- Politics - There is a reason why I'm going to a seminar on August 3rd on improving influencing skills. Why? Because the very notion of politics as a concept makes me gag. Politics seems to be the art of doing the least and yet claiming that it was the most.
- Race Baiters - People that use race to promote their own personal agenda...be they Jesse Jackson on the left of Rush Limbaugh on the right...really piss me off. Jackson encourages victimology through race and Limbaugh encourages the worst in his audience through his subtle racist comments.
- Those Claiming Moral Authority - Very, very few humans, in my estimation, can claim any real moral authority over anything. Oh, and the ones that rightfully could, such as Mother Teresa, mostly never do/did. The self-righteous usually end up looking like hypocrites.
- Chronic Victims - Yes, we all get crapped on from time to time, but that's life. I have no time for people that chronically claim to be victims though. Life isn't fair. People can be idiots. Make the best with what you have and move on.
- People That Don't Accept Responsibility - Great recent example: Fox News certainly did fan the fires with the whole Sherrod episode...hoping it would be the latest ACORN or Black Panther story (forget stories about Republican voter fraud...)...but yet refused to take responsibility for participating in the slander of this woman. Roger Ailes owes her an apology. He runs the ship. His organization blatantly screwed up. At least Bill O'Reilly man-ed up when he recently said "I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context."
- People That Don't Read - I actually know people that don't really read anything, except for emails, text messages and Facebook. My God, how could anyone be so stupid? There is a whole freak'n universe out there to be explored.
- People Who Defend Smoking - How could anyone with more than two functioning brain cells defend a product that, when used as directed, kills you? I say simply ban it. It would be one thing if the activity just harmed the person that did it, but tobacco smoke doesn't abide by "no smoking" section rules. The best comparison is this: Smoking sections in public places make about as much peeing sections in swimming pools. Oh, and to those that claim "but, but, but...people eat fast food and that's bad for you!" I say the following: even the worse crap from McD's provides calories and some level of nutrition. In fact, if you were starving to death, a McD's hamburger could save your life. Smoking however has ZERO value. Smoking is nothing more than an addiction to a potent drug, and I genuinely feel bad for those that are hooked and can't stop.
- Corporate Greed Heads - I'm sorry, but a tenth of a point in improved net profit isn't worth ruining the lives of (former) employees. Businesses should be able to do what they do best, but sometimes we forget that business has another very important function in our society: it employs people. Our society needs a better balance between the motive for profit and the responsibility to contribute to the greater good. We can have both, but I fear that something the scales tip too much in one direction.
- Free Market Public Sector Types - Speaking for business, ever find it fascinating that some who crow the most about the "free market" are actually those who have the least experience in it? Newt Gingrich is a great example. I like Newt by the way, but he's something of a hypocrite, as for most of his adult life he has had zero experience working in the for-profit private sector. None. Nada. Zip. I've worked for profit-making businesses all my adult life. I love profit. But I also see that an exclusive desire for anything...be it profits, chocolate or sex...is never any good.
- Sloganeering - Some things are too complex to fit into nice little sound bytes, despite what you may hear from your favorite politician.
- Reality TV - Since when does simply being a moron make you a star? Since the dawn of Reality TV. One need only look HERE for an example.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A Random List of People & Things that Piss Me Off
In no particular order, for no particular reason.
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11 comments:
1. Please define "race baiting".
2. "Race Baiters - People that use race to promote their own personal agenda...be they Jesse Jackson on the left of Rush Limbaugh on the right...really piss me off"
Please provide what you think is the most clear cut, specific example of "race baiting" by Limbaugh.
I think Julian Bond is one of the biggeswt liars/racists in the entire country and I wouldnt mind backing that up at all.
Q: "Please define race baiting"
A: Performing seal isn't on my list of things to do today, so if you really need a definition I suggest you look it up yourself.
Q: "Please provide what you think is the most clear cut, specific example of "race baiting" by Limbaugh."
A: Here you go...this one is my favorite:
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
- Rush Limbaugh, January 19, 2007
Performing seal isn't on my list of things to do today, so if you really need a definition I suggest you look it up yourself
I'm not sure if you are positing this from any dictionary definition or your own, personal definition. If youre going to get pissy about it, then I'll leave you alone with your regularly scheduled tumbleweeds. I neither mind nor care.
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
How is this race baiting if we do not know how you define it?
OK, I'll look.
I typed [race baiting definition] into a common search engine and this is what I found.
The Merriam Webster definition, quote...
"the making of verbal attacks against members of a racial group"
This Michigan.gov site openly states that in reference to the "Crips", that they "are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang".
In reference to the "Bloods", the Wiki entry (for what it's worth) states...
"Most Bloods members are African American males, although some sets have recruited female members as well as members from other races and ethnic backgrounds".
Might you like to provide more from the transcript in question in order to ascertain if Limbaugh was referring to criminal activity among NFL players?
Steve,
I can't say my position on smoking is quite that extreme. I can see (perhaps) a ban on smoking in public places- but if you are talking about forbidding it in someone's private home that is a bit different.
I used to smoke myself, about a pack and a half a day, but I quit cold turkey in 2004. To be honest- it did not bother me. I put the cigaretts down and that was that. I did not smoke becasue I was addicted, I smoked becasue I enjoyed it. What got me to stop was working in a hospital and seeing first hand what it does to people. I realized cancer is a serious disease! I no longer enjoyed smoking after that and quit.
Father Dave Bechtel
1. "If youre going to get pissy about it..."
You asked a question with the very obvious implication that I didn't understand the term "race baiting". Sorry, but I'm not playing that game. Now interestingly enough in your retort you are more specific. Fair enough. Thin skin? No, not normally, but conversely I'm not going to be lectured in my own space (I did, after all, plunk down the $10 for this URL...there is no equivalent to TARP For would-be bloggers).
2. "...you alone with your regularly scheduled tumbleweeds..."
Know what JD? If absolutely no one read this stuff then guess what...I'd still do it. I doubt that others could say the same thing. This has never been about entertaining anyone but myself.
3. "Might you like to provide more from the transcript in question in order to ascertain if Limbaugh was referring"
Ah, you are saying that we need to analyze what Limbaugh said. That's like trying to analyze why members of the Klan wear white sheets. Is it because dark sheets would be uncomfortable in the heat of the south? Are white sheets easier to obtain? Are white sheets easier to spot in the dark of night? Do the white sheets make them look like ghosts? At some point the analysis takes on a life if it's own and you lose sight of what your are analyzing. That's not happening here.
The bottom line is this: No matter what the ramp-up, the quote was said in order to inflame racist passions. The quote had, at it's central core, the notion that black males are criminal gang members.
Furthermore, I picked ONE quote out. I could have just as easily used...
"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back"...
or I could cite you the words to the "Barrack the Magic Negro" song parody...
or more than a few others that are out there as well.
If the attempt is to paint Limbaugh as someone akin to Ms Sharrod, then you are sadly mistaken. Ms Sharrod had one quote that was edited (by a rabid conservative mind you) to look as if it was racist. Limbaugh has history. Limbaugh's only defense, if you want to call it that, is that he is trying to be somehow funny. Call me crazy, but the only people that I think would find that funny would be the above referenced crew that wear white sheets.
Father Bechtel...I always found it odd that some priests smoke. It's as if I somehow expect them to be above stuff like that. Anyway, I am glad you quit. It is, I believe, the #1 preventable cause of heart disease in the US. It's also just disgusting.
As for banning it completely, you are right, and I took it a bit too far. In point of fact I don't really care if someone wants to kill themselves via tobacco in the privacy of their own home.
Question for you though: If you know that smoking is always fatal, but yet you still do it, is that not a form of self-harm? Given what the Church teaches about suicide I've always been curious from a theological perspective how you can reconcile a quick suicide (i.e. jumping off a bridge) vs a longer-term suicide (your lungs filling with fluid from cancer).
Lastly, I was a big fan of the late Warren Zevon, and when he was diagnosed with lung cancer I did some reading on it. It is a horrible, horrible way to die. You slowly drown in your own fluid. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, which is all the more reason why tobacco companies piss me off.
You asked a question with the very obvious implication that I didn't understand the term "race baiting
I never implied that you didnt understand the term "race baiting" nor would I. If people are to discuss things then it's best to agree on terms beforehand and I think you would agree with that.
I'm not going to be lectured in my own space
Please distinguish between being "lectured" to and asking questions about that which you wrote. If you really don't want to discuss things then simply turn off the "comments" feature.
If absolutely no one read this stuff then guess what...I'd still do it
So would I.
you are saying that we need to analyze what Limbaugh said. That's like trying to analyze why members of the Klan wear white sheets
Not really. You might recall that certain charges were without merit before with the guy.
That's like trying to analyze why members of the Klan wear white sheets. Is it because dark sheets would be uncomfortable in the heat of the south? Are white sheets easier to obtain? Are white sheets easier to spot in the dark of night? Do the white sheets make them look like ghosts? At some point the analysis takes on a life if it's own and you lose sight of what your are analyzing
This is almost as stupid as suggesting that there is a non-existant "gay" gene or that people of color can change their color like homosexuals who are no longer practicing that lifestyle....
Wait a minute..
No matter what the ramp-up, the quote was said in order to inflame racist passions
And when you compared this to the possibility that he was referring to thuggery amongst a number of NFL athletes, why did "inflame rascist passion" win out?
The quote had, at it's central core, the notion that black males are criminal gang members
Are you suggesting that there is not criminal behavior amongst some NFL players?
"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back"...
Ahh yes. Rush Limbaugh apparently acknowledged making this statement in a 1990 Newsday article.
Although this "occured not on Limbaugh's now familiar talk and political commentary program, but at the beginning of his broadcast career back in the early 70's when he was hosting a Top 40 music show under the name "Jeff Christie".. in Pittsburgh." Link
I'm sure you were getting around to mentioning that Steve. If we reached back nearly 40 years into anyone's past, might there be a possibility that a racial statement could have been made however it was not broadcast live on air on an radio station?
Let me rephrase the question then.
Are you aware of a racial statement made by Limbaugh over the course of say, the last 35 years?
I could cite you the words to the "Barrack the Magic Negro" song parody
Who was it that called Barak Obama a quote "magic negro"? Link
"David Ehrenstein, a homosexual African American writer for many Los Angeles publications, got the ball rolling on the "Magic Negro" controversy with a column on the trend. Entitled "Obama the Magic Negro", Ehrenstein's column tried to discuss how white liberals were projecting the infamous "Magic Negro" stereotype on Obama all the way back in March 2007."
So I am sure that you can provide the timestamped entry in which you called out Ehrenstein out on this as well.
Ms Sharrod was the last person on my mind.
Call me crazy, but the only people that I think would find that funny would be the above referenced crew that wear white sheets
What are the statistical probabilities that a young black person..
A. Would be lynched, or
B. Murdered by a member of their own race?
With the two obligatory references to the KKK in your above entry, I figured that you might know.
I don't think that Zevon was a smoker and that he died from another (non-smoking) form of lung cancer.
Steve,
Actually years ago a lot of priests smoked. But of course in the 50's 60's and perhaps 70's smoking was not as politically incorrect as it is now. I remember growing up my parents smoking in the Mall, the hospital, etc. It wasn't as I remember it until the 90's that they really started to restrict smoking. Fortunately both my parents quit.
You ask a good question. Isn't smoking a sin? I have no answer that will satisfy you this evening. The best I can say is the answer would depend on a case by case basis. Certainly it CAN be sinful- but I hesitate to simply make a blanket statement saying "Smoking is sinful."
You are so right about cancer. A disease I would not wish on anyone.
I can't go so far as to say the Tabacco companies anger me. By that logic I should be angry with the Coors Beer folks becasue of drunk drivers. At some point Steve-people have to take responsibility for themselves and not pass the buck. The Tabacco company did not force people to start smoking- that was a free choice they made.
Father Dave Bechtel
JD...
I heard that story about "Barack the Magic Negro" before. The problem with the argument is that someone with a questionable history on race, Limbaugh, was the one who brought it to the forefront. Then again we are talking about someone who was fired from a sports commentator position because of a race baiting comment.
Regarding the statistical probably question, you are barking up the wrong tree my friend. The number one cause of death among young black males is young black males. That has nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh being a closet racist.
As for Zevon, he was a smoker who quit, but apparently the damage had been done. Interestingly enough, he started smoking again after his diagnosis.
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Father Bechtel...Thanks for the insight. I don't know that I would call the act of smoking sinful...I'm not the Priest after all...but I'd hazard to guess that knowingly engaging in something that is deadly is probably not something "the Man upstairs" would be too happy with.
A refreshing idea for a blog. I tend to use mine for a lot of venting. It's nice when others do so, too. (It makes me feel less whiny. LOL.)
Completely agree with your stance on reality TV. Ugh! It is either boring ("American Idol" after the people who just cannot sing have already auditioned) or it is just so horrible that one cannot look away - remember "Flavor of Love?" Seriously? A bunch of girls are going after a dude with a Viking hat and a gigantic clock? Not even Vikings actually wore horned helmets. Then again, they didn't wear 100 lb. clocks, either. If I were to list things guys could do to get the attention of women, horned helmets and Godzilla-sized clocks would not be in my top 5.
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