Though I'm not usually a fan of folksy sayings, "If all you carry is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" is one of my favorites. I've had to unfollow friends because of this to avoid getting into petty internet arguments. It's like they've got their one pet issue and try to awkwardly contort and cram every news story into a mold that's the shape of whatever their "thing" is. It's incredibly myopic, ego/ethnocentric and it's frustrating to read from people that I otherwise have a great deal of respect for.

I don't know how to tell you this, but the problems in the world exist due to countless different reasons. Not everything is about you. Some of it is, but not all of it.
I imagine a few people are going to read this and think it's specifically about them and their "issue". Stop that...that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Expand your worldview and never stop expanding it.

I was in such a foul mood going to work this morning that I was passing judgement on farm animals that I drove by. There's a plot of land with horses on it on that pass every morning and I saw one of the horses eating grass. Out loud to nobody in particular I say "You lazy piece of shit I saw you standing there munching on that same patch of grass when I was driving home yesterday, do something with your life". Hopefully the rest of my Friday goes better.

I'm done, I'm just done. This whole Obama/Katrina thing just again demonstrates the very fundamental level at which people don't care about their own ignorance. It doesn't even matter... you point out why someone's being ignorant and it makes no difference because it's resting on top of an even deeper foundation of ignorance. You point out why THAT'S wrong and they point out something even deeper, then eventually they circle back around to the first thing again. I'm out. Be stupid, then celebrate it each time you reach new depths. Wreck the fucking planet. Plunge the country into economic and political darkness. Hate who you're gonna fucking hate, I can't stop you anyway. I'm autistc, an atheist, a "liberal" in a very loose definition of that term, hate me... nothing I say will affect that. Hate my friends who are gay, black, muslim, transgender, whatever... their pleas for equality and tolerance only seem to make you hate them more anyway. I'm a white male, is that last statement somewhat coming from a place of privlage? Yes, it is... but I don't know what the fuck to do about it that makes one bit of fucking difference. Seriously... do nothing, and this shit seems to get worse... do something and it seems to get worse even faster....

To the people laughing at McDonald's employees wanting better wages because they think those ordering kiosks are going to replace them all: There's usually only 2 people at the counter taking orders...where exactly do you think the food comes from? Fucking magic? Who mops the floors? Who cleans up the bathrooms after your inconsiderate ass made a mess? Who restocks the napkins, cups, and condiments? Who wipes down the tables so you have a clean place to sit down and eat? Who unloads the supply trucks? Who washes the dishes that get used to prep all the food? Who cleans the deep fryers and grills and ovens and other equipment? Who empties the trash cans outside and cleans up the shit in the parking lot that you couldn't even be bothered to PUT in those trash cans. Who counts the money and manages the finances? And this is just off the top of my head. I suspect the people running their mouths the most are the ones that wouldn't last a week working hard in a food service job for a slave wage.

I'm not arguing that a fast food worker is a "skilled" or specialized trade... only that they do work hard and computers can't completely replace their jobs (and that they deserve respect and not to be laughed at due to the presence of ordering kiosks). At the same time lots of other non-skilled work has historically paid a lot more. It comes down to the cost of low prices and corporate structure/philosophy. I try to eat at places and shop at places that I know pay their people a bit better than the other guys. It costs a little bit more, but I can afford it. If all you care about is getting your lunch the absolutely cheapest it can be...quality and worker well-being be damned...then I guess we don't have anything to talk about. It's a free country and you can spend your money how you want.

Yeah, the political and social left can get a little nutso sometimes, and there's always going to be people on the fringe. However, what winds up being the mainstream "left" views tend to be pretty self-correcting when it gets too nutso. To be honest though I try to avoid using "liberal" or "left" labels myself. This is a contrast from the mainstream right that in the last few decades has just seemed to veer so much into Toontown that what's considered "conservative" these days makes absolutely no sense when applying any reasonable definition of the word. They've wound up defining it as someone who looks like Trump, "The Mooch", or Steve Bannon.

I hope that all this stuff that dudes in their 20's and 30's scream about on the internet regarding it being "PC sjw pandering" to cast someone in a role who isn't a white male stays on the internet like pee in a swimming pool. That way, in another 30 years when society is a bit more enlightened, their mixed-ethnicity granddaughters can google them, or look them up on wayback and see what misogynistic/racist assholes they are.

I like how Trump's way of trying to convince me that there are too many unnecessary regulatory barriers to infrastructure improvement is by quickly flipping through the big binders of said regulations, making a disgusted face, and tossing them on the floor. That's it? That's your argument? :::flip flip flip::: "pfffft" :::SLAM!::: Was I supposed to have seen what was in them while you were flipping? You sorta went too fast. Yes Donald, we already know that YOU don't like to read anything that's more than 240 characters long at a time. The rest of us, however... may find reason why those regulations were put there.

Liberals and College Kids Aren't Tolerant of Intolerance. Good.

Good for the college students running people like that Milo jackass out of town in spite of those on the right and left criticising them for it. Good for those students walking out on Pence. I'm in favor of allowing reasonable voices to be heard. I'm not in favor of "tolerating" hateful individuals who are specifically preaching hate and intolerance and trying to disguise it as a legit political position, as if they were simply debating the merits of trickle-down economics or something.

Most importantly I believe in those people's rights to try to spread their hateful messages. But I also believe in everyone else's right to shut them down whenever and wherever possible. Freedom of speech isn't open mic night down at the Laff-Shack. You're not guaranteed a mic, or a podium, or an audience, and no, it ISN'T always beneficial to give those people those things (people with alt-right/neo nazi leanings), any more than it would be beneficial to give an audience to someone preaching the merits of sex with children (Milo Yiannopoulos fitting into both categories, now that I think about it).

I'm obligated to "tolerate" things in which people have no control over (the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, ethnic heritage...etc), or things in which they do as free adults that don't have any effect on others (the music they listen to, the religion they practice to the extent they keep it to themselves and their religious peers)... Things I'm not obligated to tolerate: YOUR EXACT OPPOSITION TO THE TOLERANCE OF EVERYTHING I JUST LISTED.

When people take this position..it's like they don't think anyone notices the little jedi mind trick they're trying to pull. Do you think I'm confused? Do you think I honestly believe that my position is somehow contradictory or hypocritical? It isn't. Nope, I'm not having it.

NEA and the Budget

My sister posted the stuff in the image file originally, but given the posts weren't public I won't link to anyone.

 

I think it may be important to remember that Trump isn't destroying art (though who knows, maybe he thinks he is)... he's just cutting government funding for it. While I don't like it, and I think spending the money on that sort of thing is a long-term benefit, it's hard to make the case for it being "essential" spending (but why must all federal spending be "essential"? an argument for another day). But yes, I'm much more concerned about the effect of the budget on the elderly and the poor while we pointlessly shift more money into the military, continue to let the ultra-wealthy enjoy pointless tax-breaks, and pointlessly freak out over the debt and deficit over some misplaced "think of the children!" logic.

Shane (1953)

Prompted by Logan, I finally made a point to see Shane. Great movie, one of my new favorite westerns. It's right up there with Unforgiven. However, there's one painfully bad part when the character Marion (Jean Arthur) is complaining to Shane who's showing her son how to shoot, "Guns aren't going to be my boy's life!" and then... in the most painful, condescending, mansplaining way that has ever been filmed in the history of Hollywood, he replies: "A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." Apparently this is a famous, well-liked line.

It's the last part that got me..."Remember that". It wasn't, 'here's my perspective on the matter' or 'allow me to offer a counter-argument' ... it was 'here's the facts dumbass, don't make me repeat myself'

Anyway. Minor gripe, I wouldn't expect most westerns to have any sort of anti-gun message. Then of course in Logan (very minor spoiler ahead), there's Laura's final words of that film, which she heard from Shane's final words "Joey, there's no living with... with a killing. There's no going back from one. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother, and tell her... tell her everything's all right. And there aren't any more guns in the valley."

If you liked Logan, see Shane. I'm not saying the stories exactly parallel each other, but it does offer some context, and it's just a really good effin' movie.

My 2016 movie ratings out of 4 stars (seen for the first time in 2016 regardless of release date).

Spectre ***
The Big Short ****
Deadpool ***
Bridge of Spies (***½)
Birdman (****)
Trumbo (****)
Out of Sight (****)
The Impossible (***)
Enemy (***)
Spotlight (***)
The End of the Tour (****)
Out of the Past (***)
Witness (***)
Man of Tai Chi (***)
Batman v Superman (**½)
Take Shelter (****)
Midnight Special (****)
The Intern (***)
The Revenant (****)
Captain America: Civil War (***½)
99 Homes (****)
The Shallows (***)
The Legend of Tarzan (***½)
Star Trek Beyond (****)
Zootopia (***)
Ratchet and Clank (***)
The Nice Guys (***½)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (****)
Room (****)
Everybody’s Fine (**)
A Hologram for the King (***)
The Man From Reno (***½)
Hell or High Water (****)
Chef (****)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (****)
Hitting the Apex (****)
X-Men Apocalypse (***½)
Lucy (***)
Kubo and the Two Strings (****)
Mr. Holmes (***)
Arrival (****)
Doctor Strange (***)
Manchester by the Sea (****)
The Secret Life of Pets (**)

To most of these I say "uuhh...yep". This entire list can be boiled down to "because you refused to tolerate my stupidity, called me out on my bigotry, and refused to get aboard the dumbfuck train yourself."

I'm getting tired of this "You didn't listen to us common white folks" crap. No, we listened. We've been listening to it all our lives. We just think you're morally bankrupt, ignorance-exhaulting bigots who's ideas are in no way worthy of being taken seriously. You don't get "political equality". That isn't a thing.

Polls

What if I told you that polls can be misleading, and sometimes flatly wrong (as we've seen recently)..but that doesn't mean we should just dismiss polls and pollsters simply because by it's very nature it's an imperfect science and just believe whatever the hell it is that it's convenient to believe. The truth is that scientific polls are *usually* right. Where they're wrong is the exception and not the rule.

This sort of thinking is no better than climate deniers pointing to 1 piece of data that scientists got wrong out of the thousands and thousands of things they've been right about and claiming that ALL of the data must be wrong if it ALL of it isn't right.

This is no better than Trump dismissing evidence of Russian election meddling because it was provided by "the same CIA that said Iraq had WMDs". A side note to that...lets not forget Iraq should have never even been in the conversation, nevermind if anyone thought they had WMDs..but I digress.

What I am saying is this is lazy, dissonant thinking.Look at the whole picture, not just the hot-button issue on the news right now. The biggest thing that some don't get is that ***The REASON THAT IT'S SUCH BIG NEWS WHEN STUFF LIKE THIS IS WRONG IS THAT IT'S USUALLY CORRECT.***

The Flint Movie

In response to a theme I see popping up on social media memes lately about the Flint water mess...

It may surprise you to learn that the people that need to unfuck it and the people at Lifetime are not in fact one in the same. Our useless Michigan legistlature and our shithead Governor has to do that. Someone else on this thread called it "awareness porn"...I mean, okay, I guess you can take that sanctimonious attitude about it if you want but lets take stock here of who has done what... Lifetime is airing a movie about it that will reach an audience and raise awareness (even if only a little) that wouldn't otherwise care about this type of thing... then we've got people sharing memes with their friends on facebook that are largely preaching to the choir (Jelessia, I'm not picking on you specifically). 

Yes, the criticism about it having a white lead may be fair, it might not be... everyone in Flint is affected, not just the black population even if they have a slight majority. While representation is important, at this very moment the water thing and exposing the corrupt criminals in our government behind it is way more important and I'm glad a spotlight is being put on it even if it's just a crappy lifetime movie. But I admit, I'm a white dude who doesn't personally feel the sting of represtation problems, so I suppose taking that portion of my opinion with a grain of salt is fair.

Cleary these memes that say "X is happening but Flint still doesn't have clean water" annoy for much the same reason a lot of social/political memes do: They misrepresent and oversimplify the problem. 'A' usually has little or nothing to do with 'B' and it's just sort of this vague lashing out at the abstract concept of society while completely ignoring the specifics of the situation.

Few people outside of those in Flint are more pissed off about this shit than I am, and it goes back to to the day at the height of the great recession that Snyder decided he was going to strip elected leaders of their power and appoint an "emergency financial manager" to certain cities (including Flint and Detroit). Let 'em make their stupid, sappy lifetime movie. It's more than what most people can do/are doing.