Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Happy Black Friday!
Let's face it, it's not so much Happy Thanksgiving as you can't wait to go out to Kohl's or Walmart. It's no longer even 4AM on Friday morning but in many cases 10PM after you've just made your turkey sandwich from the day's leftovers. Oh God I am so not a herd mentaliter, did the bulk of my Xmas shopping at a more leisurely and enjoyable pace starting in early November, just a couple more people on the list. Never got the atheists this time of year, even porn shops celebrate Christmas. Ah the joyless crowd. Never forgot the story my mother told and this was many a moon ago when she didn't even know what Black Friday was. My Dad and Mom decided to go to the Danbury Mall, a quite nice ride from the big YO and she figured it's the day after Thanksgiving, folks will be relaxing the day ater recovering from their meals and maybe even a hangover or two so her first reaction was who the hell are these people and the rest is history. SUCKERS!!! all I gotta do is my wrapping and it's done. I hope nobody gets stampeded to death this year but even then it'll probably wind up on some sick website like that poor guy who got pummeled by some teen thugs on the subway with nobody coming to help. Sat seems to feel I'm devoting too much time to Natalie Wood, it's distracting fluff from all the Real Problems and Issues our country and society faces but I say this. Even if we got rid of all the distractions, forgot about the Bieber and K-Dash, say suspended X Factor for a time so we could as a nation give these critical issues our undivided attention wanna know something? They ain't getting solved, there's too much corruption in high places. Just look at the Super Committee and speaking of X Factor Astro somehow feels he's obliged to win otherwise it's just some cosmic conspiracy against young black rappers from Brooklyn. Lakoda Rayne looked cute last night, oh I forgot that's a Distraction. Sorry, gotta go home now and do my recycling:)
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Black Friday-the one day I plan on
ReplyDeleteskipping my morning coffee and newspaper at my favorite places
at 6AM. The 'shopper folk' invade...
Even if we got rid of all the distractions, forgot about the Bieber and K-Dash, say suspended X Factor for a time so we could as a nation give these critical issues our undivided attention wanna know something? They ain't getting solved, there's too much corruption in high places.
ReplyDeleteI have slept for FOUR AND A HALF HOURS! (I was up from 0340 on Tuesday until 4PM Wednesday) so I feel f'n great enough to give you a couple thoughts.
First, when the public does disentangle itself from distractions and focus on what's important, the cops show up and pepperspray the shit out them even when all they're doing is sitting on the ground. Even when they're 84 years old. Even without provocation. So I don't necessarily know that it's corruption so much as it is that the public is lately being given a very stern warning that even gathering together peaceably to assemble sitting on the ground without weapons is enough to get your ass completely put into a hospital ER with chemical burns from non lethal weapons.
Didn't you ask a while back why cops never showed up at TP rallies? Because those bastards showed up with their frickin home arsenals. What cop is going to pepperspray someone with an assault rifle hanging off their shoulder? It's much easier to hit up the little old ladies and the folks sitting harmlessly and non-threateningly on the ground. For that they show up in the damn riot gear.
Now onto Black Friday.. this is a day when I will volunteer to work because I am totally not into that kind of thing. I can't remember the last time I was in a mall. Being 40 miles from everything makes all this a lot easier but I hate all that kind of common-feeder consumerism. My big thing has always been internet shopping. For us it's just easier for all kinds of shopping (though lately I have enough good grocery options that I can get even specialty stuff in Durham). I like to start really early (didn't this year) and so usually by October I'm done. And what is this business with people decorating for Christmas and it's not even Thanskgiving yet? I mean really.
Tonight I'm doing another 16 and then Friday I'm doing just days so that's gonna feel like a breeze PLUS I'm charge Friday so it's really going to be a great way to wrap that up. Then I'm going to Wilm for overnight and on Sunday I am going to do a lot of nothing. I think I have another double sometime next week.
Gotta get em while they're hot. Soon enough there won't be any to be had for love or diamonds.
Hope your holiday is nice.
I like "Black Friday!" I find it an excellent day to sleep in as long as I want to. The little lady thinks she just has to go shopping and I know that I have all day to myself--almost a mini-vacation.
ReplyDeleteOh... I see.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand now why unarmed, peaceful, nonviolent protesters sitting on the ground with linked arms got peppersprayed at point-blank range.
Thanks for clearing it up for me. I appreciate it.
Really, anyone anywhere can end up getting hurt but some put themselves in a place that makes it more likely to get hurt. Some, I suspect, hope to get hurt so as to incite something.
ReplyDeleteThe asshole that peppersprayed those college kids, heard some hacker posted his personal info and all, his voicemail went through the roof, kind of cybervigilantism if you will so hey that's how these things work themselves out these days which with so much stuff on the Web I'm surprised psycho cop would do that in the first place.
ReplyDeleteJoe I agree and for me all those people who stood in line for hours before these places opened I'm thinking what the hell do you do when you have to go to the bathroom? I have issues in that dept. and then you lose your slot. Ever have a day at work when you had one too many cups in the morning before you went in, it's cold outside and you have to devise excuses just to keep going downstairs to the men's room and I'm thinking how the hell do these shoppers do it?
ReplyDeleteBeth's comment - many years ago I used to go fishing with this guy and we'd go out on my rowboat on a reservoir and he'd always have to light up a joint at least a few times a day. Couple times said to him if that's your thing do it elsewhere but don't do it here, there's DEP officials who periodically patrol these waters but the guy never listened so I dumped him as a fishing buddy. The crowd you keep, that sort of thing:)
ReplyDeleteI do find it amazing that these cops are so nonchalant and willing to do these absolutely over the top unnecessarily violent things when they have to know that they're being filmed from as many angles as people got cellphones. My mom watched the vid of UC Davis this morning and was really appalled at the way that cop peppersprayed those kids. She kept saying, 'They're not doing anything but sitting there and he's spraying them like they're roaches. They're not a threat, they're sitting on the ground.' Now that's my mom talking, and we have a moratorium on discussion of politics because it's detrimental to our relationship, and even she could see that the cop was way off the deep end out of line. It was actually really upsetting to her to see this kind of unilateral violence that went down at Davis.
ReplyDeleteKarma can sometimes be instant. Yeah, I saw that they doxed all his info; everything was publicly available so he had to figure it was coming. I think he deserves all of it and legal ramifications besides. According to the Chemical Weapons Convention, pepper spray is banned in war. Does it make sense that police are using on peaceful protesters a substance that's banned for use against wartime enemy combatants? Surely there's something terribly wrong with that.
Exactly, Z-man.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big consumerist either. I do know a good deal when I see it though.
ReplyDeleteI didn't go crazy about it. Just went to Herbergers around 10am to snatch up a 14 piece set of Pyrex for $10, an 18 piece set of those lockable lid tupperware type of containers for $10, a Sonic care toothbrush, an electric blanket, and a faux down comforter.
I was in and out in about 30 minutes despite the crazies.
Word of advice; never go anywhere like that without carrying. Never know what sort of nut is going to take a swing at ya for the last of anything.
Heard a story a lady peppersprayed some other shoppers so she could get first dibs on the electronics. Wondering though with women carrying around mace and whatnot where in hell do you get this stuff anyway? it ain't in Walgreens or Rite-Aid.
ReplyDeleteSelf defense store or online I imagine.
ReplyDeleteThe protesters at UC Davis were sitting on the ground with locked arms in a completely passive position. They were unarmed and unresisting. Even when they were peppersprayed at point-blank range they made no effort to protect or defend themselves beyond ducking their heads when they could. At no time did they offer any resistance or give any indication that they presented any kind of a threat to the police in riot gear.
ReplyDeleteAt no time were they breaking any laws, as the open, community areas of UC Davis are just that; open community areas.
They were simply peacefully protesting. There was no lawlessness nor any other type of untoward behavior on the part of any of the protesters whatsoever.
They were peppersprayed nevertheless. At close range. By a cop who appeared to be as casual about it as spraying Glade in his bathroom.
Pepperspray is forbidden for use against wartime enemy combatants by a convention signed by 65 countries including the United States. In the US, 61 people have died to date from exposure to pepperspray. Law enforcement agencies no longer use live pepperspray on their staff (as previously done during training) because of the potential for serious adverse effects.
The use of pepperspray against unarmed, unresisting people sitting on the ground in a position that poses absolutely no threat is completely reprehensible and inexcusable. It cannot be in any way justified.
It can NOT in any way be justified, nor can it be labeled anything except excessive force and brutality on the part of the law enforcement personnel involved.
There is no excuse for the actions of that pepper spraying cop. Nor are there any for that SOB cop that threw the flashbang grenade over the barricade when the people came to the aid of Scott Olsen who had previously been injured by a projectile.
ReplyDeleteNor for the closing of the airspace over the park while NYCPD closed in on them, in the middle of the night, and the only reason you do things like that would be because you don't want people to see what you're doing, further evidenced by the maltreatment of the press who were attempting to cover the story.
ReplyDeleteIt is also no coincidence that in the very recent past, Goldman Sachs has made a $4 MILLION contribution to the NYCPD.
I should point out that the pepperspray used by law enforcement is NOT the pepperspray available to the public.
ReplyDeleteThere are limits on the concentrations of these chemicals available for purchase by the public; what law enforcement uses is much stronger.
As far as ordinary pepper spray goes, it is pretty easily available. I have some that I got from an organization that did a self-defense seminar at my job.
It's also notable to point out that the quantities of pepper spray that citizens can carry are restricted.
Of course, law enforcement has it in the handy 'spray em all and let the paramedics deal with the triage' size.
Eleven of the protesters at UC Davis required medical intervention after being sprayed.
It was JPMorgan Chase that gave $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation effectively buying their services. Hence why many of the protesters kept pressing the police in asking who they were protecting. They knew it all too well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/article/ny-13.htm
I cannot admire anyone who thinks that only the government can solve the problems of the world. If a person doesn't think they themselves can help solve problems, then I have no respect for them. Which is why I cannot respect most liberals.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem to me that people who are willing to go out, protest, make their voices heard, and go so far as to endure police brutality without retaliating are certainly doing so with the goal of attempting to not only raise awareness of problems, but by raising that awareness foster the development of solutions for those problems.
Anyone who has been actually paying attention to the OWS message realizes that they support neither Republicans nor Democrats and are actually protesting against the corporate takeover of government. There is no sense of 'government solving the problems of the world'; the sense is that corporations have taken over the government and are running it; rather than 'of the people, by the people, for the people' it has become 'of the profits, by the work of those we exploit, for the shareholders'.
That's what OWS is about.
Silence!
ReplyDeleteYou mustn't come between the divide and conquer strategy of the MSM Saty.
OWS peeps over here.
Tea Party peeps over there.
My error.
ReplyDeleteApologies.
I have found that painting with too broad a brush is sloppy, unprofessional, and leaves a big mess on the floor.
ReplyDeleteFar better to realize that trimwork requires one type of brush, corners another, and sometimes a roller is better than any kind of brush at all.
The 'one size fits all' approach is lazy at best, ignorant at worst.
http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/11/28/pepper-sprayed-students-admit-they-provoked-cops/
ReplyDeleteGlenn to the rescue! Sorry Beth, Glenn is as much a shill as the rest of them. The police's actions are not justified now just as the weren't justified at Kent state. I don't need Beck to tell me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYou can see the interviews of the students on YouTube that show students admitting it, and not looking very distressed by the incident afterward.
ReplyDeleteYour point being...? I was in Seattle during the WTO protests in 1999. I was a delegate to the 2008 RNC in St. Paul. I have seen the brutality of the storm troopers on innocent peaceful protesters first hand.
ReplyDeleteNow who is painting with broad strokes, not every police officer is wrong Soapie and not every protester is innocent, just because you witnessed a few episodes.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that it is not just Glenn Beck reporting the same information.
It. Should come as no surprise that others are reporting similarly. The lot of them read from the same script.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I wasn't implying all cops are bad. I happen to know several, have encountered several who were law abiding upstanding individuals.
Same goes for protesters (OWS or otherwise).
It isn't others reporting, YouTube is showing the actual students being interviewed.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, trying to make this into a Kent State moment really diminishes the event that happened at Kent State.
My intention isn't to make this into a "Kent state moment". I merely stated that the actions of many officers in response to OWS protests are as much without justification as were the actions of those during the Kent state incident.
ReplyDeleteTo further illustrate my point I offer the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q3XwAdP25w
I think they want to make us comfortable living in a police state soap.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing comforting about a police state.
ReplyDeleteI fear my government far more than I do some Muslim in an oil rich country in the Middle East.
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ReplyDelete