Some people just can't handle praise or Wow, they must have been very very tired afterwards.

GREAT JOB on that...thing that you did!

     I very rarely give compliments and today is an excellent reason why.  I went out of my way today to give someone praise for their due diligence in protecting our country from Illegal Immigrants and they got royally honked off at me.  It really isn't fair.  I try to be nice and people get mad at me.  See that is why I am an Ass.  Huh, what?  Do you want details?  Okay fine, if you really want to know the nitty gritty I will tell you.

     So I went by the pharmacy today to pick up some medications and there was a pretty long line.  I was standing behind this elderly couple.  The lady was speaking of how she had to go to the Emergency Room last night and how she had to wait for three hours because of all of the "Illegals" waiting to get free health care.  She ranted on and on and on about how it wasn't fair that she had to wait for so long because they were all there getting their "Free health care."  

     So I was feeling kind, I leaned forward and said, "You must be very tired."  The lady looked back at me and looked puzzled.  I smiled sweetly and said, "You have to be very tired after spending three hours checking all of those 100s (Yes folks, she said there were 100s of Illegals in the Emergency Room even though there wasn't room for a 100 people in that particular place.  I know, I was just recently there because I got my face punched up.) of Illegals Green Cards."

I'M SO CONFUSED!!!!

     The look of utter confusion on her face was saddening to me.  I mean, I had just praised her for her due diligence in protecting our nation from the scourge of Illegal Aliens and she didn't seem to appreciate it.  After several seconds, she seemed to get control of herself and said, "I didn't do that."  This, of course, confused me since if she hadn't checked every single person's green card or ID, then how could she possibly have known that they were all illegals?  Her turn at the counter came up so our conversation ended before I could determine if she was a mutant with the power to detect Illegal Aliens or she had an app for her phone that did it.  Sad, I will never know the truth.

A Christmas Con Artist or the classics never really go out of style do they?

     So, its Christmas Eve and I am out on the town in very busy traffic trying to get a last few presents bought for my wife before everything closes down.  I make the turn onto a very crowded street filled with practically stationary cars.  I pull up as far as I can and I wait patiently for traffic to move.  Suddenly the car in front of me pops into reverse and its rear bumper taps the front of my car.  It doesn't hit  hard enough to even jostle my car.  Immediately afterwards, the people in front pop on the hazard lights and step out.  I pop my own lights and wait.  The man studies his bumper and says "you ran into us."  His wife starts yelling about how the bumper is damaged and how "all of the paint is going to fall off."
     So I get out of my car and examine their rear end.  There are indeed serious scratches across the top of the bumper that really should be repaired and several dents that need to be pulled out.  Problem is that not only is all of the damage noticeably old, but is so high on the bumper that there is no way my much smaller car could have made them.  The man proceeds to tell me that he would ordinarily call the police and have it reported, but he would be nice to me and not report it if I agreed to pay for the damages.  I simply smiled and said, "No I have insurance so lets just call the cops and have all of the reports filled out so that you can get your car fixed."  At this point, the wife suddenly snapped out of her near hysteria in a manner that can only be described as a Christmas Miracle and both she and her husband quickly get back in their car and leave.
     And that dear readers is one of the oldest cons around known simply as a Slider.  It takes advantage of most people's innate distrust and even fear of the police.  It also plays off their "OMG I DID SOMETHING BAD!" fears.  This particular con has been around forever.  Pretty sure someone used it on Hannibal when he was driving his elephants across the mountains.  It is a simple and unusually effective "physical con" that is probably pulled off thousands of times a year all over the world.
     The mechanics is pretty simple.  You need at least two people (Man and Woman work good and Woman and young child works even better) and a vehicle.  They cruise locations looking for just the right situation.  High volume slow moving traffic works best.  When they spot  a possible Mark, they get in front of him and when the time is just right, the driver either puts the car in reverse or if its on a hill, simply puts it in neutral.  (As a side note here, cars with standard transmissions are perfect for these cons because you simply have to push in the clutch and roll backwards.)  Once you tap the car behind you, you simply step out and one of you (here's why kids are best) goes into hysterics.  The Mark gets confronted and has to deal with the hysterical one while trying to figure out what to do.  At this point, the Con artist offers to forget the accident ever happened in return for some amount of money.  The Mark is so confused and frustrated that he gives up the money because he has become convinced it was all somehow his fault.  The Artists collect their money and split leaving the Mark poorer and confused.  The sheer beauty of this particular con is the relatively safe aspect of it.  If the Mark calls you on the Con, you simply smile and say "Hey that is okay" and then move on to someone who isn't as bright.  Very little danger of getting caught.
     In the Con Artist world, there are two adages that hold true 99.99% of the time.  One is "You can't cheat an honest man" and the other is "Never try to con a Con Man."  A Con works on the idea that the Mark understands that what is happening is questionable at best and probably illegal at worse, but he is tempted to swallow the con anyway.  In the Slider case, the Mark knows that he is supposed to call the cops, report the accident and exchange insurance information.  He falls for the con for multiple reasons like he is afraid his insurance rates will go up or that he actually did something bad.  So he agrees to do the wrong thing to keep from getting in trouble.  The second is true because any con man worth his salt will immediately spot a con going on and either call the people on it or play along just to mess with them.
     Thanks to a somewhat shady and adventurous youth, lets just say that I am very very familiar with most of the Cons and their variations out there.  So I am afraid this couple didn't find the easy mark that they had expected.  I knew I had done nothing wrong and even if I had somehow hit their car, I knew I had insurance to cover it.  So I did the one thing a Con Artist never wants you to do, I agreed we should call the cops and get everything down on the record.
     Guess I was literally involved in a Hit and OH CRAP SCRAM!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

End of Rant

If Jimmy Carter jumped off a bridge...or Twit for Twa....Um we'll just leave that one be.

   
If there is one thing that  never ceases to amaze me, it is the human ability to rationalize their beliefs no matter how insulting or stupid they may be.  Its universal among mankind to truly be convinced what you think is right and ignore any evidence that proves you wrong.  What is even funnier is when people are confronted with irrefutable proof that what they think or believe is truly messed up because then they start trying to find some way to justify what they believe.  There are a bunch of different ways this happens, but the most common one I have found is the "Oh yeah?  Well X may be a jerk, but your Y did it too!"

   

Who knew Hitler was from Georgia

     Let's take the GOP poster boy for STUPID, Donald Trump.  During his brief run for the nomination, he has shown himself to be a Racist, Misogynistic Bigot (Yeah I know I know, but since he is against Hispanics which is a race and against Muslims who are not, I figured I could use both words.  Hey it's my blog!).  He has agreed with an idea to register all Muslims in the country.  (Hey! it worked for Hitler right?)  He has also said we should ban all Muslims from the US.  Originally that was ALL Muslims including the ones already in the US but he back tracked on that one so we will go with his revised statement of Muslims outside the US just to be nice.  

     Now like most of Trump's truly stupid and bigoted statements, this one caught the attention of anyone who is not a Conservative and the uproar proceeded.  Finally it reached the point where even the most die hard Conservative couldn't ignore the fact that Trump was making the Grand Old Party look like a bunch of Middle Aged White Jerks or MAWJs for short.  So, instead of coming out against Trump and his bigoted statements, they quickly did what they do best.  DAMAGE CONTROL and FINGER POINTING!

     (As a quick aside here, I will point out that some of the GOP members have actually come out against Trump's idiocy including Ted Cruz and old Dick (We'll torture them all!) Cheney.  This just proves that the stupid in politics can get so strong that even the oldest dog can get tired of it.)

     Over the past couple of days I have seen articles like the one linked above appearing on Conservative FB Friends pages.  The articles correctly point out that old Trump is not the first person to suggest banning people from coming into the US.  Carter did indeed do it during the Iran Crisis and old FDR did it during WWII.  Matter of fact FDR went Trump one better and locked up 1000s of innocent men, women and children just because they were different..  So, yes I admit that previous Regime leaders were just as big a jerk as Trump and Carson.  Guess what?  IT DOESN'T FREAKING MATTER!

Oh yeah well they did it first!  Nyah!

     I can see the confuzzlement running rampant in your headparts right now.  I will explainate for your enlightenment.  In the Con Game, its called a bait and switch.  You need to distract the Mark from seeing that they are being ripped off, so you toss out some sort of distraction to keep them off balance and not seeing the obvious going on right in front of their eyes.  You see it these days.  One of the most obvious (But far from being limited to that side) is what happens when a dirty cop kills an unarmed Black person.  Instead of just admitting that some cops are racist thugs with badges, pundits start tossing out "Well, yes a cop in Detroit gunned down an unarmed child in the streets, but HEY LOOK AT HOW MANY BLACK KIDS WERE KILLED BY GANG VIOLENCE YESTERDAY."

     See, that is the distraction.  The bait to make you forget that you are being robbed.  People try to use a very solid fact (Gang Violence or Carter/FDR did it too) to distract you and make you not think about the other FACT (Dirty cops killing people/Trump being a bigoted moron).  They seem think that showing other people did horrible things somehow justifies the horrible things they are trying to defend.  It is the school ground mentality of "Well Jimmy did it, so that makes us doing it okay."

     The problem is that it doesn't work that way.  Trump is wrong for suggesting immigration bans on Muslims and Carter was wrong for suggesting bans on immigration from Iran.  (Interestingly enough and giving Trump credit for a bit of intelligence, they both did it for the same reason.  Carter bowed to political and social pressure during the Hostage Crisis and Trump may be pandering to the Anti-Islam crowd in hopes for votes.  Historically speaking, FDR pretty much did it for the same reason as Carter.)  Trying to justify the actions of one man by pointing out that others in the past made the same mistake doesn't make you right, it just proves you are wrong twice.

     We will never make any progress in this country until we stop blindly trying to justify the idiocy and bigotry of our so called leaders and just say, "Well yeah, he is on our team, but what he said was totally messed up."  Quit trying to justify crap people say just because you are supposed to support them.  Man up and just admit they are wrong.

End of Rant

Freedom for everyone or What happens when they come for you?

Be a lert, the world needs more Lerts.

"CLM i am thinking that the Islamic people will come into our country and slaughter all the christian people and probably those who are not , just the way the English, Spanish and others from across the pond slaughtered the American Indians. Looks to me like they have already started. I certainly hope all who stisk up for them and who tell the rest of us we are worng to wnat to protcet our kids and grand kids, have a plan, when push comes to shove"

     So during one of my off the cuff and more than a little insulting FB comments the other night.  (My best/worst ones always come late at night after my brain has shut down.), a good friend whom I have never met posted the above comment in response to this comment from me.

"If you truly believe that it is okay to ban Islam in America, then you are truly clueless about exactly what America means and are a major part of what is wrong with the country today. How people can claim to worship the Constitution but deny a principle that was part of this nation before it was even a nation is mind boggling. These people are a greater threat to the American way of life than radical Islam ever will be because their leaders wear a shroud of patriotism and respectability."

     There is much more to the conversation, but that was the parts that inspired this blog.  Before I go any further let me state very clearly that I am not mocking CLMs (Name abbreviated to protect the innocent.) opinion or comment in any way.  In a very real sense, with the addition of one word, her comment could be seen as very accurate.  That word is Radical because Radical Extremist groups like ISIS (ISIL, Daesh woteverdafug they are calling them now.) and other such groups do indeed want to destroy America and any other part of the world that doesn't adhere to their codes.  There is no arguing this unless you are a few nuts short of a fruit basket.  (Wait, that didn't make sense...oh well moving on!) No one should argue that we should do everything REASONABLY and LEGALLY possible to protect ourselves and our country from all threats domestic and abroad.  However, the operative words there are legal and reasonable.  
     There are forces at work in the US that want to ban Islam.  Think about that for a second and really mull it over.  Leaders of a nation who's very founding principle which existed even before we were a nation was Freedom of Religion want to ban a religion.  That should scare the crap out of anyone.  The State wants to tell people what religions they can follow and which ones they cannot.  Two things you hear a lot today from our so called leaders is "the slippery slope" and "police state" usually used to describe any of the current regime's policies.  Funny how both of those things directly apply to the idea of banning Islam.  No, really!  Read on as I explainate it all.
     First let's look at the Slippery Slope Analogy or SSA as I will henceforth call it.  So whats say we ingnore the foounding principle of our nation and that pesky little thing called the Constitution for a second or three and we BAN ISLAM (OORAH!)!  Poof, yay that nasty nasty evil religious CULT is gone!  You've successfully gotten rid of (in the US anyways) that religion that you really really really don't like.  Congratulations!  So what happens when it happens to you?
     Say all the Atheists (Hey Mary Anderson!), Buddhists, Wiicans etc in the US decide that they are sick and tired of Christians?  They are tired of Christmas moving further and further back on the calendar and they are tired of Jehovah Witnesses banging on their door when they are trying to eat dinner.  Suppose this imagined majority decides to ban Christianity for good to save the calendar and dinner for all good folks?  They vote and poof, Christianity is banned from the US.  Are you okay with that?  I mean if a majority of people felt that Islam was bad and banned it then it must be okay that a majority of people could ban Christianity.
     (Of course I already know what the answer is, but that is what they call a rhetorical question.)  
     Second like, lets look at the Police State Issue (or PSI as I will call it.)  People are always going on and on and on about how Obama is trying to install a police state and declare himself dictator.  (For the record, he isn't just FYI.)  If our leaders were to instigate a ban on Islam or any other religion for that matter, they would be directly contravening the Constitution of the US which promises absolute freedom of religion without government intervention.  (Yes yes, there could be a vote to amend the Constitution, but it would never garner enough votes to pass.  Keep in mind that the majority of people support the freedom for all people to worship as they please.  The Ban Islam group is very much in the minority.)
     So the only way our so called leaders could possibly ban Islam is to essentially issue a writ from on high stating that the Government has elected to ban Islam.  That means that the State is telling people how they can and cannot lead their lives.  Sounds like a police state to me.
     We have an almost unheard of amount of freedom in the US.  We have "inalienable rights" promised to us when our nation was born.  It is one of the things that makes us great.  However, those freedoms and rights come with a high price.  They bring risks that people both foreign and domestic will abuse those rights and freedoms to do harm to us and our friends.  This is the price we pay every day for living in a free nation.  We cannot and should not restrict the rights and freedoms of others in the US just so that we can feel safer.  Should we do everything within our power legally and morally to protect all of the citizens of the US?  Heck yeah. but beware taking the freedoms and rights from people that you don't like because there will always be people that don't like you too.

End of Rant

Bigotry 101 or "Why yes, your question does make you look racist."

Two sides to every argument.

     So I am seeing a lot of people posting "shocking revelations" about the gunmen responsible for the tragedy in San Bernadino and one of them is that some neighbors were suspicious of the couple because they spotted "6 or 8 Middle Eastern people" hanging out around their apartment.  Some have asked if the whole shooting could have been prevented if these neighbors had reported this "Suspicious activity" to the police.  One bright soul even asked if they should have reported the people or if that would have been "Racial Profiling?"  Well the short answer and the only answer reall needed is...HELL YES IT IS RACIAL PROFILING!

     Now having done a tad bit of research, I have discovered absolutely zero evidence that these ME people engaged in anything more suspicious than coming to dinner or hanging out with friends.  No mysterious clandestine meetings in the middle of the night occurred.  No furtive deliveries of strange packages under the over of darkness.  Nothing out of the ordinary at all.  So the only reason any one would have of them being suspicious is that they were Muslims.

Getting dizzy yet?  Hang on it is gonna get worse.

     Now armchair quarterbacks on both sides LOVE to critique events after the fact.  It's like they think their sudden 20/20 vision should be applied retroactively to the past because of what they KNOW in the present.  So, people are saying that people should have reported "Suspicious behavior" to the cops because knowing now that the couple was indeed terrorists, any actions taken by them or their associates HAD to have been an obvious red flag before it was actually known.  Basically they are saying, "Well we know they are bad guys now, so it should have been obvious then."

     So lets imagine another scenario using this analogy.  Dylan Roof, the young White Terrorist who shot up a Black Church and killed many people because he believed that they were a threat to his way of life.  So suppose neighbors had spotted "8 or 10" Young White guys hanging out at Roof's house a day or so before he went berzerk and killed a bunch of people.  They are hanging out, drinking beer and talking about guns.  Should the neighbors have reported these suspicious activity to the cops.  After all, a hell of  a lot more shootings in the US are done by White Folks than Muslims, so shouldn't tabs be kept on all White Males just in case they turn out to be Terrorists like Roof or Deare?

Not really sure if it has anything to do with the blog, I just saw it and thought it was funny.

     Just like with NYCs now defunct "Stop and Frisk" program or its illegal, CIA sponsored targeting of Mosques, if the only reason you are targeting anyone is because they are members of a group that has been guilty of crimes, then yes you are indeed racial profiling and you are indeed a bigot.  No one thinks that all White people should be targeted because White People shot up Sandy Hook or killed a bunch of people in a theater.  If someone suggested it, the moral outrage would be deafening.  However, bigots seem to think it is okay to target ALL of a group for the actions of a few as long as it is a group that they don't like.  

     In the end, when you ask yourself "Is this racial profiling" you should also ask yourself "How would I feel if people did this to me?"  If the answer is "I'd be mad as hell" then yeah it is more than likely racial profiling.  Just sayin...

Why can't we all just get along?  Oh yeah because Bigots are stupid.

End of Rant