All Hail Saint Kavanaugh

This guy is just unbelievable. Literally. Among all the other unusual and amazing lies pouring forth from the seemingly bottomless cauldron associated with this administration at large, the little divertissement in the form of an interview with Brett Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley, on Fox News yesterday is particularly pathetic. So many things catch the eye and ear: his mechanical, repetitive delivery of his message (I've never done anything wrong; I want to be treated fairly), his wife's body language and expressions as she appears to experience an internal war between wanting to be the dutiful wife (hopefully of a Supreme Court justice - that's got to involve a pay raise, right?) and wanting to choke the shit out of this lying asshat.... Incidentally, I was struck by the fact that he wouldn't even have her answer questions that were directed to her specifically.

At the moment, though, I"m stuck on his cry of purity. The interviewer asked "so you were a virgin in high school?" and his reply was that oh yes indeedy, he was, and through college - for "many years after that".  That was a whopper even for him. I suppose next we'll discover that, actually, he is still a virgin, maintains a platonic marriage with his wife, and the children were conceived by Divine Intervention. In fact, he is so pure of heart that he has been tapped to pull the sword from the stone and become the Divinely Ordained Holy King of the British Isles.

But why stop there with the story? With further investigation we may find that he has performed may miracles because of his innocence and purity. The blind and sick have been healed, he turns water into wine (which likely made him very popular in school, according to reports of Georgetown Prep's  environment), and - in his most striking miracle to date - he has been a justice on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals without being impeached for his lying.

As an additional note, his claim of virginity is just more evidence of the good ol' white boy mentality at work here. Let's say yes, ok, you were a virgin. That doesn't mean you can't commit sexual assault! You do not have to actually put your penis in a vagina to have committed sexual assault or even rape, you idiots. It's just such a typical cliche response from the white male consortium. They'll say ANYTHING to distract from their misogynistic and bigoted bad behavior and try to make themselves the victims in the process.

BREAKING NEWS: now he claims he really didn't drink in high school! He says that all he really did in high school was study, play sports, and "be a good friend". I can't believe he left out all his charity work with orphans, how he dedicated all weekends to Meals on Wheels, and any spare time was spent rescuing lost puppies and petting kittens.  I guess he wasn't going to be a big help with the 100 keg club then. Thanks for the help, NOT, Kavanaugh!

Maybe he was just so drunk in school that he doesn't remember drinking.

As this drama slouches on, I can't wait to see what further miracles and holy delights this jerk has in store for us. It's hard to believe that he is still on any tracks at all that would lead to his confirmation. Ultimately it's all just heartbreaking. I know things aren't perfect in this country, but I did think that things were improving, that barriers between people were starting to fall, and that love was starting to get a toehold. If the cadre of bigoted white guys have their way though, they will make sure we're all living in 1950 in no time at all.

A Return to Ranting, I think

Seven years ago I started this blog as a response to, umm, "comments", shall we say, by family and friends that I seemed to have a lot to say about life in general. In that seven years, I've managed to write two, count them two rants. Amazing work, no?

No.

Now, don't think that I haven't ranted up a storm in that time. I've ranted plenty - just never wrote any of it down. Times change, feelings change, people change, and rants change. But the ranting nature remains ever present. And it seems like there is plenty to rant about. Take for example that I am ranting in an online blog. Want to know why? No, you probably don't.

But, I need an outlet, and some practice with writing instead of just random blabbering. So, here ya go. Enjoy. Or not. You don't have to read this stuff, you know.

Quick, Get A White Guy In Here!

Today's news cycle will no doubt be full of the Kavanaugh hearings and the new Woodward book. Why Stephanie Ruhle gets bumped for this coverage, I have no idea. Quick, get the white guy in here to hold down the fort! Now of course that might not be the case - maybe Ruhle didn't want to take it on. I can totally see why she would want to be downgraded to panelist during her own hour on a day when certainly there will be a lot of interest. Yeah, why would she want to anchor her own show on a high profile news day? Maybe she just didn't want to contribute to the "hysteria from women" which was a complaint of one of the GOP senators yesterday (another white guy in case you were wondering - pull up the hearings online and watch). Quick, get the women some laudanum and have them lie down to recover from their vapors; we white guys will handle all this for you, poor things.

And quick, get the ultra conservative white guy on the Supreme Court as fast as possible so we can help these poor women finally understand that they have no control over their bodies and that therefore white guys need to get in there and make/break a bunch of laws to help them! Actually having babies will probably fix them all up - that's probably what's wrong with them, not enough babies and barefoot kitchen time. As a white Christian guy, he also will be able to get rid of all those offensive homosexuals and transsexuals and get those brown people back in their proper place (in the fields or kitchen) and status (working like dogs and treated worse).... I just can't watch any more - I'll wait for the executive summaries later. I've run out of uplifting videos, such as Life Without People and documentaries on spontaneous human combustion to watch, but surely there are some documentaries about abandoned places or the end of the universe I can put on while I work to cheer up.

Oh, and with this confirmation to the Supreme Courth, perhaps we can also make sure that the Mango Mussolini is held above the law. When the hell did we get a freakin' king?? I guess we, as a country, have coasted all this way on the expectation that the honor and propriety of the office would keep any such questions from coming up. 

It's all just unbelievable and sickening. I had thought that many of these issues were "behind" us now as a nation, as humanity - but apparently not. I realize there were still many problems, but at least progress had been made and was continuing to be made in terms of the law. Now all that is in jeopardy, it seems. It's disheartening. It's also disheartening to see that adulterous, self-serving liars can call themselves "Christians" as they spread lies and hate and enrich themselves - and all with the support of those hypocrites who count themselves holy because they can sob over a fetus and hide their own sexual perversions and shady business dealings successfully. These same people, with all their love of life and upstanding morals, have no problem denying people health care, children food and clothing and education, killing people - at home or abroad -, and of course they'll quietly sponsor abortions when their mistress or daughter ends up full of "a gift from the Lord". And so on and so forth - the lies and crimes stretch over the horizon. What, do they think God doesn't see that?? 

This kind of behavior is probably why God doesn't talk to us anymore. Despite what they say, I know that He isn't talking to *these* white guys.

Yeah, It's So Hard To Imagine

It's been a while since I've written out a rant. A good long while. That's not to say I didn't start a few; but, then they would get talked out instead of written out, and in the post-rant coma, the moment passed without publication. I know; how sad.

 

But today's school shooting tragedy in Connecticut and the resulting media attention and FaceBook activity got me going on my first written rant in quite a while, which I am posting and slightly expanding here as well. Before the ranting commences, however, I send thoughts and prayers out to all the poor souls affected by today's absolutely horrible events. My heart breaks for all those children, teachers, parents and families, and the community at large. There are no possible words of consolation; prayers are all that can be offered for those who suffer.

Now for the rant.

As we struggle to make sense of another senseless tragedy, I see that, once again, there are many calls for stronger gun control laws, including some calls to repeal the Second Amendment. "Our Founding Fathers only had single shot guns; they never would have approved of public gun ownership if they had the sorts of firearms available today...", and so on. Something I think is missing in this blossoming discussion is that our Founding Fathers would also not have approved of the levels of violence that are considered not only commonplace in our "modern" US society, but are aggressively promoted by popular media and the entertainment industries as being "fun". The systemic violence and horror in our current culture are at levels that would make our Founding Fathers puke.

So many people are wondering out loud "How someone could think of doing such a thing??" Well, ponder on this. Consider that shooting, killing, and generally blowing and cutting people into bloody bitlets to splatter across the screen in HD is considered "fun", "interesting", and is "stress relief" for children from 9 to 90. I can't tell you how many times I have heard from those near and dear to me the rationalizations.... "Oh, it's just a game", or "They are just actors", "I like to watch it for the characters", and one of my personal favorites: "It is an adrenaline rush and/or it lets me blow off some steam".

Gee, really?? Killing people, or watching others torture and kill people, is somehow relaxing and invigorating?? A great way to get in some "family time"? How about date night with your beloved? Yeah, eat your popcorn and drink your carbonated malted battery acid while those "actors" are tortured, mutilated, killed. Am I the only one who sees something wrong here??

Throw into this mix our fascination with and glorification of war. We laud our amazing killing capabilities and machines and all the "games" that go along with that, and we pat ourselves on the back for our patriotism and ingenuity. Any time you have a child who plays with soldiers and fighters and makes those bombing, shooting, blowing up noises to go along with it (and by the way, I have one of my own, right here with me now, with whom I have to have this discussion from time to time), you have a child who is learning that war is somehow "fun". By playing at war, that child is learning to dissociate from the pain and horror that is not just a part of war - it IS war. War is horrific under ANY circumstances, and it should be regarded and treated as such.

Incidentally, before someone flames me because they think I am just down on soldiers, let me be clear: service to one's country is EXTREMELY honorable. I just choose to further my respect for the lives and well-being of those who put themselves in harm's way for a righteous cause (itself subject to debate, but not at the moment) by NOT thinking of war as something that should ever be considered something to do for amusement.

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ENTERTAINING WHATSOEVER about killing under any circumstances. Period.

I'm looking in your directions, "Grand Theft Auto", or "Sons of Anarchy", any of the "Saw" movies, and all of the rest of a disgusting parade of "action" or "horror" movies and games - all masquerading in the guise of "entertainment". My list of revolting games and shows foisted off as "entertainment" isn't limited to those I have named; those are just some of the ones that I have the misfortune of being able to call by name.

So, if you are one of those who is wondering "How could someone have done such a horrific thing?", consider that perhaps, just maybe, if violence is ubiquitous and glorified in a society, and is used as "stress relief" or "relaxation"-- well, this might at least be HOW "someone could have thought of doing such a thing". Garbage in = garbage out, folks.

If it turns out that it is an innate quality failing of Homo "sapiens" that we can find any enjoyment in even "just" the imagery of pain, suffering, and violent death, then, yeah, I guess we don't deserve to have guns. Or explosives of any kind, or pointy sticks, or rocks, for that matter. If, however, we can actually be HUMAN and not think of killing as any kind of play or amusement, then we can have all the firepower and blowy-uppy things that we want. Maybe we would want a lot less of them. What kind of society do you want to support? Just something to perhaps think about when you choose a toy, game, movie, ....

Again, it's all heartbreaking, in every way. For all of those who are the victims of violence, everywhere, may comfort and blessings come to you.

This Is A Test

The following is a test of the This Morning's Rant ranting and raving system. This is only a test.

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What the hell is wrong with those ________?

How can ______________ put up with ____________ that kind of obvious ________?

Why can't anyone seem to ___________that ______ is absolutely ________ about __________?

What kind of a __________ do you have to be to not be able to see that ____________ is doing _____________ to ___________?

If I have to ___________ to one more __________ about __________, I am going to __________ their ____________ in their ___________.

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This has been a test of This Morning's Rant. Had this been an actual Morning Rant, you would have gotten a somewhat more eloquent and definitely more profane diatribe containing the particulars of what it was that set me off and details of what I thought of the participants and events. You also would have been informed about exactly what everyone should do either about or to the participants and/or events and what I would think of anyone who can't see what I'm talking about.

This concludes this test of This Morning's Rant ranting and raving system. We will now return to the already bloated blogosphere at large.

Thank you.