New Year 2011

2010 is drawing to a close here on the west coast of the United States. A few more hours we will be ushering in a new year.

It is something of a mystery to me why so many people make resolutions to work to better themselves, and yet the world seems to continue to stagger on along the same path of moral turpitude that has plagued mankind since Cain and Abel threw rocks at each other.

I'm not resolving to be a better person this year. I've tried that, and I've disappointed not only myself, but those around me. Yesterday's confrontation in a parking lot with a middle aged guy (uh, yeah that's right, I'm a middle aged guy now too) who looked like a metrosexual or his mom still dressed him brought this point home.

When I was a kid, I was always in fights. Some won. Some lost....initially, but payback can come in subtle forms. It usually started as a result of some insult or taunt delivered by the other combatant. My parents were always after me to control myself, and over the years, that control was hard won.

Lately, that has been slipping. Yesterday, I was having a difficult time deciding if I wanted to use a hatchet, knife, maul, or framing hammer ( all within reach in the back of my work truck) to attack this guy with. All this was as a result of him making a rude comment about my truck being stopped partially in a handicap zone as materials were being loaded.

It was quite evident to anyone the situation was temporary and no one was being inconvenienced as there were other empty handicap spaces adjacent to this one. For whatever reason, this ass could not refrain from opening his mouth. I explained the situation to him, and he simply repeated himself in an even louder and more obnoxious voice. I told him to mind his own business, and his witty retort was to say "Go f*** yourself!".

I stepped away from the back of my truck towards him and he RAN away across the parking lot screaming profanities at me. As he ran away, I wanted to give chase and beat the tar out of him, but I just stood there watching the fool.

Other people watched the exchange and the annoyance was plain on their face. This idiot had to be in his forties, fat with a comb over, and he's screaming profanities at the top of his lungs with no regard to other people, including women with small kids.

The guy from the store that was helping me load mumbled something about the guy's probable sexual proclivities and told me to forget about the jerk.

But you know, I can't.

It bothered me so much yesterday that I wound up with a pounding headache. Today, as I write this, its coming back.

I think what is bothering me so much about this incident, is that it embodies in one small vignette, everything that is wrong with the past three years. This idiot was every congressman, every banker, every CEO, CFO and lawyer, every state and local politician, every bureaucrat, every TSA agent, every single thing and person that has basically done everything possible just to make a simple every day American's life a living hell. They shout at you, and run away, smug in the knowledge that the law was written to protect them and punish you if you so much as object.

It has been often said that some people are alive simply because it is illegal to kill them.

A good friend of mine also has impressed upon me that if you kill one person or a hundred, or even more, the punishment is the same. So, once you start, don't stop. Make it count. Make sure you keep your list up to date.

I'm hoping this new year will bring much profit to American companies and workers making American rope.

Happy New Year.