The Irresponsible Wheel Gets the Compassion, I Gather

I've been working in the geriatric field for about eleven years now. And, while most of that time has been spent in the area of therapeutic rec, I have in fact done some case management duty, too. One story, in particular, stands out.................................................................................................It was an 82 year-old woman with various health concerns (respiratory problems, especially) and whose husband lived in a convalescent home (she also had two daughters but they both lived out of state). Her only sources of income were Social Security and rental income from the apartment upstairs..............................................................................................Well, to make a long story short, the people who lived upstairs were absolutely miserable. They partied heavily, trashed not only the apartment but made a mess of the outside as well, and, on top of that, didn't frigging pay their rent, either. The old lady ended up having to take them to court to have them evicted (this, after they fell a good 6-7 months behind on their rent) and it was very stressful...............................................................................................But you know what made it even more outlandish? The judge (and, yes, the people eventually did get evicted) was seemingly more sympathetic to the dysfunctional family (yeah, they had a couple of kids, too) than she was to the poor old lady. I mean, I almost wanted to scream at the guy, "Dude, she's frigging 82 and on oxygen! How's about a little compassion for the real victim here. These people can purchase cigarettes and brewskis every day but they flat-out can't pay ANY of their rent (and, yes, the old gal was very reasonable about it - 'Pay me what you can', she would say and they paid her NOTHING)? Come on, man!"......................................................................................................You see what I'm saying, though? There's really something wrong with the system here.

As Part of an Overall Anti-Poverty Program

I would go into every high school in America and have a counselor tell each student this, "Look, kid, if you want to have a child, fine, have a frigging child. BUT, if you ultimately do have one, it will be YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to provide for that child - not mine, not the other fellow's, and not the government's - YOURS.......Now, will we help you in the case of an emergency? Yes, absolutely. But the help will be of a finite nature and it will also be contingent upon you doing X, Y, and Z....I mean, I'm sorry to be so blunt about it, but it is what it is/a brave new world. The Chinese, the Indians, the South Koreans, the Finns - they're ALL flat-out bearin' down on us. And I'm going to be honest with you here, kid. You CANNOT be an uneducated procreating schmuck anymore. You can't.

The Formula For Avoiding Poverty

1) Stay in school (go to college or at least graduate high school).............2) Don't have a child out of wedlock.............3) Don't have a child until you reach the age of 20.............4) Don't smoke (a two pack a day habit in CT costs $15 dollars a day/$105 a week/$5,460 a year, increases health-care costs, and reduces productivity).............5) Don't drink heavily (for the identical reasons as to why you shouldn't smoke).............6) Learn to defer gratification, in general.............7) Get a second job if necessary................................................................................................P.S. According to a study cited by the March of Dimes, simply doing the first three will reduce your likelihood of living in poverty by a whopping 89% (64% vs. 7%)....It would really be interesting to see how the OWS movement would put its arms around this syndrome.

Where's the Hard-Left's Condemnation of THIS?

Lisa posted this on Sue's blog and it was predictably ignored.............http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/17/ows-protesters-chant-follow-those-kids-as-small-children-try-to-go-to-school-on-wall-street/

Cutting Through the Bullshit 1

1) I'm against protectionism NOT because I'm a corporatist. I'm against protectionism because I think that it's bad for the country, bad for the consumer, and bad for the countries whose economies we would possibly be wrecking (never mind the fact that China is one of our possible targets and those folks just happen to be one of our bankers).............2) I'm in favor of eliminating the corporate income tax (on this one, I full agree with Robert Reich) NOT because I'm a corporatist. I'm in favor of eliminating the corporate income tax because I think that it's a clumsy and obfuscatory policy that often hurts middle class people on pensions and whole life policies as much as it does the wealthy. I would MUCH prefer to raise the taxes on upper income individuals and eliminate it on capital.............3) I have never, ever, EVER, said that the rich pay too much in taxes. EVER! IN FACT, folks, under the proposal that I've been putting forth, the rich in this country would pay significantly MORE than they currently do. YES, I DO have a problem with the 60-70-80% rates that the progressives are constantly throwing around lately. But I don't oppose them because I'm a corporatist. I oppose them because I think that they're a) immoral/confiscatory and b) counterproductive (for crying out loud, even John Maynard Keynes once said that there was a point of diminishing returns).............4) As for this 37927 character, yeah, I kind of know who the fellow is. He's this hard-core paranoiac partisan freak who I used to encounter over at Lydia Cornell's blog....THREE, FOUR, YEARS AGO!!!...Let's just say that dude is obviously still harboring.

Note to OWS

Look, folks, I have nothing against protesting - not even a little bit. IN FACT, I find it to be a very patriotic thing to do and something that makes us unique (just try doing it over in Syria, for example). But, really, do ya' have to frigging SLEEP in the park, accumulate all sorts of garbage there, publicly defecate, etc. (multiple reports of sexual assault, for example)? I mean, it's not as if the park existed simply for you and your indulgences. Other interests, believe it or not, DO exist; the fact that other people may in fact want to recreate there, the fact that the neighborhood businesses are being negatively effected, etc.. And, please, let me also remind you that there are a whole hell of a lot of other ways that you can do to make a difference these days. Organize and be tutors for inner-city kids. Work at a soup-kitchen. Volunteer at a local convalescent home (you're more than welcome to come to mine). Adopt a stretch of a highway or interstate and beautify it. A lot of things - you know, in addition to the protesting.

Dean Wormer to wd

"Being rigidly ideological, seeing absolutely everything in clear-cut dichotomies, falling prey to the most obscene and paranoiac of conspiracy theories, constantly impugning the motivation of people who have the temerity to disagree with you, labeling those people, using hyperbole as if it were a frigging salt-shaker, being the proud possessor of a highly malleable moral compass, defending the indefensible (or at the very least not speaking out against it) exposing oneself to only things that reinforce your paradigm, and listening to movie soundtracks is no way to go through life, son."