Walk a 1000 miles in my shoes...better yet, think a 1000 thoughts inside my head.

Don't worry, be happy!

         Few things in this world truly bother me.  I was born was way too much mellowness in my system to get angry easily or to be annoyed by stuff that really isn't important.  I see people screaming over this or that on the Interwebz over and over again like it is the end of the freaking world or something. I usually just kind of shake my head, nod symbolically in support and move on with my life.  After all if you truly believe Obama is going to invade your state, take away your guns and force everyone to have Gay Muslim Weddings, more power to you.  Who knows, you might actually be right....NAHHHHHH!
     Now having said that, let me tell the one thing that really really grinds my gears is listening to people in $20,000 suits driving BMWs going on and on about the Poor.  Watch any episode of Faux News and you will hear words like Leeches, Moochers and Bums.  They run segments called "Entitlement Nations" where they basically say that if you are poor and on any form of public support, you are worthless and nothing but a drain on all of the Good People in the nation.  You have old people in the US Government, many of them having never done a day of hard labor in their lives discussing how we need to cut school lunches and WIC (Women Infant Children) funding because it is driving the nation to bankruptcy.

I'm madder than heck and I ain't gonna take it no more.

      Little bit of background for you to thoughtify on.  I was born in the early 60s to a very poor family.  First house I ever remember living in had no form of running water at all.  Water was pulled up from a well and lets just say going to the bathroom in the middle of Winter was an adventure.  BRRR.  My father worked for the County Road Service most of his life making far less than what would be considered minimum wage today.  Food was scarce and not super plentiful.  If it wasn't for home grown veggies and animals, we'd prolly not eaten some days.  Only once during the 20 years I lived with him did my Father ever ask for help and most of you can't even begin to imagine how hard times were that year.  In other words, WE WERE POORER THAN FREAKING CHURCH MICE.
     So needless to say, I know what I say when I talk about being poor and the Poor.  Pretty much everyone I knew during that time was about as poor, if not poorer than we were.  I will say that 95% of them were hard working, industrious individuals who never wanted help from the Government and certainly never suckled from the Government teats.
     Fast forward a decade or so and Ronny Reagan invents whole cloth the "Welfare Cadillac Queen" who uses indiscriminate births to milk the government for untold riches.  This lie has been repeated so long and so often that it has become an ingrained part of Conservative mindsets.  They go on and on about RAMPANT WELFARE FRAUD (There isn't) and DRUG ADDICTS LIVING OFF WELFARE! (Well in their defense, there are some.  However it is amusing to note that in every single state where they have instituted mandatory drug testing to catch cheats, they have wound up paying a hell of  a lot more for the tests than they saved in caught abusers.  Also it is no surprise that ALL of the companies who were hired to make these tests are owned by Conservatives.  Don't believe me?   Look it up.)  So this whole mentality of Poor People are leeching off the rest of us is essentially a lie that has been repeated so long, the liars believe it is the truth.  Kind of like RAMPANT VOTER FRAUD!
     The vast majority of these people claiming that the poor serve no purpose and are just a drain on society have no clue what it means to be poor.  I almost laughed myself sick a while back when a few wealthy folks decided they would spend a week living off of what someone below the poverty line has to spend.  Needless to say, if they actually had to survive, they would starve to death.  Most haven't tried to understand and are perfectly comfortable judging others.
     So here is my thing (OMG PUT THAT AWAY!), if you haven't lived the life, suffered through the pain and hunger, shut up.  If you haven't spent a single day wondering where your family's next meal is coming from, Shut the Hell up.  If you haven't worn your sister's hand me down pants because your Mom can't afford to buy the fabric to make you new ones, Really Shut the Hell up.   You stop talking about the Poor and being Poor and I won't start making snide comments about the quality of 1872 Port Burgundy when used with Brie Cheese that has been aged under Donald Trump's hair piece for five years.

End of Rant

Just a funny for your day!

The Kochs Brothers, Donald Trump and John Boehner are flying from downtown LA to a club 40 miles away in their private jet to play golf. During the brief flight they start bragging about how much money they made last year.

"We busted up Unions right to organize effectively and without union protection we forced people to work tons or unpaid overtime every week.

Trump snorted and said, "I accused immigrants of bring rapists and murderers but the suckered still work for me and think I'm a nice guy."

Boehner shook his head and said "well my group gutted agencies like the FAA and EPA and all of you paid me millions to do it."

Minutes later, the plane crashes and everyone on board dies. An investigation shows that the pilot passed out from exhaustion after being forced to work 72 hours in a row and the auto pilot failed to engage because no one had bothered to inspect the safety equipment. Parachutes that might have saved their lives were still waiting to be packed because Immigrant workers were to annoyed with Trump to work.

The moral of this story is "if you are going to dick people over, you should probably walk."

This un's prolly gonna get me yelled at but what the heck or Waving a Red Flag.

Offensive?  Possibly

     For the most part, I have steered clear of the whole Confederate Battle Flag hoopla currently running amok all over the country.  I am a deep fried Son of the South born so deep in Lower Alabama you need excavation equipment to get to my house.  My family is so Southern that we bleed grits and some of us prolly have had damaged linen goods in our closets.  (Get it?  Cause hoods and robes have holes so the sheets had...oh never mind.)  Anyone who knows me knows where I stand and how I feel and if you don't know how I feel, you probably don't know me as well as you think.
   Now on this little ranting journey, I am going to take a slightly different tack than the "Heritage not hate" and "Its a sign of WHITE SUPREMACY!" groups.  I think that deceased equine has been beaten enough thank you.  I mean, trying to have a rational argument between these two groups is like trying to skinny dip in the Sahara and not nearly as refreshing.  Nah, me I am going to move on to what I personally think is the crux of this debate.  (and use smart sounding words like crux while I do it to make people think I am more intelligent than I actually am.  Is it working yet?)

Offensive?  You betcha!

     Okay so the argument boils down to two groups who are juxtaposed on exactly what the flag symbolizes.  For the most part there is no middle ground or even any cover to hide in as the insults and such are flung.  Both sides feel they are right and both sides think that the other side is so full of cow manure that they can be smelled from the moon.  (Okay okay I know that you can't smell anything in space, but look I used a big word like Juxtaposed in a sentence.  Yay me!)  Well here is my take on the whole durned argument.  It doesn't matter which side is right and which side is wrong.

Offensive, well maybe to anti-pagans.

      Lets say the SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN folks are right.  That the CBF is an innocent symbol of Southern Heritage and pride that has been stolen by evil, nasty hate groups like the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups.  That it never symbolized hatred or racism or slavery.  That people should fly it with pride every day and thank Gawd Allmighty that they are lucky enough to live in the Deep South where we deep fry everything.  Doesn't matter.
     Lets say that the ITS EVIL BURN IT BURN IT! groups are right.  That the flag symbolizes racism, racial divide, the inhuman practice of slavery AND the artery hardening evils of...well deep fried everything.  That the flag was sent by Satan himself to lead good Christians away from the straight and narrow to be seduced by Deep Fried Oreos or Deep Fried Bacon Wrapped Sausages.  (Wow suddenly I am hungry.)  Also...doesn't matter.

Offensive, probably.  It is Texas after all.

     Okay now that I have managed to honk off pretty much everyone in the country, let me try and explain my reasoning.  (Or at least distract you long enough for me to hide.)  Here is why it doesn't matter and it is prolly something that most of you haven't heard of.  It is a little thing called the 1st Amendment.   Dodging the issue of whether the flag should be flown on State/Federal Grounds for the time being cause that is a whole nother kettle of fish, it doesn't matter if you hate the flag.  It doesn't matter if you are so offended you poop bricks.  It doesn't matter if your Great Great (wait how many greats would be the Civil War) Grand Pappy rode into battle against Colored Troops on a chariot pulled by Negro slaves so you find the flag horribly offensive.  It just don't matter.
     Everyone and their brothers can freely fly the Battle Flag whenever and wherever they want.  That is their right under the laws of our nation.  Anyone else has the right to be offended.  That isn't exactly a law, but good enough.  Your being offended cannot and will not interfere with someone else exercising their own right.  It sucks, but that is the way the country works. Nor does your being offended give you the right to take their property and destroy it.
     What it boils down to it simple.  Be careful what you try to ban or destroy because other people might find your flag...symbol...clothing offensive and decide that you can't display it anymore.  I mean I personally find the flag of Arizona offensive because it is led by a bunch of morons, but you don't see me heading out there and demanding they take it down.  (Well mainly because that's a long way off and I'm poor.
     Offended or offending, it doesn't matter in the end.  Even if you disagree with the people that fly it and think the flag should never be flown again, you still have to respect their right to fly it.

End of Rant

Offensive?  Its like someone took the Chinese Flag and the Japanese flag and tried to drown it in a lake.  Sheesh!

Religious Persecution or "You keep using those words, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

     It is time, the Redneck said, to talk of many things.  Of cakes and caterers, florists and Queens (Sorry couldn't resist, DON'T HIT ME DON'T HIT ME!)  Lately we have been hearing a lot of noise coming from those who feel they have the religious right (Oddly enough the noise has been coming from the Religious Right about religious rights.  Go figure.)  They steadfastly hold that they have the right to forbid service to anyone that they disapprove of and by anyone of course, we are speaking of Homosexuals.  They think that this right is given to them by the 1st Amendment which as we all know is the "Right to wear plaid socks" Amendment.  (Wait, what did you say?  Freedom of speech and religion?  Not plaid socks?  Whups, my bad.  No wonder I flunked Civics.)

     Now before you panic and think, "Oh no, not another lecture about how downtrodden the Gays are and how evil the Bakers and Florists are," let me assure you that this little tirade has very little to do with equal rights, who marries who or who bakes what cake.  No, have no fear, this little rant is about one of my favorite things to talk about, HYPOCRISY!

     So ever since the first baker (Or was it a pizza place?  So many bigots so little time.) announced that they would not serve Same Sex couples and claimed the right to do so based off their deeply held religious beliefs, I have claimed that these so called Christians would go absolutely Sape Pit if the tables were turned and someone refused them based on their own deeply set beliefs.  People laughed at me (Well okay it may have been the plaid socks) for saying this and said, "No, Christians would never do that."

     Well after seeing several more rants today about the right to refuse service, I decided to drop everyone a line and say simply, "I TOLD YOU SO!  See not too long ago, the not so great state of Minnesota passed their version of the Religious Freedom Act which would basically let any business discriminate against...Well anyone.  (Sure it was mostly aimed at Same Sex Couples, but pretty much covered anyone they deemed bad.)  Immediately the uproar began about how they were being bigots and the law was actually...well against the law.  The Governor and other potted plants ignored the hoopla or poo pooed it as being silly.  With me so far?  Good, lets keep going!

I'm madder than heck and I ain't going to take it anymore!

     So as the law meandered its way through its young life, it inspired people.  Well, probably not the people that the writers of it had hoped to inspire, but it did inspire people.  Suddenly people, companies and entertainment groups essentially said, "Fudge this.  We don't want to do business someplace that shows such blatant bigotry" and they started pulling out.  Millions, perhaps even billions of dollars in potential revenue was on the cusp of being lost because of the RFA.  In other words, people were deciding they had the right to not do business with people that they found offensive.  Now you'd think all of those proud, pseudo Christians would be happy.  Here were other groups doing the exact thing they were.  Fair is fair right?  Right?

     Guess what people started yelling as soon as this started happening?  Yup, you guessed it.  RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION!  Seems that it was okay for them to discriminate against people they found offensive, but some sort of war on Christ for anyone else to do it to them.  They claimed that they were being attacked because of their religious beliefs because people were choosing not to do business with them.  Guess it boiled down to Freedom for them but not the same Freedom for others.  Kind of a "Don't do what I do.  Do as I say do" of thing.

     I hold firmly that no public business and especially not an elected or appointed official such as clerks, judges etc have the right to refuse to serve anyone, even if they don't like them.  However, if you do chose to be a bigot, then don't get to peeved off if the rules you use for yourself come back and bite you in the buns  (Bakery joke, get it?)

End of Rant

PS:  Before too many people get honked off at me, I am not speaking about Christians as a whole.  I am associated with a lot of good Christians who do not judge or condemn anyone because of their beliefs or actions.  I speak exclusively of all of the hypocrites out there who give mouth service to being Christians but lead lives that I am pretty Jesus would have gone WTF over.  So don't stress about it too much, odds are I wasn't talking about you.

I AM NOT AN ANIMAL! I AM A HUMAN BEING! (Which is actual worse in my opinion.)

    

Not asking to be raped.

   

 So I was reading an article about new Federal rules and regulations that are coming into play on college campuses designed to mitigate and hopefully reduce the number of rapes that occur on campuses every year.  Now  having read through the whole thing (That's 30 minutes of my life I will never get back), I think it is an excellent example of pure BS (Bureaucrat Shift) I have ever read and will probably do more harm than good, much like most of the legislation passed by our so called leaders.  I personally feel that a group that is dominantly Old, White and Male really shouldn't be involved in making rules governing rape, but that is just me.
     Before I go any further, let me state for the record that the epidemic of campus rapes not just in the US but all around the world is a horrible thing and more strict steps need to be taken on a local, State and Federal levels to help combat it and hopefully prevent it.  I just think this BS ruling isn't going to do the job,
     Now, having said all of that, I am going to confuse you.  See this rant isn't about the new regulations or even about the rapes themselves which are horrible.  No, this little rant is all about this All Male Attitude or AMA as I call it.  (Suck it American Medical Society, I stole your letters!)  Scrolling through the comments I saw literally hundreds of examples of this Dark Ages Attitude of “Well, she was asking for it so she deserved to be raped” or “Did you see the way she was acting, you can't blame the guy for what he did.”
     It is a shame that in the 21st century (Wait 2015?  Geez I am old.) that we still have this idea that somehow woman have this magical power to show various parts of their bodies and poof, men lose all control of their tiny little minds and revert back to Ogg the Cave Man.   I think it is high time we evolve away from Slut Shaming and start Monster Shaming. (No not the Energy Drinks, they are awesome.)

Still not asking for it.

     I am always seeing people talking about how “Well she got drunk and passed out at the party so it was her fault that a bunch of guys raped her and filmed it” or “She was dressed in such sexy clothes that she incited the men to rape her.”  The accusers continuously try to shift the blame from the perpetrators of these horrible acts to the victims and it makes me sick.
     No woman is ever asking for rape.  Rape is not fun.  Rape is not sexy.  Rape is a violent, degrading act that destroys the victims.  No matter how provocatively a woman dresses, she isn't asking to be raped.  No matter how much a woman drinks, she is not asking to be raped.  No matter what a woman may say, she is not asking to be raped.  In every single case of rape, the woman is not at fault.  The person who decides that he is going to assualt her and force her to have intercourse with him is the one at fault, no one else.
     And I personally don't understand why Men support the “She was asking for it” meme.  Basically what Slut Shamers are doing is saying, “Well Men have no self control and are nothing but rutting animals so the moment some boobs or butt is shown, they just can't help it.”  As a man, I personally find that extremely offensive and any real man should too.
     Are there (rare no matter what people want to think) times when the woman cries “RAPE” and was not actually assaulted?  Sure, that happens.  However, the vast majority of all rapes are not faked or lied about.  Matter of fact, there are more than likely a lot more cases of rape that never get reported precisely because of the way the victims are treated.
     See Rape is one of the few crimes where victims are accused of wrong doing.  When a store is robbed at gun point, no one says “Well the owner was asking for it, look at all the nice stuff he had out for everyone to look at.”  Because this Victorian attitude of “Women who dress or act a certain way are bad or evil,” people judge the victim not the criminal.
     I often wonder when I read the “women at fault” comments, how these cruel people would feel if their daughter was raped.  Would they shrug it off and judge her wrong because of the way she was dressed?  I hope not, but can't really be sure.

Yup you guessed it, still not asking for it.

End of Rant

(PS:  I used “woman” exclusively in this article but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that men are indeed raped too.  Unfortunately exact numbers are hard to come by because when it does occur, men aren't likely to report it because of (Yup, you guessed it) the stigma placed upon rape victims by society.)

Nuff said or Isn't my Niece amazing?

 I know I know, I usually use this space to go on and on and on about what is wrong with the world or at least what is wrong in my life, but she posted these wise words earlier today and I personally felt that it needed a wider audience.  Read on and be amazed.

Susan Baker

God provides everything we will ever need and more. It's our choice to distribute it evenly.
That includes the gifts and talents you have, the food and shelter you earn, the love and compassion you allow yourself to waste.
And don't ever belittle something that you've been gifted with.
It is a gift to listen to and help others. Just because it seems everyone else can do it does not mean it's not special.
The reason it's so common is because it's in such high demand.
We are selfish enough to keep it to ourselves because we have the mentality that someone else can give or someone else can do.
It's not God's fault that world hunger is so dominate, it's our fault that it even exist.
We should never blame God for lost people when we are the ones leading them astray or scratch that-not leading at all.

Stink or Swim or Exactly why did a full grown man body slam a child?

    

     Full contact pool party! 

Well unless you are living under a rock, you know about the big TEXAS POOL PARTY MASSACRE!  (Okay it wasn't a massacre.  I mean no one even got seriously hurt, but it sounded kin of cool, didn't it?)  Details are sketchy about events leading up to the event in question (But dear Goddess, it hasn't stopped people from speculating and speculating and speculating), but we do know someone threw a pool party for some reason and some kids crashed the party.  We know that the police were called and that a general ruckus ensued.  Now, besides the part that I am about to talk about, that is all we know for sure.
     During the police intervention, which was going fairly quietly and seemed well organized, one teenage girl in a bikini attempted to walk off.  She wasn't running, she wasn't breaking things or even threatening anyone.  A cop decided that it would be a good idea to grab this child who was probably half his body weight by the hair, drag her to the ground and put a knee in her back.  Two of her friends approached the cop, the cop then drew his sidearm and threatened them.  Two more police show up, place restraining hands on the cop with the gun and then go after the two males.
     Now, spin doctors like Breitbart.com and the ACLU have all tried to put their own words onto what happened.  White Conservative Spin Doctors are going on and on and on and on (ad naseum) about how the girl resisted the police officer and how the two "thugs" (Yes I've seen the word used to describe the males) attacked the cop.  The usual "the police are innocent and it is all the kids fault" line dances across the Interwebz.  The ACLU and Black Apologists are trying to make this into a racial thing with the White Cop terrorizing innocent Black kids.  They are all about "Cops are bad!"
     Me I agree with one Black Commentator (Black esplains it all) who said that the event isn't about race.  Now keep in mind that he used that line to justify what the cop did and blame the kid.  Gotta love Conservatives.  However he is correct.  This isn't about race.  It doesn't matter if the kid was Black or the Cop was White (Brown and Off White?).  All that matters is that a fully grown, supposedly highly trained Cop thought it would be an excellent idea to physically assault a 13 (Some say 14) old girl in a bikini.  This man who is supposed to be trained to handle extremely dangerous criminals in very hazardous conditions couldn't handle a teenager at a pool party without violence?
    (As a side question, if you were a guy and you saw someone, anyone assaulting a teenage girl, would you just stand by and let them even if they were cops or would you try to step in and help?  If you answer that you would just stand by, you are indeed part of what is wrong with this country today.  Just saying.)
     If this had happened even a decade ago, people would be outraged by the cop's actions.  Black and White people would be demanding this violent man be fired (He has since resigned.  HOORAY!) and would be angry at anyone trying to defend him.  The ever increasing escalation of police violence and militarization has slowly eroded our sense of what is right.  As cops respond more and more violently to situations that would not have been met with violence 10 or 20 years ago, people just seem to shrug and accept it.  We are becoming desensitized  (Cannot believe I spelled that word correctly the first time) and more accepting.  "Cops have dangerous jobs so they have to respond that way,"  "Cops shouldn't have to put themselves in danger," and so many more lines justifying it appear every time something happened.
     A small child playing with a toy gun is shot to death within a second or so of the police arrival.  A man is shot to death in a store carrying a BB gun which he had got at the store.  A man is shot to death by a guy playing cop while he is prone on the ground.  Instead of uproar, we hear silence or even worse justification for these acts.  The attitude seems to be, "Well he is cop so he is telling the truth and the other people are lying" or "Any criticism of bad cops is being critical of all cops so it can't be done." 
     So lets make this perfectly clear.  No matter what happened before the event in question, all that matters is a heavy set cop tackled a teenage girl, hurled her to the ground and put his knee in her back.   Nothing she did justified that level of brutality.  I have said this before and I will say it here.  If the kid had been a teenaged White girl and a cop of any color had done this to her no matter what her actions were, people like Faux.News and Breitbart.com would have been up in arms. 

End of Rant