My grandfather and father both used the expression “horse sense*” as in, “It doesn’t make horse sense.” In other words, even the brain of a horse could figure this out. The following things don’t make horse sense to me.
1. That in the United States of American an adult can be clearly and emphatically told by the police not to pursue a teenager, do so any way, kill the unarmed teenager, and walk away with zero consequences—zero: acquittal. I didn’t follow the details of the case because I knew I would find the whole marketing/messaging mess surrounding it (that passes for today’s corporate news media) extremely upsetting, but I got the above mentioned facts right.
Was it first degree, premeditated murder? I don’t know enough to make that determination. But it was without any doubt whatsoever a murderous criminal act—not a walk away with zero accountability encounter. A unarmed child was senselessly murdered for God’s sake! This has nothing to do with justice, nothing! This makes zero sense to me.
It’s wrong!
2. I’m sick to death, yes, sick to death of hearing about the United States “exporting democracy” around the world—a euphamism that’s sheer hogwash. This is nothing short of disingenuous! How can the US peddle such nonsense when state after state, under the direct leadership of the Republican Party, seeks to keep legitimate American voters from voting? How can we claim to care about democracy when the SCOTUS guts the voting rights act making it easy to deny actual American citizens their right to vote? The Republican Party in the state of North Carolina is turning that state into a damned fascist regime faster than the earth spins on its axis, and the people, the democracy, is utterly incapable of stopping them?
It’s wrong!
3. Oh, you want to talk to a real human being on the phone? No problem.
Delta Airlines now charges even its most frequent fliers $25 to speak to a living, human customer service representative. I hate flying. And now, I hate flying Delta.
It’s wrong!
4. And speaking of talking to a living human being for customer service: your Comcast Cable, Internet, and Phone goes out? Don’t bother calling them. But I did anyway. Silly me.
The automated phone system already knew it was out, or so an automated voice told me on my cell phone. (How did they associate my cell phone number with my address???) So they refused to talk to me: I was never even given the option to speak to a human being. The automated voice told me the service would be out until 10pm. But, I could receive a call when the service was restored, if I wanted. I chose to receive the call. Of course, no call ever came.
I pay over $7 a day for service I didn’t get that day, and I want a refund for it. Fat chance that will ever happen. This is just another example of corporate political power that eclipses people political power in this nation. Because of the outrageous fees I and everyone else pays, Comcast can make a fat profit and still purchase political influence with the FCC and get away with doing pretty much anything they want.
It’s wrong!
5. A new program is in effect at the airport: TSA PreCheck. I love it.
Now, I don’t have to remove my shoes, dump out my electronics (computers, projector), dump out my deodorant and toothpaste, be exposed to god-only-knows what level of radiation in the porno scanner, have my hands swabbed for explosives because I wear an insulin pump, or have a man run his hand up and touch my genitals because I wear an insulin pump. Now, all I have to do is take off all metal and walk through the metal detector.
I thought this was pretty cool until I read a different perspective about the new procedure. According to that writer, security measures are about to get even worse for the people who travel very little (read: lack political clout because of their station in life).
People who travel a lot (read: “travel a lot” as “have more money” and therefore more political clout) are raising hell about security, are fed up with the whole nonsense of it all. Therefore, to keep the people with more political clout from continuing to pressure government to do something more reasonable, they created Pre-Check. I don’t know if this is true, but it certainly has the ring of truth to it.
Unfortunately, even after venting, I don’t feel any better about it all.
*Urban dictionary: “Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people”