The weather has finally broken and sweet relief from 90º days has arrived. AH! Even today, at 62º and rain is wonderful! I’ll take it! It’s always this time of year when I think that the NW wouldn’t be bad… But then I realise that it’s like this most of the time and MEH. It’s gotten too hot down here in general, but I like having 4 distinct seasons. I do wish La Niña would give us a break in summer.
Politics in the mornin’! It astounds me that so many dumb people (as represented on FB) STILL think Obama is doing a good job. WUT? How completely stupid do you have to be to believe that? Magical thinking much? He is a president who has accomplished exactly jack and shit. He has reneged on undoing the Patriot Act – twice. He can’t speak in front of a crowd at all without his Teleprompter. He’s never had a job fer chrissakes!! He wants to “tax the rich” to “even the field”. Oh, really? No, it sounds to me like take from the rich and give to the poor. Rich people do play the system, no doubt, so why do we not change the system? Fair Tax would stop that happy crappy. But this is not about leveling anything. This is about creating a nation of takers who don’t work and live on the dole (or who work for the government, same thing). UK, anyone? This is about crippling small business, making a hostile corporate environment and celebrating being a lazy fucker who lives on welfare.
While on the subject of lazy useless people, I’d like to piss off all the “disabled” assholes out there who have been “disabled” their whole lives and refuse to work. You know who you are. When I was growing up, I never knew anyone in their 20s who didn’t work. Now, it’s commonplace to see TEENS on disability. WTF? Hells bells, I had a BLIND friend who worked at Wachovia until he got too sick and had to go on disability – which he hated. When did being a lazy fucker on the dole become fine? When did it lose its stigma as a bad thing and something you tried to avoid? I must have missed the memo.
On the other hand, I know someone who has a real illness and is currently on disability while he goes to college online. He’s about to graduate. Which shows gumption and pride in his abilities. He’s not going to let his condition limit his choices in life. Bravo!
So do not tell me you “can’t” work. That is bullshit and you know it. Do something. Open an Etsy shop. Go to school. Find a way to be productive. Hell, even being a blogger is something! Geeze.
We have a convention next weekend (Oct 1 & 2). It’s in Nashville. It should be low stress. We’ve got our booth pared down to just a few totes and we’ve got the Square set up, so we’re good to go. I hope we make at least a little money. The comic is trundling along. We are in a slow period with dwindling ideas and lack of motivation. I hope the convention will get us cranked back up.
In other news, I’m working on a site for a local animal rescue group. I hope they like what I do and I hope they make lots of money for the pets. I’m also going to start volunteering for Centennial Olympic Park one day a week. Nick thinks I need to get out more. I probably do, but MEH. ;)
We are also planning a trip to CA to see Nick’s family in October or November. I look forward to seeing them, but not to the plane ride. Fucking TSA. ::sigh:: I’m gonna end up in jail if they fondle me, I just know it. Grr. Fucking useless harassment security theatre violation of my fucking rights… grumble, grumble.
Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here. What’s going on with you guys?
Any chance of having us a visit while you’re on this side of the world? :P
Sigh.
Having had this discussion with someone close to me, this is how the conversation goes.
Me: Why don’t you get a job?
Him: Because it’ll fuck with my benefits.
Me: Well, I don’t see how. Even if you got a minimum wage job (min wage is now $7.25/hour — which is a rant for another day), and worked 40 hours a week, you’d still bring home WAY MORE than you are bringing home on disability, so even without your disability benefits you’d be better off.
Him: THE MIND IT BOGGLES.
Oh yeah, you’d have to WORK. Damn, isn’t life a bitch?
Angela, You’ve got to understand. You are thinking _rationally_. They are thinking _emotionally_. You are engaging entirely different parts of your brain than they are.
I’ve been studying the lefties. Why even now I was disect… um, thinking about what thoughts must pass through their heads. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Their thinking is state-based rather than process-based. It doesn’t matter how wealth is earned or spent. It only matters whether it is concentrated or distributed. To this mindset when you need funds for the government, the answer is obvious. You take the funds from those who you believe “have” them. You may notice that their language is always about taxing the “wealthy” even though we have no tax on wealth. The secondary and tertiary repercussions of disproportionate taxation of high income escape them because they don’t naturally consider the process, only the state. If you try to explain process dynamics to a static thinker all they hear is double-talk and gibberish. “Why complicate things when it is so simple and obvious? Right now the government needs more funds. Take the money from those who have the most. They’ve paid their fair share when they don’t have the most any more.”
You are spot on, as usual, Green. I’ve got a book for you: After America Get Ready for Armageddon by Steyn. He’s not a great writer by any stretch, but he makes a good point or 10 in this book. Very accurate assessment of the decline of America.
::sigh:: I’m hope I’m gone before the shit really hits the fan. :/