Common Sense Idiots!

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'"

2009-12-18T20:23:00Z

The Copenhagen climate summit has become a sandbox brawl of whiny toddlers complaining over their share of the snacks not realizing that the rain is starting already and their sandbox is about to become a sinkhole and the snacks will be inedible anyway and all will go hungry! It’s time to act now for the future if there’s going to be a future. This planet will end up unpopulated shorter than we think if we don’t work together and stop polluting it now!

There is no maybe. "Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'" as Jedi Master Yoda quipped. China is the biggest problem because the rest of the world continues to buy cheap products produced in their toxin belching factories which employ underage workers in inhuman conditions. Stop reading this and look at the tags on the clothes you are wearing right now. Seriously. Now look at the origin of manufacture for your shoes. Now look at every item within your sight range and note where they were made. I’ll bet the “Made in China” mark is on the majority of these things. If not, congratulations. You’ve already started helping the planet.

But China is not the only problem. India is the “largest democracy on the planet”, but that doesn’t help them figure out how to collectively reduce their toxic impact. The basic issue behind the abundance of toxins added to our air, water and earth every day from these and other inefficient countries (the U.S. is included here, but I’ll get to them in a moment) is really the populations of these places. China has made drastic measures to limit their population which isn’t the best solution. However, no other country has even considered that the number of bodies consuming and creating waste daily could actually be the main contributor to our demise.

In many “under developed” countries women continue to give birth to children they are unable to feed. Often, they aren’t given a choice by their mates, but are kept “barefoot and pregnant” as a show of virility for the male so they can continue to strut their pride and feed their ego. In “developed” countries like the United States, people spend more time planning their vacations than they do planning to have children. They don’t even think about it, they just do it because it’s the fashionable thing or it’s the popular thing or they think it’s going to help their situation, whatever. None of these are good reasons to bring an unwanted or unplanned child into a world where they will experience only suffering. Here’s a plug for an organization that helps. Engender Health http://www.engenderhealth.org/eoy-index.html assists women in health information to have healthy pregnancies and births as well as offers contraception including voluntary sterilization to women who no longer want to have babies. This is one way to help the planet. Make a donation today.

Black Friday

2009-11-28T08:24:00Z

By now the shoppers have returned with their treasures and sore, tired feet to find hiding places for the gifts to be given with pride in four weeks and feeling they got the best deal ever. Just wait until they see their credit card bills... Did they realize how much that bag full of miscellaneous gift items that don't have an intended recipient yet but seemed like such a good deal they just couldn't pass it up will really cost? Probably not. Do they think about the opportunity cost of their time and energy and other things they could have been doing instead of waiting outside in the cold so they could be one of the first to walk through the door and get one of that store's "door buster" deals? Perhaps they're not aware that many of those so called "deals" are last year's merchandise or second rate items without full features that are loss leader intended to draw traffic so they could push the other, regularly priced items? No, probably not.

And even if they did know, would they really care? I think part of the appeal of getting up in the middle of the night and driving to a Toys 'R Us or Best Buy at 1 or 2am is to participate in a group ritual. It's become a tradition for some, almost a rite of passage for others, to be able to say they were there when the doors first opened and the dreary eyed clerks waited to ring up their many purchases, feeling they had won some secret lottery because they were willing to get up early. The rest of us enjoyed those extra hours of sleep and spent the morning with our families or friends because we don't really care about getting the same presents as everyone else. In fact, we've been doing our shopping through the year already as we find things that would be perfect for those special people in our lives for whom we purchase gifts. And sometimes we don't wait until Xmas to give them because we just can't wait to see the delight in their eyes when they open something that's obviously meant only for them.

Screw it!

2009-11-08T21:06:00Z

Have you ever had trouble trying to screw on a lid? Whether it’s replacing the cap on a jar of peanut butter, your nightly face cream, the gas tank lid, or even changing a light bulb (insert your favorite light bulb joke here...), there’s an easy trick that should help with this often frustrating task. Start screwing it in the opposite direction first. Then start to tighten it. This settles the grooves and allows the lid to be aligned so it fits into the right tracks. Try it and stop cursing next time you need to close the toothpaste tube unless your mate has squeezed it in the middle again and you’re frustrated by that.

Too many idiots, too little time...

2009-08-30T21:19:00Z

History Repeats Itself

2009-06-17T05:01:00Z

Another global idiot in the works! Does Ahmadinejad really believe he can get away with acting like a dictator in this age of instant Tweets and global photo ops? Apparently he learned nothing from the 1979 "revolution" with the Shah where protesters were beaten in the streets. If you haven't seen the photos from the last couple of days, just Google "iran protests" and look at the news items. It's obvious that the supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi are getting the attention they require to make the world aware of the situation.
Ahmadinejad is an idiot if he believes the people won't require an accurate count of the votes from the election. Just as George W. Bush finally agreed to a recount in the election in Florida against Al Gore, Ahmadinejad needs to offer a recount to Mousavi and stand by the result. If there's nothing to hide, so be it. May the best man win.

Here's Looking At You Kid!

2009-04-16T20:24:00Z

The wave of online social networking has brought to light a new type of idiocy, the person who doesn’t understand the difference between public and private behavior. If you post something on your blog, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter page, your information is public which means that anyone, including your boss, can view it.

So if you’re griping about how you hate your work and can’t stand your boss, you might want to clean out your desk now because chances are your boss may be Googling you and reading that information while you’re tweeting your latest update about calling in sick because you just couldn’t stand to sit through another day on the job.

A recent example of this stupidity occurred when a couple of Domino’s Pizza guys decided it would be funny to post videos of themselves on YouTube doing disgusting things with the food. Not going into details here but it was enough to get them fired and face the potential for prosecution based on the assumption that if they did it as a lark for a video, what was to prevent them from doing those things on a regular basis?

Get a clue, people, if you think your comments online are private and meant only for your closest drinking buddies, think again. Big Brother isn’t your bro, it could be your parent, professor or employer watching your every move so watch what you say in "public."

Papal Penile Posture Preposterous

2009-04-02T23:35:00Z

It was with great difficulty that I didn't kick something through a stained glass window when I read about the pope's (yes, the supposedly "infallible" one) still unwavering stance on condemning condom use even in places like Africa with its outrageous outbreaks of HIV infections and other STDs. So it's ok to beat a woman and force her to give birth to 5-8 kids but god forbid you want to prevent another pregnancy for an overpopulated planet by using a safe method that might also prevent nasty diseases - no, the Catholic Church believes god wants everyone to suffer. What a global idiot! This one is out of the park. They're still preaching using abstinence alone! J.C.! That's totally irresponsible. Hello? Isn't anyone paying attention in the Vatican or are they too busy polishing the relics from the past?

Spastic Spamming Spoils Spontaneity & Slows Socializing

2009-02-15T20:14:00Z

I've noticed an alarming trend lately with my computer use. I'm spending an increasing amount of time deleting spam and trying to make my real message interaction more appropriate so I can move on to more relevant activities in my life like exercising and spending time with the family. You may have realized this same problem with your technology use: the more you use technology, the more "junk mail" you get and the more social interactions you have, the more people want to grab your attention to their agenda which is usually to sell you something.

I am, by nature, a social person. However, I want to choose my interaction time with others and not be avalanched by requests for my time and resources. I'm already spending way too much time attached to a keyboard and sitting in a chair for so long isn't healthy for the human body - gravity wins every time. Lately I've succumbed to the trend to reach out and "touch" others or at least put myself in a position to be "touched" by others online. Popular sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, besides being fun entertainment and ways to socialize, are huge time suckers and as you use them, they suck you in even further because more and more people want to reach out to you.

Where does it end? Will we need to have implants with brain prods so our every thoughts can be broadcast to the rest of the miasma? How soon before the spammers overwhelm that space as well? Why do we tolerate this behaviour and pass it off as "normal" and something to be ignored? Our time is one of our most valuable resources, priceless to those of us who are reaching the mid-century mark and want to use this resource wisely. Is it time to pull the plug? Just when the online interaction and social messaging revolution is becoming so mainstream that if you're not involved, you're left out of the conversation and won't be able to catch up?

We need to have better controls over our time thieves. They're stealing our lives from under our fingertips. Encourage your representatives in government to research the situation and crack down on the spammers and privacy pirates. Don't forward the chain letters and requests for funding and other peoples'' ideas of humor that aren't really that funny. This includes the cute photos that are larger than 1MB sent through email! Post them on a photo web site and send the link instead. Otherwise, we'll all end up in a never ending loop of forwards and deletes, waiting for downloads that don't matter, wasting our lives in front of a screen when the real world is outside the Windows.

Eight is more than enough!

2009-02-09T05:58:00Z

It's been a boom year for idiots so far. So many idiots, so few moments to write them all in a blog. But this one takes the cake so far, the octuplet* mom, or rather, what do you call the mother of 14 kids? A world class idiot! Not only is she an idiot for having used fertility drugs to conceive the first six kids, but the 2nd set of 8 at once is just unbelievable! The fact that those people around her who supposedly care for her well being must have all been seriously off their rockers to allow this woman to go through with this incredibly stupid plan is at the very least, negligent.

We have a population problem on this earth already. I know the religious zealots and large family kooks out there will argue that statistics show we are barely replacing ourselves; however, look at the other statistics that show we expect to grow our current planet population from 6.8 billion people to about 9 billion people by the midpoint of this current century. That's more than 53.6 million people each year! (Thank you MS Excel, my calculator wasn't big enough!) Where will we put them all? They're not necessarily going to live in the places with smaller populations and huge tracts of land like Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Canada, Russia, etc. because those aren't the places where they're having larger families. The cities will get more crowded, the suburbs will get bigger and there will be larger metropolitan sprawls around the globe spewing more pollution into the air from more cars on the road (nobody wants to take public transit), more factories creating products for more consumers, etc. The water quality will decrease as well as the quantity because with global warming and the declining rainfall in many areas, there won't be any water to feed the extra population. This is starting to head towards some kind of Ray Bradbury type of scifi thriller.

Al Gore, who ironically is the father of 4 children himself and seems to be an eco warrior fighting the apathy about global warming, trying to raise awareness of the issues. Perhaps he's feeling guilty about his own major contribution? Personally I've felt for years that an ideal solution to many of our population woes would be to automatically install the Norplant birth control rods in every 12 year old girl's arm and then remove them when she turns 18 as a right of passage into adulthood. Of course, this is totally against the other side of my ego that supports the ACLU and personal freedoms, but it does seem like a good idea, don't you think? It would save on teen pregnancy, but wouldn't help against STDs - we still need to hand out condoms for that. But since it's not allowed by the ultra conservatives to teach responsibility and prevention in schools, that effort is hampered. This is heading into a whole separate blog entry for another time.

Anyway, population is a problem. The octuplet mom should not be applauded for her efforts but chastised for her idiocy. Unfortunately, it now becomes an issue of not making the children suffer for this parent's crime. I feel sorry for the siblings.

Note: *The word "octuplet" set off my Word spell check thinking I was trying to spell "couplet" - even Microsoft can't believe someone would have that many kids!

Travel Tolerance

2009-01-04T22:26:00Z

It's barely a new year and already I'm disgusted by my fellow humans. My hopes for sanity remain a distant mirage. The news item of the Irfan Family kicked off AirTran Airways was appalling. Yes, I can understand how it happened based on the current idiotic fervor that's happening across America since 9/11, especially since our current government encourages this kind of turn in your neighbor mentality. However, what doesn't make sense is that we seem to have forgotten our history in favor of current trends.

Why is it that one of the smaller minority of racial groups, European Americans, feels it's ok to torment other Americans because of their appearance? Remember Timothy McVeigh and the profiling that happened to innocent people who happened to look like the American stereotypical "terrorist" from the Middle East? The evil doer there was as apple pie looking as the next Midwestern bigot! Caucasian, dirty blond, and what our media would consider "normal looking."

Normal to whom? If you live in a major metropolitan city on any of our coasts, "normal" means anyone from any racial background with any kind of clothing or appearance because we supposedly have a "melting pot" of people from all over the world. That doesn't seem to be the case though when it comes to having tolerance for those who don't look like you.

Get a grip people! We need to practice and teach tolerance. Religion is the evil here. All religions. Until we understand that the "us vs. them" mentality doesn't cut it for peace, we'll never have it. Read the lyrics to John Lennon's "Imagine" and think about it. You can be part of the solution by being tolerant with those around you and not letting your irrational fears overwhelm your common sense.

Insanity in Mumbai

2008-11-29T04:56:00Z

The situation in Mumbai is horrific. Young boys (younger than 30 is a boy in my book, especially those who play with guns!) killing innocents, men, women and children and singling out those of American and British nationality is like something out of a weird Steven King sci-fi, badly scripted late night movie. What do they think they will accomplish by these acts of unforgivable violence? I'm not from India, have never been there and only have acquaintances who have, but I feel a kinship with the people I see on the news reports both TV and online and it makes me sick to see what they have to endure. Apparently they passed over anyone who appeared or claimed to be Muslim. Why does it matter? Since the 9/11 attacks on the US, I've been educating myself on other cultures and religions, especially Muslim/Islam, in an effort to teach others around me tolerance for other ways of believing and thinking. Personally I left religion behind many years ago and prefer to adopt more of what I call a Jedi/Buddhist approach to those deeper questions of life. This attitude helps me feel more human and part of the universal energy of life. I hold the belief that we're all connected which is why this insanity by college aged kids just doesn't make sense to me. What can they be so angry about that they feel justified killing people who have families just like themselves?

Fashion Faux Pas

2008-11-06T01:56:00Z

Congratulations to Barack Obama and Joe Biden on their history-making sweep of the presidential race. We watched the edge-of-your-seat election coverage flipping between about 9 networks across the DirecTV satellite spectrum so we wouldn't miss anything. The concession speech of McCain's was pitch perfect and the best lesson in good sportsmanship my kids could have. The acceptance speech of Obama was spot on for its relevance and intensity. Now, let's talk about the glaring situation that couldn't be ignored. What were the women thinking? All through this election for the past couple of years we could count on the women to be the epitome of style and class and possess that je ne sais quoi quality of panache that set them apart from the other women around them. WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT? Did they all give their stylists the day off? Did they go into their closets with their eyes closed? Now, let's get this straight - they're not all on the same caliber of error here, but from this self-appointed fashion police, here's how it looked. Cindy McCain wins points for not being too awful. Her gold suit was impeccably tailored and well fit, but the color wasn't the best choice. However, if you looked at her husband's, John McCain, tie worn for his now famous speech, you'll see where the inspiration occurred - which came first, the gold tie or the gold suit? Next down the little shop of horrors list of fashion guffaws is Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden. What was her crime, you might ask? Well not too bad again, like Cindy McCain's, it has to do more with the color and hue than the style or fit of her suit choice. Hmm. Let's see, it's November, the middle of Autumn, and she's in Chicago, "the windy city" celebrating her husband's victory and she chooses lime green? Maybe the CFL light bulb in her closet was out. Maybe she was just thinking of adding a little spring color to the platform? Who knows. It looked odd. Now for the major faux pas of the night. I liked Malia Ann's and Sasha's red and black dresses and their styles were absolutely appropriate for the occasion. However, Mama Obama must have been in a huge hurry to have chosen a dress that made her look more like a huge black widow spider than the next First Lady of the United States. I can only hope she puts that one up for auction soon because it's not a good omen for her husband for her to ever wear it again!

Make 'Em Laugh!

2008-10-01T06:50:00Z

I finally figured out why Sarah Palin was asked to be McCain's running mate. The talk show hosts and other comedians got together and decided it would be better for their collective careers if they had someone to provide content for their jokes for the next four years than it would be to have a better economy or to end the war. So they must have rallied together and approached McCain and his people and asked them to come up with someone who would give them job security. Palin is their ticket to continued success in comedy. If McCain isn't elected, she can just hike back up to the north pole with her shotgun and continue on with her local political career, maybe run for Senate, and someday write a memoir about how she almost made history. What the comedians didn't really count on though is that the American public doesn't have much patience for idiots who should know better. Therefore, it's highly unlikely that McCain will get the vote since he continues to prove himself so out of touch with the people of this country. Obama seems so much better positioned, but too bad he's just not that funny. Sorry Jay, Dave, Jimmy, Jon and Steven, you'll just have to get better writers and come up with the content yourselves.

Mute the Music!

2008-09-13T07:15:00Z

I was googling articles on Sarah Palin's hair clip to share with my husband because the comments about it are more brutal than Carrie's from Sex in the City when she criticized the scrunchie wearing woman with her then boyfriend. Anyway, I find a site that has good comments and as I'm adding more tabs from my search results, I hear this music blasted in my ears! Since I do a lot of my internet activity late at night, I wear ear phones so I don't wake up the household. I finally realize the music is coming from the blog site I'd just clicked and have to scroll all the way down the site to find the controls to turn it off. That is the same as noise pollution in my book! If you really want people to read your blog and share your ideas with the world, at least have the courtesy to give them the choice to mute the music at the top of your page! You might think that your header is cool and attracts attention but once they've seen that they're on the right site because you set up your page to load the header quickly and the words are easy to read (You did do this, right?) then you should make it ultimately user-friendly and that includes being able to surf silently if they choose. Your music preference is not going to be the same as mine and since most of the time I surf with my own tunes in my ears, I don't appreciate when someone else wants to force me to listen to their eclectic mix. And if you insist on playing your tunes, at least put the controls at the top of the page so I can continue to listen to my own music mix while I read your blog. That's called compromise. Give it a try.

Sale Price May Not Register

2008-08-04T21:32:00Z

I was buying something at the hardware store the other day and after making my purchases and heading out to the car it occurred to me that the total might have been a bit higher than I had expected. So after perusing the receipt and discovering that the one impulse item I had added at the last minute was rung up as regular price instead of the orange clearance price which got my attention in the first place and the only reason I picked it up anyway, I headed back into the store. Of course, by now there was a small line and I had to wait my turn while the person in front of me tried to figure out how to provide the correct amount for their purchase. By the time I got to the front of the line, I was thoroughly entertained by the bevy of other customers' conversations and goings on. The clerk who checked me out previously was fairly clueless about how to rectify the situation but luckily one of the managers was on hand and after apologizing profusely, walked the clerk through the correct process for crediting my over ring. It occurred to me as I was leaving and the manager apologized for probably the tenth time, that I was an anomaly: a patient customer who had been incorrectly charged and wasn't upset about it. She seemed truly puzzled by my non-reaction. I guess the norm these days seems to be to stress out about every little situation and take it out on anyone remotely involved. Frankly, life's just too short for such negative energy. I'd rather be entertained by the guy trying to figure out how much paint to purchase to redecorate according to his wife's latest whim or watch the mom trying to explain to her child that no, he can't have any of the umpteen candy bars he sees displayed before him because they have candy at home and it's almost lunch time anyway.

8 Items or Less

2008-07-28T07:46:00Z

Ever browse through a clothing store, meticulously choosing no more than 8 items to try on at one time in the fitting room, knowing it will be a pain to re-dress and wait for another open stall only to discover that the rooms are locked and there's no attendant in sight? Then you have to make a decision: Is it worth it to me to try on the dress that will probably make me look like I'm trying to look younger or the jeans that I know won't fit over my hips or do I forget the whole thing and go somewhere else just to start the whole process over again? If it's worth it to go ahead and track down someone (usually someone who moves a lot slower than you would like) to unlock the door so you can start your self evaluation in the tiny tarnished mirror, then you have to hunt them down through the store carrying your potential treasures with you. This can be dangerous because on the way to find someone with a key, you might notice something else you'd like to try and then you're faced with another decision: which one in the current holdings do you give up just so you can add the new item? By this time, if the items you're contemplating are on hangers, your fingers are probably feeling numb and mangled from having to hang the metal hanger hooks over your digits for so long. Don't worry, there don't seem to be too many stories of fingers amputated because of hanger shock.

Don't Squeeze the Charmin

2008-07-03T04:54:00Z

Why is it that people will spend lots of money on hair products, body products, designer clothes, exotic home decorations and yet they still buy the cheapest 1-ply toilet paper to wipe their butts with? Or, you spend beaucoup bucks for a fancy hotel experience and once you get in the room that's not that spectacular but the view and location are great just to find out they stocked the bathroom with the thinnest TP on the planet. What gives? Do they think they're saving money? They're not. You have to use twice to three times as much of the 1-ply cheap stuff as you would the 2-ply soft stuff in order to get yourself clean. It's not a saving for the environment.

Do yourself and your rear a favor, buy the good toilet paper. Life's too short to wipe your butt with the cheap stuff!!!

It's Over When the Fat Lady Sings!

2008-06-05T06:16:00Z

Well, the election is over and this time the fat lady sang but she didn't win. I'm sure Hillary will figure out some way to keep herself in the limelight, after all, Bill needs to keep busy. And for those of you who were Friends of Bill or Hillary or anyone else running for office and advertised your choice of candidate on your front lawn or along the local route to the liquor store, it's now time to take the signs down and recycle them or put them on your living room wall, whatever. Just take them down. If you read the entry about yard sale signs hanging around way past the sale date, it applies to this as well. We don't care anymore about who is running for superintendent or about the local bill that didn't pass, remove the evidence and let us get on with our lives without the constant reminder that our team didn't win! Thanks, your neighbors will appreciate it.

Riding Shotgun

2008-05-20T04:39:00Z

I pulled up to a stoplight yesterday and looked to my right to see a small furry face looking back. Apparently the driver of the (no idea what kind because I was too busy staring at the dog face) car next to me had his/her (again, too busy staring at the dog face to notice) small dog perched on their shoulder as they were driving so the doggy could see out of the window? What an idiot!
It's bad enough that we have to deal with those of you out there who apparently haven't heard of headsets and still hold onto your cell phone in one hand while eating your drive through "meal" in the other and steering with your knees. Now we have to be wary of you because some of you think it's ok to have Fido or Fifi (didn't get close enough to check) hanging out in your hair while you drive.
The law states that dogs in the backs of pickup trucks must be tethered so they don't go flying out of the truck and on their way to injuring someone else, hit the pavement and die. I'm sure there's a law about not having an animal precariously perched in such a way that when the vehicle has to stop suddenly, they become a projectile and get launched right through the windshield. Maybe it's time to invest in a dog carrier so you can keep the pooch safe on its way to wherever you feel it's necessary to take the poor thing when it really would prefer to be home shedding on your favorite chair. Just a thought.

Check Your Work

2008-05-01T08:00:00Z

If you're going to advertise for your business to draw in more customers, do yourself a favor and spell check your message first. A local florist, in keeping with the upcoming Mother's Day event, posted on their sign board the invitation to "Suprise her with flowers!" Although most schools these days do teach reading phonetically; at some point they usually catch up with the correct spelling and require it by the time the student graduates from high school. I don't know about your habits, but I am typically reluctant to do business with people who don't seem to have their act together. This includes being able to intelligently market their products.
Yes, the public judges you by your outward appearance and that includes the signage outside your business. First impressions are next to impossible to change. Make yours a good one if you want to stay in business.