Monday, January 10, 2005

Things that tick me off

In no particular order,

Tobacco taxes. I don't smoke cigarettes, and I don't like them. Even less to I like the nanny-state bullshit about them. If you actually think they're terrible, and you care more about other people's health than about money, then push for a ban. Except for a few zealots, it'll never happen, because they really, really want that tax money. Which leads to some real idiocy. Oklahoma recently passed a big tax hike on tobacco, to both 'discourage' smoking and with promises to use the money to fund health-care programs. So if they succeed in the first, and people stop smoking, the funding for the programs dries up. Whatever do you think they'll do then? Also, bars and restaurants are private property; if the owner wants to allow smoking, that should be that. Don't like it? Don't go there.

"Political Correctness". I am not politically correct, and devoutly hope never to become so. If I do, I hope some friend will put me out of my misery. From speech codes to 'hate crime' laws to general squelching of speech, PC attitudes are a plague on society. Besides the general free-speech problems with it, I hate the condescension of it. "You don't have the intellegence/self-respect/balls to deal with speech that might hurt your feelings, or that you don't like people saying, so we'll ban any words that make you feel bad, you poor, pitiful thing". News flash: free speech has to include people you don't like and ideas you don't agree with, or it becomes nothing but a buzz phrase you use to make yourself feel better about how 'open-minded' you are.

Idiot ideas about firearms. Anytime someone starts off with some variation of 'I hate guns', you know you're in for an earfull of crap. They are tools, made of steel and wood and plastics. They don't have the capacity for good or evil, any more than a hammer or spear or saw. So stop projecting your fears onto them. And stop thinking someone is bad in some way just because they own firearms. Like this:
"When I began my research into gun enthusiasm and gun ownership in the mid-1990s, I learned that a number of my academic colleagues held very similar views. One colleague said (trying to sound positive) that I was commiting a real social service by researching “such disgusting people.” Another informed me that because neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan all obviously loved their guns, until I recognized that the phenomenon of gun enthusiasm was intrinsically racist, I was an apologist for racist violence. A third colleague told me frequently that she found gun owners utterly repellant, and she was surprised (and more than a little suspicious) that I didn’t find them repellant as well. She insisted that until I recognized and acknowledged the ugliness and inherent pathology of gun enthusiasm, my research was disrepectful to victims of gun violence."
Ah, the tolerance of academia. Put a cork in it, dipshit.

'Evil' SUVs. It's a motor vehicle, that's all. Idiocy committed by the driver is the responsibility of the driver, not the vehicle. Nobody says you have to like it, and you have no right to demand that someone else not be allowed to own one because of your dislike. I drive a truck because a: I like it and b: it's damn handy for hauling stuff. Like topsoil, gravel, forge, etc. I also think it's a safer vehicle than a motorized rollerskate. Yeah, most people who have a H2 buy it as a 'prestige' thing. So what? So do most people who buy luxury and sports cars.

Women who bitch about being looked at. Usually these women are dressed in some revealing manner, but seem to think that men should be blind when around them. Ladies, don't wear a skirt hemmed just below your crotch and a top open down to your waist, or a top that ends just below your boobs and pants cut so low they're about to fall of, and then have a fit because someone dared to look at you. You can't have it both ways. Note: this does not include guys who says stupid things or grab your butt; bitch at them all you want.

Idiots, in government or otherwise, who think the solution for any problem is to pass another law. 'Nuff said.

People who bitch and whine about 'banned books week' here in the U.S., but pay no attention- don't even want to know about- Fidel Castro throwing librarians in prison for checking out books not approved by the government.

People who ooh and ahh over a piece of fine handwork, and then act like you spit on them when they find out the price is higher than some mass-produced crap from China or Pakistan.

More later.

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