Selective Rudeness

     So when we arrived at the airport in DC this morning, we took the shuttle bus from where the plane landed to the main terminal.  (As a note, you know it is a big place when you actually have to get on a bus and drive 5 minutes to another section.)  Here we go to the rental car place to snag a car for our many drivings and house huntings.
     When we get there, we wind up third in line behind a White Gentleman, and a Black Family.  Now the man behind the counter is very nice and friendly to the White Gentleman.  The Black Family get to the counter and there are various problems with them getting a car.  (The exact details aren't important, just issues over a credit card/debit card and who is paying for what.)  Through all of this, the Black Gentleman speaking for his family is very polite and patient even when the clerk essentially tells him "Sorry, but you can't do business here" and sends him away.  On the other hand, the clerk was more than a little bit rude to the guy and really treated him and his family like dirt.
     Now once my wife and I get to the counter (For those who don't know, my Beloved is Black), the clerk has shifted attitudes once again.  He wasn't quite rude to us, but he was much less polite and much more brusque with us.  He used the absolute minimum interaction with us and I definitely felt rushed.
     Now maybe this guy was just nearing the end of his shift and he was ready to go home.  Maybe there was some nuance of his interaction with the second group that I missed that really peeved him off.  It just seems suspicious to me that this guy was really nice to the White Gentleman, very rude to the Black Family and semi-rude to the Mixed Race Couple.
     Of course, even taking that into account, his rude attitude to customers is simply inexcusable.  The guy's job is to interact in a positive way with the public around him and especially potential customers.  At the time his rudeness began, he was not yet aware of the issues revolving around the second family and even if he had been aware, he could still have been more polite.
     I know it sounds odd coming from the guy who has made it his job to be an Ass, but I feel if it is your job to give service to the public in any shape form or fashion then you need to do politely.  Sure, Mr. Smith might not be able to be a customer today, but he might be one tomorrow.  Also if you piss Mrs.  Jones off, she might tell all of her friends, "Lord of Mercy, don't do business with those folks.  They are mean!!"
     In the end, it is in your own best interest to be nice to all of the customers in your establishment.  It just falls under the heading of YNN (You never know)

End of rant

Safari so Goodie or DC Day 1

By God, those natives look like ants!

   

      After many hundreds of miles of exhausting travel over harsh, strangely fluffy white terrain, I have arrived at our destination with my faithful guide and helper, Paula.  After negotiating transportation with the native bearers, we pushed on into the interior of this dark realm.  My heart was pounding in my chest over the idea of the horrors we might see.

Good lord, it is huge!

    

      As I piloted our steed through the many twisted byways of this God benighted land, I glimpsed one of the local landmarks that so often enthrall explorers.  The massive spear shaped structure juts up from the soil and I was again impressed how such amazing creations can be made by such simple people.  My trusty guide, Paula informs me that is dedicated some ancient war chief who led his tribe in a great battle that was apparently fought over tea.  It must have been some damned good tea to spark such a great conflict.

Rough food, but edible.  Friendly native servers.

     

     We broke our fast at one of the local native’s eatery and then ventured further into the land in such of lodging.  Now we rest ourselves for the great coming adventures that loom on tomorrow’s horizon.  I find myself excited and filled with trepidation at the same time  So many others have attempted to explore these God Blighted Lands and either not returned or returned changed beyond recognition.  I only pray to God that my courage and will are up the task.

     I find some small comfort in the fact that I seem, as yet, unchanged by the previously observed effects of this strange, cursed land.  My intelligence seems undiminished and what little common sense that I can lay claim to remains unchanged.  I feel no urge to make grandiose speeches promising impossible rewards nor do I feel the urge to lie about things that even the most simple of men know to be true.

     The Two Dominant Tribes of this region show the horrible results of living here for too long.  Both the Damnocrats and Reboobicans seem unable to grasp the simplest of truths or accept responsibility for their destructive actions.  The Three Sub-tribes (Cantservatives, Liarberals and TeaBeggars) further show just how far mankind can be driven into the darkness of this place.  Hopefully, by observing these creatures in their native habitats in the days to come, I can gain insight into what causes these illnesses.

     So I sit here at our camp watching as Paula my faithful guide goes about setting up our rough, but serviceable living space.  I wonder if courage or utter madness has driven me to pursue this course.  In the end, will I emerge victorious or might some future madman one day find this journal along with our bleached bones.   Only tomorrow will tell.

In the Belly of the Beasts or A Not So Innocent in DC.

     A special nod to the great Samuel Clemens also known as Mark Twain for the inspiration for the second half of the blog title today.  If you haven't read his  amazing work, "The Innocents Abroad" then you should because it is a funny and extremely insightful look into the world of his time and the people in it.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innocents_Abroad is the information for it and if you have an E-Book you can download the book here for free or read it online http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176.  I highly recommend it.  Of course I highly recommend all of his works.
     Starting tomorrow, I will be spending a week in our Nation's Capital, Washington, DC.  That's right!  The Home of Hypocrisy, The Stadium of Stupidity and the Capital of Corruption!  Now I wish I could say I am going there on some important mission, but in reality my wife and I are just going there to look for a possible house to live in after we move there in a few months.  However, this little trip has inspired me.
     So starting tomorrow night-ish, I will be posting at least one blog per day directly from DC.  No real clue what the subjects will be yet, but I am counting on the News and the Location to inspire me to new heights of Assdom.  I mean, I will be literally in the heart of the insanity that is behind 90% of the Shift that drives me nuts every day, so something is bound to happen.  If nothing else, I'll do like Twain did and do some sort of travelogue type thing.
     So hold onto your collective hats and headparts peeples!  Things may get a little bumpy, but I am sure that if we all hang on tight we will be okay.  Keep reading and for Gosh Sake, if you like the columns, please post comments in the Comment Section. 

"Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce," How hard is that?

How can we mess up your order?

     So I worked most of the day on the house, trying to get it ready to be put on the Market.  I spent hours cleaning and painting.  I would like to add that I did all of this on my 50th Birthday too.  So, after it was all done for the day, I decided that I wanted a burger and fries for dinner.  I hopped into the car, drove down the street to Wendy's and ordered a #7 which is a Triple Cheeseburger Combo.  (I also ordered  Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and fries for my wife, but that is beside the point.)  I told the person living inside the magic sign that all I wanted on the Burger was Ketchup, Mustard and Cheese.  I pulled through the drive thru, picked up my food and left.

     (Now as an aside here, let me state that I should have been less trusting and checked my order before I left, but I was tired, sore and hungry so I didn't.  So I do bear some responsibility for what happened.)

Huh, not exactly what I ordered.

     So I get back home and spend a few minutes feeding the Animules before settling down to enjoy my burger and fries.  Imagine my annoyance when I unwrap my Triple Cheeseburger, ketchup and mustard only and find a Triple Cheeseburger with EVERYTHING except (Fittingly enough) Ketchup and Mustard.  Yup, it had pickles, tomato, lettuce, onions and mayo, but not a drop of Ketchup.
     Folks, I know I placed the right order AND I know the guy who lives in the sign understood me because I could see my order on the little LCD order screen.  So how the fudge did they completely screw it up?  I understand the pay is crappy.  I get that you probably don't want to be there, but come on!  How can they possibly manage to give me the exact opposite of what I ordered?
     Ordinarily, part of the whole "Ass" creed, I would have trotted my angry butt back down to Wendy's showed them the offending burger and made them fix it.  However, today I was just to damned tired.  I cleaned off the offending greenery and ate my burger. 
     As I have pointed out so many times in the past, this ain't rocket science People.  You look at your order screen, make the order listed there and give it to the customer.  Simple as a hot apple pie deep fried in animal grease.  Do your job, do it right and move on. 

End of Rant

    

Out of Sight, Out of their Freaking Minds!

 

     Okay since my camera skills suck and the camera on my phone is a little ornery, let me explain that the above picture is of a stop sign that is part of a 4 way stop at the local Home Depot.  Someone apparently wasn't paying attention and rammed it hard enough to fold it almost in half.  Bit of a fender bender, but that isn't what this little rant is about.

     I had to make a total of three trips to the Home Despot today.  (Don't ask why, it is not a cheery story)  Each Time I came to this intersection both coming and going from the store, I saw the same thing occur again and again.  The cars approaching the three intact signs all stopped and waited for their turn to pass through the intersection.  Without fail (Well except for when I passed through it.), every car that I saw approach the damaged but still visible sign just sailed right through the intersection without even pausing.  

     (I can also add here that the second time I paused at the damaged sign, the lady behind me actually blew her horn to try to make me move.)

     Now folks, even in the fuzzy picture above, it is pretty obvious that there is a stop sign there.  A wounded, badly bent one, but a STOP sign all the same.  It even has three identical siblings set at equal distances on all sides.  Anyone with any common sense would know that this was still a 4-way stop even with the damaged sign.  (Course one of the things my Daddy always told me was "Bobby, Common Sense Ain't.")

     All of those drivers knew they were in the wrong.  They knew they were breaking the laws of the road.  They would have been peeved as Hell if someone from the other sides (After pausing like they were supposed to.) had pulled out and hit them because they decided not to stop.  And given Human Nature, the Non-Stopping Person would have probably blamed the person that actually obeyed the law.

     So I am forced to ask, "Are they stupid, unobservant or uncaring?"  (Okay so I wasn't technically forced, but I asked anyway)  I will leave it to my readers to decide.

End of rant

The only thing constant is Change and Bigotry

     So a couple of Facebook posts last night sparked this rant and one today really fueled it up.  All three dealt with Same Sex Marriages and the consequences of it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/health/american-academy-of-pediatrics-backs-gay-marriage.html

http://news.yahoo.com/5-scientific-reasons-gay-parents-awesome-111132528.html

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/watch-12-year-old-steals-the-show-at-rhode-island-same-sex-marriage-debate/politics/2013/03/22/62985

     Those are the three articles that got me thinking.  Despite what you may be thinking, this isn't my usual Same Sex/LGBT "Get over it!" Speeches where I go on and on about how it is all going to happen whether you like it or not type rant.  I am currently letting that Dead Equine recover from being beaten with a stick.  Nope, this one is a little more Historical (Hysterical?) in nature.

     I find it absolutely freaking hilarious that all of these "Gays shouldn't be allowed to marry/Gays Marriage is a threat to traditional marriage" types are blind to a couple of facts.  They go on and on with Diarrhea of the Mouth screaming about how Traditional Marriage is a sacred pact between one man and one woman and that is how it has ALWAYS been.  They froth and moan about how Same Sex Families harm the child and only a "traditional family" can properly raise a kid.  Sometimes it almost makes me want to just put the poor Schmucks down to cure their misery.

     While they scream and preach, they forget history.  Fer instance, "traditional marriage" ain't always been what they imagine it to be.  I mean, all you got to do is look at the Bible (You know, the book that so many people love to use to condemn SS/LGBT relationships.  How many wives did old Solomon have?  How many concubines did a lot of the Biblical A-listers have?  

     But wait, many say that doesn't count because it is ancient history.  They speak of more modern definitions as put forth by such sources as the Catholic Church etc.  Course then they tend to ignore how much "traditional marriage has changed" even in that relatively short time.  Twern't that long ago that Black People weren't allowed to marry at all.  Even more recently (and I do mean recently in some states) Inter-Racial Marriage was illegal because it went against traditional marriage.  Traditional Marriage is a concept that is constantly evolving not the rock solid bulwark that so many like to claim.

     And of course, the big uproar running about now is Same Sex Families.  People claim that SS couples cannot properly raise a child.  They say that only a "proper" marriage between a man and a woman consisting of the child's biological parents can properly raise a child.  Barring that ideal, the kid should at least have a Male and Female type family.  They claim (without much evidence) that children raised by SS families are somehow at a disadvantage and even that it is a form of child abuse.

     Moving back to history, you could find every single Anti-SS family arguments out there and compare them to the exact same arguments that were used against Inter-Racial couples trying to adopt or Couples trying to adopt a child of another race not that long ago.  Hell you can even see the same arguments used for Single Parents trying to adopt an even shorter time ago.  It is the same pablum being regurgitated again and again.  The sad part is, the people upchucking the crap don't seem to realize it.  I keep wanting to hit them with a history book.

     I have very little personal experience with SS families.  My Bud, JM proudly tells everyone that she has two Moms.  She even calls them "Mom1 and Mom2."  She also has a Father that she adores.  She has been raised by her Moms since she was 7 and you would be hard pressed to find a better adjusted, intelligent young woman.  She is funny, creative and loving with very little of the Angst that I so often see in kids her age.  I realize that a sampling of one is not indicative, but if JM is an example of proper parenting from a SS family, then we need more of that.

     The world is constantly changing around us.  Beliefs and Attitudes shift like cosmic tides, but the vast majority of people seem oblivious to it.  They cling to their narrow viewpoint and believe that things have always been that way.  They shout their rhetoric from the rooftops in complete ignorance that it has all been said before.  It would almost be amusing if it wasn't just so damned sad.

End of rant

A Rant by any other name would sound...exactly the same.

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-muslim-brotherhood-says-un-proposal-women-destroy-180243943.html

     Now this little rant is short but sweet.  It is just an excellent example of just how alike people are especially when it comes to things they are afraid of.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying Christians are women haters.  I am not even suggesting that Christians and the Muslim Brotherhood have much of anything in common.  I am just suggesting that when it comes to attempts to rattle their world, they sure do sound alike.

     Fer example, "The document includes articles that contradict established principles of Islam, undermine Islamic ethics and destroy the family, the basic building block of society, according to the Egyptian Constitution," the movement wrote. "This declaration, if ratified, would lead to complete disintegration of society, and would certainly be the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries, eliminating the moral specificity that helps preserve cohesion of Islamic societies."

     Sound familiar?  It should because all you have to do is substitute a few words here and there and you have pretty much the text book Christian Fear Rant about...well pretty much anything they are afeared of.  Don't believe me?  Watch!

     "The document includes articles that contradict established principles of Christianity, undermine Christian ethics and destroy the family, the basic building block of society, according to the American Constitution," the movement wrote. "This declaration, if ratified, would lead to complete disintegration of society, and would certainly be the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Christian countries, eliminating the moral specificity that helps preserve cohesion of Christian societies."

     See now tell me that doesn't sound like any Christian Rant about Same Sex Marriage. Any Document put forth by Obama etc.  Just shows that paranoid people sound pretty much exactly the same every where in the world.  I really suppose I should find that thought comforting, but really I just find it kind of depressing.

End of rant