tuesday rant - 2nd edition

Ok. It's actually Wednesday... but since this was a holiday weekend I get a gimme. I was having too much fun this weekend trying to see if a jet ski could actually fly to think about writing a post.

Since I missed a day, I had an extra day for crap to build up. So this week’s rant is in two parts.

Before I get my rant on, I should make myself clear. I really don't care who you vote for. Much like religion and state sponsored torture; politics is a subject I avoid when at all possible.

Either way it goes in November, I'll still share a beer with you after it's all over. We can sit and bitch about whomever gets elected, it'll be great!

Today's Rant #1:
We had a saying in the Marines; Respect the rank, even if you don't respect the person. You don't have to agree with them, you don't have to like them, you don't have to hang out with them until the wee hours of the morning and make sure they don't piss on themselves in the front yard - but you do have to respect the rank.

The lack of respect for our president is amazing. I'm not going to argue that he didn't help matters much, but again - he is the president. I have and I will fight for anyone's right to free speech. Disagree with his politics - no problem. Think he couldn't give a speech at a 1st grade award ceremony - no problem. Think the buck stops with him for the bullshit in Iraq because there wasn't a post invasion plan - agreed.

But that doesn't mean you can disrespect the office.

Tuesday night he spoke live to the RNC. NBC tape delayed his speech by about a minute. Now since it was live he was reacting to the audience but in the tape delay they didn't include the sound of the audience. In his speech he paused when the audience was clapping but with the NBC feed it simply made him look like a blithering idiot pausing and smiling for no reason.

I think we can agree that he doesn't need help in this area.

I checked the other networks and they were including the sound of the audience. I'd like to think this was simply a technical error on the part of NBC, but my gut says it's just another example of disrespect for the office and that makes me want to blow the dust off my scope.

Today's Rant #2:
Finally someone has said it. Every time a series of things happen; be it weather, earthquakes, heat, cold, mudslides, forest fires, or an increase in the number of road kills I hear people saying it's global warming and "it's never been this bad". Guess what, if you look at something long enough you start seeing things that aren't there. It has been this bad, it's just that people weren't stacked up like cordwood creating a target-rich environment and CNN wasn't around to report on it for hours on end.

Do you find it odd that once something happens all you hear about for the next few weeks are reports related to the original event? Coincidence? Bad things come in 3's? No, the reason you hear about it and think it's suddenly a trend and then the reports fade into the next big thing is due to the media in their mad attempt to report something... anything and our innate desire to crave it.

Remember a month or so ago when all we talked about was the price of gas? You couldn't escape it. People were going nuts trading in their SUV's for anything that got more than 200 mpg. Where is that now? Has the energy crisis suddenly vanished? Nope, it's still there and has been there for at least 30 years and will remain until we find a way to get my ass to work by fueling up with my damn water hose. The only thing that happened was the gas prices came down (which still screws with my head) and we needed something else to fuel our craving for "It's never been this bad before".