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Why Are Leftists Such Pansies?
"Never mind the college snowflakes who can't even hear an idea they disagree with without retreating to a safe space. What about the adults? The New York Times, a former newspaper, now reads like a 12-year-old girls' sleepover after a mouse got in. It's embarrassing. "How to Cope With Trump?" "Trump's Threat to the Constitution?" "Trump's Agents of Idiocracy!" The guy hasn't even done anything yet! In the Washington Post, Stephanie Land writes a piece headlined, "Trump's Election Stole My Desire to Look for a Partner." Once it was clear that Donald Trump would be president instead of Hillary Clinton, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to gather my children in bed with me and cling to them like we would if thunder and lightning were raging outside, with winds high enough that they power might go out. The world felt that precarious to me. Crikey. What a weakling. What a wimp. Everything Trump does, every move he makes, is greeted with cries of despair or panic. He's supposed to ask China's permission before he takes a call from Taiwan? For crying out loud, have some respect for your country if you can't have some respect for yourself. * * * I have no problem with there being two sides to an argument. I have no problem with the left making its case. But the whining! The weakness! The hysteria! It's like being stuck on an airplane with a crying baby. Grow up. Or at least stick your thumb in your mouth and keep it down. You're making so much noise it's hard for me to enjoy your suffering. Okay, it's not that hard." Klavan, you lost me at crying baby. The baby I understand, and can tune out, but the whinging adult, not so much. I wrote a story about this once: Traveling with children is always a blast "On the flight home from Michigan we ended in a seat next to a middle age "businessman" wearing a suit. Once he spied Maddogsson he began to kvetch, bellyache, and whinge about children, and always sitting next to children on flights, and how if there were not bad luck he would have none at all. About 10 minuets later, we taxied onto the runway, ran the engines up and dropped the brakes, as we roared down the runway, I leaned over, and said to Maddogsson, "Don't you just hate those big babies in suits, every time we fly we get a seat next to one of them, they whinge, cry, wheedle, mope, and bellyache about workers, the people they sit next to, their wives, work, and everything else." Maddogsson just nodded, and continued with his monologue about what every sound meant, "That's the wheels coming up, and locking down, and that's the flaps retracting . . . " Our seat mate was quiet the entire flight, he never spoke another word. After we landed, and as we stood to debark, I tousled our seat mate's hair, and said, "Now that wasn't so bad was it?" Too bad, but I doubt there is any chance we could ever be friends! Worked like a charm." He must have been a progressive pansy, he was in practice, and fine form. In this one watch for the dog! In this sport it pays to be young, before you delaminate a shoulder, blow up a knee a couple of times, crush a calf, tear the other calf nearly out of the leg, long fall your back into traction, break a bunch of bones, and concuss yourself beyond prism glasses. Yes, voice of experience. Oh, there is so much more! I mostly live vicariously now, it hurts too much to keep up with this stuff now that I am banging on the door of 60. All my injuries except a few football injuries occurred from snow skiing. As one brother used to say, "You ski like you left your brain at home." Yep. But it was hella fun. I have to admit, I have been feeling pretty good for quite a while. The shoulder gives me pause on strength training days, but it is just noticeably complaining more. It doesn't give me any guff the rest of the day. And the knee is pretty much fine, even after two meniscus tears, and an full ACL tear/replacement, provided I don't ski, waterski, wake board, or anything else that will cause it to swell up. The low back mostly doesn't bother me at all, but once in a while . . . The crushed calf, and the other calf (which looks much worse, I lost about 20% of the muscle after repeated serious tear injuries one ski season) both are in reasonably good shape, the torn up calf looks terrible, and it took years for me to rebuild its strength, but it worked just fine even during the end of my skiing years. Somewhere in there I found the time to sliced off a finger, but the ER doc was nice enough to sew it back on, saying, "This will never work." But it did, I have full sensation, and use. Dude, I should have sent him a tip. That happened in 1986. Gawd that was 30 years ago last February. Strong cardio workout 3 days per week, and a solid low weight strengthening set 3 days per week seems to be just what the doctor ordered to keep me out of the docs office. Well, that and trying to keep up with Maddogswif who swims for 1.5 hours per day, runs for an hour, or bikes for a few, and sometimes does all three! Energizer bunny, and she is only 4 years younger than I, by my calculation that makes her 34 in husband math years, and she looks it. How to Get Revenge Against Pickpocketing Thieves
. . . I've heard that confession of sin can help. So, here goes. Back in the early 1970s, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, we had a neighbor who put the "bor(e)", in neighbor. She was an old witch, and I was just the 13 year old boy to trim her sails (I won't go into details, probably not good for the confession, if ya know what I mean). I decided to body slam the old carbuncle. The wallet trick above is the same trick, only this is a bit harsher. I took the Sunday paper, removed a good section of the 25 lbs. of ad supplements, then loaded one of the middle sections with fireplace ash, but only the middle. I didn't want any ash to dribble out of the ends, and folded the ends over. Then I placed the section back into the paper seam out. I closed up, re-folded, and re-rolled the paper and placed a rubber band around the middle. Then I dropped it in her paper box. Next Tuesday, the carpet cleaner was out for hours. Dear Mrs. Butinsky, Or whatever your real name was, sorry. Maddog Done! Boy I feel better already. I think this should get me some Brownie Points, don't you? She didn't quit, so I didn't either. Another confession will be metered out around Halloween. Funniest Mom Tweets Ever This tweet reminded me of a story: When my Grandmother died, and I decided to travel back to Michigan to attend her funeral, and I decided to take Maddogsson, age 3. The planning was simple, we had to fly the next day, and would stay a few days after to visit relatives before flying back to Portlandia.
Maddogsson was an accomplished traveler at 3, and enjoyed flying. We traveled on RenoAir, I had never heard of them, and have not since, but the flight from Portlandia to Reno was uneventful. Once in Reno we had a wait, but not a plane change, we were told we could debark, to allow Maddogsson to "stretch his legs," so we did. The uneventful became eventful when we reboarded. The airline had given our seats away even after directing us to debark! So, I went out to speak with an attendant. She was a very nice woman who took my information, and assured me she would work the problem out. 10 minutes later they were calling "all aboard who's going aboard," so I approached her again. She seemed flustered. She shooed me away. About 5 minutes later she had a solution, she had two seat, one was 5A, the other 25C, or something, I don't actually remember the numbers just that they were far distant. I gave her the deadpan look for a minute, but she was not kidding, so I said, sure. I'll take 5A, put Maddogsson in 25C. Then I handed her his small carry-on bag with food, toys, games, etc. She looked nonplused. Then she asked about the bag. I told her that he might only be 3 but he was an excellent traveller, and he would likely not require much attention from seat mates other than to occasionally help him get another game, or perhaps discuss some subject he was thinking about at the time, and of course with the meal, he would need help with that. I told her I really doubted he would be a problem. Now she looked really nonplussed. A few minutes later she called me back up to the counter, and let me know we had been rebooked first class. Worked like a charm. On the flight home from Michigan we ended in a seat next to a middle age "businessman" wearing a suit. Once he spied Maddogsson he began to kvetch, bellyache, and whinge about children, and always sitting next to children on flights, and how if there were not bad luck he would have none at all. About 10 minuets later, we taxied onto the runway, ran the engines up and dropped the brakes, as we roared down the runway, I leaned over, and said to Maddogsson, "Don't you just hate those big babies in suits, every time we fly we get a seat next to one of them, they whinge, cry, wheedle, mope, and bellyache about workers, the people they sit next to, their wives, work, and everything else." Maddogsson just nodded, and continued with his monologue about what every sound meant, "That's the wheels coming up, and locking down, and that's the flaps retracting . . . " Our seat mate was quiet the entire flight, he never spoke another word. After we landed, and as we stood to debark, I tousled our seat mate's hair, and said, "Now that wasn't so bad was it?" Too bad, but I doubt there is any chance we could ever be friends! Worked like a charm. Being Single Is Hard
I like being married, and I wanted to marry because I wanted family. I think I like being married more than single, mostly because it provides me with a simpler life, with define roles, and a very specific place. That said, I was single until I was past 29, and I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it. I like dating, I liked when I was not dating, I liked the freedom, and I was fine when a relationship limited my freedoms. Perhaps this is a man/woman thing? Perhaps not, I don't know. Perhaps I am like this because I am essentially an introvert who has built an extravert emulator module? Perhaps it is because I always knew that my life would work out, I would work when I needed money, play when I could, and have relationships that I enjoyed when I wanted them. And, yes, it pretty much worked out exactly that way. Actually, I suspect much of this comes from my life philosophy which solidified quite young. This happened because I either changed schools, or my family moved every year K-12 except for 3rd grade, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th grades, meaning there were 8 transitional years versus 5 steady years, all but one which came right at the end of K-12 schooling, and never with more than 2 years in a row at the both the same school and house. I simply learned to accept where I was, and make the best of every situation. This philosophy solidified by the time I was about 12. When everyone else was in a tizzy over the move to college, it seemed old hat to me. And dating breakups were just an extension of having to leave friends every year, and make new ones at a new location, or school. I never felt like that date was the "one." I was picky about dates, but never so picky that I could not find a date, I was pickier about friends. I had a strong family, and I was close with my brothers. Once we brothers were adults there was little conflict. Then again, I am the kind of person who enjoys a 90 day solo wilderness kayak expedition, and easily makes friends at any stop along the way. Finally, I found that saying yes was one of the most powerful things I could do. So, I did, pretty much whenever the opportunity arose. The result was an active life full of adventures, with an endless array of people. I stopped saying yes to women quite so much when I married. And that also was a good thing. The link in this post is about appetite, but it applies here as well: "A Harvard psychologist reveals the secret to curbing your appetite" The real point here, which is a bit lost in the weight loss discussion is that "have-to" is treated by the brain as different then "want-to." Have-to is negative with negative connotations, and outcomes, while want-to is positive with positive connotations, and outcomes. I realized after watching this video, that I am essentially a want-to person, and when I say yes, it is because I long ago decided that yes was a powerful way to leverage myself into new experiences, meet new friends, date new women, and get the most possible out of life. Everything I did from the jobs I worked, to the placed I traveled, to dating, making friends, marrying, and having family all are want-to in my mind. All created great experiences. In my life I am a free agent with complete agency, complete liberty (freedom tied to personal responsibility - as opposed to untethered freedom), and complete responsibility. The result is I like my life, but realize I have on occasion made sub optimum choices. And for me, this is acceptable. I wonder how Emma Lindsey would evaluate herself on this metric? Mommy blogger who poisoned son to death is being 'bullied' by inmates
Now go eat your salt, er, food. I should say I had a case or two of Munchausen by proxy during my days litigating medical issues (a few Munchausen syndrome cases as well). This is a very strange disorder, and I was quite lucky to find physicians who were willing to keep an open mind, and attempt to find whether the conditions were physical, or mental. Unfortunately, after handling these cases my sympathy for these people simply ran out. They are truly horrible people, doing horrible things to their children. |
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