Society Pushing College

Before you all get your undies wadded up in a bunch, I'm not in anyway condoning an uneducated society. I'm completely FOR education as we need to practice questioning and analyzing everything around us at all times and draw conclusions from our experiences.

I have a problem with the message that we give our young people about higher education. We tell them that they need to go to college to obtain a job to GET LOTS OF MONEY. Isn't that the resounding message? Nobody gives a shit about examining our society and meaning of life, etc... just get a job that earns BIG BUCKS to IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS and BUY A BIG HOUSE and a FANCY CAR. I resent the materialistic aspect we attach to higher education.

Here's the ugly truth that nobody wants to talk about: Most parents will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars sending their kids to college so that the kids can get a job when they graduate earning much less than they expected in a career that has nothing to do with their degree. AND/OR the kids end up taking out loans for their education that will take an entire lifetime to pay off. They start out buried in debt. Nice.

Every month I interview college graduates for positions into a construction-related program. 99% of the college graduates I interview lament that they couldn't find employment that would support a family despite perfect GPA's and such. If they did find a job in their field of study, the hours were horrendous and I hear descriptions of corporate hell. They tell me that they might as well work at Burger King because when they account for all the extra the hours, commute time, etc., they're earning $12 an hour.

Bad Loans

And like the banks had nothing to do with issuing bad loans that have driven the US economy into the tanker and are now trying to pin the consumer as the sole evil-doer. This picture was taken from the sidwalk outside the window of Sonoma National Bank in Petaluma, California. Each and every window of this bank location was plastered with this same sign message in different colors. I found it amusing, as the consumer couldn't get the loan without the bank approval.

Golden Gate Bridge: Protest

Northern California has always been a magnet for freaks. Live protests are pretty much the norm here. We're a rebellious bunch, and we don't necessarily buy into mainstream thoughts and ideas.

Yesterday there was a protest on the Golden Gate Bridge regarding the Olympic torch and the games in China. While I admire the spunk of the protesters, I ponder exactly what they're trying to accomplish by climbing a bridge,hanging up signs and snarling traffic. Do you think for one minute the Chinese government is going to suddenly cease their control over Tibet because of some protesters climbing on the bridge 1/2 way around the world? I can just hear the conversation between Chinese government officials now....

Wang: Ahhhhhh... we have trouble. Do you think we should revamp our policy in Tibet? Three guys are on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco holding up signs and tying up traffic. They don't seem to like us very much.

Chung: Gutless bastards don't have the balls to come over here to China and protest because they know we'd shoot them on site. Typical spineless American bastards. They sure like the cheap shit we produce at the expense of our environment and our citizens. We can't export crap fast enough for these consumer-driven pigs. How come they're not protesting THAT? It's something that they have more control over.

Wang: Good point. . and we are laughing all the way to the bank..ha ha ha. ..We Chinese, we play joke, we put pee-pee in American's Coke... But,seriously, Chung, ... How do you think we should handle this situation?

Chung: Who cares? America is a has-been nation of spoiled, fat idiots. They couldn't rally together to save themselves if the need came forth to save their lives. They'd be too busy whining looking for somebody to blame or somebody to sue. Look at their leader! What a total piece of shit he is... Forget protesting what's going on in Tibet. They should focus on the terrible human rights violations happening within their own borders brought by their own so-called elected leader.

Wang: If that's democracy, then how is it different then our form of government?

Chung: It's not. It's a little lie they tell themselves.

You Read it Here First

Can I not call them, or what??? I TOLD you all that Heather Mills would have to eke out a living on sub-celebrity, pathetically embarrassing television shows in the United States. I read a few days ago in the paper that she was asked to be a judge for Miss America or some shit show like that. I guess they're *really* desperate for judges.

The Asshole

An incident happened at a girls' softball game a little over a year ago. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't witness it. What shocked me even more was my own personal response to the situation.

About a year ago my daughter was playing a softball game. The girls were 10 at the time. The pitcher on the opposing team hit (accidentally) one of our batters extremely hard on the elbow with a wild pitch. Our batter fell to the ground at home plate in pain and started wailing.

The father of the pitcher started loudly yelling, "She deserved to get hit with the ball, she was crowding the plate."

I have never lost it at a kids' game. I never say shit. Taking one look at our batter still curled up on the ground in pain and looking at that father who had the gall to say something so stupid sent me into a rage.

I walked over to the man (if you can call him that) and tugged him on the shirt. I said, "Excuse me, but that little girl over there on the ground is hurt and she's crying in pain."

He snorted back, "She deserved to get hit the way she was standing."

I coolly looked him in the eye and said, "Well, you don't have to be such an asshole."

At that point he flew into a verbal rage with me but I refused to engage or humor him. I spun on my heels and went back to my side of the bleachers to be met by our team and team parents giving me a standing ovation as one of our dads can read lips and reported the entire exchange to the others.

The 'asshole' was told by the umpire to sit down and shut up or leave the ball field.

My point is what kind of an asshole would think that any child deserved to get hurt? What a sick bastard! People like him should be shot.

Aw Shucks.....

My dear friend, CG, passed on a blogger award to little ol' me. I must say that I was totally caught off guard, as I'm not familiar with blogger awards and such. I have two things to say:

1. I can't believe that people actually read my bitchy blog;
2. You like me...... you *really* like me;)

So thank you, CG....

ADHD: Attention Deficit Disorder

I wasn't feeling well today, so I spent the day pretty much in bed. In between episodes of consciousness, I flipped through some magazines that had been sitting on my night stand for some time, but I have not had the time to look through.

For starters, every other page was a full-blown ad for some bullshit ailment. The one I'll pick on today is for kids with ADD (or ADHD) which is attention deficit disorder. I do not mean to dismiss kids who truly suffer from this, but more and more, it's just some money-making scheme for pharmecutical companies to profit of every parent's fear that "Johnny isn't getting perfect scores in school. Oh my GOD what is WRONG with him and how do I find an EASY FIX for this?"

This particular magazine ad featured a boy happily focused on doing homework well into the evening after describing a full day of activities that included a full day of school, music lessons, and sports activities. And damn, this boy still had the stamina to focus on the mindless busywork that schools issue as homework. Isn't that the picture of what you hope your child can aspire to?

Does anybody but me see the idiocracy of this? Please say I'm not alone....

There is NOTHING wrong with the kids today, and there is EVERYTHING wrong with a society that expects them to behave like miniature adults. Because guess what -- kids are not miniature adults and we're insane to expect them to behave like 30 year-olds at age 10. Look at what we do to them. We put them into the 'education' system at age 5 where they're told to sit still and be quiet in an artificial environment and listen to some boring teacher ramble on about learning the alphabet. And we get upset when the kids lose interest, fidget, and start staring out the window???? Helloooooooooo????

Now, I'm not saying that children should get away with behaving like selfish little assholes (like the behavior their parents model for them). I'm just saying that we need to be realistic about their attention span, and teach what is truly important and not keep pushing more and more shit on them. Kids are stressed out enough. Quit cramming their schedules with shit thinking that YOUR kid will be the next wonder of the world. Give me a break. Read the first sentence of this paragraph that refers to "selfish little assholes" and look in the mirror. Allow them to be KIDS.

God Bless the kids (and their parents) who are fortunate enough in this day in age who are able to lie in the back yard and imagine cloud shapes as superheros, follow an an insect to its home, or maybe interact with neighbors because they're not being shuttled off from one activity to the next.