I've officially had it.   Americans need to get their collective sticks out of their nether regions.  The people in this country whine entirely too much.  I'm not sure when it started.  My grandparents walked 20 miles to school each day, up-hill both ways, got an orange in their stocking for Christmas, and ate cardboard every meal of the year, and they didn't complain.  They didn't have tv, telephones or the internet. Hell, they couldn't drink either, because they were in their teens and 20s during prohibition.  They never whined. They told me so.

You didn't read about the peace-niks and the Greenpeacers being human shields during WWII.  People didn't care if our president spent the week in Georgia with his mistress, let alone, going to dinner with his wife in New York.  It seems everyone has to whine about something. Constantly.

A friend of our family broke his collarbone yesterday, doing of all things---PLAYING OUTSIDE.  Kids just don't break bones anymore.  Mrs. Commissioner and I were talking about that yesterday. I told her to think about it.  When we were 7, there were 12 channels on the TV, there was no internet, Atari hadn't come out, and we were still 7 years away from the Commodore 64.  We had to play outside, or, at least my dad would've used that white belt he had in his closet to spank me.  As a consequence of playing outside, we fell out of trees we climbed, broke bones trying to jump things on our bike, or broke arms playing football in the backyard.  My parents personally sent all of my orthopoedic surgeon's kids to college, with my help. 

I'm not sure when the whining started.  It starts around 6:00 a.m. every morning in my house.  It starts with "I want a poptart", "I want milk", " I want Wow Wow Wubbzy".  Every morning, and every evening ends the exact same way.  The middle of the day is filled with whining too.  And not from the little deputies, but from the news and our elected officials and professional agitators.  I'm telling you, I've seen the most absurd news stories of late coming out of Washington.  Today, Senator Boxer was whining to some General to call her Senator, instead of the highly offensive term, "ma'am".  Since when did "ma'am" become a derrogatory term?  It is proper ettiquette to address the Queen as "ma'am", although they pronounce it as mum, yet Senator Boxer felt the need to berate and whine to a general that she earned her title and wished it to be used.

Then yesterday the President is about to give an interview.  A fly was buzzing the tower. The President did what apparently everyone not in PETA does, he swatted the fly and killed it.  The PETA folks went completely nuts that he killed the fly, and suggested he should have a humane fly catching trap to safely and humanely release the fly back into the environment.  I'd suggest putting one in his Christmas stocking, but surely someone will whine about the hanging of a Christmas stocking in the White House. I only mention PETA because I tried to send my wife's, dearly departed cat to Peru for the cat eating festival in hopes of getting PETA to protest me, but no such luck.  I noticed PETA apparently had no problems when the President ordered the Navy Seals to kill 3 teenagers a few months ago for swashbuckling activities in the Indian Ocean.  Imagine the outrage had the President ordered the seals to take out a whale instead of the three kids?

Since when have we reached the point in this country when we cannot refer to a woman as "ma'am", or we can't swat a fly?  If things get much more out of control, Jose Canseco is going to sue baseball for allowing him to use steroids.  Oh, but that will never happen. 

C'mon people, relax a bit, enjoy a nice cold beer, and don't sweat the small stuff.  It will be ok. I promise.