Requiem for an Underdog

Today, I had a loss in the family... of sorts. Most people think of a vehicle as just a tool. I thought of my 2001 Chevy S-10, nicknamed 'the Underdog', as something akin to a pet. And this pet could have lived forever (with the appropriate maintenance/repairs over time), but that isn't going to happen now. Some idjit rear-ended me on the interstate this morning and my insurance carrier had to total the vehicle.

However, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let me tell you a few things about this remarkable vehicle. The whole reason it was named 'Underdog' is because everyone kept underestimating this vehicle over the years. My father bought it new in 2001 and was disappointed with it because it couldn't do the things he wanted a truck to do. However, if he had bought the full-size truck like I told him to do, he wouldn't have had a problem. My father was a very stubborn man. However, it always served me so well, especially after Dad transferred the title to me in 2009.

Anything I asked it to do, regardless of the conditions, it managed to do quite well. It was with me for 3 of my years in college the first time around, circa 2006-2008. It was with me in my years as a Soldier in the Army from 2009-2014. It was with me in my travels across America as an Insurance Adjuster after I was discharged. We went as far north and New Jersey and Indiana. We went as far south as Florida. We went from my last Army post in Maryland back home to Louisiana in a marathon 17 hour drive with almost no stops. We also went down Route 66 from Texas to California and back again. It never failed me. Not even once. Through rain, hail, sleet, snow and hurricanes, it soldiered on even more than a postal worker getting the mail through. It also helped me move a lot of cargo, building materials and musical instruments owned by Rock Star friends of mine. This truck was a true Soldier. It went well above and beyond the call of duty. It would have made General Motors proud.

Unfortunately though, Soldiers often die in the line of duty. Today was the day that the automotive Grim Reaper came for my soldier and took him to Fiddler's Green. I'm going through college again right now for a 2nd degree, courtesy of the G.I. Bill. While heading to class on a local interstate highway this morning, someone rear-ended my vehicle. The driver-side tail-light was destroyed, along with the back window for the bed topper on the truck bed. The bed had also got smashed up bad on the driver's side, shifted forward slightly and dented the cab too. The tailgate was also smashed to scrap metal. It was not a pretty sight. Since the truck is 17 years old and has 192,224 miles on the odometer, it was an obvious total. Truth be told, that vehicle was probably near the end of its life as my daily driver anyway. It was very old and something was bound to wear out sooner rather than later. I couldn't afford any kind of major repairs so, this might be a blessing in disguise. That's the way I want to think of this tragedy, but there's really no way to know.

Thankfully, my insurance carrier was nice enough to give me much more than I thought it was worth. The check they gave me will make for a very nice down-payment on the next vehicle, but the monthly payments are really going to stretch my budget. I have a few connections and can make this a mere inconvenience, but I really liked being virtually debt free! Damned adult struggles of life! At least no one was injured or killed. And that is amazing to me. There were 3 accidents near this same interstate off-ramp this morning, with mine being the first. I guess God just decided that a few local car dealers and body shops needed some business.

Also, the 2017 Nissan Titan that rear-ended me was not just totaled, it had to be towed away with a wrecker. My vehicle was at least able to get me to class and then home this afternoon. That truck ALWAYS got me home. No matter the weather or its current state, it always got me to wherever I called 'home'. And that is why trucks should be made of Metal and NOT plastic. Oh well, at least there's one LESS lousy f***ing import on the road. Those things piss me off with their mere existence. It's just too bad that I had to lose my own vehicle in the process. Still, there's a reason why the phrase 'Jap Junk' actually exists, folks. DON'T BUY INFERIOR IMPORTS MADE OF PLASTIC.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, raise a glass of whatever you're drinking to salute the Underdog. This small truck deserves all the praise I have ever given it and much more. This truck was a true Soldier. It went well above and beyond the call of duty. It would make General Motors proud. It now joins my long lost (and MUCH beloved) 1982 Buick Riviera on that great highway in the sky, where they both will hopefully be waiting for me. It doesn't matter if this truck was nowhere near as fancy as the Riviera. It doesn't matter that 1982 wasn't the most legendary year for Buick's legendary 'cheap Cadillac' that I really wish GM would bring back. All that does matter is that they were mine.

A picture I took of the Underdog in Maryland, circa 2011.

That loyal soldier always served me so well... and it will be missed.

- Publius

Why I've ignored Facebook for months...

There's a few good reasons why I've virtually ignored FB for the past several months. They are as follows...

1.) Every time you blink, you end up getting Zucked for some random BULLSHIT that doesn't make any sense... 

UNLESS they are really trying to control people's speech like the conspiracy theorists claim. And after what happened to Alex Jones last week, it looks like the conspiracy theorists had good reason to be worried.

Hell, that would explain why I got a 30 day sentence in FB jail for a Anti-Islamic meme that was posted THREE YEARS PRIOR. No, I am not making that up...

Even this Leftist asshole still knows you shouldn't be trying to censor people...

Of course, Twitter's behavior in that area is even worse most of the time. They didn't ban Alex 'the living internet meme' Jones yet, but I'm certain they'll find a reason, legitimate or not, very soon. Glad that I never bothered with that website...

2.) Real-life was more interesting... And time consuming...

College has kept me quite busy. I was out of school for the summer, but didn't bother with FB. I like Minds.com as a social media platform a lot better. Not to mention that I do have something of a life now. I'm always busy with a few mad science experiments, more game collecting, building an epic shitpost of a website, etc. See what happens when you have an overactive Aspergian brain? Also, I hope you're all noticing just how much more productive I am when I'm NOT wasting time on that bullshit site called Facebook. I promise you, your life will be so much happier without that site. Which leads us to...

3.) I hate drama.

...And there's plenty of it on that site. However, that will not be much of an issue for much longer. I'm getting rid of all the Leftist assholes and conspiracy nuts on the friend list. There's no reason to keep them around. Many of them are not the kind of folks I'd invite into my home for Sunday dinner anyway. As a rule of thumb, I don't waste time befriending people that I wouldn't invite into my home. Same goes for me removing just about every single picture that I ever uploaded to the site. Facebook no longer deserves my content and dank memes. (Or the old shit that wasn't funny anymore...)

I really hope that I didn't inadvertently contribute to this problem...

Also, I am glad that I managed to sneak some nude Redhead beauty into this piece.
I didn't plan that, either. I just happened to find this meme in my Shitposting folder. Score!

The only places I want to see drama is on TV, in the movies or in books. Real-life drama can piss off like a bunch of bloody wankers. In fact, ALL of the changes I plan to make to my now virtually abandoned FB page will have been made by the time this post goes public. And for those of you who have survived this little purge, I have but one thing to say to you as a warning about the future...

I miss the days when South Park was actually funny...

4.) All the data breaches... Which probably won't affect me much. (I hope.)

That Cambridge Analytica thing might have angered, shocked and surprised everyone else (including Congress), but it didn't surprise me. I knew something like that would happen one day. That's why I fed FB a huge load of Bravo Sierra over the years. After all, how could I have attended college the first time at non-existent places like Starfleet Academy or Miskatonic University?

I didn't tell them where I lived either... and it wouldn't have mattered if I did. Between starting my profile on FB in 2008 and now, I have lived in 8 or 9 different places across the world. That may be one of the good things to come out of my time in the Army and Insurance business. Too bad there weren't more. :(

Also, I never used my FB password to sign into ANYTHING other than FB itself. That just looked like a good way for someone to steal my password and hack my profile. As bad as that is, the fact that FB was using the 'Sign in with Facebook' thing to track people across the internet is even worse. For once, I'd say this is an industry that might actually need more government regulation. A company must be behaving pretty badly if I'm going to consider that idea. WTF, Zuckerberg?

Also, as of June 6th, it's come to my attention that they also sold data to a bunch of Chi-Coms. Chi-Coms that Uncle Sam has put on the list of known espionage agencies/fronts. And then on July 20th, I find a Wall Street Journal article informing me that FB had to suspend another analytics firm that saved over a trillion public posts to the platform. This firm, Crimson Hexagon, has had contracts with multiple U.S. Government agencies and a Russian non-profit with ties to the Kremlin. Yeah...

Boy, am I glad that I didn't give those assholes a lot of info...

Getting scared yet? You probably should be...

5.) It's not as useful as it once was...

Other than staying in touch with certain old friends and extended family, I really have no interest in the site anymore. I definitely wouldn't try to use it to advertise a business, either. Getting Zucked all the time would make that quite impossible. The music page that I created has already been shut down. The car page might go too. Not much point in trying to keep and maintain them if FB is going to Zuck me every 5 fucking seconds...

Especially Leftists who couldn't meme to save their souls...

That being said, I will probably recreate those pages on another platform like Minds.com. Those 2 pages were too awesome to just let them die.

He may often sound alarmist and crazy, but he isn't wrong on this issue.

Also, I am not exactly giving up on the mission behind those pages. For example, I have had some contact with the individual(s) that run the YouTube profile of the Swedish Power Metal band Sabaton. I asked them to come to New Orleans on their next North American tour. They seemed to be receptive to that idea...

It would be awesome if Sabaton came to New Orleans on their next North American tour. \m/O_O\m/

The mission of the car page is to convince GM to bring back the Riviera and Grand National models at the Buick division. I know one of the senior product VP's at the company wants to bring back the Grand National and is actively working toward that goal. Thank you very much, Mr. Reuss. As for the Riviera... Well, Buick remembers the name and occasionally uses it whenever they have a show car prototype. So, it might very well return someday as well. I hope it does. The 1982 model that I once had is still the smoothest riding vehicle I have ever driven.

A 1982 Buick Riviera that is almost exactly like the one I had.
The Riviera always was the 'cheap Cadillac' in the Buick line-up and this model was a fine example of that philosophy.

6.) All of my previously expressed frustrations and concerns still apply... Along with a few very scary new ones...

And you can read that amusing bit of shitposting here. Also, all of you should move over to Minds.com. That site won't censor you for anything unless it's something obviously illegal. (i.e. child porn, threats of violence, et al.) It will be just as easy as it was to move over to FB when MySpace went to shit circa 2008, if not even easier.

Unlike Facebook, Minds won't require you to use your real name on the profile. That's quite an advantage if you value your privacy and anonymity as much as I do.

There's also virtually ZERO drama of any kind on Minds, which I greatly appreciate. That means I'm less likely to have to deal with any shitbags I once knew in the Army trying to cyberstalk me. That's right BPC, I am talking about you... and several others who I would not mourn if they happen to have a tragic demise. And no, I am not planning that demise. Don't get any more stupid ideas in your head. Believe it or not, I want you to get better and become a functional member of society, BPC. That will be one more contributor rather than one more poor soul living on public assistance. Or in jail... Or in the nuthouse... Or living on the streets... Great, now I just made myself slightly depressed.

If only Rhianna did that with Chris Brown...

Anyway...

Just when you thought Facebook's censorship and obvious leanings towards Leftism couldn't get worse... they probably will. At least if Hilary Clinton has her way. When asked recently what company she'd would choose to run as CEO, her answer was Facebook. Why? Because she thinks that's where most people get their news, whether real or not. I wouldn't even trust that woman if she told me the sky was blue, let alone trust her to decide what is and isn't fake news. Knowing FB, they'd probably at least consider bringing her on-board in some capacity. If you value your liberty, that prospect should terrify you.

After all, those are the same people who consider the Southern Poverty Law Center to be unbiased, despite making all kinds of crazy, demonstrably false claims about people. For example, calling Ben Carson a homophobe or labeling Maajid Nawaz an Islamophobe. Mr. Nawaz is actually a Muslim himself and a Muslim reformer, yet those SPLC idjits still called him an Islamophobe. He went to court against the SPLC for that shit and they quickly settled. Somehow, I sincerely doubt that FB didn't know what kind of people ran the SPLC.

Also... there's the little matter of how these Facebook assholes (via their poorly-designed censorship algorithm) inadvertently censored a Texas newspaper for posting the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July. The algorithm thought some of the text was hate speech. No, I am NOT making that shit up, folks. It happened. An actual Human (or an Autistic Sperg posing as one) corrected the mistake and FB apologized for the incident. Mistakes happen, but that one shouldn't have taken place. That fucking algorithm has to go.

Hmmm... Maybe I should start watching that Game of Thrones show...

By the time anyone reads this blog post, I will have already taken action. All of my pictures have long since been removed from Facebook. My profile at Minds.com is now the social media site that I'll be using the most since they actually care about preserving Liberty. I've also written to my Congressman and both Senators from my state asking them to regulate Social Media as a public utility. Yes, things have gotten that bad. Someone who loathes the government most of the time is now asking Uncle Sam to get involved in a public matter. Since this is a civil rights issue, it has to happen. If you want to contact your representatives in Congress, I refer you to an earlier post that provides all their contact info that can be seen here.

From this point forward, my only use for Facebook is...

A.) Staying in touch with certain people and

B.) Clogging that toilet of a site with so many shitposts that it will make Zuck's head spin. And I've already got at least a hundred or so waiting to be unleashed. It's going to be a beautiful thing... unless you're a Normie. Then, it will probably enrage and/or horrify you, depending on which post I made that day. Either way, I will still LOL and that is all that matters.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, it irrevocably chains us all. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. 

By now, it should be obvious to all that Facebook is NOT fit to be the social media platform of a free people. Any site that will censor you for criticizing an evil authoritarian political philosophy that poses as a religion (i.e. Islam) or one that doesn't (i.e. Socialism) is clearly not in tune with the basic principles of American Civilization.

This assault on Human Liberty known as 'Social Media' must be destroyed and remade into an asset to our freedom rather than a threat.

- Lord Publius