Sunday, March 31, 2013

A moment of reflection

 
I don't talk much about my faith here, as it's something that I keep close. It's not for fear, but a respect for the few who chose to read my rants and while I don't know any of you, I can be all but certain that you're not Jewish. The Tribe is small.
But as it so happens, the Jewish and Gregorian calendars meshed and Pesach (Passover) and Easter fall in the same week. Two holy days of the religions of Abraham happening so close when our calendars are out of whack is infrequent so as such, I'm prone to reflection. What's funny and sometimes forgotten is that Jesus of Nazareth, the mensch that he was, was celebrating Passover for the Last Supper.

Religion is under attack in this country. What's tragic about it is it's not those on the outside that are the most worrisome. It's those inside it that are eating it alive and making it but a shell of what it was supposed to be; a way to live your life to honor the teachings of G-d.
And so you don't mistake me for pointing fingers, I'm equally to blame. As a Jew, I'm supposed to keep kosher. It's a simply-complex set of dietary guidelines and I don't keep to it except on Shabbat (Sabbath) and even then I sometimes fall off the wagon. Bacon, cheeseburgers, barbeque, etc... I don't have the self-discipline to just say no. In the grand scheme of things, this is minor. As are my tattoos (another law against those for Jews). The bigger issues, and for this I will point fingers, are when it comes to the most holy of days for our religions.

The commercialization of the birth and death of your savior, Christians, that's all on you. Yes, yes, I know, it's been happening for decades, but you know you feed into it. How many gifts do you give to your children/spouse/friends/family/etc... for Christmas? You spend so much time shopping and toiling for "the holidays" that you forget why you're doing it. Sure, you go to church on or around the day, but think deep: do you really do it because you are truly celebrating the birth or is it because it's expected?
Easter - How did you let a pagan symbol (the rabbit) take charge of what for you should be THE MOST holy of days? It's become about candy and eggs and candy eggs and pastels and... come on?? When I was young, I remember that at around the time on Good Friday when Jesus was said to have died on the cross (around 3:00pm - though they did it using local time), the churches in town would all ring their bells, symbolizing his crying out as he gave up his spirit. I don't hear of this happening anymore.

For Jews, we, I feel, defile our most holy of days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in a worse way. The temple I belonged to up north; the founders of that temple wanted the doors to be open for all who wanted to come and worship and celebrate the Torah. You didn't have to become a temple member, unless you wanted to be a board member. No pressure to give or anything. Come and worship and if you feel at home, maybe you'll wish to help support the temple. That's what I did. I came to temple to pray and to learn, but as I felt closer and closer to the people, I wanted to help, so I willingly became a member and wound up on the board of the temples' brotherhood (think mens club). During the High Holy days, I saw people I'd never seen all year come to pray. And that's how we were.
But outside of those few bastions of welcoming, there is the concept of "Pay To Pray". Many, many temples sell tickets for the services for Yom Kippur and Rosh HaShanah. I fully understand that these are intense undertakings for most temples (2 days of prayer each, with multiple services, and after the last service on Yom Kippur, a break fast), but to demand "tribute", if you'll forgive the term, so that you can join fellow Jews in praising HaShem for creation (Rosh Hashanah) and then begging him for mercy on your sole and asking for forgiveness (Yom Kippur) makes me uncomfortable. Like the things HaShem commands of us, if I undertook them willingly, that is donating to the temple to help them put these on, I'd probably give more than they charge for tickets. But like too many Jews, who lose the concept of tikkun olam (freely translated, it means heal the world -  healing the afflicted, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the bereaved) by demanding government take these actions through theft of the peoples labor (I.E., taxation), they've lost the idea that the shul (synagogue) is a place of worship and charging admission is skeevy.

If those of us who have faith don't reclaim our religions, then the secularists will be more than happy to pound them to dust.
And I don't mean we all have to drop our lives, study Torah for hours on end or become monks or missionaries and devote our lives to living the Bible completely. But we need to realize what our faiths are and what it is about our chosen religions that make us proud to say we're Jews or Christians and take that back.

L'shalom, my Christian friends.

Friday, March 29, 2013

GET OUT OF THE WAY!


As part of my job now, I drive a lot. 40,000 miles a year isn't uncommon. Because of this, I am extremely "sensitive" to people driving like assholes. Now after I fly past them, I'm sure they think the same of me, but I am never an ass to someone who isn't driving like a cock with ears.
I could go on and on about how the laws surrounding driving are asinine in their own right. Highway speeds are too slow. Secondary road speeds are completely arbitrary. Most traffic lights seem to have been put in place because someone bitched, not to move traffic efficiently. It's all fucked. I could go on endlessly about government interfering where it should mind its own business (yeah, I know, like I haven't already), but my biggest problem is with people who get behind the wheel of their rolling masses of death without a brain.
Biggest issue: People don't really learn how to drive. Sure, many teenagers take "drivers education", but it gives them the basics, maybe, and everything else they're supposed to learn while they're driving on their own or with their parents. If their parents suck as drivers, then their kids are going to suck. And 95% of what they teach kids is driving in and around town. Highway driving seems to be an afterthought for these "schools" and as such, you get people on the highway and it's all over.
Tie into this that it isn't a requirement. If you can show a "testing officer" you're not going to drive into a pole, they give you a license. Obviously, I haven't had to take a driving test in a long time, but mine was around the block, parallel park, back in, got my license. Sure, there's a written test, but really, if you read the manual and take it right away after, you'll pass.

Driving properly takes a high level of skill. Doesn't seem it, but it truly does. You have to constantly be watching ahead of you. You have to anticipate that the clown ahead with their left blinker on is actually going to cut across two lanes and go left. You have to be ready for the ass clown following too close to you is going to smack into your bumper when you have to hit the brakes hard because the guy in front of you acts like a dick. Tire blow outs, debris, animals, douche nozzles just stepping off the curb and walking blindly into the road. Coordinating speed through a turn so you don't enter too fast, you maintain speed through it, you don't lane drift. But people fuck it up because they're entirely self-absorbed.

A pet peeve for me is the "Me" culture. As I've mentioned, all actions are personal and done for self gratification. No one is truly altruistic. Studies have been done that show if you don't care about your self and only care for others, you'll be dead in a month. We help others because we want to feel better about ourselves. That's not a knock or some odd form of condescension, it is what it is. I do it because I believe it's right and I don't want to "harm" myself. But it's this shift from doing things for others to make yourself happy to expecting others to do something for you. This translates perfectly to the highways and biways

Lane discipline grinds the shit out of me. If the term is a little lost on you, it's simple: The farther left you go, the faster you go. If you're not passing, move right. The fucking signs on the road even say it. But this is a pipe dream to the modern driver. People get out in that left lane and stay there until they have to turn. I wouldn't even mind if they were paying attention to their mirrors and when they saw a rocket barreling up on them, they got out of the way before that person had to slow down. No... scratch that... it still bugs the shit out of me. Unless you're turning left within 1/4 mile, MOVE THE FUCK OVER!
I'm sure someone out there is calling me a hypocrite, because I'm telling others to get out of my way, but that's the way the road is designed and guess what, the law even says so. Now, I'm potentially breaking it by flying down the highway at speeds that... well... you get the point, but it is the way it is. This is why we couldn't have an American version of the Autobaun.  Driving at high speeds on a highway requires people to pay attention to all other moving items around them and to maintain strict lane discipline. If you're not passing, move, period.
It's been my experience that the two "groups" more prone to this than others are old white people and black women. Sorry if you find that offensive, but it's been what I've seen. Put a hat on the old white guy and it all goes to shit; run for cover, because they will fuck up your road experience. Pull over. Get some coffee. Let them get home before you get back on the road because they cause havoc.

I won't complain much about assholes on their phone or texting. Others may say they can do it alright, it's the other guy who can't, but it's all bullshit. You're distracting yourself from driving, fuck you, you're a cunt. End of that complaint.

Pedestrians. When I was young, if you ran out into the street or even walked out and your parents caught you, they'd smack you in the head or ass, depending on your parents attitude and how old you are. It was to tell you "Hey, dumbass, do that again and you're gonna get hit, it's gonna hurt, stop doing that." Now, thanks to the nanny laws, you are required to stop for a pedestrian. Doesn't matter if they just blindly step out; you are legally required to stop. And people have come to expect this. They have forgotten about something called "The Law Of Gross Tonnage"
This is more of a boating term, but the principal applies: While the "rules" may state otherwise, common sense says that larger boats and ships have the right of way over smaller ones because they are less maneuverable and can't see as well. In a previous life, I dealt with this a lot and would see a single mast sailboat turn directly in front of a 100+ ton loaded commuter boat underway. That's a great way to get yourself killed.
Same thing for driving and pedestrians: You are 100x more maneuverable than a car in motion. 2 tons on wheels takes longer to stop than 150lbs on 2 legs. "But by the law, they're supposed to stop!" As Dad used to say; "Just because you're right doesn't make it hurt any less."
This is another example of the "Me" culture.

The other collection of fucktards I could do without are the people who can't stand being passed. As you move left and try to pass them, they speed up, meaning you need to speed up even faster and they keep speeding up. Or, after you pass them and move right, they speed up and pass you, just to slow down again. There's a smaller minority who, after you pass them, they will speed up, pass you, then stay ahead of you without slowing down. They still suck, but not as bad. This tends to be younger men who do these things and younger black men who pass you and stay at speed. I don't mind being the head of a snake (line of people speeding and as you pass someone, they see that if they keep up, the chances of being caught speeding diminish, so they join the line), but don't be a cock.

Lastly, speed. I would fathom a guess and say 85% of drivers exceed the posted speed limit regularly. But the biggest issue here is time and place. You see way too many people driving 50 through neighborhoods, while they'll barely do 70 in a 65 on the highway. Or you're driving through a 20MPH school zone, kids are walking all around, and someone is right on your ass. Hit the highway and they're left-lane huggers down 5MPH under. Or they know they're driving slower than shit, on a no-passing 2 lane road, they can obviously see the line they're building up, but instead of considering the people behind them and pulling over, they just keep on it.
The flip of this is people driving incredibly slow for the stupidest of things. Cop pulled someone over on the opposite side of the highway. "Hey, fuckstain, they're not gonna forget that guy, jump in their car, and come after you." Rubberneckers should be shot. And I'm dead serious about that. I was caught in a 5 mile, 10mph backup because people were slowing down to see the all lane closing accident on the opposite side of a wide median divided highway "Hey man, everyone wants to see it." No I don't, fuck you, get out of the way, cockmuncher.
And the last on speed are the yo-yo's. They don't really have the skills to manage the throttle (gas pedal), so they speed up to 50, slow down to 40, speed up to 50, slow down to 40. I will pass them on a double-yellow just to get the fuck away from them.

I've been driving my ass off in the last two weeks, so I need to vent. My request to them below.




Monday, March 18, 2013

The level of stupidity is staggering


I don't know why I read comments on articles anymore. People make my eyes bleed, they really do. And it's not even just the comments anymore. Some of the articles are as daffy as fuck.

The common argument used to defend restrictions on the Natural right to defend ones self from oppression, protected federally by the 2nd Amendment is "restrictions" on the 1st:
"You can't yell fire in a crowded theater." Or as one assmonkey in a comment said, "Child pornography is illegal. So no restrictions on speech would make child porn legal. You want child porn legal."

Fuckin' hell!!! In what way does A have to do with B? And I'm not even comparing the two "freedom of speech" items.
In what manner does my possession of firearms harm you? Single shot guns, revolvers, semi-auto guns, bolt action rifles, lever action guns, shotguns, automatic firearms, "high capacity magazines" 1,000's of rounds of ammunition... in what manner do any of these affect your life unless/until I decide to use them against another human being? Even if used in a way that causes an "accidental firing", the chances of you being hurt by them is miniscule at best, zilch at average.
The "restrictions" on the 1st amendment (and it's not a free speech issue at all) are because they cause direct harm to others. The "fire in a theater" is attempting to prevent causing a riot. Unless there is a fire, the only action your scream such would cause is a rush to exit, possibly resulting in people being trampled or otherwise injured. There is no other outcome to be expected.
As for the fucknut's suggestion of child porn: You're raping a child and filming it. The thought of that alone is enough to make people nauseous. I don't think I have to explain the concept of direct harm here.

It would be like saying "My religion requires that I kidnap and sacrifice a virgin to appease my deity." Really, Skippy? So the rights of this virgin are subservient to your needs?

My possession of guns, ammunition, and accessories in no way detracts from your Natural rights to live unmolested. It's not until you decide to purposely cross into my life with the intent on harming me or restricting my Natural rights will they be used against you. If I attempted to do so without provocation, then I should be punished. Pretty simple.

Now this line of reasoning often leads the average Sheeple to bleat "So people should be able to own rockets and tanks and nuclear weapons, huh???"
Shake your head with a chuckle, sigh, and walk away. They're not going to listen to you anyways. However... if they're doing this just to be contrarian, then the retort is:
If I use any manner of firearm, up to and including automatic weapons, in the proper way, I will only affect my intended target. Even if used sloppily, my chances of harming others beyond my target is minimal. If I'm using it for slaughter, if you'll excuse the term but it fits, then a single person with a .22LR ends my actions.
As for, shall we say, high end ordinance: Proper usage means multiple casualties. Period. End of discussion. Accidental discharge creates a whole new world of shit. "Misuse" a nuke and there goes Vegas. Even properly used... get the idea, kids?

Yes, trying to speak rationally with an irrational person is like trying to have sex with a virgin 19 year old girl who's doing kegal exercises and you have whiskey dick. May sound like a great idea at the start, but you're not going to get anywhere but frustrated.

THIS is the level of moron we're dealing with in the struggle for liberty. They don't want it because it's too hard and requires them to think for themselves. Their numbers are growing. Ours may be as well, but I don't think it'll be fast enough. People who claim to be for liberty still vote for John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Boehner, and Mittens Romney.

In 1776, the men who declared that we were a free republic knew the consequences of their actions "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." And if it weren't for a key battle or two turning the tides, they certainly would have. With assmonkey's out there having the beliefs above and the rank-and-file Republicans considering a Yea vote for "universal background checks", what chance does freedom have in our time?

Sorry to be a downer on a Monday, but the sky is dark and the light keeps fading.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Bid/Auction sites

I tend to buy my firearms through local dealers and ammo, in bulk, I buy online. I generally don't do the reverse because I usually don't find it cost efficient. It's not a knock, per say, on either side of the transaction, because I have no qualms about somebody making a buck (If someone's a shiester and I buy blindly from them, I'm the asshole because I should have known better - case in point to follow), but I find that I can buy ammo cheaper online (especially now) and guns cheaper at my local shops.
I do peruse some online dealers and on one, I saw the site BidGunner. It's a "penny bid" auction site. If you've never been to one of these, here's the idea:
Someone provides a product. Let's say it's an H&K P30 9mm. The bidding starts at $.01. You buy a pack of bids. These packs are roughly $1/bid. That's important to remember! So you bid, I bid, Charlie bids, Frank bids, Sue bids, etc... The winning price climbs by $.01 for every bid. So, you get into a bidding war and after some hours/days, someone wins the product for X amount.  
Here's where it gets slippery and why, after buying 50 bids and going through a couple auctions, I walked away from that place shaking my head going, "Never fucking again, I'm such a dumbass."
Let's say that P30 9mm has a retail price of $850. On the auction site, let's say the final winning bid was $25. This means, you pay BidGunner (or it's provider of firearms, Buds Gun Shop) $25, minus the bids you put in, and the gun is yours. Sweet deal!!! Ah, ah, ah... here's the trick. The site got $2,500 for that gun. Remember, every bid is roughly $1 to purchase and in the auction, each bid is worth $.01. So, to make $25, 2,500 bid were put in.

YES, it only costs you the total amount of bids and if you were able to play it right, you only paid say $20. Hell, maybe you only paid $100, for an $850 gun. But you need to look at the larger picture and realize that your actions just gave that company a fuckwad of money over and above what they could get at retail AND, you also paid them for the bids in all the auctions you didn't win.

Standard auction sites, like GunBroker or eBay for example, work in standard dollar bids. If you bid $50 and you win, you pay $50. Penny bid sites, and this applies to general sites like Quibids and Beezid as well, work on psychology and because your bid is only $.01, you mind comes to the conclusion that that's all you're paying. So at the end of bidding, if you won with the final bid being $50, you think that's all the selling is getting for it. No, they just got $5,000 for something (minus fees).

Let me make this clear: These sites are doing nothing illegal or if you will, underhanded. They lay out exactly what they're doing in their explanations. But, they DO play off the human psyche and let you forget that they're making out like bandits. Like all auction sites, anyone selling something without a "reserve" is gambling. But they're playing the odds that enough people will want this item so they'll fight over it.

Knowledge is power. Before you go into anything having to do with money, think very carefully about what you're getting into.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Death by a thousands cuts

Before "the rant", let me say that I used to be one of those guys who got into "comment wars" on various news and opinion sites. Years back, I thought if I presented my points clearly enough, I could convince a fleeb to change their minds or at least accept a differing opinion.
I have since stopped this foolishness because reason caught up to me and had its dirty way with me and I realized that A) Progressives don't accept differing opinions. You will follow the flock or you'll be attacked by the dogs. B) These chodes live for this crap. They want to get into a comment war so they can try and flex their "intellectual muscle" and show you how stupid you are. Their arguments are often circular, they usually resort to emotional retorts, their understanding of history is Statist driven at best, they have absolutely NO concept of economics beyond "It's hard and boring", and when you narrow down their arguments to everything, it's "More Government", never less.

Talked about this a little in previous posts, but the idea of cuts to the federal governments' spending is, well... flawed. Let me explain.
Progressives (of both parties) keep talking about spending cuts. King Barry I talked over and over again about his $2.5 trillion in cuts he's planning. New budgets being discussed in the cesspool known as Congress are going so far as to talk about $4.6 trillion in cuts. Along with all of this, they talk about the need to "raise revenue" in conjunction with these cuts. Cuts sound great, until you get into the meat of it, then it's like that chicken dish they serve at banquets and weddings. They call it Chicken Cordon Bleu, but when you get into it, you can't tell what the meat is on the outside, what that rolled meat in the inside is and there's some sort of Cheese Whiz leaking out of it that makes you think someone jizzed in this before they plated it. Sorry, that's a disgusting image, but the point is the same.

A) All of these cuts they talk about: These are all "over 10 years". So, break out your calculator, kids, and lets do math if you can't do it in your head (nowadays, it's a toss-up who can and can't). Divide 4.6 trillion by 10. Answer? 460 billion. Very good.
If you didn't get this number, leave. You're too fucking stupid and I've reached my end of dealing with stupid people.
So, their cuts are $460 billion a year. The federal government is overspending by $1.4 trillion ANNUALLY. Let's round things out and say it's $1.46 trillion. Subtract 460 billion from 1.46 trillion and you get... 1 trillion. Good for you. Get yourself a donut.
The federal government is overspending $1 trillion dollars EVERY FUCKING YEAR! So these cuts don't solve anything. It's like taking a cadaver out of the freezer and trying to give it a shot of adrenaline and use a defibrillator to get the heart started again. It's fucking dead!
First, the government assumes that tax receipts will increase because the economy will increase. Last year, didn't happen. So that assumption if out the window.
Second, these cuts are 99.9% of the time to proposed spending. What does that mean? Let's say King Barry I wants to spend $100 million on breath mints for dogs. Members of Congress who are dog owners, or who have manufacturers of breath mints in their states, think this is a marvelous idea. However, they want to be seen as "fiscally conservative", so they put it in a bill as $50 million. They will then come out and say "We cut $50 million dollars from the budget King Barry I put forth." King Barry I cries out about the draconian cuts to his budget. The rank and file in both parties defend their assclowns and the bill for breath mints for dogs goes through at $75 million. Republicans say they saved us $25 million. That shell game is a little tough to follow, but that's D.C. and guess what it all means? We spent $75 million dollars more than we did last year on a program that the federal government has no authority to operate! But hey, they cut $25 million, right?
No, no cuts are made.

B) If by some miracle, an actual cut is made, it's designed to be the most painful possible. We've seen this with "The Sequester".
King Barry I stood out there in front of "police and firefighters" and decried how these "cuts" would effect our safety, education, food safety, and blah blah blah... I won't even touch the fact that the federal government has no businesses funding these services, as they're all local matters. The fucking states have no businesses being involved in funding these (beyond food safety maybe). Even if you look at the one thing that they talk about cutting that the federal government has a Constitutional mandate to fund, that being the military, if we can't cut our funding for that, what the fuck have we become? Instead of closing bases around the world, the Progressives demand that we close bases here. Make it hurt!
But at the same time they're crying about making these cuts of people, they're fucking hiring more people! Out the front door, in the back door. Holy fuck in a bucket... this is insane!

C) Raising revenue=tax increases. And make no mistake, these are all aimed at "The Rich". Today, "The Rich" means anyone who makes over $150,000 a year. That may seem like a lot, but it all depends on where you are. If you're in the Northeast or West Coast, it's middle-class at best. If you're in Appalachia, yup, you're rich.
Iowahawk, via a great presentation by Bill Whittle, does a fabulous job detailing how "getting the rich to pay their fair share" is complete bullshit.

It can't be done people. European countries are devolving into riots because of cuts to Statist programs like government pensions, government healthcare, government education, government assistance, and so on. What happens when it comes to Americas shores? Which it will.
We're so fucking broke and no one wants to face it because it means pain. We live our lives trying to avoid pain at all costs. But the only way this country recovers is through pain. Pain of collapse and subsequent rebuilding or pain of revolution and a new path forward. And on the opposite side of these actions, is uncertainty, because whomever is left "in control" will determine the outcome.

Every morning and every night, I pray to HaShem (G-d to the non-Hebrews out there). In the morning, I pray that with His help, I'll make it through the day. That I won't cause harm to others who haven't harmed me. That I'll help those that I can. That I'll defend those who need me to in whatever way I can. Everything else, it's on me and He can judge me at another date and time for what I did. At night, I give thanks for those who've helped me. I ask that I see the morning. I ask that tomorrow, HaShem will give wisdom to those in our government so that they'll see how badly they're fucking things up. I then apologize to HaShem for swearing at Him and tell Him I understand that it's like that rock He made that He can't lift. He agrees with a laugh and I go to bed.


Monday, March 11, 2013

Of course it's a lie


Did you expect anything else?

10 of the Most Shocking & Revealing Secrets from an Alleged Former TSA Agent: ‘It’s All for Show'

This whole thing is kabuki theater. It always has been. It's like most laws meant to protect you; such as gun laws. Up until the 1960's, you could buy a gun from the Sears catalog. You could walk into you local hardware store, see that rifle or shotgun and ask to buy it. The clerk would look at you sideways, determine for themselves you weren't a criminal, and then sell it to you. Fuck, you could buy a cannon through mail-order. But then we put in all these laws and surprisingly, crime didn't decrease. Wow... shocking.
Air travel? It used to be a thing of leisure. You'd actually get dressed up for it. Now, most people won't actually get dressed up to walk outside their homes and while I'm certainly as guilty of this as the next guy, but there comes a point when it's ridiculous, no?

I like hot women as much as the next guy, but wearing this in public? Everyone raises holy hell about how "Men see women as just sexual objects!!!" You wonder why? Don't misconstrue this as some excuse for vile animals to rape or molest women who dress like this, but have some level of decency, and respect for yourself, will ya?
And then there's the polar opposite of just being fucking lazy. "I'll just dress like a slob and wear PJ's today." Again, self respect is a marvelous thing. Try buying yourself some.


And yes, both pictures are of women. Get over it. I did a couple quick Bing searches and came up with these. Back to my point...

So as we started implementing all this security bullshit at the airport, that should have stopped hijackings and smuggling and all this stuff, to make us "safer". Oh wait... it didn't. Wow! I'm so shocked! As shocked as I was about the conclusions in "Super Size Me" that eating McDonalds 3 times a day, every day, isn't healthy. Why? Because the idea is flawed.
This is not to infer that some level of protection or screening shouldn't be done, but the motions are just that; no one truly gives a shit. Next time you go through the airport, look at the people you're forced to interact with. How much attention do they really give you? That is until you ruffle their feathers; I'll get to that one.
If you're not checking a bag, no one sees you at the front counter. Oh they see you, but that's it. And even checking a bag, they look at the boarding pass, your ID, maybe your face quickly, then "Be on with you."
Second line: You and the rest of the cattle line up to have your branding checked. Again, they'll look at your ID, wave a light over it to see the watermark, mark you boarding pass, then again, maybe they'll look at your face against the ID, but usually not. "Be gone, peon, I approve you."
To the thyroid killer. You pile your crap on the disgusting trays and into the x-ray and the person watching the screen... some look intently, but they're focusing on specific shapes and objects, not seeing the forest for the trees, if you will, and that's through.
Into the machine of long slow death, taking the "I surrender" pose, they barely look at you. Sure, they tell you to have everything out of your pockets, but they never check unless they see something obvious. Some drone in a remote room tells them you're okay and again, "Leave us, mere mortal, we are busy."
Gate agent: Most don't even look at you unless your pass is rejected by the barcode scanner. Some do and smile and such, but I'd say at least half could care less. "Just get on the plane, sloth, get away from me."
The only people who actually start to pay attention to you are the stewards/stewardess', mainly because they have no choice.


With this, does it really matter anyways? Hell no. If someone means to either transport drugs, harmful items, or hijack/blow up a plane, they're going to do it. Like gun laws, it does nothing but keep the honest people honest.
"So you're saying there should be nothing?!"
No, but let's be honest: Exclude x-rays for baggage and metal detectors - does any of the other shit make a damn bit of difference? They're run test after test and people with "bombs" and weapons still get through at about the same rate as before. Fuck, people get ON THE PLANE ITSELF with fake boarding passes.
Now, if the issues of security were relegated to the airport OR the airlines themselves, you'd have a much different approach. Why? Because while they're concerned with safety of ALL their passengers, they need to balance that with customer satisfaction. AND, they need to make sure their employees are happy with their jobs. So, well paid & trained screeners, security plans that have the safety and the satisfaction of the customers in mind, and... yeah, it still doesn't matter. If someone wants to blow up that plane, they're doing it. BUT, it makes the entire process a lot easier and screens out the jackholes who are just looking to cause problems, not serious in their approach. All this without grandma getting molested, without little kids getting groped, and maybe, just maybe, you can pass through an airport with some level of dignity.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

I sue you, you sue me...

...We're litigious as can be
With my lawyer here
And a suit from me to you
Consider this
A big fuck you.



Part of the societal collapse that's occurring includes the fact that no one takes "Sorry" for an answer and everyone is out to screw everyone else. It's part of the ME culture that's solidifying. All actions revolve around The Self. If it doesn't benefit me, then fuck you all.
Now, even when we were a more honest, compassionate, and seemingly selfless people, everyone acts in their own interest. It's why we give to charity - we want to do something good for other people because it makes us feel better. That's not a bad thing. But it's gone from "making me feel good" to "how does it benefit me". It seems like semantics, but there's a definitive difference between those two.
And The System has perpetuated the ability for us to be suing the crap out of each other. While I like the fact that we're (well, we were) different than other countries, but we're the only country where whomever we sue has to pay court costs, even if they're right. Because of this, people can bring a suit against someone, usually a company, and that company now has to mobilize their legal team to defend themselves. Even if they were in the right, they still have to pay for the court costs. This is complete bullshit. If you're found liable, then fine, costs could and should be levied. But if you're found to be cleared, then the person bringing the suit should pay out the ass.
And before someone gets their panties in a twist: Yes, large corporations have stockpiles of cash where they could, in essence, drag a court case out for months, if not years. But that becomes the responsibility of the court to see that this is happening and put a stop to it. Our system of laws shouldn't be allowed to benefit any one person or entity. That is where all entities should be equal. And I'm sure that's why the "winner still pays up the fuckhole" rule was in place; to prevent someone from dragging out a lawsuit because they have the money to.

Government tends to be the single point of failure in how people interact with people, with businesses, businesses with other businesses and so on. Once a law is put in place, like the ADA, it opens up individuals and businesses for lawsuits because they didn't comply with the rules laid out. There's fucktards across the country who see it as their sole mission in life to harass and extort (make no mistake about it, that's what it is) businesses who sinks are 36 inches off the ground, not 36.252897495727 inches. They file a suit, then tell the business owner, who is usually a small business, that if they pay this person $10,000 and fix the problem, they'll drop the suit, which if it went through the whole court process, could cost the owner thousands more in fees and fines. What the fuck?!?!

And on TV every night, you see dozens of adds for sheisters who will take a drug company to court if you took some drug and it fucked you up. Guess what, kids? Pharmaceuticals mess with your body. They screw with the chemical make up of your biology in order to produce a different outcome than what you're seeing right now. No two people have the same chemical make up so a drug that makes me feel great could cause your penis to fall of. Which sucks even more if you didn't have one before, the drug causes you to grow one, and then it falls off. If you don't understand that this is how drugs work, then you're a fucking 'tard.
So, because we're a society of moochers and want what other people have (I.E., we're greedy motherfuckers), if that new skin cream gives me a rash, LAWSUITLAWSUITLAWSUIT!!!!!
The liability insurance these drug makers have to carry is enormous. This is why it takes forever for a new drug to come to market and why they charge so much for it. The R&D alone, to protect themselves from every possible douchenozzle who could sue them, takes up millions. Then the FDA testing. Then the money to cover the insurance. Fuck...
AND, here's one for you. There is a decreasing supply of prescription painkillers. This isn't only attributed to the DEA arresting any doctor who gives you 2 pills too many. This is because it's no longer profitable for the pharma to make that drug. The liability they have to hold on that drug line is too great. So they stop making them. Think this will get any better?

And the fucking disclaimers and warnings. Oh my holy fuck this is out of control.  EVERY T.V. ad has a disclaimer. I stop the DVR and read each of these because they've become so annoyingly stupid. The "Professional driver. Closed course." ones on car ads are the worst. They ACTUALLY had one on that car ad where it showed astronauts driving some car on the moon. Along with "Do not try this". What?!?!
Warning labels and instructions on things like boxes of toothpicks are absurd. A warning label on a hammer. A fucking hammer!?!?! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is ALL because someone sued. It has nothing to do with being safe, it has to do with covering your ass.

Hospitals... oh dear. We are losing obstetricians annually because new doctors refuse to go into the specialty. and existing ones are quitting the field. Why? The liability and malpractice insurance they have to carry is too oppressive. The risks involved in child birth are real. Babies die regularly. It's sad, it's tragic, but 99 times out of 100, it's no ones fault. But people feel slighted, so they have to sue. This obviously isn't restricted to OB's, as all nurses and doctors need to carry this or they could lose their homes and more, but for OB's, it's become too much to deal with and they're saying "Fuck it, I'm done." Think this won't hurt in the future? Think it's not hurting now?

All this came to mind in hearing that Colorado has a bill in their legislature that could hold gun dealers and manufacturers liable in the event the gun is used to harm someone (which is what they're supposed to do, but you get the point). Now, let me say that for a dealer, if they sell a gun to a known criminal (it's important to say that) then they should be able to be held criminally liable. Criminally, not civilly. But these laws are to allow families to sue in case some asshole shoots someone. FUCK YOU!!! This is why the civilian air industry is decimated. There used to be plenty of producers of civilian aircraft like Cessna and Piper. But too many accidents happened because the pilots were fucking assholes, families sued, and viola, the manufacturer goes out of business. I read of an incident where a guy crashed the plane, killing himself. When they found the plane, there were booze in the plane. They tested his blood and he was so fucking drunk it was surprising how he got the plane off the ground. His family sued the manufacturer and they fucking won!!!! If this goes through across the country, expect lawsuits to be filed against companies with big time cash reserves like Sterm Ruger or Smith & Wesson and that will be the beginning of the end of the civilian firearms market because THAT will crush the industry.

In "The Running Man", a lawyer is basically reading a contract to a condemned man, whose execution is going to be televised. Let's get to the meat of that, shall we? This is what we have right now! We're making disclaimers for cars, drinks, food, cell phones, toys, BAGS OF FUCKING NUTS!!! I shit you not! Next time you're on a plane, if they by chance have peanuts, read the bag. It will say "This product contains nuts"
DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME. There are plenty of times where companies or people are wantonly negligent and don't give a shit, resulting in someone getting injured or killed because they just didn't give a shit. Fuck them. Fuck them in the ass with a big rubber dick. BUT... I would fathom a guess that this is only the case about 10% of the time.

When America finally collapses, which it will soon enough, this will all turn real fuckin' ugly. I'll let your imagination run with that.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

If your politicians suck, look in the mirror


Carlin had moments when he was just a miserable prick, but a fair amount of the time, he was right on. For the first half of this rant, he was. I'll address the second half in my second half.

I am amazed more and more about the idiocy of those in political office. With every story I read, I'm facepalming so much there's an indent on my forehead and where my fingers fall on the sides. What fascinates me is that this person was elected to office by people who liked them. Well... maybe not necessarily liked, but "Anybody but a Democrat/Republican/Old White Guy/Black Guy/Woman/Mexican/Asian/That Guy". Those people make me giggle like a school girl. And if you've never seen a fat guy with a beard giggle like a school girl, good for you.
You are presented with two bowls of shit to eat. One is liquid, one is solid. The "Anybody but..." Syndrome says "I have to chose between these two, I'll chose this one". So you don't want the liquid shit, you'll take the solid one. A removed observer would say "Are you fucking high?" because the right answer to the dilemma is neither.
Andrew Wilkow, on his radio show, has addressed this in regards to dealing with Progressives. In short, their answer to you when you say you're for smaller government or you want to cut spending or whatever is "So you want people to die/be stupid/go hungry/etc..."; their choices being Statism or Nihilism. If you can think logically, as in the two bowls of shit scenario I laid out for you, you'll know that the true answer is found elsewhere. To me, this was what the 2012 Presidential Election was all about.
My preferences from the start were Cain, Johnson, Paul, Bachmann. I wasn't going to vote for anyone else. And Bachmann was going to be a stretch vote for me, as she's a little not right in the head, but she's at least not full retard like the rest of the pack was. But with those candidates, I at least felt some level of trust and could agree with most of what they stood for. So on the final ticket, it was King Barry I (I'd rather live through a century of Wile E. Coyote prat falls than vote for him), Mittens (same scenario, but as Daffy Duck) or Gary Johnson. I voted for Johnson. Now, the rank and file were quick to scream "A vote for Johnson was a vote for Obama!". No, a vote for Johnson was a vote for Johnson. If Willard wanted my vote, he needed to earn it. Just by being "The Other Guy" doesn't earn my vote. And this is the problem with politicians now.
The overwhelming majority of these fucktards are, as Carlin said, a representation of the general public. I don't care what party they're affiliated with, stop and look at those who are most in the spotlight and you'll see the average schmoe in all of them. They live their lives on the backs of others; getting away with doing the least amount of work possible, while still holding up the facade that they're doing something. They pay lip service to helping others, but if it doesn't benefit them in the short AND long run, they won't touch it. They are quick to tell others how to live their lives...
Don't do drugs
Guns are bad
Marriage is sacred
Save the environment
Money is evil
Help small businesses

...but if it affects them, fuck you, they'll do what they like because they're "smarter than other people". They will rack up debt on top of debt on top of debt, but when the bill comes do, they're suddenly surprised and demand help paying it. Please, tell me this isn't a cross-section of the average person in this country.

THIS IS OUR PROBLEM!

The people voting for the politicians are what needs to change and this should scare the ever loving shit out of you. Why? There's over 500 politicians in Washington. A pittance in comparison to the population of the US. You can change the ideas of these people or just get them out of the way. That's simple. Over 220 million people CAN vote in the US. Now obviously, the variety of their political and social views mean there's no single consensus of ideas, but that's where it starts to get real fucking frightening.
130 million people voted in the Presidential election in 2012. 10 million less than in 2008. So roughly half of the population didn't vote in that election. In the "off years" (every other year - elections are held annually, if not more often), it's usually pathetically less.
Statistically speaking and it's important to say it that way because we are dealing with real numbers, but if you were talking statistics, the election was a 50/50 split. Reagan had a mandate. Obama - barely won. So 1/4 of the eligible voting public voted for Obama, 1/4 voted for Romney. So if 3/5 of the people WHO didn't vote last year actually made a choice for someone else, we'd have someone else as president. This is why the line "A third party can't win" is complete horseshit. They could win, but only if people got off their fucking asses.
That's what's scary about it all - The majority of people in this country don't care. They tend to call themselves "moderates" and when someone is either too left or too right for them, they cry "Why doesn't anybody compromise?!?!" and they don't find another candidate to vote for, they just don't vote. A moderate is someone who doesn't want to live with the consequences of making a decision by themselves. This is why they're "middle of the road".

Pot's okay, but all other drugs should be illegal
No one says you need to drive a Yugo, but let's be reasonable
The government shouldn't tell people what to eat, but some people are just too fat and we need to help them
I'm all for free speech, but hate speech shouldn't be allowed

Now, I'm sure some bright soul is saying "Wait a minute. A lot of those people who didn't vote for Mittens of King Barry I believe in freedom and liberty! They just didn't like the choices and didn't vote." You had a third choice on the national ballot: Gary Johnson. And let me be clear here, this isn't a plug for Gary Johnson. He had his flaws, but his entire platform was the free people ought to be allowed to make their own choices, as long as those choices didn't directly take away the rights of others. What's not to like about that? 
And there's another voice out there falling back to the "Anybody but that guy" argument: "King Barry I was so bad that we had to get him out of there and that meant I had to vote for Mittens!" So you were willing to trade one statist for another? Make no mistake, Romney was a statist. He just wanted to "manage" it better. Was he as bad Gingrich? No, but that's like saying "Was Mussolini as bad as Hitler?" Again, back to my two bowls of shit analogy.

Reps who call themselves bi-partisan. Calls for compromise. People who say "everyone can give a little in this debate, right?". All of these people are fuckers. Now some would say I'm giving the same "It's either A or B" options. And at some level, you're right. But my choices are freedom, with all the pleasure and pain that comes with it, or some level of government control, with it's sliding scale from creepy intrusion to tyranny and despotism. You can have a free society with government; we did for a long time in this country. But that means not putting up with the 500 elitists in D.C. who believe they know better than you. It means having the balls to vote OUT someone who's acting like a nanny, even when they're in "your party", and voting IN someone who is willing to fight for your right to be left alone.

If you continue to vote for "the lesser of two evils" you're still voting for evil and when government continues to stay shitty, pick up your chosen bowl, grab your spoon, and start investing in Callard & Bowser-Suchard, the company who makes Altoids (owned by Wrigley), because your breath is going to stink.