Redneck Crazy? More like Redneck Stupid.

So I heard bits and pieces of this song this morning in between bus changes at the Bill Miller’s downtown. (I was trying to drown it out with Symphony X’s Paradise Lost, but that wasn’t working too well….

If you don’t want to click the link, it’s Tyler Farr’s “Redneck Crazy.” Girl leaves guy, guy proceeds to get all stalker-y:

“Gonna drive like hell through your neighborhood, park this Silverado on your front lawn/Crank up a little Hank, sit on the hood and drink/I’m about to get my pissed off on/I’m gonna aim my headlights into your bedroom windows/Throw empty beer cans at both of your shadows/I didn’t come here to start a fight, but I’m up for anything tonight…Nah, he can’t amount to much, by the look of that little truck.”

Yeeeeah. A lot of folks, including Martina McBride, have weighed in on this, but I figured it was time to throw in my two pennies.

Can’t amount to much, eh? Maybe not in the eyes of our protagonist, but he sure as shit got the girl, didn’t he? Meanwhile the dude in the jacked-up Silverado is gonna be sleeping off that hangover alone…

…assuming, of course, that he didn’t leave the premises in a police car or in a box. And, well…if that dude showed up at my place, shining the lights in the windows and throwing empty beer cans, let’s just say I would assume hostile intent and act accordingly. I am quite aware that country music has no short history of songs that contain violence, and God knows I love a bunch of ’em, but this one just sort of rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know. Sure, I’ve been spurned, but I never thought about pulling my truck up into the yard and blaring loud music while I got drunk and threw beer cans at the girl and her lover. I just burned that bridge, sucked it up, and went on — just like Trigger’s true rednecks. Maybe it’s the fact that Farr has actually defended the song, saying, “In a weird way, girls like it when a guy’s that much in love with them. So much that he doesn’t want anyone else to have her.” Really? Not wanting anyone else to have your significant other is one thing, but stalking her if things go south is quite another.

Now that I think about it, though, it’d be fun to see somebody write an answer song from the point of view of the girl’s new lover…

Ho-hum. Another day, more asshattery…

…from the United Methodist Church:

A Southern California church nativity scene is featuring a bloody Trayvon Martin in place of the infant Jesus in an effort to stir a community conversation about gun violence.

The Los Angeles Times reports Sunday (http://lat.ms/1bw7Qnq ) that the nativity scene on the lawn of the Claremont United Methodist Church was created by congregant and artist John Zachary. Martin is shown in a hoodie, slumped over and bleeding.

But critics on Facebook have blasted the depiction as sacrilege.

And you know, I suppose I could get myself worked up into some righteous outrage, but it’s like getting mad about water being wet, or the sky being blue. This is who they are. This is what they do. And the world keeps turning. As Sailorcurt said in comments at JayG’s place, “The United Methodists are all about subverting the basic tenets of their own professed religion for political purposes. They’ve been doing it for decades…why change now?”

I do agree with pretty much everything JayG said, though.

And that’s how it’s supposed to work.

This is the free market at work, kids. No government, no courts involved, just a business responding to its customers.

Well, ostensibly no lawyers were involved, at least not in regards to any potential lawsuits from the Robertson family. If there were, then that’s another thing entirely. Perhaps we’ll never know, but that’s the breaks, I suppose.

In poor taste? Sure…

Surprising, though? Nope:

Re: “Adkisson sees a Wolff in Republican clothing,” Brian Chasnoff, Front Page, Dec. 19:

County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson made a comparison that was in very poor taste.

Referring to County Judge Nelson Wolff donating money to Republican candidates, he said, “It’s like the pope going on a date.” The reference was offensive not only to the pope, but also to anyone reading this column.

That’s Tommy Adkisson for you, though. Remember that this was the same guy who went to a fundraiser for Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau, thinking he was going to a fundraiser for former Houston mayor Bill White when White was running for governor. And then there was the whole deal with Adkisson trying to hide his discussion of county business because it was under his personal email account. So, in other words, Tommy Adkisson isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

However, if as county judge he’d put the kibosh on that whole streetcar boondoggle, that already puts him way ahead of County Judge Nelson Wolff when it comes to looking out for the best interests of San Antonio, which is definitely something to think about.

Why one and not the other?

…or, So NOW the Express-News stands up for San Antonio taxpayers?

 CPS Energy should do everyone a favor and drop its plan for a tower to augment San Antonio’s skyline.

The last thing ratepayers need — fresh off an increase, potentially facing future increases — is to fund a legacy project for the utility.

So why is it bad for CPS ratepayers to fund one legacy project but for VIA fare-payers to fund another — namely, the streetcar project? That one’s fraught with all sorts of disadvantages beyond the fact that’s already running $60 million over budget, among others the fact that it’s going to screw up downtown traffic even more than it already is; along those same lines, it’s going to choke up streets on the outskirts of downtown with all the buses being forced out of downtown onto said streets, resulting in longer, more expensive commutes for VIA bus riders;  and it’s going to kill businesses that largely depend on the bus riders downtown.

Yet the Express-News seems perfectly content to carry Julian Castro’s and Nelson Wolff’s water when it comes to that project. Why?

Sigh. Here we go again.

Because God forbid a company be able to fire an employee who makes statements that could affect their bottom line, right? Yet again, with feeling:

The Bill of Rights applies to the government, not to private corporations. Getting in trouble for your beliefs with your employer is an entirely different can of beans than getting in trouble with your government for said beliefs. If I lost my marbles tomorrow and went off and accused a sizable portion of my employer’s customer base of being baby-raping bastards, they would have every right to fire me for that. My comments would affect their bottom line, just as Phil Robertson’s comments could potentially affect A&E’s bottom line, and as a private business they have every right to do within reason whatever they perceive to be in their best interests. There are those who say that A&E is violating Robertson’s rights, but here’s the thing about that: Robertson is perfectly free to go find a paying gig somewhere else. A&E isn’t his employer anyway. He’s already quite wealthy with the money his family has made from their own business. And even if A&E were his employer, well, so what? They’re basically implying that he has a right to a job, which means it’s someone else’s obligation (in this case A&E’s) to provide him with one. And such a belief is — or should be, anyway — anathema to any freedom-loving American. I hate it as badly as any gun owner that Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t allow concealed carry in their restaurant. But that’s their business. It’s their property and they have the right to administer it as they wish. And because it’s their property, I don’t bitch about my rights being violated. I just go have wings and beer somewhere that is more amenable to concealed carry.

Was it wrong for Clear Channel, Cumulus, et al to throw all their Dixie Chicks records out and not play them anymore, too? Or is it okay for people to get fired when it’s speech you don’t agree with?

And the numbers tell the tale…

…yet again:

Bexar County officials say efforts to help residents enroll in the Affordable Care Act have paid off, as 758 people have registered, picked a plan and paid their first bill for health insurance at county outreach facilities.

Despite initial problems with the federal website, about 11 percent of the 6,863 residents who’ve sought information at six different facilities have enrolled in a plan, according to Will Velazquez, a project coordinator for Bexar County’s Department of Community Resources….

…Officials have said that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 uninsured residents in Bexar County.

Wow. Efforts have paid off, huh? We all know that government has low standards for efficiency, but that’s just ridiculous. An 11 percent success rate in getting people to sign up is bad enough, given that the federal requirement is for everyone to have insurance, but (depending on the numbers) a 0.252 percent to 0.758 percent success rate is absolutely abysmal. And the website was supposed to have been fixed already! Perhaps Bexar County will break 1,000 by March 31st…

(And really? 50,000 people on the website at the same time and 800,000 visits a day. Compared to the 100 billion hits Facebook gets every day without crashing, that’s pretty pathetic.)

A few questions, for everyone involved…

…here:

How, exactly, does this “Moms Demand Action…” group support the Second Amendment? I mean, I’ve seen stories about this bunch since last year and in most of them I see this proclamation that they “support the Second Amendment,” but this support is never explained. It’s almost always followed by demands for stronger gun laws.

What is the website that Sandy Phillips refers to that lists “more than 70,000 guns are for sale in transactions that don’t require a background check”? After all, depending on the sale itself, this could be a bald-faced lie. If it involves a buyer in one state and the seller in another, then yes, it does require a background check.

And why did reporter Josh Baugh not bother to ask about this, or, for that matter, present a view from the other side?

Beyond all that, though…here we are again with that whole “we need to talk” bullshit. Yet again, we’ve had the talk. They just didn’t like the way it turned out. And you can bet that the whole “closing the private sale loophole” bit will be touted as a “good first step,” especially after it fails to make any impact — which it will. It’s not as if “closing the private sale loophole” is going to mean anything without a gun registration scheme anyway, and that’s going to be a no-go for myriad reasons — not the least of which being that it leads to things like confiscation.

(What? Oh, it was just a bunch of letters, you say? Well, what do you think is going to happen if someone sends a letter back telling the New York police to fuck right off, hmm?)

Well, this sucks.

And another one is gone…

Country Music Hall of Famer Noble Ray Price, who pioneered a shuffling, rhythmic, honky-tonk sound that has had an impact on country music since the mid-1950s, died Sunday, Dec. 15 at age 87, of complications from pancreatic cancer, at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas.

Between this, George Jones’ death, and shitty music in general, 2013 is arguably shaping up to be the worst year in country music  history.

Imagine that…

Why, it’s almost if those shiny new gun laws passed in Colorado earlier this year were just to make them all feel good! Because they did something. For the Children, even!

(Shooter) also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing “you republicans are so cute” and posting an image that reads: “The Republican Party: Health Care: Let ’em Die, Climate Change: Let ’em Die, Gun Violence: Let ’em Die, Women’s Rights: Let ’em Die, More War: Let ’em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?”

“Gun Violence: Let ’em Die.” Said the dude who hauled up into the school with a shotgun and shot two of his classmates. Your typical anti-gunner hypocrisy usually isn’t that strong. Good riddance.