I’m old and cranky like most 76-year-old guys: lots of things annoy me.
Today, I had to send to “Spam” 261 comments to my blog site. None of the comments had anything to do with my blog. Instead, they were phishing attempts to click on websites purveying porn, sales advice for my company (which I do not have!), and ads for computer geeks who can improve my website. I spent about a half-hour cleaning up my website mail. I know, I’m retired and have plenty of time on my hands, but this is an invasion of my privacy… I protest!
Cake in the face! This odd behavior at fancy wedding receptions (that are videoed and disseminated via the Web) bugs me. Who came up with the idea that this bad behavior belongs in a wedding? It is disrespectful of the occasion and disrespectful of the newlyweds. Respect is probably the most important ingredient in a successful marriage. So, why would anyone want to start off a holy union with such a low-class stunt? And people wonder why marriages fail so often these days!!
Disgraced/retired Army General Michael Flynn, sucking up to an audience of right-wing Christian televangelists and their dupes, made the statement that “prayer” is the most powerful weapon that a country possesses. That’s right: when a terrorist organization rains down holy hell on your country, forget the military response and… start praying! Yeah, that worked out really well for the Jews when the Nazis came a callin’! To my knowledge, there has never been any evidence (you know, fact-based stuff) that demonstrates that prayer accomplishes anything other than giving hope to the true-believer. As some wag once said, “Religion is the opium of the masses.”
I’ve been a humanitarian this past week, trying to help out my elderly (she’s as old as Biden) socialize her new puppy. I take the dog on morning walks with one of my dogs. “William” is a 7-month-old miniature sheep dog of some sort and is a handful. He’s got an urge to chase cars and has slipped his collar and run into the street a few times. I am getting old (almost as old as Biden) and I refuse to chase a dog 100 yards down a street, dodging cars. The little asshole has broken his leash twice under my watch, and I’m getting annoyed. His latest leash, which Sharon bought two days ago, has been half-chewed up by the little devil (Is she storing in on the ground?), so we’re about one good pull from another chase down a busy thoroughfare. As my former boss used to remind me, “No good deed goes unpunished!”
If our disgraced ex-President has done nothing else beneficial in the past couple of years or so, he has at least demonstrated to every American that the old saw about two tiers of justice in our country (one for the rich, and another for the poor) is, sadly, one thousand percent correct. Poor folks get indicted (too often for crimes that they did not commit), frog-marched through the courts, and sentenced to harsh punishment… often because they cannot afford qualified counsel. Rich people have armies of lawyers and use every device available to get the charges thrown out, confuse the jury, delay justice, and appeal judicial rulings or convictions ad infinitum, so that justice seemingly never happens. It is almost like the Founding Fathers intended it to work this way. Why?
There was a solar eclipse yesterday. Big whoopee, these things happen every so often. I don’t understand why some folks get so excited about naturally occurring events like this. And, of course, odd happenings like this bring out the conspiracy nutjobs and the self-annointed spokespeople for God, who proclaim that the event is a message from The Boss that He’s pissed off at… lesbians, liberals, teachers, non-Christians, pencil-necked geeks, Democrats, etc. Remember the catastrophic predictions when the year 2000 was approaching: “Repent, the End is Near!” There was a minor earthquake last week in New York: predictably, some Bible-thumper declared that it was a message from God who is angry as Hell about illegal immigration or something. (Hey, someone tell God about the Republicans in Congress who recently torpedoed a bi-partisan bill that would have addressed the immigration problem!)
Speaking of natural stuff, I’ve got an issue with Spring… particularly here in the desert. We go most of the year with fairly sparse vegetation, given the sparsity of water and the Summer heat. It gets cold in the Winter and every living thing hunkers down to survive. Then, Spring arrives, things start to thaw out, and plants begin to put out flowers. Hooray for that!!
Unfortunately, though, those blooms are fleeting, only lasting a couple of days. What a tease that is, God! Why can’t those beautiful blooms last awhile? What did we do to offend Thee?
“Shrinkflation” sucks. Smaller portions for the same or higher price. There ought to be a law against this travesty. I think it is a conspiracy of the business elites who have joined together to enact punishment on society for the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on their enterprises. Many businesses failed, lots of folks lost their jobs, mucho downsizing happened, we all suffered. The companies that survived, but whose bottom line was savaged, are now wreaking revenge: the public is going to pay for this travesty through shrinkflation. It seems like every trip to the supermarket costs me $100 no matter what I purchase. I can recall filling my shopping cart with goods for $100. Now, it’s one bag featuring shrunk packages, like a “Family-sized” Kellogg’s Special K cereal box that, when opened, contains a plastic bag half-filled with cereal. The “per ounce” cost of everything has doubled in the past few years. How did this happen, as inflation hasn’t increased that much? “Stick it to ‘em!”, seems to be the corporate party line.
What in the fuck is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. up to? He is theoretically running for President in 2024 on some bullshit “American Values” ticket.
The guy has no chance of being elected or even winning one electoral vote, as he is a conspiracy nut who his own famous family has disowned. A few days ago, a Kennedy campaign official declared that their goal was to deny Joe Biden a victory. In other words, a “spoiler” campaign that would help Donald Trump regain the White House. Gee, I’ve got to believe that JFK and his brother RFK are turning over in their graves. I liked JFK and RFK, but “Junior” has evidently been smoking too much weed lately. He’s making himself look like a narcissistic fool, pissed off because he can’t get the Democratic nomination.
The world is going to hell and I’m sick and tired of it.
So… what’s for dinner?