Peeves. Large and Small.

You may have noticed that someone’s been missing here from Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog for a while.  That would be my cranky alter-ego, my Inner Curmudgeon.   But he’s back with some pet peeves, from small ones like internet ads and Facebook to big ones like the current over-reaction to Africa’s Ebola outbreak in the U.S.

1.  Internet video ads that play automatically when I navigate to a page: I understand that advertising drives the internet these days, but as a music lover who sometimes leaves his speakers on LOUD, I’ve been practically knocked out of my chair by some loudmouthed bozo selling some product or other.  I assure you, my response has never been, Oh, I think I’ll buy one of those.

2. Habitual posters of political or religious propaganda on Facebook:  OK, I get it.  Once in a while, the spirit strikes you.  You see a post that tickles your own favorite beliefs and you have to say SHARE.  But you do realize that you annoy, well, about 250,000 times as many people as you convince?   I really get tired of clicking I don’t want to see this, then having to answer Facebook’s questions as to why.  Maybe if we all answered with  Unfollow So-and-So, the crusaders would end up with only other crusaders as friends and they’d drive each other crazy.

3. Bud Light Whatever Happens commercials:  Whether it’s the Bud Light drinker who’s thrilled by a pirate themed living room or the incredibly dumb-sounding blue-suited pretend mayor of a pretend town, Anywhere, USA, these commercials are the best evidence yet that Bud Light is aiming for the bottom of the intellectual gene pool.  Oh yeah, and if your beer tastes like water, it’s best to talk about something else.

4. Tolerance of bad behavior by sports figures: Whether it’s truly despicable behavior like the domestic violence or child abuse or lapses in judgement like selling autographs or shouting obscenities in the school cafeteria, me and my Inner Curmudgeon are sick and tired of boorish jocks and the sport apologists who coddle them.  It’s gotten so bad that IC and I are rooting for Notre Dame to beat Florida State this weekend.  Don’t tell anyone … the University of Southern California might revoke my degrees.

5.  The Pope’s proclamation on U.S. politics:  Pope Francis recently stated, Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.   I am indeed a fan of this Pope but before he lectures the U.S. on trickle down economics, he should reconcile the church’s enormous wealth with his stated concern for the poor.  And address the number of poor selling souvenirs and begging outside Europe’s more famous churches.  No, shunning the luxurious Papal apartment for simpler quarters in the Vatican doesn’t cut it.

6. Ebola-phobia:   In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, SARS could pose a more serious global health threat than any other new disease in the past 20 years, with the sole exception of HIV.  Can you even tell me what SARS stands for?  Then, in 2009, it was Swine Flu that would sweep the world. In 2011, radiation from the Japan nuclear power plant disaster had California residents popping Iodine pills.  Now, it’s Ebola.  Yes, it’s an awful disease.  Precautions need to be taken but the truth is, it’s not especially contagious as diseases go.  There have been two deaths from Ebola in the U.S. in 2014 and 33,541 from traffic accidents in 2013.  So, drive carefully and read this.

That’s all we’ve got for today.   What’s bugging you?

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Tags: beer, curmudgeonly rants, Ebola, Facebook, humor, internet advertising, perspectives, sports

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