rants | - Part 19

I’ve got your feelings right here!

Posted by Justin at 22:58 Coots Lessons, Plain 'ol Cantankerous, rants

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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Making stuff…a lost art

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 13:51 rants

Jun 012013

I know, I know…we really haven’t quit making stuff, but sometimes it damn sure seems that way, especially when you listen to the blowhards…er…politicians talking about the state of the economy, and when you look at what they do trying to fix it.

Other than bailing out GM and Chrysler (to appease unions, not because they were “too big to fail”) and keeping those companies production lines moving and union workers drawing a paycheck, every time you look at some “stimulus” spending it is money spent to actually DO nothing.

$150,000 to study the feud between the Hatfield’s and the McCoys.

$167,000 to study the breeding habits of Japanese quail.

$1.3 million to study sex life of the woodchuck.

And my favorite…

$219,000 to teach college students to watch TV.

The private sector does no better at “making stuff”.

The United States has been the breadbasket of the world for years, producing more agricultural products than any other country…until 2009. It seems that now the Chinese like playing in the dirt and squeezing cow teats more than we do, and thanks to UHT pasteurization (ultra high temperature) a lot of their dairy products can be shipped all over the world economically, allowing them to destroy our health, our economy, and our agricultural heritage, all at the same time.

Reports show Wall Street recovering well from the economic crisis while Main Street flounders…and Wall Street makes NOTHING, except money. It trades paper. Futures, derivatives, short sells, et al…all fluff no stuff. Some trader somewhere will bet some dollars that oil will sell for X dollars at some point in the future without investing in the actual discovery or recovery of actual oil. (I’m not even going to start on short selling…betting that a company you invest money in is going to fail…wassup with that?)

I suppose it’s to be expected that “cubicle cowards” don’t want to get outside their cubicles trading paper and only having to use bits and bytes to do so…those weigh a lot less than the things we used to have to manhandle around to make “stuff”. You know…lumber and steel, tractors and chainsaws, welders and cranes.

“Oh no…I can’t do that…it’s dangerous. I might get a hangnail.”

All hail the wussified workforce…who come closest to REAL work watching a Discovery Channel special on the world’s largest drilling rig being built.

In Sweden.

Parents of baby boomer age wanted to give their kids a better life, but instead gave them a soft, overprotected, easy one. They failed to be parents, instead choosing to be their kid’s best friend.

That is one part of us not “making stuff”. The other critical component is the damn government not getting out of the way.

Can you imagine Henry Ford coming up with the mass production automobile under the watchful eye of the National Highway, Traffic, and Safety Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, not to mention the United Auto Workers work rules?

What about planes? Would Orville and Wilbur ever have gone to Kitty Hawk if the Federal Aviation Administration had been around?

We’d still be riding horses to the store and using ships only to cross the oceans.

I personally think that we have gone so far down the path of economic self-destruction that within 12-18 months the Great Depression is going to look like a cakewalk and the skills of the 1850’s will make a comeback…and I think that will be a good thing, long term. Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest” will clear out the chaff…the cubicle cowards…and we’ll get back to being producers as well as consumers. Ol’ Ralph waxes eloquent about nostalgia for the 50’s and 60’s. I do too, but I think he has the wrong century. What do y’all think?

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

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.

Down with Dumb Car Technology

Posted by Justin at 06:18 Down with, rants

Apr 052013

I was looking at a magazine the other day and there was an ad for the new Toyota mini-van. A couple of things really bothered me about it. First it was a Toyota. I was always raised that the only cars you should buy should be American.

Right or wrong, those slant eyed Hirotito followers are not going to get any of my money. Thank you Grandpa. I guess if you fought the Japanese in WWII you are entitled to that opinion and can drill it into your kids. I have never owned a Japanese car.

Anyhow, this minivan has a 180 degree camera in the back of it that is hooked to some little communist plot view screen up front so you can back out of the driveway without running over Juniors tricycle or even junior himself. Bad enough in and of itself, but the tagline “Daddy Like” just made me want to find that copywriter and shove one of those cameras up an orifice. Choose one, I don’t care.

I am very frustrated that people need to have things like cameras in their cars. What happened to that simple convention of actually turning around and looking out the back window? Are we that soft? What happened to people being able to DRIVE their cars???

I used to work at U-Haul. There were several employees there that could not park trucks to save their butts. They couldn’t back up using only their mirrors. If they lacked the training beforehand, they should have learned fairly quickly. Some couldn’t even drive a stick, but that is another post.

I want to find an older car for my kids to learn how to drive. Stick shift, AM radio, no airbags, no air conditioning, power steering if they are lucky. I want them to be able to drive forward with confidence. I want them to be able to look, actually look, behind them and drive backwards. I want them to be able to use their mirrors to back up! I want them to be able to avoid an accident. They don’t even get a cellphone. Too distracting.

I think the world would be safer if we didn’t spend so much time trying to make cars safer, and make the drivers better. I don’t know the stats and I am not going to look them up but I would be willing to bet that there are more accidents now than there were 40 years ago when people didn’t have all of the crap to distract them. Airbags are great, but so is a 4000 pound car. Hang up. Drive. Learn what your vehicle can do. Pay attention. None of this should be hard.

I don’t want any of this sissy crap foreign cars with “Daddy Like” as the tagline. I would seriously doubt that a man wrote that ad. At least not a real man who has ever field dressed something. Or changed an alternator out.

“Daddy Like” in my book should be changed to “Whoever like this ad can cram it and get some real driving skills.”

But I’m just saying.

Tomorrow a digest post!

-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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Add social services to anything for a toxic brew

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 04:32 Bob's Politics, rants, Uncategorized, videos

Apr 042013

Old Gestapo Prison in the EL-DE Museum (Photo credit: Aaron Olaf)

You HAVE to act on this, folks. You just have to.

Today’s video is a bit longer than normal…a few second shy of 30 minutes…but it is important. Very important if you are a little boy in Utah.

Today I’m just going to tell you a story…a story about a mom, her little boy, a vindictive ex-husband, and an abusive government official who thinks she is above all control.

Now…let’s see if I can piss you off enough to get you taking action:
Continue reading »

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Taxed to Distraction

Posted by Ralph at 03:54 rants

Mar 182013

I’m grouchy today. I’m getting my tax stuff ready and it is hard to have positive feelings when you think about how much money gets syphoned off by the government before I get it. The income tax is something we take for granted today. It’s just a fact of life like death and…but back 100 years ago when my grandparents were whippersnappers; there was no income tax at all. Imagine that.

I don’t know what an average individual today pays in income tax. Obama just raised the top rate again so I think that the most anybody pays is about 40% on the margin but the average rate is lower due to the ridiculous amount of complication in the tax codes. Let’s just say for discussion purposes that it is 25%. Since the government takes the money up front you never really miss it. You see the amount on your paystub but it isn’t real. Then at tax time you try to arm-wrestle some small part of it back from the government and feel pleased when you get a refund. The truth is that the only reason you get a refund is that you let the government take too much in the first place. You lent them your money with no interest. It amazes me how clever the government can be at making us feel grateful after our pockets are picked.

My impression is that back in 1913 we had a pretty respectable government. We had services, roads, communications, and defense. There was pretty much everything we needed and it all happened without taking a 25 percent cut of your paycheck. It’s hard to believe.

When they started the income tax it was small-hardly noticeable. But later when the government decided to take the tax before we got the money the floodgates opened and led us where we are today, taxed to death. Somehow you don’t feel robbed when the money never gets in your pocket. These days it is a struggle to assert that the money you earn belongs to you. The government has taken the position that everything is theirs and only grudgingly permits individuals to spend what they have left. It is a decidedly un-American turn of events- a 180 degree retreat from the principles our county was founded upon, the idea that people can decide how to spend money belter than governments. These days the government knows best.

I might feel better if I had some feeling that the government was a good steward of the money it appropriates but it seems that the government is only able to spend like drunken sailors and enough is never enough. They demand more and more. And we get less and less- both of our hard earned money and the services which the government has promised to provide. We have enabled a monster that apparently will not stop until it sucks us all dry.

When there is any attempt to get the government spending under control, it screams bloody murder. I paid no attention to the frantic cries from the insatiable government last week about this impending doom of the sequester spending cuts. The cuts don’t amount to a hill of beans, won’t stop the government from borrowing more money from the Chinese and yet the President tells us that our country id doomed unless we raise more taxes. Then he shuts down the White House tours just to emphasize how dire the situation is. It is a pathetic cry from a spoiled child. We’ve created a monster.

So, as I work up my tax information in a futile attempt to take control of my income, I’m just glad the government leaves me anything. My grandparents didn’t know how good they had it but they were asleep at the switch when they let the government start the income tax. Maybe those Tea Party folks are on the right track.

Ralph

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

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