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As a bit of a humanist, I avoid political sides as to focus on the main points I care about. Ignoring the rest of the razzle dazzle is optimal. I look for facts while respecting the beliefs of others as long as they do not harm people or animals. Unfortunately, other people are not so moderate, rabidly defend one side or another. The U of I area brings left-wing, almost libertarian flack in the midst of flat out gun-toting farmers, while heading into Pittsburgh means preparing myself for a lot of right wing bullshit.

I spent the holiday weekend in Pittsburgh with my family. It was a good visit. My grandma is fucking old and has, among other things, scleroderma, a disease that will end her life. She doesn’t seem to grasp that part so it’s hush hush. Even if we told her she’d forget anyway. Scleroderma is a tightening of the derma on and in your body; your skin as well as the “skins” of your organs will be affected.

I try to take it easy around her, giving her mind some breathing room when it comes to what she says. The last time I had been home was for a funeral over a month ago, ie lots of sad things and crying. This past weekend was especially trying because we kept talking about the news. In response to her yammering on about the only news is bad news now I said to her, “Well, there are other networks out there you can watch other than Fox News.” She spit back — and I mean FLUNG it like an angry poo — “You radicals don’t get it! THEY’RE the only ones telling the TRUTH!”

…Okay, nice to see you, too.

The next day she mentioned how her 89-year-old sister, forever a democrat, did not vote for Obama-Biden and instead voted for McCain-Palin. She never said “My sister won’t admit she doesn’t like Obama because he’s black,” but she meant it. Closet racists are good at wording. Which led us to:

“I like that Sarah Palin.”

“Sito, she’s not very bright.”

“Oh yes she is! Very intelligent. The media just made her look bad.”

“But she puts her daughter all over the networks to get attention.”

“I don’t understand that! Who cares about that stuff anyway?! I don’t care if she gets back with the father of her child. Why do they have that in the magazines at all?”

“She also, during the campaign, was known for her ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ catchphrase. When that oil rig busted in the Gulf of Mexico, that was an American rig leased to BP. Sarah Palin went on about how foreign oil is bad, but it was in the Gulf!”

“Well… she misspoke. I like her.”

That’s how a severely right wing octogenarian reasons about subject matter. At a certain point when given facts, she just sort of blanks out and stops receiving the information. She agreed about the bad steps Palin took, yet still likes her and refuses to believe Sarah herself had anything to do with her daughter being plastered all over the media. It’s rougher when it’s a person that is young and active in the world and still holds this belief that the right is always right, and when a conservative does something stupid is was just a simple misstep, forgivable and human. HOW CAN YOU DEAL?!

Treat her like an old person no matter her age. The only thing keeping me from yelling at my grandma was remembering she’s really, really old and her tape recorder has run out of fresh tape. Give the most basic reasoning with specific examples of counterargument and hope for the best. If it doesn’t work out, remember that you aren’t crazy, and she is stuck in a time from before that never actually existed, where all races keep to themselves, gay isn’t real, and women aren’t as capable as men.

Now then, our friends on the left.

I was having lunch with some friends at a diner about a month ago, and one of them, Al, was the special guest as he lives in Washington, DC. His fiancee texted him that on her airplane, some WWII vets were present and the crew thanked them for their service. She basically wanted to throw up, saying how very Texas such an announcement was (I believe she was connecting in a Texan airport.) Al relayed the message to us in disgust. How could anyone celebrate a person who killed people? he wondered aloud in so many words and curses.

Last time I checked, a shit-ton of people who served in World War II for the United States were drafted. They defected or were jailed if they didn’t want to report for duty. Your service was mandatory back then, not like the optional signups now. He then laughingly made a curt statement: there’s nothing after death, you’re just dead. That’s how it is and believing anything else was stupid beyond belief. Nevermind that I’m fairly certain at least two people at our table believe in some form of afterlife and one of those people is Catholic. He said it was stupid to believe in an afterlife in front of the Catholic who has never pushed his beliefs onto anyone.

Our lefties are brash intellectuals who make you feel stupid, effectively shutting you up instead of having an actual conversation on the issue. HOW TO DEAL???

Remember these people, as children, may have been pushed around for being a dorky smartie. As adults they are using their brains to logic out anything into their favor. Even if that isn’t true for each individual, it allows you to prepare for the type of attack. At times these types can be dealt with. You have to side-swipe him first. He can’t see it coming. Calling him a “stupid poopyhead” is a good way to start. Get his brain to stop for a moment, then give your opinion on the matter calmly while still complimenting him on his own beliefs. Hopefully this will lead to a thoughtful conversation where he will ingest your arguments and at least respect them. Hell, use the word “respect” when he’s saying you’re an old stuck-in-the mud for believing anything he doesn’t believe. Remind him that the whole idea of having freedom of religion and everything else was to be able to hold different ideas and still be friends or at least be able to work with one another. Unfortunately, I was so shocked by his asshole comments I did react properly to the situation, looking down at the table to keep from exploding. He was pretty callous.

When I replay that moment back in my head, I call him a poo face for being so callous towards his friends’ beliefs, and I remind him that military service used to be from mandatory drafting — while he can’t change the past, he can at least acknowledge the now old men who gave up their most energetic years so that their families can stay alive. Slamming people doesn’t really help a situation unless you’re drunk, at a bar, and need something to rant about. Seriously, you just made the 45 minutes your friends spent with you a terrible experience. How is that a good thing?

Please, do not let these people drive you crazy. Remember, the internet has all of their opinions and everything in between and beyond. The library has all the knowledge of all the cultures of the world at your fingertips. Card Catalogs! Hope for the children! And for us. We have to at least try.

Filmed in Pittsburgh, this movie stars Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, and Liam Neeson. It’s a giant poster for my hometown’s city, complete with gratuitous aerial shots. I am okay with this fact. The plot focuses on Russell Crowe trying to get his wife, Elizabeth Banks, out of jail because she allegedly didn’t kill whoever they say she allegedly did.

Pirates sweaters are all the rage. The building they are alluding to as the prison is the actual county jail. When you drive over the Liberty Bridge you can sometimes see the inmates playing basketball through the windows.

THAT’S MY CITY. eeee. I wonder if they managed to make it look clean.

Gogo Taylor Rideout!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a five minute video interview with the baby’s parents (Brittany Rideout and Adam Bouchat) and doctors. She’s been in the hospital 80 days because she was born at only 26 weeks of gestation — that’s 14 weeks, or 3.5 months premature. She was ten inches long.

Her mother, Brittany, had strokes and other complications from the the pregnancy, forcing an early birth or face the deaths of the mom and baby. Brittany has lupus.

Taylor’s survival is a milestone for the hospital. She’s the tiniest ever to survive in its history. She’s at two pounds now and will be allowed to go home in a week or so.

the video PP-G doesn’t ~do~ embedding
the article PP-G

yeah, i don’t normally imagine them hanging out. but now… i do! Zachary Quinto on the Bonnie Hunt Show, talking about Pittsburgh and Kennywood and movie things and family stuff. And a little bit of Star Trek.

part one:

part two:

ZQ on Jimmy Kimmel Live & Bonnie Hunt ontd

nws. woooooo.

ksk — But The Pope Says They Dont Stop the Spread of Steeler AIDS

Fire department president Roger Nogyand his friend cheated at a game of bingo to win the 1500$ prize in Belle Vernon. Damn. It was report a few days ago. The incident happened in May.

“What’s right is right,” said Daneen Watson. “What’s wrong is wrong. It was irrespectable bingo up there.”

I’m digging the comment section.

Pittsburgh International Airport, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. YOU AREN’T CONFUSING. The legendary suck airport we all must compare to is OHare. OHare is extremely large, which would be fine if you could get from one terminal to the next without having to get out of the airport and go through security again. Pittsburgh International has two parts for the general public: ground stuff (check-in/ground transportation/baggage claim/aka land terminal) and air stuff (flight terminals and air mall — the “core”). These areas are two separate buildings, to be traveled between with an underground train. After a traveler gets wanded and probed, he goes into the waiting area flanked by two enclosed subway trains. Usually both are running. Speaking of being probed…

2. YOUR SECURITY ISN’T A FUCKING BITCH. There are twenty billion metal detectors (okay, around ten) with clear denotations of where their lines are. These lines stem from two main lines of people coming down from ticketing. Yes, coming down from: ticketing is an upper level. And a traveler knows where to go because

3. YOU HAVE SIGNS EVERYWHERE AND ARE EASY TO READ. This is another pitfall of OHurk — signage is suckage. Not in Pittsburgh. There are signs every 100 feet. There are signs in the main intersections, in the hallways, in the ticketing area, almost everywhere! Only nuance: bathrooms do not have giant signs. This smallness is made up with the fact that he signs are in the hallways as well as on the bathroom entryways. The bathroom areas also have a smooth wall texture than the normal wall’s brick pattern. Visual cues!

4. YOU CAN HAS FREE WIFI INTERNETS. I love you. New Hampshire = no freeness. Like a yutz I have paid ten dollars for three hours of internet access. Not in black and gold land. Midway also has internets. I’m guessing most places do now. I hope so anyway. Midway not only has free internets, it has bench stations complete with stools, electrical outlets, and USB outlets in the Southwest terminal’s cul-de-sac. V cool, Midway, very cool. Unfortunately, during my times there, access was a “local only” connection. What the bukkake is that about? Midway, I almost fell for you!

5. YOU EMBRACE THE CITY’S HISTORY IN A NONHOKEY WAY. Whoever designed the interior spaces remembered that Pittsburgh is full of people that don’t forget a thing. They still talk about the Iron Curtain of the 70s, Roberto Clemente, how bitchy Barry Bonds was (waaaait that isn’t that old), how the steel mills affected everything, what bridges were fixed when, how much Carnegie shafted his workers and then how much he gave back to the city in museums and libraries. Ooooh the library system of Allegheny County. For another time. The city-related eye candy isn’t inflated Hellene inspired poop. The main concourse crossroads have art hanging from the ceiling (s’up Calder) and new visitors are greeted by Franco Harris and George Washington, passing by the Tyrannasaurus rex on the way to the trains. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has a world renowned dinosaur exhibit. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

6. YOUR DECOR SUCKS IN A FABULOUS WAY. Grey. Grey everywhere. This should be a bad thing, am i rite? No! Other airports use white. I think I figured out why I’m always headachey in other places. In combination with the fluorescent lights, most airports have white walls and colorful carpet or white tile. When I’m stressed, dehydrated, and in a strange place, I’m not in the mood for my eyes being bombarded with more information than needed. In Pittsburgh I can actually concentrate on what I’m doing rather than, say, how I’m going to bash the fluorescent lights in my path. My phone is a great projectile, but my wallet would be less damaged by the blow. The building leaves the color to the stores and food shops. The fine art and Spirit of St Louis replica don’t hurt, either.

OHare sucks less in this department: windows for walls wherever possible. New York’s JFK is poop. All I remember is how BRIGHT it seemed to be. I’m going to group music into this section. Burgh Intl has classical music constantly. This makes for cool eeiriness when you get in after 10pm and barely anyone is around. It makes for good background when everybody is hustly bustly. It makes for general awesomeness in the bathroom and you have to poop and stage fright hits.

Honorable mention: Detroit’s Northwest Concourse. No suckage. It’s new, it’s clean, it’s not annoying. The tunnel to get there is covered in a light show with corny synthesizer music, and the terminal has a water fountain display like the one in the Carnegie Science Center. If only I didn’t have to take Northwest to use that terminal only to get canceled connecting flights requiring nights in Detroit hotels with noisy sexin’ neighbors… I might actually like that half of the airport. The other half smells like an old high school and looks like one, too.

7. FOOD IS AVAILABLE AND IN ALL PLACES. And not in a three places to choose from way. There are the standard Sbarros, McDonalds, and Mexican place of the week — most recently Qdoba has popped in, maybe this one will stick — but there is also a couple sandwich and health nut places bigger than a kiosk. There’s a Ben and Jerry’s. Nomnoms. There are several news shops with snacks, beverages, and gum as well. There isn’t a main cafeteria section, but there are places to sit to eat. Bars and restaurants are still around.

8. THE SEATING ISN’T A POOPFEST. The chairs are wide and there is padding. It isn’t the best, but it most certainly isn’t the worst. Atlanta, I’m looking at you. Atlanta and Pittsburgh do have a similarity though. Soooo many seats. So many. If people are sitting on the floor, it’s because they want to. There are enough seats.

In summation: ilu Pittsburgh International.