Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

Paperless Post: Technology Made Personal

In the uniquely immersive Broadway musical, Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, the characters explain to the audience that  "In nineteenth century Russia we write letters / we write letters / we put down in writing / what is happening in our minds." 

A slower time, a gentler time?  Well, given the source material being War & Peace, perhaps not quite a gentler time, but the message of the second act's opener has been playing through my head as I prepared to sit down and write this piece.

My generation, and those before, did write letters.  We did use diaries.  We bought cards and wrote sweet somethings inside.  We dispatched them with a kiss and a stamp.  And when we were in receipt of someone else's written efforts, we felt special.  We curled up with the letter, held the card to our hearts.  

And then, to quote Brooks Hatlen in Shawshank Redemption, “The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.”

Technology pulled us in and along, dispatching stationary to the dustbin in favor of the immediacy of email.  Card manufacturers began to feel the tide receding and created online stores where you could pick an ecard and send it via email.  And invitations to parties and events found their online presence as well.  RSVPs with the click of a button, not a drive to the post office.

We are all guilty of indulging our inner Maverick and Goose with "the need for speed."  I am not an exception.  I love technology.  I love the reach, the immediacy, the scope.  But I also admit I miss the intimacy of writing a letter, choosing the perfect card.

So when I was approached about reviewing a unique concept in the e-commerce communication field, I decided to give it a go.  

Paperless Post, where making the paperless personal is the goal.

Developed in 2008 by siblings James and Alexa Hirschfield, their concept has grown beyond a unique and personal selection of ecards to being able to design printed stationary, invitations, etc.  And forget generic options, designers like Kate Spade have partnered to provide even more elevated experiences from which to choose.

And let's face it, 100 million users can't be wrong, so in I jumped.

What I found was a wonderfully indulgent, comfortable, user friendly website that welcomes you in from the front page to the moment you hit send.  I set up a free account, and as Valentine's Day was in the offing, I used the funding provided me by the company to set to creating the perfect ecards for each of my children.

And it was funstrating.  Fun and frustrating.  Fun because of the myriad options.  Frustrating because of, well, the myriad options.  Each time I thought, "Yes!  This one is perfect!" I would look at others and go, "Oh, wait, THIS one is perfect!."  Options ranged from the funny to the snark filled to the tear inducingly heartfelt.

As I found the perfect card to capture the unique relationships I have with each of my kids, I moved through the easy-to-follow personalization process.  You can design everything from the background behind the envelope, to the font, text sizes, personal messages, even the "stamp" in the upper corner of the finished envelope.  Within moments of hitting 'send' I heard from all of my kids - they loved the cards, the delivery, the unique message inside from Mom.

I moved on to a card for my husband, happily diving into the dizzying options for romance.  A few days later, Paperless Post helped me do the near impossible - find and create the perfect card for my in-laws.

Navigating through the website, the range of cards, wedding invitations, party invites, even a Beta program for flyers, is impressive.  And the ability to create from the site and turn them into real world, gorgeous invitations or stationary?  Well, it makes me want to create my own and begin indulging my inner Natasha & Pierre - I write letters/I write letters...

Now, as I mentioned, I was given an amount of funds to use as I set to reviewing the service.  But, even if your budget is slim to none, you are welcome at Paperless Post.  A wide range of cards are available free of charge.  And the cost for others depends on your choice of ecard/e-invite, and the options you may wish to choose as you move through the design process.

What I found is that they truly have managed to capture the feeling of creating something that feels one of a kind, personal, and old world, yet harnesses the technology of the here and now to deliver the goods.

Give them a try.  Brooks may have been right about the world and its big, damn hurry, but even the gang from Great Comet would appreciate the beauty, artistry, and intimacy found at Paperless Post, and upon receiving one find themselves enthusiastically singing the lyrics, "I read it twenty times, thirty times, forty times!  Each and every word."  

Can We Please Abort Stupidity?

Daily we come face to face the level of rampant stupidity in this country.  And it is shameful.

The embrace of ignorance as some virtue has been going on for a long time, but once Sarah Palin came on the scene, stupid became fashionable - the new black, as it were.  Suddenly education was elite, sinister, something to be mocked - ironically always by the least bright among us (see Sarah Palin).

It continued with earnest throughout the Obama administration's run as the least educated among us flocked to conspiracies, any conspiracy, that would hide their true reason for hating President Obama.  The Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks, and Alex Joneses made bank, and birtherism was born and given safe haven in the corpulent bosom of yet another high profile dolt - Donald Trump. 

That dotard of inadequacies proved the perfect vessel into which the ignorant in this country could pour all their imagined grievances, real bigotry, and disdain for facts that made their heads hurt.  He spoke their language - thirdgrade-ese; he embraced their lack of intellect "I love the poorly educated!"; he spoke in the same Bumper Sticker shorthand that had made Sarah P a right wing darling.

He gave them permission to disregard any information they did not like.  Just call it fake news, and POOF it did not matter.  He encouraged their baser instincts, the ones that thrive in the dark, moist caves of hatred and ignorance.

And on January 20, 2017, the stupidest man in America became the Oval Office resident. 

Every day since then we have watched the steady and rapid decline of diplomacy, information, and this country's image on the world stage.  Because we "elected" a World Stooge.

Important data was immediately stripped from government websites.  Dullards with no experience were elevated to positions of authority.  Words were listed as verboten.  And daily, those of us with brains, the ability to spell, and critical thinking skills shudder as this toddler with Twitter embarrasses us further.

It is no surprise that intellect and reason long ago packed their bags and moved from the GOP, leaving no forwarding address.  Like domestic violence victims, they went into hiding knowing that if they were found they would be further beaten into oblivion by the proudly, virulently ignorant Republican party.

Which is why there is no shortage of mouthbreathing dullards like this one:

Oklahoma state legislator Rep. Justin Humphrey.

This brain trust has put forth legislation that gives the Todd Akins of the world the tingles in the no-no zones.  His bill would require women obtain a permission slip from their sexual partner, and also require they provide that partner's name to the doctor, should they wish to have an abortion.

I am not kidding.  

But lest you think he has not thought it through...

"I understand that they feel like that is their body. I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host.’ And you know when you enter into a relationship you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant."

Hear that ladies?  We should pre-know.  That's manspeak for "It's all on you wimmin folk."  It's the same caveman, boneheaded, zero-understanding-of-how-it-works that still finds meathead men getting angry at their partners who are carrying a girl instead of a boy.   (Pssst, guys, you throw that decider.)  The same ignorance that found a legislator asking a doctor during a hearing why can't a woman just swallow a tiny camera to have her reproductive organs checked out.

Listen up Bubba - I am not a "host".  I am a fully formed, intelligent, autonomous being who does not need some bullshit permission slip from a man to decide what I do with my body or anything inside my body.  

Just curious, where are the permission slips for women to sign to allow men to obtain Viagra?  Hell, to masturbate?  Seriously Humphrey, if you are so concerned with life at any stage, men murder millions of potential babies every time they jack into a sock or Kleenex.  Seems you would want to get right on that with some legislation making it illegal to do anything with a penis that does not result in said precious baby batter being deposited into the host, right?

Fucking imbecile.

But not to be outdone, South Carolina's great minds have decided to step up to the plate with equally dimwitted legislation.  Their targets?  Anyone who does not fall on the spectrum in the het-cis spot.  Six GOP lawmakers brought forth the ‘Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act’ bill.  The upshit upshot? 

They wish to make a law classifying any union between same sex partners as a parody marriage.

If you're unsure of the definition, allow me and Mr. Webster to help you out.  Parody: a feeble or ridiculous imitation    

Sigh, more legislating from the oogie-meter of these simpletons.

How many times and ways does it need to be smashed into the already mushy brains of these bigots that LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE?  And two people of the same sex wishing to express that through marriage DOES NOT TOUCH THEIR LIVES IN THE LEAST.

What my son feels is the full range of human emotions, just like these morons on the right.  He laughs, cries, feels pain, and LOVES like anyone else.  And should he decide to express that emotion with another person through marriage?  Well, I have yet to hear a compelling reason why government sanctioned discrimination should stop him.  All these bills based in ignorance and flowing like poison from religious beliefs that should find no harbor in secular governance.

This morning, a piece I wrote four years ago came up in my On This Day.  Reading it through I was disheartened to see how far we have not come.  In it I wrote...

This belief that somehow what you believe is more important, more right than what someone else believes; that what you believe somehow makes you better, anointed, blessed; that you have the right to enter another person's life and legislate how they love, live, worship?

It is sick. 

There is no nicer word to put to it.  It is sick.  And when religion is allowed to get this out of hand, to ooze this deeply into our legislative process, is must be called what it is:  A SICKNESS. 

And like any life threatening sickness, it must be eradicated. 

The vaccination is education.  The shot is openmindedness.  The elixer is kindness.  The cure is, oddly enough, found in that book that is so often hidden behind and warped to inflict as much pain as possible on others. 

This country is made up of over 300 million different people.  Different sizes, shapes, colors, ethnicities, religions, no religions, orientations.  And to try to legislate how they worship, how they are allowed to express love, or how half of them are merely "hosts" with no say over their own bodies?  

SICK.

I finished that four year old piece with a question.  A question I am still waiting to have answered.  

That whole "love thy neighbor as thyself" business? 

Explain to me how these bills, this dangerous thinking, this blasphemous move to speak for God follows anything close to those words, the life Jesus lived, the word he preached.  Explain to me how Jesus died so that you could go on living out these monumental sins of hatred, bigotry, separation, exclusion, hubris, and self exultation.

Seriously, if nothing else, explain to me that last one.  Explain to me how you are better.

Going to pack another lunch.  I know I still have a long ass wait ahead.

God Damn It

I swear the irrational shit from the religious sphere is never ending.  Whether it's Michelle Bachmann swearing the Big Guy talks to her, or religious charlatans leaders threatening their congregants with his wrath lest they not pony up for another Bentley, or the constant drone about prayer in schools - their batshit is relentless.

Yes, batshit.

Don't like it?  Don't act it.

Your religion is YOUR business.  It begins and ends with you and your choice to indulge in whatever flavor you were brought up in or adopted as your preference as an adult.  Juggle your snakes, preach your fire and brimstone, turn your possessions over to your Gucci wearing elders, dance in the aisles, or mentally decorate that planet you will be bequeathed.  Whatever makes you happy, but STFU when it comes to the rest of us.

Your beliefs are just that - YOUR BELIEFS.  And I am not required to indulge them, join them, or give them audience to threaten me.  I don't care if you are a conservative Christian, a Hasidic Jew, a starry eyed Mormon, a Mecca facing Muslim, or any one of the 6,000 other currently practiced options.

I do not have to buy in.  You cannot make me.

Yet here we are again, watching as yet another legislature full of "faith" but no brains is trying to climb the wall of separation between church and state and hang their banner.

And lest you think I am just ragging on another Republican, think again - this shit comes from both sides.  On Wednesday, Rep Kimberly Daniels, a Democrat, of Jacksonville, Florida, introduced a bill into the House that would require all public schools to hang the state motto, "In God We Trust" "in a conspicuous place." 

Don't even get me started on it being a STATE motto to begin with, or the fact that it still rides around as a national motto on our money - a place it has NOT always been.  But hey, I'll play along, Kimberly...

Whose god?  His? Hers?  Theirs? There's an awful lot of them to choose from.  Oh wait, silly me, of course you mean YOUR god.  And you mean that every student, regardless of their upbringing - whether religious or secular - has to have YOUR god pushed in their faces every day.

Look, religious belief is fine, helpful even when it is comforting, providing community, offering refuge.  But when it oversteps its bounds?  No, not a good thing.  Because everyone of every religion believes only THEY are doing it right.  So how, when so many dullards in this country still drone on about Sharia Law somehow forcing them to worship Islam, can they not see the hypocrisy in their actions to force their God onto everyone else?

Kim defends her idea as "so simple, just saying put a poster up to remind our children of the foundation of this country." 

But wait, you get a gift with purchase in this one, folks!

Her bill is the result of a vision she had last week.  "I believe it was God, and I heard a voice say, 'Do not politicize what has happened in Florida and do not make this a thing of division.' "

Sorry, but it is political.  Sad but true, defending our children and our citizens as a whole is about as political as it gets these days.  One side of the aisle wants common sense to prevail, the other wants to give access to military level weaponry to every man, woman, and child.  That the mere notion of banning assault weapons - something that has been done before - gives rise to such aggression, highlights just where the division lies.  A serious lack of humanity and reason on one side, and an overabundance of desperation to save people on the other.

She driveled on.  "He's not a Republican and he's not a Democrat. He's not black and he's not white. He is the light. And our schools need light in them like never before."

Pray tell, Kimberly ... if schools need Him like never before because they keep getting shot up, just what would you tell all the still grieving families of the 26 people who were slaughtered IN THEIR CHURCH mere months ago?  What were they missing?  Surely if God was anywhere, it would have been during a church service of believers.

Not to be outdone in religious batshittery, the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania is holding a blessing ceremony for congregants' AR-15s.  I am not making that up.  I swear, if there is a God, or 6,000 of them, they just need to wash their hands of the whole lot of us.

But back to Kim... Hanging your poster is not going to prevent anything.  And your notion that it has to do with this country's founding?  How did you graduate with an F in American History?  Our nation was founded largely by Deists, not hardcore Christians.  They were fleeing religious persecution and made damned sure to start something where that was not sanctioned.  And again, "In God We Trust" came on the scenes in 1864 when it began being banged onto our coins.  It did not get stamped on our paper money until 1957.  Just as the phrase "under God" was not always in our Pledge.

Nor should it be.

The beauty of this experiment called the United States of America is that we are free to choose, or NOT choose.  Which means you should not be able to legislate forcing anyone to CHOOSE your flavor of deity.  Especially in a public school where our tax dollars are at work.  Frankly if you call yourself a patriot, you should be incensed at this kind of bill being introduced anywhere.  Being patriotic means standing up for our Constitution, our Amendments, the true founding principles - not just the ones that reinforce your preferences.  And for the record, religious certitude has been the cause of relentless carnage throughout the ages.

Not surprisingly, her bill passed the House.  On the same day they voted down even discussing assault weapons.

And therein lies the problem.  This constant looking up to solve our problems.  If there is a God, he is either not paying attention, or wanting us to finally use the brains he gave us to look straight ahead and start implementing real solutions.

And Kimberly, a goddamned poster is not going to protect the next group of students when the bullets begin to fly.

The Blame Game

I have three kids.  OK, fine, "kids" in its clinical definition does not quite cover them at ages 25, 24, and 21, but they are my offspring, ergo they are my kids.

For years I have listened to them lament the blame their generation receives from older people, the media, etc.  Born at the tail end of what are referred to as Millennials, they occupy Gen Y.  A generation that was born into the technology age, the advent of all the Facebooks, Twitters, Snapchat, etc.  They are also, along with Gen Z, the ones who watched the toll the housing bubble and recession took on their families, their parents, the world around them.

Anyone who wants to cast them off as uninvolved, selfish, or spoiled is wrong from the word GO.

Just as they are wrong about the Gen Z revolution we are seeing since the horrific attack in Parkland.

The millennial segments, X, Y and Z, are consistently, and ridiculously blamed for everything from ruining the diamond market to the entire state of the world.

Bull and shit.

I have long, animated conversations with them about all of this. 

They are blamed for the downturn in golf profits.  Seriously.  Analysts predict if this pattern continues, the game could disappear in 52 years. 

Diamond markets are suffering because they don't buy them, or opt for other gemstones when getting engaged. 

Beer companies lament their profits tankarding because this generation doesn't drink it like their fathers and mothers. 

They get blamed for the advent of political correctness, which let's be honest here, is simply code for "think before you speak and don't be a dick."

They are blamed for restaurants suffering as they do not eat out as much.  

Here's a good one - they don't see the need to buy paper napkins AND paper towels, so they are blamed for the napkin market drying up.

They are marrying less, so of course, blame them for the threat to flower sales, dresses, tux rentals, and wedding planners.

They don't go on vacations like the gen before.

They killed department stores and malls.  Well, in all fairness, I helped.  I can Prime what I want or need without getting dressed.  Hell, I can buy toilet paper while on the toilet.  

Oh, they are also to blame for soap manufacturers not having a beautiful Irish $pring anymore.  They consider bar soap to be gross and prefer liquid.

The housing market is unlikely to ever truly boom again as their generation does not have the funds, nor sees the need to purchase one.  They have seen what can happen.

All this blame comes from people wearing blinders.  People whose brains still reside in some Utopian Mayberry that never really existed.  People who refuse to look at the economics stats, the stagnant wages, the inflation, and the dangers these kids now face.  

They are saddled with crippling student loan debt - the product of the vicious circle of you need a degree to get a decent job to pay off the student loans you need to get a degree to get a decent job and on and on...

They scoff at spending thousands of dollars on diamonds because they don't have thousands of dollars and they don't buy into the marketing hype that made diamonds a must-have to begin with.

They don't eat out all the time because they cannot afford it.  And as for avocado toast?  They may eat it if offered, but don't blame them for its proliferation.  I like edamame, but I did not demand every restaurant start adding it to their menus ten years ago.  It seems now the shiseido pepper is the latest appetizer superstar.  Why?  Who the fuck actually knows.  

And DGMS on the game of golf.  Golf is a time consuming, expensive sport/hobby.  Rudy loves to golf.  He does it very infrequently.  It takes too much time, and when he has indulged it is because he runs a resort where he can do for free what others are paying hundreds of dollars for per round

These kids are not stupid or spoiled or lazy.  They are smart, involved, disgusted, and engaged in an uphill battle WE created for them.

Since Parkland, the Gen Zs have been blamed for not reporting the shooter enough.  They are blamed for creating division.  They are accused of being impolite.  Bullshit straight down the line.

They are not afraid of adults, have a complete aversion to hypocrisy, and will call it out at every turn.  

Samantha Fuentes, a young girl shot in both legs, still in a hospital bed, received a phone call from Trump.  Her take?  "I have never been so unimpressed with a person in my life." 

They know this emperor is buck ass naked and they are coming for him and his whole coven of demons who have such little regard for the lives of young people everywhere.

These kids are doing what everyone who came before should have done.  My generation could have organized, taken to the media and repeatedly called bullshit, marched and demanded action.  But we didn't.  For whatever reasons we may each be guilty of having, we did not do what we are seeing these young people do.

Maybe it's because we never had an AR-15 aimed at us and our friends.  Maybe it's because we hide behind not having the time to be advocates.  Or maybe it's because WE are the ones who are stupid, spoiled and lazy.

Stupid enough to allow the NRA to run roughshod over our leaders, buying them up like foreclosed houses in a gentrification scheme.  Spoiled by having all of our kids home after school each day - never having lost the gamble of sending them in the morning.  Lazy, because let's face it, it takes sustained energy, drive, commitment, and desire to effect real change.

Conservative pundits accuse them of being crisis actors or being paid by George Soros because they cannot understand how someone who is 17 or 18 can be this impassioned, this articulate, this aware.  I have news for you - yes, there are young people who cannot tell you who the Vice President is - but there are far more who can.  And they can factually speak to his platforms, his assault on equal rights, his belief in conversion therapy for their friends.  

Like my kids, these young people pay attention.  They read, they Google, they learn, they absorb, in real time, events happening around them, around the world.  A young man appeared on MSNBC yesterday with his father.  He had been at that "listening session" with the Oval Office occupier.  He was asked if during that session he felt heard.  God bless that kid, he immediately, sarcastically clapped back that yes, of course, "I know I was heard because I saw it written on Trump's little card."

I promise you that young man saw the picture of Trump holding those empathy crib notes before he even left the building.  That is how fast these kids receive and absorb information.  I read news all day.  I go to share something breaking with my son and he already knows more about it than I do.

These kids ARE the technology age.  They were birthed in it.  We had to untether ourselves from a corded wall phone.  They don't know what that even means.  Paul Manafort is facing big jail time because he incriminated himself in a paper trail in which he asks someone to help him convert a Word doc to a pdf.  I told my son this - he about peed himself laughing.  Ask yourself, how often does your child explain something on your smartphone to you?   

These kids are as fast as the technology they are now weaponizing in their pursuit of lasting change.  And adults cannot understand that, which is why the blaming needs to stop and we need to get out of their way.

Actually, I take that back.  You want to blame these kids for something?  Stand back and watch them work, then blame them for saving all our asses.  They are not just fighting for their right to survive, but for every single one of us.

You've Got Them On The Run, Kids

Last night's town hall in Parkland was a thing to behold.  Watch any clip this morning, hell, I would recommend you watch the entire thing.  Parents of children slain only a week ago, student survivors, their teachers, and the community showed up to take to task the their representatives and the reprobates who have sold them out.

And they put every journalist to shame because they did the one thing that never happens - these kids, these parents asked the hard questions.  And when they did not get an answer, or when the response was some form of pandering word salad, they pressed on, called it out as such, and demanded an answer to their questions.

Ryan Deitsch, a senior at Stoneman Douglas demanded, "We would like to know why do we have to be the ones to do this? Why do we have to speak out to the (state) Capitol? Why do we have to march on Washington, just to save innocent lives?" 

Marco Rubio, who is receiving plaudits for showing up - sorry, NO, he works for these people.  He is paid by these people.  It is his job to show up and answer questions - was handed his ass by the father of Jaime Guttenburg, killed in the school.

"Sen. Rubio, I want to like you. Here's the problem. ... Your comments this week and those of our President have been pathetically weak. Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in the school this week."

The crowd grew louder as they cheered Fred on, and Rubio looked smaller and smaller, like the NRA whore he is.  (And if you listened closely, you could hear more death rattles from the GOP.)

But when pressed by a student Cameron Kaskey with the simple question of will Rubio now reject MRA money, Rubio perked up and defiantly said No.  He will continue to take money from whoever supports his agenda.  Newsflash, Rubio, we all know your agenda begins and ends with your cush job and your wallet.  You just signed your own pink slip.

NRA's abrasive front woman, Dana Loesch, was taken to task by Emma Gonzales, the young lady to call BS on the government last week.  Wanting answers to questions about making it more difficult to obtain weapons, Loesch stated, "I don't believe this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm," and that she was indeed standing up for the students.  (Careful, I almost sprained an eyeball at this one.)

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel interrupted her monologue of doublespeak, "But you just told this group you were standing up for them. You're not standing up for them until you say I want less weapons."

(Note:  Loesch is a vile opportunist and piece of shit.  Today, cosseted in the venomous bosom of the CPAC horde, she said, “Many in legacy media love mass shootings. I’m not saying you love the tragedy, but you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.” She received a standing ovation.)

Watching parent after parent, student after student force these slippery eels to finally stay put, face the music, and answer their questions was a moment of true hope.  They are not going away.  They will not be silenced,  And they will call bullshit on every unanswered question, every attempt to obfuscate or pivot.

Of course, the conservative sector, spinning wildly as they see the bloody writing on the wall, added to their narrative of insanity - false flag, crisis actors - by Tweeting about the behavior of the students.  My favorite is this one from FOX News Host Todd Starnes:

Like thousands of others, I happily clapped black with my response:

I would lead the fucking standing ovation.

These kids are bright, articulate, and done with having to fear for their lives by the simple act of going to school.  They are organizing quickly.  Anyone who wants to try to take them on on their playing field - that of social media - good luck.  You and I may have adapted to technology, but these kids were birthed in it.  And watching them scorch the haters, conspiracy theorists, and idiot interviewers is a thing of beauty.

And they have support.  Yes, you and me and every decent person on this globe.  But they have high profile power lining up behind them as well.  George and Amal Clooney were first up to bat, donating $500,000 towards the march organization and a promise to attend.  Oprah has matched that donation and will be there too, as will Lin Manuel Miranda.  Not to take the spotlight away, these kids have a firm grip on it, but to help it shine brighter and bring home the fact that the time is now, the fight has truly begun, and true change is the only acceptable answer.

As one teacher at last night's town hall said, "Our kids have started a revolution."

Yes they have.  Keep it up, kids, you've got the cowards on the run.

 

The Humanity Famine On The Right

Dismay, n: sudden or complete loss of courage; utter disheartenment

Dismay, v: to surprise in such a manner as to disillusion

For some time now, we have been hit with the verb and are experiencing the noun.

Decent people like to think that there is decency in all people.  That tendency exists because most people simply cannot fathom behaving in any way other than decent.  How many times have you read of an attack and uttered something along the lines of, "I just cannot understand thinking/acting/hating that way"?

We see a terrorist attack, the bloodshed and loss of life, and are at once dismayed and heartened.  The dismay comes first as we stare open mouthed in shock, and then later a tiny light goes on and we are heartened because we can't wrap our minds around the thoughts and actions of those who perpetrate carnage.  

To put it simply:  Our minds do not work that way.

It has been a theme decorous society lives with these days.  While there have always been reprehensible segments oozing in and out, we were having some measure of success pushing them into the shadows, constantly letting them know their ideologies, behaviors, desires were anathema to the majority.

And then Trump came along.  While he would like to think of himself as Churchill's "riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma", the truth is he is a danger, wrapped in a horror, inside a nightmare.  And we have all been pulled into it.

His thoughtless, low information, callow supporters heard his dog whistles; they rallied to his boorish, aggressive behavior; and they became emboldened by his threats, his hubris, his dangerous lack of decency.  For them, it was like finally looking in a mirror and seeing themselves on the national stage.

Heady days for them, indeed.

And we watched, dismayed.

Soon, those on the right began lashing out, spilling blood.  Trump had drawn targets on group after group after group - and it has been a smorgasbord of bigotry, racism, jealousy, and seething anger.  They fill their plates greedily, returning again and again to the all-you-can-hate buffet.

Their actions are ugly, their words appalling.

And we watch, dismayed.

This past week, however, we have seen their arrogance, heartlessness, ignorance, and antipathy turned up to 11.  With the blood still staining the floors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, they have loudly embraced the lunacy of their leaders, their talking airheads, and every maniacal cartoon character they ever read about.

As the students who survived, and their peers across the country have begun to stand up and demand their legislators be held accountable, that elected officials DO SOMETHING, the conservatives have revealed what we have known deep down all along...

There is a humanity famine on the right.

There is no soul, no truly lived religious behavior, no care for anyone but themselves and their crass, selfish desires.  These two degenerates will forever represent what the right is about.  FUCK. YOUR. FEELINGS.  The right is so proud of that motto.

They ignore every bit of Trump's sordid past, excuse away his string of infidelities and marriages, look past his history as a blatant racist, failed businessman, womanizer, molester, and heathen.  CINO (Christians in name only) absolve him of all his sins, while rabidly slobbering down their faces.

They refuse to listen to anything factual, even basic science, because of the cognitive dissonance it causes them.  Take this gem.  She runs the FB page Team Trump Broward County.  When presented with evidence that she and her page had been infilitrated by Russian trolls during the election, she won't have it.

 

A Florida woman who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesn’t believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls https://t.co/DmgDRFRwyn pic.twitter.com/OAz5julCyA

— CNN (@CNN) February 21, 2018

She epitomizes the words, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."

This complete abrogation of facts and truth by their ignorant emperor has them embracing the bullshit and calling all else FAKE NEWS.

And we are dismayed.

The past few days as the students give interviews, organize the March For Our Lives, and bury their friends, the right has taken to calling them crisis actors, the shooting a false flag, and that they are too young to understand what they are talking about.  Point of fact, these students are the same age, if not older, than the age group the right embraced as being just fine for Roy Moore to diddle.

Last night, as students stood and watched, the Florida state House voted down a motion to take up a bill that would ban assault rifles, effectively killing the measure for this session.  That means these miscreant, bought out NRA whores refused to even talk about it.  Instead they directed their ire towards porn as a health crisis.  I see, porn (the junk "food" of choice in red states) is more of a danger than lead.  Got it.

As this photo of the student reactions to watching adults effectively tell them, "FUCK YOU.  YOU DON'T MATTER. GO BACK TO SCHOOL. GOOD LUCK STAYING ALIVE" went online, the right began mocking the pain and shock of these kids and what they have gone through.

And dismayed does not begin to cover how decent people are feeling today.

One of the worst leading the charge was conservative darling and convicted criminal Dinesh D'Souza.  His first Tweet?

And his follow up?

The callousness, the humor he seems to find in students begging to be protected is beyond the pale.  But then thousands of fellow dirtbags liked the tweets, and worse, added their own viscous bile to the threads.

The right was showing who they were as Trump was installed, then exposed themselves further as they propped up the likes of Roy Moore and Joe Arpaio.  But this latest attack on the young people in our society, the survivors of a bloody mass shooting only one week ago?  This lays bare the truth - the right has no connection to humanity.  

The right is peopled by miscreants, criminals, racists, bigots, haters, Nazis, and shitstains of all stripes.  It is the home of the worst elements, a haven for hate, a friendly hostel for hostility.  If you are a conservative watching this, yet staying right where you are?  You are filth.  You relinquish the last vestiges of anything you think makes you a good person.  You are what you stand with.  You are low, you are despicable, you are selfish, you are sewage.

If we are to pull ourselves out of this nightmare, they must all be shoved back into the sewers from whence they crawled.  They must be ejected from office, their ideologies buried deep under a tar pit.  We have the numbers to do it.  And now, we have empowered, brave, intelligent, fighting-for-their-lives kids leading the way.

They know it.  Just as they know these students and their messages are getting through, being heard - which is why they are striking out so hard.  They are scared.  They see the parent and faculty sanctioned walkouts happening.  They read about the March For Our Lives being organized.  They know these students across America who are loudly calling bullshit will be voting in 2018, and even more in 2020.  They read the full page ads outing their leaders and the amount of money they take from the NRA.  As dimwitted as they are, they can feel the change coming.  That sound in the distance they can hear ever so slightly right now?  It's a wave, a tsunami that is going to obliterate every horrid, heinous, vile one of them, drowning their idiocy, greed, rapacity, malevolence and venom in the strength, determination, intelligence and heart of humanity.

So they should be dismayed.  And you know what, conservatives?  We don't care.  We have put up with your bullshit and humanity famine long enough.  Hell, we'll even put it in words you can understand and just borrow your favorite line...

FUCK YOUR FEELINGS.

And A Child Shall Lead Them

17 students and faculty are dead.  This time.

What happened in Parkland, Florida last week was sadly predictable in that we know there will be another school shooting, and another school shooting, and on and on, we simply do not know the where.  The occurrence is not the surprise.  It's just a sad, tragic, blood soaked lottery that our children are entered into against their will and nobody wants to win.

It's become our Hunger Games.  Or perhaps SHAMES is a better word.

We have watched in horror as this scenario is played out again and again.  Shock, blood, vigils, funerals.  Parents shoved into the nightmare of child-death from which they will never awaken.  Thoughts and prayers - the impotent, bullshit extended by politicians who truly could not care less if they tried.  And the admonition from them, their gun fetish constituents, and their NRA cash overlords, that it is "too soon" to talk about gun regulation.

And so a headline comes, the above takes place, the headline fades, the media moves on, and we wait to see who wins the next Powerfall.

Yet this time, something very different is taking place.  Something amazing, heartening, and shameful all at once.

The children who were there are refusing to let this fade.  The survivors, the friends of the dead - the ones who had to walk through the blood and past their fallen classmates - are saying to the politicians, to the world, "NO, YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH IT THIS TIME."  And, "It is not TOO SOON, it is TOO LATE!"

Listening to how articulate these students are, how fed up they are with the fear all students feel these days, and how angry they are no one in charge gives a damn about protecting them?  I am humbled.  I am also filled with shame.  Shame because we adults have systematically, right down the line, failed them over and over and over. 

We have allowed the bought out whores in the House and Senate to ignore our dying children in favor of slobbering over the millions they receive from the NRA.  We watched last year as Trump and his minions made it easier for mentally ill people to obtain weapons.  We have stared open mouthed as states like Florida create laws that make it ridiculously easy to obtain your weapon of choice.  Hell, at this point, they may as well give them away as a gift with purchase when you buy a Slurpee.

And instead of standing up, marching forward, and scaring the shit out of the shills in our legislature, we adults have acted helpless.  We all are complicit in getting to where we are today.

So our children, still in shock, suffering PTSD, recovering from wounds are now pushing us aside.  They now know, beyond any doubt, that they must be the ones they have been waiting for.

Marches have already been planned.  Nationwide walk outs are being coordinated at schools across the land.  And most impressively, these kids are calling literal BULLSHIT on Trump.  Kids are doing what leaders are afraid to do.  They are standing tall, taking to the media, staring directly into the cameras and saying - without blinking or stuttering:  THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES.

Lecturing these brave students, as so many frightened and surprised Republicans have been attempting to do?  Good luck with that, you craven, vile, immoral wastes of flesh.  These teenagers are not afraid of you, your orange, stank gourd of a leader, or your empty talking heads on TV.  They live with more fear daily just putting on their backpacks and walking into their schools than you could ever hope to scare them.  

They are brave.  And they know you are not.

Their bravery is not going unnoticed by what passes for saner heads in your ranks.  BIG donors have stepped forward and made it clear the money faucet is being turned off until you DO SOMETHING about the gun violence and gun accessibility in this country.  Because these teens are speaking loudly, answering questions put to them in interviews with FACTS, and not shying away from calling legislators out by name and dollar amount amount they have received from the NRA.

And you know what else?  MANY of them will be able to vote later this year.  And many more will be able to vote in 2020.

2020.  That's fitting.  It will be the year where their generation will see perfectly how powerful they are.  And you will see perfectly how an entire generation reviles you for how you have put personal profit over protecting them right down the line.

To these children who are literally pushing we adults out of the way, I am so very sorry we have let you down.  None of us ever sends you to school without the fear in the backs of our minds that you may not come home.  Yet even that did not move us to effective action.  We own that shame.  And you have our support.

Thank you for standing up and bravely shouting the words of your generation's fictional hero, Katniss Everdeen, "I volunteer as tribute."

Lead us.  I promise, we will follow.

e-disHARMony

Sitting on the throne of 27 years of happy marriage, looking out at the landscape of lonely, hopeful, looking souls, I can say without a doubt that I am very lucky. 

Dating, even under the best of circumstances, is a crapshoot.  Whether it's a blind date set up by friends "just certain" you will hit it off, a meet cute at the local Starbucks, or a co-worker turned romantic interest - dating is just hard.

We all put our best feet forward, uber conscious of our every word, apparel selection, laugh.  We are our best selves - polite, attentive, generous.  We make sure our breath is fresh, our nails are clean, our undergarments ready to be admired.  Then little by little, we reveal things about ourselves.  Childhoods, dreams, goals, desires.  

So far, so good.  He/she seems interesting and interested; they laugh at your jokes; they chew with their mouths closed.  Your heart beats a little faster...

Then, it all goes to shit in the space of one statement you make comprised of any of these words - "I', "Republican", "Trump", "snowflakes", "MAGA", "wall", "love".

Your date excuses him/herself, accesses their Lyft app, and heads home to take a chemical shower and cleanse themselves.

Poor dateless MAGAt.

Until now!  

Just in time to save you from a life spent hating other people all alone, comes Trump Dating!  That's right, the PeeHarmony of the internet!  The OKKK Cupid dedicated to matching his/hers sheets.  The HarmersOnly.com where you can find your soulmate and an additional supply of ammo for your AR-15!  The TinDERRRR for low information voters!  The Bumble where the bumbling can grab pussy by the handful!

I'm not kidding.

Having finally keyed in on the fact that normal, decent people want nothing to do with them, their ideologies, their ignorance, a dating site has sprung up to insure their shallow gene pool puddles on.

From the front page, your first selection makes it clear their bigotry is a badge of discourage.  Straight Woman or Straight Man.

And you know what?  GOOD.  Let them have each other.  They are so proud of their hate, their willful stupidity, their FAKE NEWS - I think it best they circle their jerks and have at it.

Personally, I would rather eat my own foot than date a Republican.  And I would certainly rather - to quote Bill Paxton in Apollo 13 - eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros than date a MAGA hat wearing, racist, FOX loving-dullard.

Harsh?  Sorry, no.

They are exactly who they showed themselves to be as they clamored to enter the Roach Motel of Trump's politics.  They are dangerous, full of certitude based on NOTHING, convinced of their own superiority, and hate anyone not like them.  They turn their backs on any information that does not support their limited scope on the world.  They cling to conspiracies because facts make their heads hurt.  And as the past few days have shown, have no compunction about victim blaming the students in mass shopotings.

But then, their dating namesake is leading the charge in that arena.

After Tweeting out that the Parkland students should have done more to report Cruz, he then headed south.  Not only did the Oval Office resident spend scant minutes with the doctors and recovering victims in Florida (not that he was wanted - students and parents were making it very clear to stay the hell away), he then headed directly to Mar-a-lago for a Studio 54 themed party. 

His MAGAts openly cheer these disgusting moves (imagine Trump doing the Hustle - oh, wait, never mind) while they mocked President Obama's tears when meeting with the families of the slain Sandy Hook children.

THAT IS WHO THEY ARE.

This tweet, liked by over 86,000 of them, is his attempt to use the dead children in Florida as a shield - blaming the Russia investigation for them being dead.

Like their zero hero, they are crude, selfish, thoughtless, self aggrandizing, loud, ignorant reprobates.

So again, I am happy to see them segregating themselves in terms of the dating pool.  Decent society has no use for them. 

But hey, I'm a giver, so I wrote this profile for them to use when they sign up.

Single, WHITE (duh!) <insert male or female>.  Loves long walks on the beach laughing at dead children who wash up on the shore trying to escape danger in their country; enjoys covering my empty gourd with a bright red MAGA hat; thinks Sean Hannity is 'de man!"; can't wait till Hilery goes to prison for Bingawsi (fuck spelling, you snowflake libruls!); and gets hot just thinking about holding my big, hard, long rifle.  If you are looking for someone to share monogrammed white sheets with, I'm your man/girl.  Bump my stock, baby!

Seriously, they can have their Trashley Madison website, and each other.  Because when it comes to online and app dating - decent people know which way to go.  Never before has SWIPE LEFT been more apt.

Hiding In Plain Sight

Much is being made this morning about Nikolas Cruz, the killer in yesterday's horrific school shooting in Florida.  

A 19 year old students remember as troubled, scary, one to avoid.  “A lot of people were saying that it would be him,” a student told WFOR-TV. “They would say he would be the one to shoot up the school. Everyone predicted it.”

He was expelled, sent to alternative school - where other troubled, aggressive, or violent students are shifted - and even those students steered clear of him.

His mother, prior to her death, would routinely call the police to come to their home and talk to him in the hopes of scaring him into better behavior. (He was currently living with family friends as his father passed away years earlier.)

His social media is a cauldron of anger, aggression, and guns.

The FBI was even warned of his "I'm going to be a professional school shooter" video on Youtube in September of 2017.

Yes, all the signs were there.  Yet there he was yesterday, armed to the teeth, mowing down 17 innocent students and faculty.

And we are left to question how? Why?

As a parent, my heart was held in a vice every single day my children were in high school.  Anyone with common sense understands that nowhere is safe in a country with more guns than citizens.  Concerts, movie theaters, schools - they have all become blood soaked killing fields.  So sending my kids off to school each day was an exercise in hope; a roll of the dice that they would come home at the end of the day; and a high stakes gamble that should someone begin shooting in their school, they would escape harm.

When our youngest was 14, just a freshman, his friend of many years brought a gun into the school, into the classroom he shared with her.  To this day, I cannot allow myself to dwell too hard on the what ifs - they are still paralyzing.  That she left the classroom with her backpack and went to a bathroom and shot herself in the head?  I am selfishly grateful.  Grateful that she took no one with her when she made her exit from this world.

But the incident still haunts my child.  

Last night we sat and talked about yesterday's shooting.  I asked him if there were students in his high school he thought were capable of this type of thing.  He did not hesitate in answering - though the years since he graduated have made the names hazy, he says he definitely remembers avoiding certain people because of the threat he felt they were to the student body.

As more and more students begin speaking about the killer, it will become more and more evident that yesterday should not be surprising.  So why, when a student is openly joked about as being the one most likely to shoot up the school, was there no true intervention?

Sadly, even with all the evidence to constantly show people this can happen anywhere, we still default to the human belief that something this big, this horrific certainly cannot happen in our bubble.  These things happen in towns we have never heard of, schools and movie theaters on the other side of the country.  Certainly not here.

And that is a mindset we have to take on and break.  Just as we must finally take on the NRA and every bought out whore of a legislator who takes millions of NRA dollars.  This is not going away.  Thoughts and prayers are impotent.  We must stop looking up and begin looking straight ahead.

We created this problem.  Only we can stop it.

Nikolas Cruz is not a one-off.  There are many Nikolas Cruzes simmering, planning, plotting, stockpiling.  They are there everyday scaring your kids, worrying their teachers, leaving their parents at wits end.  Yet they are allowed to continue because of lax laws and wishful thinking.  Laws in Florida make it possible for an 18 year old to buy a weapon in a private sale - no background check, no registration, no license.  That same 18 year old cannot drink legally or rent a car.

Law enforcement was repeatedly called to his home, yet without him doing something, their hands were tied.  Wishful thinking made his expulsion an out of sight, out of mind solution.  Wishful thinking made his mother believe her son could never truly hurt someone else.  Wishful thinking made fellow students joke about him because surely even he would never attack them.

I promise you this beautiful young soul did not get up yesterday morning thinking it was her last.

The drums are being banged again this morning to arm faculty.  These "great minds" still exist in a deluded world where the gym teacher will be the one standing on the rise shouting "Wolverines!"  These attacks happen quickly, and with an AR-15, the dead pile up so fast that the gym teacher is likely to be shot in the head before he or she can even reach for their gun.  

Much is being made about him being "mentally disturbed."  Yes, I would agree.  But he was also lucid, and clear minded in planning an attack that exploited his former school's own alarm system.  He set off smoke bombs to trigger the alarm system which in turn would produce hundreds of students and teachers flooding the halls to evacuate.  Once that began?  Easy pickings.  To you and I this is unfathomable because our minds do not work this way.  His mind, however, was crafty, scheme-y, and filled with murderous rage.

Our own Oval Office resident has tweeted about Cruz being "expelled from school for bad or erratic behavior."

I find this completely tone deaf and laughable coming from the reprobate who was almost expelled for bad and erratic behavior (black eye to a music teacher, threw an eraser at a teacher, multiple home problems) and was eventually shipped off to military school because he was such a behavioral problem.  Out of sight, out of mind ring a bell? Given his track record then, through the years, and now as his favorite hobby is taunting the leader of a nuclear capable country?  I'd say there's a strong argument for Trump being "mentally disturbed."

He appeals to the angry, easily manipulated, victimy horde among us - at all levels.  This is Cruz in a hat students said he loved to wear and taunt others with.

Really making America great again there, Donnie.  Your words have consequences.  As do your actions, like you signing the bill allowing mentally disturbed people to have easier access to guns.  And these consequences have more blood on them today.  So spare us the lecture about him being mentally disturbed, and shove your thoughts and condolences straight up your Depends wearing, NRA owned-to-the-tune-of-$21-million ass.  This was another incident of white male terrorism in this country.  Another incident that will be polished up, excused away, and then ignored.

We can not afford to let our ennui get the best of us.  I know we are all exhausted by the constant stream of blood.  18 school shootings in just 31 school days in 2018 ... so far ... but we simply have to rally our weariness, our horror, our anger into action.  Voting out the whores who care more for the NRA than your child is a solid start.  Stop allowing them to hide in plain sight, offering their "thoughts and prayers".  They are pariahs with NRA cash in their pockets and blood on their hands.  And we must demand that solid, preventative steps may be taken when another student is such an obvious threat to others, hiding in plain sight, just waiting to attack.

Because make no mistake, the next school shooting is coming.  Will it be your child in the crosshairs, on the coroner's table?  How much longer will you gamble the way I did, hoping your children survive high school?  School shootings are averaging one every 60 hours right now.  More of our children will be taken by this time next week. 

Because in this country, never before have Ben Franklin's words rang more true - nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

It does not have to be this way.  We owe it to the memory of the 17 who perished  yesterday, and the memories of the hundreds who have been taken in years past, to finally, fully, DO SOMETHING.

It does not have to be this way.

It Doesn't F*cking Matter

I am watching the fallout of yet another school shooting.  And scribbling down quotes as fast as I can as one lawmaker after another, one student after another, one parent after another, one official after another stares into the fisheyed lens and speaks...

 

"It is an idyllic community."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"This school has wonderful kids."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"You would never think it could happen here."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"Parents are involved in this school."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"The community is full of good, middle class people."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"This is a peaceful community."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"I grew up with guns."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"We need to do more for troubled kids."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"Our thoughts and condolences go out to the families and victims."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him.” (of the shooter)

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"I've never been more scared in my life."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida"

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

"So far 20 are injured, and 17 are dead."

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

Because we live in the United States of America, where guns are sacrosanct, and the mere mention of employing any type of further control is akin to treason.  So people continue to be shot, and blood continues to run in the hallways of our schools.

Today's winner in the Moving Target sweepstakes is Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  At this time, the school is still being cleared by SWAT teams, and the shooter is in custody.  But...

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

Why is a young person able to buy a gun at 18, but cannot rent a car till 25?  Why in Florida could a gun be bought in a private sale with no background check, and no requirement to register or license? Because...

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

It is February 14th and we have had 18 school shootings. 45 days and 18 shootings, JUST IN SCHOOLS.

And IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

It did not matter when my kids were in school, it does not matter now.  The NRA has a stranglehold on the balls of our legislature, where money matters far more than actually governing for the greater good.  We will get the usual vomitous outpouring of "thoughts and prayers" from our leaders who will act helpless to do anything.  They will lecture us that it is "too soon" to talk about gun legislation - I would argue it is TOO FUCKING LATE.  And this story will fade from the headlines, as will the names of its victims, in a couple days.

Think not?

Name the kids shot dead in New Mexico?  Kentucky?

Exactly.

Because IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

I just have one question for you.  And every elected leader in this country:

How much longer are you willing to send your child to school in this nation?  Because idyllic, cloistered, public, private, rich, poor, north, south, east, west - IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER - it will happen again.

Seventeen people lay dead in a school today because in the United States of America...

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.