Here, in no particular order, is a list of more “concepts which piss me off” (TM).
- Being called a racist by someone who is a racist: I’ll often spend all day in the presence of my dog and wood splitter only to have some professional victim on the news declare that on that very day I and everyone like me was a racist, bigoted, moron. How? If you know nothing about me except my race you pretty much don’t know shit. I refuse to believe that I’m racist when chowderheads like Al Sharpton walk the earth. He can’t eat his breakfast without foaming at the mouth and he’s part of the “discussion” that will lead to a “solution” and eventually “healing” Really?
- More racism: Can we please dispense with the concept that if you’re a “minority” you’re instantly issued a halo and if you’re not you come with horns and a pitchfork. Also can we drop the fallacy that if you’re white your granddaddy automatically owned a plantation in 1830 which somehow paid for your Subaru in 2013?
- Minority as a word of art: As demographics change, folks skate ever further into the stupid zone using “minority” in a way that makes no sense. Minority is a math term. It means less than the majority and nothing more. If I’m a white guy and I’m in a room with 37 women and 3 guys then in that room I’m a minority. If I’m in a room in France then Americans are the minority. If they’re all black except me, then I’m still in the minority. If they hate me just because of my appearance then they’re racist. If they hate me because of my personality then maybe they’re fully justified or maybe they’re dickheads… math can’t answer everything.
- High count prosecutions: Ever hear following; “The defendant was charged with 250 counts of being evil, 10 counts of super extra bad murder, and 4 counts of littering. He was cleared on 263 counts but was found guilt on one count of littering. He was fined $500 and kicked in the nuts by the bailiff.” Really? There’s a word for someone who’s had 50 charges leveled at them and beat 49; that word is innocent. (Or at least “guilty with insufficient evidence to convict”, which in American law is supposed to equal “innocent”.) Judges who let this shit fly are a pox on our world. Juries that eat this shit need to shovel it back down the prosecution’s throat.
- Diversity as a surrogate for quality: I’m all for human diversity in the overall scheme of life but I wish they’d give it a rest when I’m just trying to get a job done. When I bring my truck to the garage I don’t really care if you’ve got a full range of the human experience on staff. Neither me nor my transmission care if the overdrive was tuned by a Lebanese transgendered Buddhist, an inner city black kid, or an illiterate redneck asshole. I only care whether it’ll crap out on a mountain pass.
- Diversity as a code for uniformity: Diversity is supposed to mean the whole range of human experiences. So why is it that a I can walk into a “diversity laden” coffee shop and be the only guy there that has ever been hunting, paid taxes, or fixed a radiator. What are the odds? Conversely, if ten people all dress like Elvis Costello is it no longer ironic and simply sad?
- Tax deduction math: If I can take the mortgage interest deduction and get ten grand back from the government on April 15th that’s fine with me. You know what’s also fine with me? Not paying the ten grand in the first place. There is a significant population that’s so brainwashed they think they’re getting an awesome deal with the deduction and I’m getting hosed not paying in the first place. Not surprisingly all real estate agents have this illogic baked into their DNA.
- State radio: The only radio station I am guaranteed to receive everywhere is National Public Radio. I know what they’ll say on any subject before they open their shrill mouths to spout surprisingly uniform platitudes. I understand the function of Pravda in Soviet Russia. I understand the function of American state radio in Bulgaria during the cold war. Why is NPR still running in the homeland during 2013 and why is a tax supported entity perpetually dry humping one of two parties?
- Tax deduction manipulation: It’s groovy cool to spend money on solar panels and college tuition. It’s equally awesome to spend money on hookers and beer. Social manipulation through the tax code is a bad idea.
- Moral Relativism: Some things are simply wrong. It’s common to over think in an attempt to justify doing what you want to do anyway. I don’t buy it. Deep inside we all know better.
- TSA: Does any sane person think the Transportation Security Administration is a good thing? Knowing the TSA will be burning tax dollars doing perv scans, stealing baby bottles, and X-raying shoes every time I fly for the rest of my life totally depresses me.
- The political ends that justify the means: If the guy in your political party wants to aggregate power but only to do something ultra-awesome that will save orphan kittens and give flags to the poor. Don’t do it. Sooner or later the douchebags on the other side will get their hands on the weapon you just made. Neither party has a clean conscience on this one. Quit it!
- Government budget / tax cuts: If a budget this year is X and next year it’s even one dollar more, then the budget was not cut. If tax collections this year are Y and the next year it’s even one dollar more, then taxes did not go down. Every single word spoken otherwise should be met with a knee to the groin.
It is beginning to really bugger the crap out of me, how folks (media, or otherwise) can go on ad nauseum about how an individual’s actions with respect to events/circumstances are inconsistent or unbelievable. That person is bending an unrelated circumstance to their own agenda.
For example, the number of folks who have judged that Notre Dame student that got “Catfished”. Dude, the media is complicit in “catfishing” itself in that event; think about it.
Another one, Lance Armstrong, et al. I do not care about him or cycling. He played the game better than the rest, “Sure, the game is rigged…”, anyone? And guess what the real question is? What is it about doping that helped him fight cancer? Nothing? Good, you can prove it? Making one person the villain in order to divert attention from the issue…is the defense of the coward.
USDoD has been sending its very finest into battle under the most strenuous cicumstances doped/PED’d/amp’d up since at least the second world war.
“There is a significant population that’s so brainwashed they think they’re getting an awesome deal with the deduction and I’m getting hosed not paying in the first place. ”
You are still getting shafted. There will be a group of bureaucrats collecting the money in the first place and recording it. You then have to apply to a second set of bureaucrats to have the money returned.
The bureaucrats will be paid, have a pension funded, sit in an office with a computer (gotta have a computer. It makes things “right” and official) plus servers, plus administration (Human Resources, payroll) etc. and so forth.
So shuffling the cash out of your wallet, holding it (while you are not earning interest on it) and returning it to you isn’t a zero cost option. At all.
Phil B
Tax deductions. There’s a deal, no? pay in a dollar, get twenty cents back. Phooey.
One of mine: morality lectures and regulations from people with no knowledge about the topic. Do the research* first, dammit! THEN we can talk about potential risk and ect. Otherwise one looks like a hysterical, ignorant ass.
* And that leads to another point: people who don’t know how to properly research issues. Press releases from pretty much any special interest group tends to be spun, mixed, emphasized, toned down, or otherwise worded in such a way as to benefit that group’s interest. Not exactly the best place to look.
How about being told by some sprouts masticating health fanatic that I “…don’t really like the taste of cigars, you just think you do.”
?!WHAT!?
See, it was this sort of thing that turned me into a cigar smoker in the first place, just to piss off idiots like that one.