Well, Matt has been on a little hiatus so I thought I would chime in with something that bugs me. I had to turn off the Presidential debate last night. I do not like either option presented to me, or the light they are presented in. By no means do I feel like I am the most informed or overly qualified person to be criticizing the candidates, but please talk like the people listening have at least half a brain.

Have you ever been up late at night and caught any number of the infomercials that fill the paid programming slots made just for insomniacs? They show you a simple task made impossible by terrible acting and/or black and white.(Why is everything impossible to do in black and white?) Anyway, once the impossible task of cutting that tomato with a normal knife is complete, they show you their new knife in stunning vibrant color. The actor who looks like they have never touched a knife in their lives now becomes a trained chef and can slice and dice with the best of them. They throw around buzzwords to catch your attention and let you see why you have been doing it wrong, and this is the future.

This is what the debates were to me. The candidates talk about how bright the future is with them, and how bad things would be with the other person. Broken promises and outright lies, from everyone. It was just a long conversation between two people who wanted to prove they had more to say than the other person, without any real substance from what I could gather. Less taxes, lower unemployment, less national debt, and other magic tricks(illusions) to make people think they are better. But neither one has a real plan. I fear for the future of our country when the  President is elected because he was "less bad" than the other, but it has become a trend as of late...

Alright, lets start this off with a bang.  Jesse dedicated this page to me and my rants, so I’ll do my best to keep you entertained.  As time goes on, and my musings pile up, I hope to become decidedly better at organizing my thoughts, and writing a proper article.  Until then, unfortunately, you’ll have to deal with spelling errors, chaos of thought, and the like.

Today’s rant deals with a very real issue, Breast Cancer.  Sure, I have an issue with cancer in general, but that isn’t what this rant is about.  Today’s tirade has to do with so called “Breast Cancer Awareness”, and how horribly horribly wrong people are about how they do it.  I do also want to highlight those that I feel are doing it right, because this is an issue that requires attention.

Every fall, football players during the month of October are seen wearing pink on national TV.  That is how you bring awareness...nothing better than seeing the gladiators of our day donning the most feminine color imaginable.  That will make you pay attention.

Pink ribbons and clothing.  They are everywhere. Good thing about these ribbons, shirts, etc., is that it is immediately identified with breast cancer awareness, and the majority of the time, proceeds from the sale of these items goes to some sort of research or charity.  Good way to bring about awareness of a terrible issue.

That brings us to the focus of my rhetoric, Facebook.  It started with random people posting the color and location of their bras.  I get that, bras are the closest thing to the breast, it kinda works.  The next time it was dependant on some insignificant date like your birth month, day, or year.   Your answers would dictate how your status played out, in this case, notifying the world of facebook of a candy craving and hinting that you were xx months pregnant.  Now the trend is locations and how long you’ll be there.

First and foremost, these last two examples have nothing to do with breast cancer, nothing at all.  Your date of birth, candy cravings, and trips to far away lands will not have any bearing on research for breast cancer, nor helping those with it to survive.

Furthermore, a part of the game is to keep 50% of the world’s population in the dark.  Should a man ask what the status is regarding, they don’t get a straight answer, because a huge part of “the game” (as it is referred to) is not letting males in on what is going on.  Isn’t that the opposite of awareness?

I’m sick and tired of seeing these half-assed attempts at awareness.  You want to make people aware?  Go buy a shirt, donate to charity, do a run/walk, DO SOMETHING.  Posting a random status message does nothing other than inspire ridiculous time wasting rants, and before anyone says it, just because I’m on my soap box for this issue doesn’t mean you’ve made me aware, it means you’ve pissed me off, annoyed me, or made me care that much less...I’m sure I’m not alone.

If you are interested in donating to Breast Cancer awareness please follow the link below (I tried to post a banner that would make it easy, but this format does not allow for that).

https://www.stayclassy.org/checkout/donation?cid=5526