T-13, 1.18: 13 Things that Tick Me Off

[Another list from The Curmudgeon’s Corner *heh*]

Rant: ON

Yeh, yeh, I know: “tick me off” is just a bowdlerized version of what I really mean, and that’s the first item on my list:

#1: Dulling down expressions for po’ widdew babies’ neo-victorian sensibilities. “Shit,” as one dear old saint in my church once told me, “isn’t a dirty word. What it refers to is dirty.” And calling things by names that are less than accurate is an insult to genuine attempts to convey meaning. Some things really are vulgar, and they ought to have their nature reflected in properly vulgar terms. (Unfortunately, there are no terms vulgar enough, even scatological enough, to express the nature of politicians *spit*.)

#2: “Feb-YOU-ary” Come on! It’s Feb-RU-ary, folks! Read the word! 😉 Learn to say it; it’s not that hard to GET IT RIGHT! Worst offenders: people who talk for a living, “news” readers, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, etc.

#3: Using a singular verb with a plural subject. Dumbass Mass Media Podpeople lead the way here, followed closely by politicians *spit*, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and just about anyone else with influence in the public arena. “There’s problems” is simply the way an illiterate non-English speaker might attempt to grunt a sentence. There ARE problems (“There’re problems”) that may be more serious than this, but few are more irksome… or more indicative of complete, dunderheaded lack of logic or in fact any reasoning going on.

#4: “Gay” to refer to sad sack, often angry and beligerant homosexuals. Nothing gay (happy, carefree) about the class. While I’d grant that there may be some gay homosexuals, there are plenty of gay heterosexuals as well. Ceding the word to people who angrily, stridently and beligerantly claim it as their own is an offense against the English language, common sense and against genuinely gay people.

#5: And take Maccultists. Please. I have nothing against folks using Macs. I’ve used more than one myself, in times past. But the Macrophile religion is just too much for me. Maccultists are worse than Scientologists or Mormons (though not–yet–as bad as Muslims) when it comes to attacking anyone or anything that casts aspersions upon their religion or religious icons and when it comes to lying about their own superior system and the failings of other systems. Give it a rest, folks! It’s just another OS option, now–you no longer even have a unique hardware platform, now that Apple is selling Intel PCs. But… by the same token, people who are Windoze cultists or Linux cultists are almost as bad. Just not usually as rabid.

#6: As always, politicians *spit* What Mark Twain said of Congress, that America is without a distinct criminal class, “with the possible exception of Congress,” can pretty well be said of politicians as a class, nowadays. *sigh*

#7: “Educators” Hey! Whatever happened to teachers? I’ll tell you what has happened to teachers: they’ve become an endangered species as more and more NEA-protected petty bureaucraps take up station in America’s classrooms and participate in the progressive enstupiation of the American citizens of the future. (Yes, I know there are still some teachers left, in fact many, who are condemned for their sins [of attempting to teach] to play Sisyphus, striving against the fall of night… Blessings upon their heads!)

#8: Neighbors who think their vehicle runs better if they sabotage their muffler, so that they sound louder than a C-130 doing touch-and-gos out side my bedroom window… at 3:00 a.m. Would like to book a trip to the Seventh Circle of Hell for them…

#9: May I mention politicians *spit* again? No? Well then, how about liars? No, I don’t mean someone who fibs and regrets it and attempts to make things right and avoid lying again. Sure, we have all failed to be really honest from time to time. But there are those whose whole existence is bound up in lies. They’re the lind of people who would see nothing wrong with cheating at solitaire (or any other game), who apparently believe that they excrete vanilla ice cream. You know some of them, I’m sure. *sigh*

#10: That tiny lil piece of popcorn that just will NOT come outa hiding, no matter how much I brush or floss… until it decides to emerge juuuust at the “right” moment to be inhaled… prompting oneof those monumental coughing jags. I hate that.

#11: Products that come with instructions in Spanish, French and Japanese. *sheesh* The things were manufactured for export to the U.S. Spanish, French and Japanese instructions should go somewhere else. For that matter, as for immigrants (legal, see #12) shoud heed these words. Or go home.

#12: Illegal aliens and darned near any other pet fake victim of people with more time on their hands than they have the IQ to know what to do with. What part of entering the country illegally, stealing IDs and using forged documents to steal jobs from citizens and legal immigrants shows any respect whatsoever for the country they have invaded?

#13: President Bush with his “read my lips: no amnesty for illegal aliens” lie. I mean, what part of NOT having to leave the country and get in the back of the line BEHIND applicants who seek to enter the country legally is NOT an amnesty? “Significant penalty”? Pay up to two of seven years back taxes, work at a job (taken in the place of a citizen or legal resident) and behave themselves from that point on a “significant penalty”? Heck, I’d like to be “forgiven” a few years’ taxes. Can I apply to be an illegal alien if Bush and Friends get this amnesty put in place? And hey! Can I also get free health care, etc., just by applying for resident illegal alien status?

I guess I could go on, since I’m in a curmudgeonly mood, but I guess I’ll not… for now.

Rant: OFF

Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub. Unfortunately, this TT is apparently the last TT. So be it. Thanks for the (short for me) ride!