A True Tragedy That Covid-19 Brought Us

I had felt terrible for a few days. If it wasn’t the rain, it was running into someone that couldn’t be bothered to do something to get me going on my way. Other people felt under the weather and I had reason to believe that it was lingering.

It was lingering before the weather turned stupid. I saw the depressed looks on people’s faces. I saw a few stores that never seemed to open. Boredom and decay.

There used to be a few dens where people could whoop it up after work, especially on a Friday. There used to be a certain somewhere, the kind of place where drinks would flow and people could drop that stupid, lingering feeling they kept all week.

Even after the Covid rules were relaxed, people are so incensed in substitutes. There aren’t frivolities. People are walling themselves off.

People aren’t getting laid, the vast majority of them aren’t caring. No one is drinking in this location.

No one was returning to how it was.

It is a true tragedy that we don’t know what we were then and the government helped make it that bad.

I’m not sure if it is malaise or what have you.

(I sure as hell know that I want to get away from this place, not just because of that one asshole).

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In Search For The Great American Pyramid

I found myself driving through (deleted) area in a certain place I had never been. I saw wide expanse where nothing had been built. Outside of water monitoring and access roads, there was little there. I celebrated the fact that no one had built a phony modern American city with fake retail centers.

I traveled through areas that might have been stalked by the American cheetah thousands of years ago. I wasn’t bemoaning that animals extinction, but was celebrating that it had its moment. It also bothered me that the US wasn’t known for this animal.

Many other countries have had something worthwhile to remember them by or something that a civilization had value for.

I had brought up certain temples or Buddhas. I had brought up a certain building or something else held in esteem, or acknowledged as a point of power. I had pondered the ancient Egyptian’s (or Native American) pyramids.

I looked out at that expanse and dreamed of a huge pyramid. At least having a base that was ten times as big as the one’s in Egypt.

I struggled to find if we (USA) had already built a pyramid of our own. I looked past the Memphis Tennessee monstrosity. I looked past the Luxor in Las Vegas Nevada.

I moved on to what we already had. I thought of the Sears/Willis Tower, which was notable for being tall. I easily could see someone demolishing it along with New York’s Chrysler Building, not because of spite, but due to some whims of an investment company. I also see this out of many of Frank LLoyd Wright’s buildings. A few people hold his/students work in high regard. I know of many others that would demo them to put up a modern monstrosity “with no soul”. I know of other unrefined types that would burn them down out of a desire for satisfaction for apparent beefs, to never feel satisfied.

I wish I could build the modern pyramid, not being a gaudy artistic work, but being something that could be carried in the American psyche, if we were capable of having one.

The Man That Cheered For Breast Cancer and AIDS

I believe I have mentioned once or twice how I chose to be “anti-breast cancer awareness”.

I’ve been a big fan of “mammaries” for a while. I’ve loved a motorboat or two in my life. I’ve hated when cancer took women in my extended family. But I have had it up to here with awareness.

People flood my emails at work with stuff like this. (It is usually women in certain areas of our work center, hence the stereotypical writing style often attributed to those email authors). There is always some event that isn’t convenient to go to or some talk. Even when I had the free time, I would rather go outside and have “sh*ts and giggles” time.

I had worked at another place that seemed to have a fetish with making people wear a certain color for AIDS awareness. (Someone asked me if I planned on wearing an item of clothing in that color and I proudly told them that I don’t do that kind of thing). The “main building” people would rope someone in to do this, just to take pictures and signal that they had an awareness event. Someone gets real jollies from this. In the meantime, people want to work or enjoy a smoke.

It isn’t that I don’t care about what AIDS has done. I actually am more concerned about AIDS than I am breast cancer. (I can have sex with a woman with breast cancer and not get breast cancer. But if I have relations with a woman that has AIDS, I have a chance at getting it. Most cancers aren’t spread through sex and I don’t feel like being HPV aware, either). AIDS has affected places around the world that many of my virtue signaling co-workers don’t acknowledge existing. (It also created another way for pharmaceutical companies to milk people out of money in the 80s and 90s).

I do care about what AIDS has done, I just don’t care about awareness. We aren’t mental health aware. I’ve worked with people that would gladly paint their brains on the wall at work, just to spite people in management. We aren’t aware of “people”, as in having the ability to understand how other people process information when it comes to human interaction. We aren’t aware that we often are hiring the wrong people for jobs that we need to fill. I could name plenty of awareness opportunities that would strike my fancy, most of all would ruffle the feathers of the space mutants that send me stupid emails.

In the meantime, I guess that I will be the only person cheering for breast cancer and AIDS.

The Ever So Loose Fetterman/McCain “Mattadox”

A Monday slipped by me, even though I got great news and had wonderful social interactions with decent human beings.

I dug around and saw a link to a Granite Grok piece about Senator Fetterman,

(Matt’s note: It was a link from Vermont Folk Troth. I occasionally read some of VFT’s reblogs or information from other people near their orbit. I don’t always agree with everything I read, but I believe that it is right to read/digest/debate/discuss. Make your own judgements if you aren’t intellectually bankrupt).

It reminded me of the time that I passed up a Republican nominee for the office of the president of the United States. (POTUS for some of the dimwits who hate my typing). That man was John McCain.

It was one thing that I disagreed with the cronies that he represented. It was another that he had a “lean” against the concept of the free market. But the kicker that turned me away from voting for him is that he wasn’t physically up for the job.

McCain had ailments and had heart attacks before. He physically struggled at times. I think that it would have been a punishment of sorts to have him as president. (The stress put on POTUS often affects their health in the long term). I also think that his potential VP (Palin) did not have the knowledge or experience to pick up the reigns until another election cycle.

I made the same argument about Fetterman. I do not think that he was healthy enough for the serious job. I did not say this to laugh or make fun of the man. I think that he needed therapy to get back to a normal life. I do not think that his support staff would be able to divvy up his work to do it for him. Nor do I think that it would be natural to do so.

(I completely steered away from comments about modern liberal slant and weird mechanics of the Democrat party).

I think you should break your self of this captive mindset that you need to vote someone in because of someone else. You should primary the right people to begin with and that includes having someone that can physically do the job.

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Re-post of comments left on his blog:

“Obviously, I don’t care for Fetterman’s politics, but he is what I call a “McCain candidate”. Named after John McCain, who I refused to vote for.

I refused to vote for him because he wouldn’t live through his time in office. He would also leave an inadequate person to pickup the pieces, aka running mate.

(I don’t think that Fetterman has a support system to do his job for him, no matter how many interns and pages he can find volunteering for him).

I’m not needling him for having stroke related ailments, but I didn’t think he was healthy enough to handle the stresses of the job.

This isn’t out of a “Chads over Noodlearms” argument, but something I wish everyone would consider before primarying folks.

(Polite note: I’m not in PA, but I practice this where I vote)”

Uncle Music or Your Music May Suck Marketing Extravaganza

I had saw a commercial the other day that featured Montell Jordan, who was singing about taking an Uber. Apparently, I was a touch slow, not knowing this was a Super Bowl commercial this year. I used to watch the Super Bowl for the pop culture references, but now I can’t be moved to do this anymore.

I was somewhat surprised to hear that song. I hadn’t heard it in a while. One of my last times I could remember hearing that song was at a party, located in a trailer park, in the spring of 2000. I remember this chick singing it. They had imbibed in all the rum and left me dry. The party was a failure, no booze coupled with women that couldn’t rev my engine.

I was secretly hoping that music wouldn’t become a punchline or a marketing hook for what ever product that was being sold to “someone’s uncle”. It hit me the other day when they did their darndest to float that cutesy commercial at me.

I had seen it in my father years ago. He was accosted by some cheesy commercial that used a song by Three Dog Night (or some other music group). He didn’t have a huge response, outside of a puzzled grunt. My mother ended up whistling to another commercial using some pop song that she agreed with. I felt uncomfortable after watching these scenes.

I sure as hell hope that Pantera and Slayer aren’t put on a diaper commercial, or some other stupid marketing scheme. 

The Sky Needs A New Kock, Stories From Life’s Abyss

I was loathed to type about most news stories that I see on the news. People make their best attempts to appeal to my emotions, usually to do something or care about something. I usually do not.

But I found one story amazingly sad, and it had some lame link to my personal past.

People in a community that I pass through are losing a landmark. It was one that I got to know as a young man.

The Alabama Welcome Center, a popular rest area, was home to a Saturn 1B rocket. The rocket was on loan from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. It graced the local skyline for many decades. Now, its repair would cost more than worthwhile.

I used to stop there with my family when we were heading back from a few states north. I always enjoyed the area that occasionally had snow and a short chain of mountains that protected everyone from the state of Tennessee. I remember walking under the huge engines when I was waiting for someone to jimmy the car locks after we locked the keys in the car. I think that the rocket helped the rickety buildings freeze in time. It was a good place for kids to get out their squirmies.

It was years later that I got up that way as an adult. (I would drive through that area to see friends in Tennessee and to buy lottery tickets). I never stopped at the rest area, but I regret it now. (I always found a truck stop with decent coffee somewhere else).

I stopped to ponder, after hearing the bad news of the rocket’s impending removal, what some dimwit mentioned to me.

They said: “Why do we need some giant phallic symbol in our community?”

I honestly think that every community could use some giant cock of some sorts. Universities have clock towers. Rooster Run, Kentucky, has a giant rooster. Why not have a giant rocket in your yard?

I wonder what kind of giant cock will replace the Saturn 1B rocket. The skyline will be empty without it.

https://whnt.com/news/technology-and-space/marshall-space-flight-center-supports-removal-of-saturn-1b-rocket-at-ardmore-welcome-center/

The Marquis de Sade Merry Go Round

I believe it was Rob from Rob Says, who had parried the common refrain from many others, asking: Have you read de Sade? 

I had never told him that I had borrowed one of de Sade’s books from the library years ago. I understood that it was supposed to be titillating. I found that it wasn’t the “be all and end all” of literary work, but I understood how it became notable. 

(People around my community had no clue who he or his work was until a movie, or some talking head on the television told them to care about him). 

After I read that book, someone I was spending time with brought home a movie that featured someone playing the Marquis de Sade. I think it was Quills. The movie was shot well, actors did their job, but I wasn’t singing its praises. 

I hadn’t thought much of any of these tidbits until I noticed that this date in history coincided with the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment without charge in 1777. 

(I failed to note that someone tried to shoot him around this time, but the gun misfired. This is for another day). 

It was a few years after that date, after being transferred to the infamous Bastille, he wrote one of his most popular works. 

I am unsure of what level of “imprisonment” it would take to create my master opus, but I hope it would not reflect his. 

I make the argument that there is something better for you to read and something more entertaining around the corner. And it isn’t something that is “parroted” amongst a legion. 

Would It Hurt You To Adopt Some Decorum?

We all have seen the shrieking protestors, mutant theybies, and a bevvy of degenerate assholes wreaking havoc on people’s everyday lives or at least setting a bad example. I had originally thought that this was endemic of leftist entities, but like many humans, bad behavior seems to spread. I had always thought it was below many people.

People talk of Overton windows and new normals, amongst other shit people use as excuses, but I find it ridiculous. I had always thought there were levels of decorum appropriate to every organization and situation. I also had thought that most people had some rudimentary understanding of this, that no matter what your position in society, you had some level of self governance. It was known that the scions of old money were to set examples with some semblance of what other people could live up to.

I find it detestable that many of our representatives and even family of elected representatives act like morons and complete idiots. It was evident during televised events that traditionally people would keep their traps shut, then intellectually “throwdown” when an appropriate venue and time come. I remember it less than fondly that a former governor’s son got arrested at a protest, along with a few other space cadets. I can give you examples of both liberals and conservatives that act like buffoons, even in our current times.

People act like it is okay to act like a bunch of idiots because someone else (or some of group) does. It isn’t okay.

(I had a parent once tell me that a family member grew up around white trash, but they knew that they could act like they had class, even when other people didn’t want them to).

I ask you to be the better angels of our nature, not for your enemies, but for the general community. We don’t have to be the trash. We can let the wrong elements hoist themselves on their own petards. We can be smarter and not be the dingbats with our genitals hanging out of our pants.

Please understand and follow some code of conduct for very situation, in every venue. It keeps things from going to proverbial sh*t, even when the creatures among us act that it is normal.

Is More Government Really The Solution? Parts of Your Life Better Done By You.

I have mentioned my personal disdain many times for government licensed marriage. I think it made a mockery of a private “institution” and I think that it empowers the lazy/stupid. (This covers “shade” thrown at both the conservatives back home and many liberals I knew that seemed to think that the government would help them this time around).

But I stumbled onto something that showed the unintended effects of depending on the government to define your rights and the default conditions in which you have agreements with other people.

Although it was in the Philippines, it was the Joselita Salita and Erwin Espinoza marriage dissolution case.

It was a monumental shitshow and people signed up to deal with it as a default condition. The court case ended up in the higher courts and had unintended results.

Salita’s petition(s) ended up bringing further “sunlight” to Espinoza’s claims. Salita failed to answer any of the claims and only fostered mystery.

She “picked nits” in a court of law:

She rationalizes that her insistence on the specification of her particular conduct or behavior with the corresponding circumstances of time, place and person does not call for information on evidentiary matters because without these details she cannot adequately and intelligently prepare her answer to the petition.

But she failed to answer any of the accusations:

. . . . (she) was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of their marriage in that she was unable to understand and accept the demands made by his profession – that of a newly qualified Doctor of Medicine – upon petitioner’s time and efforts so that she frequently complained of his lack of attention to her even to her mother, whose intervention caused petitioner to lose his job.

It was embarrassing for both parties. Everyone knew that his soon to be ex-wife was a nag and that his mother-in-law was adept at wrecking homes. People knew that he picked the wrong woman and, in many places, this hurts many in the professional spheres.

It looked ugly upon her also. For what I read, as a reading non-lawyer, she prevented him from exercising a legal profession. I believe that it was a spousal responsibility to do so, spelled out in the Philippine Family Code. Unless she changed her name or moved elsewhere, her future “potential” husbands might think twice about marrying her.

For what I saw, she failed to answer or find responses to his accusations. Most people I know of could find an excuse or at least blame some external source for what happened.

She also picked a lawyer that apparently screwed up:

“…or sure, the additional facts called for by petitioner regarding her particular acts or omissions would be evidentiary, and to obtain evidentiary matters is not the function of a motion for bill of particulars”.

I make the argument that marriage would be better defined by the two or more parties involved. It is an important decision that could affect the rest of both people’s lives. It is even worse that open records laws and a desire for public sunshine puts your business out in the public.

(You would be surprised what is public available to strangers. My former co-worker was planning his wedding, but didn’t tell anyone he was getting married. I saw a mention of his marriage license application in the local news paper, it had his name and his gf’s. I congratulated him on his upcoming marriage. He was confused due to several things; (1) He didn’t tell anyone. (2) He didn’t like me. He never knew that the newspapers did this in certain areas).

Although both people were foreign nationals, they both were dependent on dealing with the courts to deal with their marriage, or the dissolution of one. I think it is silly to think that people couldn’t figure it out without the help of strangers foisted into a position of authority, or at least better than those involved on a local level. It applies to the people in my home state and country, especially.

G.R. No. 106429 – JOSELITA SALITA vs. HON. DELILAH MAGTOLIS, ET AL. (chanrobles.com)

Family Code of the Philippines (Executive Order 209) Full Text & PDF (lawbooklet.com)

The Matters w/ Matt: Single and Ready to Get Unhinged

Every Wednesday: I never fail to be disgusted with advice columns. I am unsure why they still get paid to do what they do. As always, I am in awe when it comes to awful examples like Dear Prudence and Dear Abby. The columnists seem to get rewarded for giving you bad advice. I think that people get terrible advice from them. I don’t blame anyone that calls advice column responses garbage. I use my postings to correct these responses and help society by being an utmost asshole, (as always, a hat tip to Aaron Clarey at Asshole Consulting).

Consider this Dear Annie article (courtesy of Annie Lane @ creators.com) from January 28, 2023:

Dear (Matters):

I’m a 32-year-old single woman facing a predicament. I’ve been friends with a guy named “Stan” for a few months, though we haven’t actually talked in over a month now. We were acquainted in high school, but we lost touch after a short while. Stan and I went on a couple of dates, and I thought things were going well, but then he asked if we could just be friends. If we hadn’t ALMOST hooked up, I would’ve been fine with this, but because I thought he was still interested in me as more than a friend, it took me by surprise, but I agreed to it.

We continued to talk and hung out once more; however, I had expressed my feelings for him a total of three times, and the third time, he came close to blocking me. Stan had made it very clear to me that he doesn’t reciprocate my feelings, though when we first started talking as friends, I had been optimistic that eventually we could be more than that. The two times that I’ve messaged him since, he’s left me on read, though he sporadically watches my Instagram stories. He’s explained that he’s not ready for a relationship, yet I’ve noticed that he follows numerous women and he’s on a dating app.

He’s also mentioned that he’s experiencing family issues, but because we’ve only known each other for a few months, I felt that was too personal of a subject for me to provide input on. I’m afraid to initiate a conversation with him because I don’t want to risk arguing and (possibly) consequently losing a friend, but at the same time, I feel like he’s hiding some things from me. I’d like to let him know that he can trust me, but it remains unclear to me as to whether I can trust him or not. The last time Stan and I talked, he asked me to give him space because I was making him uncomfortable, but now I’m wondering if he is just trying to phase me out of his life. That was almost a month and a half ago. Please help. I have no idea what to do about this.

—Crushed

                         Dear Crushed:

I knew a man who wore the finest bootleg FUBU shirts he could find. The young gentleman had what looked like a gold watch on his wrist. He would often bend down and clean a smudge off his clean sneakers. The suave for a minute rogue did his best to signal his greatness to the ladies. He found himself empty handed.

               I noticed that he was always showcasing and making a scene of every time he could be around a woman. Not only did he not stand out in a good way, but he also got a reputation of being “that guy”. He wasn’t interesting. There was no level of complimentary intelligence to go around. In the end, the problem was “all him”.

               The ladies let him know subtly. He would see communal laughter. He also heard at least one “no thank you”. It was apparent that he wasn’t the man for that level of job.

               I was greatly disturbed that you had the same level of warning, just like the man from the first three paragraphs. He told you that he didn’t want a relationship. He asked for space after you seemed to be too invested in parts of his family life.

               I think you misread someone’s ability to go out on dates with you as a relationship, or some signal of huge value. It didn’t sound like you two went through anything romantic. Hanging out and talking is just that, especially when there is nothing substantive along with it.

               I know that this is hard for you to understand, but you aren’t the only woman in the universe. I strongly doubt that you are the best choice he has. He probably has seen this on his dating app and times out in public. You appeared too desperate and you didn’t seem to respect his privacy.

               Here is my advice…deleted his contact information. Act like this never happened. Go find someone else that wants to be around you. Don’t flood the next man with too much all at once, or you will find out that despite your best attempts, it was you after all.

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I don’t imagine that I will have a shortage of emails to answer. I would love to start doing this for anyone that sends me an email. If this is you; email us at freemattpodcast@gmail.com

If you hate advice columns; I don’t blame you. If it isn’t soft people giving advice; it is someone trying to justify acting like an insensitive asshole. Till next week.