Just give the girl a ball, darn it!

     Now I am no parent.  I have no children of my own yet.  I do have tons of experience with raising children since my family is larger that a lot of villages so I have babysat and helped raise cousins, nieces and nephews for a very long time.  So I do have a bit of experience with small children.  When I see people attempting to be parents, I tend to judge from the decades of experience I have with kids.  Whether this is fair or not, I don't know.  All I know is what I have experienced myself.
     So tonight,. I wandered out to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for myself and my wife.  As I was checking out, there was a young woman and a small child in front of me checking out.  I had to wait because the woman had picked up a medium sized foam ball for her daughter and the ball she had picked up had been taken out of its plastic wrapping that also had the bar code on it.  Another associate went and got an identical ball still in its shrink wrap.  After the checker scanned it, the woman decided that she would rather have the shrink wrapped ball than the unwrapped one.  Makes sense, right.
     Now the second the mother decides to take the unwrapped ball, the little girl starts crying.  She tells her Mom that she wants the first ball they picked up, not the wrapped one.  The Mom literally starts screaming at the child and telling her to be quiet because they are buying the wrapped ball.  She tells her that if she doesn't shut up, then she won't get a ball period.  The little girl keeps crying for the unwrapped ball and the mother keeps yelling at her.
     Now Folks, keep in mind that I told you that the two balls are IDENTICAL and both of them are new.  The only difference between the two is one was wrapped and one wasn't.  The unwrapped one wasn't filthy or damaged in any way.  There was no reason not to give the child the ball she wanted.  There certainly wasn't a reason to stand there screaming at the kid and telling her that she wouldn't get any ball if she didn't take the wrapped one. 
     Like I said, I am not a parent and I certainly am not an expert on raising kids. For all I know, there may be a perfectly good reason why she stood there and screamed at her kid just because the kid wanted the first ball they picked up and not the one that the mother thought was better.  I can't imagine what that might be but it is possible,  However, yelling at your kid just because she wants the toy that you picked up seems mean.  Threatening her with no toy at all because she wants the toy you promised her seems pretty durned dumb.
     So if any of you folks can explain to me why what this girl did was a proper thing to do as a parent, I would greatly appreciate it.  I simply cannot imagine how screaming and threatening your kid in public.  I await your advice.

End of Rant

Ukraine, We Kraine, everbody Kraine revisted or Is it cold out here or it is just me?

     So as the dance that is Russia/Ukraine continues its slowly speeding up waltz where a fairly predictable outcome is in sight (Afghanistan anyone?) and the EU and the US are using every single trick in our non-violent and sneaky arsenals to try and slow if not stop the impending festivities.  We are hurling harsh words, dire promises and sanctions at Russia like monkeys throw poop at tourists, but unlike said BMs, all of our efforts really don't seem to be doing much good.  Russia appears to be resolute in their drive to "liberate" the rest of the Ukraine.
     As I brought up in a previous installment, the question on everyone's mind should be, "Where do we go from here?"  I'm no expert on diplomacy or the military so my thoughts should always be taken with a grain of salt however the way things are going, I really don't see many more options other than a direct military action by somebody somewhere.  So exactly what the fudge are people gonna do now?
     The main obstacle I see in any sort of confrontation with our buddies in the old USSR is that Russia is a very very big boy with lots and lots of weapons, bombs and various soldier type people.  So any sort of military actions is gonna stir up a whole lot of mess that I doubt any of the other nations really wants to deal with.  I mean, it isn't like rolling the troops out to hit Afghanistan or Iraq or making threatening moves toward Iran or other trouble makers.
     Of course, we can just keep making threats and levering sanctions while trying to sound as if we aren't nervous about the fact that so far at least, Russia shows no signs of being willing to concede or give an inch.  I mean it kind of worked for a long time with late great Cold War, didn't it?  Well, not exactly (See Afghanistan and all of the other places the USSR made trouble for during that same time period.), but lets pretend that it really worked.  If it worked then, why can't it work now?
     Well, besides a whole grocery list of problems with launching Cold War II , the main problem I see with it all is we aren't dealing with the same Russia any more.  Historians will tell you that Russia's main obstacle to total badassery was the style of government they had.  Communism was their main limiting force.  Now with the fall of the USSR and the birth of a much more free enterprise friendly Russia, nearly all the old limitations that kept Russia from doing whatever it wanted to at least on a resource level.
     So, now what?  If Russia is truly intent on going back to its previous expansionist policies, there is really nothing stopping them short of all out war.  Russia has access to enough resources to fuel its growth until such time as its new acquisitions start producing.  So what happens if they don't give in and decide to keep going?  Well, whatever happens I am pretty sure it will not be boring.

The right to say what you mean annd the right to suck up the aftermath.

Yah know, over the past week or so there has been a whole bunch of going on and on about racism. Cattle Rancher going off on people of color while protesting the government trying to get his cattle off of Welfare. Sports type person having a racially charged conversation with his significant other. Hells, I am pretty sure you can find a few others out there to add to the list without much effort. I'll let you do that, I'm too lazy.

Now the two sides of arguifying I have heard on these very sensitive issues is as follows. Side one is “He oughta not have said that!” and Side two is “He shouldn't be allowed to say that!” Now anyone who has any sort of common sense should see the problems with both of these statements. (No I don't mean my atrocious spelling and grammar!) Let us cover each one in greater detail so see if you can get the picture.

“He oughta not have said that” is first on the list of...well two. Well on the face of it, I can kind of agree with this one. Using the Cattle Guy as the example, the Old Dude stood in front of a camera and announced to the world his views on “Negros.” If this was 1914, I could see making those statements safely without any fear of repercussions. Heck he might have gotten away unscathed if he had used any word besides “Negro” or one of its derivatives. However, as a general rule, most people both Black and White aren't really comfortable hearing that word bandied about, especially by old white people.

Still he did say it and even doubled down on it later on when pressed on the issue. So should he “oughta not said it?” Prolly not, but get over it. He said it. It made him look even worse than before. It added maybe an extra minute to his 15 minutes of fame. It is done. Get over it. By ranting on and on about it, you are just giving this guy free publicity. Trust me, him and his cattle aren't really worth the time and effort.

Now on to the most important side. I get from a huge majority of the posts and responses that I have seen that a huge attitude is “He shouldn't be allowed to say that.” A lot of sites are stressing that what he said was “Hate Speech” and that people shouldn't be allowed to talk like that because it might offend someone. I read these statements and just kind of shake my head.

First of all, in the case of the Cattle Dude, what he said wasn't really any sort of hate speech. Was it a tad ignorant? Was it a trifle Retro? Yes and yes, but it wasn't really hate speech. He didn't say that Negros should be whipped or hung. He didn't advocate putting them all back on plantations. (Well okay the “picking cotton” thing may have been a bit much, but the guy is OLD and back in his day, Everybody picked cotton. Lord knows my family did.) He merely tried in his own semi-dementia sort of way to draw a comparison between “Social Slavery” and Physical Slavery. So I don't really think it can be qualified as Hate Speech, more of a kind of Confused Speech.

Secondly and most importantly, is this attitude that he shouldn't have been allowed to say that. That somehow we should be able to muzzle and tamp down anyone's opinion that we don't like or that we find insulting. To me this is completely antithetical so the very concepts our country was founded upon. FREEDOM OF SPEECH is not nor has it ever been “Freedom of speech that isn't insulting or annoying to me.” Everyone has the right under our laws to express their opinions as vocally and publicly as they want. If they don't like someone or something, they are allowed to write blogs, make videos or smoke signals to express it. Despite what so many people want to think, it really is that simple.

Course that freedom is a double edged sword. You have the right to express your opinion no matter how loathsome it may be to others. You can publish your pamphlets (Wait do people still publish those?) and stand on your soapbox to shout to the world what you think is right. On the flip side of that freedom is the fact that you also have the right to be ridiculed, poked fun at or ignored by people who realize that you might just be a nutball. No one should ever have the power to say, “Hey you can't say that” cause that is a very slippery slope my friend. After all, everything everyone says is offensive to someone somewhere in the world

As an ending note, I have used Cattle Guy as my examples more than Sports Guy mainly because I actually feel they are two separate cases. Cattle Guy said his opinions out loud for all the world to hear. Sports Guy said his words supposedly in private with someone he supposedly trusted. Everyone has a public persona and a private persona. We all have things we think or feel that we would never express to the world at large. We keep our private thoughts and feelings private and put on the public face whenever we are out and about. Sports Guy may be the world's biggest bigot, but all that matters to the world at large is the attitude and show he puts on for the public.

In the end, everyone has the right to say and feel the way they want to. They are free to dislike whomever (whoever? Always get those two mixed up.) they want. On the other hand, I have the right to mock and crack on them whenever they do it. Ain't America Wonderful?

Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

So it seems like everyone and their brother is posting stuff on the Interwebz these days, especially on good old Facebook. They see some blazing headline or inflammatory post that seems to agree with whatever bit of stupidity they believe in and they post it with a screaming, “Hah see I was right!” attitude and generally spend the day feeling very smug with themselves. There are several problems with the posts and the smug attitude that seem to escape most people.

Let's deal with the problems with the posts themselves first and speak on the people posting them afterward. Most of the inflammatory posts that appear tend to fall into a few distinct categories. There are variations within those categories, but the broader ones will suffice for this post.

Category One is actual, well researched articles that use facts (Keep in mind that to most of these posters Fact is a four letter word and not a nice one.) and information that is easily confirmed and researched. They contain no hearsay or distortions, just the facts so that you can form your own opinions. Cat.1 is the least common of all the posts you see.

Category Two is a article/blog/video done by someone who believes devotedly in a subject. (Obama is an Illegal Alien. Cell Phones cause brain cancer etc.) This poster KNOWS beyond a shadow of a doubt that what he or she believes is true. They ignore any and I do mean any evidence that discounts their beliefs with a “Just (Insert opposing side here) propaganda.” They scour the Interwebz for any and all “News” (Used very kindly here) articles that support their “facts” and post them as proof of their beliefs. The morons in Cat. 2 are probably the most common Interwebz posters out there.

Category Three are articles/news reports/recipes that have a headline that seems to support the Poster's beliefs. The headline may read, “OBAMA SLAUGHTERS 2000 KITTENS!” So the Person posting the piece (that hates the POTUS) may think that the article is talking about the POTUS going around and taking a chainsaw to small fuzzies. So he or she puts the article on their page and scream, “See See! Told you he was evil!” Course the problem is that the actual article is about Obama doing stand up comedy and making kittens laugh so hard they squirt milk from their noses. Cat. 3 people see a catchy headline and then really don't take the time to read the article. Well at least all the way through. They are probably the second most common form of poster.

Category Four is a special category unto itself. People who post category four objects in their feeds are people like me. I often times call myself a “Loud Mouth with a Blog.” (Admittedly a blog read by hundreds of people in dozens of countries, but just a loud mouth with a blog.) I am guilty of multiple counts of posting articles or saying things that I don't necessarily think are true just to stir up discussions. (One friend had described it as stirring an ant mound with a stick.) I do comment on current events from time to time and try to at least put some modicum of investigation into them, but generally my intent is to entertain not edify. In this case I follow the #1 rule set forth by Comic Book Great Jack “King” Kirby who once said, “Never let the facts get in the way of a rousing good story.” The huge difference between Cat. 4 posters and Cat. 2 & 3 posters is that 90% of the time Cat. 4 posters make absolutely no claims to facts in their fantasy.

I find it a truly sad state of affairs that in an age where almost everyone in the US has instant access to almost unlimited data and information that so many people simply accept the “truths” they hear because they match what the people “know” to be true. You see it every day from the aforementioned POTUS being an illegal alien (He's not BTW) to Vaccines causing everything from Autism to Lycanthropy. (They don't FYI.) As long as these morons can find one or two “news pieces” that match their attitudes, they are content to ignore the massive amount of other pieces that completely dispute their tiny little ideas.

In the end, everyone must make up their own minds about what they believe and who they believe in. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs no matter how silly those beliefs may seem to others. However, if you really want to not look like a complete and utter idiot, here is a final bit of advice. Either keep those beliefs to yourself and whatever little group you belong to OR make durned sure the things you post supporting your beliefs are at least reasonably accurate. Trust me when I say, making yourself look like an idiot does not help your cause.

End of rant

I'm just saying...