Feel The Outrage

It's outrageous. That's what it is. Fancy someone thinking that way and writing about it. Why they should have their head read. They must be mental to think that way. What vile horrid filth comes out of their mouth and from their fingers on the keyboard.

Me? I just don't see it. I'm like, "Oh, he's going off again" and I flick the channel, turn the page or click the link away. I don't need to subject myself to it. But I am not like others. They seem to revel in being outraged.

It's true. They read online articles written by journalists they cannot stand. They watch TV shows that are hosted by people they cannot stand, who push agendas they are against. The listen to talkback radio on subjects that drive them nutty. But they don't turn away. They keep coming back for more, and then they complain about it. And that's the bit I don't get.

Why subject yourself to something you don't like? You should never complain about something you need not subject yourself to. It's just plain silly.

Recently, some journalist - I'm not sure if he is one or just some guy who wrote a piece - wrote that he hoped the insurgents in Iraq would win and beat the US. He also said he would hope that, even if his son was over there fighting.

Well. You should have heard and read the outrage. Oh. It was everywhere. Coming from the right. After all, the right loves Dubbya and Dubbya can do no wrong. And anything that is anti-American is taken personally. And you get the idea.

I had switched off when reading the piece because it was obviously written to get a reaction - which is did. But was quite amused at the railings of the right-wingers as they wished all kinds of abominations on the writer. It was like reading a gathering of crazies. Where all sense of rational thought had left, and all that remained were insane blathering idiots.

They spread the outage around too. Letting each other know of the hideous man who wished bad things upon the US soldiers in another land. Suddenly, righties were linking to it from all over the web. Sending ever more and more craziness into the area. All spouting more and more vile words of condemnation. And I'm thinking of those words spoken by Murphy Brown when she would encounter someone who hated her and her show and the segments she did. And she would say to them... "Thanks for watching."

I can just imagine that journalist sitting behind his keyboard. If he was reading what they wrote about him and his article he'd be thinking... Thanks for reading.

Me? I'd shake my head and click away. Next. I just don't feel like being outraged. It's not productive. Why make myself miserable? For what? I don't gain. If anything, I give power over to the one who wrote/said the thing I became outraged over. I don't need that shite in my life. I'd rather have Peter Pan Happy Thoughts. And I don't mean to imply I wish to escape reality. Far from it. I simply choose what I will listen to and read. And listening to people who I know are irrational socialists and/or who wish death and destruction upon value producers, has no purpose to me. I won't change their mind, nor do I even care to try. I won't even link to those bad things I comment on, if you notice, because I don't want to send traffic, readers, and energy their way. I don't want to spread it around.

I can understand getting outraged over something you might stumble upon. And fair enough too. But the puzzle to me is, those who go out of their way to feel the outrage. THAT, I do not get. I don't know what is worse, the doink who wrote the piece that outrages people, or the people who flock to read it so they can get outraged.

Maybe I'm just all outraged out? Like the outrage only goes down so far, and then nothing more. No more outrage. Just a kind of mild amusement of those who are outraged and those who do the outraging. Maybe it's a matter of learning to ignore it, or letting it go. For in the grand scheme of things (not there is a grand scheme, but you know what I mean), none of it matters one jot anyway.

What the journalist wrote doesn't matter. What any doink politician lying bastard says doesn't matter. What any socialist student union leader wants doesn't matter. Nothing matters. In fact, if being outraged causes mental discomfort, then it is certainly something we should avoid for our own health's sake. For to live, to truly live, we should strive to do things we enjoy. To do them for ourselves. Selfishly. To hell with anyone else. And being outraged isn't that enjoyable, really.

See. I can't even get outraged at this. It's merely an observational diatribe about, what I consider to be, a mindless behavior. Where people are letting their feelings get the better of them.

The outragees over at FreeRepublic love to link to anything and everything Robert Fisk writes so they can all feel the outrage. And I don't get it. Do they get a kind of good-guy badge by showing each other how outraged they are?

It's like those battered women who keep going back to the guy who battered them. We all scratch our heads and wonder why. This is the same... they keep going back to be outraged by the same people over and over again. Failing in their fundamental survival mechanism of not subjecting themselves to things they don't enjoy. Heck, an animal learns this real fast. Humans? They seem to ignore it. If anything, they seem to prefer self-destruction. And in this case, mental destruction as the outrage tests their sanity, as they try to hold on to their emotions and only manage to do it by a very thin thread.

So some guy reckons WWII was really started by England and the only thing Germany was doing was having a simple, nothing-much-really, border dispute with Poland. Just par for the course.

Another guy reckons society should be based on needs. I need more so you should provide it for me. Hmm mmm. Same old same old.

Dubbya/Howard are fascist dictators. Yep Yep Yep. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Maybe that's it too. There is nothing new to be outraged at. I've heard it all before. It's not your fault; someone else is to blame; right wingers are all Nazis; tax the rich value producers and distribute the money to the value leeches; blah blah blah. It was a load of bollocks then and is a load of bollocks now. So what?

Turn, walk away and get on with your life. You cannot reason with nonsense. And you'll just get frustrated trying. Let go of the outrage and you feel a whole lot better.

How To Solve The UnEmployment Welfare Problem

"We're moving to Tenant Creek", they said, "to work on a construction project."

"Both of you?" I asked.

"Yep." he replied.

"What jobs will you be doing?" I asked.

"I'll be driving a site truck and Janey (not her real name) will work in the office", said Joe (not his real name).

"Did you need special qualifications to work in the office?"

"Nope" said Janey, "I've never done any secretarial course. All they care about is can I answer the phone and type the few things they need typed. That's what it's like out there. As long as you can do the job you're hired. And if you've done work out there on any site before, you are guaranteed of getting work on other sites."

They told me they would be away for two years and their stuff was going into storage. Their house would be rented out.

Now here was a couple who were going to move to a location about a thousand miles away from where they lived, and a place where there was no city or city conveniences. They would be living on a construction site in the middle of nowhere. Getting a place to sleep and food to eat on top of their high rates of pay due to the isolation. They were willing to do something no welfare bludger is willing to do.

Onward.

My BaGua Zhang (the martial art of overkill) instructor had been away for a month. He'd been picking fruit and vegetables. Beans, carrots, that kind of thing. It was outside work. Physical work which was hard at first but easy once you were used to it and had shrugged off the city flabbiness. Work that added variety to his life.

Onward.

With the camera in her face, she was asked by the reporter why she collected unemployment welfare, instead of picking fruit which was so readily available in her area. She said she was too busy to pick fruit.

Too busy? She was unemployed! How could she be too busy to work? Busy doing what? Sitting at home sucking down beer and smoking cigarettes?

Onward.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"I put my name down for work. When someone calls them they call me and ask me if I can be at the location within 30 minutes. I say "Yes" or "No". If it's "Yes" then I go and I work for four hours. It's four hours minimum. The client pays them $25 an hour and I get $15 an hour from that. I can put my name down with as many agencies as I can and don't need to have a full time job cause I get all the work I can handle from that."

He owns a pair of steel-capped boots and a hard hat and that is all. He was talking about having his name down with Workforce Agencies. Not job finding agencies but the agencies that businesses call when they need someone for a day, or half a day or what have you. He puts his name down with the Manual Labor agencies and with the agencies that have manual labor categories. Sometimes he does cleaning jobs, sometimes its yard work, other times its work on a building site.

Onward.

He called the company and told them he was looking to work, and could he put his name down with them for when they needed someone. He was asked to come fill out a form. And once the form was filled out, instructed to call in each week to see if work was available. This, he did. And he started that weekend.

On the day he hopped in his car and drove about 50 miles (80km) ready to start at 6.00am. His job was simple. Walk up and down the seating isles of the sporting arena picking up the trash - discarded cigarette packets, drink containers, food containers, and so on and so forth. When his bag was full, he tied it in a knot, pulled out a fresh empty bag and continued. He was one of about 20 or so.

After his "shift" he asked if he was needed next week. And was told "Yes" and when and where to be.

He noticed the group of workers was like a family almost. Because they were all willing to do what most people were not. Some of the workers got to prepare the arena for game day. Some got to work at the arena on game day - emptying trash cans. And some were making $25,000 a year just doing this part time, weekend and evening work.

Onward

You know that large 20 storey high-rise going up on the old Sundale site? They are desperately looking for people to work. And they can't find anyone. Even though they are offering $1,000 a week, in hand (after tax).

Month's later, I get chatting to a couple of guys who have just walked out of the door of one of my client's businesses. They tell me they have traveled up from Sydney (about 625 miles away; 1,000 kilometers) to work on the building scraping the gunk off of the inside of the windows. They are both about 45 - 50 years old. They are willing to "move to work." To "go where the money is."

And therein lies the secret. They are WILLING. All the people in this story were WILLING - except the dole bludger, who wasn't willing to do anything.

The dole bludgers complain about no work being around. And yet here, in this entry, is revealed many ways to get work...

• Picking fruit and vegetables
  
• Putting your name down with labor hire agencies
  
• Contacting construction sites and letting them know you are looking to WORK
  
• Contacting the local sporting arena and asking about joining the after-game cleaning crew
  
• Being willing to travel to isolated locations where labor is so hard to come by.

All PROVEN methods of getting money coming in.

There is a saying. It goes something like... it takes money to make money.

This saying is wrong. It should be, someone else must have money and be willing to spend money before we can make money. And the most fundamental thing we have to exchange for that money is our effort.

The basic effort is physical labor. But office jobs aren't that much different. They are still an exchange of effort. Just not as physically demanding. And usually not as high paying either - and require pieces of paper before you can do them.

This fundamental principle of money getting needs to be drilled into the heads of the dole bludgers. And then once they get it, tell them all the ways they can get work (they may not know). And then, cut off their unemployment money.

They won't starve. They will get off their butt and pick fruit and be willing to do labor work on building sites. If they need food because they ran out of money before their job money comes in, charity organizations will give food coupons. If they need a few bucks for rent while they wait for their job money, the charity organizations will provide a check made out to the landlord. Charities which are funded by private citizens and businesses - just like during The Great Depression before there was government welfare to support an army of leeches.

The Scam of Mother's Day

The once a year shop-fest called Mother's Day has just passed. And I cannot help but wonder what a load of bollocks it is.

Throughout the western world society has been trained, like an obedient dog, to buy a whole bunch of gifts and cards on this day. And to send/give those gifts to their mothers. To show how much they appreciate their mother, or something like that.

I need to ask... if you think your mom is so special, why do you need a special day of the year to show it? Wouldn't you be showing your appreciation throughout the year?

I notice the concept is like religion. Religion wants us to all worship the thing they said created us (their god). Mother's Day wants us all to worship our mothers. (Both see that WE had no say in our existence but expect us to worship the creator - interesting.)

There is a lot of pressure on children to conform to the societal norm and get something for their mom on Mother's Day. With moms getting upset if they receive nothing or are not acknowledged. But I think... no-one forced you to be a mom. That was done of your own volition. So why get upset that someone doesn't "praise" you for something you did of your own volition. You should never do something for another person of your own volition, then get upset when you get nothing back in return - unless you had an agreement to the contrary.

People who do complain about "all I've done for you" when you didn't ask for it and they did it of their own volition, are known as Psychic Vampires. (Psychic Vampires want to make you feel guilty somehow, so you "owe" them something. Often giving gifts without a supposed reason, but then will act hurt if you don't do something for them when they ask and remind you of the gift. Often also known to off load their problems into you, behaving as if they cannot get by emotionally without your support and by using you as a crutch - but when you want something from them they don't want to know and will quickly move on.) Psychic Vampires are a vileness in our society. Get rid of them out of your life, whenever you encounter them. They will suck the emotional energy out of you.

That's what Mother's Day is about. And the world has been conned into it. All to the betterment of business - such as restaurants and florists.

Another thought I've had about this day - and Father's Day - is, why isn't their a Child's Day?

Some would say it is Child's Day every day. And I beg to differ. Ask any child if they think they are treated as if it is Child's Day every day. The answer will be "No."

There are a whole myriad of "days" - Mother's Day, Father's Day, Secretary's Day, Professional Worker's Day, Valentine's Day, and so on and so forth. But no Child's Day in amongst them.

And how about the gifts people buy on Mother's Day?

"Here mom, to show how much I appreciate you, here is an iron (so you can iron my clothes better)." And for fathers it would be, "Here dad, to show how much I appreciate you, here is a pair of work gloves and a push mower (so you can work in the yard)." There are almost no gifts promoted that see the parent pampered. The gifts almost always are related to the parent doing more work around the house.

Oh sure. Going to a restaurant to "give mom a night/day off" is considered a pampering thing. As if to imply it is mom's sole job to cook. But notice how the restaurant trip doesn't just give mom time off, it also gives dad time off too. It's not like dad does the cooking is it? Dad doesn't want to do the cooking so the "gift" is to eat out.

Sometimes comfy clothes are bought. But I think clothes are a personal thing. And should be left to the individual to buy. Boxes of chocolates can be bought any old time. As can food processors and other bullshit gifts so mom can work.

If you want to give your mom a gift, then just do it. Don't wait for one day in a whole year when you feel you have to due to some kind of society pressure. But do make sure the gift is not a tool for her to use in the kitchen or something for the house like lightbulbs. Gifts should be personal. Which creates a problem because only the receiver of a gift knows what they really want, and most gifts from other people don't even come close. Which makes a voucher for $X to spend in a certain store as probably the best gift you can give, not just your mom but anyone. But then, giving such a thing any old time is kind of odd, isn't it? It's like giving a $50 note for no apparent reason. Imagine going up to your mom, handing her a $50 note and saying, "Thanks for being so wonderful."

If we didn't fall for the Mother's Day con, there would be a lot less money spent in florists and restaurants. Stores like K-Mart, Target and so on, would not have as much turnover nor make as much money. And the effects would filter through the economy. But then again, we would all have more money to spend on our own interests, or to invest with for our future. So the money would be spent, just not at florists, restaurants and department stores.

Somehow, I don't think the con will end any time soon.

Sorry For/To [Insert Bullshit Here]

Picture this... it's 8pm at night. You're just settling in to watch some drivel on the idiot box. The phone rings. You get up, pick up the receiver and say "Hello" into it. The person at the other end says, "Sorry for calling so late" and then gets into what they want.

Sound familiar?

It might be late at night, or early in the morning, or on a public holiday, or weekend day. But whatever it is, it starts with a "Sorry for..." apology. An apology that is totally and utterly bullshit.

Fact: People only call you when they want something from you. And we only call other people when we want something from them.

It is okay to admit this. The world won't end. And the dash of honesty might free you up a bit as well.

When we make that call, we don't give a toss what the person on the other end of the line is doing. We want something - information, favor, product, service, whatever. And because we don't care if our call is convenient or not, it makes no sense to start the call with bullshit.

Sorry for calling so late...

Bullshit. If you were so sorry for calling so late, you would NOT have made the call in the first place.

Whenever someone calls me and gives me the "sorry for..." line I tell them, "No you're not" and wait for their reaction. Their reaction is usually stunned silence. Stunned silence I should be so honest.

One caller said something about not getting off on the wrong foot. I told him to not apologize for things he wasn't sorry about. And that if I didn't want to answer the phone I wouldn't have. And asked him what he wanted.

This leads to another one of the phone's bullshit speech patterns. When people say they hope they weren't interrupting something, or do I have a minute, or words to that effect.

Hey! If I was in the middle of something that could not be interrupted I wouldn't answer the phone. If I didn't have a minute I wouldn't answer the phone. I would let it ring out, or will have diverted it to voicemail to let voicemail take a message.

"How are you?" the voice said, then continued on without a pause to tell me what it wanted. And while it did I said, "I'm excellent, thanks." The voice stopped, said "What?" and I said, "You asked how I was, and I answered you." The voice said, "whatever" and continued to tell me what it wanted.

This is something you will not find me doing... asking people how they are. Why? Because I can honestly admit that I do not care how they are. They are voices on the other end of the phone. People I don't know. Faces I pass in a store. How can I possible care one iota how they are? The answer is, I cannot. So I don't even pretend to.

If I ask someone how they are, it is because I genuinely do care how they are and want to know. But most of the time you never have to ask this question anyway as people are so willing to tell you how they are, without needing a prompt.

I was in the print shop the other day and the printer made a call to a customer to let them know their printing was ready. The call went like this, "This is Joe from Better Copies R us, how are you? [pause for answer]. I'm just calling to let you know your printing is ready."

Two things about this call. One is the "how are you" line. The other is the use of the word "just". To me it is a word to use when unsure of oneself in a call. It is a word almost all people use and one I never do.

I tend not to beat around the bush with inconsequentials. I come out and say why I am calling. If I was the print shop guy my call would go like this... "This is Michael Ross from Better Copies R us. I'm calling to let you know your printing is ready."

No useless, "Sorry to call you so late" or "Hope I didn't interrupt something" or "Do you have a minute" or "How are you" bullshit. Just direct, straight to the point, concise communication.

I overheard a secretary making follow-up phone calls to car service clients. All calls went like this, "This is Sue from Jibble Motors, how are you? I'm just calling to..."

The nature of my business saw me being near her location for about 30 minutes. And by the time I was done I was ready to scream at her. For being so bloody fake and phony on the phone. For asking someone how they were when it didn't matter about their answer, because their answer wasn't being listened to.

I got an email. It started with, "Sorry to bother you on your email".

Huh? Email is specifically designed for communication purposes. If I did not want email communication I would not give out my email address.

My reply began like this: "First, please don't apologize for things you aren't sorry about. If you were sorry, you wouldn't have sent me the email in the first place. I'd rather we dispense with such nonsense. Agreed?"

A guy was getting driving directions from me. He kept making turns I hadn't told him to make and getting lost, and so called me four times in thirty minutes. Each time he called he asked me how I was. And when he finally arrived the first words out of his mouth were "how are you?" I told him I was the same as I was the four other times he asked me in the last thirty minutes.

The thing is, people don't even realize they are doing it half the time. It has become a habit of their speech, and now text. It is not a communication from a conscious, thinking human being. It is mindless noise coming out of their mouths. Noise from a pod person who does it because they have heard other people doing it. They don't even know if what they are saying makes sense. You can tell, because if they had thought about it they would come to the conclusion that it doesn't make sense to say it, and so wouldn't say it.

Meet The Newest Addition To Indonesia Zoo, The Corby

Shapelle Corby is the girl whose bodyboard bag was found to contain marijuana. She was subsequently arrested, thrown in jail and has been undergoing a trial for her freedom.

Many believe she is innocent of trying to import dope into the country. And I am just baffled. I cannot understand any reason why a person - even a drug cartel - would want to import dope from Australia to Indonesia, when there are much cheaper sources of the drug in and around that country. It's just darn odd.

But the thing that fries my grits is how Australians are treating Corby like some kind of zoo attraction. They go to her jail and want to visit with her. What's with that?

They don't know her. They are nothing to her. They say they want to offer their support. But what good is a visit from a stranger. It's not support. It's a sick and twisted kind of voyeurism. Like a real life reality TV show. Where they want to see her for their own need to be a part of the controversy. So they can tell friends back home, "We saw Shapelle Corby in jail. Oh, what's that? No, She really is a lovely girl... blah blah blah."

They want to take up her precious time, time she could be spending with her own thoughts in deep contemplation, maybe coming up with items for her defense. And they want to absorb that time away from her. So they will feel better about themselves. As some kind of good-guy badge. So they can boast how kind they are because they went to see her.

Those people are vile creatures. They masquerade as offering support. But want to feed off of her energy and the energy around the incident. By becoming part of it.

It's a scenario played out repeatedly in any controversial incident. Let the church or whomever make a lot of noise about some movie or book or what have you, and people flock to watch the movie or buy the book, so they can feel a part of the controversy.

Watch a news reel. When there is nothing to report, they are having interviews with the nextdoor neighbor's friend's brother, who once was in the same bar as the person involved. So we can all feel closer to the controversy.

Corby is not an animal put in a cage for all who have the inkling to go have a good old gawk at. She is a human being who is in a position no other human being would ever want to be in. And you just know, if there was some kind of Corby doll or t-shirt or other such thing, these energy leeches would be buying it. As proof positive they were there. As a kind of trophy to show their friends.