No, it’s not Friday afternoon. But it is Take Out the Trash Day, at least according to LloydTheIdiot at Too Conservative. He has an interesting post about ten things we should throw out. His list is good – and already contains some of the items I would have listed, although in a slightly different order.
So here’s my stab at it:
10. Offshore call centers. It is a pet peeve of mine to call a U.S. tech company and have to speak with someone who has difficulty speaking English. (I wonder – do those who speak Spanish have the same problem?)
9. American Idol. This show has run its course. Go ahead and put it – and us – out of misery.
8. Singing the National Anthem at sporting events. Bad singers and lack of respect have done this one in. Speaking of which …
7. The National Anthem. Can we have retire this already? I mean, I like the song well enough but it is hard to sing. How about “America the Beautiful” instead?
6. Calling adult females “girls.” I thought this went out in the 1970s but I’ve seen a resurgence of it lately, particularly among young males. Stop disrespecting your mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins – and daughters.
5. Partisan redistricting. Let 2011 be the last year that Virginia’s voters suffer through this. Put the people first and let us choose our legislators, rather than them choosing us.
4. The Dillon Rule. It’s time has come and gone. “Government closest to the people governs best,” is what our governor said, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson. I think Norfolk is a wee bit closer to me than Richmond.
3. Legislative sessions in between planting seasons. Seriously – Virginia hasn’t been an agricultural economy in a long time. Besides, how many gentlemen farmers are in the General Assembly now? It’s time for the GA to change when it meets.
2. Constitutional amendments. Have you looked at the Virginia constitution lately? It’s like a Christmas tree, with all of the stuff hanging on it. Do we really need to change the constitution every time we want to pass a law? I thought that’s what laws were for, anyway.
1. Constitutional offices. You knew that one was coming, didn’t you? 😉
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I don’t particularly mind the national anthem and know we’ll never convince even a slim majority of people to throw it out because they’ll view that as unpatriotic. I do think it would have been swell if someone had exercised some foresight and not set Francis Scott Key’s words to the tune of an almost unsingable 19th century British drinking song.
When I saw the garbage can and reference to my post, I figured it would be number one on your list!
Very much agree with the partisan redistricting. Yes, the legislature should be responsible for setting the districts, but, sadly, they have proven themselves to be in need of close adult supervision in playing with the redistricting marker.
I enjoyed your post. Thanks for the inspiration 😉
Interesting to hear you mention the women-transformed-back-into-girls business. I’ve been hearing it a good deal more, and thought perhaps it was a regional thing. I suppose if pushed to the wall I’d take “girl” over “ho” or “chick”. Maybe.
I’ve finally stopped trying to convince my mom to mend her linguisitic ways, but at 93 I guess she’s entitled. 😉