Havin’ a Drink on Friday Night: Open Thread

Well, we know the Obot Trendier-Than-Thous drink this:

PBR

And we know that Chatblu, La-t-da and MadamaB drink this:

The Balvenie

And you?

OPEN THREAD

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?”

Can someone please explain to me what the hell that question is supposed to imply? I have heard that posed so many times in so many different venues but I am still uncertain of the proper response. Intimidation, reverence, awestruck, what is the correct answer to this inanity? Just hearing those words sends a shaft up my spine as I seriously could care less about who you are, or who you think you are, when it comes filling in the blank. In a word: unimpressed.

Too much has been made of the “incident in Cambridge” that required the president to the U.S. to invite a couple of men over to the WH for a beer. From where I sit, race had very little to do with what happened. I will even go further to suggest that the arrest was stupid. It was a “throw down” attended by two alpha males who each in turn asked of the other “do you know who I am?” One represented the elite culture of academics, the other the full force of the law. Two creatures intent on showing the other how important they are in their own little worlds while the rest of us weigh in with different versions of stereotyping and grievances. Two weeks of nonstop coverage of an event that should have never escalated to the heights that it did while asking the Commander in Chief to weigh in as well. Nonsense.

I have seen enough of that same behavior exhibited on playgrounds and the workplace to remind me that there are people who regard themselves in the same light. It has nothing to do with race. It is a common phenomenon from those who see themselves as above the ordinary. The same group who wish to go to the head of the line and chafe at being put on hold. A group that in their own minds have risen from the average to the ranks of the above average often by their own admission. And if you are unable to recognize that fact they are only too happy to point it out for you! We have seen it with athletes, celebrities, politicians and yes, those whom we work with. Insufferable assholes who wish to be treated with deference simply because they can throw a ball, work a crowd, or sign your paycheck. They come in all sizes, shapes, age, gender, and ethnicity. They demand respect even if they have yet to actually earn it. They have outgrown “humble” and prefer “special” to be added to their ranking in life. And for those of us to blind to see it, they are only too willing to bring us to heel by asking that very question that has no immediate answer other than a bile inducing response.

Had the professor not been as quick to insist on homage, and the officer not as quick to issue an overwrought response, we would not be witnessing the president acting as a schoolyard referee with two alpha males demanding “respect” from the other. “Do you know who I am?” tells me immediately who you are and all I need to know from that point on.

It is sometimes just as wise to consider that the planet is made up of people who just cannot get over themselves. White, black, brown, yellow, male, female, white collar, blue collar, there are no boundaries. They live in their own world. We mere mortals only inhabit it.

Hallmark should consider producing a card that reads: “apologies for being a schmuck”. Guaranteed to make millions of dollars with this one.

I REALLY DO NOT LIKE THIS MAN

If you don’t know why, check this and this and this and this out!

And this man:

Is to busy trying to sell a public option to the public, when 70% of us are already sold on it. While Washington burns this idiot has no leadership skills to get the democratic caucus on the same page. For the failure that GWB was, he, atleast, could get his conservative agenda passed, with less of a majority. The time is ripe now for true reform, America needs and expects it. Obama is willing to screw it up for lobbyist $$. Sit your ass down behind the desk in the oval office, Obama, call Baucus in and tell him to start over, include single payer and a robust public option, or threaten his chairmanship. I won’t hold my breath. We are being played. We are getting the old okey doke!