Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[davids]

Karl Rove.

Oh wait, never mind.

[j44ke]

I am pretty tired of people's willingness to participate in delusion*. "Who could have predicted that this would happen? We never could have expected any of this to happen! Who could have foreseen? Who knew? Not in a million years!"

Meteorology may not excel at predicting minor events, but they seem to have the whole hurricane thing down. And if you dig a hole in the ground, say for a subway station, several hundred yards from the ocean, and you don't put any sort of flood controls in place after you dig those holes, you are bound to discover the limitations in that plan. Thinking otherwise is so obviously short-sided it can only be the product of delusion. And NYU Hospital who put their emergency generator on the roof but the electrical control panel for said emergency generator in the basement?

I think delusion has become the narcotic of the current epoch.



*Of course, the self-delusion of one man and the men who supported him, that he could run for President of the United States of America and win without considering how anyone who was not a white male would vote, is something I do not feel too badly about right now.

[monadnocky]

You freely offer advice to more qualified people in areas that you have no experience.

Grinds my gears like nothing else in the world.

[jamesand]

Karl Rove.

Oh wait, never mind.

You just know Turdblossom will return. That's my grump!

[caleb]

Karl Rove.

Oh wait, never mind.

I love Karl Rove. At least I know he's evil.

What chaps my ass the fact that no matter what happens, Rove wins.

[spopepro]

Opera telemarketers.

Ok, SF Opera, I know you don't run your fabulous simulcast at ATT park just out of the kindness of your hearts. But when you hound the numbers you collect and *then* speak to the person on the phone in a condescending manner, like everyone at the ball park must be a free-loading simpleton, you deserve to be struggling for subscriptions. Especially when that person you're talking down to had a standing room ticket for your Sigfried (alas, I was able to get a seat for Gotterdammerung. I don't think my back could have taken that one).

[Christian Fox]

Karl Rove.

Oh wait, never mind.

David Axelrod. As much of a sick, twisted sleazebag as Rove is/was. Both have destroyed lives and reputations without hesitation. I think it's cute that people think Republicans are all meanies and Democrats are all nice guys.

[davids]

Sheldon Adelson.

Oh wait, never mind.

[RickM]

I am pretty tired of people's willingness to participate in delusion*. "Who could have predicted that this would happen? We never could have expected any of this to happen! Who could have foreseen? Who knew? Not in a million years!"

Meteorology may not excel at predicting minor events, but they seem to have the whole hurricane thing down. And if you dig a hole in the ground, say for a subway station, several hundred yards from the ocean, and you don't put any sort of flood controls in place after you dig those holes, you are bound to discover the limitations in that plan. Thinking otherwise is so obviously short-sided it can only be the product of delusion. And NYU Hospital who put their emergency generator on the roof but the electrical control panel for said emergency generator in the basement?

I think delusion has become the narcotic of the current epoch.

The two examples you cite are, to my mind, merely examples of how Humans have always acted and is not tied to the "current epoch" by any means. Who decided to stick Pompeii where they did...or build the Maginot Line when it was obvious it was a useless artifact prior to completion? Who smokes cigs fer' chrissakes, all the while knowing it's bad fer' ya. Humans, thats who.

Listen, there's more then delusion that gets fed into the mix required to produce the two examples you cite above. A slash of an accountants pencil and there goes your subway station flood barrier. Or the insurance underwriter for the project deems it an "Acceptable Risk" for the city not to build it. As for NYU...while the placement of the control box seems dumb..I can tell you that for 99.999999% of it's operating life, the basement was the precise correct spot for that box. I can walk around "my" hospital here in Boston and see 20 things a day that need fixed. You snag the ones you can..and the rest either get put aside due to bigger fish, bureacracy, costs, or the decisions that it is "good enough".

Civilization is not a perfect system.

[Christian Fox]

Sheldon Adelson.

Oh wait, never mind.

Soros? From hatchet men to shady billionaires. This could go back and forth for weeks. I know you are smart enough to realize at a certain level of politics they are all pretty scummy and the line that divides the two parties (and their operatives) is a razor.

[chasea]

This
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[Eddie]

When Zigaboo tears his dewclaw.

Also, when Brooklyn hipsters feel the need to Instagram all of their photos.

[RickM]

David Axelrod. As much of a sick, twisted sleazebag as Rove is/was. Both have destroyed lives and reputations without hesitation. I think it's cute that people think Republicans are all meanies and Democrats are all nice guys.

I spent years being mad at the Dems for not having more "sick, twisted sleazebags" out there in the trenches while the Republicans handed them their ass. Politics is a tough town. Candidate-wise...my ideal would be the reincarnation of RFK with his brains, social conscience, common touch, hawk-ish military tendencies, and his get-down-in-the-dirt-and-wrassle toughness and mean-spiritedness. The greatest missed political opportunity of my lifetime was RFK.

[j44ke]

The two examples you cite are, to my mind, merely examples of how Humans have always acted and is not tied to the "current epoch" by any means. Who decided to stick Pompeii where they did...or build the Maginot Line when it was obvious it was a useless artifact prior to completion? Who smokes cigs fer' chrissakes, all the while knowing it's bad fer' ya. Humans, thats who.

Listen, there's more then delusion that gets fed into the mix required to produce the two examples you cite above. A slash of an accountants pencil and there goes your subway station flood barrier. Or the insurance underwriter for the project deems it an "Acceptable Risk" for the city not to build it. As for NYU...while the placement of the control box seems dumb..I can tell you that for 99.999999% of it's operating life, the basement was the precise correct spot for that box. I can walk around "my" hospital here in Boston and see 20 things a day that need fixed. You snag the ones you can..and the rest either get put aside due to bigger fish, bureacracy, costs, or the decisions that it is "good enough".

Civilization is not a perfect system.

Wait, we're supposed to be rational here? I thought the whole gump thing presented the opportunity to rant without benefit of rational analysis?

[chasea]

When Zigaboo tears his dewclaw.

Also, when Brooklyn hipsters feel the need to Instagram all of their photos.

Worse. I clipped too much.

[RickM]

Wait, we're supposed to be rational here? I thought the whole gump thing presented the opportunity to rant without benefit of rational analysis?

So I chapped your ass. Mission Accomplished! Now get back to work until next Thursday! You are of course correct. My Bad.

[quickag]

The "both sides are bad" argument.

[false_aesthetic]

Kid had a massive seizure in class yesterday. Building gets shit reception and the only campus phone is in the dept office which is always locked because the school laid off the admin assistant. So while I'm pulling the kid off of his chair (who happens to be screaming at the top of his lungs... they never show that on TV) I'm yelling at another student, "RUN OUTSIDE AND CALL 911!" Ambulance gets to my classroom 5 minutes before public safety does.

Feel bad for the kid. He was really embarrassed when it was all over. Thankfully he 1) gave me a heads up by saying that he had a few seizures the day before 2) didn't soil himself 3) didn't hit his head when he slammed back from the workstation.

The grump: WTF IS THE SECURITY PHONE? WHY DID IT TAKE LONGER FOR P-SAFE TO SHOW UP THAN PARAMEDICS?

[jitahs]

The arbitrary 2/3rds voter approval standard. Why not 3/5ths? Are the numerator and denominator too large to comprehend!?

[chasea]

Also, when Brooklyn hipsters feel the need to Instagram all of their photos.

Yipsters who use semi-nude photos of me for their Foursqare alias.