Gee, the world sure is a different place than I was born in.
Every day I see or read something that makes me shake my head in amazement, bewilderment, or disgust… and, sometimes, all three at once. Yes, I’m an old fogie, but WTF is going on!?
Take, for example, the shitstorm that exists regarding the width of seats on commercial aircraft.
In the interests of making more and more money, by cramming extra bodies in each cabin, the airlines have reduced seat width to the point that “normal”-sized people can barely fit. It is not uncommon for people in adjacent seats to encroach on another passenger’s seat area with their gear, elbows, and body odor, or perhaps fall asleep leaning up against the stranger in the next seat. Abnormal-sized people (like 400-pound slobs) can’t possibly fit in these seats or attach their seat belts. I feel sorry for them, of course, but worse for me when I must fly several hours with a good portion of that passenger’s belly or leg fat laying on me. It’s a bit intimate, wouldn’t you say?
At what point do our elected officials finally throw the red flag on the greedy airline corporations and say, “Get real!”? (Of course, our Congressional do-nothings are beholden to corporate campaign contributions and spend most of their time in D.C. shooting spitwads at each other, so what can we really expect?}
What about all the “LBGTQ” stuff?
I’m not a religious guy but I know (from Sunday school) that “Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in HIS sight”, i.e. people come in all shapes, sizes, skin colors, deformities, and so forth, including sexual preference that is wired into a person’s DNA. Personally, I’m straight, but I have no problem with someone who is wired differently. I’ve known and socialized with many “gay” people who are, bottom line, just human beings trying to be happy in their own skin. Society should give them the space to do that without criticism, just like we don’t torment our neighbors born with cleft palates, six fingers on one hand, or red hair, for God’s sake.
However, I do have a problem with all the silliness going on about sexual “identity”, as in someone who is bi-sexual insisting on being addressed as “they” instead of Sir, Maam, Mister, Miss, etc., and getting annoyed when that title isn’t applied.
Of course, I’ve always been a bit put off by titles, anyway. I was in the military for four years, where “rank” is more important than intelligence or capability. If someone must rely on rank to get workers to do their job, then that joker has no leadership skills and shouldn’t be bossing anyone. Similar to the dipshit who, when introduced as “Mr.”, sternly rebukes his host by saying, “That’s DOCTOR…”. I get it, he’s got a post-graduate degree, he’s achieved something. Should we give the honorific title of “Millionaire” or “Billionaire” to folks who made a lot of money? “Hi, I’m Billionaire Jones. What’s your name?”
I think we need less labeling in society, not more. I’m Craig. Can I just call you “Jack”? (You know, one human being to another.)
It seems like everyone is our Nation is “taking sides” lately, proudly displaying evidence that they are on teams, competing against other teams. Way back in the day (maybe a couple of decades ago?), no one cared if you voted Democrat or Republican (or something else) except on Election Day. Campaigns for public office occurred in the last several months prior to the election itself. Voting was a private matter, back then. We voted, went back to our lives, and lived with the political outcome until the next election.
Nowadays, a lot of people wear their political affiliation on their sleeve 24/7, with bumper stickers on their car and M.A.G.A. hats on their heads, and actively shun or harass neighbors who feel differently.
Christians feel that everyone else is out to diminish their religion. Unemployed people take it out on Asian-Americans (“The Chinese stole our jobs!”). Gun owners feel threatened by gun control advocates to the point that they insist on openly carrying their guns in public to identify themselves as testosterone-fueled nutjobs and to protect themselves in case they run into another paranoid gun-toting S.O.B.
It’s Fathers’ Day today, and I’m celebrating by watching the U.S. Open Golf Championship on TV.
The most-prestigious of all American professional tournament is weird this year because, after three of the four rounds, Rickie Fowler is leading the pack. The guy has been practically invisible over the past few years (except in TV commercials!), as his game fell apart after marrying his girlfriend. Fowler was ranked as high as fifth in the world (about ten years ago) before going four years without winning anything.
Rickie went to high school (Murrieta Valley H.S. in Southern California) with two of our grandkids, Bailey and Dakota. He learned how to golf at the local driving range where I took lessons. Everyone likes the guy. It would be cool if he could top his career with a U.S. Open title.
The tournament is being played at the Los Angeles Country Club, one of the most exclusive in the country. Homes along the fairways cost a bazillion dollars. One of the homes has a small zoo in the backyard, and another one was Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. Anyone with truckloads of dough can live there, but golf club membership is restricted: no Hollywood celebrities are allowed.
That’s weird, huh?
This morning, Charlie and I watched a TV program about a team of investigators whose mission it is to track down perverts who use social media to sexually abuse teenage girls. These child molesters find their prey online and soften them up over time, to the point that the child feels comfortable with hooking up with and performing sex acts with (typically) guys who are as old as their parents.
This type of crime is made possible by the fact that young, impressionable kids have the gateway to their private lives in their pocket or purse… their cell phones… and often use them foolishly via social media to provide a lot of information to people that they don’t even know.
I think parents who provide cell phones to their pre-teen or teenage girls are setting them up for disaster. The kids are too young to appreciate the danger lurking on social media and are typically irresponsible and rebellious at that age. A skilled child predator knows exactly what buttons to push to influence his potential prey.
The “grooming” of children to affect certain behavior is a BIG dog whistle in convervative G.O.P. politics right now. The fear is that Democrats, “liberals”, communists and such (i.e. non-conservative folk) are attempting to corrupt young minds on topics such as sexuality, racism, history, religion, and such.
Presidential candidate/Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in an attempt to “out-Trump” his 2024 opponents, has gone on a scorched earth campaign to root out non-conservative thought and behavior in his State. He’s even taken on media giant Walt Disney Corporation, whose family-oriented animated movies and theme park characters often support modern ideas of “inclusivity”. Let’s face it: Disney is as capitalist as any business in America, and would be foolish to chase away potential customers who happen to be handicapped, queer, or non-Caucasian.
DeSantis and his Republican legislators in Florida have taken the lead in gay-bashing (“Don’t Say Gay!”) and anti-“woke” rhetoric. The objective, it seems, is to groom young people to believe that homosexuality is inherently evil, that systemic racism in America does not exist, that guns are good, and that Christianity is/should be the State religion.
The idea is to turn back the clock about one hundred years, which would be quite the trick if it could be done.
The problem with “grooming” of this sort is that, in the absence of learning facts and reality in school, youngsters will instead learn untruths, conspiracy theories, fake news, and hurtful gossip via social media and about sex via crude drawings on the walls of public restrooms.
It seems weird that responsible public officials would advocate un-learning stuff that mankind has learned, often at great cost. As the saying goes, “Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it.”
On the other hand, we’re talking about conservative political thought in the Bible Belt, where the un-stated goal is to revisit a society in which that “old time” religion played a stronger role. Unfortunately, that was also a time when pious conservatives wearing hoods were harassing and lynching their Black neighbors, most of whom were church-going Baptists like themselves.
Talk about weird!
Yeah, but that’s not the end of it. Wannabe President DeSantis has also declared that he intends, as the leader of our Nation, to (a) rename military bases in honor of traitorous Confederate generals, (b) to pardon the January 6th 2001 Capitol Riot insurrectionists, and (c) pardon Donald Trump for the many crimes he has committed in the past few years.
That is what we need in this country: a President who doesn’t support the Union, doesn’t support public education, and enjoys harassing and belittling citizens who don’t look and act like himself.
Of course, most Americans would be ashamed to act like DeSantis in modern society. We’ve evolved; evidently, he hasn’t.
Or (scarier thought) he is acting like this simply to suck up to the right-wing Republican base that is controlled by Donald Trump. The reality is that he won’t get those votes unless (a) Trump drops out of the race, or (b) he publicly sucks Trump’s dick.
That would be weird, but what do you expect in these unusual times?