The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Ongoing Things That Piss Me Off

    By A Guy Called LULU on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 1:24pm |

     Because there are always a few such things every day, I will likely add to this as time goes by. Anyone who cares to is encouraged add to this list or discuss what they see here. Any subject is fair. Expect, for instance, a rant about justifiable road-rage directed at tailgaters or other idiots allowed to use public streets.
     First, but not worst, is my conditioned response every time I see the following:

     "Government sources speaking on the condition of anonymity revealed today that....."

     ARRRGG! [Sp?] I believe that it should be a universal standard of journalism that every time a bit of information in a news story has to use a version of that statement that the writer of the piece should, at the very least, be required to ask the person quoted why they have a need or desire to remain anonymous and then include that person's answer.

    Comments

    I've always assumed that the need or desire to remain anonymous is so the person being quoted doesn't have to admit to actually knowing a 'sleazy journalist.'

     

    Things that piss me off?  John Fund. The stupidest talking fat-head on television, who also has the most absolute certitude that his ridiculous utterances are facts.  .I always want to throw things at him  or find a way to cruelly wipe that cretinous smirk off his fat face.

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 4:38pm

    Maybe they fear reprisal?

    You may have Freedom of speech, but fear and common sense, dampen it.

    No ones safe anymore. Anonymity gives many a sense of Freedom.

    I think whistle blowers would want it.

    Give your real name and someone with the name Eric Rudolf or Ted Kaczynski, might come knocking? 


    by Resistance on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 4:51pm

    There was a controversy a few years back when Bush was manipulating the press with deliberate "leaks" from unnamed sources in the administration. Some of the big papers revised their policies. For a while, NYT reporters offered explanations each time they quoted anonymous sources, so there were a lot of stupid caveats like "who wished to remained anonymous because he was not authorized to divulge the information." It doesn't seem to have lasted long in any case.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 5:58pm

    In the spirit of adding to the list:

    Prerecorded public service announcements on NYC subways.

    Billy Joel songs.

    Baby talk directed at babies.

    Car seats produced after 1964.


    by moat on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 8:13pm

    How about baby talk directed at adults. I made an entire shift of nurses hate me after one started talking baby talk to me. But then that only happened once so I guess it doesn't belong on my list of on-going pissers.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 9:15pm

    I figured that it would be more categorical if I aimed at the root of the problem.

    In addition, there is a whole realm of 'terms of endearment' that I don't understand well enough to condemn as readily as the items I listed.


    by moat on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 9:45pm

    For me it's Nugent crapola and certainly Hank Williams Jr and of course any time Chris Christy sings.

    Oh and talk about talk being directed to babies....

    Is that not the parameter of all repub ads?

     


    by Richard Day on Sat, 10/15/2011 - 10:47pm

    OK, so if we're getting a list going, I'll add these:

    1. People who don't understand the difference between apes and monkeys.
    2. People who don't understand the difference between climate and weather.
    3. People who make decisions based almost entirely on emotion and intuition rather than logic.
    4. People who make decisions based entirely on logic and ignore valuable intuition.
    5. People who are willing to sacrifice the long-term future for the short-term.
    6. People who are willing to sacrifice the short-term future for the long-term.
    7. Myself.

    by Verified Atheist on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 8:15am

     

     

    People who don't know how to speak into cell phones, who then call and leave messages that are so over-modulated and distorted you can't make out anything they've actually said.

    Invariably this people call back three days later outraged that you haven't responded to their message..


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 7:16pm

    The Dallas Cowboys


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 7:22pm

    George W. Bush sitting in Jerry Jones' box.


    by Oxy Mora on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 8:41pm

    Stock exchanges as gambling casinos pisses me off. Machine trading, for instance, has no value and is in no way "investing". Every stock transaction should have a per-share tax. This idea could be one that every OWS person would probably agree with.


    by Anonymous LULU (not verified) on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 8:21am

    Yeah, six percent sounds about right.


    by Donal on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 8:28am

    It pisses me off that our government has acted so often in indefensible ways that what is alleged in the following link could be easily believed. It also pisses me off that we will probably never know with any confidence whether the claim is true or not. It also pisses me off that if it were shown beyond reasonable doubt to be true that a very large percentage of our country's people would say "So what?" Also, if it were shown to be true, nobody would pay any punitive price for having ordered it to happen.

    http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october262011/clinton-gaddafi.php

     There are places where the charge is being made as fact but I picked a link with some evidence that rebuts the claim in a forward. It is very possible that the people with the power simply got a chance to execute Gaddafi as part of their humanitarian life saving mission [after their "authorized" mission had been stretched far beyond what was authorized and after it was already successful] and did so. It could be that the fact that life would be so much simpler "looking forward" with Gaddafi dead just coincidently parallels the situation with Ossama. That fact might be presented as motive but not as evidence.
     A high level U.S. diplomatic response which was so much like a drunken adolescent's response to Ossama's execution also pisses me off, but then I get pissed off a lot. No big deal. I just put it here to put it out of my mind. 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 10/27/2011 - 12:17pm

    I'm not always pissed off, this makes me laugh.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 10/27/2011 - 12:25pm

    I wanted to post this link but because the topic of police brutality is so yesterday I couldn't see a good place for it until I remembered how it fits here with ongoing things that piss me off.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=player_embedded#!


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 6:00pm

    Fuck. The. Police.

    A feeling that grows stronger with every single goddamn day. 


    by Qnonymous (not verified) on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 7:33pm

    I wish it weren't so, but I feel it too. Reading some of the comments just adds to the anger.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 7:42pm

    The cop that instigated the hitting of the folks in the front line should be charged with assault.

    Notice how the cops got along side and in back of, the front group of protestors. 

    Maybe the occupiers better learn military strategy. never let the opposition outflank you.


    by Resistance on Fri, 11/11/2011 - 1:46am

    Today's example of a thing that pisses me off [Actually, it is really just a small pet peeve] is the use of '**' for the letters "u" and "c" when the word that is obviously being said is 'FUCK' and doing so is an apparent attempt to pretend to be using polite language.
     To make my position as clear as possible while staying in the established realm of acceptably polite discourse, I will say this: Anyone who thinks they are not saying fuck and who thinks anything is heard other than the word 'fuck', when they write f**k, must have f**king  sh*t for brains.

     I mean, what is the fucking point?


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 2:08pm

    To get past automated censors? devil

    Seriously, that's a valid point. I remember some comedian (Louis CK?) making the same point about using "N-word" (which I will nonetheless use).


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 2:24pm

    Automated censors. What a concept! Thanks, you've got me thinking.

                                                              A G*Y Called L**U.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 5:26pm

    FCUK - great brand, no?


    by PeraclesPlease (not verified) on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 2:37pm

    The word "meme."

    To my ear, the only person who doesn't sound pretentious when he says it is Eric Cartman from Southpark.

    "Meeeeeem..."


    by Jeni Decker on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 3:55pm

    Expressions that suddenly go viral, so to speak, in common usage, usually grate on me pretty quickly. A recent one that bothers me is "It is what it is".  Deep stuff, that. My son recently said that to me and I suggested to him that it is a ridiculous, meaningless phrase. Knowing how my daughter for a while over-used a dismissive two word conversation stopper and how it used to drive me right to the edge of Bonker city, and which she now says with a smile, he replied with an affected voice, "What!..everrr".


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 6:10pm

    I really should learn to copy my comments to the clipboard before I click save... I keep losing them to the abyss... fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, I'm an idiot!

    How about, "I hear ya..."

    Also, I could probably live happily never hearing, "That's why we can't have nice things..." ever again. It was funny once upon a time, but you really have to work your creative muscle to make it fresh at this point.

    BTW, love the idea of this thread. I'll try not to make a nuisance of myself, but I'm sure I could think of something every day to add to it. crying


    by Jeni Decker on Thu, 12/22/2011 - 6:42pm

    Today's item does not piss me off.  I think it should be seen as an absolute pisser, but instead I see it in a sort of darkly humorous way.
     That guy who is seldom mentioned as we all hold our breath waiting for the big take-down analysis of his writing, but whom I suspect every single person here reads, says well what I am referring to. For any that don't, or haven't yet today, here is a prod.

    http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 1:03pm

    I think it's more correctly spelled "Arrrgh!"


    by kgb999 on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 1:33pm

    Arrrgh is right! From the article with my emphasis added.

     

    The simple fact is that progressives are supporting a candidate for President who has done all of that — things liberalism has long held to be pernicious. I know it’s annoying and miserable to hear. Progressives like to think of themselves as the faction that stands for peace, opposes wars, believes in due process and civil liberties, distrusts the military-industrial complex, supports candidates who are devoted to individual rights, transparency and economic equality. All of these facts — like the history laid out by Stoller in that essay — negate that desired self-perception. These facts demonstrate that the leader progressives have empowered and will empower again has worked in direct opposition to those values and engaged in conduct that is nothing short of horrific. So there is an eagerness to avoid hearing about them, to pretend they don’t exist. And there’s a corresponding hostility toward those who point them out, who insist that they not be ignored.

     


     


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sat, 12/31/2011 - 6:21pm

    I have never criticized anyone who avoided the Vietnam draft, whether their methods were strictly kosher or not, with one exception. I consider those who dodged and then became big war advocates to be chickenhawks. I despise chickenhawks.
    Today I learned a few things about Romney. While he was in college and had a deferment he demonstrated against anti-war demonstrators. That pisses me off. After three years of college deferment he got an additional 30 months deferment for being on a Mormon mission. I didn't know before today that such an exemption existed back then. It pisses me off. Now, his stated positions on Middle East policy, like those of all the repugnant Republican candidates, pisses me off even more than it already did.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083002/Mitt-Romney-19-demonstra...

     


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sun, 01/08/2012 - 3:58pm

    Here is an essay about something that pisses me off followed by a Charlie Chaplin video that I like.

    http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/richard-eskow/40951/death-of-an-ordi...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsgaFKwUA6g&feature=player_embedded


    by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 4:45pm

    In a history of the 70s, the conservative commentator David Frum, referring to the conviction of Lt. William Calley for the murder of Vietnamese civilians, notes:

        Congressional liberals like Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut joined with conservatives like Georgia’s Herman Talmadge to condemn the verdict … The governor of Indiana ordered all state flags to be flown at half staff for Calley. The governor of Utah criticised the verdict as ‘inappropriate’ and the sentence as ‘excessive’. Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia proclaimed ‘American Fighting Man’s Day’, and urged Georgia motorists to drive all week with headlights on. The Arkansas legislature approved a resolution asking for clemency. The lower house of the Kansas legislature demanded Calley’s release from prison. So did the Texas Senate and the state legislatures of New Jersey and South Carolina. … Alabama Governor George Wallace visited Calley in the Fort Benning stockade and called on President Nixon to pardon him. Wallace then spoke at a rally in Calley’s defence at Columbus, Georgia, alongside Governor John Bell Williams of Mississippi.

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/21/from-my-lai-to-kandahar/


    by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 10:26pm

     Mohammad Wazir can barely take a sip of water because it reminds him of his 7-year-old daughter, who brought him a glass three days before she was killed with 10 other loved ones in a shooting spree allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan.

    Wazir said he had asked his wife for a drink but his daughter Masooma brought it instead.

    "She said: 'Ask me, daddy. I can bring you water, too,' " Wazir recalled. "She was the beauty of my house. She had black magical eyes."

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2017834210.html


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sun, 03/25/2012 - 9:25pm

     It pisses me off that so much of this is true. I may go to Guadalajara and buy this guy a beer.

    http://www.fredoneverything.net/RecedingTide.shtml

     


    by A Guy Called LULU on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 11:21pm

    This is certainly ongoing and it pisses me off. In regards to the Trayvon Martin case, very shortly into the video you  can see what a person looks like after being hit in the face.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31083.htm


    by A Guy Called LULU on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 7:02pm