Why do stupid people do the things they do?  More importantly, why do they always seem to find me to act stupid in front of?  I must have a big stupid magnet attached to me, or god forbid, have been a stupid person myself in a former life.  I am beginning to think that I actually find stupid people more offensive than drug dealers, Lady Gaga, Diablo Cody  jumping on the vampire bandwagon, NBC’s decision to put Jay Leno on at 10:00 PM every night, the people who cancelled Arrested Development, and all reality shows that end in “Of Love.”  Don’t worry Jon and Kate Gosselin, Balloon Boy family, and all the nutters who refuse to believe in global warming, you all are still equally footed with stupid people, since you all are being stupid yourselves.

When I write that I hate stupid people, I’m not talking about the folks with minor stupid crimes, like the cell phone shoppers who take up an entire aisle at the grocery store while talking at full volume.  Those people are just selfish and don’t care that they are bothering the public, which is why I feel no shame in sharing here that I either loudly say excuse me twice or just accidentally hit their carts on purpose to let them know of their shameful ways. 

No, I am talking about the major offenders, the types of people who either don’t think of the consequences, the people who make horribly wrong judgments, or those who obviously don’t care how their decisions will affect others.

For instance, within the past year I have read about five children that have been hit by cars in my community that are speeding and have illegally passed a stopped school bus.  So far, three of these children have died.  These crimes were committed by three women and one man, and all the children were in middle or high school, crossing the street to the bus or even just standing still waiting for the bus.   Who in the hell thinks that it is ok to pass a school bus just because they are a little late for work?  All I can say is, OMG!

Today I picked up the local newspaper, and I read about yet another young woman who endangered a child in my neighborhood.  She was drunk driving and crashed her car with her two-year old in it.  How stupid … who drives drunk with kids in their cars?  People of Michigan, do you know that having a previous drunk driving charge and then getting caught driving with a minor in your car can get you charged with a Felony?  My god, the dumb things people do just to have fun for a few hours.  Stupid people, please plan ahead.  Having even just two drinks in two hours means you most likely are driving legally drunk or impaired.   

I am also painfully aware of the 50,000 Detroiters who stood in line for hours pushing, shoving, screaming and even threatening to shoot each other at Cobo Hall earlier this month.  All were there to get federal relief money to help pay their bills.  Certainly not everyone there was stupid, but the fights were so severe that six people were taken away in ambulances and 150 cops were called to the scene.  The news broadcast literally frightened me.  Want to know the stupidest part?  Not only did organizers come unprepared by only having 5,000 applications for 50,000 when they knew the city of Detroit has nearly 30% unemployment, but the fights began because the people in line believed they were going to get cash in hand that day.  Even stupider, scam artists were selling fake applications and when those who bought them found out their applications were fake, they were told on the scene, not later, quietly and by mail, as they should have been to prevent the riots in the first place.   

I was at a grant writing class that took a year to get into, as it was free and classes are usually around $400.  To my horror, I was in a computer lab that could hold 30 people, but the instructor went on and on about how the nine students she had was too large of a group to teach.  Even more stupider was that I had to listen to my classmates ask stupid questions during the entire presentation such as how did you find that website when our instructor talked clearly had it spelled out on the handouts as well as up on the monitor to follow along.  I nearly lost it when my neighbor said she couldn’t get to a document due to a pop up, and in a panic yelled out pop up!  I had to show her how to open it by literally reaching over and hitting accept.   She thinks she is going to be so internet savvy after this class that she can handle professional grant writing?  I was so upset after that I spit out my gum and kept blowing my garlic breath in her general direction to disgust her as much as she disgusted me.  (Side note – ask me about the best pasta dish ever that only takes 15 minutes to make.  MMMMMM . …)  If you want to be a grant writer for non-profits agencies, I personally feel you need to know how to write and speak without sounding like an a-hole.  One idiot went on and on and after wasting thirty minutes of my time, she still didn’t get what the teacher was rather rudely telling her.  Lady, if you knew what people in the non-profit industry actually make, you’d never agree to sign up for that class in the first place.  For instance, my friend once told me she took a $50,000 pay cut to work for her non-profit agency.      

I don’t have the strength to write about every stupid person I’ve encountered within the past few weeks, but let me just end with this – I am not spending $2 to fax a billing office my receipt just because you made a mistake and you tell me Hippa laws prevent me from sending my scanned receipt that doesn’t even have my name on it via email.  If it was so illegal, why did you crack and allow it when I demanded to speak with your supervisor because I’m not even going to spurge for the price of a stamp because I’m unemployed and can’t afford it?  It is the principle, not the 44 cents people.  If you only knew how much of my time was spent in the past year dealing with mistakes others have made …

Feel free to vent and tell me your stupid people stories.

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