Solicitor Or Missionary. Same Thing

A solicitor is a solicitor.  Whether you're trying to sell me frozen meat, or your religion, you are still bothering me.

This morning, about ten o'clock, I'm getting ready to get in the shower so I can go watch my son play soccer.  The door bell rings.  On a Saturday morning?  That usually means one of the neighbors needs help with something, or wants to borrow a tool.  So I put on my robe, turn off the water and go answer the door.

Missionaries. Mormon Missionaries.  Like they don't already pretty much have the place locked up.

I have two, "No Solicitors" signs on the front of my house.  One on the stairs that lead up to the door, one on the door.  It's pretty hard to miss.  I would think this would let a person of average intelligence know that I don't want to be bothered.  I guess these guys are not of average intelligence.

Being my usual, cheerful, willing to suffer fools gladly, self, I said, "What the fuck are you doing bothering me?!  You can't READ?!  Did you not see the TWO, No Soliciting signs on the front of the house?"

He says, and I shit you not, "We're not solicitors.  We're, The Missionaries".  Like that makes him exempt from the social contract some how.  "The Missionaries", like you are the ONLY Missionaries in the WHOLE WORLD.

So I tell him, "Bullshit!  You are soliciting new members for your bullshit religion!  Some people ring the bell and try to sell me a vacuum cleaner, you are selling BULLSHIT!  Now go home, go to college, have sex with some girls, drink some beer, learn HOW to think, not WHAT to think!  And don't ever come back here again!"

I was pissed.  I can't believe that these idiots think that somehow, the rules do NOT apply to them.

I will say that the kid had pretty good timing.  And he was lucky.  Cause if he'd come here while I was watching the Red Wings this afternoon?  I would have shot him in the head!

Let's Talk About, "Entitlements", Shall We?

The Republicans want to cut your Social Security.  They want to cut your Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps.  They want you to have to PAY for health care in the richest country in the world, when most of the REST of the world, who's smarter than us, has it for free. They will NOT agree to rich people paying more in taxes, but they have no problem with more taxes on the MIDDLE Class, which is about to cease to exist.

They will not agree to background checks to buy a gun, when 87% of the country WANTS this!

Yet, this week, Texas Governor, and total idiot, Rick Perry asked for Federal Disaster Relief after a PRIVATE, UNREGULATED, BUSINESS, blew up and wiped out the town of, West, Texas!  Really?  You got some balls on you, Rick!

You're Senators voted AGAINST FEDERAL aid for New York, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. An, "Act of God" in YOU'RE vernacular.  But you want the Feds to step in and help out when this private, business blows up and takes a town with it?

Well, I have to say that I speak for the American people who HAVE an education, who were not, "home schooled", who don't believe in an, "Imaginary Friend Who Lives In The Sky", who don't feel the need to carry a gun every where they go and say"  FUCK YOU!

You got nothing coming!

Suck it, Rick!  You want to succeed from the Union?  Good on ya!  And Good Riddance!  We will all be better off WITHOUT Texas!

And THAT being said.  Who is it that wants an ENTITLEMENT?  The poor?  The old?  The disabled?  Nope.  Not in Rick's book.

It's the businessman who's plant levels a whole town, cause he didn't get inspected by THE GOVERNMENT!  For TWENTY YEARS!  WTF!  Really?

Deregulation is working out pretty good for you in Texas, Rick?  Really?

Hypocrite, thy name is, Republican.

You are entitled to not win another election.

Pop Country Really Sucks...

I don't listen to, "Pop" country.  Think it sucks.  I admire all Taylor Swift has accomplished, but I won't buy her albums.  Kenny Chesney does some catchy tunes, but he's three decades behind, Jimmy Buffett.  So he needs to stick to corn fields and high school football, and let the pros handle, "Trop Rock".

Then there is, Brad Paisley.  I only know about this guy cause when I'm really bored in the afternoon while waiting to go to a doctor's appointment or something else, I have been known to turn on GAC.  The songs mostly suck, but the girls are pretty, and it's mindless entertainment for a few minutes.

He's done some funny videos.  And I've heard some funny songs by him.  But he always impressed me as a kind of, "Novelty Act".  He'll sing you a funny song about his box of cigars being destroyed in, "a series of small fires", and shit like that.  And he's a pretty good guitar player.  But not exactly a musical heavy weight.

Other than that?  I don't know shit about this guy.

Now, it appears that he has produced the WORST song EVER, with, "Accidental Racist".  I TIRED to go watch it tonight on line, but even YouTube has pulled it!  How F***** Up does what you posted have to be to get pulled from, YouTube?  That is just wrong.

I saw him on the Leno show, and I think the guy was sincere about his wanting to bring rap and country together.  I don't really believe this guy IS a racist.  But boy, he sure missed the boat on this.

He was about a mile off when he tried to copy RUN/DMC and Aerosmith getting together for, "Walk This Way".  And I only can say this from the TINY parts of the song I HAVE heard.

If Steven Colbert is kicking your ass?  Your ass needs to be kicked.  I'm just sayin...

So, that being said, and as much as I try to follow pop culture, I had no idea where, Brad Paisley is from.  When he wasn't controversial?  No one else did, either.

Now?  Every story about this starts with, "Country singer, Brad Paisley, from WEST VIRGINIA..."

Fuck.

Between this and those idiots in that show about drunk teenagers, dying?  Really?  Can we ever live down our reputation?

My father was a rocket scientist!  His brother, Toby was a school counselor with a Master's Degree and a high school baseball coach that coached, John Kroc to MLB!  My mother had a teaching degree from WVU.

I have taken my kids back there many times, and explained to them their, "Hillbilly Heritage" and the Scotch/Irish folks who settled this part of the country.  I'm PROUD to be from West Virginia.  And I'm proud my kids know about West Virginia's role in this country's history.  After all, we WERE the Virginia on the RIGHT side of history.

And now?  What are we known for?  Being poor, too right wing, less teeth than any other state, and, Brad Paisley.  Oh, and coal.  I forgot about the coal.  Maybe cause I never SAW a coal mine until I was in my 20's and drove to Central Utah.  No coal in MY part of West Virginia.  Only mountains, and trees and beauty.

So, thanks, Mr. Paisley for making us all look bad again.  I know you didn't mean it, I understand what you were trying to do, and I appreciate your effort.  But man, you are really, really clueless.

I guess that's a statement about the West Virginia schools...

Oh, I need to stop it!

Bottom line.  NOT all West Virginians are racist.  But many are.  Not all West Virginians are uneducated.  But a lot are.  Not all West Virginians are right wing, gun nuts.  But, well, truth be know?  MOST are.  I have to admit.

But I'm a West Virginian, and I'm WELL educated, as were my parents, and I'm a left wing, Liberal, Democrat.  Who loves guns and has a lot of them.

So don't be too hard on West Virginia or Brad Paisley.  I think he fucked up.  But I think he MEANT well. Just sayin...

Why Medical Care Is Outragous In This Country.

I ended up in the emergency room for a nose bleed that wouldn't quit this afternoon.  And I didn't get home until nine o'clock at night.  This is only the second time this has happened in my life.

I've had nose problems all winter.  Got it treated in a ENT's office last week.  Guess it didn't work.

Tonight, the doc in the ER opens this package of equipment, all of it metal, that has a tool to open your nostril so he can see in there, long tweezers, scissors and a couple of other things.  And starts working on me.

The bottom line, the cauterization did NOT work, so I now have a sponge of some sort, a, "nose tampon" that I have to leave in there for three days, and I'm on antibiotics cause my left sinus can't drain, so I can get an infection.

When they finally tell me I can go home, the nurse is cleaning up and I asked her, "You don't throw those tools away do you?  They're metal.  Don't you put them in an autoclave?"

She says, "No, they get thrown out.  You can take them home if you want.  They used to use ones we kept, but they don't any more."

Yeah, I need a nostril, "opener" on a regular basis.  I guess I should have taken the scissors and the long tweezers, I probably could have used those at some point.  After all, I'm paying for them!

Why do we do things like that in this country?  It's wasteful, and it's expensive, and we have the technology to make that equipment clean and available for the next guy with a bloody nose!  But it's better for medical equipment makers to sell the same shit over and over again!

It's not better for the patients.  It's more expensive for the hospitals, and this is where you would think that there would be some resistance to the whole thing, it's more expensive for The Insurance Companies!  It makes no sense.

Even the nurse couldn't explain it.  This stupidity benefits no one but guys who make expensive, disposable, medical equipment!  Even in Cuba, they are smarter than this.

RIP Civility

Maybe I only notice this cause I was a Sociology Major.  So I kind of see behavior in, "groups".  Groups of cooks, groups of a race, groups of a religion, I tend to generalize behavior I have observed to each group I see it in.

But I've noticed that in our society in general, no matter what subgroups you belong to?  No one has an, "Internal Rear View Mirror" any more.  People are so focused on what is right in front of them, and what is bringing them satisfaction of some kind at the moment, that they don't give, to quote, Kurt Vonnegut, "A flying fuck at a rolling donut" about how their behavior affects anyone else around them!

You are on your cell phone in the left lane, and going ten miles an hour under the speed limit?  And there is a line of cars behind you a mile long?  So what?  Can't you people see I'm on the phone?

Or you're old and won't drive fast in your Toyota Camry, and you won't get out of the left lane?  Fuck you!  I'm going the SPEED LIMIT!  Go around on the right.

Well no one made YOU the speed limit Sheriff, and if I had to pass you on YOUR right?  YOU are in the WRONG lane, not me.

You are old and still write checks, but you wait until the checker at Harmon's has processed your entire shopping cart before you START to write out your check?  You're an asshole.

Tonight, The Blind Lady and I went to a concert at, The State Room.  Best place in town to see a show.  And some dick, walked down the isle with his cell phone/video camera and stood right in front of us, and recorded the on cour, so we couldn't see it.  Despite the fact that there were numerous signs in the venue that said do not use flash photography, and video recording is NOT allowed!  And when they introduced Robert Earl Keen, the introduction told people to NOT do what he was DOING!

So not only did he not care about the people he was blocking from the show?  He was ignoring the signs and the rules of the place!  How is this OK? 

We're on the, "Do Not Call List" and yet, our land line gets at least two calls a day from telemarketers.  Congress passed a law mandating that commercials could not be LOUD effective last December, but no one is complying.  I have TWO, "No Soliciting" signs on my front porch and front door and I STILL get people who ignore it trying to sell me everything from steaks, to lawn care, to fruit, to their dumb ass religion!

What have we come to in this country that no one listens to other people?  No one thinks about how their behavior effects others.  No one CARES about others feelings, or how their behavior will effect others.

A few years ago, after I bought the Camaro, I passed a guy in a pickup truck, going half the speed limit with the truck full of furniture.  It was in a passing zone, and I understood he didn't want to spill his load.  I get it.  As I went around him, he sped up, at the risk of his own belongings, and tried to cut me off, then yelled at me at the next stop light!  How is THAT an act of war?  I didn't, "disrespect" him, I just passed him.  In a passing zone.  Cause he was slow.  Which is why we HAVE passing zones!

I'm going to go out on a limb hear, and join a group I hate, the NRA, and suggest we adopt their attitude.  Everyone should carry a gun, and when you get treated with uncivil behavior?  You shoot the motherfucker.

You stand in front of me at a concert?  Bullet in the back of the head.  You drive too slow in the fast lane?  I'll quote, David Wilcox:  "I flashed my lights, I blew my horn.  I have to consider him warned.  So I took out my gun, and I blew him away!"

I think the NRA might be onto something here.  If everyone had a gun at all times, and could just shoot people who pissed them off?  I imagine people's behavior would improve a LOT!

I don't think we should return to Victorian Times.  But is it too much to ask that people just consider how their actions effect everyone around them?  I don't think paying attention is too much to ask to be a member of this society.

And Republicans in Congress?  I'm talking to YOU, too.