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.

Coming Home To Roost...

Provo might have to close it's airport because of, "The Sequester" of Federal funds.  Good!

You idiots down there keep voting for morons like Mike Lee?  You get what you deserve.

You keep TRYING to be a real city, by getting air service, and then you lose it for LACK of service.  Yet the Federal Deficit is NOT the problem. And Obama didn't cause it.

Bush did.

So you signed on to something so repulsive, that you thought the President, and the Senate would HAVE to listen to your total, unadulterated bullshit, and cave in?  Not going to happen.  You guys are CRAZY stupid!

Now?  Live with it.

You HATE the Federal Government.  Until you NEED the Federal Government!  You people are total jerks.

And I hope none of you have to fly in or out of Provo!  Could be as dangerous as flying in or out of Ambercris  Caye, Belize when I had to tap the pilot on the shoulder as we were about to take off, and tell him there was a plane about to land.  On the same runway.  He pulled off into the grass, let it land and then took off.

THIS is what you want with LESS government?  Really?

Morons.

Old Dog

She snores.  She sheds.  When you let her out late at night, and you have to, she wanders around the lawn, and sometimes just lays down in the grass for WAY too long, until you go out and find her.

She is turning gray, and she's already turned slow.  She spends most of her day on her bed, or on the carpet in front of the fireplace when there is one in there.

She parks herself in front of the vent in the bathroom in the hallway sometimes when it's really cold, cause there is a vent there and a fuzzy rug.  Spends the the night in there sometimes in the winter.  Likes it better than her bed in the dinning room.

She's slow, and old and we love her so much.

I miss sleeping with my dog.  When she was younger, we, well, MOSTLY, Deb, would get up with the kids, cause I worked nights.  And let, Solstice out and then Deb would come back to bed.  And, Solly would come into bed with us.

The, "Meth Lab" would jump up on to the bed, and cuddle down between us.  She loved being close to her, "human units".

The problem with this, not in MY mind, but in Deb's is that the Large Black Dog would sleep with us with her BACK up against her, "Doggie Daddy", and her paws next to her, Mom.  And when she had dog dreams?  She kicked the SHIT out of Deb! If you have a dog, you know what I'm saying is true.

We used to buy tennis balls by the case at Costco.  We don't play tennis, never did.  But the, "Meth Lab" would go through them like crazy when younger.  Now?  Not so much.

It's all she can to to pick on up, let alone chase it.  She's old.

She's now on her bed, and I covered her up with one of the old dogs, "blank-ies" we bought for her years ago.

Last night, I brushed her in the living room between periods of a Red Wings game, and took enough hair off this dog to make another one.  And it's only going to get worse.  Come May and June?  We have a fur lined house.  She sheds like crazy.

And all things considered?  I'm going to miss her SO much.  She's been part of the family for 13 years now.  But the truth is, she's not going to be around much longer.

The first Lab lasted 14 years.  And when we lost Samantha, I lasted TWO days before I got another one.  I don't know what I'll do when we lose this one.

But she's awesome.  And she will be missed.  And I think my kids will both miss HER a lot more then they will miss ME when I go.  As well they should.  Solstice was a better, "Person" than I ever was.

Sleep tight, old, black, dog.  We'll do our best to take care of you as long as you stick around.

The Police Should NOT Be The Military.

We have made a big mistake in this country.  We declared, "War" on drugs.  "War" on gangs.  And then we started hiring former soldiers to carry out that war.

When I got hired by the state, I had to have a degree in Sociology, or Psychology to get my job.  Now?  Not so much.  We are hiring former military guys to be our Cops!  And this is wrong.

These guys know how to kick some ass, and shoot up the place.  But they have NO people skills!  They don't know how to talk down a mentally ill guy.  Being in the Army does NOT make you a good candidate to become a Cop, and deal with people on the street.

It makes you tough, and physically fit.  But it doesn't make you mentally able to talk a guy out of killing himself, or YOU!  It doesn't make you able to understand gang culture, or any OTHER culture for that matter.

We need men and women in law enforcement who have not just the physical skills to perform the job, but a COLLEGE DEGREE in behavioral sciences, so they understand why the people they are dealing with, are doing what they do.

Our Cops are too military.  And those guys up in Ogden, totally screwed up last January.  They were after two pot plants.  They knew who was growing them, they knew where he worked, and his work schedule.  They had NO reason to get a no knock search warrant.  They should have arrested the guy when he was going to work, and then searched his house.

But they went crazy, and it cost one of them his life.  It was a totally bungled decision.

And the guy who was defending his home?  I think he's going to get off.  Because no one knocked on his door and asked him if he was growing pot in his basement. 

I only worked in law enforcement for 18 years, so I admit, I don't know, "shit" about it.  But in my humble opinion, that MIGHT have been the place to start.  After all, he wasn't building nuclear bombs in his basement.  Just growing some pot.  You really need a no knock?  I think not.

All Cops should have a college degree in behavioral sciences.  From a REAL college.  Not some bullshit college like Strayer, or, "University" of Phoenix.  And they should have to be able to talk a gun out of someones hand before they  shoot them with a rocket launcher!

Cops need to quit being soldiers.  And to do this?  We need to end the, "War" on drugs.

Yeah, I realize we will still need SWAT teams.  There are situations which call for that type of response, no question.  I'm just saying that right now?  We use it too much.

Just something to think about.

Don't, "Like" Walmart Around Me. Please

I understand why, if you are not rich, you, "Like" Walmart.  They offer what you need to live and low prices.  Heck, lower than you can buy them anywhere else.  So it saves you money.  Makes your life easy.

But have you thought about how they do it?  They pay their employees shit wages and don't offer health insurance.  They will close a store before they will allow it to Unionize.

Costco offers low prices, a living wage, and health insurance to their employees.  And I bet you shop THERE too!

Walmart exploits Chinese cheap labor to bring you cheap prices on everything you need.  You pay less cause their employees get PAID less than a living wage.

Do you know the three biggest employers in the whole world?  I bet not.

In this order they are, The Chinese Military, The US Military, and WALMART!

As poorly as we pay our soldiers, their families lose their cars and houses all the time when one of the bread winners is deployed overseas, at least they have HEALTH INSURANCE!

Walmart keeps women down, by not promoting them.  After all, they are a CHRISTIAN company, and men should be the bread winners.  Women should stay home and take care of children.  How real is THAT in today's economy?  When corporate profits are at all time highs, yet the pay of people who actually do the labor, hasn't kept up with inflation.  Not good.

If you HAVE to shop at Walmart?  I feel sorry for you, and I understand your situation.  I wish you earned a living wage, and had health care and a retirement plan or pension.

If you CHOOSE to shop at Walmart, when you don't have to?  Fuck you.  You are destroying the Labor Movement in this country.  You remember, The Labor Movement?  The people who brought you, "The Weekend".  And kept your kids out of mines and slaughter houses instead of IN schools?

So if you, "Like" Walmart on Facebook?  You are not paying attention.  They don't like you.  But they know their audience, and they will keep you hooked in.

Next time you walk into a Walmart, and that old man, "greets" you, and offers your kid a sticker?  I want you to look deep into his eyes and try to figure out why, at his advanced age, he's not retired to Florida, or Arizona.  Try to figure out why this old man still HAS to work!  Still has to get up in the morning, put on his vest, and try to put on a happy face, while he puts a happy face sticker on your kid, instead of enjoying the warm weather in his trailer park/condo/planed development/house in Arizona.

Is it because he didn't get a pension?  Didn't get a living wage?  Didn't get retirement health care, and has a sick wife?  Even with Medicare, he still owes some money?  Why is this man subjecting himself to this?  I'll bet you dollars to donuts he doesn't WANT to be there.

And folks who run places like Walmart are the reason for it.

So don't, "Like" Walmart to me.  I DON'T like Walmart.  And if you ever see me in one, I have exhausted EVERY other place to get what I'm looking for. 

I'm pro Union, pro National Health Care, pro a better minimum wage, and pro smart people.  That's why I vote for Democrats!  And if you WORK for a living, and you're NOT like me?  You are NOT paying attention.

As the Reverend Payton (and his Big Assed Band) said, "Put your home town on the map, with four football fields of Chinese crap".  THAT is Walmart.

LIKE that, anti Union, pricks.