Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

Aug 112013
 

Cantankerousness can be perceived several different ways. Most people see it as a negative thing, and that is what we are trying to change here at Cantankerous Old Coots.com. Sign up for our email list to find out more from the Coots University.

Today I have a video for you.  It is an old one, from the late eighties/early 90’s editions of Saturday Night Live.  I finally found one of these videos on line.

Dana Carvey, the man famous for the Church Lady and the “Chopping Broccoli” song, played the “Grumpy Old Man”.  While it was over the top and false Cantankerous, it is really funny.  I actually played the Grumpy Old Man in a SNL style video we made for Boy Scouts one month.  It was fun back then, but who knows if it affected my life and directed me to this site…..hmmmmm

Anyway, The video.

That’s all for today Folks, Sign up for the email list and leave a comment below!

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Aug 112013
 

Schedules suck lets face it.  I lump deadlines in with schedules as well here.  They all suck.  Over the last few days my wife and I have been trying to come up with a schedule for the family to get back on in preparation for school starting in less than one month.  Whatever happened to the Lazziez-Faire school of summer?

Over the past few weeks all sense of timing and schedule have gone out of our kids.  They end up in bed at midnight, wake up near noon, eat whenever and don’t get all of their chores done.  Well now we have decided that this just won’t do any more so a schedule we have devised.  It is simple, spells out time for everything and it sucks.  I don’t want to be on a schedule but there it is, I have to, they have to.
And if a daily schedule is not bad enough, trying to figure out when to go on vacations amid all of the things that the kids get into and before school starts sucks just as bad.  At least we only have a few free days to go fishing, we can’t afford anything else.  At least the kids like camping.  And the only schedule I have to keep in the mountains has to do with the sun rising and setting and how much gas I have in my boat.

Schedules suck.  How do you feel about them?  Oh that’s right no one really reads this blog, or if they do, they don’t bother to interact so whatever.

Have a great weekend anyway.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Jul 202013
 

This is a fantastic Rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC.  It may have been a year ago, but it has some truths today, plus it is just a fantastic rant.  And it keeps going.  enjoy it!

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Jul 022013
 

Listen to this!—-> Frampton

If you didn’t bother listening to the audio clip above you missed out on some great Peter Frampton.  Today, I get to bring up the rear on this whole “feelings” theme.

First of all, did you like the themed edition of the Coots?  We are thinking that the first week of every month will be a theme week and you, the loyal readers of the Coots (i.e. Heather, Hansi and Dave) will be responsible for choosing that theme.  Go ahead and cast your vote right over there in the sidebar for March’s theme.  And if you have a suggestion for a theme by all means hit us with it via the contact form or in the comments.

Now onto the Cantankerousness.  We spend a lot of time here at the coots talking about basically feelings.  What feelings to have, what feelings to discard, and whose feelings to stomp into a mudhole when the time is right.  Ralph has reintroduced the Cantankerous Old Coots University to our growing audience and, hopefully, has started more and more people on the path to true Cantankerousness.

In a lot of ways, Cantankerousness equals freedom.  To be truly cantankerous, you will be embracing all of the core values that are wrapped up in the First Amendment.  Coots say what they think.  We say what needs to be said without regard for the sissy feelbads of this generation.

Sometimes, you just need to hear the hard stuff.  Like Denis Leary says, “Life sucks, get a helmet.”  Your feelings shouldn’t get in the way of the truth.  The history of America is filled with insensitivity and lack of regard for feelings.  We are stubborn and, well, cantankerous.  Do you think that the Revolutionary War would have been won or even fought if the colonists worried about the “feelings” of King George?  He sure didn’t care about us and we gave him the collective finger.

Think of the government policies regarding Indians.  (Yes I said Indians.  That is what they always were Native American is a whole other rant.  And my Great Grandmother was full blooded Arapaho so don’t give me any crap about it.)  The Indians that basically ruled what would become the United States were slaughtered and pushed to little tiny plots of undesirable land.  More than once.  And the ones who had the balls to resist (see Geronimo, ass kicker extraordinaire) were eventually snuffed out by the Government.

Cantankerousness is not just bitching about the world.  It is taking a stand and forcing your position down the throats of all the namby pamby do gooders who just don’t get what it means to be assertive.  Feelings are an invention of those who need something to explain their lack of intestinal fortitude.

This is the main mission of the Coots.  To try and jump start that intestinal fortitude that is lying dormant in so many people these days.  To show people that it is ok to put your feelings in a dark place in your heart and let them fester until they just can’t be contained anymore and you make someone cry telling them the truth and not holding back because of their “feelings”.

Now, watch this video, it sums up much of my personal philosophy very nicely.

Now tell me what you think about your feelings, the comments are open and waiting for your cantankerousness to flow.

Don’t forget to vote for next month’s theme.   Semper Fi.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Jul 022013
 
English: The earliest known draft of the Unite...

English: The earliest known draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, a fragment in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Hey folks, if you haven’t noticed, this post is simulcast both here on Catharsis of the Bogue and Cantankerous Old Coots.  It is almost the 4th of July here in the United States, one of my favorite holidays.

 

This image was selected as a picture of the we...

This image was selected as a picture of the week on the Malay Wikipedia for the 26th week, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

If you didn’t know, July 4th celebrates the day when a group of British citizens here in the American Colonies decided to give the finger to King George and make their own country.  July 4th is the day when those men we now call Patriots, signed one of the most important documents in the history of the world, the Declaration of Independence.

 

This is not just another day.  This is our Independence Day.  This is the day John Adams wrote to his wife about, saying,

 

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

 

Those brave men who wrote, and then ratified that Declaration were so far from the milquetoast government that we have now.  They knowingly put their names to a document that labeled each and every one of them traitors to the most powerful country on the Earth at that time.  And they knew what they could make out of this country.  They knew that King George was not the way.  They knew that we had to have our own laws, our own officials, our own taxes.

 

And now, this country, with all of the problems that we do have, still shines as a beacon to the world, a democracy, a republic that has lasted for over 200 years.  This Thursday is July 4th, when we should be with our families.  We should raise a flag at dawn and salute whilst saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  We should read that Declaration of Independence and understand what they were fighting for.  We should read the Constitution and know what our country is built on.  There is no better time to be a patriot.

 

Tonight, Tuesday the 2nd, I took it upon myself to teach my Cub Scouts about the Declaration of Independence.  They range in ages from 8 to 10.  Most of them had only heard of the Declaration (and no, Abraham Lincoln did not have anything to do with the Declaration, despite the insistence of one 8 year old).  I gave each of them a copy that they could read with their families.  We read it together and discussed what it meant.  The other leaders and I tried not to realize that We, as Citizens of the USA, need to send a slightly edited copy of this document to Washington.  But I digress.  I know it is important to teach the Declaration and it’s meaning.  And to debunk the map on the back.  It exists only in Hollywood.

 

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, should not just be the day we watch fireworks.  It shouldn’t be the day we finish cleaning the car, or mowing the lawn.  We should be thankful for this country.  We should give thanks to whatever God we worship that we are here, and are free of tyranny.  We should thank our Service Men and Women for defending that freedom that we began fighting for back in 1775.

 

I love going to community festivals on Independence Day.  I really like to be with others, celebrating this country and the fact that we are Americans.  I love the “Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations” that John Adams predicted.  I love to stand and remove my hat as the flag passes by during the parade, even when most people don’t bother.  I love to sing that National Anthem with a field full of people, all of like mind.

 

Many people say “Happy Birthday America.”  I do to.  But more importantly, I say , “Happy Independence Day.”   May you all have a great Independence Day, go out and celebrate, don’t let it be just another day.

 

-Justin

 

 

 

 

 

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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