"Stand Up, Stupid"

So it's becoming a thing to disrespect the flag and country in protest. The same flag that represents a society of freedom. The flag that countless men and women of every race, color and creed have died defending. This kid, Colin Kaepernick gets on tv and says he's protesting the National Anthem. His words are "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."

Hhmm. Colin, Colin, Colin. Are you suffering from a concussion? Weren't you fined for insulting another player by calling him that hateful "N" word? Weren't you fined something to the tune of $11,000? Which dipped into the 14 million dollars you were paid to play a game high schoolers play for fun? Because you're so oppressed and shit. Just barely being allowed to survive, aren't ya? 

Among your freedom of speech you also have the freedom to leave this country you dislike so much. So let me ask, if he's so worried about inequity, why hasn't he given all his money to the oppressed people he's trying to raise up? I mean, if all these millionaire athletes and celebrities are worried about social and economic oppression and inequality, couldn't they help solve the issue by pooling all their money together and giving it to the poor who struggle so badly? Wouldn't that solve at least one of the problems? Seems they're awful content to hold onto their riches while speaking out against oppression. Newsflash, fucktards, if you were oppressed you wouldn't be millionaires. You wouldn't have had opportunities to excel. Oppressed? These rich bastards think they're oppressed. Apparently they've never opened a history book. Remember the period before and during the 1960's? THOSE people were oppressed and laws were passed and enforced to prevent that. Now what we have are people who aren't given unfair advantages and they have to work for what they have; work to excel. And they feel that burden to earn or be held accountable for criminal acts is oppressive. 

Look, I'm a truck driver. When I get calls about freight they don't ask what color my skin or even my truck is. They just quote the rate. Skin color doesn't factor in. They don't say "but with your white privilege card you get a better rate." 

Because, you know, "white privilege" and shit. We even need a group to tell us that Black Lives Matter because we'd gotten careless and just lumped all lives into the same basket. Silly us, thinking all lives are equal. Let's look at some of this oppression and inequity. 

Black people kill more black people than cops do. The "violence" that people claim the police commit is not racially motivated. If people of ANY color want to avoid any risk of violence from the police they should quit breaking the law. 

Kaepernick says that black people and people of color are "oppressed". I fully support his desire to end this prejudicial oppression. I hope that some day black people are allowed to go to the same schools as the rest of us, be allowed the same financial aid as the rest of us. I pray that some day the oppression will end and black people will be allowed to work, own property or even businesses. Hopefully some day the oppression will end and people of all races and colors will be allowed to be doctors, lawyers, millionaire pro athletes or even run for public office. Can you imagine when everyone is protected by the same rights to free speech, assembly and freedoms afforded everyone else. 

But, no, because of "oppression", blacks are stuck with segregation like the NAACP, BET, Jet Magazine, Miss Black America and so on and so forth. If only we could end the segregation and let them be equals. Oh wait... 

Just using the word "Oppression" doesn't entitle you preferential treatment. It doesn't mean breaking the law with impunity. You aren't "oppressed" if you just don't try to better yourself. If you apply yourself and put in maximum effort and still fail to succeed, it's not a flag or country oppressing you, it's life oppressing you. Poor decision making isn't oppression. 

Just because a millionaire pro athlete raised by a white family isn't smart enough to know what actual "oppression" is, doesn't make his lack of patriotism any more noble. Because he ISN'T oppressed and has the freedom of speech granted ALL citizens, regardless of race, color, creed or religion, he can say whatever he wants. That right was given him by true patriots who paid dearly for it. 

We live in a nation where we have a black man as president and a society who says black people are "oppressed". Seriously? Am I the only sane person here?!

Ya know, the other night I was watching a video on Facebook of Terry Crews talking about cooking. I thought to myself then "ya know, he and I aren't too far apart in age. If I'd not been irresponsible during my youth, how much different could my life have been?" I didn't think anyone held me back except myself. I didn't think his greater success was oppressing me. 

Did Colin Kaepernick rise to the level of second string, has-been quarterback in the NFL through "oppression"? Or did he apply himself? Did Michael Jordan become the great that he was through oppression? You ever see the movie, The Blindside? It's a true story of a homeless kid who is adopted by a family and he goes on to become a fantastic pro football player. Seems to me that's the exact opposite of oppression. Guess what that guy ISN'T doing. He isn't complaining about being held down by oppression. Instead he's thankful for the opportunities he was given. He isn't running around being disrespectful and complaining about how unfair this country is. 

Now that I'm in my 40's I'm informed that this whole time I had a "white privilege" card. I checked my wallet and the mail. Still haven't received it yet. You know what I HAVE received? Struggle. A fight to go from homeless to successful. A struggle every step of the way. You know what "white privilege" is? It's getting blamed for shit. Woohoo! Like I haven't made my own share of mistakes to get blamed for? 

Commit a crime, fail to comply with the directions from the cops, pull a gun and get shot... Police brutality. No. It's "criminal stupidity". There's a difference. I hate having to quote a movie in my blog but, as Jim Carey said in Liar,Liar... "quit breaking the law, asshole!" 

"But...but... It's society that puts people in the position they've gotta steal to live..." Ya, I've heard that one. Really? In a country where the government encourages everyone, legal citizen and illegal immigrant alike, to live off welfare and food stamps you're telling me we have to steal to survive? To SURVIVE? I think not. This isn't Burundi. This isn't Sherwood Forest and none of us are Robin Hood. 

Take some responsibility. Get a job. Quit breaking the damn law. Quit segregating yourselves. Apply yourself, always strive to improve and push. Just like all the successful athletes, actors, musicians, and so on that are succeeding on their own merit. 

So people like Colin can use their freedoms to say what they want. Ironic, though, that he has all this freedom to speak out about how oppressed he is. MY right to free speech means I can say he's an overpaid, undereducated, ignorant piece of shit. 

Namaste and shit.

"Gators, What a Croc..."

So I'm in Oregon the other weekend. Tolerant, liberal Oregon. I decided to stop for the night at a truck stop about 100 miles from Portland. This one has a McDonald's in it. Ok, cool, I've been kinda wanting a milkshake. I've been good, I deserve a milkshake. 

Then I went inside and it didn't take long before I got myself in a conversation. Shoulda just kept my mouth shut but we all know that's not gonna happen. So it started. 

I made a random statement to no one in particular about how incredibly busy this place was. I was really just talking to myself but a nearby patron responded that the place was full of travelers and truck drivers. (Really? A truck stop full of travelers and truck drivers?! Astounding grasp of the obvious). 

"I belong to the category of the latter." Hey, they wanted to chat, I'll chat.

'Oh really? Are you a long haul driver? Where are you from?'

"I live in Florida." 

'Where that alligator ate that kid?'

"Well, that's Orlando. I live closer to Saint Augustine. But, yes, same state."

Then a lady joins in to let us know how horrible it was that the poor kid was eaten by an alligator. She went on to say that she hopes they kill all those horrible creatures and the family should "sue the daylights out of Disney for letting that happen."

Yep, you can probably guess my reaction to that. Things just turned bad from there when I rolled out the logic train. "All abooooard! Next stop, 'peoplepissedoffville' ". 

So let's just jump right to it. First off, yes, it's tragic. The needless, senseless, avoidable death of anyone is tragic. I'm beginning to feel like a broken record here. I understand the father fought valiantly in an attempt to save his young but he's no real match for a gator. 

However, killing so much as one alligator was stupid. Let's start there. See, I'm a bit of a nerd and animal lover. I've raised reptiles before and studied animals for a long time. So the first thing the Parks and Wildlife officers should've explained was that alligators generally don't eat anything that big right away. They take it under, drown it, then stuff it under rocks or structures for a few days or so so that the water tenderizes the meat. So the odds of finding the remains in a gator's stomach that soon were pretty much zilch. A week or so later? Maybe. 

Even then... To just grab random alligators seems pretty stupid. People do the same shit with shark attacks. Like what are the odds you're going to find that EXACT animal? With sharks, they actually do this thing where they swim around. I know it's weird, fishing SWIMMING. With gators, yes, they're a bit more territorial and hang out but why kill a bunch? 

If there's a hit and run accident we don't just start grabbing random drivers and killing them. "Humanitarians" would be all kinds of up in arms if random innocent people were just gassed down for looking similar to someone else. Plus, even the alligator that got that kid was innocent. It was doing what alligators do. 

There are signs up telling people not to play in the water and that alligators may be present. THEY ignored the warnings, that's not the alligator's fault. If they want to blame the gators they should put up signs telling the gators to stay away. Apparently that'd be just as effective as expecting humans to follow the signs. 

Nor is it Disney's fault. Which is my next issue with this. Should Disney be sued? Nope. 

I know I'm gonna sound harsh here and I'd like to apologize but let's be fair. If you live in America and you don't know there are alligators in Florida then no amount of money will make you smarter. 

Some people have argued that there should've been signs telling them there was a risk of alligator attack. Let's look at that logically. 

There were signs up telling them not to swim there. Those warnings were ignored. So warning them the specific risk involved would be the game changer here? We really need to specify WHY you're supposed to follow rules? 

Is it tragic that a child died? Yes. Of course I hate that it happened. However, that child counted on his parents to make good choices for him. They didn't. Financially rewarding them for their own negligence would seem to me to set a terrible precedent. Unfortunately, that's the America we are creating. The America where people lack accountability. 

Me? I'm the asshole for not being more "compassionate and humanitarian". The rest of America is compassionate and humanitarian for applauding the senseless killing of innocent animals and caged gorillas because we humans can't take care of our offspring as well as most other animals on this planet.