I wake up this morning and I instantly get the shakes. This happens when I sleep through the cold, either because it is extremely cold, or I somehow knock my blanket off of myself. I still have the shakes but it's not as bad as when I first got up. I found it hard to sleep last night, as some unruly young mid '20s people moved in recently into one of the vacant apartments on my "unit." I've noticed that they like to go outside to smoke and they usually stand in the general area near my window. They talk. They laugh. They act silly. They smoke their cigarettes. Now, if I stick my head out the window and yell at them then I would just confirm what my friends are already saying about me that I am the disgruntled old man on the block. Not so! Also, I've noticed that the school bus loudly arrives at 6:30am, parks and then proceeds to flash its big lights as if the police or ambulance was outside. *grumble grumble*
I admit I am a bit strange. Throughout life I've often gone on these little side quests that have no relevance whatsoever to the things I should be doing. An example of this started back in early November. A friend of mine came over and I was scanning my Netflix instant que. I noticed that the show Coach had its entire series available to stream. I could not pass this up. It had always been one of my favorite shows. I remember it would come on right after Monday Night Football. Anyway, so I began this mission hoping to complete it by the time I moved in March.
I realize that I am a grown man with way more important things to be upset about than a football game. However, last night's Dallas Cowboys loss to the New York football Giants was especially hard for me. It's just a game. I know this yet I repeatedly let things like this anger me to no end. But today will be a good day.
Walking into work yesterday I realized that my mood shifted and I immediately became very angry. I still can't figure out what triggered the mood swing. My only theory is that my weekend was over and it was back to the boring repetitive cycle that is work. I find that this happens to me a lot. I'll be in a good mood then bam! I'm the biggest grump on the face of the planet.
What’s really happening with these protests is that the genuine rage and not unreasonable economic insecurity of these citizens is being stoked, exploited, distorted and manipulated by movement leaders for entirely different ends. The people who are leading them—Rush Limbaugh, the Murdoch-owned Fox News, Glenn Beck, business-dominated organizations of the type led by Dick Armey—are cultural warriors above everything else. They’re all in a far different socioeconomic position than the “middle-income Americans” whose anger they’re ostensibly representing. Their principal preoccupation is their cultural contempt for various groups (illegal immigrants, the “undeserving” poor, liberals) and their desire to preserve the status quo whereby the prime beneficiaries of government policies remain themselves: the super rich and the interests that control Washington. It’s certainly true that many of these protesters are driven by the standard right-wing cultural issues which have long shaped that movement—social issues, religious fears, cultural and racial divisions, and hatred for “liberals” as Communist-Muslim-Terrorist-lovers. For many, all of that is intensified by the humiliation of being completely thrown out of power, at the hands of the first black President. But much of it is fueled by the pillaging of the corporations and Wall St. interests which own their government.
Actual rich people can’t ever be the target. It’s a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master’s carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you’re on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that’s what we’ve got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish . . . can’t be mad at AIG, can’t be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it’s struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires. It’s really weird stuff.
Last night I toyed with the rain gods and they smited me in the worst way possible. So as I was coming home I noticed that the lights around Lake Worth were all out. The business mecca that I call home was totally pitch black. Then I get to my apartments, and voila, we have electricity. I immediately jumped on Facebook and updated my status to say "Power outage in Lake Worth! My apartments were unaffected though. I'm about to turn all my lights on just to mock everybody."
Hi there,
I need to get a cellphone. I don't want a two-year plan, which is what many of the major carriers want. A family plan would be great, so we can get the father-in-law a phone. Also a plus would be a phone that could run Android. The cost of the phone is not my main concern, it's the monthly - I'd like to get something pretty low since I hardly make any calls, maybe two or three a day (less than ten minutes).
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
