9 More Things That Grinds My Gears

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time.... I know where my watch is pal, where the heck is yours? Do I need to start pointing at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their big butts to search the entire room for the T.V. remote because they refuse to walk to the T.V. and change the channel manually.

3 When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". Dang right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4 When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? I want to find them and kick their collective butts out of the gene pool.

5 When people say while watching a film "did you see that?". No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the floor.

6 People who ask "Can I ask you a question?".... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, thus it can't be new.

8 When people say "life is short". What?!? Life is the longest thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9 When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks "Has the bus come yet?". If the bus came would I be standing here, idiot?

As much as I would love to rant about immigration (and I probably will as some point), the blog linked below, does it better than I could.

Click, read, comment (to me and him) GO NOW!

White Trash Lemonade

To those of you who are too cheap to buy a drink at restaurants...stay home!

I get all bend out of shape every time I see someone ask for a glass of water "with a bunch of lemons" with their meal. These thieves then proceed to squeeze all the lemons in their glass a water and stir in sugar or some other sweetener.

They just took advantage of the restaurant. No, to the best of my knowledge, they didn't actually break any laws; they are just users. They took a combination of things restaurants offer at no cost and combined them to create something they would normally have to pay for. While the letter of the law was not violated, the spirit of the law certainly was...and so was the owner. For that matter every future customer was violated as well.

Even if the restaurant continues to offer such amenities at no (visible) cost, (s)he will certainly be forced to pass along that cost in the form of higher prices on the food. However, what really get me, is when the owner makes up the cost by raising the price on the drinks. I mean, come on! We are the ones who played by the rules, we paid for our drinks, don't raise our costs.

I openly acknowledge that drinks cost too much in restaurants today. However, you have chosen not to take the economical route and eat at home...or even the less economical route, some sort of fast food. No, you have made the decision to go to a restaurant, with that comes the prices for all parts of your meal--including your drink. Don't steal your beverage.

There is no question in my mind, you have stolen. In the long run (sometimes shorter than others), you have stolen from me and all the other patrons. And that pisses me off!

This is not unique to drink thieves In fact, in other areas of law, safeguards have been put into place to limit the 'loop-hole' extorters. For example, in Internal Revenue Code, there are codes dealing with what the IRS calls, a "two-step transaction." That is, if in an attempt to lessen your tax impact, you take two steps (or more) to accomplish something that could have been accomplished in one step; you not only have to pay the full tax as though the task was taken in a single step, but there is also a penalty. Of course, there is also normally an additional cost for those extra steps that you have already paid, and you won't get that back.

Another example would be what traffic law call "intentional avoidance." That is, taking steps to intentionally avoid a traffic control measure; i.e. cutting through a parking lot to 'avoid' a red light. If you are caught do so, you can (and should) get a moving violation citation.

So what I am saying is: If you want lemonade, order lemonade and pay the price...and shut up about it or stay home!

Political Stars

The title might lead you to believe what 'buns my bacon' are famous folks in politics (Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, etc) . No, it's famous folks getting involved in politics.

I'm not talking about Gipper or Govinator (or even Hulk Hogan) type involvement. No, what I'm ticked about is loud mouth jerks who use their pop culture stardom to spout-off about Politics. It happens on both sides of the aisle--though much more often on the Democratic side.

Oh sure, some of the blame falls on the political parties themselves, but the bulk of it falls on two other groups. These two groups live the delicate balancing act of a public love/hate relationship. These two groups are: the stars themselves, and the media.

Ted Turner, Alec Baldwin, and Whoopie Goldberg (as examples) are people (well, I'm not sure about Whoopie), and they are entitled to their opinions in all areas of life--including politics. They do not give up their rights to their opinions when they give up their privacy through stardom.

However, they are no longer "only" people. Their words carry with them power and press. They, of course, know this; and use it to their advantage. Unfortunately their illusions of grandeur has blinded them to the the facts-of-life. Blinded them from seeing that just because they can, does not mean they should. Given them a vision of acceptability or even expectation to use the media as their own 'bully pulpit.'

I'm not sure which gets by undershorts in the tighter bunch: the fact that these stars feel I care what their opinions are, or that the media feels I care.

You and I can talk for hours on end (or pour our heart out in a blog) and the media will most likely NEVER pick it up and cover it. "They" do not feel our opinion is one in which anyone else cares--it isn't newsworthy. I would, of course, disagree; but that could be my ego talking.

The duo (stars and the media) which produces death to decency, is a never ending circle of insanity: A star says something stupid, the media reports it. The star complains about the media, the media reports the complaints. The media finally burns out on that particular stupid comment (they know there will be others), the star gets frustrated because the media isn't covering them. The frustrated star says something stupid, the media reports the star's stupidity. The star complains.....

They are both to blame. They are both insulting my intelligence, and doing so un-apologetically. In fact, they want me to thank them!

They both make me mad enough to eat ball-bearings and crap bee-bees!

Fat-Free Fair Food

Dang It!

My wife and I love our State Fair. Well, we like the Fair, we LOVE the 'Fair Food'. However, we just heard that "they" are requiring the vendors to use oil with no trans-fat. How flippin' stupid is that?

I'm about to buy a deep-fried Snickers bar, do you think I care about trans-fat? Isn't it obvious I'm not devoted the health? Oh, would the fried Twinky be a better example? No, how about deep-fried Oreos? Or Corndogs? What about Elephant Ears? Dear Lord, the name even tells you their big enough for the worlds largest land mammal (Yeah, I know its the shape--work with me here).

To the "they" who made this senseless decision, please revoke it.

NO ONE who is worth keeping in the gene-pool eats "Fair Food" in hopes of better health. Let me have my tasty treasures! After all, it is only once a year.