Respect for the office?

January 23, 2009 at 11:59 am (Politics) (, )

I heard a lot during the Bush years that one ought to have respect for the president even if he is fleecing the nation blind and thinks of you as subhuman anyway just because he’s the president. That alone is worthy of respect. Even if he eats a charbroiled infant on the White House lawn, we must respect him (or hopefully one day, her).

Now, I dunno if people who said this in the past to supposedly disrespectful liberals are going to respect Obama now in order to not be giant hypocrites (my guess is a lot of them will make some kind of excuse, like God wouldn’t like it if we supported the Anti-Christ), and I frankly don’t care.

I am, however, interested in this:

Okay, there are several things I find hilarious about this video.

For one, I haven’t heard that “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey! Goodbye!” song since middle school. It reminds me of stuff like awkward school dances and the movie Ferngully. At this point I’d probably laugh at hearing it in general.

Hearing it from a crowd feeling jubilation while Bush is leaving the White House makes me laugh even harder. I can’t even *think* about this event without laughing my butt off. I’m going to be sitting in a law school class at some point, have this come into my head, and get called on because the professor will realize I’m not paying attention and I’m thinking about something actually amusing.

I also laugh at the stunned commentators. “Oh that’s just bad form.” Their embarrassment and mostly silence over people being soooo disrespectful.

I freakin’ love that this video exists in about 100,000 places on youtube so people can watch it for all eternity. How cool will it be to growing up now, studying history in school, and you can easily watch clips of it in action, but all of the interesting stuff is also preserved because of intrepid youtubers cutting out the boring stuff and preserving the interesting stuff in short, ADD-efficient clips? Not to mention all the juicy things we get from camera phones and cheap digital cameras with a video function.

As for the issue of respect, I guess I sort of feel like if Bush wanted to be respected, he should have returned the favor. He’s been engaging in a lot of history revision lately, and he pretty much thinks he was the best president ever and our society 100 years down the road will recognize that. Or maybe he at least hopes not to end up in Pierce, Johnson, Buchanan territory. To be honest we really can’t predict now what people will think 100 years from now–I mean there have been publicly unpopular presidents who have gone on to not be reviled in the history books. I’m not sure I really agree with most historians in their presidential rankings (I know a lot of people who would consider Andrew Jackson amongst the worst and he’s usually considered one of the best–and he’s on the $20 bill, I guess as a constant reminder to American Indians that they are totally fucked).

I think our account of history is a little bit like this Perry Bible Fellowship comic. Although it’s useful, we should recognize it for what it is.

Anyway, I feel like I don’t have to respect anyone just for who they are or their position. This is probably why I’d be totally unemployable as a lawyer or in any business field, but it’s hard to respect someone you feel is an idiot/jackass/contemptuous hamsterfucker. If Obama does something to lose my respect he’ll lose it. For now I think he’s 31 flavors of awesome sauce–just doing what he said he was going to do and getting Gitmo shut down was pretty good as is (my standards are low at this point), but making it so Bush and Cheney can’t hide their records? Setting all kinds of ethical standards? Did I step into the Twilight Zone?

I also enjoy the booing and singing because, as I’ve mentioned before, I have this weird penchant for chaos. Not so much the “lots of people died” kind, but for weird happenings and surprising things. I think this falls under that. Never except in a webcomic would I imagine the people attending a presidential inauguration would sing Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye as the former president exits stage left. Maybe I don’t have the proper respect, but whatever. I was entertained.

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Why the hell not donate organs?

January 23, 2009 at 12:12 am (Random) (, )

Ok, I get why not everyone who is able to donates blood. Needles suck. I’ve had a month long bruise as dark as Dick Cheney’s cold, unfeeling heart. It was kinda neat how it went from black to purple to blue to green to yellow, but still, I’d rather not have had it. Sometimes I’m like, man I’m on the rag already I don’t know if I should lose more blood. Sometimes I’m like, I had too much booze this weekend, I’m dehydrated and my blood won’t come out fast enough. Sometimes I don’t have time. I’m an asshole for this because I know I make too many excuses, but still, I understand why people don’t donate blood.

I also understand why people aren’t marrow donors. I’d love to be a marrow donor, but I’m undesirable! I know it’s scary to a lot of people because the procedure to remove it is painful, but I don’t think I could know someone’s life could be saved if I suffer for a few seconds and then not do it. Still, even though I think, like blood donation, it’s something people ought to do if they can, I can understand why they don’t do it.

In contrast, I don’t at all understand why people don’t just check off the organ donor box. Seriously, that whole “what if they harvest my organs before I’m really dead” thing is so bogus. I don’t see how it could be creepy that your still living organs are removed when you are brain dead. If you’re brain dead, you don’t know what the fuck is going on. You’re DEAD. Honestly, what humanitarian gesture could be more easy than giving something away when you are dead and can’t use it anymore? Chances are you’ll die in a way your organs won’t be useful anyway, but enough people die each year in such a way that their organs still function so that if everyone was an organ donor, thousands of lives would be saved. Maybe people think, “look I’ve pickled everything in my body through the copious intake of alcohol and it’s worthless anyway.” But you’re wrong! They will find something to use.

I mean look at these nifty facts regarding organ donation. They will find something to use. And, how many people die needlessly when organs could have been available to save them? Too many, that’s how many.

Also, what the fuck is up with 35% of potential donors not being able to donate because their next of kin refuses? Dude, next of kin, what the fuck do you need this person to still have his or her organs for? He or she is DEAD. You are not going to be able to dig up the grave and feast on them either, I’m pretty sure they’d be gross after embalming. That seems rude too. I mean, I couldn’t get mad after I’m dead, but I’d hypothetically be pretty upset as a ghost if a relative of mine prevented my organs from going to someone who needed them for whatever weird ass reason they might have for doing so.

I personally am signed up to donate everything. I really don’t care if annoying biology students giggle at my cadaver when I’m dead because I’ll be DEAD. I also figure without a corpse my family can be free to go to a bar or something instead of paying for a costly funeral for me.

I guess I’d just like to know the reasoning behind not being an organ donor. Like, do you think you’ll be a hollowed out ghost? I sure hope everyone who opts for cremation at least is an organ donor, they can’t even use the excuse that they’re under some delusion that their spirit will live in their casket or something and they need the organs for sustenance.

Anyway, my point is. . .people ought to check the donor box. Geez.

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