Time for a Rant, I Guess

The Fury of Athamasby John Flaxman (1755–1826)(Public Domain)

Rant(s) or The Rant(s) may refer to:

• Monologue, a lengthy discourse by a single performer, especially if irritated or upset
• Rant (novel), novel by Chuck Palahniuk
• Rant (Ian Hunter album), 2001 album by Ian Hunter
• Rant (The Futureheads album), 2012 album by The Futureheads
• RantMedia, media organization
• Rant, a type of fictional character in the children's fantasy book series Leven Thumps
• "The Rant", a commercial in the I Am Canadian media campaign for Molson Canadian Beer
• The Rants, a book by Dennis Miller
• Rant, a lively Scottish tune (see Jamie McPherson) (W)

Etymology

From Dutch ranten, randen (“talk nonsense, rave”).

Noun

rant (plural rants)

A criticism done by ranting.

A wild, incoherent, emotional articulation.

Verb

rant (third-person singular simple present rants, present participle ranting, simple past and past participle ranted)

To speak or shout at length in an uncontrollable anger.

To criticize by ranting. (W)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)

ARTFL > Webster's Dictionary > Searching for rant:

Displaying 2 result(s) from the 1913 edition:

Rant (Page: 1188)

Rant (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ranted; p. pr. & vb. n. Ranting.] [OD. ranten, randen, to dote, to be enraged.] To rave in violent, high-sounding, or extravagant language, without dignity of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation; as, a ranting preacher.

Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes! Shak.

Rant (Page: 1188)

Rant, n. High-sounding language, without importance or dignity of thought; boisterous, empty declamation; bombast; as, the rant of fanatics.

This is a stoical rant, without any foundation in the nature of man or reason of things. Atterbury.  (S)

With the recent hullabaloo regarding Rolling Stone magazine and a number of other items in the so-called "news" I felt like a good rant.

While it seems that the a-holes are gradually taking over the world, in reality they are simply the ones who make the most noise. What was that The Bard said about "much sound and fury"?

The modern day media seems not very reliable. So where does one get their news in these modern times?

The internet?

Please.

There is so much garbage and nonsense promulgated on the internet that you have to wonder where the people who put this stuff out find the time to do so. Don't they have jobs?

It's getting so I monitor the news only remotely and only for certain things. Such as -

• Is there some new government regulation or mandate that impacts me directly? Such as a new tax or perhaps a cut in the cost of living increase in my Air Force retirement check. (Like I could actually live on that. Believe me, I appreciate having it but I earned it. They said "serve 20 or more years, we'll give you a pension." So I did and they pay me once a month.)
• Have the Chinese (or Russians, or North Koreans, or some other pack of ne'er-do-wells) landed on the shores of my country with evil intent? Requiring me to shoulder my trusty musket and head out to repel the invaders.
• Is there some massive weather phenomenon heading my way which could cause power and civilization to fail? (No joke, in the blizzard of '13 we were without power for three days. Candlelight is only romantic in restaurants.)
• Is there an election issue about which I may actually care and about which I can actually, maybe, make a difference? (In Rhode Island, every election they put a few items on the ballot asking for money. Money to build a new police station in one town and perhaps make repairs to the Death Star we're building in orbit. Hhmm, I think that was supposed to be a secret. Was.)

So reports of political evil doing in California (or whatever state irks you the most) or some tomfoolery in Washington DC don't really get my attention.

Whatever happened to journalists? You know, the people who would report the news. The who, what, when, and where of events WITHOUT the snide opinions thrown in.

It's all editorials these days. Damn few facts colored by a lot of opinion.

Really, really ticks me off.

There. I feel better now.

Truth be told, that wasn't much of a rant.

But that's just my opinion.