Political Correctness Gone Amok

alfonso-aguilar

Alfonso Aguilar learning that he is insensitive to the plight of slaves and single moms for using the term “hard worker”.

Look at this face. It is the stunned expression of a man who has just been confronted with pure, unadulterated, full-blown, in-your-face stupidity, and he doesn’t know how to react. Neither would I.

Just when you thought social justice warriors couldn’t get any crazier, Melissa Harris-Perry, progressive talking head, took the movement to a whole new level of being batshit, fucking unreasonable. During a discussion on her MSNBC show, one of her guests, Alfonso Aguilar, a former official in the Bush 2 administration made a grievous and, apparently racist, faux pas when he referred to Paul Ryan as a “hard worker”. Ms Harris-Perry, being acutely perceptive of hidden micro-aggressions from the white, cis-male patriarchy, quickly interrupted to point out that:

Alfonso, I feel you, but I just want to pause on one thing because I don’t disagree with you that I actually think Mr. Ryan is a great choice for this role, but I want us to be super careful when we use the language “hard worker”, because I actually keep an image of folks working in cotton fields on my office wall, because it is a reminder about what hard work looks like. So, I feel you that he’s a hard worker. I do, but in the context of relative privilege, and I just want to point out that when you talk about work-life balance and being a hard worker, the moms who don’t have health care who are working (…) but, we don’t call them hard workers. We call them failures. We call them people who are sucking off the system.

Really? Really??? REALLY?!?

Saying that somebody is a “hard worker” (this presumably is only true for straight, white males) is really racist code speak, an underhanded diss at slaves and working single moms? For fuck’s sake! This shit is getting out of hand.

A Priori Good Housekeeping: A Rule

It is a self-evident truth (meaning I can’t believe I fucking have to point this out) that:

If an object has no monetary value, and if that object has no sentimental value, and if that object has no utility value — if all three of these conditions are met; if you already own this object, you should throw it out. If you do not own such an object, but see one for sale, or for free at the side of the road, you should not purchase it, take it, accept it, or otherwise assume possession of it.

Also, it follows (not by strict logical rules, but by spousal fiat which is just as valid) that if a person encounters such an object, or any accumulation of such objects, in his1 residence, belonging to his spouse, and his spouse does not respond to requests to get rid of it, he has the right to dispose of it in any manner he sees fit. The offended spouse (the victim) may apply domestic discipline at his discretion to restore marital tranquility and balance to the Universe.

Summary of thoughts: Don’t keep shit just because.

Don't let this be your house. (Picture source: The Internet.)

Don’t let this be your house. (Picture source: The Internet.)


  1. Pronouns in this paragraph are not chosen at random.

Student Loan Reduction

I just received a robo-call informing me that my student loan had been flagged for a payment reduction plan. That’s wonderful.

And fucked up.

The last remnant of my student loan (issued by the the Norwegian state’s Student Loan Bank (yes, there is such a thing, Socialism, doncha know!)) from my brush with academia back in the late 80s/early 90s was paid off in full more than a decade ago.

I smell a fish, and it’s been laying out in the sun for too long.

Stident loan scam dead fish.

If it looks like a dead fish, smells like a dead fish, and walks like a dead fish, it’s probably a student loan reduction scam. Photo credit: Check the watermark. I found it in a ditch by the wayside on the Internet.

Muscle Milk Contains No Milk, But…

… includes milk protein.

HUH?

This is wrong on so many levels. Self-contradictory, much?

There's something wrong with this picture. See if you can spot it.

There’s something wrong with this picture. See if you can spot it.

Fucking Photoshop

I had no idea. I haven’t upgraded since CS2. This is bullshit of the utmost degree. Shame on Adobe. GIMP here I come! Corporations suck. The bigger they get, the worse they suck. It’s a fact of life. They may start out with good intentions and a good product (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Adobe, vBulletin and a slew more), but greed eventually takes over, they all want to be Master of the fucking Universe, sink their venomous teeth into you and suck every last dollar out of you. If you must you can still buy the last few remaining copies of PS CS6 on eBay for a small fortune, but hurry; once they’re gone, they’re gone. Or you can give them a gigantic middle finger and a big “FUCK YOU!”. I know, it’s hard because it’s a good product and you’re hooked. And now they have to go and ruin a good thing for everybody, loyal customers who have been with them for 10-15 years+. Fucking fuckers.

Hi-Res YouTube Video Blues

Watching YouTube videos in the new, higher resolutions (>1080, all the way up to 4K) crashes my computer. That’s right; bona fide, old school blue screen of death. Which means I’ll have to disable my browser plugin that automatically plays all videos at their highest available resolution. Sucks to be me, I know, with all the extra clicks I’ll have to go through.

Here’s the video that alerted me to the problem. See if it happens to you, too.

Charter Communications Sucks!

Our local Internet/cable provider, Charter Communications (which is the only option in our area due to a corrupt system – if you want to  watch TV and have Internet you get it from Charter or not at all), have been running a lot of TV commercials lately touting how their service is better than anyone else’s (Verizon, Comcast, Dish Network and what have you) even though they have no competition in our area, effectively a monopoly. Well, THEY’RE LYING. I’d rate their service one step above smoke signals. I’m sitting here waiting for a service rep for the umpteenth time to come to my house, pretend to look things over, shrug his shoulders and say everything looks good. Two minutes after he leaves my Internet will die and God only knows when it will be back.

The Soda Bandit Strikes Again

The emperor of NYC, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, aka The Soda Bandit and the Trans Fat Gangsta, has proclaimed that no-one under the age of twenty-one can buy cigarettes in his city. This is fucking America. By the time you’re twenty-one you may have served in the military in combat zones for four years, but you can’t buy a pack of smokes in New Yorkistan? Gimme a fucking break! I sincerely wish a massive heart attack on this controlling billionaire who thinks his money entitles him to reshape the world to his perverted liking.

Social Media Madness

Google home (search page) serves up an image of birthday cakes, candles and party paraphernalia for me today with the alt. text “Happy Birthday [my acct. name]“ instead of their regular logo.  I feel violated in a privacy kind of way, not to mention that the picture and message are auto-generated and not heartfelt at all. Larry and Sergei don’t even know that I exist.This web 2.0 shit is getting out of hand. I’m hoping for someone to invent web 3.0 that puts the user back in the driver’s seat and runs Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Schmumblr, Bumblr and what have you out of fucking business.

Google Evil Overlords Of The Internet

Google 1998: “Do no evil.”

Google 2013: “We know what you did last night.”

keep calman hate google

Take back the Internet. Keep calm and hate Google! What used to be a good search engine with additional useful products has become a monster that aims to annex the entire Internet and force itself into every aspect of your life. They are the civilian equivalent of the NSA, and quite possibly co-conspiring with them to spy on you. Fight fire with fire.

Google the search engine, Gmail, YouTube are all good products, but don’t force us to link up everything with your horrible Google+. I would like to send an email without a list of strangers in the sidebar that Google wants to add to my “circles”. I want to be able to comment on a YouTube video without it being added to my Google+ (which I frankly don’t even want in the first place). Don’t make changes every other day and force me to spend valuable time looking for responses, notifications and settings.

Larry and Sergei, you must by now have enough personal wealth to not need to own all there is to own. You came up with a brilliant idea that benefited millions of people. But the times are changing and you’re not so fresh anymore and new and better shit is popping up all over the place. Go back to what you do best and let the user decide how they want to use Google products. Go back to “do no evil” or people will start to leave you. In droves. You can only move the cheese around so many times before the mouse gets tired of it and seeks out a different pantry ®.