There's so much horror in the world today that we're pretty much conditioned to accept it as normal.
The problem being that it isn't normal, and I'm growing more and more despondent over the fact that people seem perfectly content to let it slide. We've become a society ruled by hatred and fear, and any joy we feel is tempered by the knowledge that somebody, somewhere hates us for what we think... for what we believe... for who we are. Even worse, we're constantly reminded of it. Keeping everybody in a perpetual state of fear is apparently the easiest way to control them.
This was made painfully clear to me earlier in the evening when I got a call from the National Rifle Association...
"I'M CALLING WITH A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE NRA WHO WANTS YOU TO LISTEN TO A SHORT ONE-MINUTE MESSAGE AND ANSWER A QUESTION ABOUT HOW CONGRESS IS TRYING TO STRIP US OF OUR SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS AND--
"I'm not interested."
"IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTE OF YOUR TIME AND--"
"I support gun ownership, and am disgusted that you are trying to scare the crap out of people with absurd threats like this. Nobody is taking our guns away. So no thanks."
= click! =
Now, he could have called and said "I'm with the NRA, and I'm calling to ask for your support as we work to ensure Second Amendment rights are protected for all Americans." But oh no... the asshole had to call and say "THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AND STRIP YOU OF YOUR RIGHTS! BOOGAH BOOGAH BOOGA!!!"
Well fuck that. And fuck the NRA for being such fear-mongering dicks. While the particulars surrounding gun ownership will always be debated, there's not going to be a repeal of the Second Amendment when the majority of Americans support it. And how do I know the majority of American's support it? Oh... IT'S ON THE NRA'S FUCKING WEBSITE!
I suppose now I'm going to get a call from the anti-gun lobby saying "THE NRA WANTS TO FORCE YOUR KIDS TO CARRY GUNS IN SCHOOL!" or some other fear-encrusted bullshit.
It never ends.
And here I thought somebody telling me my handwriting was "stupid" because I don't drop the descenders on my p's and g's and y's and q's was the worst thing that could happen today...
... but instead I had to be reminded that the world sucks ass.
And that sucks ass.
P.S. My handwriting is terrible because I don't hand-write a lot. I mostly type on a computer. And when I do write, it's usually in all-caps. Sometimes I have to use lower-case letters, but I still like everything to fit between the lines on a paper so I move up all the letters that have descenders on them. Is that so wrong?
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Your handwriting is impugning my right to see descenders and to interpret words with as little effort and preferably thought as possible. You can’t threaten my freedoms like that. I’ll see you in court, you bastard.
Good thing I don’t hand-write this blog!
Remember when the story was that Obama was going to tax the shit out of ammunition? My dad said the local Wal-Marts would only keep ammo for a day before it was all gone. He found out when it was getting shipped and stocked up, even buying a bunch for me (for the guns I’ve had 10 years but have never fired). Hysteria is sort of funny.
Heck, I remember being told that presidential candidate Barrack Obama was going to take away everybody’s guns… despite him stating repeatedly that not only was he NOT going to do that, but that even if he WANTED to, he’d never get the votes in Congress to be able to go through with it. This was a non-issue that kept getting brought up to distract people from real problems and scare them into voting against the scary black man with a funny name that wants to take away their guns.
I, of course, find such blatant lies and obvious racism to be scary for an entirely different reason.
I fully support your right to keep your ascenders and descenders within the lines. I am abandoning work today to start a petition and makes some calls to garner support for this….first I have to come up with some scare tactics though…
ha.
I’m glad you posted a scan of your writing – which is not that bad really, have you seen mine – because when you tweeted about descenders and all that stuff I couldn’t quite picture it. 😉
happy squid!
Every time I heard you say “that sucks ass,” I get nervous.
I made a custom font of my handwriting so I can still type on the computer AND give my reader the joy of my terrible handwriting! All the convenience of typing with the “eff you” of poor penmanship…..I highly recommend it!
I am HORRIFIED that you don’t write like everyone else. Why do you hate the baby Jesus? Why do you hate America and freedom? WHY?!
I LIKE your handwriting, uniform descenders and all.
🙂
Wow, you should see my writing then. At least yours is legible.
I remember “true descenders” being one of the big selling points for the second printer I ever purchased. It must have been for my Commodore.
I wish Vahid wrote like you. Then maybe I could read what he writes instead of standing in the grocery store going “wtf do we need?!? Fuck it, buying candy!”
That’s also why I am not allowed to go shopping by myself.
Your handwriting isn’t terrible. It’s much more legible than most handwriting I’ve tried to decipher. Well, as long as you don’t write in all caps. I find all caps a million times harder to read.
I couldn’t picture what you meant in your tweet either, so thanks for the example. And for the record, I like your handwriting. It’s neater than mine because my loopy descenders get all caught up in the word below.
My father in law keeps buying us memberships in the NRA, even though we just throw the magazines away. I’m a gun owner and support the right to own guns as much as they do, but I don’t support the fear mongering. Maybe if powerful lobbies stopped treating us like sheep that need fear as a motivator instead of intelligent free-thinkers we’d actually get a lot more done. But then we act like sheep by responding to the fear mongering so I guess we get what we deserve.
I love it when you point out this bullshit. Thank you!!