on tipping

The topic of tipping came up again. Here are my thoughts on that:

People who don't tip, or tip poorly for good service, are assholes. Period.

Tipping has been calculated into the cost of certain services by everyone involved. By the establishment, by the staff, the customer, society. If you're not tipping, you're not paying your fair share. You're making others pay for you. You're a leech, and the scum of the earth. Stop trying to justify being cheap, you worthless sack of shit. Have fun being hated by everyone.

teabaggers: you didn't get angry...

I'm sure by now you've seen this floating around the internets, but in case you haven't...

You didn't get angry when the Supreme Court "Conservative Judicial Activists" Five stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get angry when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy while excluding any environmentalists from that meeting.

You didn't get angry when on Spet. 10 2001, 1 day before 9-11 Rumsfeld announced the Pentagon lost 2.3 TRILLION dollars.

You didn't get angry when Bush's generals let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora.

You didn't get angry when a covert CIA operative was outed because her husband did his job and exposed Bush's lies about yellowcake uranium.

You didn't get angry when the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the John Warner Defense Bill were passed and our Constitutional rights were shredded.

You didn't get angry when Bush illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get angry when it was revealed that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice all lied us into the illegal, unnecessary war on Iraq.

You didn't get angry when Bush spent over 600 billion dollars (and counting) on the illegal, unnecessary Iraq war.

You didn't get angry when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get angry as thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed or maimed in Bush's illegal, unnecessary war.

You didn't get angry when it was revealed U.S. soldiers and the CIA were torturing people, including in former KGB prisons.

You didn't get angry when Bush admitted the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get angry when it was revealed that Bush ignored many warnings of the 9/11 terrorism.

You didn't get angry when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital while you claimed you "supported our troops".

You didn't get angry when Bush let New Orleans drown.

You didn't get angry when mostly white people were helped in New Orleans.

You didn't get angry when it was revealed Bush ignored warnings about Hurricane Katrina and the levees.

You didn't get angry when Bush gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn't get angry when Bush turned Clinton's budget surplus into a gigantic budget deficit.

You didn't get angry when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

You didn't get angry when Exxon earned more in profits than any company ever, but paid zero U.S. taxes.

You didn't get angry when, using reconciliation, a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You finally got angry when Obama decided that people in America deserved to see a doctor if they are sick, but you got angry at Obama, not the insurance corporations and drug companies that wrote Obama's bill. If Obama were white, would you hate him so much?

Illegal wars, killing Americans and Iraqi and Afghani women and children, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you.

But an African-American President taking the first very flawed, very insufficient step to getting health care for all of us?

Hell, no! That's "socialism"! you say, as you depend on Social Security and Medicare.

Socialism for corporations and the rich doesn't make you angry. Only "socialism" by Democrats is "un-American" to you.

Only "liberals" are your sworn enemies.

Are you aware that liberals and progressives fought to get us all: vacations, the 40-hour workweek, weekends off, the minimum wage, worker safety laws, child labor laws, the right to vote for women, environmental protections, food inspections, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, to name just some of the social improvements which are hallmarks of a civilized society?

Wake Up... Wake Up... Wake Up

And yeah, in the last post I promised to post some personal stuff here, but I've decided to wait on that, at least until my probation is over.

riiise from your graaave

A couple months ago I almost deleted this blog, but now I'm resurrecting it. I've been going through some shit lately. I have a lot of get off my chest, and this seems like the best place to do it. More soon.

here's what republicans had to say about the president's economic plan

Currently floating around the interwebs:

Republican Rep. Joel Hefley said: "It will raise your taxes, increase the deficit, and kill over one million jobs."

Republican Rep. John Kasich said: "This plan will not work...your economic program is a job killer."

Republican Newt Gingrich said: "I believe this will lead to a recession next year."

Republican Dick Armey said: "Clearly this is a job killer in the short run. The impact on job creation is going to be devastating."

Republican Phil Gramm said: "Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their jobs because of this bill, and the President will be one of them."

Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad said: The Democrats’ plan "will stifle economic growth, destroy jobs, reduce revenues, and increase the deficit."

Republican Rep. Phil Crane said: It's "a recipe for economic and fiscal disaster."

Voice Over: The only problem is, all these Republican quotes were from 1993 after President Bill Clinton passed his budget without a single Republican vote. That budget led to the greatest economic boom in world history. Weren't you better off with Bill Clinton and the Democrats running the economy in the 1990s? The Republicans predictions could not have been more wrong. Yet they make almost word for word the same predictions again today about President Obama's economic programs. President Clinton left us with a projected $5 trillion surplus . . .

a rothbury observation

The vast majority of people who were at The Dead, and I presume String Cheese Incident (I don't know because I didn't see that show), are not fans of music. Or at the very least, they weren't there for the music. That's not to say that there aren't fans of The Dead (and the like) who are absolutely all about the music, but only that they were very under represented at the show.

Steph and I saw 27 bands at Rothbury this year, and the contrast between most of the shows and the "jam band" shows was stark. It was all in the facing. At most shows, people were actually facing the stage, or in that general direction, obviously focused on the music, usually dancing. There was some dancing at The Dead, but mostly people were walking around talking, smoking weed and yelling "WHERE'S THE PARTY?!"

They were there for the party, not for the music. Maybe like 80% party and 20% music. It reminded me more of a tailgate party than a concert. I'm not sure why this surprised me, but it did. I felt a little sorry for some of the acts there who were performing for much smaller crowds than they probably should have with 40k people in attendance, because everyone wanted to be where the party was. Where everyone else was. Probably better that way, now that I think about it. I'd rather be with a smaller group of enthusiastic music fans than a giant mob of loud, drunk assholes. I hope The Dead come back every year, like a giant annual black hole, sucking all the douchebags away from the better stages.

pissing me off today: harmonix and valve

Harmonix and Valve, without a doubt two of the best video game companies out there today, and certainly personal favorites. I say this to you both with heartfelt sincerity: EAT A DICK. Beatles Rockband and Left 4 Dead 2 are both shameless money grabs that will divide the online user base. You should've made these add-ons for your existing games and you fucking know it. Now I have to pass on content I would otherwise be really excited for and buy without hesitation, or encourage this kind of bullshit. Goddamnit.

confessions of a formerly short-haired man

People are nicer to me now that I have long(er) hair. I'm not joking and this is no exaggeration. Someone literally told me that they used to think I was stuffy and uptight, but that now I seem more laid-back. Granted this person didn't know me very well to begin with, but when I pushed her on the point she admitted that it was probably the hair. Almost unanimously people have told me that The Hippie Hair™ suits me better. More strangers smile at me, which freaks me out a little bit.

It's been an interesting social experiment. I think it's similar to the notion that fat people are jolly; hippies are harmless. I'm going to let them keep thinking that. Grow my hair a bit longer. Wait for them to let their guard down completely, and that's when I'll strike.