It seems that Network executives have become spineless and clueless over the years. I don’t think they always were but they certainly seem so today. I recall a time back in the 80’s and 90’s when these executives would stand up for good shows, even when their rating weren’t that good and sometimes when the ratings were pretty bad. They would even stand behind a show when the insane religious right would complain about a show. Even when some sponsors pulled their advertising. These executives still stood behind their shows.
I am reminded of a few examples. Going back to the early eighties shows like Night Court and Cheers suffered from poor ratings but they were good shows and given a chance for a second season. These shows became part of the backbone behind NBC’s in the eighties and in part became part of NBC’s domination of Thursday night. That domination later turned into it their “Must see TV!” campaign. NBC ruled supreme for well over a decade and it owes a lot of that domination to these series that suffered from poor ratings in their first season.
There were campaigns by Christian groups to get Married with cancelled.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s on FOX, shows like The Simpson’s and Married with Children dominated! Conservative religious groups hated these shows. There were campaigns by these groups to get Married with Children cancelled. Sponsors pulled advertising but the the executives at FOX had some backbone and didn’t kowtow to these idiot groups. Today, these shows would be cancelled the moment anyone claimed to be offended.
Now, any show that offends the Christian right is cancelled the moment there’s a complaint. Yet, if the show is followed and generally supported by the Christian right it can get away with promoting a life style that is anti-gay, bigoted and racist as long as it does so by hiding behind the Bible. Hell, people in the show can be child molesters who admit to committing incest and the cast can support them and the network behind the show will adopt a let’s wait and see mentality. This happening right now with the show 19 Kids and Counting. Sure it has pulled the current run of the show but hasn’t cancelled it. This is an obvious attempt to literally just wait and see how bad the media attention gets before it finally does the right thing and cancels the bigoted show.
19 Kids and Counting is a cast full of admitted bigots and anti-gay people. The network doesn’t even flinch at the criticism.
Seriously, think about it. Duck Dynasty‘s cast supports underage teen sex and bigotry with just a touch of racism thrown in for taste. The show is still on the air. 19 Kids and Counting is a cast full of admitted bigots and anti-gay people. The network doesn’t even flinch at the criticism. It has taken the admission of multiple disgusting acts of sexual perversion of the worst kind to get episodes of the show pulled from the line up. But, even that hasn’t been enough to get the show cancelled, yet. However, in all fairness, I am pretty sure the show is going to get cancelled as the events surrounding Josh Duggars crimes are brought to light. My point however, is that it hasn’t been cancelled yet. The network has been aware of the admitted sex crimes for a full week.
So, here were are in May when the Networks normally start to announce the current seasons cancellations. Two cancellations really stand out to me this season. The new show Backstrom on FOX and ABC’s show Forever have both been cancelled. Both of these shows contain unique main characters, interesting stories and really good writing. Why were they cancelled? Lackluster ratings. Doesn’t matter that they are good shows with loyal fan bases. It seems these idiotic network executives simply have no back bone to stand behind them. Think about it, insanely stupid, shallow and ridiculous shows like the Bachelor and the Bachelorette are still on the air and they cancel Forever? Are you kidding me?
In this day and age when the average TV watching person has access to hundreds of channels and thousands of shows that can be watched online, as well as all the podcasts and internet programming, it’s insane that there isn’t more advertising for these shows. It’s so easy for good shows to fall through the cracks.
Where are the days when networks stood behind shows like this. They knew the shows were good and they gave them every chance to succeed. Now, they get nothing. Almost no promotion at all. They throw up a Facebook and Twitter account and do almost nothing with them magically expecting ratings miracles. In this day and age when the average TV watching person has access to hundreds of channels and thousands of shows that can be watched online, as well as all the podcasts and internet programming, it’s insane that there isn’t more advertising for these shows. It’s so easy for good shows to fall through the cracks.
I will admit that NBC put forth a valiant effort to save The Slap. A show that from the first preview I saw as not only boring but about a decade or two too late. It might have made for an interesting mini-series but as a TV series? It reeked of of Epic Failure. I don’t care if it had a star studded cast. Who wants to sit down on a weekly basis and be forced to contemplate child abuse. Yes it’s an important issue but it makes for horrible TV and it was bad idea from the get go. I don’t know anyone that watched this show. Yet, NBC promoted the hell out of this show. Even after the ratings sucked. They didn’t give up on it. I respect that. Someone believed in the show and they fought for it. It wasn’t until after all that support and the ratings still sucked that they finally pulled the plug on it. That’s how you do it!
On the other hand, taking good shows like Forever and Backstom off the air after only putting in a half-assed promotional campaign is ridiculous. It shows that not only are these network executives clueless as to what is good TV but they seem to have absolutely no idea what good TV is. It seems they wouldn’t know a good show if it “fell out of the sky, landed on their face and started to wiggle.”
Your first thought might be the cost of it all that I hate. It is expensive, too expensive I would say but that isn’t what keeps me from going. It’s the stupid, disrespect douchebags that always sit around me. You know the types. Those that like to make themselves at home by putting their feet up on the seats in front of them. The idiots that will not stop talking. The idiots that dick around their cell phone the entire time. The overall clueless behavior of the average person just pisses me off me to know end.
Every single time I head out to theater to see a movie, usually with my kids, there’s been an asshole sitting someone near me. It’s the teen girls sitting in front of us that talk and text the entire fucking time. Trying to enjoy the film but keep getting distracted by the sounds and lights coming from their cell phones. Idiots that have no problem with putting their dirty smelly feet up on their chair in front of them. One time this asshole at the Krikorian in Redlands, California had his fucking feet up on the chair next to me. His smelly, fucking near bear feet are inches away from my face. I figured when I sat down he would at least have enough decency to take them down. Nope! I shouldn’t have to turn around and ask the fucknut to take his feet off the chair but I did.
People seem to feel entitled to shit that they shouldn’t in today’s society. I have fairly liberal opinions. I think we all should be entitled to clean water, health care, dental care. I don’t mind paying a little more in taxes for these things if it will help the poor and needy. However, we live in a society, and society has rules, if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be a society. Being the slightest bit respectful is a rule. You don’t even have to be polite. Just have a little respect for the people around you. And, it goes further than that. It means being at least a little bit tolerant of other people’s behavior that you may not like but there’s never any excuse to just be flat out disrespectful without cause.
Being tolerant is one of the reason I avoid going to theaters nowadays. I realize the disrespectful girls that were sitting in front of me were just having fun. They meant no harm with their selfishness. And, I never said anything because honestly, it’s not worth the hassle. I have asked people to be quiet before and it usually ends up with shit getting worse. A simple, “Shhh” leads to them being more obnoxious and the last thing I want is to end up on the news for slapping the shit out of a bunch of tweens. Not that I would ever slap the shit out of a kid, ever. But, ohhh!, there are times I my evil little mind has thought about it.
Sometimes speaking out can almost lead to a fight. Not that I have ever gotten into a fight at a theater. But, I almost did one time. Remember the fucknut with his feet up on the seat next to me? This douchebad is with his girlfriend, wearing flip flops. When I turned my head to the left, I would be looking at his nasty-ass toes less than a foot away. I gave the polite look back at him, thinking this should be enough to snap his dumbass back into reality. He had to see me turn and look at his feet several times before I went with full turn to look at his face. I was being as non-confrontational as possible with this asshat.
I get nothing from him. His smelly feet remain. I turn, I ask him if he could take his feet down. I am ignored. Now, I am about ready to explode. I’m a pretty big guy and nothing pisses me off more than stupid people. I have the perfect seats I don’t want to move because of this asshole. The theater is also starting to fill up I don’t really notice any other seats that I like. And, it’s aggravating me even more that I am considering moving to another seat because this fucking asshole wont take his feet off the chair.
Not being able to take it anymore, I turn around and snap at him. “Dude, will take your smelly feet off the chair!”
This doesn’t make him happy and he looks at me and says, “You don’t have to be rude about it!”
I respond back that I had asked him nicely twice and now he’s denying that I ever said anything. I have not only been disrespected by his actions, he’s also calling me a liar. I turn around and say, “You shouldn’t have your feet up on the seat in the first place.” He smarts off again and I swing back around, I am about to go nuclear. In my mind I am thinking, I’m not letting this go. If he touches me I will beat his ass down and humiliate him right in front of his girlfriend.
As I turn and almost waiting for him to lay hands on me I notice it’s not his girlfriend, it’s obviously his daughter, his young daughter. I am now disappointed at the fact that he would set such a bad example of how to act in public by putting his feet up on the chair in the first place. By, lying when he said that he didn’t hear me ask to put his feet down, he heard me, I know it, he knows is. He thought he was going to be a tough guy in front of his daughter. But, what horrified me the most is how ready I was to beat the shit out this guy for being such an asshole. I didn’t say anything after I saw his daughter sitting there confused and probably a little afraid. I turned back around in my chair and spent the rest of time feeling like shit, frustrated and ashamed of myself. I was frustrated that I had to feel like shit because this guy was an disrespectful asshole. That it all came down to a near fight because he was absolutely clueless to how disrespectful he was being and how intolerant I am of blatant stupidity.
I read an article and watched a little news video about a mother who was at the movies and the idiots kids in front of her were acting a fool. She said something to the kids and they acted up and continued to be disrespectful. The mother of the kids later found out about it and apologized on Facebook to the mother she didn’t know in a letter on Facebook that went viral. I thought how sad is that? The story has a great ending but it shouldn’t have been a story in the first place. Those kids should have known better. I understand that they are just kids and even the best parents can have kids that act like fools, it’s kinda of what kids do. Doing stupid things and being punished it for it how we learn sometimes. But, when it’s not just the kids, when it’s the adults that more times than not act worse than their kids, what can you do about it? It’s not worth a fight and I found to my surprise and horror how quickly things can escalate over peoples lack of respect.
Of all these things that I don’t like about going to the theater, last on the list is actually the outrageous prices at the concessions stand. Honestly, it’s not even near the top of list. I’m broke and I would gladly pay more for a theater ticket and the concessions if it meant I didn’t have to deal with all the disrespectful jerks that treat the theater like it’s their second home. Nothing says you’re a scumbag, selfish prick like way some people act at their local theaters.
I used to love going to the theater. There was a time, when my then girlfriend and I would go at least once a week. We saw everything back then. But, over the years, I have seen people just get more and more disrespectful while at the movie theater and I just have no patience for that kind of crap anymore. So, it’s just best that I don’t go anymore. It’s best for me and it’s best for the assholes. Violence is almost never the answer and I shouldn’t have to worry about getting into a fight just because I ask some douchebags to stop talking or to not place their sweaty, smelly feet on the back of or next to my chair. It’s just not worth the frustrations.
Now I am not saying that I can’t control myself, I do still go to the movies from time to time. It’s just that every time I go there is someone acting like an asshole. I can tolerate it when it’s not around me but when that little brat behind me starts kicking my seat, when the idiots around me start playing with their cell phones, when people keep talking during the movie, I just can’t stand it and I realize it’s my problem as much as the assholes. So, for me, I wait for the DVD or Amazon Prime or Netflix.
I don’t know what it is that makes people so goddamn stupid. I just saw a post from a friend on Facebook linking to a YouTube video that is supposed to show how you can charge your cellphone with electricity from your skin. It’s frightening how gullible people are. This is what happens when you have no concept of science and logic, you think like an idiot. Stop doing that.
Here’s the video…
I want to explain why this won’t work but if you’re already stupid enough to think this works, you’re certainly going to understand the science involved. So, I will keep it as simple as possible. USB cables don’t work this way. They are not an outlet, there are tiny wires that define what is transferred from one end to other. To just stick one end of a paperclip in there and expect it to link up with the specific wire that sends the electrical current needed for charging just isn’t going to happen, ever. You can get an electrical charge from you skin but it’s somewhere around a tenth of an AMP, that’s not going to cut it. Also, two quarters and a piece of paper don’t make a capacitor not to mention you wouldn’t need a capacitor for this. It’s all just so stupid.
If you want some of the science behind how charging with a USB cable works look for reliable sources. Below is a link to get you started. And remember, this simple phrase, “If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably is.” And, don’t ever just take the word of someone because they have a blog and told you something. Even if you trust them. Look shit up from reliable sources. Look for the science behind what they are saying. When you read articles look for their sources. Look at the evidence they provide to back up what they are saying and then check those sources.
Don’t be that person that posts stupid shit. Chances are your smart friends are just too polite to tell you that you’re being an idiot. Sometimes they try to politely and explain why what you just posted was completely stupid and lacks any scientific evidence or even a logical train of thought. I know this applies to me, I try to be nice but it’s hard when people just throw a pile of stupid right in your face. Usually what happens now, I just do a silent face palm and remember that there’s a reason I never talk to most of these “Friends” in real life.
You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to not look like an idiot when you post. Just ask yourself, do I really know if what I am about is true or am I just posting it because it sounds cool. If you’re about to post something that is supposed to be factual and you’re only doing it because it sounds cool, you could be an idiot. We’re all guilty of posting stupid shit, it happens. But, let’s be honest, some people do it like it’s a competition.
*Did you like this post? Do me a favor, look at the amazon.com links over there to the right. Click one of them and buy something. It will make you feel better about yourself.
Ok apparently people do not know how to prepare chicken and are getting sick from Salmonella poisoning. So here is my guide to avoid getting sick.
Don’t be an idiot.
Don’t eat raw chicken. (The above should be good enough for 90% of you out there. For the rest of you, please continue.)
Rinse raw chicken off. (Be careful not to splash onto counter tops. If you do, spray with a good disinfectant and wipe away.)
Cook Chicken fully. Chicken is not like beef. There is either cooked or not cooked. There is no rare, medium rare and so on.
MOST IMPORTANT STEP! While chicken is cooking. Place any plate or tray or container that held the raw chicken into the sink. Wash thoroughly. Never place cooked chicken back on the same plate that you had the raw chicken on. This is where most people get Salmonella from. Always keep things that touched the raw chicken from touching the cooked chicken.
As long as you follow these rules you will never get Salmonella poisoning. That chicken could be jumping with Salmonella. It could have fallen off a truck and landed in pool fool of Salmonella and you will not get sick if you follow my rules.
*If somehow you do get it. You either didn’t follow the rules above or it is proof positive of two things. One, there is a God. Two, he does not like you.
Please pass this on as you know you have at least a few friends that are complete idiots. This is for them.
Your welcome.
How do I know if I’ve been infected?
Symptoms of salmonellosis include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. They develop 12 to 72 hours after infection, and the illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days. Most people recover without treatment. But diarrhea and dehydration may be so severe that it is necessary to go to the hospital. Older adults, infants, and those who have impaired immune systems are at highest risk.
Side note. Some doctors have suggested that it’s pointless to wash the chicken before you cook it. For example, ABC Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser. He explains that you don’t need to rinse it because the spray from the rinsing can infect the counter tops.
It is true that the spray can infect the counter tops. Wiping your counter top down with just a clean dry paper towel will eliminate around 94% of the germs and bacteria on the surface. Now if you spray the area with a simple ant–bacteria disinfectant with bleach in it, you’re pretty much going to kill 99% of everything including HIV.
So why do I suggest rinsing off your chicken? Simple, it just came from a butcher. There’s always little pieces of bone fragments and ligaments that get missed by the butcher. You cook that, bite it and can chip a tooth, even swallow it, not evening knowing it and that can cause internal damage. Not to mention you don’t know what the butcher was cutting right before he got to your chicken. It could have been some steak, pork, almost anything. Just rinse it off well and get that crap off of your chicken. No, it’s not necessary but you’ll thank me for it in the long run.
I used to love the 4th of July. The day used to mean celebrating with family and friends, BBQ’s and waiting patiently for night to fall so we could light our fireworks. The entire neighborhood would be outside, lawn chairs seemed to line both sides of the street. So many cool fireworks to see. I couldn’t wait till I was old enough that my parents would let me light one by myself.
July 5th there would be stories of kids that got hurt, houses that caught fire and the occasional field. But, it was always user error, every single time. Sure it would get reported as an “Accident” but the news always told the story and made no attempt to protect the stupid people. It was always someone using illegal fireworks or using legal ones in an unrecommended way that would start a fire or injure someone.
Somewhere over the years it became dangerous, then cities started banning fireworks. At first they were far communities that didn’t affect us. But, then one day, it did and that was it. One of my favorite days of the years was gone. And it was taken from us all because of stupid people. Instead of punishing the stupid, communities just made a rash decision to take away our rights, another freedom gone.
I am now 43 years old and I think of all the things I could do as a kid that my kids, now all grown never got to do. I got to ride in the back of truck, used to love that. Can’t do it anymore. Used to ride my bike without wearing a helmet. Can’t do that anymore. Used to celebrate the 4th in my neighborhood with family and friends by lighting off our own fireworks and watching them glow and shine and watching the neighbors light off theirs. Not anymore. And, what amazes me, in all those childhood years I never saw anyone get hurt, from a firework. I never heard of a kid flying out of the back of a pickup truck and I nobody I know ever got seriously hurt from riding their bike.
Now, if we do anything for the 4th, instead of an all day gathering it’s become just a quick visit. I quick hello and maybe a lunch or an early dinner because everyone has some fireworks show they have to drive to. That feeling of family and community forever gone because for some dumb reason this country has decided to protect the stupid people at the expense of everyone else. It’s just sad and what bothers me even more is that no one seems to care anymore. We so easily just lay down as one thing after another is taken from us in the name of “Our own good.”
Sorry about the rant, it just sort of happened. My kids are coming up this weekend to celebrate the 4th so yesterday, sadly was pretty much just another day, except for when it got dark. That’s when all the stupid people with their illegal fireworks go out and start lighting their stuff off and it goes on until till at least midnight or later so if you have to sleep you can’t. So I sit and feel punished, so much taken away from us and the only people not affected by it, are the ones the ban on fireworks was intended to affect.
So I sit here this morning and watch the news of a legal fireworks event, where as sheep we are encouraged to go so that we can watch fireworks safely. So what happens, dozens of folks injured when something goes wrong. Really? Then there’s another story of an idiot with bottle rockets and another with roof made out of wood shingles. Wood shingles been illegal in California for about 15 or 20 years and this roof catches on fire. Who do we blame? The idiot with bottle rocket or the idiot with the wood shingled roof? My guess it will be neither. Bottle rockets and wood shingles are illegal. The thought of actually going after the stupid, the law breakers, it’s never gonna happen. There’s no money in that. It will be ignored unless the government can figure out a way to connect something to it and then ban it because the alternative makes them money. It’s just sad. So many good memories, so many future memories we will never have.
to. That feeling of family and community forever gone because for some dumb reason this country has decided to protect the stupid people at the expense of everyone else. It’s just sad and what bothers me even more is that no one seems to care anymore. We so easily just lay down as one thing after another is taken from us in the name of “Our own good.”
