Complaints & Grievances: Introduction and Amy Whinehouse

Complaints & Grievances Introduction

With the approval of the powers-that-be at ATS, I am going ahead with an idea that I have had since the great George Carlin died. For obvious reasons, as this was inspired by his life and career, I felt it appropriate to call this installment "Complaints & Grievances," not only in honor of him, but because it also fits quite nicely with what I am starting.

Now to a hopefully brief explanation of what exactly it is that I am starting:

For a while now, since before I became a George Carlin fan a couple years ago, I have noticed very irritating and down right infuriating characteristics about society, and people, in general. One of these is my disgust for political correctness. Due to that, I have always applauded anyone who stood up and said what needed to be said, no matter how many people were offended, no matter who complained and no matter the context of the words being said.

You can now see the reason for my appeal to George Carlin.

So, in honor of his life and career, I wanted to start a series of rants, if you will, under one common name. These rants would consist of my opinions of aspects of our society, popular trends, behaviors that people exhibit, our morals, our ethics, as well as particular news stories or other events that have annoyed me enough to complain about it.

The first few rants about society under the "Complaints & Grievances" name may be experimental, of sorts. They will be to test the interest level and from that I will decide if it is even worth continuing this. But for now, the plan is to write up these rants in an effort to point out troublesome aspects of our society, express my opinion on them, do it in the most brutally honest way possible and encourage debate and rational thinking, as well as entertain those who agree.

All rants will be within the T&C of ATS, will not be used to promote any outside content or web sites, and will not promote violence or discrimination.

I cannot guarantee that you will not be offended by something I say. However, I will not deliberately attempt to hatefully offend or single out any one person or group of people. If you have a complaint about something I have said, please u2u me and we can work out the issue. If your complaint is valid and sincere and not one in which you are complaining just to complain, I will do all I can to get the offensive material removed by a moderator.

Thank You.

Complaints & Grievances: Amy Whinehouse

Authored By: NovusOrdoMundi
Date: Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Who the hell is Amy Whinehouse? Apparently she is someone worthy of the attention of Americans over stories related to the latest methods of tyranny to combat terrorism, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency threatening to resign if Iran is attacked and a typhoon killing or displacing at least 1,300 people in the first hours of landfall in the Philippines.

Amy Whinehouse, a woman who's career can proudly be summed up as no one with an IQ over 30 being able to name a song or accomplishment of hers, made top news stories on pretty much every major media outlet on June 23rd, 2008 because she was diagnosed with emphysema.

My grandmother, who's music career is comparably as successful as that of Amy Whinehouse, was diagnosed with the same disease on the same day. I wouldn't expect to see my grandmother's face on CNN. The same can be said about my expectations of seeing Amy Whinehouse's face if we did not live in a moronic culture driven by glamour, popularity and ignorance.

Other news headlines of the day?

- House OKs Telecom Immunity; Obama to Support “Compromise” Bill

On Capitol Hill, the Senate is preparing to vote on rewriting the nation’s surveillance laws and giving immunity to phone companies involved in President Bush’s secret domestic surveillance program. On Friday, the Democratic-controlled House approved the measure by a vote of 293-129. The American Civil Liberties Union warned the bill would allow for the mass, untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States.

- IAEA’s ElBaradei Threatens to Quit if Iran is Attacked

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei is threatening to resign if Iran is attacked militarily.

Mohamad ElBaradei: “If there ended up being a military action against Iran at this time, then I will be unable to continue my work.”

ElBaradei said Iran does not present a grave and urgent danger and that an attack on Iran would turn the region into a fireball.

- Haditha Residents Outraged Over Dismissed Charges

In news from Iraq, residents of Haditha are reported to be outraged at the US military for freeing almost all of the Marines involved in the 2005 massacre that killed twenty-four Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Eight Marines were originally charged in the case, but criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. Yousef Aid Ahmed told the McClatchy newspapers, “We put our hopes in the law and in the courts, and one after another they are found innocent. This is an organized crime.”

- 1,300 Dead or Missing After Typhoon Hits Philippines

In the Philippines, officials say over 1,300 people are dead or missing after a typhoon hit the country on Saturday. A ferry carrying 800 people sank. So far, only thirty-two survivors have been found.

- Citing Executive Privilege, Bush Withholds EPA Documents

The Bush administration is refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents connected to the EPA’s decision to deny California permission to implement its own vehicle emission standards. Citing executive privilege, the Bush administration has announced it will not turn over thousands of pages requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee’s chair, Henry Waxman, said, “I don’t think we’ve had a situation like this since Richard Nixon was president.”

No, no. By all means. Lets talk about a woman who is only in the public spotlight because of addictions and self destructive behavior. Why should these other petty stories take away that spotlight? Amy Whinehouse has done so much for our society, her instability should be reported and we should feel horrible at this turn of events in her life.

I mean, who in their right mind would care that the head of the IAEA is so convinced that Iran is not a nuclear danger or threat to the world that he would resign if they were attacked? Who cares if Marines are being acquitted of murdering 24 Iraqi civilians they were allegedly sent in to liberate and protect? They're Iraqi, so of course they're terrorists, right? Tell me WHY I care that my government is spying on me illegally? After all, I'm not a terrorist! I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE!!!!!!!

You know what, I don't care that she has emphysema. I don't care if she dies from it. If someone does not care enough about themselves to stop smoking cigarettes and crack coc aine, why should I care about them? Victims of natural disasters; victims of slaughter by an occupying force; victims of privacy violation by their own government; future victims in another country by that same occupying force - these are the people I care about and want to hear about. Not some spoiled, addicted to the spotlight as much as she is crack coc aine brat who has it so tough with her multi-million Dollar lifestyle that she cannot get her self together.

I am absolutely tired of hearing about celebrity problems as if they are worthy news events. I don't want to hear about another celebrity arrest. I don't want to hear about another celebrity going to the hospital. I don't want to hear about another celebrity going to rehab. I don't care. I want to hear about the problems that affect the people who are not too busy living the upper class life to bother reading or hearing the news in the first place.

When Amy Whinehouse has to pay for gasoline as we do; when Amy Whinehouse has to deal with the repercussions of the Iraq War as we are; when Amy Whinehouse experiences the War on the Middle Class as we are, then maybe I will give a damn about her well being. Until then, I don't want to hear another thing about her, unless she decides one day to actually contribute something worthwhile and positive to society. And she can start by shutting the hell up and going away.


Resources:

Amy Whinehouse Wikipedia Page
Democracy Now! Headlines - June 23, 2008
BBC Article - "Singer Whinehouse has lung disease"