The Beagle Is Back

So I haven't posted in a long time. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I am currently working on other writing projects and thought I would not have have time to post my little rants.
2. I forgot my username and password and couldn't be bothered to recover it.

I realized that I still need the outlet that this blog provides. I also remembered the username and password when I signed in to follow another blog. So, things are going to be busy around here after the holidays and possibly before they are over.

That said, I highly recommend Alex Call's blog.

It's Not Just Fox Commenters Anymore

If you go to the Fox news website and click on any article not related to politics, read the comment section for a laugh. Guaranteed, somewhere along the line, usually within the first ten comments, you will find a reference to Obama or politics in general. This article could be about archaeologists finding a random tooth in Eastern Europe, but some dumb ass is bound to make a political comment thinking that they are being clever.

Murderer Gets A New Liver. Sure, Why Not?

Johnny Concepcion stabbed his wife to death, then ate rat poison as the police closed in on him after a lengthy manhunt. The rat poison destroyed his liver, and after a search of the donor list, they found a donor for Concepcion, pushed him to the top of the waiting list, and performed a transplant.

As expected, there is much outrage over this, and the outrage is justified. This man stabbed his estranged wife and mother of his children fifteen times, then ingested rat poison in a cowardly attempt to avoid arrest. The excuse given after this good for nothing killer was given a new liver? Doctors are not meant to make moral decisions regarding their patients.

Asshole Spotlight: Lindsay Lohan

Baby punching and insane, racist and threatening rants would have been an obvious choice to put Mel Gibson in the Asshole Spotlight, but I chose Lindsay Lohan for my own little rant today. In doing so, this post is as much about her as it is about the sick cult of celebrity that exists in our world.

You're Doing It Wrong

It's been a while, I know. I have had some serious computer issues and was using a different computer, which is really no excuse for not posting, but it threw me off of my general life routine.

Anyway, during the days of slumming it on Facebook and watching banned commercials and weird Japanese game shows on YouTube, I did occasionally read the news, and I ran across an article more disturbing than anything on Japanese television. Unfortunately, I cannot find the article now, and I am not going to go on a great big hunt for it since it really isn't going to be necessary in order for me to say what I have to say.

Hollywood Magic Is Dead

A few years ago, while sitting in front of the television with a friend, this trailer for the then new, Kangaroo Jack, prompted me to turn to her and say, "That's it. Hollywood has officially run out of ideas." Little did I know then that I was well off the mark.

Generation: Socially Inept

“I think it is kids’ preference to pair up and have that one best friend. As adults — teachers and counselors — we try to encourage them not to do that,” said Christine Laycob, director of counseling at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis. “We try to talk to kids and work with them to get them to have big groups of friends and not be so possessive about friends.”

“Parents sometimes say Johnny needs that one special friend,” she continued. “We say he doesn’t need a best friend.”

Link

Sometimes, There Is Really Not Much To Say

I've never heard of UPROXX. I've never read anything on their site. However, this makes them awesome. I had long considered writing up a post about everything that's wrong with television, and almost did it today. When I saw this scathing slam at creepy TLC programming, I decided that my take on the horrors of television can wait another day. This is a must read.

Asshole Spotlight: Janice Eberle

Illegally parking in a handicapped spot is something that society as a whole frowns upon. The reasons for this should be obvious. A person with a disability would have trouble getting from the far end of the parking lot to their destination while a person without a disability should have no trouble walking the distance. To illegally park in a handicapped spot takes a special kind of disregard for others, and even the most hardened asshole would never admit to doing it, nor would they protest being ticketed for the act, as it would bring attention to the fact that they illegally parked in a handicapped spot to begin with.

Janice Eberle, however, is different from other people, though probably not in the way she likes to imagine. Slapped with a $300 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot in a Danvers, Massachusetts BJ's, she has decided to sue the town of Danvers.

MSN: Where Almonds Are the Only Constant

I suppose I began to read MSN (UK version here) at around the time that I created my first dummy Hotmail address. I don't remember ever actually seeking this site out, or having anyone say, "Hey, Beagle, there are some great articles and hard hitting news here..." Yet somehow, over the years, both the US version and the UK version have ended up in my list of bookmarks.

Over the years, I have developed a love-hate relationship with MSN. The message boards and comment sections for articles on both sides of the pond tend to attract people on the low end of the human evolutionary scale, and can provide both cheap entertainment and horror all at once. It's no wonder they do, for outside of actual news, they make an art form of fluff, repetition, and contradiction.

The World Cup Scandal - Oh My!

The big outcry this week, because people have nothing better to bitch about in this world, are the World Cup sponsors, such as McDonald's, Budweiser, and Coca Cola. The World Cancer Research Fund is outraged...no OUTRAGED that instead of choosing healthy sponsors to promote a healthy lifestyle, FIFA has gone with fast food, booze, and soda.

Website Editors Have a Keen Sense of the Obvious

On NPR today, there was an enlightening (that is sarcasm) article regarding the move by many websites to introduce tougher moderation on the comment sections. Apparently, website editors have developed a keen sense of the obvious and have discovered something that anyone that's ever been on the internet has always known - comment sections are asshole magnets.

It's Not Your Womb, Bitches

One of my favorite websites is Dlisted, run by the funniest guy on the internet, Michael K. I usually don't care about half the people he talks about, but he's just that funny that I read his every post. Today, he posted that Rihanna, singer and former punching bag for Chris Brown, is wary of having babies because she is afraid of giving birth. She mentioned that she might even adopt. The comment section exploded.

A Thought

I believe that education should not reflect liberal or conservative views. History should be taught with the predominant use of primary sources. It should not be politically correct, nor should it be taught with a view to push a religious agenda.

The fact that American education is being hijacked by people who believe The Flintstones to be a documentary is a sobering, but clear signal that the United States is in serious decline and has turned into everything the forefathers were out to avoid.

Asshole Spotlight: Gloria Allred

"There are many women who have been hurt by rich, powerful, famous celebrities, and often those women will come to me for protection and support in asserting whatever legal claims they may have." -Gloria Allred

That doesn't make you any less of an extortionist, Gloria.

Things I Hate About the Internet

Somewhere between the Westboro Baptist "Church" planning their usual bullshit at Ronnie James Dio's memorial service and Dekalb County (Georgia) paramedics missing the point, I did not know where to start today for fear of going on an incoherent rant about just how incredibly stupid people can be. Instead, I have decided to compile a list of things on the internet that annoy me so that I can keep the ranting spirit alive in a more light hearted manner.

The Food Police

Hero Spolight: Austin Molloy

The world we live in is a pathetic place in which the politically correct have created a culture of mollycoddling that has no place in the real world. Daily, we are bombarded with stories of frivolous lawsuits brought about because an entitled piece of shit that refuses to take responsibility for their actions wants to blame everyone but themselves for their own failings.

Same Sex Marriage

Congratulations to Portugal for joining the modern world and legalizing same sex marriage. In celebration of this milestone, I am recycling a blog post that I wrote nearly a year ago elsewhere on the subject.

How Dare You Have The Wedding You Want?!

The story itself was nothing remarkable. A young woman describes her non-traditional wedding, and how she did not have her father give her away. It was a rather dull blurb devoid of any drama that would never have attracted any attention at all were it not for the 700+ comments that followed, most of them crucifying her for not having her father walk her down the aisle.