This doesn't suck, in fact it's quite the opposite

In atypical fashion, I find it necessary to post about something rather extraordinary and highly recommended. Clear some space in your kitchen, you can start with throwing away your existing blender, and might just as well toss that food processor too if you have one also. The blender to end all blenders was just demonstrated on the latest episode (episode three) of season(series) 12 of Top Gear.

Start with your basic Chevy small block V8 straight out of a new Corvette, with gearing and bits to channel it's power up into the cabinet mounted blender base, a control center consisting of an on/off switch and a speed selector (ie:gas pedal), and you will be out blending Gordon Ramsay and Emeril Lagasse in no time flat! In fact, it looks as if you could probably blend them IN it considering the demonstration used beef with bones intact and a brick and liquified them nicely. Perhaps I've stumbled onto a new episode script of Dexter...

Asking for help

It seems as if the majority of people fit into one of two categories when it comes to asking for help:

1. Stereotypical know-it-all types who would rather make stuff up than admit they don't know an answer and/or research for the CORRECT answer. You know, like the mechanic who sold you a new computer for your car cause he couldn't figure out what was really wrong and was too lazy to pick up a book. The contractors who keep Mike Holmes busy. The politicians who sidestep honest questions and instead pontificate on something off topic instead.
   
2. The larger and more diverse group consists of those who do actually ask for help, and then start building road blocks to those trying to help them. If you didn't think I was smart enough to answer your question or solve your problem, why did you bother me? If you don't like the answer you got, and are more than happy to stay stuck in your problem, why did you bother me? If you would rather maintain the current status quo, why did you bother me?

No, I don't mean me personally in this, I mean me as in the people who make a living helping others, I mean me as in those who still believe in helping friends, I mean me as in those of us who honestly care to help each other in general.

If you know someone in category one, tell them to grow up and stop being a moron. If anyone should not know an answer, there is no shame, no harm, no problem with saying those three magic words, "I DON'T KNOW." That's how we as a species has bettered ourselves over the years - finding answers to things they didn't know. Please, someone, anyone, show me proof of one significant instance where the human race was bettered by making up a lie about the answer to a question or problem.

If you know someone in category two, tell them to grow up and stop being a moron. Yes I repeated myself. If they don't want help, don't like being told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, or prefer things as they are, they shouldn't bother people who could be spending their time productively helping those who need and want that help.

If you don't belong in either category, pat yourself on the back. If you know someone who doesn't fall in either category, pat them on the back too.

If you know someone who actually is so FUBAR that they belong in both categories, see if you can help them earn a Darwin Award.

Mass Stupidity

You know everyone makes mistakes now and again. It's human nature. We pick up the pieces, learn a lesson hopefully without repeating the mistake toooooo many times, and move on. And if you believe in Darwin's theory, whether in whole or in part, you know that the inferior of the species get weeded out.

As I get older, and as I meet more people in the course of life, the more I don't think this is happening to an adequate degree, if at all, and most certainly not at an adequate speed with the human race. I'm starting to think that all the technology we've developed has lead us to a point where those who are not worthy according to Darwinian logic are managing to stick around anyhow.

While it's certainly quite nice that fewer people are buying the farm, so to speak, from preventable causes. And diseases are slowly getting reduced in insofar as their ravaging of the human body goes. But ; somewhere along the lines we've foiled Darwin.

I'm sure some people will find that a bit harsh. Possibly rightfully so. If you hadn't yet noticed, I'm not long on tact.

While I don't have specific scientific proof to back up my opinion, consider the following observations of late and in general:

• When is the last time you went to a restaurant, fast food or otherwise, spent less than $25/head for the entre, and got GOOD service, not acceptable, I mean the kind you thank the server for it and MEAN it???

• When was the last time you went to a restaurant and the food was BETTER than you expected? You know, the kind of meal where you sit back and go, "holy crap, I wish I could eat this good every day" ???

• When was the last time you went to a fast food place, supermarket, or discount department store and got served by someone who was of legal drinking age yet too young to be an AARP member, and/or that person did NOT give you the attitude that "the system" owed them something and they were annoyed to be deprived of it?
  

• When was the last time your doctor's office was ON TIME, give or take ten minutes, of when you booked your APPOINTMENT? Oh, the eon you spent sitting in the exam room counts as NOT BEING ON TIME... I don't care WHERE you waited once you were checked in. Time waiting in the exam room should probably count twice for the lateness factor over the time in the waiting room since there's NEVER a comfortable place to sit in wait in those rooms!

• When was the last time you got a referral from you doctor and they actually cared about WHEN YOU WERE AVAILABLE TO SEE THE SPECIALIST?

• When was the last time they did the whole referral thing over the phone and DIDN'T SEND YOU TO THE WRONG PLACE when there are two with similar names (no matter that you tried to verify the accuracy of said referral at least two times each on at least two separate occasions)?

• When was the last time in the last two months that you had to work directly with the general public and DIDN'T get treated RUDELY by the majority of them?

• When was the last time they didn't want what they came for BEFORE they got there and are now too impatient for you to not know what they wanted in spite of your crystal ball being out of service and no one, including said person, informed you before hand?

• When was the last time you seriously expected that an underling in a chain retail outlet could control what products were sold and serviced in a store? In a privately run shop/store, maybe. In a national CHAIN?!? I'm not talking about passing along requests and/or suggestions, I'm talking about reaming the employee a new oriface over the quality, or lack thereof, of a product or service not directly controled by said retail organization, let alone the employee?

• When was the last time you drove somewhere farther than a mile or two away and didn't witness road rage?!?

• When was the last time you drove somewhere and another driver was POLITE to you?

• When was the last time you noticed someone not overly willing to shoot the messenger for the message?!?

For full disclosure, I live in a major metropolitan area, and work in the service department of a major retailer.

I've lived here for a few YEARS now. I've traveled to and through a significant portion of the large metro areas in the continental United States, so "city" driving isn't exactly new and different to me.

While I've only worked this specific job for a few months, I've worked directly with the public for the vast majority of the twenty-four years I've been out of high school.

I've been a consumer of medical, retail, and most kinds of goods and services for most of my fourty-two years of life.

Yet in spite of all that, in spite of most everything I've ever learned, in school/college or out, I can NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME fathom why people everywhere I've been or contacted, or anyone I've talked to has contacted (anywhere in the U.S.) has been anything but a rude, impatient, PITA for the last couple months.

OK, they haven't literally ALL been like that, but a goodly majority have.

Sure, the economy sucks, the job market in most places is darn near non-existent, the housing market in most places is worse than the job market, and the country is throwing SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS at a problem without so much as comprehending the problem, proposed solutions, or procedures to carry them out. Oh, and having no checks and balances to make sure the whole program does what it was intended to sure makes a heck of a lot of sense, no?

Sure it's easy to make it sound like the world might be ending, or certainly getting to be a nasty place to be.

What ever happened to the determination, the drive, the stick-to-it-iveness, the perseverance, the spirit, and the passion that made this country what it is anyhow?

Of course there are things wrong. There always have been if you look back at most any period in history close enough. There never was a truly golden age at any point in human history the way some people would make it sound - where everyone was happy and everything was perfect. Except maybe in those stupid Walgreen's commercials.

People make mistakes, people have problems. It's a fact as sure as the sun rising in the sky each day.

It's how we deal with it that separates us from the other animals. And those who choose to take it all out on all the rest of us are surely the animals.