If we understand correctly, we're supposed to
shove money down this pipe until Bernie Sanders
declares an end to income inequality.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Early Onset Cementia
Readers- As we previously warned, the jackhammering of our concrete foundation is making it impossible to do a fresh post for today. Seriously, there's so much destruction around here that we're amazed there Chris Christie and Obama aren't hugging for news crews in our front yard. But fear not, Hope n' Change will return as soon as possible (almost certainly on Monday)!
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21 comments:
You have my sympathy, Stilton!
We had to have the backyard and the side yard dug up this spring to have the main sewer line replaced. It was old clay "soil pipe", and had been leaking due to tree root ingress, resulting in several sections getting cracked, and then plugged by dirt.
At least all our work was outside the house, but it cost a couple of thousand for the pipe replacement, and another $600 to redo the landscaping.
Hang in there!
Don't let lamont see that pipe. He'll want to put some "smoke" in it and turn your house into a "choom room".
When we had this type of work done, I found that Shiner Bock for the excavators allowed the process to move quicker. One advantage of all the dirt piled in the house was the abundance of fishing worms for the weekend!
Mark Holbrook
controversialcommittee.blogspot.com
@dylanwestie1
Why is it that white middle class people need to be schooled in racism, but the poor don't need schooling in how not to waste money?
@Drjim- The "overt destruction" part of the process is over, our house has been "lifted" on 30 steel piers, and today the holes will be filled with concrete - after which we'll be on our own to get carpets back in place, move all the furniture, and start looking for tile people to repair or replace the floors that got jackhammered.
Worst of all, because this is no longer an OSHA or ASPCA approved environment, we've been without Penny (The Official Dog of Hope n' Change) for 3 days are are having bad withdrawal. With exposed carpet tack strips everywhere, we don't want any perforated paws.
@Bruce Bleu- Either that, or he'll start rubbing KY Jelly on it...
@dylanwestie1- Our guys were using heavy enough equipment that I decided not to exercise my usual generosity and "open bar" policy.
@Ian Random- You bring up an excellent point that I've wanted to address for a long time. The Sanders/Clinton/Liberal mantra is that "fairness" demands a day of reckoning for those who "have too much." But doesn't fairness then also demand that we take measures to better control those who take too much? Is our "shared responsibility" not breached by those who can work, but choose not to? Or the single mother of 5 (or 10)? The food stamp abusers? The disability cheats?
The Dems will never address the concept of those who take too much, and I doubt that any on the Right will do it either because it sounds so draconian. But it boils down to the oxymoronic notion that "we're all in this together" but only those who pay taxes actually have social responsibilities. Yet another example of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" for those, of all colors, trapped on the Democrats' new plantation.
It's not a pipe dream, but a pipe nightmare! But I reckon the good news is, your house should be sittin' pretty now.
Stilton and Ian Random have touched upon the sacred cow. How DARE you suggest that poor people need to be edumacated in the ways of work and frugality! Yes, we have our share of dirt poor people in this country, living in cardboard boxes and eating from dumpsters. But, we also have a considerable population who are classified as poor, but they live in houses with heat, AC, satellite TV, cell phones, and free food.
@Colby Muenster- Let's be clear that I support the idea of a "safety net" for those genuinely in need, who are not abusing the system (yes, an unwed mother with 10 kids is abusing the system).
The teaching of work values and frugality has fallen by the wayside because they are best taught from within an intact family structure. The government itself shows no knowledge of productivity, responsibility, or realistic budgeting - so how the hell can they teach others?
I'll note that for taxpayers and, especially, the "evil rich" - it's compulsory to live up to the "social contract" under pain of fines or imprisonment. So why shouldn't certain limits on the "takers" be likewise compulsory? Despite what the socialists on the Left say, we're not "all in this together" if we're not all playing by the same rules.
Personally, my life would have been very different if I hadn't felt the need to honor the "social contract" by making sure I could provide my own "safety net" for myself and my family. I've spent a lifetime doing with less (albeit comfortably) because I didn't want to be a burden to anyone else. And how does society thank me? By suggesting that I don't deserve the benefits I was promised and, perhaps, I should fork over additional amounts of the money I kept in reserve. To Bernie Sanders, Hillary, and the rest of their ilk I'm not "responsible" I'm a "wealth hoarder."
I have not worked my entire life to ensure that others can enjoy leisure for their entire lives. Until the Socialists want to talk about that aspect of our "shared responsibility" they're simply trying to buy votes with other peoples' money.
Stilt, just be sure that none of the workers are from any of the alphabet agencies and leave listening devices and/or video devices hither and yon so that they may have an advanced warning of what is coming from the conservative protesters. Remember, they are ... shall I say it? ... everywhere!
Yes, good remark from Ian; and Colby & Stilt: good follow-up. My folks are really aging now and will probably need all the financial resources they've been able to hold onto. They still tithe but I've had to shut down the donations to a constant run of mail and phone solicitators. That list is currently approaching fifty organizations who just won't quit asking for money.
And Stilt, you got the "shove money down the pipe" right. That work is not cheap. Hang in there.
@Fred Ciampi- I pity the agency intern assigned to listen to my daily life. They'd hear nothing but keyboard tapping for hours, followed by the sound of liquid being poured over ice and tourette's-style outbursts while watching the evening news. Or actually they WOULD hear that if 3 days of jackhammering hadn't rendered them deaf.
Plus, I think planting bugs is considered pretty oldschool these days when we're surrounded by cameras and microphones by choice, all of which are easy for the alphabet agencies to listen in on. Within 3 feet of me right now are 6 cameras (computer, phone, 2 tablets - each with 2 cameras), and 7 microphones (the previous devices, plus my wireless landline phone, an answering machine, and an Amazon "echo" device. I sometimes think it would be interesting to count all of the cameras and mics in the house. And by "interesting" I mean terrifying.
@Rod- I think titheing is a very admirable thing to do. And yes, older people need to have money in reserve to avoid being a burden on others. But our culture seems to believe that if you have money and aren't spending it immediately, you're being greedy - even if your only goal is to not end up taking money from others. Madness.
And yes, the work we're having done on the house is not cheap. Nor reimbursed by a government agency, nor homeowner's insurance, nor in any way deductible on taxes. Nope, I just have to cough up thousands and thousands of dollars from the great big pile of money which the system gave me for free (it only looked like I was working) as part of my white privilege.
This fellow "wealth hoarder" feels your pain. My white privilege included a 'cake walk' thorough engineering school and a 30 year career with a few interstate moves.
And all they want is more of my "undeserved" accumulated wealth.
Wow - good luck Señor. I have heard this about foundations in your part of El Norte. Ugh.
But even so, where I live not so good either. I may not survive into the new century - Climate changes, SJWs, sinkholes, landslides, and slow lorises (they are very sneaky - I suspect that they are the real Illuminati).
I will relate my own stimulas to the construction industries in the fewest words possible.
Out of the house for 2 weeks. No.
We'll be done in 2 weeks. No.
We will be back on Monday. No. Or the other named days of the week. No.
It'll all be done by Halloween. No.
Thanksgiving. No.
Christmas. No.
New Years. No.
We were fortunate to have family in town to stay with. They have changed their telephone number.
God bless you in your travails.
In my previous neighborhood, we used to say there are those who've replaced their sewer lines, and those who are going to. I recall replacing ours just before we were going to spend Mrs. Econ's bonus check on a hot tub.
@Ian Random, it's because "the poor" are justification for the existence of the Progressive establishment, and the "middle class", where most of the people, productivity, and money exists has to be contained lest they figure it out.
This also explains why the Left doesn't care much about criminal behavior. Criminals are not a threat to the political establishment, but the middle class exercising freedom is.
@Stilton brings up an excellent point: In order for "socialism" to be viable, it demands responsibility from all citizens. In fact, the Progressive (aka "communist" movement of 100 years ago largely failed because Americans, who at that time didn't take well to being told how to live, didn't accept the notion of surrendering freedom for a promise of social security. In the '50s and '60s, the Progressives changed their tune, selling what I call the "hippie socialism" of the late '60s, where they'd let you have "fun", but at the expense of personal affluence. Even most of the hippies got tired of that by the '70s.
But back to "viability": Obviously, socialism isn't viable if we have less than half of the country working while the rest continue to live irresponsibly. At some point, after enough of what's left of "personal freedom" is controlled and there is no more "democracy", the authority will have to clamp down lest it all collapse, resulting in the type of dystopias that were popularly portrayed in movies in the '70s. (ironically)
I'm thinking forced sterilization, euthanasia for the no-longer productive, and the like.
But for the time being, the left still needs votes, so the socially irresponsible will be encouraged. Another downside of being a "democracy" over a "republic".
Just read a magazine article about an unmarried woman with two kids who knowingly moved to a desirable locale with minimal employment opportunities complaining about how inadequate food stamps are. And I'm supposed to feel bad over her bad choices. Didn't work.
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
- Henry David Thoreau -
Helical piles?
@Paul- Isn't it funny how "white privilege" sometimes requires long, difficult training and decades of hard work to pay off? But still, the mere fact that you (or I) have money that remains unspent means you've "won life's lottery" - and what could be more fair than sharing your lottery winnings?
@Juanita the Icon- Wherever each of us lives, there's usually some way nature wants to kill us. Tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, sinkholes, blizzards, tsunamis and more. And always, as you point out, the diabolical schemes of slow lorises with their creepy stares of death.
@Sortahwitte- I'll give credit to the company that did our work for showing up on time, working hard, and getting everything done on schedule. But living with the ongoing work proved more stressful than we thought (and trust me, I'm not a guy who underestimates stress very often).
@John the Econ- Good point about why the Left must maintain (and even encourage) things like poverty and racism - it is their reason for being, and the suffering of others is critical for their own self-esteem. They wear their smug pity as if it were a halo.
Regarding the need for all citizens to act responsibly under socialism - even the limited but growing kind we already have - we clearly don't have the "pull together" culture to make it work. Indeed, when was the last time you actually heard any political candidate try to pitch national pride, unity, and responsibility instead of anger and division? Dystopia seems inevitable - although forced sterilization and euthanasia will surely be given names which poll test better.
@Geoff King- Thoreau knew what he was talking about.
@nifter- We got one helical pile (in the interior, where there was no substructure beam to lift) and about 30 steel piers driven to bedrock - half of them around the periphery of the house, and half of them inside. The work is done now, but we've got 15 drying blobs of concrete to walk around, and we need to hire people to put the carpets back down. And, eventually, repair or replace the floor tile in two rooms. After which we can hire people to repair and repaint the many walls we had which were cracking. I swear, I've created more shovel ready jobs than Obama did, and was able to do so for less than $800 billion. Slightly.
Obama himself is a shovel-ready job.
"White privilege": So what's the deal with all of the poor white people out there? Why doesn't "white privilege" work for them? Other than living down to "poor" values like all other "poor" people, what aren't they doing right?
Speaking of "white privileged": The family of a [white] Michigan teenager shot to death by a police officer filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the cop this week, saying he repeatedly violated the boy's civil rights during a traffic stop that ended with the victim shot seven times in a roadside snowbank.
When do the riots start? I'm looking for a new TV for the living room.
"Deven's tragic and totally unnecessary death represents a disturbing trend of demanding 100 percent compliance with police authority, coupled with zero tolerance of risk of harm to police officers," lawyer Cynthia Heenan said in a statement. "Whatever happened to protect and serve?"
So what is the appropriate amount of "compliance" to forestall being shot? 30%, 14.5?
"Socialism": Even the East Germans couldn't pull it off. The Swedes came pretty close for a while. If anyone after the East Germans had a chance, it was a nation almost entirely made up of identical pretty blue-eyed blonde people. But now their leader's insistence upon imposing "multiculturalism" has doomed that to failure.
For anyone looking for some extra weekend reading, here's an excellent piece on how "socialism" and "multiculturalism" are mutually exclusive: Extend and Pretend for Migrants
Bernie Sanders, being a "true believer" actually understands this.
@Anonymous- Certainly his politics belong in a shallow grave.
@John the Econ- Sad story about the kid who got shot, but it's unlikely white folks will be burning down cities because of it. In part because it's pretty clear that the kid committed escalating acts of stupidity (albeit well short of those committed by Michael Brown) which lead to the shooting.
Regarding socialism, that was a good piece (about the incompatability of multiculturalism and socialism). If a society is more diverse than a beehive or an anthill, odds are that socialism won't work. Unless, of course, the society becomes totalitarian and controls and compels the behaviors of every citizen. And even then, socialism doesn't really "work" except for the division of whatever crumbs a non-functioning economy can produce.
I'm not for or against Trump, but this is a pretty COOL AD.
Here is a ROUSING military medley that tells it how it is ... the lyrics are clever and funny .. Obama is suitably recognized ... it's a 2 minute video
... enjoy!
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