Shit that Pissed me Off 2/17

Assholes Throwing Their Garbage on the Ground

I actually witnessed this at a McDonald’s drive through this week.  Someone purchased an iced coffee drink (I’ll tell you how I know it was an iced coffee drink in a minute).  Then they drove forward about twenty feet and (I presume) poured the iced coffee into another container.  They stopped, opened the passenger door, and threw the cup on the ground.

Then they drove off.

Now at this particular McDonald’s, there is a trash can just around the corner from the drive through no more than ten feet from where they dumped their cup on the ground.  It is conveniently situated so a driver could roll down their window and throw their trash away.

But that, apparently, was too much work for these folks.

They would probably watch twelve hours of C-Span because they were too lazy to find the remote

Such behavior isn’t an accident.  Tossing your cup into the parking lot when there is a trash can mere feet away isn’t something that you do by mistake.  There was a clear intent to make someone else’s life more difficult.  And to make a McDonald’s parking lot somehow more unattractive than it already was.

I don’t know why.  Maybe the person at the drive through was rude.  Maybe they were pissed that their iced coffee tasted a lot like it was made at a McDonald’s and not a Starbucks.  Maybe they think trash on in a parking lot is beautiful. Maybe they were fired from that McDonald’s and felt that throwing a cup on the ground in the parking lot would send a powerful message of defiance to their former manager.

My son, being the helpful sort, pointed out that he would have no trouble picking up the cup and together we cleaned up their mess (which is how I know it was iced coffee).

Which means that manager will never learn a valuable lesson.  I guess that’s a price I was willing to pay.

Headline Implies Protestors Might Have Been Paid

The headline reads “Are Dems Being Paid to Show Up at Town Hall Meetings?”

The answer, if you read the article, is “no.”  But if you just read the headline – and a lot of people do – you might think there is actual evidence the Democratic party is paying protestors to show up at Republican town halls.  In fact, there isn’t.  Just a lot of unsubstantiated claims by Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz that are now being repeated by others.

That wouldn’t bother me as much if the headline didn’t imply that the claim had merit.

It doesn’t even make sense.  After a massive defeat, the Democratic party decides the best way to spend their money is to pay people to show up at Republican town halls?

Do these people even read Facebook?  There are thousands of liberals just itching for the opportunity to show up and voice their opinion.  The Democratic party doesn’t need to pay them.  They need to recruit them.

But if you make an unsubstantiated claim that people are paid to show up and be passionate about something that matters to them, you achieve two goals.  You create doubt in the minds of those who might be swayed by their argument and you don’t have to actually listen to them.

If they are just paid protestors (not a thing), then what they are saying aren’t the arguments of actual citizens concerned about losing their health insurance and you don’t have to care about any move you make because you aren’t hurting real people.  You are hurting actors.

And fuck actors, right?

Donald Trump Knows Nothing about Autism

In my continuing quest to limit my Denier-in-Chief commentary to one article a week, I’m skipping his latest press conference (it was perfectly orchestrated theater meant to keep the cameras focused on him because that is what he loves) so I can focus on the questions he directed at the Principal of a special education school.

Trump asked about the skyrocketing autism rate in our country.  He was very concerned about it.

Thing is, the autism rate isn’t skyrocketing.  Studies show that they haven’t risen in several years.

I swear – if he was taking a test, there isn’t a teacher in America who would pass him. Not even the five teachers who voted for him.

If anything, our ability to diagnose and help treat autism spectrum disorder has gotten better.  Many would say that’s a good thing.

It’s like Trump asked “why are we having such an epidemic of Malaria” to imply that we made a mistake when we got better at diagnosing and treating Malaria.  I mean, yeah, I guess it’s too bad that we are discovering more people have the disease but since fewer people are dying as a result, can’t we call it a win?

The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t base any of his opinions on verifiable facts because he isn’t interested in looking them up.  Once he establishes an opinion, no amount of evidence will change his mind because he naturally assumes that if he has an opinion, it must be correct.

Republicans Looking to Gut the Endangered Species Act

Pardon my tree hugging heart but I’ve always wondered why humans are presumed to be the most important animal on this planet.  I mean, I get that we are super smart and because of that we are biased to believe that we get to be the boss of everything but in the end, other animals have as much of a right to life as people.

The Endangered Species Act is basically a recognition of the fact that we should try to avoid fucking over other species so we can strip mine.

Now, one could argue that humans didn’t have any impact on the extinction of the dinosaurs and, therefore, why should we think we can have any effect on the panda population?

One could also argue that an iceberg sank the Titanic and that means global warming is a good thing because there will be no more icebergs.

Thing is, laws like the Endangered species act can be inconvenient.  They can hurt farmers and loggers and ranchers who are just trying to make a living.  And I sympathize with that.

To a point.

See because the animal that is making their lives inconvenient is just trying to survive.  And it was doing a fine job until we showed up and messed with its environment.

And the crazy thing is: those animals have not developed a system of laws or any sort of criminal justice system that will allow them to punish us when we encroach on their territory.  So given they are one hundred percent incapable of protecting themselves, we have a responsibility to protect them from us.

Because we are savage fuckers.

We want to make sure we have our California lettuce even if we throw half of it away because we didn’t eat it before it turned a little bit brown.  If a couple of native species need to get muscled out so the lettuce farmers can harvest a few more acres, that isn’t a big price to pay.

And hey – I like salad as much as the next guy.  More probably.

But even I don’t know the impact my lettuce has on other species.  I may care but it doesn’t matter if I don’t know.

The Endangered Species Act is all about making sure the people who know have the ability to stop all of us who don’t.

And I really do care about farmers and ranchers being able to make a living because I like lettuce and steak.

I’m thinking, however, the problem isn’t the protection of the habitat of the snowy owl.  So maybe we should leave the Endangered Species Act alone and figure out what would actually make a difference.