Bus buddies - fascists, ADD boy, a mean old lady and what the hell is that smell?

What a jacked up ride home today.

damn.

Ok, while waiting to get on the bus I overheard "Susie" and "Bob" behind me yammering:

Susie: ...and you know I think that we should make them have the election next week. After they vote just turn the county over to them. We have tried to work with them long enough. It's a county full of terrorist. Let them have it. If the new leaders want to work with us then fine. If not let them kill each other. We aren't getting any help anyway from anyone and we are the ones that have to shoulder the burden helping those folks.
Bob: Yeah....
Susie: you know I listen to talk radio driving home everyday to keep up with what is really happening. And I am tired of people blaming the US for fighting against terrorism.
Bob: Yeah...on Fox last night they were talking about that armor question that Rumsfield was asked. Like that armor they are putting on even really helps at all...
Susie:...You know that John Kerry and John Edwards and John Kennedy...uh...what's that guy's name....kenndy......the bad one....Ted Kenndy....they all voted against giving the armor to the troops. They are the reason the troops do not have what they need.....
Bob: ....and we are the only ones that can do the job.....the UN can't...
Susie:....please, the UN has never done anything good. The UN has never gone into a county and done anything...and they are nothing but a bunch of crooks.
Bob:.....yeah, and all they want is for us to give them more money....

Kiss my ass.

Then I get on my bus and manage to sit at the front away from the Hannity twins.

At the next stop tons of people get on board and a guy sits down next to me. As he settles in I am surprised to see he has Howard Zinns
Peoples History of the United States. I start to think about telling him what a great book it is. You know, here is a comrade and maybe I can get him to talk loud enough to piss off the twins. But then something tells me to keep my mouth shut. Very good idea.

The guy (now named ADD boy) can't be still. I first think that he is just uncomfortable and full of office fruit cake. But within the first 10mins ADD boy takes off his coat, re-arranges his shirt 5 times and shifts around in his seat like he has some severe ass rash. By the time we get 20 mins into our 1 hour ride, ADD boy continues to shift around, readjusting his shirt, opening and closing his book 37 times, and all the time bumping into me. The whole hour long trip he does not finish the first page.

While this is going on next to me, up front this older woman is talking loud as hell. As people are having causal conversations around her, she is attempting to tell them what she thinks about everything she overhears. She is the mean old lady.
Someone mentions that the credit unions are closed the rest of the week. Mean old lady starts talking over this person saying that credit unions don't matter and that banks are not allowed to be closed but 3 days straight. Like anyone cares.

So, as I am trying to sleep a little and ignore all this around me......something starts to smell.

What is that funky smell....and the smell keeps getting stronger.

Finally halfway through the ride I finally determine that what I am smelling is rotten bananas.

Who smells like rotten bananas......never figure it out.

It's good to get off this bus today.......

I am happy to announce today that we are winning the Christmas war

Christmas War?
here

"When we began the Christmas season this year, we were all very much aware that a war was being waged by the Christmas grinches -- the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and other secularists, to steal Christmas from America. To not only take Christ out of Christmas, but to remove Christmas totally from the American scene. I am happy to announce today that we are winning the Christmas war."

WTF

Is this all you got?

Let me be the first.....I am declaring war on the Ester Bunny!

I really hate the Ester Bunny and what he stands for. Eggs from a rabbit?

Ester 2005 dinner will feature scramble eggs and smothered rabbit.

With a nice Merlot

Bring it on Jerry

at work today......poor damn christians

ok, I have heard this over and over at work, on the bus, and in meetings.

"you know you can't say merry christmas anymore in _______ "

" at ________ they won't allow kids to sing frosty the snowman"

and my favorite.... "They are trying to ban Christmas"

crap.

it's all lies

all of it

Quit looking for a cross to hang on.

oh, we fixed that racism thing back in the 60's.......

This shows that outside of the urban areas things have not changed much in the past 40 years.

"A recent afternoon found Eugene Alexander chopping firewood outside a tar-paper shack in this hamlet 80 miles east of Atlanta. With no plumbing, insulation or electric heat, the tin-roof shanty looks vacant and deserted, but it isn't. Alexander, 67, pays $50 a month to live here.

Alexander's home is a dusty little museum piece of the segregated South. Rural Greene County has several such artifacts: a doctor's office that still maintains separate waiting rooms for black and white; a big mural in the post office that depicts black field hands picking cotton, their children eating watermelon in the dirt."

Coming from a rural area of GA six months ago I can tell you this could be 100 other counties in the state.

We ought to be a little more outraged......

Gary Webb, 49, Journalist, Is Dead

I have been so busy that I had not seen this until today.

What really pisses me off is the byline that says his work was discredited. Bullshit.

Someone will one day prove him right. Betcha money on that.

here is a cartoon cartoon that Tom Tomorrow did back in the mid nineties.

Here is a more indepth article about Gary Webb and his career.

There is a special place in hell for these folks.

Deranged third rate vendors? Underground Walmart?

So, in the wake of the underground announcing another go at it, the AJC let a Walmart suit write an editorial opinion where he calls homeless people deranged and the area around the underground full of petty criminals.

Now the whole piece is racist as hell.

But the best part is when he rants against street vendors (who have permits) and calls them "third-rate street vendors ". Seems that he wants the Mayor to clean things up and "the vendors could be forced to comply with city regulations regarding the size and physical appearance of their displays".

I imagine that all those small business owners just drive him mad....and just.....so......so......un-uniformed.

Chaos!

Wonder if Walmart is eyeing underground.

My daily bus ride

I work in downtown and ride a commuter bus from a park and ride lot.

going to keep it vague at this point as to the details.

I am just amazed at the arrogance of people and the assumptions they make because you look like them. These people ride into downtown everyday and treat the experience as a visit to the zoo. We sit up in this tall, comfortable, heated, bus and view the "city" as a urban getto full of crazy, drunk, messed up homeless folks. oh, and lots of black folks.

Way too many of those...."gotta keep your eyes open".

Christ on a crutch.

I sit there on Monday morning hearing people talk about Sunday's sermon at church and how their spiritual leader moved them.

Then I see the look on their faces as we cruise into downtown and pass the homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk. The look is not one of tolerance, sadness, or even pity.

The look I see would shame Jesus.

It is the look of fear, loathing, intolerance, and worse....Indifference.

"guess he is happy like that"
"wish the police would do something about this"
"why doesn't Franklin (mayor) do something about this"
" need to put them to work picking up the trash around here"

Actual comments by my bus buddies.

At times I make comments like " you know, we really do not fund mental health very well in this nation or the state" or comments concerning that there is a "big picture" and historical issues (poverty, education, racism) that created this.

Then the uncomfortable silence.

Another bus buddy lost. damn.

Ok, gotta put somthing up

Well, guess I will do this quick post to let folks know I am still around. Moved to Atanta area recently and have not had the time or creative juice to write much.