Exactly the point

NDT guns

Data doesn’t lie.

That’s the point.

It doesn’t minimize tragedy, it puts it into perspective. Perspective minimizes fear and hysteria.

The hysterical reaction to the above tweet proves the exact point Neil deGrasse Tyson was making. If you make a spectacle of something (which the media and illogical hysteria do), then you will of course have a perspective that is disproportionate to the event.

Should we want mass shootings to end? Of course. But are they really as big of a concern as we are led to believe? No.

You are more likely to die of a medical mistake than from a mass shooting. Do we see any hysteria around this fact? No. What if the media published or ran a body count update every evening on the news just like they did during the Vietnam War? Would people more afraid to go to their doctor or the hospital? Probably.

You are more likely to die in an automobile collision than from a mass shooting. We don’t see a call to ban cars (or really bad drivers) do we? No. Because it isn’t highlighted in the news like shootings are. A body count each night would do that though.

Is that what it takes to make the news these days? A body count? It would appear so.

Americans like to grandstand about highly publicized events, but don’t really think about their own irrational fears. Do bad things happen each and every day? Yes. Can you live in fear of cars, doctors, guns, crowds, mosquitoes, or whatever? I suppose you could, but does it really do you any good? No.

Let’s not be hysterical and have a knee-jerk reaction every time something bad and tragic happens in the country. Because it does happen, EVERY DAY. You just don’t hear about it because it wasn’t highlighted by the media. That’s exactly the point of the tweet.

Get it right

black and white book browse dictionary

Photo by Snapwire on Pexels.com

Anyone else annoyed by words that don’t get pronounced correctly? What’s worse, is the word is pronounced so incorrectly that it is actually a different word, with a completely different meaning.

I listen to a lot of audio books because I spend so much time in the car commuting to and from work. As such, you get to hear a lot of different people read books and become accustomed to their cadence and inflection. But there are some, no matter what, you just can’t get used to because they can’t pronounce certain words correctly. Each time it happens, I find myself yelling at the narrator to GET IT CORRECT and pronouncing it the correct way for him. Crazy, I know, but sheesh already! Why didn’t someone correct him when he was recording it?

The word being mispronounced? Cavalry.

It’s being pronounced as calvary.

Yeah, totally different thing.

GET IT CORRECT already!!


 

What words get mispronounced or misused that annoys they hell out of you?

Not so woke

abstract alphabet arrangement away

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I don’t care and neither should you.

If it takes two or three (or more) “Greats” in your family tree to find someone in your ancestry who owned slaves in the US, it’s not news. Plain and simple. It’s just sensationalizing a current topic of emotion, one of which has no bearing on today.

Yesterday, a politician who is running for president admitted that both he and his wife’s ancestors owned slaves. This after, apparently, he was going to be “outted” by a media outlet for this piece of history. He’s not the only person to do this since this is now the hobby of bored media researchers who need something to make a sensational headline.

There is no news here.

Is this person responsible for what his ancestors did? No. Is he responsible for anything that happened before him, no matter how far back? No. So why are we even remotely interested? Your past doesn’t define you, or me. My past doesn’t define me, or you. So quit living like it does and quit blaming others like it does.

I don’t know if my past includes slave owners. I don’t know, since I have German heritage, if my past involves the persecution of Jews. Quite frankly, I don’t care if it does.

I am not that person and I am certainly not doing those things today.

We should be judging people based on their actions today. We should be judging how they treat people today.

We should be learning from our past, but not living in it. We can’t make the past better. We can’t change it. We shouldn’t make reparations for it. We shouldn’t scrub it clean just because it is offensive.

If you care about such things from the past, enough to get yourself all lathered up about it, then you are the problem because you are living in the past. It shouldn’t be an excuse for lack of trying to improve yourself. That’s the only person you can be responsible.

So, you ain’t woke. You are just focused on the wrong person.

Just the facts

photo of head bust print artwork

Photo by meo on Pexels.com

I am sure you are aware, but just in case you aren’t…we no longer live in a society that is based on facts. A large portion of our society, our neighbors, or family members just live on feelings.

It is nearly impossible to have a discussion with anyone these days and actually use facts as a counter argument to their hysteria because they just don’t have any reason left.

**Side note: Yes, I am quite aware that Trump has a poor grasp of facts, as well, so you don’t need to point that out. **

As an example, last night I was having a discussion with someone about the whole Home Depot, former founder, and donations/support of President Trump. The individual was jumping on the bandwagon of boycotting Home Depot (never mind that the guy no longer has anything at all to do with the retailer any longer and hasn’t for more than 10 years) because of it and they made the blanket statement about “old, rich white guys ruining the country.”

See my response below:

Here’s the weird thing about picking on rich, old white guys….
Old, rich white guys fought to make the colonies, then states, free and the place you call home. Similarly, old rich white guys fought to keep the colonies from being free and the place you now call home. 
Old, rich white guys fought to give equality to slaves during the Civil War. It was also old, rich white guys that fought to keep slaves and break apart the country you now call home. 
It’s old, rich people (because it just isn’t white or male anymore) fight to keep Planned Parenthood from killing babies. And, it’s old, rich people who fight to keep letting Planned Parenthood kill babies. 
It’s old rich people who fight to let you keep more of your money so you can do with it as you please because, hey, it’s a free country and you have freedom of thought & opinion. It’s old rich people fighting to force you to give up more of your money so they can spend it as they please, tell you what to say and think, and take away the freedoms old white guys gave you in the past. 
Which group of old rich people does right? That’s subjective. 
What is not subjective is that rich people put their money where they believe they can get the best deal and make more money. If the wind blows this way, they invest there. If it blows that way, they invest there. Heck, some invest in both regardless of which way the wind blows because they know eventually the wind will change either way. 
I imagine you are not really all that different from the rest of us, you put your money where you can get the best deal and can get the most out of it. Saying you’ll stop shopping at one place or another isn’t really the truth because you’re really just like those old rich people, and so am I.
This well reasoned response was met with a “I disagree with everything you just said.”
REALLY? Everything? Sorry, are you not an American? Do you have no knowledge and understanding of history at all? Do you not know how the economy and politics of our nation work, whether we like it or not?
Thus, the conversation ended because there is no reasoning with someone who doesn’t have a grasp of basic facts. The problem is, more and more conversations end this way. Reason is getting harder and harder to use, let alone find.
Let’s be honest here, it isn’t old rich people that are ruining the country. They have just done what they have always done, found a way to exploit those who don’t think for themselves and manipulate those people to do the work for them. The problem is that the people who are easily manipulated are multiplying faster than those who have a grasp on Reason.
Therein lies the true danger to the country.

Have you encountered the same sort of difficulty? Do facts and Reason have no place in society any longer?

Assigned seats

auditorium chairs comfortable concert

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Went to the movies last night and encountered something while buying tickets earlier in the day that was new – and didn’t like after I got to the theater.

The local AMC theater has always been first come, first served as far seating goes. Get there early and choose good seats. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever been to a theater that has done it any other way. So, when I went to buy tickets online yesterday afternoon (for a 7:15 showing) I just expected to buy tickets.

Instead I was greeted with a seating chart after I selected the movie (Spiderman: Far from Home) and I was supposed to select where I wanted to sit and how many seats I wanted. The chart showed available seats and which ones were not. I selected seats but was left wondering if this was going to be common practice or just because this was the opening night of a big movie.

After getting to the theater and asking a couple questions, turns out this has been going on for a couple months and will now be regular practice for all movies. OK, interesting.

Once in the theater, there were lots of people and single seats left all over the auditorium. Meaning, if you bought tickets late and went as a group, you would be split up for your group (as such, I have a 10 year old sitting next to me as the rest of his group was farther down the row). After thinking about this, I can’t imagine that this would encourage people to buy tickets for movies, but it might very well discourage most people.

I can tell you I don’t really like the practice. If I had logged in later in the day to buy tickets and all I saw were singletons or I was crammed into a row with people on boths sides, I wouldn’t buy a ticket.

I am still developing an opinion here, but I can’t see how this benefits ticket buyers.


What do you think? What is your experience? Do you like assigned seating at the movies?

Bent but not broken

food healthy yellow broken

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Can you believe some people use this as justification for breaking the rules?

Recently someone said, “Well, you never said I couldn’t…” – fill in the blank. They had bent the agreed upon limitation (rule, if you will) so that it could accommodate their desired outcome.

So, if that is the case, unless we explicitly define every possible circumstance then bending the rules is fine. Never mind the intent of the rule, or even the law.

That’s the problem today with society. We will do whatever we can to make things as easy and accommodating to get what we want. We find every way possible to bend the rules, which we know is wrong to do, just so we can get what we want.

Speeding? Oh, well, I was going downhill.

Cheating on a test? Well, is it really cheating if they didn’t say I couldn’t use the book?

Affair? It’s not an affair because we didn’t have sex.

Murder? Oh, well, I didn’t want the as yet to be born baby.

Sick day from work? No, I wasn’t sick but everyone does it. It was for my “mental health,” and go to the beach.


Which, or what, bent rule irritates you the most?

 

Omission

black and white black and white depressed depression

Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

What do you consider a lie?

Is consciously leaving out information or details lying? If you only get part of the info, is it really the truth?

If someone repeatedly, or maybe habitually, omits info can you trust them? When do you draw the line?

This is a tricky topic because we all do it to some degree. Sometimes it is not on purpose, but other times it is an outright choice.

I guess the question really comes down to: Are you prepared to stand your ground when you know you are being deceived on purpose or do you just let it slide?

Drawn and quartered

the greek statues

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

There are very few things in life that seem to warrant the old punishment of “Drawn and Quartered.” It used to be reserved for high treason, but it isn’t used anymore. Something about cruel and unusual…whatever…

I have determined, and I am sure many of you will agree, that this punishment should now be returned to service, not to be used for high treason but for something much worse.

Being the creator of spam.

In EVERY single form it exists.

We are all aware of the spam we get in our email. We are also all now very aware of those auto-dialers that create spam phone calls. Spam on social media is now a thing too. Here’s one you may or may not be aware of…

Have you checked your blog comments section for spam? Good grief. There is a lot of crap in that file. Thank goodness it gets filtered! But good grief, how do you get like entire Wikipedia science articles spliced into 18 different comments? Yeah, spam. Lots of it. It seems this is all hidden behind “proxy” type addresses, so it is easy to quickly decide it is spam and delete but the fact that you have to do it at all is really annoying.

So, I submit to you all that we bring this medieval punishment of “drawn and quartering” back for a 21st century crime. It might not stop the behavior as a deterrent, but it would be totally satisfying to see the spam creator suffer a just punishment.

Just saying.

#endspam


Who’s with me here? Do you agree? Do you have a better suggestion?

Avoid or ignore?

close up photo of woman covering her ears

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

No, I am not talking about doing that childhood favorite of skipping down the road obnoxiously swinging your arms, smiling, and just generally being carefree.

I am talking when someone purposely and obviously skips (avoids?) you but manages to respond to everyone else.

I don’t make it habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs just so to leave a comment. I am selective and I try to put thought into it so that it can generate a conversations. I also make every effort to respond to comments left on my blog as I believe engagement is a good thing (at least when the comment isn’t purposely malicious).

Anyway, I have noticed that certain bloggers out there are really good at leaving a comment, a thank you, a thumbs up, etc. for the people who take time to comment on their blog. I think that is great, especially if there are a lot of comments, because it takes time. Returning the love is a good thing.

However, it also becomes a rather conspicuous omission when they fail to respond as well. As an example, a blog I made a comment to yesterday had 48 comments as of this morning. Now, we know that WordPress (for some reason) counts all comments, including the ones from the author, so really there were fewer than 48 comments from people who read the blog. As I scrolled through this morning to see if I received a comment (maybe I had missed a notification?), I noticed that every single comment the blog received go a response except mine. In some cases, there were multiple responses from the author.

Hmmm, weird.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not butthurt here. I just think it is rather interesting because it is SO OBVIOUS.


What habits of bloggers to you find annoying? Do you have any that you really appreciate?

Pardon me

book business calendar close up

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Pardon me, but your agenda is showing.

Some companies are good at hiding it. Others not so much. Some blatantly censor content (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), some do not. Some quietly push a liberal agenda and some quietly push a conservative agenda (though this is becoming more rare).

If you take a look at the Discover feed, here on WordPress (parent company Automattic), you will see that over time their agenda is beginning to show. It isn’t about highlighting good content, though it may be to some, it’s about highlighting only one side of the content – that which fits their agenda.

Thus, I have found myself skipping Discover because there isn’t necessarily good writing or salient points of view, just agenda. A confirmation bias of politically correct, social “justice” agenda. I wanna see ALL points of view. I wanna see ALL manners of opinion. I wanna see an agenda-less feed of good writing, art, history, politics, food, humor, entertainment, DIY, outdoors, and hobbies.

Is that too much to ask?