And now that I’m back…
…I don’t know why I’m here. I had some ideas of things to write about all day, but now all I can think if is the cable mess and how it disrupted my evening. And I am bothered by this irritating left arm pain, from my elbow going all the way up to my shoulder, anytime I use it to do anything but move my fingers to type. I’ve had it for weeks, and I don’t know why, because I never do anything with my left arm. (All my pains usually occur in my right hand and arm, from overuse of the scrollwheel on my mouse, and so on.) I’d say it comes from having almost slipped and fallen in the kitchen this past weekend but I’ve had the sore arm longer than that.
And I can’t even kick my cat to relieve my irritation because she is beside me kneading the blanket and being all kittenish. And now she is lying down staring at the curtains as if she sees a ghost. Okay, the ghost must have left, she’s relaxed and purring now. It’s her “oil me, I’ve got a squeak” purr. Citizen journalism! Take that, professional media!
(I just can’t help digging at the “blogs are citizen journalism/rivals to the MSM” people. We’re not “rivals,” we’re anklebiters, peons who dare to — not rise up against — but totally disregard the pronouncements of Our Betters in the “Fourth Estate.” The rage they feel isn’t really fear, but the sort of rage people feel when their plans are interrupted by those they consider lesser beings.)
Okay, a couple of things have been on my mind, one old and one new. First, I got tired of a commenter on another site I run and banned him, because among other things he was whining about his dissent being “crushed” because people were 1) arguing with him, and 2) telling him to quit posting his off-topic personal problems. In the course of warning the troll off (this was before I banned him) I remarked that anyone who thinks that their rightwing or at least non-leftwing views are in danger of being crushed by the weak and feeble force that is the Left in most Western countries is a wimp and a whiny baby. Or something like that, I can’t remember my exact phraseology and I don’t feel like searching through the comments. But my opinion still stands: whining about censorship because there are people who think things we don’t like is a cop out, not to mention a trick of the left, who fight like the weaklings they are — treacherously, by using emotional tricks like “Your viewpoint is hurtful!” Let’s not be these people. Fight fire with fire — for example, a Hollywood culture that puts out well-made, excellently acted, decadent, morality-destroying garbage like American Beauty needs to be fought with equally well-made, well-scripted films that are celebrate our culture and heritage, not cack like the Left Behind dreck. And so on.
Speaking of movies, I have a new one to hate that I will never see, because one watching of the trailer caused such bone-deep, visceral loathing towards it that I still get a curdling sensation in my stomach when I think about it. It’s called The Family Stone, and as I have the feeling that it doesn’t have a happy ending consisting of the put-upon “unlikable… uptight careerist” girlfriend offing her fiancé’s “free-thinking… free-spirit[ed]… loving respect for alternative lifestyles” family with an AK-47 I don’t think I will be opening my wallet for a ticket. Oh, and love the movie poster. Merry Fucking Christmas from Your Friends in Hollywood.
While I’m spreading the Christmas cheer, it looks like a crazy person got shot and killed by an air marshal in Miami International Airport. This fellow, however, was screaming that he had a bomb in his backpack, and was running from the plane. Bang bang, went the guns. Alas, they didn’t hear the cries of the hapless wife about how he was mentally ill and hadn’t taken his medicine. Too bad.
Okay, let’s review: man with mental illness boards plane with wife. Okay so far. Man has not taken his medicine even though many non-mentally ill people find flying stressful, especially flying from MIA.
Why?
I just can’t bring myself to shed a tear for someone who only has himself to blame for what happened. (He was bipolar; wanna bet he missed his emotional “highs”? I’m not even going to bother wondering why his wife didn’t make him take his medicine — most women become their boyfriend’s and husband’s accomplices in whatever they do, for a variety of reasons; this is why wives and husbands historically weren’t allowed to testify against each other in court, or witness for each other, because in the days before Political Correctness reigned across the land, people were more realistic about male/female relationships than they are now. But that’s another rant.)
Anyway, things like this really frost me. We’re in a war, people, and we can’t afford (as I said on the comments to this post) to futz around with letting people fly their freak flag whenever they want. Dear sick people who are kept sane by the little pill? Keep taking them. Cops really don’t like shooting innocent people.
And you know, why do I even try? update: now that I can peruse slow-loading Typepad blogs, I get to find out, in an “Ew, Walmart is so icky” thread that the reason I shop at Walmart is because
I’ve come to the conclusion that it gives anyone – including poor folk – a change to be a consumer, to get that “buying” rush. So what if it’s junk and it will be in the landfill in a few years. The working poor tend not to think that far ahead – that’s why they tend to be poor.
That’s from a comment by a self-proclaimed “crunchy con” who calls himself “M-David.” He also stated in his comment that “Families who shop at Wal-Mart average income is $35k/yr – they are generally the lower middle class. In comparison, Costco families average $75/yr.” My response, way down so it will probably be ignored, was as follows:
That has got to be the most patronizing, snotty commentary on any subject that I have read in a long time. Gee, thanks Mr. 75K Per Year for telling the “working poor” that they’re a bunch of live-from-day-to-day childish “junk” hounds who need that “buying rush” to feel important and who don’t care that they’re filling up landfills with junk. You know, maybe people shop at Walmart because it’s convenient, cheap, and they can get something they need there. For instance, I needed a sweater today. I don’t happen to own a car (I can’t afford one right now), and I needed a new sweater. Alas, the free trade organic wool from Alpacas raised by real live Incan children sweater store is a bit far away for me to go at lunch time, so I went to Walmart. Sue me, I found a sweater for fifteen bucks, and I didn’t have to buy a hundred of them in a carton like at Costco. If this were my website I’d tell you to kiss my working-poor posterior, but it’s not so I won’t.
Christ, I’m tired of this. Tell you what, crunchy-cons and all the rest of you hybrid-SUV-driving, organic-food-buying, self-consciously “traditional again but Still Concerned About The Downtrodden” busybodies quit being so fucking patronizing to the “poor” that you claim to be so concerned about? Maybe the resulting reduction in hot air will bring down that global warming trend everyone is so worried about.
December 8th, 2005 at 1:21 am
“well-made, excellently acted, decadent, morality-destroying garbage like American Beauty needs to be fought with equally well-made, well-scripted films that are celebrate our culture and heritage”–hear, hear.
December 8th, 2005 at 2:30 am
Re the Wal Mart snob comment.
Beautiful, a polished silver dagger straight to the heart.
No wonder I love this blog.
December 8th, 2005 at 5:59 am
Wal-Mart is a huge red button to the elites, or the wanna-be elites. I am especially pleased at the income breakdown, since I shop at both Wal-Mart ($35k/yr) and Costco ($75k/yr), which must place me squarely in the $110k per year bracket! Hell, no wonder I keep voting Republican! I better start smoking Cuban cigars, as soon as I pick up a bundle of fifties to light them with.
What astounds me is how people with no ox to gore (or no dog in this fight) get furious at the very mention of Wal-Mart. Just thinking about it gives some people dyspepsia - and why? They don’t ever have to drive into a Wal-Mart parking lot or enter a store, so what’s the big deal? Am I supposed to believe that their charming little boutique shop (yeah, right) went under? It’s just that plain old ordinary people can shop there and save lots of money buying things they need so they can spend the extra money on things they want.
And this angers some people.
BTW, my understanding of laws preventing spouses (spice?) from testifying against each other was because it amounts to self incrimination. Not that it contradicts your point, just restates it.
And Lord knows, we can’t have too many points restated, can we?
December 8th, 2005 at 9:19 am
The Wal-Mart diatribe is great. I’ll be quoting you for ages (”I needed a sweater today…. Alas, the free trade organic wool from Alpacas raised by real live Incan children sweater store is a bit far away for me to go at lunch time, so I went to Walmart. Sue me, I found a sweater for fifteen bucks, and I didn’t have to buy a hundred of them in a carton like at Costco….”) Thanks!!! BTW, I cannot for the life of me figure out what’s wrong with that logic, from “their” point of view.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:48 am
I’m with Skubie. For me, Wal-Mart is a 10 minute drive, but Costco is an hour. Yet, whilst I am above the artificial $35K/year category quoted, I routinely hit Wal-Mart, and pay the annual Costco membership fee gladly….for a few trips each year. Why, asks the clueless “M-David”?
It’s called “smart shopping”, idiot. Buy some things in bulk, other things as and if you need them. Not everyone can do this, naturally, but M-David’s economic model breaks down pretty quickly upon examination.
December 8th, 2005 at 9:57 am
I loved the Walmart rant as well. Also, something that may contribute to the alleged income distribution issues between WalMart and Costco is the number and location of each. WalMarts are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. (Which I realize is precisely the point of some of these WalMart haters, but whatever.) Costcos are NOT everywhere. In the metro area where I live, I know where there are 4 WalMarts, and I know where there is one Costco. The Costco is located in a rich, snotty shopping area, right by a mall that has no normal stores like JCPenney, only rich, snotty ones like Ann Taylor and The Cheesecake Factory. WalMart has tried to build out there, but the city won’t let them, because then…well…the peasants will come…and we can’t have that. People need to just get over themselves and stop being so bothered by other people’s shopping choices. Live and let live, people…
December 8th, 2005 at 11:52 am
I think the Wal-Mart phenomenon is largely explained as follows: For many on the left, aesthetics has replaced ethics. A person is a finer human being, in their view, if he shares their taste (and taste is one thing they are *not* relativistic about) So the dislike of WMT has much more to do with the perceived ugliness of their stores & merchandise than about any labor or sourcing issues.
December 8th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
“Your viewpoint is hurtful!”
I think that when the revolution comes and Andrea can start properly crushing dissent — I personally will finance a pair of jackboots — people who say things like that should be the second against the wall, right after anyone who says anything about “speaking truth to power.”
December 8th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
Andrea, great reply to that snot-nosed Wal-Mart comment! (Methinks davepw1 makes a good point about such flops judging “good” to be an aesthetic matter rather than an ethical matter.)
Do have that pain in your left arm checked out. Not to alarm you, but considering that it’s not a muscle strain or injury, it could be some thing serious. A compressed disc is a distinct possibility.
December 8th, 2005 at 10:00 pm
I will never, ever figure out why American Beauty was so popular. It’s not like the whole “soul-deadening suburbs” thing hasn’t been beaten to death, kicked in the face for good measure, and buried in the backyard over the last thirty years or so. The only way it could have been redeemed would have been if all the characters had died in the end. Painfully.
December 9th, 2005 at 6:12 am
Andrea - as a doctor avoider of the first order, I agree with BIAV that you should think about having your arm looked at. Left, upper, unexplained otherwise . . . all are concerning.
Sonetka - I totally agree with you about American Beauty. I thought it was overrated and awful. Everyone, even the sainted Spacey, seemed wooden and stereotypical. The symbolism was so heavy-handed I was getting sarcastic during the show. (I’m surprised they didn’t have a Wal-Mart in there, come to think of it.)
December 9th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Eh.
I don’t love wal-mart, but that’s not an issue I impose on anyone else. I shop there, even tho’ I hate it, because it’s the only game in town. (And there really wasn’t a game before walmart came to where I live).
when the lifestyle police start telling me I shouldn’t shop at wal-mart, I look at them, cock my head, and say, oh, then, I should drive the hour’s round trip to the natural foods store every week, and burn all that gas and create all that pollution.” usually they shut right up because all their processors are occupied with the weighing of one social ill against another.
actually I just hate grocery shopping. if peapod or some other internet order-online-and-have-us-deliver service came to town, I’d be on that like a duck on a Junebug, even if there was a 5 or 10 percent delivery surcharge. worth it to me to avoid the whiny children and subhumanacting teenagers and chatty folk who park their carts and block the whole entire aisle.
December 9th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
Way to go Andrea,
Tho something in your arm/body may be temporarily misaligned, your head sure is on straight!
December 10th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Glad to hear - from you 12/10 post - that your arm is better. “Grandma” is right that your head is on straight, to my and others’ good luck.
I agree with “ricki” about Peapod or some such, too. I’ve left hopeful “call me when it comes” messages at various services that come within 25-30 miles but so far no luck. It would be so wonderful.