some things I hate

I used to have a much longer list, but by the mercy of God I am not nearly as crumudgeonly. All the same, here's some stuff in no particular order:

• low-waisted jeans. When are people going to design some pants that don't require a Brazilian or a butt-warmer when one stretches slightly or--gasp--sits down? I just got some jeans yesterday at Old Navy, which were mens' jeans because some men actually like having pants on, instead of extended thigh-highs. This trend has gone on long enough (or should I say, low enough?).
  
• speaking of disgusting trends, Flip Flops. Utterly repugnant, in every way. Thankfully, I have not seen one teensy hint of a thongish shoe design in the last three months of the fashion magazines I get. Perhaps people will put their toes back where they belong, and quit *stickflap, stickflapping* all over the place. Eugh.
  
• being sick/tired. Feeling a bit crummy today (gee, can you tell?), which leads to:
• bureaucracy in all its forms, especially medical. Our "new" healthcare plan doesn't cover the doctor I like, and now requires us to get all medical tests done at LabCorp, a most execrable group of health"care" lackeys. See this post for more evidence of their infamy. Also, one day I will write about my trip to Social Security with a 6-week-old in the snow, to change one stinking letter on his card.
  
• Baltimore's murder rate. 15 murders in ten days, people. WTF??? How can the city council, school board, mayor, and every other person in charge show their faces in public? Whatever you're doing (if indeed you are doing something, which is highly debatable), it's. not. working. A man with seventeen prior arrests, including two handgun charges, killed a cop this week. Another woman shot about two blocks from my grandfather's house. A vast majority of the victims and the perps have long prior criminal records, are young, black males, and either do drugs or sell them. This has to stop! Where are the churches??? Where are older black men, and responsible adults of all colors? Where are the fathers of these boys? Segregation did not end for this purpose, so you can shoot a person for looking at you funny, or drop out of school because being educated is "white." And just because you sit on the school board or have some fancy office in city hall, that doesn't mean you understand anything about the lives of the people you supposedly serve. How can people survive, let alone thrive, on a city block with ten boarded-up houses? How can people be expected to choose delayed gratification to meet educational goals, when it's so much easier to get cash by working for thugs? How can families be strong when gangsta rap culture dehumanizes and denigrates everyone--women (bitches and babymamas) and men (niggas and gangstas)? And all people can talk about is the bloody Ravens vs Colts game, and sending more troops to Iraq. Where are our troops? Who is fighting for us?
  
• people who just talk about hating stuff and not praying--and working--for real change. So I'll stop venting my impotent rage and do something worthwhile, ok? Ok. Thanks, I needed that.