Down with | - Part 10

Down With Today’s Mail Bag!

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Down with, rants

Jul 072014

Tech problems abound in this coots house lately. Hopefully most are solved. Today I am not going into the tech world however. Today I am more than slightly pissed off about a couple of things that I received in the good old US Mail today.

This is not about my mail carrier or anything like that. Don’t shoot the messenger and cliches like that, but it is only about 30 yards from my desk to the mailbox….

Anyway, I get 2 letters in the mail today that just got me fired up. The first was from our new dentist. Some quick background, our old dentist just retired and he was of the old school that still used handwritten bills. He didn’t charge very much and was fair about getting paid. But he retired. NOw we have this new guy. Not a bad dentist but after this letter today I have serious misgivings about his office staff. That is where I should be hiring out, to fix the bungling load of BS that some people let their office get into.
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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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Down with Neglect!

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Down with

Jul 072014

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It is easy to sit here and come up with little things to complain about. But that is not Cantankerous, that is just crabby. Some days it is hard to find the Cantankerous side of things, especially with a holiday like Christmas staring us in the face.

I recently moved my desk to the other side of my living room in preparation for Christmas decorating. we have to find a place for the tree. This move was good though, because now I have a window to stare out of. I try to justify it to myself as creative thinking when I am staring out the window but I am convinced that most of it is wasting time.

I keep thinking of what I could write about for this site based on what I see out of my window. I could complain about all fo the leaves that have fallen on my lawn, or the wind that blew them around, or even the rain that will make them harder to rake up, or even the snow that now covers them.

I could complain about the snow plow that keep filling up my driveway approach with snow that I get to shovel out again and again. Or I could complain more about the TSA, airports in general, or the fact that egg prices have gone up almost double since last month. Again, mostly not Cantankerous.

Here is what I can wax cantankerous about. People who don’t do whatever it takes for their kids. I have seen way too many kids at the elementary school who are outside in the cold wearing 2-3 tshirts or a parents flannel shirt. It has been running at less than 30 degrees in Salt Lake for a couple of weeks now, this week is the warmest and will barely be in the 40’s. Now I understand that some people just can’t afford to buy new coats all of the time for their kids.

I get it, times are hard. But, there are 2 goodwill stores, one Salvation Army and one Deseret Industries within 2 miles of the school. Coats can be had for cheap at either of these places. Sometimes even that is too much for people, yet a good portion of the time, these people have a perpetual cigarette in their mouths. I can’t imagine letting my kids go without anything that they need. I don’t buy myself stuff most of the time because A-I don’t need it and B- I can use the money for my kids.

2 years ago my daughter had her coat disappear at school. A few days later we saw another little girl with the coat on, and she was one that needed it. We never pursued the fact that it was stolen, my daughter had another coat anyway and we figured that this girl needed it worse. But what are some people doing when they let their kids resort to stealing from other kids just so they can be warm?

This post has gone from a rant to a sad commentary on society. I don’t know the answer to this problem. We can donate to all sorts of charities and some people get the help they need but there are others who are not quite poor enough to qualify for some programs but not rich enough to keep their growing kids in clothes that need help too. Go out and see what you can do in your community to help those who need just a little bit. And it doesn’t need to be coats, some climes do not require them. I am sure if you looked you could find something that needed to be done.

Consider that your homework for the week, do something for your community. See we here at the Coots do believe that it is a good thing to help out your fellow man. We just don’t believe in letting people suck us dry taking advantage of us. Get ready for the Christmas season, no matter your religion, there are people out there who need you and your support.

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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Down with Normal

Posted by Ralph at 18:17 Down with

Jul 072014

There is an unwritten law in California.

In California we believe that if you don’t think it’s broken, your standards suck.

Following this law has given us a whole new election process.

A Dictionary of American Politics, Comprising Accounts of Political Parties, Measures and Men, Etc. (Photo credit: Cornell University Library)this law, Californians have gone from being the best state in the union when I moved here in 1970 for such things as roads and schools to being last today. Having ruined the state infrastructure, the focus these days is undermining governance.

Yesterday was the primary election. Californians never expect to have an impact on the candidate for President. Still we get to express our preference and vote to determine who should be on the ballot in November. But California has decided that regular primary elections are just too ordinary for the Golden State. This is a primary election with a twist. This year everybody gets to vote for everybody; parties don’t count.

What I mean is that no matter what your political party preference, you get to see the entire list of candidates and vote your favorite. No more of those arbitrary distinctions between candidates and voters. Everybody is as good as everybody else. The idea that you should limit yourself to one party when you vote in the primary is like believeing that the Earth is flat. No flat Eathers alowed in Califronia. California is challenging the tired old routine of elections. They shook everything up by putting all the candidates on one ballot. No matter your political party you can vote for any candidate and only the top two vote getters will appear on the November ballot.

Why? you ask. In California you learn not to bother asking.

Nobody I know has offered a rational explanation for this change or any evidence that it is an improvement over what we used to do. I can’t even remember how this new process got established. It was probably one of the plethora of ballot initiatives that confuse California voters each election. Nobody can understand what the language means and both supporters and opponents lie like rugs.

Whatever, the result is that instead of all the miscellaneous political parties having a candidate on the Primary ballot in November, there will be only two candidates and there is no requirement about what party they represent. The voters will choose.. It might be two Democrats. It might be two Republicans. It might even be two Greens or a mix with one Democrat and one Republican or even a Libertarian and a Peace and Freedom. There are no petty rules about party representation.

Tradition never looked better as California improves itself to death.

As I watch California deteriorate these days I’m appreciating tradition more and more. Change isn’t always good. I don’t much like this change but it is something you have to accept when you live in California. It’s what they like to do in California, shake things up. Like they did a few years back with the ‘new’ math back when my kids were in elementary school. I have no idea what ‘ new’ math is, or was. I couldn’t make heads not tails of it. I always assumed that the teachers understood but there is no clear evidence that they did either. All I know is that my kids never understood math, new or old and hate math to this day, in spite of tutors hired to remedy the failings of the California education tyranny.

They never admit failure.

Eventually, (after my kids were past saving) California abandoned ‘new’ math and without fanfare or explanation returned to ‘old’ math. It’s a tradition in California to do new things, just because they are new. They rejected phonics as well but lucky for my kids they were already reading by then. They went back to phonics without skipping a beat or admitting failure. We shudder to think what might be next – new traffic laws?

So, it remains to be seen how this new election practice will fare. I fully expect that Californian’s will shrug the new practice after a year or two off and return to the old ways. I fully expect that the politicians will shrug it off as well just like they shrug off any responsibility to the people who elected them. What I do anticipate is that whatever the intent of the bureaucrats that designed this monstrosity, they will be upset when nothing much changes. That isn’t good either. I can’t believe that they will be satisfied with letting things go back to normal. Fortunately there are always plenty of new ways to do things.

Even California normal.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Down with Politicians!

Posted by Ralph at 18:17 Down with

Jul 072014

“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.” Henry Kissenger

Unfortunately, the founding fathers set up the country to be run by politicians. Elected representatives presented the best of the bad choices offered by history. Unlike royalty, the public would be able to replace politicians when they overstepped their role. This system has kept our country going for over two hundred years despite the concerns of Benjamin Franklin.

Now that government is failing all around us. Ordinary citizens and voters seem to be getting the short end of the stick in terms of the services that we expect the government to be providing in exchange for our taxes. Here in California, we hear that the City of Oakland, never known for it’s safe streets is reducing the police force because it can’t afford to pay the retirement commitments to officers. The legislature in Sacramento can’t balance a budget but can ban plastic bags and aluminum baseball bats. Is that what we told them to do? Our national politicians are no better, spending money we don’t have to grow government, paralyze private industry and abandon national security issues like controlling the border.

How did we get in such a mess? Whatever makes us reelect politicians who blatantly refuse to do what we pay them to do? Why are we so trusting? And so forgiving?

I think the simple answer is that when it comes to politics we are all fools. We will buy into any story that a politician is willing to spin. And when we don’t know, we are willing to assume that the incumbent deserves to stay. That was my excuse and I am learning that it is a piss poor electron strategy because it is based upon assumptions that give the incumbent advantages without requiring him to earn them. Most of the time I don’t have a clue what my representatives have been up to in Sacramento or Washington. They don’t tell me and I don’t ask. Come election day, I assume that they have been behaving themselves and give them a thumbs up. Look what that kind of thinking has produced – total dysfunction.

I’m not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt any more. If I don’t absolutely know that politician has done something good during their term, then they don’t get my vote. If everybody would take that position, I think we would have a whole new class of accountable politicians. How do you know what they have done? Not my problem. If I don’t know what they have done, they don’t get my vote. Instead of candidates trying to convince me whey they should replace the incumbent, the burden is on the incumbent to prove that they should stay. Voting made easy. Vote the incumbent out!

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Down with Protesters

Posted by Justin at 04:14 Down with, principles, rants

Jun 112014

I don’t know if this is a phenomenon local to Salt Lake City or not. It seems that businesses all over the valley have been targeted for years by a group of protesters.

These protesters always have a large printed sign on a PVC pipe frame that declares in large red letters, “SHAME ON….” the business name, and “Labor Dispute” on the bottom. I have never been able to see a pattern to it or a reason for it.

These signs are attended by usually 3 or 4 people of various races, genders and persuasions. Again, no real pattern to it.

Now I am all for Free Speech and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of these United States, but come on, When you start protesting the hospital that saved my baby girls life with 2 years of dialysis and then a transplant, you piss me off no matter what minimum wage, questionable legal right to work in the US, labor dispute your tiny mind dreams up on bottom shelf liquor and who knows what other substances.

I don’t know what their issues are, I can’t find out anything about them on the net. And forget asking the protesters themselves, they just look at you an shrug like they don’t understand English.

You know I did see one of these signs outside of Disneyland last year. I guess it is not local to SLC. That was the guy I asked what they were protesting. “Labor Dispute” was all he would say.

You know, go ahead and protest, just know what in the name of all that is holy and right you are protesting about. Or at least have some sort of….something on the net to tell me why I shouldn’t bring my right to bear arms in direct conflict with your right to assemble and freely speech.

I’m just sayin’

-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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