Old School's Out

Dear Anyone Who Will Listen to This Harpie: I have a 23-year-old granddaughter who has been living with a 25-year-old man for over five years. He doesn't seem to feel he should get engaged or plan their marriage. I know she is upset about not getting a ring and approached him about it a few months ago. He said he would get her a ring but wanted to wait until he had saved enough money for it. But time goes on and still no ring! He treats her well and to my knowledge her only complaint is that he will not commit to engagement or marriage. His parents lived together for seven years before they got married, so that might be one reason why he hasn't made the commitment. I've been married for 60 years and feel that if you are going to live with someone you need to make a commitment to marry soon and not several years down the road. Am I old-fashioned? Should I let her continue to be "used" by him? I feel that the lack of commitment doesn't show her respect. Perhaps his argument is that he is committed by providing for her as she continues her education. They live as man and wife without the ring and marriage. I know that it bothers her, but she continues to hang in there. – Signed, Older Than Dirt

Dear OTD,

You are not old-fashioned. You are REALLY old-fashioned. Seriously, how old were you when they invented the wheel? You’re so old you’re more concerned that your granddaughter gets married rather than be treated well. Are you kidding me? Her only complaint is that he won’t commit to marriage? If that’s the case, this guy should marry your granddaughter right away because every man knows that all women do is complain! But seriously, it seems that you’d rather he be a wife-beater as long as he makes a commitment to beating the poor bird. Be thankful he’s not using her as a punching bag while SHE USES HIM to support herself while she pursues what is probably a useless psychology degree. (What is up with women and psychology degrees?) The lack of commitment doesn’t show your granddaughter disrespect; it indicates a man who is smart enough to not pull the trigger too early, who understands that marriage is a notion not entered into lightly. That, or he’s screwing someone else, in which case, again, it is a good thing he is not marrying your grandkid. Also keep in mind that it just may be the fact that your brood just isn’t good enough for him and isn’t someone he wants to marry at all. He’s just waiting for someone better to come along. In all seriousness, you should advise your granddaughter to start playing the field first. Then maybe she will see how good she has it even without a ring and shut the hell up.

Dear Advice Furor: I am a grandmother, with four beautiful/handsome grandchildren. Our oldest grandchild is a beautiful, blond, smart 18-year-old girl. We are Caucasian. She is dating an African American and we in the family are disappointed and outraged. She sees nothing wrong with this. We all have black friends and acquaintances, but dating or marrying African Americans has never crossed our minds. I know it's not as taboo as it was years ago, but we just can't see this happening. We've tried telling her it's not an easy road to travel and that there are consequences with this relationship. Help! She says we are racists. Are we? – Signed, Katherine Kelli Keller

Dear KKK: What? No, you’re not racist! Why, if you were racist, you would view African Americans as ugly, nappy-haired morons unfit to date your beautiful, blond and smart granddaughter. I mean, if you were racist, you’d imply there were consequences to your granddaughter having a relationship with an African American, consequences that you’d somehow imply were negative. But you don’t do any of that! Even if you did, so what?! You’re Caucasian! The white man has been oppressing all those other races for what seems like forever now, so that makes it okay! Really, it’s for their own good because beauty is what matters and only white folk can be beautiful. How dare some African American man who is of no benefit to the world whatsoever because of his race lay some huge pipe to your pure-as-snow granddaughter! What I think is really going on here KKK is that you’re jealous. Even you know that once you go black you never go back. In that sense, it is no doubt that your granddaughter is indeed smart, smarter than you who has lived an entire life so fucking small-minded and afraid of the world around you. In 18 short years your granddaughter has made the world a far better place than you’ve made it your entire life. You’ve fostered and bred nothing but hate into the world and I personally can’t wait until you fucking die because god dammit, I hate white people. Your time is almost up, bitch, and I’ll be watching the clock invented by the Chinese.

Aliens and Assholes

Oh, humans, how pathetic you are to ask for advice. How incredibly more pathetic it is to ask a rabbit for advice. But, I guess you’ve got to do something when not a single self-help book gets the job done, and you’ve read them all. That’s where I come in to save the day. Not necessarily your day, but someone’s…

Dear Angry Rabbit: I have a friend that talks about conspiracies all the time. He talks about how there is a conspiracy by secret organizations to rule the world, that these organizations are in contact with inter-dimensional aliens, that school shootings are staged incidents, that ancient knowledge is suppressed so that doctors can give us mind control drugs; there seems to be no end to his insane ideas. He even posts videos on Youtube about these conspiracies. I can’t take it anymore. How do I talk some sense into him before he winds up in the looney bin? – Signed, Bullshit Detected

Dear Bullshit Detected: Whoa! Finally, someone I can sympathize with! I hear ya. I, too, am flabbergasted by the capacity of human beings to construct wild ass stories out of a failure to reason properly. There’s only one way to see if you can talk any sense into your friend: Ask him (‘cause it’s always a guy) “How do you know?” What information does he have that leads him to his conclusions? Now, if you say you’ve heard the same information and have come to a different conclusion, ask him how this can be. If he allows for the possibility that you can be correct in your assessment, there’s hope. Your friend can be reasoned with. But if he says something like you’ve become too indoctrinated by The Man to see clearly or he ignores your points while trying to get you to support his, then there is no hope. While his insanity may cost you a friendship, you don’t have to worry about him winding up in a looney bin. Everyone believes stupid shit all day long every day. We only lock people up when they become a danger to themselves or others. Fortunately for your friend but unfortunately for society, merely being stupid isn’t considered dangerous, probably because other stupid people are judging how dangerous stupidity actually is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to trying to find intelligent life out there because it sure ain’t around here.

Dear Angry Rabbit: I may be accused of being sexist, but after spending over 20 years around health care nursing stations and hospital break rooms, I continue to be mystified and appalled by the way my female colleagues routinely violate the confidentiality of others. I'm referring to personal information regarding friends and co-workers, not their patients. Gossip about extramarital affairs, financial woes and substance abuse; there seems to be no subject that is off limits. And frequently the statements I hear make it clear that the so-called facts being traded like some kind of currency are no more than secondhand innuendo. Away from work, I spend lots of time with groups of male friends, but I simply don't experience the same cavalier treatment of others' personal information. Is this a gender-based phenomenon? Is it possible to get them to stop gossiping? – Signed, Quackers

Dear Quackers: Is it possible to get your female coworkers to stop gossiping? Is it possible to get your male friends to start gossiping? I find it interesting that you appear to work in a science-based environment, but you’re asking an advice columnist if gossiping is a gender-based phenomenon. Forget asking a biologist or sociologist – that would be too hard! So, science isn’t your strong point; let’s move on. Two things: First, is the gossiping hurting you personally? Unless you screwed one of the nurses and you’re afraid that your failure to satisfy is making the rounds, then nothing they are saying actually affects YOU. Believe something affects you when it doesn’t may be a time honored tradition among humans, but that doesn’t make it right. Now onto number two: Don’t you think all the women know they all gossip amongst themselves so that confidentiality is never really breached since they all know the information is going to get around? If they want to talk about these things, fine, it’s on them when and if it ever comes around to bite one of them in the ass. If you’re still bothered by the gossiping – knowing YOU don’t do anything to annoy anyone – you could go to you HR department and argue that the nurses are creating a hostile work environment. Of course, that will get the nurses gossiping about what a huge asshole you are, so complaining is a double-edged sword. Please kill yourself with it.

Run For The Hills

Welcome back! That Angry Rabbit here once again to open the inbox in an attempt to break the everlasting cycle of human idiocy. No doubt I will fail miserably since trying to fight human idiocy is like holding out your hands to hold back a tsunami. Yet, still I try, meaning I too am an idiot, or I was court ordered to give advice so as to reduce my sentence for that bar fight I got into earlier this year. I mean, what the hell was I supposed to do? The bar wench tried to charge me for eight beers instead of just the seven I had. Bitches…

Dear Angry Rabbit: Last week my wife and I purchased three pairs of sneakers at a store. The service was poor and the experience was frustrating. As we were leaving I noticed the cashier only charged us for two pairs of sneakers. I chose not to say anything about it. In the car I told my wife what had happened, and she said, "Well, the store made an error, the service was poor and I guess that means I got a pair of free sneakers." Even though I sort of agreed with her (and I didn't go back to the store to say anything), this issue has been nagging at me. I feel as though I "morally" did the wrong thing. Should I go back to the store and pay for the sneakers? – Signed, Smelly Socks

Dear Smelly Socks: Oh, someone is worry a lot about behaving morally, aren’t they? Look, Smelly Socks, you feel guilty about the situation so if you ask me, you’ve already suffered enough. How much is the store suffering? That’s what I want to know. Look at it this way, look at how immorally the store behaved in your story: The service was poor but on top of that the mark-up on something like sneakers is practically sinful (they’re made for pennies on the dollar). The staff is either incompetent or untrained at using a cash register. The staff that is competent is surely underpaid. Using my moral math calculator, you come out on top of that equation. If you don’t believe me, please refer to the nearest Bible, turn to the Old Testament and read where it says an eye for an eye and a pair of sneakers for shitty service. You’ve got God on your side, Smelly Socks. Going back to the store to pay for the sneakers would be the work of the Devil. Now put some free shoes on and go run in traffic.

Dear Angry Rabbit: My boyfriend just won't respond to me emotionally. I can't get him to open up about his feelings and he is not sensitive to my needs. He makes decisions that affect me all by himself. I never get consulted. Then when I mention a problem, he immediately tells me how to solve it and tries to end the conversation. If I try to continue the discussion, he says he already told me what to do and walks away. Can you give me some hints on how to get through to him? – Signed, Carly the Carpet

Dear Carly the Carpet: Um, ground control to Major Tom…forget about getting through to your boyfriend, what the hell gets through to you? So he doesn’t respond to you emotionally; I’m assuming he does respond to you physically? If that’s so, you’re really nothing more than a pocket pussy that unfortunately for him, talks. You’ve got exactly one option in this scenario: Withhold sex until you get what you want, for him to talk about his feelings, which by-the-way he doesn’t have. He’s got you by the panties, Carly; he’s not doing anything you want and getting all of what he wants, which is off. Since he doesn’t give a crap about you as a person, withholding sex is the only way he’ll even consider pretending to like you for who you are in order to get sex (provided he’s not a rapist). The only possible alternative is, as the only other good advice columnist besides myself Dan Savage would say, “Dump the mother fucker already.” If you’re afraid you won’t find another boyfriend, consider the fact that someone was in fact stupid enough to be with you at least once. Finding a human boyfriend is easy as long as you’re willing to put out. Just don’t let him talk you into pulling out, ‘cause that shit don’t work. On the other hand, at least he’d be talking to you which is more than you’ve got going now.

If you’d like some advice from me, That Angry Rabbit, send your letters via email to thatangryrabbit@gmail.com. Letters/Emails of Idiocy that I respond to will have the privilege of being transmitted across the universe, ultimately causing aliens to come and kill all of us. Until that time, hasta la vista, baby.