Cops kill white people too

The media has a double standard that drives me nuts.  When a white cop does something to a black person, it's national news.  One more case of white people oppressing black people. There are riots, social media goes wild and the rampant racism of our white majority is condemned by blacks and whites a like.  And the media plays up the racial tension to massive ratings, but it's not a fair portrayal and it isn't accurate.  Here I was thinking journalism was supposed to be about facts.  Guess I was wrong.

I don't condone racism and I won't pretend it doesn't exist, but when it comes to police brutality, I can assure you, cops are equal opportunity offenders.  And the media IGNORES it.

Take Gilbert Collar, an unarmed WHITE teen shot by Trevis Austin, a BLACK cop in Alabama.  Where was the media coverage?  Where were the cries of racism and the condemnation?  Only after the violence of Ferguson (an eerily similar event to Collar's murder) did ANYONE bring up Collar and the fact that his killer wasn't charged either.  And those who dared to mention Collar in relation to Ferguson were immediately deemed racists.  Because black people can't be racist and all white people must be.  Yeah, right.

Dillon Taylor in Utah, also an unarmed white man shot by a black cop. Where was the outrage?  The media didn't even give it a blurb.

Cops shoot white people too.  It's a fact.  Cops shoot Hispanics, Asians, Arabs and pretty much everyone.  It isn't just white cops that are too quick to shoot.  Black cops, Asian cops, Hispanic cops all do it too.  The media ignores all that.  They only care if it involves  a white cop and a black man because that's what gets the idiots watching their shows.  Double standard.  The media is the most racist entity ever.

Police brutality is not solely based on race.  It's CULTURAL.  It's in the training of police officers.  It's in the mindset and attitudes prevalent among police officers.  It's a by product of a gun happy nation.  If we refuse to acknowledge that, if we insist on making it all about race, we're NEVER going to stop the problem.

And the media should remember they're journalists and keep the opinions in the editorial column.  Get your facts straight and burn your race card.

Stop police brutality against EVERYONE.

Israel: Is it worth fighting for?

What's so holy about the supposed holy land?  What makes it more important than the rest of the world?  I don't think Israel is all that great as far as countries go and I definitely don't think it's worth fighting over for anyone outside Israel.

It's just land.  So it got a shout out in the Bible.  Who cares?  That was 2000 years ago.  Jesus doesn't live their anymore.  Muhammad doesn't live their anymore.  Neither of them imbued the land with any magical powers.  It's just dirt.

But we humans are petty, stupid little things and we fight over dirt.  Geez.  It's not even very pretty dirt.

Pay attention, sweeties.  God doesn't live exclusively in Israel.  God is everywhere.  You can talk to God from anywhere.  Israel is NOT the holy land.  The whole damn world is the holy land.

So give it a frickin' rest.  2000 years we've been fighting over this particular patch of dirt.  We're stupid.  Israel needs a reality check.  They aren't all that.  They aren't more special because they're Israel.  Jews aren't the chosen people of God anymore than anyone else is.

God made the entire world and He loves every bit of it.  Not just stupid Israel.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherent the earth.  That's what the Bible says.

Israel, time to be a little more humble.  Time to come down from your self made pedestal and start being NICE to people.  Maybe then your neighbors would like you more.

Time to throw the race card away

There's no easy way to put this so I'll just come out with it.  Everybody's racist to some degree.

I don't pretend to know why.  Maybe it's just society conditioning us.  If behavior is learned, naturally our attitudes regarding race are also created by our observations of the world around us. We soak up the way race is handled by our parents, the media, etc and it becomes imprinted in our minds.  We then copy what we see.  The level of our racism would, therefore, be determined by our exposure to it.  So it makes perfect sense for rednecks to be more racist than liberals.  It's a matter of breeding.

Then again, it could simply be a biological predisposition to favor what is like ourselves over what is different in much the same way dogs prefer other dogs over cats. It's an unconscious reaction we aren't necessarily even aware of.  This could also explain our divisive nature over politics, religion and a host of other ailments, but some other time.

In the end, the reason behind racism doesn't matter.  The ugly truth is, there will never come a day when we look beyond race.  We're shallow creatures who form our first opinion of someone based on how they look to us.  Appearance will always matter.  The best we can hope for is a day when race doesn't bother us so much.

We need to stop looking at race as a whites only disease because that's not being honest.  Every ethnic group on the planet has it share of racists.  You may have been conditioned to not want to accept this, but it's still the truth.  Most white people aren't out to oppress black people.  A lot of white people aren't overtly racist.  A lot of black people are.  And so are a lot of Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Aboriginals and anyone I left out.

It's not pretty.  It's hard to swallow, but there's the painful reality of racism.  Everybody does it.

But here's the rub.  You can't use racism as an excuse for you not making anything of yourself.  I'm tired of hearing about white privilege and the white man's trying to oppress you.  If it bothers you so much, get off your ass and do something about it.  Vote.  Better yet, run for office.  If you don't think the justice system treats your kind fairly, go be a cop or a lawyer or a judge.

Is it really the white man's fault that you don't take care of your own neighborhood?  That you throw your trash on the ground or are disrespectful to your neighbors?  What kind of person plays loud rap music at 3am anyway? Does the white man make you do that too?  Is the white man really forcing you to commit crimes (even smoking weed) or join street gangs?  Is the white man keeping you from getting a job or is it your lack of education?  Is the white man really keeping you from going to school or did you skip class today because you wanted to?  When's the last time the white man actually made you do anything you didn't agree to do?  You can think for yourself, can't you?

There are way too many successful people of color out there for your failure to be all due to your race.  These successful minorities aren't flukes.  They didn't pull one over on the white man.  Their skin color didn't hold them back so why should it hold you back?  You'll have to pull your pants and put more effort into school, but I think you can accomplish more than you want to admit to.

It isn't poverty or even skin color that makes the ghetto so awful.  It's the bad attitudes of the people living there and you chose to behave that way.  No one made you.  Hard truth is you're responsible for most of your own mess and you're the only one standing in your way to cleaning it up.

Listen, racism isn't going away.  There will always be someone out there who isn't going to like you, but you can't let that dictate your life.  If you want something, you have to work for it.  You have to say "I'm gonna succeed despite the haters" and keep trying.  Blaming your failures on someone else will never bring you success.

It's time to throw the race card away.  Time to stop blaming racism for you're own shortcomings.  It's not productive.

The real person holding you down is yourself.  Now fix it.

Mutual Respect

There really is a war between the ages.  The old condemn the young for not respecting them.  The young condemn the old for not taking them seriously. It's been happening since humans first realized we aged.

I'm 35.  Not exactly young but not yet a senior citizen.  There's a brief moment in our lifetimes when we're in between the warring factions, the "middle" age years.  While it's tempting to pick a side, this period of transition between young and old can be used for much more.  It should be a time of reflection and personal growth.  Our time to look at young and old alike and not make the same mistakes billions of people have made.

First, let's understand that respect is earned.  It is NOT given to you just because you've lived a little longer.  Old people, don't demand respect from the young if you aren't going to give respect TO them.  You may not think the problems of teenager are as serious as your more adult issues, but they're serious enough to that teen.  Don't blow them off because you mistakenly believe they're too young to have anything worth contributing.  Remember, that kid you blew off today will be taking care of you tomorrow.  Keep on their good side.   Young people, you can't earn respect from your elders if you act a fool so learn how to be civil to others.  You will be treated in the manner in which you treat those around you.  Don't assume someone is less important or irrelevant because they have grey hair.  Remember, it's still their world until you reach their age.

Age does not lead to wisdom. Experience does and not every old person out there is wise.  If they were, they wouldn't vote Republican.  So old people, don't assume you're smarter than someone younger than you.  You've probably just had different experiences.  The world also changes constantly and the young are better equipped to keep up with it.  They are your most valuable asset when it comes to technology among other things.  Appreciate that.  Young people, you probably haven't had as many life experiences as your parents. Take the opportunity to learn from their experiences, both good and bad, as you can.  You'll still have to figure most things out on your own, but most parents really do just want to help you so listen to the advice before making up your mind.

The young fear getting old and the old are jealous of the young.  Neither side is perfect or better than the other, but both NEED eachother.  The old help guide the young and the young give the old meaning.

So think on that before you criticize eachother.

Your car's too big.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of the quad cab with the extra long bed taking up two whole parking spaces and the sidewalk.  Something that big should have to park in the back fifty where the big rigs and RVs go.  It's rude to take up that much space and dangerous to boot.  Ever try backing up when a giant truck is next to you? You can't see if cars are coming because their ass end is sticking out into the lane.  And they can never park them straight because they're trying to squeeze a watermelon in a parking space designed for an orange.

But the real question is why does someone NEED a large vehicle?  I think it's purely ego.  A man who's confident doesn't mind driving a Prius.  It gets him where he needs to go and that's the reason cars were invented.  Only a man with penis issues needs a Hummer.  Or a quad cab with an extra long bed.

It's bad enough we insist on super sizing our meals, our houses, our hair (if you live in the south).  Why do we need to over size our cars too? Are we really carrying that much crap around?  Then we have a hoarding problem.

It pisses me off when some trophy wife in her big SUV has the audacity to complain gas prices are too high.  If everyone traded in their gas guzzling SUVs and pick up trucks for compact cars or hybrids, the demand for gas would go down and so would the price.  As it is, Big Oil knows they can financially rape you at the pump because you NEED the gas.  Because you TELL them you'll pay anything by USING MORE GAS THAN ANYONE SHOULD NEED.

Because you drive an oversized car with 10 miles to the gallon - and that's a generous estimate.  That Hummer only gets like 2.

Ever wonder why car makers don't make cars with 50 mpg?  The technology exists, but Big Oil won't let them cut into their profits.

As for the moron in the quad cab with the extra long bed?  Parking spaces were designed for normal sized vehicles.  There is nothing wrong with your parking space.  The problem is your truck is too big.

Oh how much cleaner the air and happier the commute if more people used public transit!

But the hard truth is, there is no physical need for that SUV or quad cab with the extra long bed.  No amount of soccer games or safety concerns or towing capacity can justify it.  The need for a large vehicle is purely psychological, something for people with low self esteem to feel important.

That's all the desire for material wealth of any kind really is.

Stop being a loser.  Do the environment and your neighbors a favor.  Ditch the big vehicle.

Customer Service: You get what you pay for

Everyone's had a bad customer service experience.  Everyone's encountered that unhappy cashier who doesn't really care if they're particularly helpful or if you had a good shopping experience.  We bitch about it all the time.  Companies force feed "good" customer service techniques on their employees, brag about them in commercials.  Giving bad customer service can even cause you to lose your job, but we never stop to consider WHY customer service is as bad as it is.  What causes someone in the service industry to be rude or uncaring.

People in customer service, whether they are cashiers, waitresses, call center representatives, etc, are human beings that we treat like slaves, work like dogs and pay very little money.  If you worked like a dog and barely eked out a living, you'd be unhappy too.  If you knew your company thought of you as an easily replaceable, unvalued peon, would you care about their image?  No.  And you'd be unable to hide your feelings of discontent even if you cared to do so.

There's something that happens to a person when they become a customer.  Suddenly, they are incapable of seeing the person waiting on them as being an equal.  No, that person is a servant and therefore beneath them.  It isn't just rich people who are affected like this.  Even those in the service industry will treat their fellow service people as inferiors once they step on the other side of the check out line.  It doesn't matter the psychology behind this.  It's wrong and we should know better.

How many times have you grabbed the wrong item and insisted you be given the sale price anyway?  How many times have you knowingly made a mess at the convenience store coffee counter and not cleaned it up?  How many times have you not tipped your waitress or only left a handful of change?   How many times have you or someone you've seen yelled at their server?  Or threatened to have their server fired if they didn't comply with an unreasonable demand?  People take out all their frustration on cashiers and waiters.  You may not get to be a dick to your boss but you can be a dick to the girl in the drive thru.  Why are customers so nasty?  Because they know they can be and that the cashier or waiter will be unable to do anything about it.  It's a power trip.

Not all customers set out to be assholes, but there are enough of them to leave a bad taste in a cashier's mouth.  When you have a bad experience over and over again, you start expecting it and you become suspicious of every customer you meet.  If your cashier is apprehensive towards you, it's a self defense mechanism and you can hardly blame them.

But the horrible attitudes exhibited by customers is just one of the mental stress factors that negatively affect our service representatives.  The work is hard and the reward is very little.

Service jobs are by definition bad paying ones. There simply isn't any reason for it.  You shouldn't need a fancy college degree to earn enough money to survive on if you're putting in the work.  Service jobs are hard work, but they're paid like it isn't work at all.

Money is an incentive.  Like it or not, people don't get jobs because they want to help others.  They get jobs because they need money to have a roof over their head and food to eat.  The world runs on money.  You work for the money.  So if someone works hard and isn't paid accordingly, they have a right to be upset.

Minimum wage is slavery.  No one can survive on minimum wage.  And no one who works hard and makes little money is going to care that much about their job.  No one who is taken for granted is going to care about doing a good job.  They'll do just enough to KEEP the job until they find something better.

But low pay comes with other draw backs.  It affects the QUALITY of the worker too.  Workers with skills are going to go where those skills will be appreciated - to higher paying jobs.  The only people who voluntarily take a service job are the ones who CAN'T get anything better.  Low skilled, ghetto, stoners, etc.  The kinds of people who will never care about good customer service.  Or you get older, better educated people who have tried to find something better and failed who will never be satisfied with low pay work and will never care about it.

In essence, when it comes to the service industry, you get what you pay for either financially or with respect.  Until we're willing to treat our servers with dignity and pay them accordingly, expect bad service.  Because we've earned it.

Hostages

I don't know why we allow aid workers into war zones.  I know that sounds cold, but there it is.  We know war zones are dangerous.  We know odds are they'll be kidnapped by terrorists.  If you don't want to be a hostage and/or gruesomely beheaded, don't go to the places where that's likely to happen.  If you do choose to go anyway, don't have the audacity to assume your government should pay terrorists to get you back.  It's your own fault you're a hostage.

I know I sound Republican, but it's one of the only things they make sense on.  When you pay the ransom, all you're doing is encouraging more hostage taking and funding terrorism.  Can we admit that funding terrorism is not in anyone's best interest?  And let's be honest.  While ISIS may say they'll give their hostages back if you give them money, you have ZERO reason to believe they won't kill them anyway.  ISIS kills people everyday. It's what they do.  If you find yourself a hostage of ISIS, make peace with God and get ready to die.  That's the only thing you CAN do.

Go ahead.  Call me hateful.  Say if it were me or my loved ones I'd feel different.  If it were my loved ones, I'd hurt.  I'd mourn, but I still know my loved ones are going to die.  I won't expect or demand a rescue mission.  And if I was ever a hostage, I wouldn't expect it either.

Maybe aid workers should be issued cyanide caps?

I know what you're saying now.  We can't in good conscience not help people in need just because it's dangerous.  That's why we'll keep having hostages.  There's nothing wrong with wanting to save the world and I commend those who take risks to do that.

But we still have to be practical.  The ONLY way to stop terrorists taking foreign hostages is to either REMOVE the opportunity by removing foreigners from the scene all together or to make it NOT BENEFICIAL to take hostages by not paying ransom.   It's no use boo hooing or raising a fuss if hostages are taken, because they knew what they were walking into and should be prepared for the consequences.

I pity hostages, but I refuse to reward hostage takers.  We should know better by now that paying ransoms SOLVES NOTHING.  And if you're going into a war zone, you should be prepared to accept the consequences even the ones where bad things may happen to you.  And that's the real end of the debate.