I was at the greyhound track in West Memphis one time and there was a dog entered in the fourth race wearing #12 and running under red and white colors.
The dogs name was "Righteous Indignation", which is also one of my personal vices. The fact that my Birthday is December 4 (12 and 4!) and the dog was wearing Razorback colors made it a cinch bet.
Two dollars on the nose for the win paid $37.50.
The bottom line? Righteous indignation -- either the dog or the attitude -- has never steered me wrong.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about anger saying "he that is angry without cause, shall be in danger; but he that is angry with cause, shall not be in danger: for without anger, teaching will be useless, judgments unstable, crimes unchecked,..to be angry is therefore not always an evil."
So I'm pissed. About a lot of things...some in particular and some in general. And it can be an affliction. Lord knows I have done my share of stupid stuff over the years, but I own each and every one of my failures and wear some like a badge of courage.
Note I didn't claim "mistakes". Forgetting to set the trash at the curb on trash day is a mistake. Knowingly engaging in behavior that is detrimental to you, your family and society is a failure. There is no mystical, overlapping gray area between "mistake" and "failure"...there is only right and wrong, black and white, and truth and lies.
For example...I am not of the mindset that drug addiction is a "disease". The first time you knowingly take drugs is a failure on your part. The second time you take drugs, you have chosen to expand on that failure. Right up to the point that you become "addicted", you are contributing to your own failure with the decisions you make.
That's not a "disease". Leukemia, cancer, hereditary diabetes, multiple sclerosis are diseases. As Dave Chappelle once said "you can't catch crackhead!"
You don't have to agree. Doesn't change the fact that I'm right.
Same thing with crime. If you chose to rape and pillage time after time, you're a criminal.
Your environment, your upbringing and your economic status has nothing to do with the fact that you choose to engage in activity frowned on by society to the point is has been criminalized.
Getting indignant towards me because your mugshot ends up on this website or Facebook page is kind of a deflection on your part. Because you missed a court date through some sort of bizzaro self-inflicted scenario doesn't make me the bad guy when you get bagged for "failure to appear".
Had you not got arrested there would be no need for you to appear. Or a mugshot to even post in the first place, for that matter.
You don't have to agree. Doesn't change the fact that I'm right.
I have been hearing a lot of buzz this past week about the long lines at some Walmart's as people are being stopped and receipts are being checked in an attempt to deter shoplifting. The notion that you are "offended" because Walmart wants to decrease their shrinkage loss is misguided.
First up, the stuff that is getting stolen belongs to Walmart. Don't be pissed at Walmart for trying to protect their stuff. Be pissed at the scumbags who steal stuff from Walmart to the point that everyone becomes a suspect by default.
By the same token, if having your receipt checked at the door offends your sensibility enough that you are outraged to the point of blowing a vessel, just don't go to Walmart. Kind of like reading "Today in Fort Smith"...if you don't like what you're reading, don't read it.
Now, if the person at the Walmart exit door allows fifteen people to walk out without checking a receipt and suddenly stops me and shakes me down, then I can be offended. But not when everyone is being treated the same.
You don't have to agree. Doesn't change the fact that I'm right.
Speaking of Walmart...occasionally I go though the self-checkout at Walmart. I'm a busy guy. I'm in a hurry. If I have one or two items and there are two checkers and twenty people in line, other people's socio-economic concerns about the "loss of jobs" created by "scan and go" is a moot point.
Your only other option is a place where they let men following woman and girls into the bathroom. So "right and wrong" comes into play once again.
I can stand in line twenty years and Walmart ain't going to hire more checkers. I can want and desire a soft serve ice cream cone from McDonald's too...doesn't mean they're going to fix the damn ice cream machine.
You don't have to agree. Doesn't change the fact that I'm right.
I get the concept of "offended". Because I get offended every day. People who choose to be obtuse and are woefully in denial about their self-imposed ignorance offend me, and I'm not talking about a difference of opinion here.
If you and I are on opposite ends of a discussion your opinion has no bearing on the truth and since I dwell in a black and white universe where truth prevails, I'm right and you are wrong.
Not mistaken. Wrong. I am smarter than a lot of people and a lot of people are smarter than me. Some people are organically and genetically stupid, regardless of their "education". I can't fix stupid but I can choose not to participate.
But at the end of the day there is nothing I can do about it. Burger King screws up my drive-through order every single time I visit. Not occasionally. Not every now and then. Every single time.
Yet, I keep going back. So that's on me.
St. Tommy from the Aquinas hood had the right idea.
Get pissed about the things in life that matter. Ignore the things that don't.
You can bet on ten nuggets for $1.49 and righteous indignation every time.
