How Stupid

Famously Stupid

2006-05-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

I love stupid people. I love stupid people because they give me something to laugh at. If it weren’t for stupid people, I don’t think the world would be the same. What am I saying? Of course the world wouldn’t be the same. We wouldn’t have stupid video clips to download off the ‘net, politicians to roll our eyes at, professional victims to worry about or vapid celebrity wannabes to support. Who might these celebrity wannabes be, and how do we support them you ask? Well, allow me to illustrate.

In the world of gossip, glamour and wannabes I can’t think of a bigger name than Paris Hilton. The blond heiress of the Hilton hotel fortune can’t seem to escape the cameras of the paparazzi, or the cameras of her lovers for that matter. She’s rich, famous, and for all intents and purposes, useless like a screen door on a submarine. Well, let me add to that that she’s either a pure genius or dumb as a bag of hammers.

Name something she’s famous for that didn’t include her taking her clothes off or just “looking pretty”. Good luck with that. You might think of her reality show with Lionel Richie’s daughter, Nicole, but let’s be serious. Watching a show where two wannabe stars go around the country pretending to do work that is usually reserved for us common folk is just insulting. It may, however, be pure genius on her part, if she’s actually responsible for putting it all together, that is. People tune in all the time to find out what mischief the two air bubbles will get themselves into, though I worry about who those people are. It saddens me to think of how many young girls, especially under the age of eighteen, watch her show or anything else involving Paris and think of how glamorous and important she is.

But I still have the question; what has she really done to deserve fame? Getting naked on the ‘net? Hell, I can do that. It wouldn’t be as pretty, but I don’t think she’s that hot anyway. She has modeled here and there, I think, but how many random fashion models could you name off the street? Her last name is pretty famous, but not for the same reason that we usually associate with fame. I mean, Bill Gates is pretty famous, but could you pick out and name his wife and kids? Probably not.

So, what’s really there to attribute her fame to? Nothing. Anyone can be scandalous. Anyone can get naked and strut around town or post pictures of themselves on the internet. Anyone could be lucky enough to be born rich. And that’s why I think Paris, and wannabes like her, are so stupid. Well, that and she probably can’t count higher than the number of piggies she has. Boy, I’ll tell you, every time I see that dumb “what was that?” look on her face, I feel the average IQ of America drop a few points.

Let this be a lesson to you kids; if you’re a dope whose claim to fame is nudity, parties, and being a general all around twit, do us all a favor and get lost on a deserted island. And no, I’m not talking about the deserted island that might be your brain.

Offend Me

2006-04-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

Did you know that it's against the law to offend someone? Did you know that action may be taken, legal or otherwise, if you offend someone, especially of a racial or social minority?

Me either.

But it must be true. It must be true because every day I see evidence either around me or in the news/internet/TV/etc. of such a thing happening. Let me give you a really simple example. There's a Dodge commercial showing off one of it's new car models (don't remember the name offhand) where they recently changed the commercial for reasons not explained, but implied. In it, there's a little fairy lady flying around changing things into something else using her "fairy powers." An example is that she changes an office building into a big desert cake, and a subway-type train into a cartoony looking train. She then tries to use her powers on the new Dodge, but her fairy dust just bounces off, eventually reflecting back to her and knocks her against a wall. At that point, a burly looking guy walking his burly looking dog walks by and points to her (the fairy) saying "silly little fairy", at which point she waves her wand at him and turns him into what can best be described as a "preppie." Now, what's the big deal in all this? Well, the guy used to say "silly little fairy", but no longer. Now, he just laughs at her before she changes him. "So what?" you may say.

I recently ran across a few articles about how various individuals (and groups, I presume) were complaining that the burly guy's comment to the fairy could be seen as offensive to homosexuals, since as we all know, they are also referred to as "fairies." Did you just roll your eyes? If you did, I'd like to buy you a drink. Because someone might be offended by the word "fairy" in a commercial that had nothing to do with sexuality, or anything else in particular except fantasy, they actually changed it. I don't know if it's Dodge that I'm wanting to hit with the stupid stick, or the morons who complained about the commercial.

This is just a small example though. Did you see the cartoon pictures of Mohammed that the Muslims were crying about? If you did, you didn't see it on TV because that might have offended someone. Of course, if you do happen to offend them they might behead you, but that's another story. Did you know that many companies are now mandating that their employees no longer greet customers during the holiday season with "merry Christmas" but with "happy holidays" because it may offend non-Christians? Funny that, considering that "holiday" is a retooling of the phrase "holy day" which specifically refers to religion. Which also brings to mind how school prayer, or even a moment of silence, is frowned upon due to non-religious types being offended, despite the fact that I'd bet a million that if a Muslim were in that school and demanded that he'd be able to lay down his rug and pray whenever he's supposed to he'd be given special concessions. And let's not forget that trying to define a married couple as being a man and a woman is offensive to gays and lesbians, because God knows if the entire world was gay we wouldn't go extinct.

Let me tell you what I find offensive, if you really care. If not, well, why the heck are you here? Anyway, I'm offended when I see two men kissing in public, who are not father/son or some other such blood relation. I'm offended that I can't call other races what I want when they can call me honky, whitebread, cracker, etc., and it's perfectly fine. Watch Comedy Central or BET if you need proof of this. I'm offended that millions of U.S. citizens had to spend years and thousands of dollars to legally become citizens, where millions of illegal Mexican immigrants are about to get a free ride on my tax dollars. I'm offended that words like "gay", "fairy", "black", "illegal immigrant", "terrorist", and "tea bag" have been hijacked by groups who decided to redefine what they mean, and then call it offensive if I use them in a sentence. I'm offended that they're offended. I'm offended by pro-choicers, left-wingers, entitlement wanters, God haters, drag queens, "Loose Change" believers, tree huggers, pot smokers, airline hijackers, NAMBLA members, American flag burners, pansy asses and those stupid "Emo" kids. But since I'm white, male, and loosely Catholic, my complaints are of no concern. So while my kids won't be able to pray at a school football game, the local ACLU will have grounds to sue the school if they don't allow a gay pride march during halftime.

I'm no Nazi. I don't hate minorities or people with different lifestyles from mine. In fact, I couldn't care less what they are or what they do. But their being offended by everything that goes against what they want or believe goes against what I want or believe. So who's rights over-ride the other? Shouldn't all of our rights be protected? But more to the point, is there somewhere in the Constitution that says "thou shall be free from being offended?" I think not.

So, to all the offended, shut up and get a life. If you contributed to society as much as you complain about what you don't like about us "mainstreamers" you'd have cured AIDS by now. Oh, yeah, and I find AIDS offensive. So if you got infected by sharing a needle or by screwing around, you offend me and should be banned...to a deserted island...and have it sunk...stupid.

Update: A few nights ago I actually saw an airing of the Dodge car commercial I mentioned at the beginning of the article that was unchanged from it's original version. So, either that particular station didn't care about the change, didn't get the memo that it did change, or it has been realized that it was stupid to change it in the first place. Interesting.

"Loose Change" or Loose Screws?

2006-03-21T00:20:00.000-06:00

I love conspiracies. Not because I believe in them, but because they’re a fascinating glimpse into the minds of the over imaginative. From Elvis lives to aliens abducting my neighbor, it amazes me where people will find conspiracy and oddity. One such oddity for me is the hubbub about what really happened to America on September 11, 2001, because obviously our government is hiding something and we need to force them out into the open. We can’t have people believing what the news or government tells them, even though quite a lot of the “evidence” comes from quotes made on the news and from videos off of television. “But that’s the only way to get any information because that’s what we’re limited to” you might say. Well, if the conspiracy theorists were so damn much smarter than the rest of us sheep, they’d find the material. Me? I’ll just use my common sense, thank you very much.

Just a short while ago I finished watching the ever-thought-provoking conspiracy pieces called “Loose Change” and “Loose Change 2^nd Edition.” I won’t link to them because I think they’re full of it, but it shouldn’t take you long to Google them. If you do, please, by all means, watch them and then take a little of what I have to say here with you on your way in. I’m not about to refute and debunk every statement made in the videos, but I’d like to comment on a few of the things the creators of the films put forth for our ingestion (or indigestion). Here’s my take on things, in no particular order.

The single incident on 9/11 that “Loose” (I’ll just call them both this from now on) centers on as being evidence that what we thought happened didn’t really happen was the attack on the Pentagon. The evidence goes from “the hole is too small” to “where’s the plane?” Well, I have a single answer for both, and it’s shown in a video I saw a while back. Check it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3939904420012109745&q=f4+crash

This is video of an F4 Phantom slamming into a chunk of reinforced concrete. What does this prove, and how does it make “Loose” a pile of garbage? Watch the video carefully and tell me what’s left of the F4 after impact? The only parts of the plane to survive were the tips of the wings which were sheered off. Well my friends, what was the wall(s) of the Pentagon made of? You guessed it; reinforced concrete. The 747, while obviously bigger than the F4, is made of the same aircraft grade aluminum as the F4, and couldn’t survive such an impact either. There’s no wreckage of the 747 simply because it both disintegrated and flew inside the building. Why the director/narrator/whoever thought there’d be big chunks of plane out on the lawn is beyond me.

What about the size of the hole in the building? Besides that day, how many times have you seen a 747 crash into a reinforced concrete building? Yeah, me either. So, show of hands, how many of you believe it would leave a 747-shaped hole in such a building? Yeah, me either. I’ve heard everything from “the wings would have folded back” to “the hole would be twice as big” and none of them take into account that the skin of a passenger airplane is much thinner and weaker than they think and that the plane’s infrastructure isn’t made of titanium or any other such strong metal. I guarantee that if you could slam your car into a wall like that, or anything else for that matter, it would also disintegrate. Oh, and it also wouldn’t leave a car-shaped hole in the wall.

Something else to consider is the number of firefighters, law enforcement and even pedestrians and passers-by that either saw the plane crash, or helped with the cleanup. I find it quite hard to fathom that all of these people were either planted by the government, or were paid to say what they saw. Someone, someone, would have squawked.

Another side of “Loose” is it’s questioning of the collapse of the Trade Center towers. It tries to convince viewers that there’s no way the towers would/could have collapsed after the planes hit. This is substantiated by showing clips of other buildings that either caught on fire or had been hit by a plane (well, only one was, the Empire State Building) and telling us that they didn’t collapse. That’s fine and dandy, but with the exception of the Empire State, none of the other buildings had been hit by planes! Hello, McFly!

The designers of the WTC have stated that the buildings could take a direct hit from a commercial airliner (though I could have sworn they mentioned a plane smaller than a 747). I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they really designed it to take such a hit, but like the Titanic, you can’t truly prove a claim until it’s put to the test. Until that fateful day, even the designers of the WTC couldn’t have known exactly what would have happened if a jet hit their buildings. Unfortunately, they did find out. It just didn’t go they way they’d hoped.

I’ve watch many controlled demolitions before. I’ve watched entire documentaries devoted to them. In almost all of them, two things were prevalent: the explosions took place very quickly and almost all at once, and the buildings had a tendency to collapse from the bottom, not the top. You can clearly see from any of the videos that the WTC towers began their collapse from around where the planes had hit, causing the top portions of the building to pancake on top of the next. “Loose” points out what they think are explosions coming out of the windows, but I’ve got a better idea. How about those little puffs of smoke are caused by the floors just above crashing down through the ceiling? Not so far fetched now, is it?

Many of the people on the films claim to have heard various explosions after the planes hit, adding fuel to the conspiratorial fire. Well, is it really so impossible to believe that other things might have exploded in the buildings? I can’t claim to know what was in the buildings, but might they not have gas lines, water heaters, cooling systems, etc.? Any of those things could cause an explosion after being hit by a plane! But, no, there’s too much evidence of drills and floor evacuations prior to 9/11 that prove that explosives were planted. Of course, there’s no account as to whether those kinds of things have ever happened before that time. Curious.

What I find really amusing is that in the first video, they go on and on about “missile pods” and how one of the planes actually fires a missile off before it hits the tower. It’s funny how all of that is missing from the 2^nd Edition video. Maybe it’s because other sources have made total asses of the “Loose” guys for their “pod” idea, and proved them wrong. That’s all fine by me since that frees me up from having to break out Photoshop and show how the outlines they try to make with regards to where the nose of the plane was in respect to the building when the “missile” supposedly hit. Let me just say, it’s laughable.

I’d like to keep going and going, but I’m not here to refute every point. I’ll be honest with you, though. If I were still in college when all this stuff came out, I’d probably be on the bandwagon with the theorists. Back then I didn’t know anything about politics or the “truths” of life. I remember even considering the theory that we never landed on the moon. Man, I was so dumb back then. Thankfully, now that I’m closer to 30 I have a better grasp on what’s going on around me and don’t look too deeply into every dark corner for the answers to all my questions. All it takes is a little common sense to see through the fog of what tripe like “Loose” try to throw in front of us.

So, I guess this is the point where I say “if you actually believe in all this crap, you’re stupid.” This time, though, I think I’ll leave it with ignorant. Ignorant simply means that you don’t know any better. Stupid means you do, but don’t give a rat’s ass. If you look very closely, you’ll notice that it’s only a very far leaning few who actually believe in all this conspiracy junk. Middle America, where most of us sit, just doesn’t see the connection, but we do see the smoke and mirrors. And as you know, David Copperfield never made a dollar if someone saw the wires.

Where's the Racism?

2006-03-03T13:33:00.000-06:00

I want to ask a question, that hopefully someone can answer to my satisfaction; where does racism still play out in America today? I’ve read a lot of hoopla lately about racism still being a problem in our country, and that it’s holding people back and preventing racial equality. But where is this happening, and in what form?

The last time I checked, everyone in America, everyone, had the freedom to vote, bear arms, speak freely (though that in itself will be another post at some future time), protest, walk around naked in their home, listen to crappy music, and get an education. So where, pray tell, is this racial injustice taking place?

One area where I’ve heard some say minorities are being held back is in education. It seems some people don’t have the same opportunities to graduate from college as others. I’m not sure which colleges these are, however, and last time I checked there were no exclusive non-minority schools in the country. What can be found are schools that are predominantly attended by certain minorities. Some of these schools even offer substantial financial assistance to minorities to go to school. Where, then, is the racism? Maybe, just maybe, it’s the reverse of what many people define as racism: white against black.

Have you heard Bill Cosby speak recently? He’s been on a mission, it seems, to educated black kids on their responsibility to themselves, and that they need to go to school. Not only that, but that they shouldn’t expect anyone to give them a handout or a free ride as well. What have minority leaders said about this? They hate him for it. You see, Mr. Cosby doesn’t believe in entitlements. He doesn’t believe that the government should pay everyone’s way in life, or should support people who decide not to get an education, thereby denying themselves a good job. What’s stopping any of these people from going to school? There certainly isn’t a lack of universities with which to attend. And there are so many financial aid programs out there that if you can’t afford to go to college, they’ll practically pay it for you. What you might find interesting is that far fewer people aren’t attending college because of money, but because of grades.

I ask again, where is the blatant racism? There were just as many black kids at my high school as there were white, and I live in the state that’s probably seen as the most racists of them all, Louisiana. Yet most of the top academic achievers at my school were black. They went on to college, and from our ten year reunion last year I found out that most of them have way better jobs than I do. Were they held back in any way? Not a chance. They weren’t held back because they actually put effort into learning and taking responsibility for themselves. Just like I never got a handout, they knew they wouldn’t either, and didn’t expect it.

I’m not going to apologize to the stupid people out there who find my statements offensive. If you do, you’re probably the same people who believe the government owes you something. You’re the same people who look at me and think that my life was handed to me and that I have more money than I can count. Rest assured, I worked my knuckles to the bone for what I have, never receiving anything for free. My parents are just as un-wealthy now as they were when they first married. But like all American parents should, they taught my brothers and me that we had to work for our livelihood. They taught us that no one was going to give us anything for free, and they were right.

To all my black and other minority friends, you know exactly where I come from, and you know not to be offended by this opus to stupid people. You worked just as hard as me to get where you are, and I commend you wholeheartedly for it. That goes for anyone else out there who’s burned your neck in the sun to get your kids through school, never expecting Uncle Sam to hand it to you or them. You know racism only exists in the minds of the stupid, who either use it as a crutch, or use it gain leverage over people they don’t like. To you, the real racists, I say “shut up, stupid!”

Stupid Non-Southerners

2006-02-28T08:37:00.000-06:00

I want to tell you a little story. It happened about ten years ago, in my hometown in Louisiana. My grandmother and grandfather were very vivacious people. They loved to go out on the town, dancing and dining. One particular place called the Liberty Theater was their favorite place to go on a Saturday. It staged a live show with comedians, music, dancing; everything they enjoyed. Though I'm sure many of you reading this have never heard of the Liberty Theater, it's actually quite well-known around the world, through word of mouth from people who have come to our humble town for vacation, visiting family, etc. My grandmother was constantly meeting new people there, from various places around the world. She loved it because she was thrilled with learning about other cultures. You could say she was a worldly, well-traveled woman. Well, this particular night she and grandpa ran into a couple from, of all places, Michigan. Not exactly the most exotic of places, since it's still in the U. S., but anyway. So, this lady, hearing my grandmother talking to another few couples, in various dialects, decides to ask my grandmother a question that will forever stick in my mind like so much barbed wire; "Is it true that people from Louisiana have webbed feet?"

Take a minute now, and try not to have an aneurysm thinking about that last statement. No, it wasn't a joke, and yes she really did ask that question. Grandma, being the sharp-witted person she was, had a pretty good visual and vocal response to her. Looking down at her sandaled feet, she wiggled her toes and said "No, do you?" Obviously, the woman didn't know what to say.

Let me break here to answer the question for anyone out there who really thought the woman's question was valid. No, we southern folk don't have webbed feet. We're humans, not ducks, or whatever that dumb ass woman thought we were.

So, for everyone else who knew we don't have webbed feet, you may be wondering "what's your point?" Well, my point is that every day I read weblogs, news reports, forum postings, etc., that labels all southern people in a very bad, stereotypical light, and frankly I'm tired of it. Of all the states in the union, Louisiana has to be looked upon as having the dumbest, backward people of them all. Is it true? Are we that backward? Well, we do know that unless you were born with a defect, no people have webbed feet. We also know that there's these things called books and the internet where we might look up such questionable things before we ask such stupid questions of others.

Don't get me wrong here. This is not a "stupid Yankees" rant. I don't think any less of northerners as I do of people from down where I live. We're all the same, and lead the same lives. It's just that it seems some people have this notion that we are all quite uneducated (I have a degree in computer science and have been teaching computer classes for an international training company for about eight years), that we live in less than civilized communities (our state capitol building is the largest in the U. S., and we have one of the first fully fiber optic city-wide initiatives in the country), and we all supposedly live in houseboats and eat forms of rodent. Ok, so we do consider alligator a delicacy, but it pales in comparison to the "yuck" factor of, say, escargo and caviar. Oh, and I don't live on the bayou on a houseboat. I'm not Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy. And for any of you who've seen that movie, there aren't anacondas in Louisiana. Wrong continent, morons.

For every time I here someone mispronounce the word "chere", to every use of "dubya" to refer to the President, it makes my blood boil. Most of the people who make such stupid statements have no idea of the history of the south, other than pointing to us and saying "stupid racists!" For the record, slavery was also legal in the north. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls. No, they don't know our French origins. They don't know the history of the Acadian's trek from Nova Scotia. You want to know why southern conservatives dislike France? They kicked us out of our own country. How's that for motive?

So, for all the idiots who look at our President and say "dumb southern hick", to those that believe the way Louisiana was portrayed in The Waterboy was accurate, I say "read a book and stop being so stupid." Now, I have some fried 'gator and crawfish etoufee to attend to.

The Evils of Cell Phones

2006-02-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

I teach, not high school but computer classes for a franchised training company. In the front of all our classrooms, right next to the whiteboard, is a sign that reads "Please set phones and beepers to silent. If you have to take a call, please do so in the hallway." The sign is difficult to miss, and all one would have to do is look forward from their seated position to see it. Why, then, do I have to put with people who will leave their cell phone on, not on silent, and proceed to take calls in the middle of class as if I nor the other dozen or so people in the room exist? Usually I just stop in the middle of whatever I'm saying, stand there with my hands clasped behind me, and stare at them. Unfortunately for me and class, most of the people who do this to me are too stupid to realize I'm looking at them and to figure out why I'm staring at them. On one occasion there was a lady who even had the nerve to ask, after she hung up, why I had stopped teaching and to just "pretend I'm not here." What? They never found her body after that day...no, I'm just kidding. Maybe.

A few days ago (though it seems like it happens every day) I was almost run over by a lady who couldn't have been more than five feet tall, driving a four-wheeled land barge (that's a really big SUV for the dim-whitted out there) while talking on her phone. Her expression when I laid on my horn for her to get back into her lane? Nothing. That's right, she didn't even acknowledge my existence and apparently didn't even realize she was halfway in my lane. And for the record, she was to my right, using her left hand to hold the phone, and wasn't wearing a wedding ring. This leads me to assume she's not married and since she looked to be around my age (mid-20's) probably didn't have any children. So why did she need a fifteen foot long tug-mobile? That, my friends, is for another day.

This topic of the moment wouldn't be complete without mention of the absolute dumbest and annoying of all cell phone users: the movie theater cell-a-holic. The lights dim, the screen lights up, and one of the first things you see on the screen is a trailer advertising the concession stand, the no-smoking policy, and the "Please turn off your mobile phones and pagers" sign. Give it ten more seconds and the moron two rows back casually answers the phone that's been ringing in his pocket for the last half-hour, and talks, loudly. "Hey, dawg. Yeah, we at the movies. THE MOVIES! No, I hadn't talked to her since last night. She hella fine, though." And the conversation continues with total disregard for the fact that everyone else in the theater paid just as much as him for their ticket. And what can we do about Mr. Moron? Nothing apparently, since I saw a few days ago a news report on how some woman sued another woman for telling her to be quiet while she was talking on her phone during a movie. What the hell?

My point is, if you have the common sense to know how to dial a phone number, I'd think you'd have the brain cells to know when, or when not, to dial it. For anyone who reads this who has been that idiot in my class, the wood elf driving the SUV, or the jerk in the theater, do us all a favor and HANG UP THE FRIGGIN' PHONE! I will guarantee you, guarantee, that whomever you're talking to can and will be able to talk to you later. And if you don't hang up in these or other annoying situations, may your phone explode in your hands and a meteorite fall on your head. Stupid.

"Throw me somethin'....Stupid!"

2006-02-23T14:12:00.000-06:00

A few nights ago my brother-in-law, who lives in New Orleans, and I were talking about Mardi Gras and the festivities that were to be taking place. We talked about the ball he and my sis-in-law were going to and about all the celebrities who were going to be there when he mentioned to me that there were people who were actually trying to boycott the New Orleans Mardi Gras and have it cancelled. "Say, what?" I asked. Why would anyone want to do that? Surely it was just rumor. Well, after a little research on my part I found out he was right as rain.

It turns out that a portion of the misplaced African-American New Orleans residents are upset that Mardi Gras is still being held, claiming that it will take away from the rebuilding efforts of the city. They believe that all money and effort should be put into rebuilding the city, and holding this celebration is somehow going to take away from that.

It seems to me that what these protestors think is that Mardi Gras is put on by the city government. I live in Louisiana, and I can tell you that that's not at all where the bulk of the money for Mardi Gras celebrations come from. Private citizens and companies pay for the festivities, not the government. Do you really think any part of the Louisiana government has the cash to put on the huge parties that go on this time every year? Not a chance. You think that Nagen pays the big celebs that come down every year to be crowned king/queen of various Mardi Gras balls? He, nor the city, is that wealthy. No, it's private citizens who foot the bill. Now don't get me wrong, most of those people only do it to get face time with celebs and flaunt their wealth, so it's not like they're really doing it "for the people", but it's still not government money being spent.

The crux of the issue is that without Mardi Gras, New Orleans wouldn't have had nearly the press and notoriety it had before Katrina. A very large chunk of the city's income came from Mardi Gras and tourism. What these people don't seem to realize is that continuing to hold these festivities brings more money into the city, offering more jobs than what they currently have, and that money ends up staying in the city to help with the reconstruction efforts. How in the world could having people from not just the U.S., but all over the world coming in and spending their money in the city be a bad thing? They want to rebuild, but if you don't have the money, how are you going to do it? Wouldn't bringing in all this seemingly overnight cash possibly be just the boost N.O. needs to get back on it's feet? It would seem that to some people the answer to all this is a resounding "NO".

How long will we have to put up with the stupidity of people who believe that the only way to pick up the pieces after something happens is to have the government throw free money at them and not try to pick themselves up through their own efforts. It's just like the people who didn't evacuate before the hurricane hit. They all wanted to blame the government when they weren't rescued ten minutes after the levees broke, even though they were told to evacuate before Katrina ever hit ground. Not to mention, it's not like Louisiana has never been hit with a hurricane before. If you live here, you know that when a storm like that comes you need to get the heck out. But, alas, victims would rather be victims and blame others instead of taking care of themselves. It's funny how after southwest Louisiana was hit by hurricane Rita, and entire towns were wiped off the map, nobody from that region cried foul with the government. And I guarantee they're not crying to call off Mardi Gras, either.

To the protestors and boycotters, stop getting stuck on stupid. It doesn't help anything.

Cheney's Got a Gun

2006-02-20T16:13:00.000-06:00

Oh boy, where to start. Let me start by saying that this is not an "I hate Bush/Cheney" post. I'm not going to say that I love them, either. No one is perfect, yours truly included, but I just can't stand what some stupid people out there are saying in regards to the vice-president's hunting accident.

First off, it was an accident. If you listen to the news you'd swear that he tried to execute this poor guy. Of course, people like Letterman take the story and run for miles with it on his late show, but that's to be expected. He's not the news or a politician. But you only have to turn on the evening report to see how much animosity media-types show towards a man who didn't do anything illegal. The sheriffs on the scene even said that the incident was being treated as an accident, and that things like that happen all the time. As the son and grandson of avid hunters, I can attest to that. The only reason this whole thing is getting so much attention is because of who's involved.

Point number two, what makes this a national issue? At what point are the private lives of our leaders actually private? You see, I live in the real world. Not some fantasy place made by some author where everyone's lives are open to the public, and nobody has any privacy, especially with regards to political leaders. Do I care that Mr. Cheney shot someone? Kind of, but only to the point that I don't want these kinds of accidents to happen. I feel sorry for both parties involved. But at the same time, it's not something that directly affects my life or that of the nation. What political or social impact did this incident have on America? Even better, what impact has it had on national security? None. It's just that simple. But, oh my, since we didn't see the whole story right after it happened, you'd swear by the media that we'd all been lied to and that the sky was going to fall right on our heads. Stupid, with a capital S.

Let me put all this in perspective, from another political angle. At what point was President Clinton impeached for having an affair with an intern, and lying under oath? What was that? He wasn't removed from office? Surely if the vice-president doesn't report to the world a hunting accident right away and is called to step down from office by the media, the president would have been crucified for having an affair on the clock and then lying about it. No? Well, I wonder why that is...

My answer to all this hyped-up frenzy over the vice-president is quite simple, and based on the title of this blog will be very obvious. Stupidity is the reason for the season. Is the general public massed at the steps of the White House, demanding the V. P. explain himself? No, of course not. We folks with what's known as "common sense" don't need to resort to such things to amuse ourselves. We instead focus on more important things like taking care of our families and monitoring issues that really matter with regard to our nation, not like all the so-called "experts" who analyze everything to death. "But he shot a man!" Yes, and so do many hunters every year. That doesn't make it critical information, even if it involves the vice-president. Grow up CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. What's next? Impeachment for not reporting that the first lady stubbed her toe?