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Friday, August 29, 2014

#Podcast Episode 17: Bless You Batman.



Forgive the terrible audio. We are still learning folks. Next one is already in the can. In this one we talk about muggings, the new intolerance for simple manners, a new Batman movie, reality TV shows and various other things. Meandering doesn't even begin to cover it.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Where the $#&! is the Podcast?

Well it's in the can, so to speak, but sick kids this weekend and work has kept me from getting it up online.  Hopefully in the next day or two.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Things That Give Piers Morgan Night Sweats

Since Illinois started granting concealed carry permits this year, the number of robberies that have led to arrests in Chicago has declined 20 percent from last year, according to police department statistics. Reports of burglary and motor vehicle theft are down 20 percent and 26 percent, respectively. In the first quarter, the city’s homicide rate was at a 56-year low.

“It isn't any coincidence crime rates started to go down when concealed carry was permitted. Just the idea that the criminals don’t know who’s armed and who isn't has a deterrence effect,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. “The police department hasn't changed a single tactic — they haven’t announced a shift in policy or of course — and yet you have these incredible numbers.”
More guns = less crime. Sorry Piers.

Hey Ferguson Rioters, Got Some Uncomfortable Facts For Ya



From TAKI:
But in South Salt Lake, UT on August 11—a mere two days after Brown was shot to death—a police officer described as “not white” shot and killed 20-year-old Dillon Taylor, whose pictures (Edit, removed links, see original story) reveal him to be at least predominantly Caucasian, if perchance not a purebred Nordic snow bunny. Taylor appears to be mostly white phenotypically (if not stylistically) and is far whiter-looking than George Zimmerman, whom the liberal press initially described as “white” for reasons that appear to have suited an agenda. And unlike the Brown shooting, there is currently video evidence of the Taylor killing available for public consumption, which should inflame white passions to the point where they’d riot—that is, if modern American whites were like blacks in the sense that they were prone to torching cities when one of their own gets killed.

Then again, it’s hard to get upset when you’re not even aware that something upsetting has happened. As I type this, a Google News search for the phrase “Michael Brown” alongside “Ferguson” yields a fulsome 13,700,000 results, whereas “Dillon Taylor” and “Salt Lake” only coughs up a puny 4,250 hits.
Of course not, because the first media lie is that blacks are incapable of racism. Therefore it was justified. But the other way around there will be hubbub, Bub. But wait! There's more:
It can’t be because police kill more blacks in America than whites, because that’s not true. Politifact claims that CDC stats from 1999-2011 show that “2,151 whites died by being shot by police compared to 1,130 blacks.” 
Were you aware of that statistic? I wasn't until I went searching for it.
I was not Taki. Tell me more.
You've likely heard of the 1998 truck-dragging death of a black man named James Byrd, Jr. by three white men in Texas. But you've probably never heard of the 2000 death of a six-year-old white boy named Jake Robel, who died after being dragged for four miles by a black carjacker. Google searches for the victims’ names reveal results as absurdly lopsided as the disparity between Michael Brown and Dillon Taylor’s relative media attention: James Byrd, Jr. yields 108,000 hits, while Jake Robel gets a mere 4,910.
 I've recently begun watching House of Cards on Netflix. A fascinating, deliciously awful show, in all the best ways. Kevin Spacey is in full on Swimming with Shark's mode. But the show though has a particularly disquieting quality to it that gets under my skin.

To explain the premise, Kevin Spacey and his wife are a particularly ruthless power couple in Washington. He is the majority whip in congress. He has set in place a series of events to get him to rise to power. I'm up to the end of season 1 and he's been given the vice-presidency. I'm assuming he won't stop there.

While the logistics and mechanics of Washington operations are interesting (I actually enjoy watching the sausage get made) what bothers me is how little the actual issues are given any thought. Francis (Spacey) is working through an education bill. We get to see how ruthlessly he gets this done but we are never privy to the why. Does he even believe in the reforms that are being pushed through? For that matter, the press, other congressman, lobbyists, hell, everyone seems to be in it to win power. When you see regular people in this show, they are background music. A mass of puppets waving signs, dutifully answering polls, and voting whichever way gets these guys more power. Actually accomplishing things to make things better is immaterial. The results matter only insofar as did the game players win or lose, not the consequences of victory or defeat. Simply time to move on to the next battle.

I dislike the idea that we are all just dancing to the puppet masters commands. The idea that even those of us who are engaged aren't really engaged. We don't really see behind the curtain. I found it telling that all the main players in the show are democrats but even so, within this show, everyone getting directly affected by the game player's decisions have very little influence beyond a mass of polling. Public relations is everything and we dutifully lap up whatever our side gives us. The message is manipulated unrelentingly.

My goal isn't better government programs, my goal is the dismantling of their power. I know House of Cards is only a show and that there are good people in Washington but apparatus swallows everyone at this point. Even the so-called "good" people on this show are shown to be dishonest opportunists when necessary. It's a little sickening.

So given the state of stories Taki listed above, is House of Cards really so far off? Maybe. Maybe not. The only way to fix this is to severely shrink it. Let's make all politics local again.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Obamacare Ruins Everything



When a heavy flash rainstorm interrupted a game at Wrigley Field Tuesday night in the 5th inning, the Cubs were up two on wildcard hopefuls, the San Francisco Giants. But as the rain fell, the grounds crew was unable to coax the giant tarp across the entire infield. Nowhere to be seen is the lickety-split efficiency characteristic of MLB groundskeepers, but a team struggling under the ever-increasing weight of an increasingly rain-soaked tarp lying awkwardly caddy wampus across the field. Fans can be heard chanting, “Pull! Pull! Pull!” but to not much avail.

Add the Affordable Care Act – or, specifically, the big-business Cubs’ response to it – to the causes behind Tuesday night’s tarp fiasco and rare successful protest by the San Francisco Giants.

The staffing issues that hamstrung the grounds crew Tuesday during a mad dash with the tarp under a sudden rainstorm were created in part by a wide-ranging reorganization last winter of game-day personnel, job descriptions and work limits designed to keep the seasonal workers – including much of the grounds crew – under 130 hours per month, according to numerous sources with direct knowledge.

That’s the full-time worker definition under “Obamacare,” which requires employer-provided healthcare benefits for “big businesses” such as a major league team.
You suck, Obama.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Oh Good. All the World's Problems Have Been Solved.

They must be if we can pull shit like this.
THIS PAGE has for many years urged the local football team to change its name. The term “Redskins,” we wrote in 1992, “is really pretty offensive.” The team owner then, Jack Kent Cooke, disagreed, and the owner now, Daniel M. Snyder, disagrees, too. But the matter seems clearer to us now than ever, and while we wait for the National Football League to catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will no longer use the slur ourselves. That’s the standard we apply to all offensive vocabulary, and the team name unquestionably offends not only many Native Americans but many other Americans, too.
Well thank God for that. Of course Obama's golf trip kinda underscores that there are no real problems anymore.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Student Punished for Saying "Bless You" After a Fellow Student Sneezed



So it was not out of character for Kendra to say “bless you” after a fellow classmate sneezed. But that common courtesy landed the 18-year-old in hot water.

Kendra said she was rebuked by her teacher at Dyer County High School and thrown out of class for violating the teacher’s ban on the words “bless you.”

“She said that we’re not going to have godly speaking in her class and that’s when I said we have a constitutional right,” Turner told Memphis television station WMC.

Another student sent the television station a photo taken inside the teacher’s classroom showing a list of banned words. Among the censored words are "dump," "stupid," "my bad," "hang out" and "bless you."
My understanding of the purpose of education is the opening of young minds. Censorship always seemed at odds with that goal. I can kind of understand dumping silly colloquialisms and slang. The English language gets mangled enough in text messages, no need to destroy in everyday conversations. But putting "bless you" in the slang category is a stretch. For that matter, so is "stupid" and "dump." "Hang out" is such an old slang that's become part of the language.

This teacher obviously has anti-religious bent to her teaching style, however the critical thinking portion of her brain went bye-bye. Even atheists will say "bless you" to a sneeze out of habit and the meaning of the words at this point is simply a point of courtesy, nothing more. When this teacher infers meaning that's, for all intents and purposes, not really there anymore, she shows her ignorance at the reality of the times. Many people like to simply be polite. Criminalizing politeness is insane.

Evan Sayet said that everything liberals do is always to bring down the good and elevate the bad. This teacher really believes she is fighting some sort of evil by getting rid of "bless you" after a sneeze. This is what as known as a useless human being flailing out for relevance. Instead, the student will end up more relevant than anything this teacher has ever done.

Ferguson Roundup Part II

Shortly before midnight local time, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that police fired tear gas at a group of protesters who had reportedly defied orders to leave the parking lot of a burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that has been near the center of demonstrations over the past eight day. St. Louis County Police Chief Sam Dotson told reporters that shots had been fired in the area and media members were told to go to a designated area about a quarter of a mile away.

Late Monday, reporters estimated that the number of protesters had dropped to around 100, far fewer than the number of media members who were covering them.
Which is that many more people in a race to be wrong: 
The rush to condemn Wilson’s conduct and the gallop to martyr Brown may have set land-speed records. The New Yorker, like numerous outlets, reported that Brown was walking to his grandmother’s home when confronted by Wilson. A video released from the by turns hapless and devious Ferguson Police Department alleges that he was actually walking from a thuggish and brazen shoplifting of a box of cigars from a convenience store.

That video is almost surely irrelevant to Wilson’s state of mind, since the police said he didn’t know about the shoplifting incident. It is, however, inconvenient from the martyrdom angle.

But don’t tell that to the legions of too-often-interchangeable activists, commentators, and reporters who have convinced themselves that we know exactly what happened, or at least all we need to know.

Al Sharpton, with decades of racial ambulance-chasing under his belt, insists that “America is on trial” in Ferguson.

Of course he does.
D-bags will be d-bags, Jonah. Ferguson is just another city in a long line of leftist controlled cities. This seems to be a pattern.
The more progressive the city, the worse a place it is to be poor and/or black. The most pronounced economic inequality in the United States is not in some Republican redoubt in Texas but in San Francisco, an extraordinarily expensive city in which half of all black households make do with less than $25,000 a year. Blacks in San Francisco are arrested on drug felonies at ten times their share of the general population. At 6 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of those arrested for homicides. Whether you believe that that is the result of a racially biased criminal-justice system or the result of higher crime incidence related to socioeconomic conditions within black communities (or some combination of those factors) what is undeniable is that results for black Americans are far worse in our most progressive, Democrat-dominated cities than they are elsewhere. The progressives have had the run of things for a generation in these cities, and the results are precisely what you see.
Well thank God Eric Holder is heading down there. Even NBC doesn't know what he can do to help things.
Cornell University Law Professor Jens David Ohlin believes Holder's role will be largely "socio-political" but could also help to spur some immediate policy changes in local law enforcement before an angry community erupts again.

"There's not a lot of time right now, [so] maybe he's going down there in an informal way to encourage the local officials to reform their practices, so he can see some results much quicker," Ohlin told NBC News. "Another possibility is he's hoping, and the president is hoping, that his mere presence there will have some calming effect."
Ah I see. Hope and change. That's worked so well for the last 6 years.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Cop was Injured In Michael Brown Confrontation?

The Gateway Pundit can now confirm from two local St. Louis sources that police Officer Darren Wilson suffered facial fractures during his confrontation with deceased 18 year-old Michael Brown. Officer Wilson clearly feared for his life during the incident that led to the shooting death of Brown. This was after Michael Brown and his accomplice Dorian Johnson robbed a local Ferguson convenience store.

Local St. Louis sources said Wilson suffered an “orbital blowout fracture to the eye socket.” This comes from a source within the District Attorney’s office and confirmed by the St. Louis County Police.
So if Michael Brown was shot in the back running away from the police, how did the cop get a fractured eye-socket?

Facts are trickling in and are conflicting. But assuming this is the case, will it matter? George Zimmerman had all kinds of injuries and those facts didn't matter either. The leftist black population will believe racism and murder no matter what.

Mostly Peaceful Protest Overnight in Ferguson -- Only 2 Shot



Via HotAir:
The removal of the curfew by Gov. Jay Nixon and the arrival of the National Guard didn't improve matters in Ferguson overnight. Police deployed teargas and arrested 31 people as protesters filled the streets, while two people were shot — although not by police. According to Captain Ron Johnson, who has been in command on the ground, police never fired a shot, even though they were under “heavy fire” during the night.
Still, the plot thickens. Was Brown shot in the back of the head? 
Big news if true as it seemingly contradicts a key takeaway from Michael Baden’s autopsy, that none of the shots that hit Brown came from the back. As noted in the last post, eyewitness accounts are mixed: Dorian Johnson claims Brown was hit from behind before turning and putting his hands up, an eyewitness who live-tweeted the shooting claims that two shots were fired at his back before Brown turned to face Darren Wilson and was then fired at repeatedly, and a third eyewitness captured on audio claims that Brown initially ran away from Wilson before coming back at him. There’s rough consistency there on Brown’s movements, first fleeing from Wilson and then facing him, but when the shots were fired, which shots hit him, and what Brown was doing when he turned back towards Wilson are uncertain. Now, a new detail: Watch below as one of the lawyers claims that a shot entered the very top of Brown’s head, traveled downward, and exited through his right eye socket. How does that happen to a man who’s 6’4″?
Good question. While I have been hard on the rioters, that doesn't mean I don't want the truth of what happened. Brown didn't do himself any favors but the truth is he WAS unarmed and he was shot many times. As much as I want the state to crack down on the rioters, I also want as intense an investigation to be conducted on this. Truth only, no matter if the cop was at fault or not.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Dealing With The Leftist Brainwashed Masses


I have been arguing with leftists for a loooong time. It is frustrating. Problem is I have been assuming logic and facts can win the day. But I realize now I'm dealing with religious lunatics, it's just their religion is government control.

How can you argue with someone who believes in "fight the power" through more government control? You can't. Taki Magazine has decided it ain't worth it anymore. Instead, it's time to defeat. We can persuade the middle. We can't persuade or play nice though with these people anymore. After all, look where it's got us.
People usually play their hand by attacking you with whatever line of attack would work best on them. If their consistent MO is to lob one ad hominem Molotov cocktail after another at you, that’s a tacit admission that they fear nothing more than public humiliation. By dictating the rules of the game, they unwittingly let you know precisely what it would take to beat them.

They are immune to logic as if they’ve been vaccinated against it—so go for their emotions. Mock them. Endlessly mock them. Publicly mock them. Take their cancerous hatred—which they’re openly projecting onto you—and smash them back in the face with it. They’re begging for it. They are only being relentless because you’ve been too nice. Despite how boldly they act, they are obviously horrified of their own shadows.

They’re going to call you a “hater” anyway, so you might as well blow off some steam at their expense. Sure, you may have a compulsion to drag them out into the streets and beat them toothless, but that would only validate their fantasies and get you arrested. No, do what they do—only harder. Humiliate them. Publicly. Point out that they are hate-filled, intolerant liars. Toss that bomb right back at them where it belongs.
They are racists. They have no issue with blacks murdering blacks but a white cop makes a mistake and riot time. They are jew haters. Arabs can kill Arabs, no worries. As soon as Israel defends itself? Riots. They hate success. They just hate. There is no rhyme or reason to it anymore. They need to be marginalized.

The left has caused nothing but destruction with everything they touch. Time to start mocking them wherever they are found.

Palate Cleanser: Guy Gives His Mom Her Dream Car *Post 300*

Not sure how long ago this is but sometimes you need to see pure joy.


Ferguson Roundup




So Michael Brown was fleeing? Eh.. not so much.
“He pulled up ahead of them. And then he got a call-in that there was a strong-arm robbery. And, they gave a description. And, he’s looking at them and they got something in their hands and it looks like it could be what, you know those cigars or whatever. So he goes in reverse back to them. Tries to get out of his car. They slam his door shut violently. I think he said Michael did. And, then he opened the car again. He tried to get out. He stands up.

And then Michael just bum-rushes him and shoves him back into his car. Punches him in the face and them Darren grabs for his gun. Michael grabbed for the gun. At one point he got the gun entirely turned against his hip. And he shoves it away. And the gun goes off.

Well, then Michael takes off and gets to be about 35 feet away. And, Darren’s first protocol is to pursue. So, he stands up and yells, “Freeze!” Michael and his friend turn around. And Michael taunts him… And then all the sudden he just started bumrushing him. He just started coming at him full speed. And, so he just started shooting. And, he just kept coming. And, so he really thinks he was on something.”
Jay Nixon is getting the National Guard.
Missouri’s governor said on Monday he would send the National Guard into the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson to restore calm after authorities forcibly dispersed a crowd protesting last week’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by police.

Gov. Jay Nixon signed an executive order deploying the U.S. state militia, saying demonstrators had thrown Molotov cocktails and shot at police as well as a civilian, a description of the night’s events diverging widely from some eyewitness accounts.

“Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk,” Nixon said in a statement on his website.
Well the media just knows this all bullshit. They got the facts And because those facts are irrefutable, social justice reigns, in the form of burning down Walgreens. The media, ever the calming influence, calls it a race war.
While the language about a “race war” is somewhat irresponsible and largely unfounded (and would be the considered the height of recklessness had they been written by a conservative), the notion that some of these protests were sparked by a sense of desperation at the start is valid and important. It is worth having a national discussion about the criminal justice system, which many on the right and left believe is in desperate need of reform. But it is not fair to suggest that the current momentum and the tempo of these protests are entirely due to social dissatisfaction.

On Sunday night, amid some of the worst rioting in Ferguson yet, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was forced to call in the National Guard. The officer in charge of the police response in Ferguson, Capt. Ron Johnson, determined that premeditated and coordinated attacks were being executed by protesters against police and on private businesses. Directionless expressions of social distress by a disenfranchised minority do not take the form of managed and focused assaults. That is the work of the criminals who have hijacked these protests for their own ends.

These columnists are correct to examine the origins of these protests and determine that they are founded in root causes far more universal than the shooting death of one teenager. They have, however, apparently evolved to a point now where they no longer resemble social unrest at all. In fact, they look much more like the majority of history’s reptilian mobs; common, recognizable, and fleeting, the majority of those violent outbursts did not herald some grand social transformation.
Maybe the media's pissed off and stoking the fires cause the police really don't have any more patience for their stupidity.
At one point, police appear to have become frustrated with the media on the scene. One officer, apparently bothered by the bright light from a camera covering the event live on the internet, screamed and allegedly threatened a man operating the camera – reported to be Mustafa Hussein of KARG – Argus Radio .

As the camera pans to the left and focuses on a section of a highway overpass, a loud voice (believed to be a police officer) is heard yelling directions, apparently angry at the use of a light. As one voice can be heard yelling something to the effect of, “Turn that sh** off!” another voice is heard saying something that sounded like an order to, “Get back!”

There is an unintelligible statement from another voice (possibly, “It’s off”), followed by the angry voice yelling, “Get the f**k out of here! You keep that light off or you’re getting shot with this!”

Sunday, August 17, 2014

#Podcast Carpool Conversations Episode 16: Israel, Ferguson, Robin Williams, and TMNT


Another week, another podcast! Mark and Jim rant about Ferguson but it's nothing compared to what this guy ranted:


We also discuss John Kerry's epic fail of Israel, Robin Williams death, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and much more!

Here's the link regarding the minimum wage charges a restaurant is now doing.

Cash For Clunkers: The Program that Keeps on Wasting



Back in November, I wrote this story on cash for clunkers. It appears it still, STILL is terrible and continuing to be a complete waste.
The program let people turn in their old cars for up to $4,500 in cash to be used toward the purchase of a more fuel-efficient alternative. Nearly 700,000 vehicles were traded in through the program. 
But the Texas A&M University study, for the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows the program may have actually created a drag on the economy. While the program’s fuel-efficiency restrictions led to the purchase of more fuel-efficient cars, Americans ended up buying cheaper cars than they otherwise would have, the study found.
"Strikingly, we find that Cash for Clunkers actually reduced overall spending on new vehicles," the researchers reported, noting households "tended to purchase less expensive and smaller vehicles such as the Toyota Corolla, which was the most popular new vehicle purchased under the program."
Ya can't force people to do what you want. You can't strong arm an economy. People have this pesky thing called freedom of choice and they will choose to do what's in their best interest. Cultivating that freedom instead of curtailing it will make the country better.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Blacks, Unhappy with Being Stereotyped as Violent, Burn Down St. Louis

Been busy for the last few days, dental work and regular work. Sorry for the hiatus.

So I want to remind you all that I have adopted children that are black. My fear is they grow up wrapping their entire identity and sense of self in their skin color, the most superficial of traits. But that's where blacks are right now. I've spoken at length about this before.

So let's look at what's happening right now. Michael Brown gets shot on Saturday. Was he just walking, minding his own business? Not so much.
St. Louis County Police Chief Joe Belmar says the investigation shows that Michael Brown, 18, was unarmed. Brown physically assaulted the officer, and during a struggle between the two, Brown reached for the officer's gun. One shot was fired in the car followed by other gunshots outside of the car.
Ok, tragic. But like the guy who runs out of his car on a speedway, Brown made a bad decision. Assaulting a police officer and reaching for his gun is never going to end well. But of course in this day and age, bad decisions are not the fault of the decider anymore.

The black populace as a large group is very upset at this. Obviously (in their mind) the police are racist. Brown wasn't doing anything wrong. Those darn police and white people in general always think blacks are violent thugs. To prove us wrong, they decide to burn down their city, loot every store they can find, and generally behave...well...like thugs.

Of course, the grievance industry and liberals in general will see nothing wrong with this. Of course, they have created this. They made an entire race dependent on the government. Everything that goes wrong in their lives is not their fault anymore. The government, pandering for votes and making sure they retain power, have taken all responsibility from the individual. When said government fails blacks, (or kills blacks,) blacks take no responsibility for their part in any of this. Why should they? They got their fall guys: whites. They got their parent: Government.

This continues to happen anyplace where people have given power over their lives to someone else. It's not a black/white thing but it is a convenient scapegoat to keep from actually attacking the real problem:


Well yes, but more basic than him. Blacks will continue to be spoiled brats because they have given over their lives to democrats. Not all blacks of course. But those blacks aren't the ones rioting.

Monday, August 11, 2014

#Podcast Carpool Conversations Episode 15: Pelosi, Religious Intolerance, Racist Gardening and Guardians of the Galaxy!



Mark discusses his impending dental work, we laugh at the latest Nancy Pelosanity, find out gardening is racist, discuss a show we found called “SixBeersIn,” and dedicate most of the final hour to Guardians of the Galaxy. Spoilers abound.

Here's the link to the SixBeersIn YouTube page. And another link here to theChadderBoxx. Thanks for the mention on your last shows guys!

Sad Day Robin Williams Passes Away

No details yet but damn.

I grew up with him, from Mork and Mindy to Good Morning Vietnam to Aladdin to Jumanji. His Live at the Met stand up is still one of the funniest stand ups ever made. What a shame. I will miss him. He was a unique personality and we'll probably never see the likes of him again. 

Carry on, Montesquieu.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Generation X is Sick of Your BS

I ran across this article and being a card carrying member of Gen X, I appreciated the candor. 
Generation X is tired.

It's a parent now, and there's always so damn much to do. Generation X wishes it had better health insurance and a deeper savings account. It wonders where its 30s went. It wonders if it still has time to catch up.

Right now, Generation X just wants a beer and to be left alone. It just wants to sit here quietly and think for a minute. Can you just do that, okay? It knows that you are so very special and so very numerous, but can you just leave it alone? Just for a little bit? Just long enough to sneak one last fucking cigarette? No?
In the last few years I find myself wanting to disconnect more and more. Not from the news of the day but from the damn noise. I feel like there's a low level buzz all around me and even on Sunday morning when the house is quiet, it still feels like it never gets truly quiet. I remember the absolute quiet on a Sunday morning growing up. My parents would be reading the paper and occasionally my dad would watch the Sunday news shows (when they didn't completely suck) but mostly it would be just quiet.

Maybe it's all the gadgets. Back then we had a tv and it shut the fuck off. Now everything goes into power save mode. My TV has a DirectTV box, an Xbox, a Blu-ray player, and a receiver hanging off of it, all of them with a little red "off light." We had a couple of TV's growing up, now every kid in the house has one with gadgets hanging off of them. My computer is usually running to serve movies, the phones are always nearby, the tablets just as close. The hum is always omnipresent.

We are the first generation to embrace the internet-gadgets but the last generation to remember a gadget-free existence. We learned patience and appreciate the wonder of what we have now because we grew up without much of it. The immediacy of the gadgets has turned the youth, who never learned the patience that comes with not having these gadgets, into insufferable jackholes.

My biggest gripe is not the lack of responsibility among the young. That's been going on since time began. My biggest gripe is the lack of appreciation. The lack of perspective. It wasn't that long ago most of the country was either growing and killing its own food, now we are so spoiled some of us have coined the term "1st world problems." It's not a phrase I commonly hear people under 30 use.

I'm not saying I want to go back to a tech free world. But I AM tired. Everyone and every gadget wants my attention constantly. There is always something. I'm sure my fellow 40 somethings are nodding their heads. Can we just be patient, take a step back and take a minute to look around? Does EVERYTHING have to be "right fucking now?"

And when you do get it right now, can you stop complaining about it?

Sunday, August 3, 2014

#Podcast Carpool Conversations Episode 14: Obamacare, Clinton, Liberal incompetency and SHARKNADO 2!


Mark illustrates how Joe Wilson was right all along. Then we find that Clinton admits to passing on killing Bin Laden hours before 9/11 and Mark gets hot. Jim is in too good a mood though and we end up talking about Sharknado 2: Electric Boogaloo. Oh, and I know I said there wouldn't be a podcast this week, I apologize for being for being a lying liar, but things worked out for Jim so we went for it! This is what happens with no shoprep.





Here's Evan Sayet's latest video:




And if you've never seen it, this is what got him near the top of my list of conservative heroes: