Sunday, January 15, 2017

THE POLITICAL DEMENTIA IN OLD FARTS

Fact number 1 - wisdom is not inherent and does not automatically come with aging.
Fact number 2 - uneducated and stupid people are uninformed.  If you're ignorant as a young person,                             you will be ignorant as a senior citizen.  Education isn't automatic either.
Fact number 3 - the U.S. is full of ignorant old people.  Want proof?  Take a gander at how they vote.

With these three simple facts in mind, consider what is happening to health care in America.  The reforms made by Obama will be turned back, giving the health care business back to corporate American, meaning Wall Street hospitals and clinics, and drug companies with full reign.  And who pays the biggest price for this?  That would be the old farts that mostly vote for idiot Republicans, and morons like Trump.  If anyone deserves a lousy health care system, they do.  But along with them comes suffering for people who had the good sense to support reforms in health care.  Not all old farts suffer from brain farts.

I'm old, and I like my peer group even less than millennials.  I'm not a baby boomer because they came slightly after my generation, but I am old.  I'm not an idiot, and I'm not uninformed.  Some sociologists are saying that the baby boomer generation was the worst ever because they're our first spoiled rotten group.  Even the X-generation did better . . . but now we've got all these spoiled rotten old farts running around out there.  They screwed things up for the generations that must come after them, and they're still screwing things up.  This country could, and will, profit from a die off . . . but would that help now?  I don't think so.  I can't see anything good coming from the generations that now hold power in this country, and I most certainly don't see anything good coming from the millennials.

I've had thoughts of devising an exercise program for old farts, and it involves just one exercise.  We should all practice putting our heads between our knees because the time is coming when we'll need to kiss our asses goodbye . . . and without anyone to blame other than ourselves.  You might as well get out there and have fun, grandma and grandpa, because your comeuppance is on the way.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

HOW BAD CAN IT GET? TUNE IN, YOU'VE GOT A FRONT ROW SEAT

Someone sent me a video link a while back about how Americans have become slaves to corporate America.  Only about eight minute of watching that video had me wanting to puke up my breakfast because I knew it was true, right on the mark.  That video calls us slaves and points out every reason why no one is as free as they think they are.  With cooperation backed by a badly mismanaged government, corporations have taken you hostage, and they didn't have to fire a shot to do it.  They set the stage, became the producers and actors, and we gobbled up the slop they fed us.  Blame it on anything or anyone you'd like to, but in the end the responsibility rests with us.  We did it to ourselves, and breaking out of slavery is never easy.

So, you're thinking it's just bullshit.  If we're slaves, it's not that bad.  In fact, life might be pretty good for you . . . until you pull your head out of your ass and really look around.  Just how much can you do on your own, and without permission for it from someone at the governmental or corporate level? I've got a suggestion:  Why don't you jump out there and try it and see how far you get.  Not everything corporate American does is bad, and that's a fact.  It's not what they sell us that's the big problem; it's how we use it.  How much has the alcoholic beverage industry enhanced your life? What about the fast food industry?  Or clothing?  Or better yet, the food industry?  So, how've you been doing with medical costs, like paying monthly premiums that can easily soar above a thousand bucks a month?  Try getting by these days without a cell phone, or a computer.  Think about almost everything you do, and think hard, and then tell me you're not a slave.

Nobody is completely free, and they shouldn't be.  If mankind has demonstrated anything to the world, it's that we can't handle freedom very well.  We're not conditioned for it.  From the very first steps you took as a person, someone has guided them, and that someone was some entity that didn't want you walking off the path they'd designed for you.  I got bold enough as a teenager to announce that I didn't want to go to college.  Bad move.  "You'll go to college if you have to go with my number ten size shoe hanging out of your ass," I was quickly told.  And so, I went to college, and that was a good thing.  Someone needed to guide my steps.  I'm not totally opposed to restrictions on freedom for reasons like this, but I am opposed to being dominated by more subtle devices.

My car talks to me and tells me what to do.  I get inside, and it locks me in, because I'm too stupid to lock the door.  A sweet female voice tells me where to go, what turn to make, and I'm warned about my seatbelt not being secure, and it tells me about approaching vehicles, and it does all sorts of things.  I get amused, think I need a voice that's not so sweet.  I tend to ignore sweet voices.  Maybe I need a husky voice that says, "You just missed your turn, dumbass."  And I think, does anyone need this?  Do I have to be told not to eat the packing material in a delivered box?  And if I do, what does that say about me?  Uh, that would be that I'm a slave . . . and the thing that enslaved me?  That would be my own ineptitude.  Yeah, corporate American has taken advantage of it, but what enslaves us all is ignorance, stupidity, and just downright laziness.  I'll see you at Walmart, or maybe at the quick stop, fellow slave.  I'll be the one that's smiling.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

THANK GOD, IT'S FINALLY HERE!

I didn't celebrate the coming of 2017, but I should have.  I thought 2013 was a shitty year, had some health problems that put me in the hospital twice, but 2014 came along and proved me wrong. And then 2015 arrived, and I still held out hope for a recovery year.  It was Ok, nothing to brag about, and then the worst year in decades came along.  It started like the year from Hell, a sick wife, having to deal with America's miserable health care system.  Neurologists and a neurosurgeon misdiagnosed her problem as encephalitis, but it wasn't.  We didn't learn that until after two surgeries to fix the problem.  Finally found a migraine specialists who knew what to do, and she improved under his treatment.  Oh, but then we had the miserable election to deal with, when a sizable enough bat shit crazy people voted in a piece of shit human being as President.  That's when I decided that I'm surrounded by too much ignorance and started looking for ways out of here.  My religious sister said, "Well, sometimes God gives us what we need instead of what we want."  And I said, "Then why did he have to punish all of us?  Why not just the Trumptards?"  She didn't answer.  She married to one.

But, 2016 died last night, and we've got a new number on the board today.  Yeah, I know, that doesn't mean jack shit.  Only a few hours have gone by, so I can't say anything has changed.  I still live in a country eaten up with ignorance and run by complete assholes.  You know they're complete assholes when former governing assholes don't even like them.  I'm starting to like George W. Bush.  I'm also starting to like Obama less, and I've grown to detest his party.  The Dumocrats have finally lived up to their nickname but at enormous cost to the nation.  I'd grieve more, but I'm not sure we would've been much better off with Clinton.  She's pretty much a total dipshit, but I've always argued that dipshits are better than dumbasses, which is what we got.

The prospects for 2017 being a better year are gloomy, at least as far as the nation is concerned. Personal things can be much better, so I'll work hard at seeing about those things.  Maybe I'll take a shot at being uninformed, like maybe I could fit into my surroundings better if I had no idea what was going on around me.  But alas, I'm educated, very well educated in fact.  At my age, though, I'm dealing with a faltering memory, never know where anything is anymore.  Maybe that's why I'm starting to like George Bush.  I'm forgetting why I didn't like him.  And then the ugly thought comes to me:  Could I get stupid enough to start liking Trump?  Uh, no.  I've got guns, and I've saved back a few bullets for that special occasion when I see the asshole on television . . . and start smiling.  I hope I can just remember where I put the bullets.