Word of the Day: Scomm

I've learned a new word: "Scomm". The traditional meaning is "buffoon", which would be useful, but that's not where I saw it, or how it seemed to be used. Over on Yahoo! News, an article on how the dead Boston terrorist's body is still sitting in a funeral home's chiller, unable to find a cemetery willing to accept and bury him, has been producing some of the most vicious and ugly comments I've ever seen.  Considering that "ugly" tends to be the default mode for Yahoo! commenters, that's saying something. Essentially, it's a post-mortem lynch mob there. I posted a comment that this behavior was unseemly and un-American. One reply included the remark "Scomm goes back to scomland."

If the guy replying to me was actually using that in the obscure meaning of "buffoon", I don't think that was accurate. "Buffoon" is not how I would describe someone who killed multiple people, maimed and wounded dozens of others, engaged police in intrense firefights in public streets, managed to get an entire city to shut down for 24 hours (at an estimated minimum economic cost of a quarter-billion dollars), and triggered a national spasm of the ugliest side of Ugly-Americanism since 9/11 (that he's been able to continue even after his death). I would not call that guy a buffoon; I would call him a Very Successful Terrorist.

My responder might have simply been misspelling "scum", rather than using an obscure word. He didn't know how to spell "Christian" properly, either. (Somewhere, some poor guy named Christien is having the nagging feeling that people are saying nasty remarks about him on the Internet.)

But "scomm", that's a useful word. I'll remember it.

The Postal Service, and The Lie That Will Not Die

The Motley Fool financial site has a good rundown on "How The Postal Service Is Being Gutted" .   I hope most people here already know about the poison-pill legislation passed by Congress (and pushed by pro-privatization lobbyists) in 2006, requiring the USPS to pre-fund their pension benefits seventy-five years in advance, for hypothetical employees not only not hired yet, but for employees not even born yet.  The Fool article also goes into other factors and efforts by big-bankroll financial predators and lobbyists meant to push the Postal Service into privatization and/or dissolution.

But in the comments, I see, yet again, numerous people insisting, against all evidence and numbers, that the Postal Service is "wasting taxpayers' money".  The Postal Reorganization Act of 1971 reformed USPS into a "quasi-governmental" organization with the ability to operate (within Congressional limitations) as a business and with a mandate to be self-funding.  They've operated under that mandate for more than FORTY YEARS, and yet there are still numerous people utterly convinced that "my tax money" pays for mail delivery.

What's up with these people?  Even when provided with facts and numbers, they literally refuse to believe otherwise. You can't convince them, you can't educate them, you can't change their minds. What benefit do they get out of believing a lie, denying a truth?  They will not let this lie die.

Well, this blog post won't convince them either.  I'm just venting my frustration.  This shit just gets old.  Very, very old.  In this case it's literally an old lie. 

When Bad Things Happen To Bad People

Yesterday, in local news, Maricopa County Sheriff and full-time bad example Joe Arpaio, tripped and fell on a downtown sidewalk, breaking his arm and ending up in the hospital since.

Some online comments have implied (or flat-out stated) that he's a wuss for not manning up, gritting his teeth, and walking out of the hospital already.  And for having an oxygen cannula in his nose while laid up in the hospital.  And for speaking slowly in several videos released by the Sheriff's department.

I find myself in the distasteful position of having to defend Joe Arpaio, just a few days after signing a petition to recall him.

When my own arm got broken back in December, it was some of the most agonizing pain I've ever felt.  "Agony" gets used inappropriately a lot, but not this time.  I was very, very grateful for the existence of morphine.  I may have been "cognizant" while on morphine, but I certainly wasn't at my quickest or most perceptive.

I'm 20 years younger than Arpaio, and I was in hospital for four days.  Part of that was post-surgical recovery for the prosthetic joint that replaced the shattered upper humerus.  So far, it doesn't look like surgery is planned for Arpaio, but I'm not surprised they keep someone his age in a few extra days to make sure he won't have any complications.

I also had an oxygen cannula in my nose for most of those four days.  That's a safeguard against respiratory problems that might occur.

So I'm afraid I have to cut the old piece of crap some slack in this instance.

(Dammit, my innate humanity betrays me again!)

Ideally, one might hope that the injury, and the painful recovery ahead, leads to Arpaio deciding to resign and finally retire to his Fountain Hills home.

But I don't think that will happen.  I think that Arpaio has to stay in office until he dies, because when he dies I think enough evidence of deep corruption and abuse in the MCSO will finally come out that it will become clear Joe Arpaio was on the wrong side of his jail's fence for his entire career as Sheriff.

Update, 3/4/2013:  I posted a slightly different version of the above post as a comment to the Phoenix New Times article about Arpaio's hospitalization.  One self-styled "JoeArpaioFan" responded:

"If you have no love for Arpaio I hope next time you break your neck."

Well, that certainly teaches me a lesson about expressing any sympathy for an old man who's been seriously hurt.  I think this is the first comment I've ever written that made someone wish for my death.