I hope everyone had a good break from the regular cantankerosity and enjoyed Heathers work. She has some good rants on things us other Coots don’t think about.
Is anyone else out there getting tired of winter? I know it has been very erratic around much of the US and still continues to be…strange weather to say the least. Next Wednesday the weather prognosticator of all prognosticators will make his debut and tell us all whether we can look forward to 6 more weeks of winter or not. Continue reading »
/ˈvɪttriəəl/ [vi-tree-uhl] noun, verb, -oled, -ol·ing or ( especially British ) -olled, -ol·ling.
–noun
1. Chemistry . any of certain metallic sulfates of glassy appearance, as copper sulfate or blue vitriol, iron sulfate or green vitriol, zinc sulfate or white vitriol, etc.
2. oil of vitriol; sulfuric acid.
3. something highly caustic or severe in effect, as criticism.
Got Vitriol?
I’ve been seeing a lot about vitriol lately. I always liked the word. I think I first stumbled upon it in high school. In those days I was always seeking words that would make me appear sophisticated- not such a difficult feat in my hick town. Lately I’ve been hearing the word so often that I seem to be fixated on vitriol.
What’s the fuss?
If you look at the meaning :Vitriol – acidic, caustic, it doesn’t seem so bad. Why all the fuss? What is so bad about vitriol? Here is this Coot’s take. I say that vitriol has gotten a bad rap. Vitriol is something to value and encourage because vitriol is the mother’s milk of American politics.
It’s really about growing up!
There has been a lot of hot air dissing vitriol lately. And that’s all it is, just hot air! It is all BS because vitriol is merely a highfalutin word for insults. Those vitriol-dissing pussies are moaning and whining about somebody calling them names. Where did these mama’s boys and girls grow up? In their mama’s apron pocket? Didn’t they ever go to school wearing that embarrassing shirt from Aunt Agnes? Did they somehow miss facing the peer review of their classmates? Didn’t they learn to deal with it and move on? Didn’t they grow up? Apparently not!
America raises wimps.
OK, I get it. The wimps that are complaining about vitriol grew up in the new America- the one where everybody has a God given right to feel good about themselves and bullying is illegal. Back in the frontier days when I grew up, you had to be tough. There weren’t any laws saying that you had to feel good about yourself or else somebody would pay. The nanny state was still a dream in those days. If you wanted to feel good about yourself, it was all up to you to make it happen. Even your mamma couldn’t do it for you. And if she was worth her salt, she wouldn’t think of it.
We used to take it- and give it back
In those old days there was a system. You gave back what you received. You learned that sobbing and whimpering didn’t get you much.
Sobbing and whimpering only convinced your tormentors that they were right – and all the bystanders as well.
If you wanted to survive in those primitive days, you honed your verbal skills, you toughened your fists and you turned everything right back on your tormentors. And then you felt good about yourself!
Today, self reliance is considered mean.
These days, the only thing worse than being a bully is fighting back. Win or lose, the nanny state frowns on any uncivil discourse or worse physical abuse. Victim or bully are equally punished in our modern enlightened America.
It all started in the schools where education has long been abandoned in favor of self-esteem no matter how little you actually deserve it. Now that the products of this coddling are entering adult life, they can’t believe that perfect little bubble of self worship doesn’t protect them now they they have left the education system. Since they never developed defensive skills either physical or verbal, they are reduced to blubbering inanities and demanding that the nanny state protect them in the real world just like it did in school. What can I say? Those sniveling, whining cowards are dedicated to destroying what is left of the American way. All in the name of ending vitriol. Well, I say bullshit! @##& too.
So I say ‘Up with vitriol!’
I say a little vitriol is good for the soul; keeps a man on his toes both verbally and physically; and oils the skids of a diverse, dynamic, creative country- like we used to have here in the USA. Vitriol is the mothers milk of a vibrant democracy and democracy is no place for wimps. They belong somewhere else- maybe back in the USSR with John Lennon. Take a good look at anybody you see disparaging vitriol and you will see an enemy of democracy and free speech. It doesn’t matter whether they are red or blue, R or D. They are nothing but wimps and wimps are determined to destroy this country, its traditions and freedom just so that they can feel good about themselves. Don’t let them get away with it!
Click the link below if you are still vitriol impaired
So let your fangs out and savor vitriol. Enjoy its caustic tang when you are the recipient and then spew it right back. Remember what your mother told you (This is an exception to Coots Lesson One). Names can never hurt you. The only thing that can hurt you is making it illegal to insult someone. Don’t laugh., We are almost there.
It’s a devious process that creeps and crawls, moving in fits and starts when you aren’t looking, stealing life and energy and gradually but unrelentingly replacing vigor and strength with sloth and infirmity. Worst of all it introduces pain into your life as a constant companion. No wonder no one ever talks about it.
Spending those golden years on the bench?
I’s practical to be philosophical about aging. You can’t stop it or slow it down. You can mask it’s effects with creams and chemicals. You can mitigate the damage with exercise. You can confuse it with drugs. In truth, however, it makes you mad because it’s a death sentence. No matter what you do (or don’t do) aging just keeps rolling along and finally carries you off. You die. In the meantime you have to manage its consequences during all those years of decline. It is 40 years of denial.
Society plays along with the fantasy of those ‘Golden Years’ full of happy youthful and active senior citizens living a fantasy life of old age bliss. The reality is better depicted in the TV drug ads targeting a multitude of debilitating conditions and in those ads you never see old people. The ads imply that everything that comes with aging is merely a treatable condition. Any one might need these drugs and if you find yourself needing them, it’s just a normal thing. It has nothing to do with your age. Drugs are the key to a healthy life. What a load of crap!Continue reading »
**Editors Note: Today is actually a happy day here at Cantankerous Old Coots! My friend Bob has here, written below, what is the 100th post published on this site! That is a great milestone and one we are most definitely not going to stop at Not bad for a blog that started on a whim with a sarcastic comment. Thanks for coming and reading our stuff and you can look forward to more, number 200 is coming! Now onto Bob’s post! -Justin**
Sometimes I just think the know-it-all kids might be able to run things better than us old farts (and fartettes). Maybe we just ought to turn all the country’s problems over to them to solve. They’ll probably do it in about a week and a half.
Just ask them…they’ll be glad to tell you. Apparently, from about age 18 to age 25 is when a human is the smartest and can do the best analytical thinking, and after that it’s all downhill. So…if they are so damn smart, let them figger things out for us.
This was brought home YET AGAIN this past week when Megan McCain, the dumb blonde bimbo highly intelligent and discerning daughter of Sen. John McCain opened her mouth…again.
Does anyone besides me wish she would just shut…the…hell…up? If she weren’t Sen McCain’s daughter she’d be just another dumb blonde…like, awesome…Valley Girl wannabe. Instead, the media treats her like the second coming of Socrates, spreading her insight far and wide.
How does a 26 year old who hasn’t yet learned to wipe her rear without a diagram and written instructions get so smart so young…and she must be smart…
Last week she shared with us…and with the breathlessly listening main stream media…that Christine O’Donnell, the senate candidate from Delaware, shouldn’t be elected because she is not qualified. Well, just what makes one “qualified”, Megan?
(“Megan” because you are a know-it-all snot-nosed brat. Gain some age…and wisdom…and you might earn a Ms. McCain.)
Megan, just what kind of qualifications do you feel someone needs to have in order to hold elected office? Let’s look at a couple of elected officials for guidance, OK?
There once was a small town country lawyer from Illinois. He was mostly self-educated, and was not a lawyer with a polished resume. His political career consisted of several failed attempts to get elected to local and state office before his single win. He was not a polished speaker and was not notably educated on national and foreign policy of the day. He was much like Christine O’Donnell in that he was simply a good man of average intellect who wanted to just do the right thing.
The second politician was also of average intellect, but had a far more extensive unofficial political education having been raised in the politics of a navy admiral’s household and absorbing the politics of national defense. He attended the US Naval Academy and served as a Navy carrier pilot where his only notable act was to be shot down over North Vietnam. As a POW he showed himself to be an American patriot. So far, so good…but after being released from captivity and leaving the navy he was bitten by the political bug and was elected by his wife’s money and his war hero status to the United States senate, where he changes his position on issues as often as I change my underwear, always sticking his finger in the air to test the currents before deciding what he thinks.
I like inexperienced and unqualified better.
Meghan, the first inexperienced, unqualified (by your standards, anyway) politician was Abraham Lincoln. The second is your father.
I think it’s best you, like, you know, just shut up.
Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness.
He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com
Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.
Sometimes I don’t even understand what’s going on. Life is a great adventure and it is easy to get lost in the weeds and focused on minutia. One way for that to happen is when you let yourself get sucked into the news. The media only make money after they persuade you that what they are selling is something you need to know. And they work damn hard at it.
I’ve learned over time that stuff happens whether I know about it or not. I have about the same influence over events whether informed or ignorant. However I find that I am much happier when I am ignorant. So I turn off the news and ignore the newspapers. This allows me to pretend that the world isn’t falling apart right before my eyes. It keeps me closer to sane and reasonable than I would otherwise be. When the wheels fall off the bus, with any luck I will be otherwise occupied.
It’s not easy!
It takes superhuman effort to block all the news however. Here and there a story will leak through my protective shield and over time, it is impossible not to notice that the world is changing. And not for the better.
One of the things that really bugs me is the future. Back when I was a kid we worshiped the future and believed in progress, technology and science. The future was where life got even better, where there were new worlds to conquer and frontiers to explore. Cars changed every year. And those changes were substantial. Tail fins came and went. Windshields wrapped and unwrapped. Everybody knew when you had a year old car and snickered unlike these days where cars hardly change at all and nobody can tell that your car is five years old and they are all ugly.
Or take airplanes. The 707 was a breakthrough but 40 years later today’s planes don’t fly any faster, they just carry more people, have overhead bins and lousy service. The Concorde was a dead end and the airliners on the drawing board are just effete refinements of old technology not breakthroughs.
Who killed the future?
Not in your future
When I was a kid, the future was exciting. We would be traveling at supersonic speeds long before the new century. Where are those supersonic airliners? Nobody is even dreaming about them any more. And take space travel. When President Kennedy launched the Apollo Moon Project we all got excited because it meant that man would finally escape Earth and embrace a new frontier. Well America had enough oomph to get to the Moon but that was it. NASA frittered away our space heritage and technology for the timid and useless space shuttle which could never reach a useful altitude for space exploration and bored us to tears even when it crashed.
What impresses me today is that it isn’t part of our culture anymore to embrace the future. NASA has turned into the IRS with no vision or dreams about space and no magic. Our leaders don’t talk about the future like they did when I was a kid. And people aren’t upset that we don’t have a future. It is all they can do to keep their eyes on the ground for fear of making a misstep and falling. These days we can’t afford a future.
So what went wrong?
I don’t know for sure what went wrong. I don’t know why people stopped dreaming big and expecting the future to be bright. I do have my suspicions. For me, the optimism stopped when President Kennedy was shot. It was the end of the era of optimism and can do spirit and the beginning of second guessing America and the American way. It was the end of progress and the future and the beginning of self-doubt and introspection. Take it for what it is worth but my judgment is this.
The future died with President Kennedy
What! Me worry?
The future of America died with President Kennedy. All the problems, loss of focus and dithering in our country started with one man and his anti-American agenda and once the country made a worng turn, nobody has ever even tried to get it right again (well maybe one guy but it is going to take an army).
So who might I be talking about, you ask? Who was that destructive, subversive man and what was his anti-American agenda? I’ll tell you.
It was Lyndon Johnson and the catastrophic Great Society.
