Sharpton used the MJ memorial as a soapbox for his latest racially laced nonsense. According to Sharpton, there wasn’t a single white person in the universe who was EVER comfortable with a black person doing a god-damn thing until Michael Jackson.  I suppose in many ways we all owe Sharpton a debt of gratitude for pointing a lot of this stuff out to us simple minded crackers.

According to Sharpton, it was Michael Jackson who spanned the great racial divide, not MLK or the civil rights movement that oddly enough Sharpton was himself a part of…like most of us idiot whites thought. He also intimated that it was Michael who made black people a bit more ‘palatable’ to whites in this country. In fact, listening to Al Sarpton you realize that there hasn’t ever been a successful black singer, actor, performer, or dancer in the universe until Michael Jackson. Which of course was news I am sure to people like Sidney Poitier who won his academy award well BEFORE Michael Jackson ever thought about singing a mo-town tune, or the family of Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in baseball even before that, let alone Bessie Smith, Billy Holiday,  Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and countless other successful black entertainers were right there in the audience listening as their accomplishments were conveniently glossed over for the benefit of Sharptons self aggrandizing commentary.

Sure, those folks didn’t write and perform songs which purported to “feed the hungry children in Africa” or succeed to the degree perhaps that MJ did, but to say the things that Sharpton said is to belittle every single black performer, athlete or intellectual who suffered and struggled to make their way to the top of their field of endeavor.  In Sharptons comments, there wasn’t a black soul prior to 1966 who was worth a damn, which is an affront to not only black people everywhere, but to whites as well.

We know, however that Sharpton has never been one to let reality get in the way of a good sermon, so he continued to “school” us all on the worth and meaning of Michael Jackson.

According to Sharpton, it was Michael Jackson who made it comfortable for everyone to watch Oprah, which I am sure was something that she was glad to hear. And then, as if he knew it was time for the big finish, Sharpton made it clear that it was Michael who was responsible for people feeling “good” about blacks thus making it easier to vote for Obama. I cannot think of another time when someone has said things that were more ridiculous and more self-serving. Well, not since the last time Sharpton wormed his way into the spotlight, that is.

Honestly, I am sort of lukewarm on Michael Jackson all together. I remember a time when his music was amazing and I recognize his genius as it pertains to the entertainment industry. That’s pretty much where it stops for me. I think it is sad that this dude, who was obviously so  troubled and disturbed by so many different things, was not cared for better by the people (many of whom were in attendance today) who reportedly loved him so very deeply. I think, however that the ultimate shame is that people like Al Sharpton would dare to use this occasion to capture a little more “face-time” for himself.

MJ was MJ was MJ, ya know? He had a great career, he made a mark in his field and he made a lot of people happy. But sadly, well sadly for Al Sharpton and I am sure many, many others…he wasn’t a saint, nor was he a god, NOR was he this incredible force for decency and universal “love” that he was made out to be today. Oh there is no doubt that his family are devastated by his loss. Joe Jackson himself was rumored to have said “Holy shit, how am I gonna make my mortgage payment now?” when he found out he was dead. (jk)

Seriously, there is no doubt his family is saddened by his death, and his close friends. But to show up and put on a display like Al Sharpton did…well that my friends takes a level of stupidity that few can muster.

I suppose we should all be thankful for Reverend Al, because he is definately one of the few who is capable of such ignorance.

At any rate, as it is most days, I am pretty much into my own thing. I just have too many damn things to worry about to pay much attention to what is happening around me. Sure, a car coming across he intersection with no brakes will catch my eye, a dirt-bag with a gun out would definitely cause me to pay attention. I suppose that the REAL way to put it is that frankly, I don’t usually care what is happening around me. I take it all in, process it quickly and if it doesn’t seem to be my “problem” I simply ignore it.

I know it sounds awful,  and in all honesty…it is awful. I guess my thinking is that I have enough of my own problems, concerns or needs to be worried about things that don’t impact me directly. I know that it doesn’t make it right, I suppose its just how it is. Life is hard, you move on and that is that.  I should think that most of us feel similarly in many instances. Don’t get me wrong, I empathize with people and their situations, I totally understand…I suppose I am just too wrapped up in my own concerns to be bothered to do anything about it.

Well, as I am going into my C-Store of choice, I am  accosted by a man who is a few feet away from me. Initially, I was taken aback, because he was rather brusque.

“Excuse me Sir…”

I closed my car door and ignored him

“EXCUSE me, Sir…”

I looked at him and started to walk into the store….

“EXCUSE ME, SIR…”

At this point, he had irritated me so I let it be known in my response.

“What do you WANT, man..”

more of a statement of annoyance  than a question.

“Well, I’m stuck out here and I am trying to get back to Athens(about an hour and a half away from where we were standing) and I am out of gas…if you could spare maybe a couple of dollars…”

I cut him off him by quickly moving towards the doors, and went inside to get my coffee.

I got my coffee, my bottle of water and a pack of gum, and a pack of twizzlers. I didn’t much think of anything while I stood in line to pay for my stuff, just busied myself with the  internal list of things I needed to do today. I walked outside, shoving the handful of change the clerk gave me into my pockets absent-mindedly as I dug my keys out of the other pocket.

I backed out, flipped on the radio and yes, light up a smoke and start to pull out when I see the guy who had so rudely –in my opinion– asked me for money or whatever. He was just standing there.

He was standing there, kind of pacing back and forth in this little area he was in, with this, anxious, worried look on his face. He ran his hands through his hair and kind of let his arms drop to his sides.

The look…just had this worried look on his face. It was the last thing I saw as I drove away.

A few seconds later, as I cleared he parking lot, I was irritated.

“Why the hell am I FEELING BAD?”  I asked no one in particular

“I mean I get out of my car and he is like all in my face…” as if I had been forced somehow, or physically attacked by this persons circumstances.

Clearly, this was the denial stage,when you know deep, deep, deep down that whatever it was that you said or did was completely out of line, where human nature brings you to the emotional cross-roads where you can either admit you were a douche-bag and move on with your lesson learned, or you can try to rationalize that the person you just verbally nuked somehow had it coming. NOT an easy argument to have with yourself when you KNOW you were less than civil.

I started to feel bad. Maybe he really did run out of gas nearly two hours from home. Maybe he lost his wallet, maybe he just fucked up and left home without enough money for gas. Maybe he just didn’t have enough money. Maybe he got stiffed on a job and didn’t get paid and just wanted to go home. Maybe his credit card was declined and he was truly screwed. Maybe he was just full of shit and just wanted to score some dough for a bottle of beer? How the hell would I know?

It hit me that THIS was precisely the reason I was bothered.

I didn’t know.

I didn’t know a god-damn thing about it. Not that it was a crime or anything…but not only did I not know, I was a dickhead to this guy simply because he had taken 27 seconds out of my life to ask for help…the reason didn’t matter.

How many times in my life have I needed help? How many times in my life have I begged the sweet god almighty FOR some help? Sure, I don’t think I’ve ever been standing outside a store asking strangers for money…but who is to say I won’t be some day? Who am I to be such a dickhead about it? Do I have things so good that I can afford to kick karma in the balls and judge some dude so harshly? To be shitty to him when he is obviously–for whatever reason–at a fairly low moment? To effectively spit in his face by not even letting him finish a statement?

No, I don’t. And furthermore, I should not have, regardless my current circumstances.

I drove back to the hacienda thinking of a million scenarios that probably had little or nothing to do with this guy or his circumstances. In fact, I am quite sure that in my mind I was projecting an awful lot into this whole damn business because I was feeling more than a little guilty for being a prick. I felt bad about it. I dont know why, I mean this kind of thing has happened before, you know? I suppose that somehow, it just got to me a bit. For whatever the reason, and I am not prone to such things typically…it just gnawed at me. Granted, not enough to do anything about it…but it did bug me a little.

I got over my “moment” of guilt, imagined or otherwise, and went about the rest of my day. At about 7:30, I decided that I needed to get the dog some dog food. I didn’t really feel like going into the grocery, so I decided that it was worth 3 extra dollars to just get it at the convenience store down the road. So I whipped into the place and ran inside. Of course, it had in fact been quite a while since my last cup of coffee so I went to the back of the store to the thing there and made a nice hot cup, added my requisite amount of fake sugar and reached for a lid.

I heard the lid seal with a light “snap” and then I heard a voice:

“umm, sir? sir”

I looked up and saw a young girl.

“yes?”

I said, kind of absent mindedly, as I reached for my keys and phone off the counter where I had laid them.

“Is there anyway I could ask a favor? See, I left home this morning and I am totally out of gas and I have like 2 dollars on me and I don’t think I will make it…”

Her voice kind of trailed off a bit and I looked at her and she was about to cry. I saw this kid, what? Maybe 18? It was my kid. It was your kid, everyone’s kid. She was scared, worried that she wasn’t going to get home.

“…I guess I am being way irresponsible today,I don’t know what I am going to do…”

She was pointing out the store to the pump where her car was. She put her hands on her head and then sort of let them drop to her sides and looked at me.

An anxious, worried look on her blushing face

I kind of nodded to the register area there and we walked up to the cashier. I pointed to her car:

“can we go ahead and put like what? 15? 15 bucks on the red car there?”

“OMG, thank you so much.”

She kind of bounced out really quickly and went to her car…just like a little kid, which by nearly every measure, she was.

The cashier took the money for the total purchase, sans the charge for the coffee.

“thank you for that, she came in here very upset, I wanted to help, but…”  He kind of pointed in the general direction of what I took to be his manager.

“We were all young once, right? ” I said, “How many times did we just plain fuck up and need a hand?”

We kind of laughed a second, a laugh that meant “Boy, don’t I know that”. He handed me my change with one hand, and shook my hand with the other.

“Besides,” I said “I got a kid her age, I would hope that someone would help her if she needed to get home”

As I walked out of the store with my bag of over-priced dog food and my free cup of extra yummy coffee, the girl was wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand as she filled up her car. I backed out and passed her with the window down.

“Thank you so much, …you really saved me..thank you so much.” She hung the gas thing up on the pump.

“That enough to get you where your going?”

She nodded yes…

“Ok” I said, “Drive safe”

She smiled and waved and got in her car and we both drove off.

It was hard not to feel good about it all. Such a little thing, ya know? To give what, 10 or 15 bucks to a stranger and have it mean so much? Naturally, my mind ran quickly to the scene 7 hours prior, not 15 feet from where this whole thing had gone down.

I was glad that this young kid hadn’t run into a complete asshole like that guy who was trying to get back to Athens had.

To be very honest with you, for whatever reason — be it a function of age or perhaps some kind of bizarre emotional epiphany — in my mind I find myself hoping that I don’t run into him either, especially when I get up to shave in the morning.

I hope he made it back to Athens.

I work on a computer which is connected to the internet ALL DAY long. By working online I DON’T mean what some people mean which is: 2 minutes of company email and 45 minutes of warcraft, 3 minutes company spreadsheets and 20 minutes of MILF porn. Sadly, I am actually working on one of many things at one time or another.

(Not that I am any better than anyone currently hunting MILF porn…)

Ok, so I am working here this morning. I am uploading some web-pages and some graphics files to a customer site and I am loving it because this upload represents the end of the quintessential pain in the ass project. For days, I’ve done nothing but correct and add, correct and add. I am ecstatic that it is finally finished, and I can just upload and send an email have them double check it and then I am good to go. Project is done, everyone is happy I am a hero and I can move on to the next thing on my list.

WRONG!

I decide to look at it one more time, so I check it in IE7 (yes…I know) and fuck all if as soon as the window opens I watch my computer open up a zillion new tabs in my browser. I am frantically hitting buttons and shit trying to get it to stop. So CTRL-ALT-DEL and of course, nothing. Everything slows to a friggin crawl but those new tabs just keep getting smaller and smaller as more and more of them open up and fill up the thing. So by now I am pissed and swearing so much that the dog dives under the bed. Everything flips upside down on me and in a few seconds I am faced with the following scenario:

My Internet Browser (IE7, yes I know) has gone rogue

My computer isn’t responding to my keyboard commands

My dog is scared

I’m pissed off (which is never good)

And I am already looking around for something I can break so that I can feel like I am at least doing SOMETHING about the situation.

Of course, since I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL a million times, by the time my machine decides to listen…it opens a million instances of program manager up so now I have THOSE to worry about.

I turn my radio down (I am in fact a talk radio kind of guy) and I can almost hear my processor screaming in agony trying to keep up. I’m closing windows left and right and sweet F A if I don’t shut down my FTP client by mistake.

So, after I regained consciousness I notice that my desktop is a mess. Empty windows everywhere and nothing is working. I have no option available but the nuclear option…so I just pull the plug out of the damn tower. Thankfully everything eventually restarted and I began to redo the shit that I was doing when this happened. As I sat there redoing work I had already started doing (something I hate to do ) I was wondering what the hell caused all this stuff to happen to begin with.

Of course, it is all my fault because my firewall and anti-virus has been expired for like 4 days and I’ve yet to bother to renew it. I mean why should I? I don’t get BS emails that don’t get zapped on my server and I am smart enough to NOT open shit I shouldn’t open. Well, evidently I am a victim of the dreaded SpyWare or Adware. Which brings me to the reason for this post.

Who the fuck creates this shit? And why?

I mean who is the ass-wipe who figures that the best way to advertise a product is to send computer code, or whatever out there on the internet that will force internet browsers to display advertisements for products whether someone wants it or not? I mean I am so sure, as my computer grinds to a fucking halt, effectively destroying hours of work I have just completed I am going to take a second to read the offending IE window (yes, I know) and jot down the number so that I can buy a set of steak knives that will cut through a brick wall and yet remain sharp enough to make snazzy tomato garnishes for my dinner party.

It just doesn’t make any damn sense what so ever. I am no marketing guy, but it seems to me that the way to bring people to your products is NOT to piss them off…but evidently I am wrong, because for whatever reason, this adware nonsense is everywhere and it is just maddening.

It leaves me asking the question that no doubt millions of people have asked: Who pays for this stuff? Clearly, for every computer dork out there who makes this happen there has to be merchandiser on the other end who signs up for it, right? I mean does anyone honestly believe that this is a reasonable way to advertise a product regardless how lame it may be?

And how did you hear about Big Jim’s world famous peanut brittle, sir?

Well, funny thing…your web-page kept coming up every time I opened up my web browser and while I am a little annoyed that my computer fucking died a slow, adware infected death…I couldn’t help but notice that your world famous peanut brittle looked lovely.

Let me guess, you were using IE7

…

I realize that there is plenty of blame to go around here. I realize that I share in most of the responsibility for this and I should well have renewed my subscriptions to the software thing to keep this crap out…but I didn’t. My fault. Epic failure on my part.

The real pisser here is that if it weren’t for smarmy dick-head code junkies with nothing better to do than writing this annoying shit, I wouldn’t have to be set up with a “CTU” level firewall just to browse the MILF porn…I mean web page I just loaded, and that just sucks…

“Says Jan Schakowsky:

 “The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs,” Schakowsky said in a statement.

“It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt,” she added. “Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

 

This is exactly the reason people hate politicians. And exactly why nearly anyone capable of individual thought when given the chance would walk up to 90% of these douche bags and slip a plastic bag over their heads and put them out of their misery.

Not only is this stupid woman wrong for her comments, she’s a liar. To call non-violent protests by the population despicable and shameful simply because you don’t agree with it is disgusting. And to support her ridiculous comments by repeating the big-liberal ass smooching lefts line of enormous tax cuts and the creation of 3.5 million jobs…it is simply laughable.

Where are these 3.5 million jobs Schakowsky? Were the 650,000 that were lost the last 3 months among those “phantom” jobs you so quickly speak of? I submit to you, madame that you and every one of your fellow “representatives” — and I use that term “very loosely” — simply pull that figure out of your ass whenever you need to try to bolster support for those ridiculous spending bills that YOU ass clowns keep shoving down our throats.

Newsflash, you insufferable dolt…Obama’s economic plan is incapable of creating 100,000 jobs much less 3.5 million. And this statement…this one I love the most:

“Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year…”

Tell us what happens next year, you  moron…oh wait…you probably don’t know do you. In fact I am willing to bet money that you never even read the thing. The truth most probably is that Jan Sharkowsky and the rest of them couldn’t even tell you how many pages were in the damn bill, forget reading the whole thing.

As I said, this is why people hate politicians, and why in my opinion most of them should be lined up and tarred and feathered for gross negligence and ineptitude and then summarily run the hell right out of town.

It is just simply amazing. Talk about political nepotism and partisanship, are you kidding me? Really?

This woman should learn to keep her mouth shut. I mean forget that peaceful protest is one of the basic building blocks of our republic, forget that people are just fed up with the reckless spending that people like Jan Shakowsky are engaged in…oh no…its an affront to President Obama so god no, you don’t want to protest that. Just because people disagree with your agenda doesn’t make them dangerous radicals, it makes them people who have just decided that maybe you fuckers up in Washington should  learn to live with a little less like the rest of us when times are tough and stop spending like there is no tomorrow.

The smugness that this woman exudes is repugnant to me. In a prefect world, she would be fired on general principle…just for being an idiot.

 I have news for you…all you sycophants who bend over and pucker up for all things Obama are going to destroy this mans Presidency.

The simple reality is that the sheen is beginning to wear off a bit and it is becoming obvious that this guy doesn’t crap tiffany cuff-links after all, and he probably doesn’t have all the answers to the universe either.  Not that that is such a bad thing in and of itself, the only problem is that that is the bill of goods we were sold. And now that it is starting to wane just a bit, people like Jan Shakowsky have to go out there and attack the average citizen who is trying to voice their concern.

Honestly, it really is kind of sad.

The funny part is that these people honestly believe that they are ”interacting” with ”mother nature” on some level. There they sit, crying and blubbering over the trees that have been cut down in the name of the “evil” materialism perpetrated by the imperialistic nation that they dwell in, shouting to the heavens that there are some people here that care, that grieve, that share in the torment and sorrow that forests must surely feel as many of their ‘brethren’ are sliced down with blades of steel and whisked off to their final reward.

(well, after they are stripped of their bark and run through any number of saws and other such violent machinery.)

I hate to be the one to burst any bubbles for anyone, but it is high time someone tells it how it is. The earth…is fine. The trees?  They are fine. I don’t feel like it is much of a stretch to say that trees do not feel any pain when they are taken to the ground by way of chainsaw, or axe and the surrounding trees do not feel sympathy, pain or loss.

“Mother Nature” is fine, and furthermore, she doesn’t give a rats ass how these clearly unwashed, emotionally unbalanced stooges feel about any of it. “mother nature” herself  butchers up hundreds of thousands of people every single year with wanton disregard for their social class, emotional state, success level, skill sets, cooking ability and dare I say “feelings”.

With reckless abandon, “mother nature” has destroyed entire civilizations and eradicated hundreds, if not thousands of species at “her” leisure. The truth of it is that mother nature is hardly a peaceful, tranquil “entity” with which we should commune and worship. It could be said that at a minimum “mother nature” is more than a bit disinterested in her human “children”, treating  us as only a dysfunctional mother could. And when she has the mind to, her floods and famines and disasters show us that mother nature indeed can be a diabolical, screaming, evil whore. 

It’s time that these knuckleheads realize that the earth is not listening to their apologies and screams of pain and pledges of solidarity.

Nature is supremely indifferent to us and –as it has been said by many people, countless times in many ways…– when its our time to go, she will rid herself of us in a nano-second and go on to worry about much more important things on her agenda. 

Personally, these “earth first” clowns need a dose of serious reality. I find myself conjuring up scenarios in my mind about the next piece of this story.

So far, the one that appeals to me most is the one where each and every one of these losers seated in the circle, weeping amidst the tree stumps is clubbed over the head with a 32 oz Louisville slugger which was just manufactured from the trees that were just chopped down.

That’s comedy.

California represents the very mecca of uber- leftist ideology. For decades California has been a bastion of modern liberalism in it’s current iteration. For years and years and years California has prided itself -at least in the minds of the “power set” who reside there-  that the nation kind of takes its “cue” from what goes on out in Cali. Of course this rings even more true if you consider that California has indeed been the catalyst for nearly every sick and depraved trend to ever occur in this country…but that is, as they say, another story.

In all seriousness, if you wish to see one very possible outcome to this country’s current economic situation, just take a look at California. California has long subscribed to the notion of  a big social Government. Far reaching, government intrusion upon free enterprise for the sake of obscure, and almost entirely irrelevant species, insane environmental legislation, HUGE personal and corporate tax rates levied upon residents for the betterment of the “suffering” and more importantly,  “illegal” masses, and a never ending parade of pseudo-intellectuals prattling ad nauseam about the benefits of a more loving, more “caring”, more inclusive Government and the benefits thereof. The net result of the unfettered liberal “sand-box” on our west coast is an American state almost completely bankrupt both economically and socially and a state almost entirely bereft of reasonable, capable leadership.

Fast-forward now to our current circumstances. Greed and gross mismanagement on a level that would make even the most jaded Californian proud has left our national financial system in a state of chaos that is almost unbelievable. In point of fact, the only thing more amazing than our current economic status is the “solution” that has come from our leadership.

At first glance you could say that the two issues are unrelated, but on closer inspection even the most dense among us must recognize that our current “leadership” was hand-picked by the same people who have run the once great state of California into the ground.

As you know, I was not a fan of Obama. That being said, I was never really bothered that he won. An interesting juxtaposition, to be sure, but a true one none-the-less. I want to believe that this guy knows what is what and that he will be the one who can actually get in there and “fix” some of these problems. Sadly, so far it doesn’t appear that Obama has any better a grasp on the situation than any of the other clowns who have been to DC the last 20 plus years.

It’s sad, you know? Truly sad. Here we are, banks failing, stocks falling, people losing jobs daily, entire retirements being wiped out in an afternoon and the answer from our “leaders” is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to save a fucking Californian field mouse. Amazing.  And who was responsible for that little gem getting into the spending bill that was so crucial to our national survival? Yep, the Speaker of the House. And where is SHE from? Yep, California.

My point here is very simple and cannot be argued, not honestly at least. The archetypal west coast liberal mentality has been left to its own devices for decades and as a result, their twisted, anti-capitalist, feel good, utopian notions of “progress”  have bankrupted one of the wealthiest and most influential states in our union. At this moment, as we sit here right now, the same exact  ideology is what is driving this so-called “stimulus” legislation which is being batted around like a rubber mouse in DC. In effect, the same people and their same tired, broken “Government is the answer” mentality are forming up on line, ready to take our nation into the next frontier. And that should, at a minimum at least make you sit up and pay attention, if not scare the hell out of you outright.

I have nothing “against” Californians, Jesus I was born there, half my family lives there, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the uber-leftist thinking which has been employed there over the last 60 years has done nothing but destroy the place. I will even allow the possibility (although I don’t believe this to be the case) that these programs and laws and bills were instituted to help people, that the intentions were in fact “good”;  but even given that farcical possibility, the RESULT has been nothing short of a disaster.

California has long been the crown jewel in the helm of political and social leftists. A large majority of the  feel good, social, economic and environmental policies ever conceived in that state have served only to chip away at the tax base in that state. Gargantuan social spending has placed a burden on businesses in California so great that they are leaving the state in scores. I don’t know about you, but I am not so sure that this mentality is what we need in Washington right now, given our current economic troubles. The LAST thing we need is the type of spending and nonsense that has occurred in the Golden State.

Sadly, it seems that the current administration and the current house of representatives (led by the west coasts most…colorful power-brokers) are hell bent on continuing the same ill-conceived plans based upon the same flawed ideology that for far too long was allowed to germinate on the west coast.

What I have yet to figure out is how it is possible for people to not be alarmed at the very thought of it all. I will be the first to admit that the last President wasn’t exactly on the ball when it came to the economy, but you have to call it like it is. The current administration is so tied to the west coast,  leftist mentality that there is no reasonable choice  BUT to expect that in the final analysis, our nation will no doubt share the same fate of the once great state of California.

Time will truly tell whether or not we will indeed follow California down the proverbial drain.

The interesting thing about all of this is that either way, no matter what happens it can at least be said that the current administration lived up to it’s word:

They did, after all, promise  change.

Personally, I like it when douche-bags like this show their true colors. Now, I am not saying that I am glad this girl got her ass kicked, it is kind of sad if you want my opinion on it. I do however, find it hard to feel too bad about it because as it turns out, it took this numb-skull less than a week to stand up in front of her friends and family – with bruises and scratches and apparently one hell of a headache- and claim:

“But I love him” 

Sorry, but that’s comedy. I mean what kind of thought process compels you to stand up for someone who just kicked your ass? What could possibly be the rationale behind that decision? Look, I am sorry, but if someone I was dating or whatever were to throw a beating on me the last thing I am doing is going back for more. Where the hell is this chicks family? Where are her friends?  And along those lines, how is it that this girls father or older brother hasn’t already found this pussy-boy and introduced him to a crowbar? 

Obviously, many things have in fact changed in the world. In my day, this little punk would have been pulling his head out of his own ass within hours of her checking into the hospital.

Typically, I don’t care about Hollywood types, or these so-called musical “greats”. In my opinion most of them get the life they deserve, good or bad. I mean there are many out there…many “celebrities” who just do their thing and they get filthy rich…more power to them, I am all for it. But when someone like this comes around, you just have to step back and appreciate the stupidity. I do feel bad for the girl; evidently she is someone of some import, although I couldn’t tell you who she is.

As a famous girl though..she certainly is doing a lot to empower women…don’t ya think? By publicly sort of accepting this shit she may as well just call a news conference, and explain the importance of keeping your left up to all the young girls out there who for whatever the reason look up to her.

Like I said,amusing…but the overall implications are pretty damn sad.

Listen up and realize that a guy like this Chris Brown…they don’t ever change much. If he is this young and he thinks its ok to beat up on girls, chances are he won’t ever stop. I would also be willing to bet that it will come out eventually that he’s done this shit before.

Someone, somewhere needs to get involved in this before we end up with one more wealthy, popular, “entertainment” type ne’er-do-well who finally decides that hitting isn’t good enough, as he reaches for the filet knife and a pair of black gloves.

Know what I mean?

We all know about Bernie Madoff, the “up-town” investment guy who swindled scores of people to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars. Without a doubt, Madoff was running one of the biggest financial scams that anyone has ever seen, convincing people to part with their millions so that he could invest it for them and make them even more money. Good old fashioned American capitalism right? Put you money in the pot so that it helps companies make heaps of cash and you get even more back then you put in. Except that Bernie wasn’t really doing that. Apparently, Madoff was good with the taking of the money, but fell pretty short of the investing and returning the investment part of that equation.

It’s pretty sad when you think about it. I mean who among us wouldn’t want to invest some of our money to make double or triple our investment? Yeah, we all would. Given that fact you have to discard the notion that these “high-rollers” who got into bed with Bernie somehow got what they deserved for being greedy, or for wanting to make even more money, and look only at the bottom line fact that Bernie Madoff is a crook of the highest order.

I am reminded at something that happened to me when I was younger. I had my wallet ransacked about three days before pay-day and as it worked out, I had just cashed a bunch of checks and had the misfortune (as it turned out) to have a large amount of money in there when the crook took the opportunity to strike. I had buried the wallet in a dresser drawer while I was out of sight of the thing and before I knew it, it was gone. Naturally I was horrified, sad and pissed off like you cannot believe. There is nothing worse than having some dip shit just reach into your pocket and take everything you have simply because they feel like it. Looking back, the insult to the injury was that the bastard, who liberated nearly 1200 dollars from me didn’t even have the decency to leave me a few bucks to get me to pay-day! I mean honestly, the least he could have done was leave me a c-note so I could buy some beer while I lamented my stupidity. While it was only 1200 dollars, it was all I had in the world at that time, so I know what it is like to have someone take everything from you.

That being said, I can at least understand how these people felt when the news broke that Bernie was NOT the high-powered investment guru that he was posing as. No doubt there were people who were utterly gobsmacked at the realization that they had nothing left because this bastard stole their fortune. As we know now, all these months removed from the time the story broke, there has been at least one if not two suicides by investors taken in by this confidence man. The absolute worst aspect of this for me is that Madoff at one time was the chairman of the NASDAQ. People trusted him with their life savings and he screwed them and left many with nothing. That is just a cold shot, brother…a very cold shot.

Almost daily, we get pictures of Mr. Madoff in the news doing various versions of the perp-walk to and from court with that surly grin plastered upon his aged kisser, while he whines and pisses and moans about having to be “trapped” in his luxury NY penthouse. This fucker is lucky to be alive. The hubris that this cock-sucker, his wife and their legal team display is nothing short of amazing.

I heard today on the news that Bernie is seeking some kind of “deal” so that he can somehow save his family. The assumption being that they be spared a life with nothing in exchange for him pleading guilty to being a son-of-a-bitch. I say they make a deal with him, then once they get what they need out of him, take the deal back and tell him what he told his investors: “Hey, you fucked up, you trusted me”

Seriously folks, this guy has fucked more people than Wilt Chamberlain and Ron Jeremy combined and as such, even the shitty, low quality air of New York City is too good for this bastard to be  breathing.

For some reason I feel compelled to qualify my remarks by making the statement that I really wasn’t all that upset when Obama got elected. Sure, I didn’t vote for him, but I can see why people did. I can recollect a comment I made to the effect that I thought he was smooth, seemingly a cool guy, very intelligent, seemed like he had it together. And if it wasn’t for the fact that deep down he seemed to me like he was a leftist in centrists clothing who would ultimately destroy our nation, I would have been moved to vote for him.

I didn’t vote for him, or for McCain, for that matter because they both took the “bail-out” road and that is not a path that I think we should be travelling. Both candidates possessed the political savvy to understand that the first bailout bill would do nothing to “save” anything. They also both knew that it was going to pass regardless the position that they took. I would have had more respect for them both if they had at least voted against it on principle, knowing it would pass, ergo at least giving the appearance of being on the right side of the issue. As it turns out, they didn’t. They both jumped in with both feet and did their best, in their own unique way to sell us all down the river…ah..er…I mean sell us on the benefits of “saving” these institutions which were “too big to fail”. Forget that they were too inept to succeed.

Now we find ourselves, 30 plus days into a new administration and what do we have? I will tell you what we have. We have a steaming pile of poo-poo, that’s what we have. We are about to open the national pocket-book and hand out more billions to a failing insurance giant, billions to an auto company who claims that they cannot make it anymore without government funding (while the other two major companies in the industry, seem to be managing so far) and as if that isn’t enough, we are about to pass the largest, most reckless spending bill known to have ever existed in history.

Now to his credit, or maybe his discredit, this huge spending bill is not really Obama’s bill. I doubt that he has even read the thing, and at more than 1000 pages, it’s doubtful that ANYONE has. No, this little sweetheart bill is Nancy Pelosi’s baby. The problem is that while Pelosi may well be ram-rodding this thing down our throats ( and I will spare you the analogy that pops into my mind) Obama is the HMFIC and as such he damn well should be out there with his veto pen, carving this thing up. The truth, however, is that he isn’t. The reason? It’s a simple one:

Payback

This is the great socialist payback bill of 2009. It’s time to give a little love to the folks that got him elected. End of story, that’s it, that is how the game is played. How else can you explain a bill this asinine being passed and signed by a new President who promised until he was blue in the face that there would be no earmarks, no reckless spending and that everything would be transparent? Again, the answer is, you can’t. It’s transparent alright.

Look, I know the guy is new to the job and god knows we weren’t in the greatest shape when he took over, but don’t bullshit me. Don’t pretend that this pant load of a stimulus bill is anything other than what it is. A big fat load of pork tailor made and hand delivered as a big ass thank you to the powers at be that greased the ways for a very impressive campaign victory.

I am NOT one of these sour-grapes conservatives just waiting to pounce on Obama for failing. I mean 30 plus days does not a presidency make, but when we are treated to nonsense like we are at speech making time, it just gets infuriating man…infuriating as hell. I look at Obama’s wonderfully eloquent speech making ability ( and the brother can make a speech) the other night the same way I look at Lenny Kravitz’s music:

I don’t care how “cool” you are or how much “attitude” you put off man…the shit still sucks.

I don’t care how many nice, history making, tear-jerking lines he throws at us when it comes to trying to sell this bill to us, it stinks and it stinks bad.

Life is NOT fair, it isn’t supposed to be fair. You can go ask a gazelle on the Savannah just how fucking fair life is as it’s throat is being ripped out by a huge cat and he will tell you:

Life’s a bitch sometimes.

Companies who cannot make it go under. HUGE companies that cannot make it go under to a larger degree, but they go under just the same. People who fuck up and get mortgages they cannot afford lose their houses. It’s sad, it’s too bad…but its life man.

It’s very simple, the Government should NOT be in the business of owning businesses. That is YOUR tax money they are blowing like drunken sailors. The notion that these “Stimulus Bill projects”  –no matter how well they are sold– will get our economy moving is silly. You tell me, right now, how a highway project that will start in 2011 will help us out right now. You tell me how adding 300 road crew workers in bullshit Indiana or Kansas building a fucking road will get the credit markets moving again to the degree that small businesses can start cranking up again. You tell me how Harry Reids “special”  project for his district will EVER benefit US more than it benefits HIM.

You can’t do it. You can’t do it because it cannot be defended. The way to fix a sluggish economy is the same way it has always been. It’s the way Reagan did, the way JFK wanted to do it, and the way Nixon wanted to do it back in the early 1950′s. Lower the stinking taxes while at the same time controlling the government spending.  It is just simply undeniable that when government gets the hell out of the way, things get moving. Fix the regulatory issues that allowed these crooks to put it over on us and then get the hell out of the way.

That is the answer. The answer is NOT to spend billions upon billions of dollars propping up weak, failed companies and banks. Especially when you don’t have the money to do it to begin with.

There are not enough clever words or well turned phrases in the modern lexicon that will EVER make this bill suck less than it does. And there will never be enough of them to apologize for the damage it causes when its all over.

As usual, I am way late to the party. I am not sure why that is exactly…oh I know why…because typically I don’t really give a damn about such things. Typically, but not always. Here lately I have been gently “hounded” by some who will remain nameless that I need to get on Facebook. Evidently, it’s “all about Facebook”. Go figure, huh? I simply never realized that the world was currently so in love with it.

So I listened to my friends (which is almost always the WRONG thing to do) and I signed up for the thing. I registered, logged in and then did the standard gyrations which were required to stand up and tell the social networking world that I do in fact exist, and here I am. I spent a few moments filling out the little profile thing and then began to get familiar with the whole facebook landscape.

The first dilemma I faced was one of exactly how much information am I willing to divulge about me and my activities. Don’t get me wrong, aside from a few things that are better left unspoken, I don’t have anything to really “hide”; it just struck me that by giving your fricken life story, it makes you look a bit on the “hey look at all the cool shit I’ve done the last 20 years…can you beat that?” side. And yet not putting anything most surely leaves everyone asking: ”what the fuck have you been doing for the last 20 years?!”

Ultimately, I chose to sort of just stick with the required stuff and take the gamble. Once that was completed, I was face to face (so to speak) with my next dilemma. Unlike the first issue, this one presented an interesting juxtaposition for me, because quite honestly, I have NEVER been one to ask anyone to be my friend, like…ever. It’s always been a fairly simple process. If you don’t want to call or hang out…don’t. If we talk more than once or maybe share some time or maybe a beverage and make some jokes and generally have a cool time hanging out…then we’re in. If you don’t call me back or accept an invitation to do anything,thats cool too. I’ve never been known to actively “pursue” friends. I either had them or I didn’t.

So needless to say, the idea of scouring the site and randomly thinking of names of people and sending out: “in the name of god will you please be my friend?” messages…well, not really my thing. Thankfully, a couple people made it easy for me and almost immediately I had “friends”…which was cool. Thankfully, it appears that one of the following rings true:

1) I was not as big of a retard as I thought I was way back when.

2) Everyone is older now and they simply don’t remember how big of a retard I was way back when.

Either way, I have been spared public shame by having a few people openly admit to being my friend. Which is a good thing.

So fast forward a week or so and I can say that it has been a pretty cool experience by and large. I heard from some people I hadn’t heard from, yet always thought about over the years and was able to relive a few cool memories with folks that hadn’t crossed my mind in 20 years. Not too bad, given the cost of admission. I have found that I personally enjoy several aspects of the Facebook community, of which my current favorites are:

1) I like the fact that you have to actually “invite” people to be your friend. And in the event that someone wants to be YOUR friend, you can chose to either accept said invitation or summarily reject them out of hand.

 

2) I like that you can start or join random, obscure groups which contain people that you actually might have the desire to be involved with. This little feature could come in handy. I mean how often would you get a chance to meet a few dozen people, much less one person, who might share in your all consuming  hatred of something, or conversely, your absolute love of something. You could belong to both the “Spam lovers club” where you could spend hours discussing the nutritional and ecological benefits of the oft-maligned food product, and the “American Anarchists Club” at the same time! Whoa, talk about diversity.

 

3) The photo section. This is an attractive feature, I mean lets be honest, your friends are a direct reflection of who you are. Who wants ugly friends?

That being said, I do find myself wondering, however about the down side to Facebook.

I mean, I can’t imagine anything worse than going through all this only to find out that no one likes you. I mean honestly, how many people jump up there and send out their invitations only to return over and over again to an empty page. How many people have registered, logged in and then within a few weeks, they were found dead in their bathtubs clutching a senior class yearbook, with all the eyes cut out of the pictures? And what about the large groups of people who are out there, patrolling the waters, looking for names on their personal “hate” lists, just looking for a way to sneak up on you and exact revenge for stealing a girlfriend and then ruining all chances you had at happiness for the rest of  their miserable, fucking, lives?!!

One of the immediate ramifications of my new FB experience though, was something I didn’t expect,which could be summed up in an email to one of my FB friends from high school.

Ok so everytime I log into facebook I get the little “You might want to be friends with” thingy which suggests the people who are in my area, went to my school or are friends with someone else who is friends with me.  So I looked at my friends, and then I looked at YOUR friends. Quite honestly, I have decided that I like your friends better. So I am going to select everyone YOU know and see if they will become MY friend.

It would appear that you have way more hot friends, like me for instance. It’s very simple: your friends are much better looking than MY friends.. well except for you, naturally.

So just be warned, I’m on a hunt to take over your friends…

It would seem that I have ”friend envy”.

 I will have to work on that.