Quick Rants!

Well, its been almost a month. This week it is another edition of Don't Be These People. This week we have people who yell their food orders, slow drivers and a special kind of captain obvious. We are all flawed. We all do annoying things. I do annoying things, many annoying things, my Facebook page attests to that. We can all help each other by pointing behaviors we should all lose. Don't be these people and make the world a little bit better. 

So, sorry to disappoint but there is nothing in this rant about someone famous being caught with a hooker. Nor is there really a Hookergate scandal going on. There is however a Massachusetts State Representative, Michelle Dubois, who is irate that the State House honors Civil War General and hero Fighting Joe Hooker with a sign over the main entrance that says "General Hooker Entrance".  It was for years called "The Hooker Entrance" because there is statue of Hooker on his horse nearby. Due to reasons you might suspect some years back they replaced the original sign that said "Hooker Entrance" with "General Hooker Entrance". 

Dubois wants the sign taken down. She asked Facebook if they were "General Hookers" which apparently is a slang insult term I have never heard. She says the entrance insults women and is tone deaf and a ploy of the patriarchy. 

Garbage. We have to start considering context again as a country. There is no intent to debase women or insult them here. The war hero's last name was Hooker. He did more for his country than almost any of us will ever do. He is vilified for losing a battle when before and after that he was an excellent soldier was wounded in action. I won't sit here and say we should take down something honoring a war hero because someone with an agenda went looking for something offensive. The "General Hooker Entrance" can only be offensive if you ignore all context and are historically ignorant. 

The other problem with this nonsense is that the next time there is something that is truly tone death that needs renamed or taken down people will push back and refuse to accede because they are afraid if they do it will lead to nonsense like this. Pick your battles people, this one is a bad one. 

Sometimes Quick Rants! gives you thoughtful Scott. Sometimes it's just my attempt to be comedic, like Don't Be These People or The Legend of Willy O'Dallum.  Sometimes, it is angry Scott. This week is an angry Scott rant, maybe as angry as I have been in a while. Pharma Bro, Martin Shkreli, has been sentenced to seven years in jail. 

I am not angry that he got only seven years, although I do think it was too light a sentence. I am not angry that he was convicted for securities fraud instead of trying to murder people by jacking up the price of needed medication for profit. What really has me enraged is that he had the nerve to ask the court for mercy and claim he is a good person who has a lot to offer society. Pharma Bro is the scummiest of the scum.  

Gun owners, this is not a rant about guns being bad or repealing the second. It is not even about new gun laws. This is a rant about gun owners and Christians in Pennsylvania joining a cult because the cult leader was willing to bless their guns as "rods of iron" and how insane this is.  Apparently a major tenet of Christianity that I have always missed was killing your enemies and striking back with superior force. 

The media is also at fault here. Many media outlets refused to report that the "church" in question is a cult and the "Christians" in question were cultists. Why? Because cultists blessing guns does not serve the media agenda that all gun owners are crazy and Christians are all crazy right wing psychopaths hating everything that is different or does not follow their dogmatic view of the world. 

So what is this a rant about? I am not sure. It is a rant about something, media failures, people failures? I don't really know. I just hope it is entertaining. 

Next up - Pharma Bro says he has learned his lesson. Bullshit. 

Apparently the race to Mars is really just about men wanting to control and dominate women. I know, I thought it was about resources and exploration and adventure to. Nope. According to Marcie Bianco, its all about sexism. 

Marcie is insane. 

Yes, gender inequality is a thing. Some men still see women as objects to control and dominate. The work is not nearly done on that front. Going to Mars however, is not a stand in for sexism. It is also not the same as Columbus and Spain killing indigenous American's by the millions for gold and land, because there is no one alive on Mars. 

Expansion into the solar is 100% essential for the long term survival of humanity. It is a question of when, not if, we do it. The real question is can we learn from the errors of our past expansions and from the way we over used the resources of this planet when we expand. Essentially can the collection we of humanity learn from our collective mistakes. I think yes. 

Marcie's article can be found here. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/patriarchal-race-colonize-mars-just-another-example-male-entitlement-ncna849681

So in what is becoming a bad habit I missed last week's upload. I am going to try to get back onto a schedule of weekly uploads going forward. This week it is time to discuss confirmation bias and the inflexible rigidity of the modern American mind. How best to do this? By talking about the Sociology professor who attempted to fail a student because the professor was adamant that Australia is not a country. 

I don't mind giving feedback as a customer, when a business has earned that right by providing such a great experience that I feel others need to know about it. I don't mind giving feedback when a business is honestly trying to make its product better and is seeking customer engagement to fulfill that goal. I do, absolutely mind, when a company is threatening its employees if I don't complete the survey. Stop doing that business. I am your customer, don't put that on me. 

Tide Pods! They are what's for dinner!  

So yeah, kids are eating laundry detergent pods in an effort to impress other kids and the media is freaking out. Based on the reaction in recent days you would think every kid across America has filmed themselves eating a Tide Pod - well, they haven't, only some kids. The media, in an attempt to get mouse clicks, um, head off an epidemic of stomach pumping at local hospitals, have gone out of their way educate the nations youth on why they should never eat laundry detergent - ensuring more than ever now will, um, I mean won't even consider eating a Tide Pod. 

Kids will be kids. This too, shall pass. 

Apparently most Americans are routinely risking their lives. How you ask? By pumping their own gas. Apparently, in Oregon, the idea of having to pump your own gas is terrifying. A new law was recently passed in the Beaver State letting gas stations in counties with less than 40,000 residents offer self service gas pumps, and Oregonians are crapping their collective pants. Fears range from transient attacks, to gas fires, to the inability wear skirts to work to smelling like gas.  

Seriously, this is a thing, some people in Oregon do not believe they are capable of filing up their own gas tank. I give you, Quick Rants! 58, You Want Me To What?

If I had the audience I someday hope to have, this one would generate the nasty emails and comments. It is Christmas time, which means someone you know is probably very upset about the war on Christmas. Yes, the war on Christmas as evidenced by City Hall not being able to put out a Nativity Scene, or schools no longer having Christmas Break or Christmas Parties or decorations, or not telling the story of the Birth of Jesus in classrooms, or even Star Bucks infamous Red Cup from a couple years ago. 

This year, the brave patriots fighting to save Christmas have a new champion as the President is saying Merry Christmas to everyone, including those who don't celebrate that particular holiday, because hey, that's the American way, adapt to our culture or get out. 

Spolier - there is no war on Christmas, those who truly believe there is are insane.