Monday, June 21, 2010

Call me naive, but...

...when I saw a news teaser that hometown fans went apeshit after the Lakers game in Los Angeles on Thursday, I figured they'd lost, right? Not so.

What can possibly be said about a bunch of people who go bananas and are just looking for a reason to tear stuff up?

A typical liberal reaction would be that these are poor, disenfranchised people who had no means of watching the game. Um, judging by the number of video phones and iPhones which illuminate the darkness around the burning taxicab, I'd say these people are well-off enough to afford cutting edge technology, so the poor-little-poor-things argument doesn't wash here. The LA Times journalist in the second video clip says there were no jumbotron screens on outside the arena, so the fans didn't have the outlet of watching the action inside the venue. (waaah waaah) She asks how can we find a better way to celebrate this victory together? I'm thinking the question is not how do they celebrate, but why on earth they would have such a defective culture as to have an ability to break down so easily from a semi-civilized state into a chaotic mob which destroys the means of livelihood for one of their "fellow citizens?"

That cab was an Independent Cab Company vehicle. I looked up this company and found that -- heigh ho!-- the dirtbags in LA were not destroying the property of some big corporation or even of a huge local company-- they destroyed the means of livelihood for one mere human person who lives in their community. This person probably scrapped and scrounged and saved to earn the capital to go independent. Yes, there are a lot of dirtbag cabbies in the world, too, but I've taken a lot of cab rides here and abroad, and I'd say collectively, they can be some of the nicest folks you'd want to meet. They put up with a lot of crap, they are exposed to a lot of rude, condescending behaviour, and yet they perform their duty which is a service and one on which many folks rely to get around town.

This is part and parcel of why I do not live in a city, for one thing, and plan to never set foot in LA again for the remainder of my life. If your society is so pathetic and wrong-headed that you break into violence when something good happens, I sure as hell plan to be a long way from you just in case something you don't like happens.

Way to go, jerks. I'd agree with Silver that California needs to go, full stop, but there's something of interest to me in the Napa/Russian River Valleys, and other places as well, so it's not a total wash. But San Francisco and Los Angeles?

I say we dust off and nuke the sites from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

13 comments:

Wayne said...

Knowing our luck though, those two "cities" are populated mostly by things that are rumored to survive nucueler splosions. Either that or we'd be left with mutants that wouldn't even take part in the short periods of calm they exhibit now.

Jon said...

There's some really good folks in California, but they're being held hostage by legislators and parasites that live in the large population centers. I say we need to build walls around these areas, just like in "Escape From New York" and leave them to their devices.

I don't think I'd send in Kirt Russel to get Obama, though. Maybe Rosie Odonnel, or Bill Mahr.

Sarah said...

Oh yeah, let's blame poverty. Like their parents were too poor to afford the proper tools for administering an old-fashioned ass whoopin' when these jackasses were kids and needed to be taught right from wrong.

Miz Minka said...

Yep, I'm one of those currently held hostage in Califreakia, as is my self-employed husband (don't get me started on how they screw small business in this effed up state), and I can't wait to get out of here when I'm done with school. Never have set foot in L.A. and don't intend to do so, ever. Used to like S.F. (as in: 30 years ago) but it's really gone apeshit -- and the panhandlers are ferocious there.

Steve said...

I still have one kid in L.A. Moved there to be near her sister, who has now left for flyover country. Now all we gotta do is find little sister a good job somewhere out of the PRK.

Mulligan said...

to date I've ridden in 1 cab in the USA and the cabbie (a veteran from San Angelo, TX) wouldn't take my money 'cuz I was in uniform.

I don't see any reason to go very far into any major city anymore. Not just the ones in CA.. they're all pretty much the same.

Anonymous said...

I'll miss some of the museums and archives in LA, and I'd like to get my mom's business partner's family out before you shut the gate, but otherwise when do we start construction of the wall?

SpeakerTweaker said...

If your society is so pathetic and wrong-headed that you break into violence when something good happens, I sure as hell plan to be a long way from you just in case something you don't like happens.

Well, that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?



tweaker

Old NFO said...

Typical LA... nuff said...

Thud said...

Nice addendum about Napa, I was hoping you would spare vinogirl plus the visiting family OTW as we grace your shores starting next week.

Anonymous said...

Give me 1/2 hour warning before you nuke us. Need to get the famiglia out before the capo gets upset.

Ulises from CA

TOTWTYTR said...

Sadly enough, it's not just LA. Or San Francisco. Unfortunately it's all too many urban areas. I think the same thing happened in Detroit a few years ago and even in Quebec.

Oh, and had the Lakers lost, the riots would have been just as bad. Or worse.

TOTWTYTR said...

Sadly enough, it's not just LA. Or San Francisco. Unfortunately it's all too many urban areas. I think the same thing happened in Detroit a few years ago and even in Quebec.

Oh, and had the Lakers lost, the riots would have been just as bad. Or worse.