Mr. Harley: Your impatience is quite understandable.
Klaatu: I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.
Mr. Harley: I’m afraid my people haven’t. I’m very sorry… I wish it were otherwise.

— The Day The Earth Stood Still

If you don’t find a way to work around stupid, you’re not going to get very far.  And remember, there’s a difference between ignorant and stupid.  Ignorant means that someone has not learned about something or is incapable of learning.  Stupid is a willful state of mind.  Stupid means that they either know better and still choose to be stupid. Stupid refuses to learn from others or even from their own mistakes.

Someone who doesn’t know how to balance a checkbook at 19 is probably ignorant.  Someone who can’t do it by the time they turn 30 is stupid.  Someone who muzzles themselves on their first range trip is ignorant, and requires gentle reminding and training.  Someone who muzzles others after years in the shooting sports and argues with those who seek to correct them is stupid, and needs to be stopped before they hurt someone.

Stupid should be anticipated and factored into plans.  Stupid can be countered and walled off, but it can never be eliminated.  The sooner you realize this and live accordingly, the easier, and less stressful, life will be.

 Look son, being a good shot, being quick with a pistol, that don’t do no harm, but it don’t mean much next to being cool-headed. A man who will keep his head and not get rattled under fire, like as not, he’ll kill ya. It ain’t so easy to shoot a man anyhow, especially if the son-of-a-bitch is shootin’ back at you.  — Unforgiven

I read on one of the EMS blogs once that a paramedic does not run, he mosies.  It is amazing how more effective someone is when they take the time to think before acting, even in an emergency.  Also, when you seem to be cool and calm, that feeling will spread to others.  Even if you get rattled, a moment to find that inner silence will steady your hand, slow your thoughts, and improve your chances.

Dorothy:Now which way do we go?
Scarecrow: Pardon me, this way is a very nice way.
Dorothy: Who said that?
[Toto barks at scarecrow]

Dorothy: Don’t be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don’t talk.
Scarecrow: [points other way]  It’s pleasant down that way, too.
Dorothy: That’s funny. Wasn’t he pointing the other way?
Scarecrow: [points both ways] Of course, some people do go both ways.

— The Wizard of Oz

Well, primary season is over here in Kentucky, and my candidate lost.  The Republican incumbent, who has been in office since I was in junior high, will be facing off against a Democrat female scion of a Kentucky political tradition.  A pox upon both of them.

That’s not me.  I’ve come to the decision that it’s preferable to vote principle rather than party.  My principles are smaller government, civil rights, and a strong belief that government service should not be a career.  Mitch McConnell doesn’t fit with some of those principles, and Alison Lundergan Grimes doesn’t fit with others, so I don’t see myself voting for either of them.

So, I’m doing the electoral equivalent of taking my ball and going home.  I’m looking at third parties and independents.  If I can’t find someone I prefer to the two major party candidates, I’m going to either omit that race on my ballot or write in Barry Goldwater.  If you’re in Kentucky, I suggest you do the same.

Voting for party over principle is for Socialists, Communists, and Nazis.  If you share my principles, regardless of your party affiliation, please vote for your principles.  We need those more than we need the parties.  Just ask yourself, which is worse: a politician who is openly hostile to your principles, or one that smiles to your face while he sells those principles out?

*Imagine my surprise upon receiving a flyer in the mail from the NRA last week announcing the endorsement.  I was under the impression that the NRA stays out of primary politics.  I guess I was misinformed, and I know I was disappointed.

We don’t even care whether or not we care. – The NeverEnding Story

Apathy is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever run into.  When people quit complaining, you know you’re in trouble.  Someone I know does marriage counseling, and she always says that the time to let it go is when one or both of them quit caring.

That’s why I believe there is still hope for our Republic.  We bicker constantly.  We trumpet our competing opinions and viewpoints from the rooftops.  Taking to the streets is still a viable way to get your point across, and some of the top programs on television are still based on politics.

Still, I don’t look forward to the day when all but a few are willing to look away from spectacle in order to try to maintain and improve our country.  Here’s hoping I never see it.

 Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.  — My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Next summer, Irish Woman and I are going to pack up the kids and the dogs, along with enough stuff to bury a small elephant, and wend our way to the Florida Panhandle for a week of sun, sand, and mosquitoes.  Thankfully, we are taking two vehicles so that we’re not joined at the hip for the entire week, because even though I love her with all my heart and soul, 10 days in close proximity will drive us to either divorce or criminal court.  Maybe both.

Now, a controversy has arisen over the accoutrements of the house we will be renting.  I, being a simple man, wish for nothing more than a nice house on the beach, with a veranda, a coffee maker, and a big, comfortable bed.  She, on the other hand, wants all those things, except she wants a pool to go with them.  You see, in her logic it would be nice to have a place to go swimming when it gets too hot to go to the beach and for the kids to have somewhere to hang out and have fun while the adults do something, well, adult oriented.  I’m imagining long romantic walks on the beach without a 7 year old and two teenagers, or a candlelight dinner on a dock somewhere, or whatever.  My hope is that she has the same ideas, and this doesn’t mean going to look at antiques.

Now, at first, I resisted this idea.  Driving almost two days and not being able to walk out the back door and hit sand seemed like less than what I wanted.  Why have a pool when you have the entire Gulf of Mexico to swim in.  But, through logical discussion and rational argument, we decided to compromise and get a house, just off the beach, with a pool.

The point of this story is that her happiness and desires are more important to me than my own.  She has softened the blow a bit by acquiescing to my latest ideas when it comes to hobby-related purchases, so it’s not a one way street.  It is a mighty power that I have given her, and it is one that she has never abused.

Gentlemen, the quicker you accept that the best you can do is fight them to a draw, which is a Pyrrhic victory if I ever saw one, the sooner you can find joy in married life.

Well, that’s the story. So if your air conditioner goes on the fritz or your washing machine blows up or your video recorder conks out; before you call the repairman turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds, ’cause you never can tell there just might be a gremlin in your house. — Gremlins

Honestly, if one more thing goes wrong around here, I’m going to call in Monster Hunter International and a priest to take care of the issue.  Owning a home means you own all the problems, and you better either have money to pay someone to deal with them, or the skills to do it yourself.  If you’re like me, you fake it until you make it.  A little Internet research, a couple DIY books from the hardware store, and a small wallet are my resources to figure out plumbing, carpentry, gardening, and landscaping.

You know, that retirement condo with no yard and a maintenance contract is sounding better and better all the time.

The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it’s the sand of the Colosseum.  — Gladiator

We are not subjects, we are citizens.  The power of our nation does not reside in marble halls on the Potomac, nor does it reside in the steel and glass towers of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Dallas.  It resides in the homes of the citizens, the ones that keep the wheels turning and turn out to vote.  We are right, indeed duty bound, to demand that our elected servants and their salaried minions recognize their subordination to us, and we should vigorously resist any effort to erode our primacy.

You’re not a woman. You’re more than a woman. You’re a *mechanic*  — Operation Petticoat

I’ll admit it, I notice physically attractive women.  A well formed body, a dazzling smile, and beautiful hair will catch my eye.  But what will keep my attention is someone who is more than eye candy.  Being able to connect with people, have something interesting to say and be interested in what others say, and having skills that both you and others found useful makes you more than just something to look at.

Every wolf suffers fleas. ‘Tis easy enough to scratch! — Legend

There will always be those who try to bring you down.  They will belittle your ideas, attack your methods, and cheapen your results.  The trick is to realize how insignificant they are, identify them early, and blow them off.

There even are places where English completely disappears; in America they haven’t used it for years.  — My Fair Lady

There are, of course, variations in any language that’s used as widely as English.  Accents and colloquialisms are the natural products of having people speak a language everywhere from India to Hawaii.

But even taking into account accents and such, there’s no excuse for not knowing how to properly speak your local brand of English.  Call it proper grammar and spelling, the King’s English, or whatever, but if you speak and write like an ignorant slob, no matter how smart and clever you are, you will be perceived as an ignorant slob.

In other words, if you want to get credit for your education, sound educated.