Progressing Backwards

Is racism bad? Yes. On both sides of the aisle. It runs both toward and from several ethnicities. Personally, I’d like to see people of all skin colors and ethnic backgrounds get along and just acknowledge each other as people without any describers other than gender or hair color or other innocuous stuff. Except then there’d end up being animosity based on THAT.  Because that’s how humans work. We are a warring and excessive animal. 

The George Floyd situation? Clearly wrong and those men deserve to be punished. Absolutely. The man who exercised unnecessary force and violence as well as those who had a responsibility to ensure he didn’t act that way. When you wear a badge you’re held to a higher standard and you ARE you brother’s keeper. It is your responsibility to keep your brothers in check. Not just the citizenry but those with badges as well. 

I fully agree with peaceable protest for justice. Absolutely. PEACEABLE protest. Not looting, rioting and being violent. That’s not how to push for justice; it’s how you show your base nature of being a lowlife or a thug. Those using these protests as a cover or excuse for their criminal acts show precisely WHY we need the police they’re protesting against. 

True to our human nature, though, these protests have gone to extremes. The reaction to this instance of unnecessary violence and abuse by police has been carried too far. It’s like humans look for a cause, find the line, then just proceed to cross that line. The response by the police to George Floyd was excessive, so the response to it is excessive too. Human nature. 

And part of this excess is crying for defunding and/or dismantling police. Out of 60 million interactions between police and citizens a year, we have one case like this every 4-5 years. So, basically, 1 case out of roughly 1.3 BILLION interactions. But the protests say black people are being targeted. Except the numbers don’t support this. Who cares about facts when you can respond with emotion? Emotion clouds reason and logic so basing policy and affecting change based on emotion is a terrible idea. So I’m sure that’s what’ll end up happening. Right up until they later realize how terrible that decision was. 

Disband the police? Then what? Are we promoting vigilantism? Surely no one thinks crime is just gonna stop if you get rid of the police. Surely no one is dumb enough to think that any excessive violence or racism by people will just disappear if you dismantle the police.  Are these “progressive” people really pushing for us to return to the Wild Wild West? Why is progressive supposed to mean “moving forward” or “forward thinking” but it’s a name adopted by the most SHORT SIGHTED members of society? It’s like they enjoy the hypocrisy of their oxymoronic behavior so much they adopted a name that suited said hypocrisy. 

Look, I’m all for progress but maybe we should do something that’s actually progressive instead of regressive.  I’m all for checks and balances. I’m all for righting wrongs. However, I’m not down with the hypocrisy of blaming the entirety of one group for the actions of the few. That’s prejudicial by definition and close minded by practice. 

Protesting all over the place to end prejudice while exercising prejudicial behavior doesn’t make you any better than those you’re protesting against.  Committing criminal acts while pushing to disband police makes you part of the problem, not the solution. Try changing YOUR behavior before insisting everyone else change theirs. 

Are there police that abuse power and have no business having a badge? Yes. Unfortunately, though it’s not just law enforcement where this problem occurs, they get the most media attention because of the deaths that result. Not that every death that’s been protested is solely the fault of the constabulary involved. This one? Definitely was senseless, needless and the fault of those law enforcement officers involved. It was way over the top, just as the response has been. 

Here’s the problem with those pushing to disband law enforcement... right now you’ve got an organized group upon which you could focus your anger and disapproval. What happens if you succeed and we have no law enforcement? Let’s look first just at one aspect.... things would move in one of two directions. 

First, let’s say it just leads to martial law. You think having the government make our decisions for us and enforcing them with an iron fist is going to be a better solution? That’s laughable. 

Secondly, let’s say the police get disbanded and there is no martial law. So then we’ve got lawlessness and vigilantism and now you don’t have an organized group to voice your displeasure to. Don’t like what’s going on? Then shit will just get more violent in response and everything escalates. Sure hope you’re not one of those liberals who doesn’t believe in gun ownership when your “solution” backfires on you and the people who protect you are all fired and told not to protect you anymore. 

Remember, wars are the result of two or more parties of opposing opinions reacting in the extreme. Keep taking protests and shit to extremes and demanding extreme “solutions” and see if peaceful “getting along” is the natural outcome. 

Finally, and think hard about this..... demand the firing of the roughly 20,000 people who are trying to enforce law in the other 328 million (and ever increasing) people in the U.S. alone and put them on welfare and unemployment. Hell, keep decreasing the number of people paying taxes and increasing the number of those without jobs.  Now who’s supporting the rest of the country? Apparently you’re not familiar with the formulas that lead to economic collapse. Now imagine that collapse with no one to put their life on the line for you.  Welcome to the prequel for a Mad Max type of society. 

Simply Enough

We the citizens of the United States once were proud to be a part of the greatest nation in the world. Our allies respected us and our enemies feared us. That has all changed when we allowed the liberals to insist that we all need a safe space. We have become a nation of weaklings.
I remember watching President Trump’s inaugural speech. I had tears in my eyes. The tears were not in sadness, but rather tears of relief and hope. After 8 years I finally found pride in our country. I felt that if I was feeling this pride that others would be feeling this pride also. As hard as it was for me to believe I was mistaken.
Many people marched in protest of the winning of the election by Trump. It was like someone took their blankie away and they were merely having a temper tantrum. What seriously appalled me was the women marching for women’s rights wearing vaginas. Seriously? Who would possibly take that seriously? You set our gender back generations.
Americans it is time to grow up and get out of your safe place. This is the reality of our world today: we don’t need a safe space. We need people to regain their backbone, and be what we were before. We need to become a nation we once were: strong and respectable. If you don’t like who your president is you have two options.  1. Put your adult panties back on or 2. Find another country and move there. Crying still about the results of the election is pointless and makes you look pathetic. Together we can make America great again.

"The American Nightmare"

Ya know, I've heard a lot of talk lately about an immigration ban. My feed is inundated with people arguing both sides. Seems the biggest argument for it is fear of terrorism and the potential for a Trojan Horse style slaughter.
Interesting theory but I don't think that should be a great concern, honestly. Yes, I'm for a temporary ban on immigration but for a different reason entirely. We'll get into that later. First, let's put some minds to rest about something.

The greatest threat to American lives is not terrorism. It's Americans. No no, really. More Americans are killed by Americans every year than by anyone else.
We have shootings in major cities every day. Oddly, most of those cities are "gun free zones" like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

Stricter gun laws won't change anything because the people with guns in "gun free zones" don't care about the laws. If they did then they wouldn't be killing people. I hear about "common sense gun laws" but that won't change anything. First off, common sense is near extinction. Second, people who are driven to kill each other are going to do so regardless of how strictly you regulate anything. Humans are the most violent creatures on the planet and that will never change.

There are other factors too. Like sheer carelessness and selfishness. Every day I see it out on the road. People cutting across several lanes of traffic to catch an exit without regard to who may get injured, including themselves. People on their phones oblivious to the world around them. People busy eating soup (yes, I've seen that) while driving with nothing more than a knee and a prayer. The more densely populated an area is the more self-centered and careless drivers are, it seems.

Just the other day I was making a delivery in Miami. I saw so much horrendous driving that I'm convinced the people of Miami should not be allowed to drive anything larger than a Big Wheel. And it's feast or famine with those folks. Either they're trying to set land speed records while weaving through traffic like countless shuttles on a gigantic loom. Or they're doing 35 in a 65 causing other cars to pitch and dive into other lanes to avoid them. It's nutso, I tell ya.

Oh, and I can certainly see how this leads to all kinds of murders. In fact, I'm sometimes surprised the murder rate isn't a lot higher in these places. Even I was losing my shit with a lot of these people. I was hurling so many obscenities that I wouldn't have been shocked if they'd taken on physical forms and my words started slapping the hell out of people. I'm not kidding, some of these non-driving retards had me so irritated that at one point I thought I'd cussed a new language into existence.

I'm willing to bet that if everyone had to take a driving test and a test of driving laws, 90% of Americans would be on bicycles by the end of the week. That's one of the few reasons I like back roads in places like Pennsylvania; Amish cars obey highway laws better. They have this thing called courtesy. Most Americans don't know what that is anymore.
Who kills the most Americans? Selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed people who are given to stupidity. Thugs and criminals with guns who should've been beat as kids. Americans are our biggest problem. In every country their biggest problem is the people of that country. See a theme here? The more densely you populate a location, the higher the death rate.

To say we are worried about terrorism is too short sighted. Terrorism isn't nearly the threat to American lives as Americans are. Now, again, I'm for temporarily putting a "hold on a sec, we'll be right back" sign on immigration. Sure. Just not for the same reasons.
See, the way I see it is this: we have way too many starving, homeless, unemployed and impoverished people here already. I think we should focus on fixing what is a broken system before we bring more people in. We already can't take care of the ones we've got, why bring in more people we can't take care of? Honestly, humanity has gotten to the point where fleeing a country isn't the answer. The problem is everywhere.

"A Liberal Dose Of Tears"

Ok, I really wasn't going to write about this. I told myself repeatedly, "don't do it, man. It'll get ugly if you go there." Then the day wore on and stories started circulating and, so, typing happened.
What's life without a bit of ugly sometimes anyway, right? So here goes. Just a couple little observations. Mostly painless ones. Well, sorta. I mean, I'm using words so there's a strong chance some people are going to scream in agony.

  So let's kick this off gently, shall we? See, there was this election the other night. Apparently it was some big to do about some presidency. To hear some people it was the announcement of Armageddon. Woohoo! Finally, Armageddon!
Wait. No? No end of world? Oh well, there's always next time. Let's take a look at some of the celebrations of the good news the world isn't ending.

I happened to be traveling from liberal, tolerant, progressive Oregon when the election results came in. They announce Trump won and I listened to his victory speech finish as I pull into a truck stop. The truck stops are limited up in Bigfoot country so it's the same Pilot where I'd discussed alligators before.
I saunter inside, (sauntering, by the way, takes a lot of practice. I nearly moseyed instead), to get coffee. In my haste for warm bean nectar I nearly collided with 2 millennial chicks. They weren't paying attention because they were crying hysterically.
    Oh no! Something horrible must've happened! Didn't take long to figure out what. They were lamenting to one of the cashiers there, presumably someone they knew, that Hillary Clinton had lost the election. Then they started going on about how horrible people were for supporting the monster that ruined her. Oh, monsters! Exciting!
So you simpering sods are literally sobbing hysterically over this? Kids. I swear. It took me deliberate effort not to laugh out loud. Granted, the presidency is important, sure. Very serious business. However, it was what their reaction reaffirmed to me that I found comical (yet worrisome).  I'll get to that in a bit but first I'd like to lead you to the path where you can see it too.

First, let's check out the stories of protests and riots that ensued the next day. Riots are always ridiculous to me. Yeah, I mean you California and Oregon folks. You're upset over who gets elected, by your fellow citizens (I won't call them your peers because peer means equal and I can't insult everyone else by calling you their equal), voted into office. So you protest, you riot, you destroy your communities as a show of disapproval.
Is that really what they're protesting? Nah. We've spent the last couple of decades creating an entitled yet divided society. These groups that riot? They really just want to riot so they'll seize on whatever reason is handy. Those rioters aren't doing it for political reasons. They're doing it because they can. Because that kind of behavior has been encouraged. Sadly. Which is ironic in this case. Many people's argument for disliking Trump is because of "his behavior". Pot, meet kettle.
So we can discount the rioting crowd as nothing more than idiots. I mean, really, you wreck your own neighborhood? That's like SUPER well thought-out. You're mad that employment will improve and you may have to work instead of living off the doll queue so you create unnecessary expenses for yourself and your neighbors. Yeah, that'll teach the government! You dolts.

So let's talk about the real problem here. Let's talk about the other stories. The stories of celebrities who've said they'll leave the country if Trump is elected. Maybe that's why those girls were crying, because Miley Cyrus and a bunch of other celebrities are leaving. Some great actors and entertainers like Samuel L Jackson. He said he's moving to South Africa. I'd be almost mildly bothered because I don't think they have the same level of movies we do here. Trust me, that move will hurt his career much more than it hurts my feelings.
Don't cry, though, they aren't going anywhere. They were just saying things they didn't mean. They were speaking from emotion. Hollow words from people who get paid to lie convincingly. They were emotionally charged.
Besides, they're actors. These are people who literally get paid to lie convincingly.

You know who else reacted emotionally? All these college kids protesting in Austin. All these college kids in Virginia, Portland and Texas who need "safe places" to deal with the "trauma of this loss". No, seriously, those are words they use.
And that, folks, is the emotionally stunted, thin-skinned generation that's going to be the future of our country. In other words: if you guys think our country has been in trouble up to this point, just wait another 20 years.

   There's the rub. America is, at this point, a company who is deeply in debt and failing. There were 2 primary options for running it. The emotionally driven Democratic voters or the logic and reason driven Republican voters. The emotionally driven, "let's make everyone feel good" party has run the country for 8 years and it's been interesting. Racial divide, unemployment and welfare have grown.
You can't effectively run a business with emotion based management for long. It simply won't work in the long run. It's a sweet sentiment but you'll end up going bankrupt. Especially when employees (citizens in this case) are having to work harder for less so that those working less can have more.

The logical, reasoning Republican party hasn't really fared much better. I don't know that either party can really pave the road to recovery. We've spent decades deliberately weakening our own society.
In the guise of "progressiveness" we are causing our own nation to implode. Granted, the politicians love it. They thrive on it. As long as we fight amongst ourselves then we can't focus on them.

 It's been a slow "progression" of decline.

Dr Spock with his "don't spank your kids because it wounds their little psyche." An atheist who didn't want her kid to pray so they removed God from school for everyone to make her happy. Participation awards so kids don't "feel inferior".

We are so worried about coddling and kissing ass as the "feel good" nation. It's self defeating. Our system has grown so soft it's broken. It's been steadily getting worse and now there simply is very little chance it can be fixed.

Hopefully this presidency will be a step in the right direction. Sadly,  I think it's just too late. So you might wonder, "so why are you laughing, Christian?" And that's a fair question. Here's why; here's something to think about:

All these college kids that need therapy dogs, coloring books and play-do because they're so "distraught"... Those are the future leaders of this country. The millennials who need "safe spaces" because their feelings are hurt, among them is possibly a future president. I laugh because some emo goth kid getting a worthless Liberal Arts degree who is sniffing play-doh right now to deal with grown-up disappointment is going to run this country some day. I laugh at the absurdity of these rioters who are essentially the same as 3 year olds destroying their room because they wanted pancakes and got waffles instead.
Look, I'm pragmatic. I'm logical. Watching these disappointed millennials? I feel like a Vulcan trying to understand a daycare facility.

What's funny? What's funny is I see the crying, the hypocrisy of "not accepting the outcome of an election is unamerican" then rioting over the outcome of the election, the way liberals react so strongly. I see the way all these people act and carry on and I laugh because they call US "deplorable".

"The Fallen Ones"

As you stoke your fires and enjoy your drink 

Take some time this weekend to stop and think

Of those who sacrificed it all for you and your family

To those who fought and died in our military

It's not about burgers and brats on the grill

It's about those who died for our free will 

At some point each day raise your beer or your tea glass

To honor and salute those who died protecting your ass

To the parents who mourn their child for our rights

And the children who lost parents fighting our fights

For those who gave everything for America's security

Salute them each day and let them not fade to obscurity.