A Good Year for the Outlaw

While wishing winter was over the past few days, it got me to thinking about things that actually ARE already over. A partial list ensues…

1. NASCAR. After building and building popularity throughout the 70’s and 80’s that resulted in unprecedented interest in this once-great, once-exciting sport, NASCAR is over. And they have only themselves to blame. Template cars. Toyota. Pseudo-Playoffs. Mega-teams that control the sport. Inconsistent rules and enforcement. Corporate greed. Showing their political and religious slants openly. Every one of those things…and more…has contributed to the impending demise of NASCAR. Or, NAZICAR, as it should be called to be more accurate.

2. The Far Right Wing of the GOP. And thank Supreme Being for this one. Gerald Ford’s words from August 1974 could easily have been spoken by Barack Obama Tuesday (although he is way too classy to do it): “…our long national nightmare is over.” The sooner the Project For A New American Century Neo-Con goons go away, the better. The sooner the far-right Fundamentalist Christian bullies are silenced, the better.

3. Those little magnets that are meant to look like ribbons on cars. Done. Get ‘em off. Even setting aside the fact that a bunch of greedy types made big bucks off of this lame phenomenon, and in many cases touting “proceeds go to our troops” even though they really didn’t, this one has always bothered the crap out of me. The little christian fish symbols can go away, too.

4. “We support our troops” signs. You see very few of them anymore, and that’s a good thing. I always thought any business who had to actually physically advertise this jingoistic nonsense on a marquee had a little insecurity issue anyway. Does that mean that every business that DOESN’T have those four words on their marquee DOESN’T support our troops? And let’s not forget…blanket statements are ridiculously ignorant. “We support our troops.” Like the ones who killed innocent civilians? Like the ones who raped fellow female soldiers? Like some of the prison guards at Abu-Ghraib? Those are the soldiers you “support”? All of ‘em? Really?

5. “Love it or leave it”. This is a big right-wing catch phrase we on the center and left have had to endure for the last eight years. If we beefed, we were told to leave. Move to another country. They love to yap that little thought to you. The now-quiet Vonster used to use this one regularly, as a matter of fact, among the local blogging crowd. Yet now, with a new man in charge, with a new way of doing things, and with Repubs already bitching about things (listen to Limbaugh or Hannity or Stan Coulter lately?) have you heard any Dems telling them to “love it or leave it”? I didn’t think so.

6. American Idol. Actually, for me, this was over after the first one. This show spawned many other TV “competitions”, and sadly, most were better than this show but most were watched a lot less. I dunno what it is, but there’s just something about “Idol” that makes me sick. Seacrest? Yeah, that’s some of it. Maybe it’s the fact that so many Idol “losers” go on to get contracts anyway. That has a lot to do with it for me. Record label execs now sit on their butts and wait to see who loses Idol…and Nashville Star, and Can You Duet, and Gone Country, and every other show just like it…and that’s how they do their “research and development” these days. Record execs have gotten lazy, because of American Idol. I think that’s the biggest thing that turns my stomach about the show. True artists who just don’t appeal to the whims of three judges don’t stand a chance, becuase they don’t get 10 free weeks of TV coverage to make a name for themselves. You end up with no-talent “pretty faces” like Carrie Underwood taking over country music, and the girl couldn’t write the end to a “roses are red” poem. Plus, her music isn’t remotely close to country. Then, because she’s a hit, the other labels all sign whomever they can snarf up after the show and give them some pre-packaged songs with studio musicians and throw an album to the wolves. All because of Idol. Yuck.

7. The Toyota Prius. Stop it already. Take this ugly little shitbox out into the middle of the Pacific and dump it, please. And stop disguising these little puke-ugly crapholes and “good for the environment.” Hell, even the left-leaning writers of Boston Legal exposed Toyota’s little scam for what it is. Someday, I will indeed jump in line to buy a “green” car. But only on two conditions: 1. It’s truely “Green” for the environment; and 2. It’s not ugly. Want to get me to buy a “green” vehicle? Make it look good. Period. And looking good and Prius should never be in the same sentence. Priscilla Presley’s botched surgeries are more attractive than a Prius. When the cat gags, backs up and leaves a long stream of…something…all over the carpet? THAT’S prettier than a Prius. Get it?