Random stuff re: the poverty post.
Traffic was up about 250%. Ratio of traffic here yesterday from conservative blogs & sites vs. from lefty sites — at least 7:1. Does anybody actually read the latter?
Great timing, re the now blog-famous: “People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway.” Lefties are a tad slow, huh? They always imitate what we’ve been saying for twenty years then pretend they just thought it up themselves. As soon as — everyone say it with me now — they become property owners and have children. That is, adults.
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Email:
“I’m saving this one! It’s a perfect, if hardly unique, example of the incoherence, the self-lobotomization of the radical left, which is to say pretty much everyone on the left these days.
“If that pathetic being had any sense of irony at all, he’d be hiding in his closet and chewing on the barrel of a loaded pistol about now. Instead I’m sure he thinks he chose just the right words to chastise your hatefulness in daring to make a logical argument opposing some cherished belief of his.
“I suppose it’s obvious, but I’d still like to reinforce for you that no one reacts with that much fear unless what they are reacting to has found some very sore spot, some acknowledged weakness in their belief system. So, please keep it up. The time is long past when we could have any hope that gentle dealing or quiet argument with these people might lead them to see the error of their ways.”
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Email:
“So two of your stories have already dovetailed for me. My magazine, which covers games, recently received a letter from a teacher in ‘one of the poorer schools’ in his urban district. He was assigning ‘critical analysis papers’ of Halo 3 to the kids in his Computer Magnet class.
“Since we have actual writers — not urban teenagers — to write reviews, we passed, but the whole thing just seemed weird. Underage gamers playing a violent M-rated game for class? In some places they can’t even buy Halo 3 without an ID. Does this teacher also buy his students liquor and pr0n? And why do these gamers from a ‘poorer’ school have $600 worth of gear (Xbox 360, controllers, TV, cable modem) required to play a $60 game? Has the definition of poor changed that much since the days when I was poor?
“I actually worked with the poor through a Catholic charity, and it was a sobering and short-lived experience. Here’s one thing I noticed: many of the poor that I dealt with lied like no one I have ever met. They lied to my face with a smile as they spun outrageous stories and assumed I wouldn’t check on them. I would call county Social Services to make sure they were getting all their benefits and the response as almost always the same: what’s their story this week? The people answering the phone at Social Services knew them by name. They didn’t get jobs because they had a job: working the system.
“Don’t get me wrong: there was legitimate need. People between jobs or sick and unable to pay utility bills and needing a little help with food or clothing were the most common, and the most sympathetic, and we helped them. They were transitionally poor, not professionally poor. There’s a difference.
“Oh, and EVERY home I visited had cable TV and a cell phone (the kids had their own cell phones), and most had a video game system.”
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From a post at the Wandering Heretic:
Cost of Registration so your church can help the poor: $309
Lab Fees so your church can learn how to help the poor: $129
Pre-Lab fees so your church can learn how to help the poor: $19
Hotel cost so your church can learn how to help the poor: $180 (minimum)
Amount of money spent actually helping the poor: $0
The pitiful irony of it all: Priceless
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Email:
A total of 905,000 people visited food banks across the Greater Toronto Area in the past year, 40 per cent of them children. One way people can help them is to pack a bag of groceries and drop it off at the local fire hall. It will help meet the goal of collecting 410,000 kilograms of food this fall.
“If you divide 410,000 kilograms by 905,000 people, you get 453 grams, or less than one pre-metric pound per person.
“Of course, it’s actually the same people coming back week after week, which suggests a foodbank using population of 905,000/52, and the fall goal will be followed by the winter, spring, and summer goals, but why disturb such lovely math with facts?”
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Email:
“Picking up some out-of-town friends from the Hollywood district of Portland yesterday I ran the neighborhood’s gauntlet of professional beggars. They stand at key traffic lights holding cardboard carton signs with cute legends on them apparently intended to charm you into giving them money. Most of the beggars are young; many look quite robust. All have a certain grungy edge, not surprisingly, owing to a fact revealed in an investigative series in Willamette Week a couple of years ago that every last one of them is a drug addict and/or alcoholic who has chosen their lot.”
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Email:
“I had to chip in a comment over on the tbogg blog, after seeing what everyone was saying. Since I don’t expect it to remain, here’s a copy:
“Gravatar Why is it that so many people who comment here are full of hate? Would you want to be treated the same way you’re treating others?
“(And I fully expect this comment to be either deleted, or treated with the same “kindness” shown in earlier posts. That’s OK. I’m not disagreeing with anyone, just asking why there’s so much over-the-top bile and venom. If you have to use insults and obscenity to answer – you’ve proved my point.)
Joey W | 10.09.07 – 6:22 pm | # <#112121>”
“They’re quite a bunch of folks — typical ‘caring’ liberals, who can’t manage more than three words about an adversary without a slur or obscenity. My fourth-grade teacher would have had half of them standing in the hall for mouthing off; the other half would be in the principal’s office for swearing.
“Anyways, I’m glad you posted the link — it serves as a valuable reminder that being able to write or talk does not mean that one *should* do so — especially when one is crippled by lack of civility and reason.”
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Andrea blogs:
“In the Bearded Spock universe, criticizing the Democrats for using sick children to flog their socialist ‘a doctor in every pot’ health plan, is actually attacking the children. Of course, what really irritates these people is the fact that anyone with half a brain saw through this ploy to the relatively wealthy business owner complete with high-priced suburban home that actually provided the sick children. As many sensible people — cough, excuse me, fascist child-molesting rightwing haters* — have pointed out, the family in question apparently chose not to avail themselves
of many affordable health plans, and have tried to pass this off as ‘we couldn’t find anything we could afford.’
“I’ve been reading a lot on blogs and so on about the scary juggernaut that the Democratic party is turning into, but this sort of reaction isn’t that of winners — it stinks instead of desperate loser flop-sweat. You know, lefties, it’s kind of hard to convince people that you’re the righteous, ethical ones when you’re busy pissing on our heads and telling us it’s raining.”
And “gay”, Andrea. Don’t forget “gay”!
According to the comments on left wing blogs, you see, right wing men are all “secretly gay” — which sure explains why us right wing broads are all apparently “sexually frustrated.” Or they’re “gay” because we’re “ugly” — progressive thought is too nuanced for my fascist brain…
Let’s wrap it up with a recent post from the increasingly essential Scragged.com:
They got ready to take care of the poor. And what happened? Nobody came.
That’s right, not one poor person showed up to get free clothes.
They’d put out posters. In case people didn’t have cars, they listed the church phone number and told people they’d drive them to the church. Leaflets were passed out all over town. Nobody called. Nobody came.
Nobody needed free clothes. Why? Because there aren’t any really poor people in America.
And because “poor” people won’t wear used clothes. They gotta have the latest overpriced sweatshop athletic shoes to go with their bright pink Juicy Couture knock-off velours and artfully hanging down pants…
