BlogFather: Wealth gap? Forgetaboutit! Challenge
I know I’m getting too political these days. Hopefully this too will pass. Which reminds, part of the reason for the political posts is that so much effort is going onbehind (heh!) the scenes to get ready for the London 2012 Poop Capades. I just invented that term but – alas – as always an internet search tells me I’m a day late and a dollar short. Wow. A lot of Poop Capades out there!
After this spate of political posts passes, I promise to fertilize the internet with a few poop posts to equalize things a bit.
Speaking of a dollar short, what’s up with the separation of wealth in the United States, anyway? Are you ready to take the challenge? I’m offering a wealth gap prize of incredible value. (Adjusted for the 99 percent.)
How do you win? Explain and convince me of all that’s beneficial about an ever increasing gap in what the experts call “income inequality.” Sounds like fun, right?
Along the way we’ll see one-percenters in their natural habit and there will even be a bonus banned TED video. What’s too ribald for TED? Keep reading to find out!
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Labor pains for Mediocre Fred
Most people want to work. And they want just a modicum of lifestyle, dignity and respect.
Ah, Labor Day! For me it’s usually a day of conflicted duality.
Last year my old boss made us work on Labor Day. For him, it was just another opportunity to make more money for himself. Strangely enough, though, he gave himself the day off. We did all the work and, as usual, he received the bulk of the riches we made while sitting on his ass. Another capitalistic win-win!
This year I have a new boss who, even though he’s equally greedy, at least allowed us the choice to work or not. Gee, what do you think I picked? Hello three-day weekend!
My boss for the previous five years made us work every single holiday except Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Yes, we even worked Christmas Eve.) So I’m grateful that the new boss makes it optional. Even if it does mean a day without pay.
As I said goodbye to my new boss on Friday afternoon, his biggest worry was that his wife wouldn’t let him work on Monday. For him, work is an escape from home, family, children and his wife. I find that sad. Life isn’t about how many hours you can spend at the office. It’s about the quality time you share with the people you love. The boss loves money.
For me, Labor Day represents a day free from the pain of my work life. Being able to escape the bullshit – even for only one day – is a precious gift like nectar from the gods.
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You gotta have faith (in the White House)
Let us pray - really, really hard!
Some of y’all may remember a young feller from Texas that came this way once.
His name was George W. Bush although we all just called him Dubya.
Back in 2000, some folks thought he was elected to be our president. To this day some folks still dispute that. But that’s not what I came here to say.
He was inaugurated as our president on January 20, 2001.
He had a lot to do and didn’t waste a lot of time. For example, did you know, that just nine days later, using the presidential power of an “executive order” he created the OFBCI?
You’re all familiar with the OFBCI, right? No? Well, I can tell you this much. It stands for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
What? “Faith-based” stuff in our federal government? Yeah, I know. Weird.
The OFBCI is an office within the White House Office that is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
The purpose of the OFBCI was to fulfill campaign promises made by Bush in regards to “compassionate conservatism.” Huh? Say what? I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that’s a phrase you haven’t heard about in a long, long time! Now I wonder why that might be?
What ever happened to this grand vision of conservatism that helped Bush win his way into the White House? That’s a good question.
I submit that Bush’s wholesale abandonment of compassionate conservatism may very well be one of the biggest “flip flops” in the history of U.S. politics. Ironic, eh? Yes, at first he kept his promise by creating the OFBCI, but then, as his presidency ground on, what did he do about it except lip service, if even that?
You might think Obama wouldn’t stand for a faith-based office in his White House. You’d be wrong. He kept the office, although he renamed it to be the “White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.”
Some people (like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) will shout loudly that the phrase “separation of church and state” doesn’t appear in the U.S. Constitution. They are correct. Of course, neither do the words God, creator or maker. Yes, they are always quick to point out that the Declaration of Independence mentions a “Creator.” But that word didn’t originally appear in the draft by Thomas Jefferson or the copy that John Adams wrote in his own hand. It got in there some other way before it was signed. Additionally, that document, wonderful as it is, has no legal bearing on our legal system today. That, of course, comes from the U.S. Constitution. When is the last time you ever heard of an indepencian law? Yeah, I thought so.
What is the truth about what the founding fathers wanted? Many are quick to claim that they wanted this or they wanted that. I merely cling to the position: If they wanted this to be a Christian nation, wouldn’t they have bothered to actually mention it in our most basic legal document?
Constitutional Myth #4: The Constitution Doesn’t Separate Church and State
What’s scarier than someone with a gun? Someone with a gun and an imaginary friend. (Or a nuclear arsenal.) Someone who believes apocryphal myths (rather than verifiable facts) about the past to support his actions and beliefs today.
Weird.
Feckless Friday: What if heroes are ok?
Is this a trick? Or a treat?
Today is my last day at work/shit hole/death star.
Yah!
Way back on Oct 8th I was chasing a new job. I had a good feeling. (It can happen.) I even tweeted about it. I tweeted, “Feeling positive. That is all.” Yeah, I like to be cryptic. And now, 14 days later, here we are. It’s Christmas in October!
To celebrate here’s a series of videos that hopefully tell a little story.
Climbing the “not my job” walls
Whether it’s at work with a co-worker or at a retail store with a member of their staff, we’ve all met the people who send signals, subtle or otherwise, that say, “That’s not my job!”
When I’m the customer and I encounter this, it makes me feel pretty negative about that particular business. I generally keep my mouth shut but avoid the place in the future.
When I’m at work and I encounter this, it makes me wish I spent more time playing first person shooter video games, especially the sort with extreme amounts of unnecessary gore. I wonder if there is a way to digitize an image of fuckface into one of those games?
This is how it typically goes down. A co-worker asks me for something, say it’s a fish. I stop what I’m doing and offer to teach them the method for getting that fish. “No, no, no!” they exclaim. “I don’t have time for that. Just give me the damn fish!” Fine, here you go, asshole.
It just so happens that this is something they need to know, because it’s going to come up again sooner or later, and next time I’m out of the office and they are fucked because no one has any clue what to do, who do you think they are going to call and hassle because it’s an “emergency?”
That’s not the end of it, though. These same people are usually the ones who go far out of their way to make sure you know how to do every single damn aspect of their job, and they give no quarter about accepting their work from you, instead responding, “you do it.” The same folks who couldn’t be bothered to learn anything from you are suddenly frickin’ gurus and you are their student so you can know how to do their work. Perhaps most amazing of all is that they actually expect you to go for a fucked up scenario like that. Truly sub-moronic.
Incidentally these are also often the same folks who blather on about the fact that you should be a “team player” and all that jizz. It’s so important to them about what you are and that you can be properly labeled – by them – in a manner that is satisfactory – to them – while they are in the middle of attempting to control every aspect of your interactions with them and/or your work-related duties.
So basically the person who this post is about won’t let me teach anything important about my job while at the same time he insists on teaching me about his – all while forcing “team player” bullshit down my throat. Congratulations! You’ve figured out how to tap an almost endless reserve of raw unadulterated anger in the middle of my gut.
Fuck that. If you treat me that way then that’s just one more tally in the “hate” column for you. I know it might be surprising to some, but I just tend to not dig one-way relationships that much.
Shouts from the Abyss 
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