Okay fans (or whatever is left of my fanbase since my several months of hiatus from ranting), welcome to the first What's YOUR Deal?!? of 2010. I'm sure some of you are wondering what I've been up to if I haven't been pissed off at people... the short answer is: Yes. All kidding aside, there is so much stupidity in today's world that it's hard to convey into a rant that doesn't involve swearing, throwing my laptop out the window, or inciting a riot. I point out, the health care debate, the extreme right-wing, people who still don't believe President Barack Obama is a US citizen, etc. Every single day, I turn on the news and I see something absolutely ridiculous about Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and a whole host of people who I wish I could ask, "What's YOUR Deal?!?" Those of you that have read my blog for a while know that I'm socially liberal but overall, I'd consider myself a moderate. I just want things to make sense, regardless of what someone's party line is. And everyone knows, I HATE toeing the party line.
But, the best of my rants come from the heart and personal experiences. I hate injustice in all of its forms, whether its to me, to my family, to my friends, or to anyone else in the world that I see getting the short end of the stick. I am a big fan of fairness and equity in all we do. So this What's YOUR Deal?!? returns to its roots: me serving as the social justice ninja enacting intellectual vigilante justice on those that have done someone wrong. And if you don't like it, Suck on it Trebek.
So, what has inspired me to rant? Well this one is dedicated to a friend of mine, that I believe has done nothing wrong but for some reason, was reprimanded due to someone else being a petty little weasel. I will not go into more detail, because this applies to everyone, not just this particular instance. And also, there's a possibility that the inspiration for this rant may also read this, and I would like to afford him or her the dignity of remaining anonymous to the criticism that the person would receive.
Onward!
Today's world is full of information and the sharing of information. We thrive on it. This concept is why sites like Facebook, Twitter, and various blogging sites are so popular. Unfortunately, this same concept is also what drives reality TV shows. (See one of my old rants, for my opinion on that: The Idiots Are Winning) Sometimes people do stupid things like post something on Twitter and Facebook that will get them in trouble, like someone calling in sick and then subsequently posting pictures of their drunken party escapades while they were supposedly too ill to work. Or perhaps posting pictures of affairs or status updates indicating infidelity is more to some people's morality. That kind of stuff is straight up stupid.
The next level up is the slightly ambiguous tip-toeing on the line between stupid and acceptable. In the case of this woman: Facebook Firing she was fired because she called her job boring. Wow. I suppose that can be bad, but in my opinion, rather stupid. But, I'm not an expert on pettiness. I wouldn't recommend degrading your job regularly on Facebook because well, if you hate it that much, why don't you quit? And if it's not that bad, then... well, there are better places to complain about work than to broadcast it to the world.
And then there's the category of people posting innocent things in their status or Twitter of them enjoying life. I don't see anything wrong with that because, well, that's what it's for. How many times have we posted pictures of fun times with friends and family or a status update announcing something fantastically joyous? That's what that stuff is for. It's for us to keep up with friends and family we can't afford to call everyday and tell them everything about our lives.
What that is NOT for are the petty people who are so insecure in their own happiness and job security that they feel like they must narc on someone feeling joy so that they can get some personal gain out of it. What's YOUR deal?!? These people piss me off. Where do you get off judging someone? Or tattling on them when what they were doing was perfectly legitimate. "I'm having fun on my day off," shouldn't be grounds for a reprimand. Mind your own business you snivelling little social outcast that's apparently jealous that you didn't get invited to hang out with the cool kids. WTF is wrong with the world today? People are seemingly so afraid that the joys and happiness of others will somehow make their own life more miserable. Sorry, dude or dudette, newsflash: other people have a right to be happy. And you can:
I think this issue is not just in the realm of Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites. It's the reason why America is in the state that it is, with the extreme right wing telling people health care will kill grandma and why gay marriage will cause straight divorce or whatever crazy ridiculous justification people come up with to deprive people of happiness. Are we as a society so joyless and so sad that the moment something good is happening to someone else, we are so jealous and enraged that we must do everything in our power to put an end to it? Do we have to scour Facebook and Twitter for posts from our friends and co-workers in a quest to find some dirt to use against them? Are we so desperate to do so that we practically make stuff up about other people so that it sounds worse than it is just to make ourselves feel better and important? Are we so cowardly about such things that we dare not confront people as individuals to their face, but rather stabbing them in the back? Is that who we are?
I really hope not. But something tells me that this blog and others like it, calling people out for such idiocy will be very gainfully engaged for the foreseeable future. You people sicken me... and if you have a problem with that, tell me to my face. I want the pleasure of telling you this:
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Some sentimental drivel...
Well folks, this is the last "What's YOUR Deal?!?" I'll be writing from Great Falls, Montana. Worry not, I plan on continuing my weekly excursions into the depths of the pitiful colon of humanity when I get to California. I'm sure you're reading the words, "pitiful colon of humanity" and wondering about my mental stability... but bear with me and read this article from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/americas/05briefs-9YEAROLDSABO_BRF.html?_r=5&ref=world
If the link doesn't work, here is the full text of the article, dated 5 March 2009, from the Associated Press:
"A 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins, and whose stepfather is suspected of raping her, underwent an abortion on Wednesday despite complaints from Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church. The stepfather has been jailed since last week, the police said. Abortion is illegal in Brazil, the country with the most Roman Catholics, but judges can make exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger or the fetus has no chance of survival. Fatima Maia, director of the public university hospital where the abortion was performed, said the pregnancy, which was in its 15th week, posed a serious risk to the girl, who weighs 80 pounds. But Marcio Miranda, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife in northeastern Brazil, said the girl should have carried the twins to term and had a Caesarean section. 'It’s the law of God: Do not kill,' he said in comments reported by the newspaper O Globo."
You see what I mean about humanity's colon? Seriously, I don't care what side of religion you're on, or what side of the abortion debate you're on... this story has more than enough f'ed up aspects to it to infuriate anyone. I'm not sure what's more messed up, the rape, the child abuse, the abortion, or the reaction by the church... or any combination of the disgust I felt in the pit of my stomach for the entire situation.
Well... with that said... the title of this week's rant is "Some sentimental drivel..." so this is actually less a rant than me just pontificating as I'm sitting on the floor of my empty apartment, typing on my laptop which is sitting on a box next to an air mattress that my cat has stolen for his own personal use.
Call me a spoiled capitalist yuppie... but I really miss having stuff. I miss my TV that's usually on constantly as I'm listening to the news, sports, The History Channel, or the Discovery Channel in the background while I read about random topics that pique my interest on the internet. I miss my bed and having a chair. But even sitting within the empty walls of my apartment, with all my stuff on a moving truck heading to California, I realize I have it better than a lot of people in the world. This is especially relevant seeing as how the economy is taking its slow downward swirl along the porcelain sides of the American dream, consuming everything in its path.
I love listening to the debates from conservatives and liberals regarding what to do with the economy... it's actually ridiculous. We have on one side, people wanting to cut goverment spending so as to not deepen the national deficit, which makes sense, the deficit is ridiculous right now and getting worse. We have on the other side people saying we need to stimulate the economy my throwing money at it, which also makes sense because without money, there is no economy. Now... who's right? Unfortunately, people don't see that both sides are right... and bipartisan politics is equally as offensive to me as what happened to that poor 9-year old in Brazil.
I'm not an economist, I suck at math, but this is my take on it all. The issue is really which is more important to people now. Yes, a deficit that we'll be trying to pay off forever is bad. However, without help, there are people that have no jobs right now. Because the banking system is so f'ed up, people can't buy anything, if people can't buy anything, then manufacturing dries up, and those workers that manufacture stuff... they now have no job. And with no job, there's no buying stuff... the swirling sensation you are feeling is your livelihood going down the toilet.
So... the way I see it is that we gotta throw money into the toilet to clog it... to stop the flush of economic doom. "But we're throwing money away!" Yes, I know... but if we clog the toilet early enough, you can reach back in there and grab the money you threw in. Ta-da! I really should seek elected political office. I'm sure I can turn this into a PowerPoint slideshow.
Oh well...
Apologies for this week's rant being not all that ranty, I've been too busy to truly get outraged about something... other than the entire process of moving. It's so strange to pack up everything and just go. But so such is the transient lifestyle of someone in the military. At least this time I relatively lucky and I get to be stationed with a big group of my friends, so it's not really a goodbye to most people at it is a, "See ya in California!" And in today's technology driven world we're never at a loss of contact with people unless they really don't like you enough to hide from you. I mean, how many people do we "stalk" on Facebook daily with what I call the "Stalker Feed." So and so uploads some pictures, next thing you know you're clicking through pictures of the birthday party of someone you haven't seen in years. So... I guess there really is never a goodbye. I'll definitely miss some of the people that I'm leaving behind in Great Falls... folks like my vet (such awesome group of people) and the people I work with (for better or for worse).
Yeah... well, I hope everyone keeps reading my rants and joins me in my righteous outrage over the stupidities of humanity and life in general. Peace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/americas/05briefs-9YEAROLDSABO_BRF.html?_r=5&ref=world
If the link doesn't work, here is the full text of the article, dated 5 March 2009, from the Associated Press:
"A 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins, and whose stepfather is suspected of raping her, underwent an abortion on Wednesday despite complaints from Brazil’s Roman Catholic Church. The stepfather has been jailed since last week, the police said. Abortion is illegal in Brazil, the country with the most Roman Catholics, but judges can make exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger or the fetus has no chance of survival. Fatima Maia, director of the public university hospital where the abortion was performed, said the pregnancy, which was in its 15th week, posed a serious risk to the girl, who weighs 80 pounds. But Marcio Miranda, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife in northeastern Brazil, said the girl should have carried the twins to term and had a Caesarean section. 'It’s the law of God: Do not kill,' he said in comments reported by the newspaper O Globo."
You see what I mean about humanity's colon? Seriously, I don't care what side of religion you're on, or what side of the abortion debate you're on... this story has more than enough f'ed up aspects to it to infuriate anyone. I'm not sure what's more messed up, the rape, the child abuse, the abortion, or the reaction by the church... or any combination of the disgust I felt in the pit of my stomach for the entire situation.
Well... with that said... the title of this week's rant is "Some sentimental drivel..." so this is actually less a rant than me just pontificating as I'm sitting on the floor of my empty apartment, typing on my laptop which is sitting on a box next to an air mattress that my cat has stolen for his own personal use.
Call me a spoiled capitalist yuppie... but I really miss having stuff. I miss my TV that's usually on constantly as I'm listening to the news, sports, The History Channel, or the Discovery Channel in the background while I read about random topics that pique my interest on the internet. I miss my bed and having a chair. But even sitting within the empty walls of my apartment, with all my stuff on a moving truck heading to California, I realize I have it better than a lot of people in the world. This is especially relevant seeing as how the economy is taking its slow downward swirl along the porcelain sides of the American dream, consuming everything in its path.
I love listening to the debates from conservatives and liberals regarding what to do with the economy... it's actually ridiculous. We have on one side, people wanting to cut goverment spending so as to not deepen the national deficit, which makes sense, the deficit is ridiculous right now and getting worse. We have on the other side people saying we need to stimulate the economy my throwing money at it, which also makes sense because without money, there is no economy. Now... who's right? Unfortunately, people don't see that both sides are right... and bipartisan politics is equally as offensive to me as what happened to that poor 9-year old in Brazil.
I'm not an economist, I suck at math, but this is my take on it all. The issue is really which is more important to people now. Yes, a deficit that we'll be trying to pay off forever is bad. However, without help, there are people that have no jobs right now. Because the banking system is so f'ed up, people can't buy anything, if people can't buy anything, then manufacturing dries up, and those workers that manufacture stuff... they now have no job. And with no job, there's no buying stuff... the swirling sensation you are feeling is your livelihood going down the toilet.
So... the way I see it is that we gotta throw money into the toilet to clog it... to stop the flush of economic doom. "But we're throwing money away!" Yes, I know... but if we clog the toilet early enough, you can reach back in there and grab the money you threw in. Ta-da! I really should seek elected political office. I'm sure I can turn this into a PowerPoint slideshow.
Oh well...
Apologies for this week's rant being not all that ranty, I've been too busy to truly get outraged about something... other than the entire process of moving. It's so strange to pack up everything and just go. But so such is the transient lifestyle of someone in the military. At least this time I relatively lucky and I get to be stationed with a big group of my friends, so it's not really a goodbye to most people at it is a, "See ya in California!" And in today's technology driven world we're never at a loss of contact with people unless they really don't like you enough to hide from you. I mean, how many people do we "stalk" on Facebook daily with what I call the "Stalker Feed." So and so uploads some pictures, next thing you know you're clicking through pictures of the birthday party of someone you haven't seen in years. So... I guess there really is never a goodbye. I'll definitely miss some of the people that I'm leaving behind in Great Falls... folks like my vet (such awesome group of people) and the people I work with (for better or for worse).
Yeah... well, I hope everyone keeps reading my rants and joins me in my righteous outrage over the stupidities of humanity and life in general. Peace.
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