Politics | - Part 3

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

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Down with Politicians redux- The Baby is Dead

Posted by Ralph at 17:02 Down with

Jun 022014

: Image by etgeek (Eric) via Flickr

But “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” . . . I will continue

to support my US Representative as he is effective and works for the

people of our district and in general.

The Baby is Dead

This comment from an old high school friend shows just what power politicians hold over us these days. We trust the bastards. We continue to believe that they are real people just like you and me and that they hold real American values. That is the baby they keep reminding us about. “Don’t throw that baby out just because the bath water is beginning to stink. They never show us that baby which we imagine as the happy Gerber baby we grew up with. They only talk about the baby and hope we won’t ask to see it and how well it is doing. They won’t show us the baby because the Baby is dead. He died years ago from bathing in the toxic swamps of our capitols. At best they show us a blanket swaddled lump. If they ever showed us what is left of the baby we would kick them into the next millennium because what is left of the baby is a mummified horror like Anthony Perkin’s mother in Psycho.

How long can you live in the Swamp before you get Swamp Fever?

We are in absolute denial about the toxic swamp our politicians inhabit. We know that our elected officials are pure and honorable patriots that are defending us and our rights against the evils of the world. Maybe they are. Maybe they used to be exactly what we think they are- good Americans but living in a toxic swamp is bound to affect their perspective. How long does it take before the world of politics becomes their reality and our lives a ridiculous fantasy? One term? Two terms?

The morality of Mustang Ranch

Imagine that you have a healthy, intelligent and honorable son who has just finished Middle School. You want the best for him and so for his high school years you send him to boarding school. You select a highly regarded prep school and pack him off to become one of the country’s best and brightest. Then let’s say that this highly regarded prep school has embraced a new teaching philosophy and the faculty is replaced with the staff of the Mustang Ranch. You may have instilled the highest of values and great personal integrity in your son. How long do you think those values will survive the school environment? How will you explain your son’s career choice to become a pimp. Because you know what a fine young man you raised, you will go to outlandish extremes to explain that your son is dedicated to helping young ladies. You certainly wouldn’t want to throw out the baby (your honorable son) with the bathwater (the appearance of depravity).

Save your politician from the swamp. Vote him out!

So when that sincere politician tells you not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ask him to show you that baby. You have to save him from himself. He went into the swamp at your direction. If the swamp turned him to the dark side, it was while trying to serve you. Now, before the damage becomes too ingrained to change, it is up to you to pull him out and save him from the monster he will become if he stays. It is too late to save the baby but maybe you can still save your politician. Vote him out.

Ralph

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

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Let’s get behind Obama’s “fair share”

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 12:34 Bob's Politics, Problems and solutions, rants, videos

May 182014

Maybe Obama’s campaign ads are working (you do know all those trips around the country…on your dime…were really campaigning, right?), but I’m beginning to agree with him that there are folks out here who don’t pay their “fair share”, and something needs to be done about it. Dammit, EVERYBODY needs to pay their fair share! Let’s figure out who the slackers are, shall we?

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.

Up with Vitriol- the mothers milk of democracy

Posted by Ralph at 13:05 Plain 'ol Cantankerous, rants, Up With

Mar 182014

: Image by Abdullah Sabill »BRB FINALS« via Flickr

vit·ri·ol

/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.

Ralph

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

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook

Let’s define “zero tolerance”

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 10:42 Down with, principles, rants

Feb 152014

The “let the nanny state take care of me” crowd has a tendency to use zero tolerance as a way to protect themselves when they turn their brains off. That would be 99% of the time. Let’s look at just what zero tolerance is.

Back before zero tolerance became the politically correct method for demonstrating your stupidity, it had a very limited use, and was usually enforced only by the local old maid librarian. Most of them had ears like a directional microphone, and were pissed at the world because they had never been kissed, and used that super hearing mostly to punish highly hormonal teenagers.

I’ll swear, the librarian back home could hear you if you picked your nose, and would throw you out. For the library, the upside was it kept boogers off the bottoms of tables and chairs.

Don’t look at me like that! Where else are you gonna put a booger in the library, inside the back cover of a book?

Anyway, these days any little self appointed dictator uses zero tolerance to 1.) Give them an excuse to exercise what little power they have as often as possible, and 2.) Allow them to save energy by not having to think. For some reason, while it seems to be used by everybody with just an itty bitty bit of power, it rears its ugly head most often in our schools.

• A couple of years ago in Cobb County, Georgia (a part of the metropolitan Atlanta area…naturally) a little girl in, I believe, the seventh grade, who was an A + student, was expelled for the balance of the school year for bringing a weapon to school.

The weapon? A plastic 6 inch long Tweety Bird keychain that had the door key to her home on it. Now, if you have at least three active brain cells working at the moment, you have to be asking yourself, “Self, how in the hell can a plastic keychain be a weapon?” Well, a brain dead (and zero tolerance loving) principle, followed Georgia law to the letter and decided that a keychain with a key on the end of it (where else would you keep the key?) fit the legal description of a “flinging weapon”, and kicked the honor roll student out of school.

The principle was thinking along the lines of numbchucks. Personally, I think numbskull is more appropriate.

• Along about the same time in Gwinnett County, Georgia, (yet another suburban Atlanta county)…

Stop right there. I don’t wanna hear any crap about Georgia. Atlanta might be in Georgia, it might even be the capital of Georgia, but it is not Georgia. Atlanta might be 10% Georgians. Everybody else moved in from Yankee land.

Anyway, in Gwinnett County, Georgia another 10 or 11 year old little girl took a very small 1 ounce bottle that had a purple liquid in it to school and told her classmates that it was communion wine. One of her classmates told the teacher, who took the little girl and the bottle of “communion wine” to the principal’s office . The principle opened the bottle (drinking on the job Mr. Principle?), discovered the “communion wine” was actually grape juice…and expelled the little girl for violating the no alcohol policy. He said that even pretending that it was alcohol put the little girl in violation of the policy.

I suppose that means that if two of the boys in school were standing at the water cooler and started joking about getting a drink of beer “on tap” they would be expelled as well.

• Not to be outdone by it’s confederate neighbors to the south, a high school in Spotsylvania, Virginia has expelled another straight “A” student for shooting spitballs in class. Not suspended… expelled.

As a totally irrelevant aside, who the hell would name a town Spotsylvania? Every time I hear that name I get an image in my head of a cross between a spotted Dalmation dog and a vampire, and I don’t even do drugs like our regular reader Hansi.

OK, back on topic. The school has taken a portion of the Federal Gun Free School Act, which mandates that schools expel students who take “…weapons, including hand guns, explosive devices and projectile weapons, to school. “, and has decided that a spitball is a “projectile weapon”.

Based on the three examples above I think my own personal definition of “zero tolerance” is fairly accurate. My definition? I’ll express it in the form of a math problem:

Zero intelligence + zero judgment = zero tolerance.