Not A Broken Ass Body, Just A Broken Ass System
Yeah, that’s an accurate picture of my mood right now: poorly justifying a recent act of murder… wait, what?
Steve (take your pick of replacement, I mean they write themselves, Douchey, Deucey…), Fox and Fiends:
One of those anti-disability screeds that the right-wing goes on from time to time
If I was a believer in a God-like being that watches over us (no offense to those who are), one who was responsible for how our lives are ordered and what befalls us, it would be tough for me not to assume that deity was malevolent and hateful, a force worth fighting to the death to stop.
Because all around me, like a constant barrage of theodicy, me and mine keep getting plowed under by this broken ass system we find ourselves trapped in. The sheer number of brilliant, many-talented, deductive, kind, and empathetic people I know who seem to get regularly slammed in one horrifying way or another. It’s at the point where there is not a single one of the people I know intimately who doesn’t have symptoms of PTSD. Who hasn’t struggled with depression or homelessness or being a rape survivor or being a victim of discrimination or having an impossible time finding a job or paying the bills or more often, all of the above.
And not to base an argument solely from anecdotal evidence, but it really does hammer home just how broken this system is. I mean, sure, I could cite the statistics on happiness and economic opportunity. I could bring in my observations and the observation in studies of Danish life and how much better that system serves those within it by establishing robust safety nets and thus allowing a great freedom of entrepreneurship. But it would just be window dressing on the thing that even the most addled-minded capitalism-fetishist knows: That there is something terribly wrong with America and the American Way of Life.
Class mobility is a quaint fiction, or at least it is in the direction of down to up. More and more graduates are finding just how easy it is to be born into middle class but slip into abject poverty and how more and more opportunities are shut completely from them. But it’s something that affects everyone and is becoming harder to ignore. Whether it be the difficulty in even getting an interview in a low-paid job that you are over-qualified for or just the way that even entry level part-time stock person positions straight-up require a completed bachelor’s degree to apply for. Or just the way one’s workplace feels wholly comfortable intruding into personal life, demanding “morality” standards at home as well as on the job.
And those are just the universals, the bad bosses, and the weird way work ends up being more about navigating networks of allegiances than actual competence on the job.
On the specific level, there seems to be an increase in the brazenness of corporations in exploiting and misusing their employees. In straight up ignoring what the letter of the law would seem (on the surface) to explicitly prohibit. Bosses straight up editing timesheets to make it seem like you only worked the hours scheduled even though they demanded to keep you hours over your shift end. Weird new ways that retail jobs have of getting around holiday pay or laws governing full-time so that they can justify paying part-time rates and giving part-time benefits. In my sector of education, a concentrated movement by anti-education zealots set to run education districts to quietly eliminate most out LGBT teachers as well as racial minority teachers.
And all manner of not-that-subtle discrimination. Companies following an industry-practice, seemingly hoping to cover in case of a live lawsuit case, but never really fearing that eventuality. I was shocked when I was first discriminated out of my old job at Evil Corp. I was naive and thought the law as written in my state would offer some measure of protection, would make me more, not less safe against retaliatory backlash. I was wrong, but what was most upsetting was learning that what happened to me wasn’t an anomaly, some bad behavior on the part of a clearly villainous party going rogue against the law. Hearing from trans* friends who worked as teachers who had the same story, who were eliminated in the same ways made me starkly aware that this was just an accepted industry practice (here is how you eliminate a trans* teaching employee without fear of reprisal). Part of a concentrated effort that artificially depresses how many of us there are.
It’s a similar haunting feeling that has surrounded a recent event that befell my girlfriend.
My girlfriend managed to get an interview for her dream job working for a domestic violence shelter. She’s a recent graduate, but has a bunch of experience, having used work study programs and unpaid internships to build a strong background working for her local women’s shelter. The position was perfect, full time, benefits, enough of a paycheck to reliably pay the bills for doing something she had already been doing for her own women’s center.
The interview went amazing as well. She had a wealth of additional talents that would serve the center well, such as qualifications to run support groups. All of the questions surrounded all she had to offer the center and the interviewer was excited to get her to work. Soon after, she was asked to come in and sign paperwork, so she gave her current shitty main employer notice and rushed over.
And it all went swimmingly until the point she needed to fill out a DMV background check form.
Cause, see, my girlfriend is not allowed to get a driver’s license, because she has a congenital eye defect that makes her physically disabled.
It doesn’t limit her that much. People are blurry, but she can navigate walking down streets. She can read text on computers when she zooms in a little. She can read text and do the vast majority of positions that don’t involve specifically transportation.
And just like that, the door slammed. No driver’s license, no job. It didn’t matter that it was a physical disability or that employers are supposed to grant reasonable accommodations to disabled workers, because well, she wasn’t a real employee, not yet.
The justification given was that the location needed to be secret so that abusers couldn’t find their victims, which yes, good. That is a reasonable and important thing for a domestic violence shelter to have, protecting clientele from those seeking to do further violence.
The problem comes from how that somehow connects up with needing a driver’s license. Somehow, driving a car to the secret location rather than just getting off a bus at a nearby stop like many of the clients would be doing was a crucial step in keeping this location secret. Because apparently public transportation riders are notorious gossips. Similarly, my girlfriend was willing to relocate to the area, negating the need for a car at all.
Additionally, a driver’s license doesn’t at all ensure one has a vehicle or isn’t being dropped off. When I came back from Denmark, there was a period of time when I had no vehicle outside of borrowing my partner’s on occasion. I had my driver’s license, but I was still taking the bus to work and being picked up afterwards. Additionally, with private transportation, when someone’s car fails, it is more likely they will get a lift rather than figure out public tranportation on the fly to be safer. And beyond that, there’s no reason why someone being dropped off couldn’t be dropped off blocks away to be extra safe in protecting the knowledge.
And even if we were to accept the premise of car=this important protection of the secret, there were no rules on more direct or less secure methods of accidentally revealing the location. Unlike an employer my partner interviewed for, there was no block on mentioning employment there online and there was no gag order on informing partners.
Just the suddenly important driving requirement.
And one could pull a fantasy from this piece. One rogue organization with a hatred of disabled people, going above and beyond the law, but the reality is much worse.
There is nothing specifically bad about the organization, in fact, my girlfriend and I still strongly support the mission they are undertaking and would gladly still aid them in their task if possible.
Even despite the fact that that requirement and its sudden springing (as well as the quick attempt to cover up it being the reason for why the job offer dried up by suddenly arguing that she didn’t provide things they acknowledged receiving in emails back to her) is clearly in place more to prevent hiring potentially expensive disabled employees like her rather than actually serve the need they are claiming to protect, the sick thing is that I doubt the shelter viewed anything they did as wrong in anyway.
In fact, my girlfriend called her Employment Counselor in her local Disability Services Center and they told her that what had happened to her was perfectly legal and above board.
Because the sick truth is that methods of eliminating disabled employees in pre-hiring phases are sadly a dime a dozen. It is common to have this casual discrimination against disabled employees, probably surrounding views that they are a “pain”, requiring special non-cog-like accommodations and possibly requiring special medical attention on the company health plan.
As such, the number of employers who have out-of-place requirements that seem more designed to weed out disabled applicants than anything else is suspiciously high. The number of sit-down office data entry positions that require one to stand for long periods or be able to lift a certain weight. The number of office work positions or positions that could be easily telecommuted which still require a driver’s license. The number of jobs with no apparent driver’s license requirement that I’ve worked at that still required DMV checks as part of the hiring paperwork.
I’ve seen the effect on my girlfriend. Her initial disbelief that she would even need something like an Employment Counselor or that she would face difficulty getting a job. After all, she could still work, had a school that was very accommodating to her disabilities and the places she had worked and interned at seemed to have no issue with her work-rate or accomplishments. I’ve seen the slow realization of how many jobs she wanted to do randomly required the ability to drive or were in locations completely disconnected from bus lines and public transportation. I’ve seen her lined up for interviews and having to turn them down because they wanted her to bring in her driver’s license. I’ve seen her being blocked and stymied from positions she is more than capable of performing, in her meek and humble way, if only she was allowed to have the chance.
And I’ve heard her heartbreak as she related this last painful straw. Her submission to the discrimination club that I and several of my friends have painful membership in.
And it makes me want to punch this unfair and broken world we are trapped in. That prevents eager and intelligent and capable workers from working jobs they are (in an honest world) way overqualified for given the pay, because of bullshit and entrenched bigots.
It makes me despair for the systems callously repeated, that traps us and provides solace for those making it more difficult and I weep that there is no one singular villain to blame for it all. It’s just the accumulated rot of a bad system calcified and adopted by various poor decisions our nation has made regarding worker’s rights, safety nets, and treatment of minority populations, including disabled populations over the years.
And I’m talking about systems a lot, because that’s the real problem. What this is is a part of systemic oppression. I mean, one lone bad actor who knows they are being Evil McBadGuy, that is easy to work against. But systemic oppression? Where each little and sometimes individually justified thing just happens to add up to a world where things just happen to be harder for minority populations? Where it’s just a little harder to be hired while disabled, be out in society as a trans* person, love as a gay person, walk down the street as a woman, or hang out on the street corner with friends as a black person. That’s harder to pinpoint and even harder to fight back, because it doesn’t even feel like there’s anything to punch. It’s just the way the world is, it seems, and even those who would normally know better thoughtlessly perpetuate the discrimination and hassle because it doesn’t occur to them not to. And that’s just the world we live in where shit like this keeps on fucking happening.
In short, I am pissed and I need to (metaphorically) punch something*.
Luckily for the faces of nearby pedestrians, the world has given us Steve Doocy and the meritocracy-disproving squad at Fox and Friends.
I don’t normally cover video. I mean, it’s one thing to read these fuckers and use the usual regiment of silly voices and imagined talking excrements to get through their over-pompous effluence, but it’s another to have to sit through a video of the same pompous windbags casually waving away the lives of millions of people with a smug grin of “yeah, I get paid more per visit than your yearly salary to shit out this crap”.
But sometimes the rage stars align and you just need to unleash all of your energy at the fact that Someone is Wrong on The Cable TV.
That being said, I feel no reason to burden you readers too much in forcing you to watch this bullshit. I’ll still pull out some choice quotes to eviscerate and mercifully, I’ll still provide the requisite port to flee to before we begin this mango cruise.
Shorter (or the last port before Jungle):
- Mooching fake disabled people are stealing your hard-earned white money! Be scared and hate them and blame them for the fact that your lying eyes can no longer deny that this capitalist experiment has thoroughly failed.
Life rafts prepared?
Good, cause where we go, there are no maps but insanity.
We’re on waste watch this morning
…
You’re shitting me, right (sorry couldn’t help it)?
You can’t just provide such an easy lob for a shit joke and just expect us poor meager snark mistresses to pass it by. Oh, but what to pick, one sec, I need to-
and it’s not Steve’s waste or my waste
You robbed me.
The perfect setup… I will never forgive you this trespass.
it’s everybody’s waste and it has to do with people collecting disability. Take a look at these startling statistic, I think you’ll find them startling.
I’m not going to say the War on Education or knowing traitor liberal facts is starting to take a toll on the poor bobbleheads they get to echo this baby’s first propaganda bullshit.
Instead I’m just going to bold that last sentence and walk away whistling.
Currently 8.8 million American workers are collecting disability. In 1960 455,000. That’s it. What has happened to the healthy worker?
The cold bloody march of time?
I mean, a large part of the difference is that oft-cited bump on the workforce that is the Boomer generation. The cruel ministrations of time have aged that population and thus leaves them open to a lot of the symptoms that age brings with it, including lowered ability to continue to perform physical tasks.
The choice of time is also noteworthy seeing as how it refers back to a time when a) a large portion of the workforce was literally shut out (in the form of women and racial minorities), b) a time when we still had functional unions and a safety net that ensured that those who suffered injury had some measure of protection from going homeless if they did without disability insurance, and c) was a point where disabled people were even more brutally oppressed than they are now. Unless you were straight up missing a hand, you did your best to try and hide any disabilities less you be treated akin to a leper.
The timeframe also allows us to ignore the five decades of medical advancement that have come around, allowing those born with disabilities to survive longer and have more full lives. Allows us to ignore five decades of disability activism that has reduced the amount of people willingly to public belittle a man for being in a wheelchair (note that FDR had to hide being in a wheelchair for his presidency and the way wheelchairs and other physical or mental disabilities were used as short-hand for villainous in old movies) or for having something as minor as epilepsy. It allows us to ignore the modern recognition of mental illness as a disability and therefore to treat things like a failure to “get over” PTSD, depression, bipolar, etc… as some personal failing. We have gotten rid of a lot of the broken ass madhouses, but that means the people inside them still need to eat and still need care when they are physically or mentally incapable of work.
And oh yeah, the economy has completely broken. I mean, it’s not like most disabled people want to be big drains on the system. But if they are given no other recourse and are prevented from seeking honest employment, then it’s either accept permanent disability (and the black mark that leaves on one’s resume) or starve and well… that’s not a terribly compelling notion.
And that’s before even factoring in issues like the fact that as workers have been viewed as more disposable, they’ve been subjected to harsher or more dangerous work conditions such as improper shielding of employees from toxic or radioactive products, an increase in workplace accidents owing to relaxed safety standards, and simply working employees harder to the point they are more likely to build up crippling deletrious physical effects over time.
And beyond that, we’ve got the factors that increase mental trauma, such as the lack of safety net, increased stress and a feeling of constant competition, an illusion of safety coupled with a feeling of constant surveillance, mixed with lowered safety standards on drinking water, food, etc… It’s kind of hard to be a millenial these days and not be cripplingly depressed.
So yeah, there’s a perfect storm of about a million reasons that more people might be considered disabled by how we measure that now.
Of course, as Steve and his gang are able-bodied rich white men, all that liberal-biased context can safely be dismissed in favor of an “alternate” explanation.
So are more people getting sick and disabled or are we just wasting more money?
Oh, sorry, we’ll get to the “alternate” explanation soon (surprise, it’s that disabled people are just moochers, because apparently government services totally regularly pay enough to actually pay bills, much less allow lives of luxury and excess).
But first I want to just dwell on the argument presented in this little question. Cause I think it’s the source of a lot of what is fundamentally wrong with conservative “ideology” as it were.
And that’s that it views the survival of people who are not them as a “waste of money”. People receiving enough to not die, having an absolute limit to how far they can fall before the system helps out, having access to jobs and healthcare and life is viewed as wasting money.
And the sad thing is, I understand exactly why they think that way. I mean, yes, bigotry, hatred, selfishness, blah blah blah. But more importantly, the capitalist system we are presented in America is a world where everything is viewed as zero-sum, where you are competing with everyone else on the planet for jobs, for status, for everything. And in that economic world, you don’t just win for being better or having more to offer, but also when your “opponents” falter or are stymied.
So, for people with empathy, having people pushed out of the workforce or blocked from competing in a fair economy or literally dying in the street abandoned by the system that was supposed to protect them is a moral and societal failure.
But for those who have bought into the way the capitalist system wants us to be, those events are signs that they personally are winning. After all, every tombstone means one less competitor and if that happens to make their team (white rich men who are of the tribe “conservative”) score more points, that’s even better.
The problem is that much like parasitism, this system only works if most people are people of empathy. If everyone thought like a sociopath, pushing down everyone else for a relative victory and expanding that to every aspect of society, then those same happy assholes would quickly find themselves gutted by desperate proles happy to have some high-value organs to sell.
Joining us right now is radio talk show host
Of course he is. Let me guess, he’s also the writer of a wingnut welfare tome getting the artificial bump from Regency or another hack press, right?
and author of “A Nation of Moochers”, Charlie Sykes joins us today
Yup. Of course it is. Because heaven forfend one of these hacks-for-hire have an actual real job outside the wingnut welfare circuit or babbling in a drug haze to entertain equally drugged out truckers.
But more seriously. On the moocher point… the right wing is actually on to something. This nation has genuinely been hit by an epidemic of moochers, people who have stolen great big chunks out of the economy and production in order to serve no real purpose or make any real difference in their lives other than to compete in a game of randomly increasing numbers with other asshole moochers.
All over the country, the hard-work of millions of Americans is stolen and abused by fear of unemployment and death in order for all the production that it creates to go to a handful of assholes who sit in a chair and pretend like they fucking matter. And those same people are in turn are marks for a group of even bigger moochers who just convince everyone to put their money in a great big casino they have rigged in their favor, when they aren’t straight up bribing congresscritters to make them richer.
These moochers steal the bread out of the mouths of children and do not even remotely give back an equivalent amount of value.
Which is the real reason why the right-wing is so loud about various forms of moochers, including literally everyone else. Because, like with everything in conservativeland IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION and they are really hoping no one notices who’s really benefiting from government largesse, exploitation of the capitalist system, and taking everyone’s ability to survive (hint it’s not a poor black family or random disabled person looking to immediately spend that money into the economy so they can afford to eat and live).
Has the number of people on disability gone up because they are moochers or because more people need help?
I think the most hilarious thing about watching Fox News is seeing how the complete abandonment of subtlety in throwing out dog whistles translates in the world of video and sound.
I mean, fuck, Steve Douchebag literally raises his volume a full click for “they are moochers” just in case some poor bottom-dweller trying to revive their last three neurons accidentally thinks they are supposed to feel some manner of empathy for those poor bastards who didn’t have the good sense to be born able-bodied.
And it really brings home that what Fox News is not a news channel, nor is it even really a propaganda channel. What it is is terrible professional wrestling. I mean, the black and white framing, with good guys and bad guys who you are telegraphed to cheer or boo depending on what faction they belong to. Moves that are so telegraphed, they can be used to call for mayday. Random taunting and trash-talking of enemies. Random repeating of catch phrases and “hit words of the day”. And let’s not even get started on the random “bikini babes” or the professional fembots. It’s like WWE’s slower, dumber cousin.
You go back to 1960, about 1 in 5 of the people who were getting disability insurance had what is known as mood disorders
You know, I imagine a future version of us will look at modern treatment of those with mental illnesses much like we regard the times of madhouses. The way we failed to take care of our fellow people and treated those with mental illnesses like lying lepers.
And it’s worth noting that it’s really fucking hard to get on disability for any type of psychological issues. I’ve known people who had to drop out of school or quit from a job because depression or bipolar disorder made it impossible to continue to work and function. And yeah, they had a hard road getting help and some didn’t.
And that’s before noting that going on disability for mental illness is pretty much a permanent road as it is very difficult to rejoin the job market after you find stable medication or the like.
Also, yeah, of course the number of mood disorder disabilities have gone up. Reagan closed down all the sanitariums and released people back on the streets, shooting up the number of people unable to work who still needed help to survive and function in day to day society.
That’s kind of what happens. People don’t just go away, they linger on and try to survive as best they can.
Which is why the current conservative argument of “just die you filthy bastards” is not exactly a sustainable one in the long-term.
and back pains
Um… duh.
I mean, here, you do the math. Retail jobs are the most growing form of employment, but they are extremely physically taxing, especially on the lower back, locking it up after a handful of decades and making it impossible to work. Mix in with that the fact that those same retail jobs do not come with any form of health insurance, do not pay enough for doctor’s visits or any form of preventative care and often do not allow reasonable time off to prevent injuries. What did you think was going to happen?
I mean, fuck, you can’t just treat people like workhorses, overwork them and then express shock that they crumple and break down.
I know you want to pretend the proles are just mindless automatons, but you haven’t actually created your glorious machine underclass yet.
We’ve changed the definition of disability
Since 1960? Yes.
We’ve also “changed” the definition of a lot of things. The definition of marriage into a union of love instead of a contract where it was legal to repeatedly rape your spouse. The definition of a black person from a second class citizen to someone who should be treated equally (but of course still isn’t). The definition of natives from genocide’s joke to legitimate people deserving of fair treatment (who still don’t receive it). The definition of how we treat various forms of medicine and science. How we communicate with each other and so on.
That’s sort of what the human race does. Build on itself to change and become better, more aware of the world around us.
And that’s sort of the real issue that conservatives have. That life changes, that people grow. They long for the days when you could be considered a great comedian by making “cripple” jokes all day long and resent that occasionally a store they go to will include a wheelchair ramp or some other accessibility measure.
Because they are used to a world where only people like them mattered and they haven’t let go of a framing that views every aid going to a minority population as one more attack on their secure place on top of the world.
And all this kabuki is just that, a distraction and a justification for wanting to have a tiny little playground they are king of, benefiting from all the little systematic oppressions that keep everyone else down, while building themselves up as deserving victors, as winners in a true meritocracy, edging out the competition through fair play and skill.
And I think it’s that extra bit of bullshit that makes conservatives so hard to bear. That they want to be praised for having the “skill” to trip three competitors and ram another competitor’s head into the wall at the start of the race as if their speed alone won the day.
And sorry, but fuck you.
This is one of those moments we have to step back and say, OK, do we really want a safety net that is targeted at the genuinely disabled, or are we just creating another program for the takers in society? I mean this thing has ballooned to about a 130 billion dollars a year. There’s no indication that it’s going to slow down any time soon, and, quite frankly, you know the whole approach of the Americans with Disabilities Act was to integrate the disabled back into society. What this program is doing is essentially saying, no, you don’t have to work, we’re going to create this permanent alternative, and unfortunately that means that a lot of people, I think, are figuring out that it’s easier to collect these checks than it is to go get a job, integrate into society, and learn what earned success is all about.
And this is the real meat of the bullshit.
A good number of disabled people want to work.
Hell, pretty close to everyone wants to work. It’s the reason that draconian systems like ours and generous systems like Denmark have the same percentages of people who try and game the system or try and live off just government aid.
People want to work, on average, because they want to feel useful, to create something in society, to contribute and keep things running. It’s stressful being trapped at home, having whatever work you do treated as valueless. It’s the reason why so many “happy housewives” were having full mental breakdowns from the Feminine Mystique. And it’s a fact that a lot of real moochers have exploited by paying the absolute minimum and exploiting the maximum amount of work.
And it’s why real countries have real protections for workers and have a guaranteed safety net you can’t fall past.
Because, most people, if they have any ability to keep working in any way will seek it out. If they have one single task they can accomplish, they will seek to do so, even if it means only working in a very narrow range of options.
You give most disabled people a choice and they aren’t going to want to lay at home feeling sorry for themselves when they can be using their talents to do something that is valued by society in the form of money and recognition.
And that’s what’s so frustrating about this bullshit asshole brigade and the crap that has affected my girlfriend.
Which is that disabled people are being denied that ability to participate, to be employed, to have the opportunity to try and succeed. They are being stymied before they begin because some HR director somewhere started a trend of including “weeding out” requirements against “troublesome” disabled employees and the buildup of this has lead to a systemic block against disabled people finding anything.
And that’s not an insignificant effect.
In this broken ass economy where even able bodied white college educated cisgender straight men have a hard row to hoe in finding any form of employment that actually pays the bills, where does that leave those of us who have to do it with one hand and one foot tied behind our backs?
I don’t know what I can do to support my girlfriend in this. I mean, what do you say to someone who basically had a group falling over themselves to hire her until they discovered she had the “leprosy” of being born with a vision impairment? What comforting lies do you tell about what that says about just how broken and fucked the system she finds herself in? And facing the fact that black people have known for decades, that the “law” as written might as well be fiction when it comes to protecting you and yours? What can you even begin to say to make it better?
I don’t know. All I can do is rage with her** and weep with her and try and do what I can in my little corner of the universe to get the word out so at least people are thinking.
Things shouldn’t be thus, but they are and that sucks more than we can say. Also, fuck Steve Fucking Doocy in his fucking eye socket.
‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. Well that ended on a downer, didn’t it? We are aware of all Internet traditions.™
*I also feel honor-bound to cover something disability-related now, owing to recent events. I had a more general post started covering the more general woes that befall minority groups seeking employment in response to a narrow-minded piece of fail at ye ol’ inspiration merchant American Thinker, but yeah… when all one has to offer as a girlfriend is a fellow voice to yell at the Heavens, it seems cruelty to deny that request.
But for those interested in what this post was originally going to be:
Shorter Original Fail Piece:
- When liberals whine about being denied equality of opportunity, that is so clearly bullshit, because… um, wow, I can’t even pretend to believe that it’s a level playing field… um, the rich and the white get an easier road, so ha ha, we win, suckas?!?
Honestly, you didn’t miss much.
**It’s morbidly interesting to me how my brain works. I’m always able to get more outraged, more bent out of shape, and more righteously angry when bad things befall my friends rather than when they affect me. I remember when I worked at Evil Corp and they were slowly discriminating me out of a job and I never got half as mad during it all as when they set up a friend of mine to fail (I even spotted it before hand and offered to switch myself into the trap, but management refused) because she was publicly supporting me and they wanted an excuse to force her to transfer to a different department. I guess the moral of the story is you can fuck with me, but you should never, ever, fuck with those I love.
***IMPORTANT ADDENDUM:
So it turns out that desperation is more powerful than anti-disability discrimination. All those super important reasons that are totally not about pushing out disabled workers just happen to evaporate when the employer is no longer in a position of strength to pick and choose only able-bodied workers and thus is forced to settle for only having an extremely qualified professional willing to work well below market rate.
Which is another way of saying that my girlfriend got a call back from the shelter. They’re hiring her on for a role with even more responsibility than what they were going to hire her for, because the person in the job suddenly quit and now they don’t have the time to pick and choose who to replace with.
It’s a nexus of blind luck and being in the right place at the right time, but fuck it, it’s about time some good news got pumped into the House of Cerberus.
It doesn’t change my mind about the appalling state of opportunity for disabled workers, but it’s at least something uplifting.
And on the note of uplifting, I’m going to be in a book soon, just a little short essay thing, but I’ll throw up a link when that finishes going through.
Um, First?
And I am so sorry about your girlfriend. Yet another way corporations demonstrate why they are not people – and the people they pretend to be are, at best, dangerous, sociopathic, toddlers. I mean, no morals, look only at the short term, expect rewards for ultimately destructive behavior, …
I mean, some genius in the office somewhere has (correctly) interpreted the dogwhistle about “less than 100% healthy” people being more expensive for the company (theoretically, and no doubt due to an insurance actuary somewhere) and has simplified it to “all disabled people are more expensive and to be avoided.”
Also, of course, all women, anyone over 45 or so (both groups more likely to use medical care, therefore the more you have in your workforce, the more expensive your health insurance will be), the fat, the smokers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I think our “innocent until proven guilty” system* is definitely the way to go (and did you know that, thanks to the Manhattan Project, uttering the magic phrase “National Security” turns that on its head?), but I think we should change the rules when it comes to corporations. They should have to prove their innocence, and a lack of, say paper trail, should be assumed to be the result of shredding, etc.
*Yeah, I know, for far too many of us that’s only on paper, but it’s a start, and the number of people it applies to was growing for a while.
That sucks Cerberus.
My neighbor, who’s down to 1 kidney running at about 15%, has been trying to get on disability for the better part of a year.
But you know, moochers and all that.
Yesterday, when I got home from work, I helped my neighbors (a married couple) across the street shovel their front walk. The husband had a heart attack last year which necessitated bypass surgery. There was no way I’d watch him trying to shovel the wet, heavy snow that had fallen.
I had to work four hours of overtime yesterday because the day shift had a snow day. Usually, I shovel the sidewalk in front of my house and my elderly next door neighbors’ house, and our respective driveways. Yesterday, another neighbor with a snow blower had taken care of us.
I’ve always believed that the (temporarily) strong take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. There may very well come a day when I will need help taking care of tasks that I can now handle. I’d rather countenance some fraud than to witness people suffering, and I used to investigate problematic insurance claims.
Quad to the B, I laud your selflisness in support of your neighbors, and I am certain that you do not hesitate to help strangers in need. When I was temporarily stronger, I would routinely do the same. Can’t remember how many times I have jumped off of my bike to help push a car out of a snowy impediment.
I actually enjoy the opportunity to help a stranger (Read fellow human, brother, sister: Read anyone who is in an imediately recognisible bind. Some of us have an inherent desire to help, improve our small portion of the world without any interest in remuneration, because whether one believes in a higher power or not, it is simply the correct way to roll.
I need to read the rest of the piece. Brb.
The worst thing about that Fox and Friends segment is that the Fochers are so willing to castigate and belittle the most vulnerable members of society just to score political points.
Simply disgusting… and Cerb, I sincerely hope that you and yours will have a scintilla of good fortune this year. It’s heartbreaking to read what you and your girlfriend have had to endure.
Quad to the B, I laud your selflisness in support of your neighbors, and I am certain that you do not hesitate to help strangers in need.
My neighborhood is pretty tight-knit, we all look our for each other.
Can’t remember how many times I have jumped off of my bike to help push a car out of a snowy impediment.
I actually enjoy those opportunities in which I can help someone jump start their car or change a tire. Sometimes, I just like being a stereotypical guy.
Steriotypical guy? I think not. Mensch is a better appelation I think.
Actually fuck the male pronowns and let us go with parties who give a shit, will drop whatever it is to help.
I look forward one day to meeting you personally. Libations and excellent eats will no doubt be involed.
Actually fuck the male pronowns and let us go with parties who give a shit, will drop whatever it is to help.
That’s preferable. How about “individuals who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves”. I’d say “get their hands dirty”, but I’ve gotten pretty good about wearing gloves when I do this sort of thing now.
I look forward one day to meeting you personally. Libations and excellent eats will no doubt be involed.
One of these days, I’ll have to do another Midwestern tour. I know people from Ohio (heard Ohio was nice) to Minnesota, and I haven’t been out that way in years.
I guess the moral of the story is you can fuck with me, but you should never, ever, fuck with those I love.
And this for me is a distillation of why we are fellow travelers my friend. Turning to face my chair to the west and projecting all of the love I can spare and sending it in your direction.
There will be something in a number of inboxen shortly…
…
For Smut
Excellent piece.
Your girlfriend has my support. I just wish I could do more.
I have met B to the 4th power and he is indeed a Mensch.
King.
Bellarmine.
Readers digest fellowship.
Moron.
Louisville.
…
I feel jealous Major. Have no doubt about your assessment of B^4.
…
Columbus.
Bartholemew.
.14 bac
Proxies in Virginia.
…
“That there is something terribly wrong with America and the American Way of Life.”
Do you mean that it’s soulless, crass, materialistic, brain-dead and empty?
My late wife – she died unexpectedly in 2012 at the age of 53 – became 100% physically disabled in her early 40’s. She wanted to work so badly but could not. She even tried working on the phone from bed, but was unable to be reliable. Whenever somebody said that they wished they didn’t have to work, she’d admonish them, “Never say that!”
For four years I served as her unpaid 24/7 caretaker at her physician’s request, and it was an honor to do so.
I wish I knew what you could say to help your girlfriend, but damn if I know. My wife has been unemployed or underemployed for 3 years and I can’t say much more than “You will get a job soon,” and “We’ll be OK,” even though I’m constantly wondering how that could be true. It’s rough as hell.
And Fox and Friends can go fuck themselves. If a socialist, or underclass, revolution comes, it will be more because of sociopaths like them than anything else.
Methinks I am on to something who may be wondering if I know more about it, than it know’s about me.
I have managed to get 3 over the transom with a fourth waiting in the wings since the 18th of November…Also, too, my day job does not allow the convenience of phoning it in from a well appointed den.
I wish pardon for my cryptic digression from the topic at hand but trust that my efforts are in the service of the community.
…
Jay, Histro, I feel for both of you.
Jay, I am saddened by your loss.
…
You forgot petty, vengeful, rapacious, racist and imperialist.
Cerb: In my opinion, you produce some of your best writing when you are boiling-hot angry; this post is yet another demonstration. It definitely belongs in the Cerberus anthology. (Here’s a potential title idea:)
It’s Always Projection: The Cerberus Anthology
In order that this post be perfect, ol’ Proofreading Fenwick discovered minor typos that pass spellcheck.
(1) In the third excerpt from Fox, the bolded sentence: ‘statistic’ should be plural: statistics
(2) In sentence after Fox excerpt about ‘joined by radio host: ‘Regency’ should be: Regnery
(3) 6th para above the ‘Shorter acknowledgement: ‘lead’ should be past tense: led
(4) Forgot where this is and couldn’t find it by re-scanning the post: ‘less’ should be lest
———–
Style suggestion: When you drop a l-o-n-g insert into the middle of sentence, I suggest using hyphens instead of commas or parens. Hyphens make it easier for the reader’s eye to find the first part of the sentence. (Like you, I am prone to long inserts in my own writing.) Here’s an example, using hypens:
In your text the para ends with a ‘comma splice’:a complete sentence–shown in italics–attached to another sentence. I’ve replaced the comma with a semi-colon. (Of course, you could also use a period). Also semi-colons are great way separate a string of l-o-n-g appositives.
I’m mos def NOT a Word & Grammar Nazi; I mention these things because I admire your writing.
I’ll be back later with some On-Topic comments about disability, some of which are autobiographical. (Also, I’ve already spotted at least a dozen Bands–Cerb’s post is chock-full of them–and the thread only has 22 comments!)
The Big Bad Nice Person says it so well.
And Provider says it so well.
I was on crutches last year for a couple months when I blew out my ACL again and needed surgery. I have a desk job, and I can perform all of the important parts of my job, even when using crutches to get around. I missed a day after the initial injury and a week after surgery. aside from visits to the physical therapist for an hour here and there, that’s all the work I missed. I was very lucky. Even with all of that working in my favor the whole experience was horrible. I had thousands out of pocket in co-pays and the sheer frustration of trying to get around on crutches meant that whenever I got in my car (the only place I am alone and out of hearing range of family and co workers) the first thing I did was scream in frustration. The world is not easy for anyone who isn’t able bodied. Even walking across the office while carrying a clipboard is impossible when using crutches. Carrying anything by hand doesn’t work. Not even a cup of coffee. Finding a place to stow the crutches wherever I went was a pain in the neck. Movie theaters, restaurants, museums don’t make allowances for that sort of thing.
This says more about my inability to handle setbacks graciously than anything, but if I was reduced to fits of frustration and rage daily, just because of the sheer inconvenience of having to use crutches for a couple months, I have no idea how anyone facing more serious handicaps gets through the day without becoming some kind of cartoon rage monster.
That this jerk ass thinks that people who are already dealing with a double helping of shit just getting through their day are all some kind of moocher is inexcusable. It reveals him to be an idiot or a socipath, or someone so deeply cynical that there is no difference.
ooooh…i wonder if selwyn duke would go on a blind date? he has much in common with this mangoloid:
I could get very angry and very personal on this topic, but I won’t.
For what anecdotes are worth, I know a handful of people on disability. None of them fit the moocher bill — not in the least.
One person is vulnerable to related criticisms, but the case just isn’t there. She’s had multiple ailments for twenty years, and has gotten steadily worse, in part due to self-neglect. During this time she has mooched, but off (willing) family, not the government. Very recently, she applied for full disability and got it at once. I conclude she could have gotten it much, much sooner, whether full or partial. Why she didn’t is unclear, since I’ve never known her to work more than part-time, if at all.
In her case, there’s a related issue that’s equally or maybe more important. Some people fail to live up to a reasonable fraction of their potential as human beings. They have their reasons. When they become disabled they are particularly unlikely to remain employable. This woman, for example, has no education, few skills, a lousy work history, and is indisputably lazy. All that being said: she’s disabled, and can no longer perform the work she could get hired to do. That’s all it takes. We can’t stick her in a time machine with instructions to love herself and flourish and stay out of trouble. The best we can do is to give her the money. As far as I can tell, this arrangement is working: she is able to do a limited amount of stuff for herself and her family, thanks to disability insurance. What she does — even just providing companionship, although there’s more — is worth more to society than getting that little bit of taxes back.
I can definitely relate to people who don’t want to work. I really only want to do meaningful work, and pursue my passions to the fullest possible extent. In other respects I am the sort of mercenary you can pay, but you cannot buy. Caveat emptor!
P.S.: I have met enough people who are stubbornly, sometimes absurdly self-reliant to know that it is not a right-wing phenomenon. Some folks really are off the grid. Some could be said to have “gone Galt,” except they don’t know or care what that means. They’re out there, doing shit all day, making their weird ways in the world. Or, getting back to the woman I described, who the hell knows why they don’t game the system, but they don’t. They’re too busy doing their incomprehensible thing. Very few of us resemble conservative caricatures, eh?
Social Security granted me full SSI for major depression. I was so fortunate: I was hospitalized and treated through the Johns Hopkins medical system. My case-worker helped me prepare the SSI application paperwork; the prescribing psychiatrist and my therapist both wrote supporting letters. (The psychiatrist is on the Johns Hopkins medical faculty and specializes in mood disorders.) All of this support came through the Communiy Psychiatric Program that Hopkins established to help low-income patients. The psychiatrist set up a Mood Disorders Clinic within the CPP shortly before I moved from Baltimore. I also spent six months in an intensive Out-Patient Clinic, meeting daily for 6 hours.) I’ve been so fortunate.
So when I hear that Provider–given all of the injuries he suffered since his days as an athlete–hasn’t been approved (for at least partial SSI), it seems very, very wrong to me.
A bodily disability–missing limb, wheelchair bound, blind (cane and/or guide dog)–is apparant to people. In contrast, diseases of the brain–hey, it’s an organ, and the most-important organ in the body–are NOT evident. And mental health diseases are REAL. In my case, all three receptors–serotonin, epinephrine, dopamine–don’t function as they should. Consequently, I take three medications, which would be outrageously expensive if I didn’t have Medicare Part D.
Now comes the issue of work. I used to believe that depression was accompanied by weeping. (I have done my share of that over the years.) But in my particular case, the dominent symptom was/is ANGER, uncontrollable rage. For years and years, I put on a Mask to conceal my depression from colleagues and clients. With the Mask on, I was able to be a charming conversationalist, engaging, likeable, friendly. I valued my reputation as person who delivered high-quality products that met the client’s needs. (In marking meetings with potential clients, I was introduced as the firm’s ‘Top Gun scriptwriter’.)
And then, after years and years, the Mask began slip and I couldn’t control it or keep it in place.
i had worked for 16 years as an employee (mostly a scriptwriter) of consulting firms whose main clients were the federal departments and agencies. And the federal consulting environment is heavily laden with stress and pressure. I knew I was no longer capable of working in a ‘professional’ environment of any sort, and certainly not in the consulting environment. I tried–I did two freelance scripts–after the firm let me go. (They were terrific, btw: Kept me on for a year, taking ‘leave without pay’ so I could keep the health insurance.) Even though I was on my meds and getting regular therapy, the stress was overwhelming.
I’ve worked hard all my life: Newspaper route, dairy farm, special-collections library, bottling plant, radio announcer, intelligence analyst, teacher and tutor, retail stocker, professional consultant. I don’t have a job but I work hard every day.
I might add that as I have gone through my life, I noticed that there are many brilliant people in this world, most of the people I have met and watched or listened to, do not seem to be smarter or wiser than me. In fact just the opposite.
In the kingdom of the brainless, the man with one cerebral hemisphere is king.
I would become a deviant, an outlaw, a rebel, a Spartan … a murderer … a TERRORIST!
A deviant and a Spartan… the first thing this guy would do if the “Dark Age” comes is engage in all the buttsex he’s denying himself.
Also, yeah, of course the number of mood disorder disabilities have gone up. Reagan closed down all the sanitariums and released people back on the streets, shooting up the number of people unable to work who still needed help to survive and function in day to day society.
That’s kind of what happens. People don’t just go away, they linger on and try to survive as best they can.
i might also point out that the geograpy of families has changed…it used to be that family COULD more easily take in or take care of a family member who has become disabled…it’s not that way any more…families live greater distances apart, both parents are working and have less access to familial support…b^4’s uncle is a prime example…when he needed it, his family was there…as was his community. we’ve all seen or lived examples where a ‘community’
gets together to help someone in need…but that’s usually a temporary situation…as cerb points out, most people linger on…a permanent disability just doesn’t go away overnight…and it’s hard to find people who, out of the goodness of their hearts, morality or empathy, will take care of a person in need for the rest of their lives (bar spouses and children)…even if they want to, financially, it’s likely not possible.
and here’s a news flash: people living on disability are not making a shit-ton of money…especially people with special needs…as i’ve said before, the daughter’s ssi checks don’t even always cover what’s left to pay for her housing and care after her rgh waiver pays…she gets roughly $600/month in ssi…the current federal rate is $721 for an individual and $1082 for a couple…and of course there are things that factor in, like any earned income or assets. even in small town america it’s pretty freaking hard to live on that kind of monthly income…
This, boys and girls is what would happen if the Dunning Kruger effect were personified and given voice. It would say:
I don’t have a job but I work hard every day.
you left it out, but you volunteer…that’s one of the best jobs and one of the things i’ve admired you for…
I’ve worked hard all my life: Newspaper route, dairy farm, special-collections library, bottling plant, radio announcer, intelligence analyst, teacher and tutor, retail stocker, professional consultant. I don’t have a job but I work hard every day.
You paid your dues, you supported the system, and now you are receiving the benefits you paid for all along.
I’m healthy as a horse, but I know that all it would take to change that would be getting hit by a falling tree limb (I know a guy who was killed that way not too long ago) or getting creamed by a car. I don’t begrudge anyone who is receiving benefits.
That video segment was DISGRACEFUL … gonna have to have a talk with those videodrones ASAP.
Not one single massive explosion?
No sideboob?
No product placements?
Zero celebrities?
Sickening.
No sideboob?
Plenty of boobs in that video, just not the good kind.
This, boys and girls is what would happen if the Dunning Kruger effect were personified and given voice. It would say:
oy, the whole comments section is full of the dunning kruger! or as al franken calls it, ‘being a fucking moron’…
I would become a deviant, an outlaw, a rebel, a Spartan … a murderer … a TERRORIST!
A Spartan? I see we have yet another idiot whose knowledge about Sparta came from watching 300 too many times.
Helmut: Your comment illuminates so much about the terribly limiting nature of physical disabilities. I especially appreciated the expansion of the temporary-crutches story into understanding the lives and frustrations of the permenantly-disabled, particularly people with physical disabilities.
Empathy point #1: I broke an ankle and experianced frustrations similar to yours. I gave up trying to use crutches on stairs at home. I had to sit down and lift my butt up step-by-step, like a toddler scooting across the floor.
Empathy point #2: Bellowing the car was part of the prelude that led to my diagnosis. On the drive home, I contemplated an ‘accident’ on the BW Parkway. Got in the fast lane, unbuckled my seatbelt, considered each approaching piling supporting the over-pass roads. “This one? The next one?”
Wow, I’m putting up lots of comment today. (Great topic, Cerb.) I should take a break and work on other stuff. (Yes, I DO work every day!)
I love you guys. I do want to assure that the dunning kruger reference in my next post were not influenced by this thread.
Cartoons. Hidiously stupid ones.
.14 bac
Living large on wingnut welfare.
…
I wonder what appeals to him about being a Spartan? Being outnumbered 10 to one by their slaves? Being enrolled in the military training program at age 7? living in the woods for years, eating only what he could steal… from slaves? Joining the army from age 20 to age 60? institutional pederasty? Living in a city that was an effective matriarchy because the men were either dead or at war all the time?
I wonder what appeals to him about being a Spartan?
Don’t forget the infanticide.
you volunteer…that’s one of the best jobs and one of the things i’ve admired you for
Thanks. I haven’t yet decided what to volunteer for in NM. Maybe something to do with critters this time? Any Sadlie suggestions?
(((Back in Baltimore, I narrated books for the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. My voice has since disintegrated into hoarseness–I enjoy the sweet smoke! Also, I’ve had extensive dental work…and the upper-plate makes it difficult it to pronounce some words.)))
Excluding what I pay in subsidised rent and my on-going payments to the dentist, I live on $350 a month. I spend it all on crystal skulls and cabana boys.
Given Fox’s aging demographic, I wonder what percent of the viewers are on some form of disability? Ahh, they can always say they’re one of the “real” disabled and the rest are fake. Hypocricy knows no bounds.
(((Back in Baltimore, I narrated books for the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. My voice has since disintegrated into hoarseness–I enjoy the sweet smoke! Also, I’ve had extensive dental work…and the upper-plate makes it difficult it to pronounce some words.)))
Couldn’t you narrate just the scary books?
Or for comedic effect, the sexy ones? Here’s the relevant SNL skit transcript
(Premise: book-on-tape recording session; Sex by Madonna; textual interpretation, Charlton Heston; photo responses, Danny DeVito.)
Given Fox’s aging demographic, I wonder what percent of the viewers are on some form of disability? Ahh, they can always say they’re one of the “real” disabled and the rest are fake. Hypocricy knows no bounds.
ads are mostly for scooter chairs and the walk in tub…so, yeah…i’ve noticed the ‘i’m disabled, you’re not!’ complex more and more lately and wonder where it comes from…
I wonder what appeals to him about being a Spartan?
Intercrural?
CRA: Haven’t checked to see if NM even a specialized library for the blind. It might be up in Santa Fe; that’s the location of most “state stuff”.
Love Phil Hartmen !!! Comic genius, top-drawer impersonator, so versatile. I probably miss him more than any of the other SNL actors who have died. (John Belushi, Gilda Radnor, Chris Farley)
A Spartan? I see we have yet another idiot whose knowledge about Sparta came from watching 300 too many times.
He might be talking about the cyborg super soldiers from Halo. The main character was called Master Chief, which is the coolest title on the planet.
Given Fox’s aging demographic, I wonder what percent of the viewers are on some form of disability?
Judging by the Fox viewers I have actually met— admittedly a very limited sampling— here’s what I’ve noticed
1) they’re getting a nice pension from their union job
2) most of them worked for some level of government
3) they’re getting Social Security
4) THEY deserve all these things, but those n****** moochers don’t.
I remember that a long time ago, a Very Serious Journalist named John Stoessel did a piece that showed a dude who was on disability carrying firewood into his house.
Of course that means that everyone on disability is a scamming asshole who uses a fireplace.
Yeah, Fenwick, too bad about Phil Hartman. He’s one of the comics who made a lasting impression on me.
For Smut
Thanks. I think.
When we first took the Doktorling Sonja travelling with us, I made her a little t-shirt that proclaimed her nationality to be “New Sjælland”. It was received well in Copenhagen.
I wonder what appeals to him about being a Spartan?
If he wants to be from Laconia, he needs to work on the laconic part.
So turns out, not every story has a sad ending.
Added an addendum to the post detailing the end of my girlfriends emotional roller-coaster week.
Shorter: They called her back and offered her a different job with more responsibility because the person who did that job quit suddenly and they are desperate enough to drop the whole “no, we only want able-bodied workers who are willing to work for less than market rate” shtick.
So yay, happyish ending!
Woohoo! Emotional rollercoasters suck, but sometimes you get off in a good place.
Addendum to my addendum:
Disabled workers shouldn’t have to hope for a lucky bounce of employer desperation just to be given the chance to prove they can be capable workers. The fact that that is how the system is stacked against is depressing and it’s one more example of the machine of capitalism being something out of an Amnesia game.
This quote could go out and get a job at an IMAX, because IT’S TOTALLY PROJECTION. Seriously – out of context, it would be totally plausible to lead this sentence with “What’s happening in the far-right speaking circuit is that…”
To find out who the REAL moochers are, google “26 trillion bailout US Federal Reserve”
Hint: you’ll never hear this story on Pox news, or any other MSM… except Bloomberg and Forbes, believe it or not.
think I’m making this up? Go ahead, ask Mr. Google, I double dare ya!
See, if Socialism needed a $26 trillion bailout, ya think you might hear about THAT on the news.
but when Capitalism gets it—- radio silence!
YAYS!!!!
Wooooooohoooooooo!!!11!!.
Heefinheee!!!
…
the great gun saga: part quattro:
sc/pga:
oh, wah, wah! poor nra…they never get their way!
Chris Muir kicks that idiot ass who does the ducky filmore thing. Though Muir is also a useless tool.
…
cerb…that is fantastic news! well, except for the part where they are still douchebags…buy yay!!! the pollyanna part of me is hoping that they will figure out what they did wrong…and they could have already had her on board and ready to step into the emergency vacancy…but yay, again! and yay for you for being published!
Got the new wheel laced up minus one spoke.
31 14/15 or 2.0 mm 1.8 mm double butted spokes and one 15/16 found its way into the box. The differences are miniscule but I could tell immediately and it has been years since I have built a wheel from scratch.
Weeeesseed
Disabled workers shouldn’t have to hope for a lucky bounce of employer desperation just to be given the chance to prove they can be capable workers.
Not just the disabled. At 50+ years old, if anything happened to my airline gig I’d be effectively unemployable.
Not just the disabled. At 50+ years old, if anything happened to my airline gig I’d be effectively unemployable.
oh come now, major…murika treats its vets with special preference…oh, yeah…that’s right…i just watched ‘the best years of our lives’ last night…
Holy shit. Just got a text from my drummer saying
That we were going to rehearse at a studio with eight marshall stacks and two sets of kenny aronoff’s drums. Double bass drums natch.
Need to think about a nap and prepare for blisters.
Tomorrow might suck, but tonight looks like it will be a blast.
…
Just got a text from my drummer
Alex, I’ll take “things I’ll never say as long as I live” for $500.
Battle-o-the-Bands: The Cerberus Edition
All these a extracted from Cerb’s post. (Later I’ll try to work up a Comments B-o-t-B.)
Quaint Fiction
People Are Blurry
Notorious Gossips
Accept the Premise
Suspiciously High
Painful Straw
Punch Something
Rage Stars
Mango Cruise
No Maps
Walk Away Whistling
Ministrations of Time
Steve and His Gang
Desperate Proles
Drugged Out Truckers
Big Casino
Three Neurons
Machine Underclass
Genocide’s Joke
Yell at the Heavens
Holy shit. Just got a text from my drummer saying
That we were going to rehearse at a studio with eight marshall stacks and two sets of kenny aronoff’s drums. Double bass drums natch.
On my way.
Come on down major an t’sam!!!
…
Every time I get a text from my drummer it’s FULL OF DERP.
texting the drummer…
TEXTS FROM
DOGDRUMMERMine is a stealthy hilarion. Untill you really get to know the guy you would have no idea. We were coughing up some place holding lyrics for a fresh number last fall and he coughed up a line including dingo boots and alpha bits, and maybe you had to be there, but that shit had me literally rolling on the ground for three minutes. And yes I was laughing my ass off.
…
Aww, I was hoping “crystal skulls and cabana boys” would be on the band name list.
Congrats, Cerebus and girlfriend! I hope she gets a raise soon.
Congratulations to your girlfriend, Cerb. I wish her all good things.
Battle-o-the-Bands: Comments, Part One.
Sociopathic Toddlers
Change the Rules
Result of Shredding
Snow Blower
Snowy Impediment
Distillation of Why
Inherent Desire
Jump Start
Proxies in Virginia
Out of Pocket
Carrying a Clipboard
Stow the Crutches
Cartoon Rage Monster
Weird Ways
Mood Disorders
Out-Patient Clinic
Put On a Mask
Kingdom of the Brainless
Creamed by a Car
Zero Celebrities
Crystal Skulls
Cabana Boys
Scooter Chairs
Walk-In Tub
Talking About the Cyborg
Emotional Rollercoasters
Amnesia Game
Lucky Bounce
Minus One Spoke
Cerb: Happy, happy, happy, happy !!!!
Also for Provider. Sounds like wicked-good fun.
Nice work Fenwick on the culling. I promise pictures of the place.
…
@bbkf – the NRA whining about “compromise” is hilarious. Would have loved to see Biden turn to them and say, “OK, here’s a compromise: you stop shilling weapons of death and inducing paranoia, and we don’t seize every dollar in profits the gun industry has made since 1980. Deal?”
Half the problem is the NRA pushing “your 2nd Amendment rights supersede your right to not get shot by random weirdos who think Obama is trying to mind-control them using their toothpaste” noise for YEARS.
Shorter: They called her back and offered her a different job with more responsibility because the person who did that job quit suddenly and they are desperate enough to drop the whole “no, we only want able-bodied workers who are willing to work for less than market rate” shtick.
That is a happyish ending, though I imagine she won’t ever be able to set foot in that building without thinking about their readiness to throw her under the bus (in this case, a real bus, not a proverbial one).
Loyalty to one’s employer is a thing of the past. It’s sad that you have to maintain a “hired gun” mentality, but the atmosphere out there has been set by the “job creators”.
histrogeek skrev:
The irony here, which is so crushing that it could be used to implode God, is that what they object to is the New Deal, which was intended as a desperate attempt to save capitalism from the capitalists and wound up with them viewing it as basically interchangeable with the Communist takeover they dreaded, hence their concerted generational effort to undo it.
Dennis: I don’t think you understand how the game works: Band names for the Battle-o-the-Bands are derived solely from previous text in the thread.
Of course, now your band names DO appear in the thread’s text … and are therefore eligible for the next Battle-o-the-Bands. (Unless the Volunteer Public Works Department deletes them.) In my estimation, four of your bands are clever enough to make the list (at least if I was selecting the bands).
Being a good Sadlyburg citizen, I normally obey the signs at both ends of the bridge, which caution against provoking or feeding trolls. Please interpret this comment ONLY as an explanation.
I imagine she won’t ever be able to set foot in that building without thinking about their readiness to throw her under the bus
Welcome to Corporate America.
It’s moot now: The Volunteer Public Works Department has cleaned the thread.
The irony here, which is so crushing that it could be used to implode God, is that what they object to is the New Deal, which was intended as a desperate attempt to save capitalism from the capitalists and wound up with them viewing it as basically interchangeable with the Communist takeover they dreaded, hence their concerted generational effort to undo it.
Well put. The idea of capitalism as “The Unknown Ideal,” widely misunderstood and never truly tried, has become universal on the right. Consequently, they can’t understand the past … “Ideal” is my key objection. It’s not an ideal system even in its proper sphere, and outside economics, it’s just irrelevant, even as a rough metaphor for how to live, love, learn, believe, or whatever.
But yeah, it’s misunderstood, particularly if I decide that people who don’t share my assessment of it are ignorant. As for whether capitalism or communism has been tried, we’d have to set some ground rules before making meaningful distinctions. I dunno who could accomplish that sort of problem-setting, but definitely not libertarians and wingnuts.
The idea that severely spooked western leaders took pragmatic steps to blunt the harsh effects of capitalism on the masses, not primarily for the masses’ benefit but to prevent their awakening as a revolutionary leftist threat, is a historical fact, full stop; but in wingnuttia, it didn’t — couldn’t — happen that way.
I don’t have an original point. The fuckers are hard to communicate with. Austin Loomis is right and stuff.
I gotta say, sociopaths are getting a really bum rap lately.
Because even sociopaths can do that math and say why we need people or safety nets. There’s so many non-empathetic proofs for needing them – as well as historical data – that it astounds me that anyone would blame them for a mere lack of empathy.
These guys are actively malicious, not sociopathic. They feed on the need to put others down.
There are two objections to that. the first is sociopaths are just like the rest of us, in that half of them are of below average intelligence and your dumber sociopath can’t or won’t see the connection. The other objection is that they aren’t necessarily educated in history. How much time do you recall learning about the French and Russian revolutions in total in every history class you took before college? I’m guessing less than five hours. These days it’s probably even less than that now that every class is being taught as some kind of Kaplan test prep course for no-child-left-behind testing.
The sun-god Horus was worshipped nearly 1,000 years before the story of Jesus. Check these parallels:
1.Both were conceived of a virgin.
2.Both were the “only begotten son” of a god (either Osiris or Yahweh)
3.Horus’s mother was Meri, Jesus’s mother was Mary.
4.Horus’s foster father was called Jo-Seph, and Jesus’s foster father was Joseph.
5.Both foster fathers were of royal descent.
6.Both were born in a cave (although sometimes Jesus is said to have been born in a stable).
7.Both had their coming announced to their mother by an angel.
Horus; birth was heralded by the star Sirius (the morning star). Jesus had his birth heralded by a star in the East (the sun rises in the East).
8.Ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus on December 21 (the Winter Solstice). Modern Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25.
9.Both births were announced by angels (this si nto the same as number 7).
10.Both had shepherds witnessing the birth.
11.Horus was visited at birth by “three solar deities” and Jesus was visited by “three wise men”.
12.After the birth of Horus, Herut tried to have Horus murdered. After the birth of Jesus, Herod tried to have Jesus murdered.
13.To hide from Herut, the god That tells Isis, “Come, thou goddess Isis, hide thyself with thy child.” To hide from Herod, an angel tells Joseph to “arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt.”
14.When Horus came of age, he had a special ritual where hsi eye was restored. When Jesus (and other Jews) come of age, they have a special ritual called a Bar Mitzvah.
15.Both Horus and Jesus were 12 at this coming-of-age ritual.
Neither have any official recorded life histories between the ages of 12 and 30.
16.Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus. Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan.
17.Both were baptized at age 30.
18.Horus was baptized by Anup the Baptizer. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
19.Both Anup and John were later beheaded.
20.Horus was taken from the desert of Amenta up a high mountain to be tempted by his arch-rival Set. Jesus was taken from the desert in Palestine up a high mountain to be tempted by his arch-rival Satan.
21.Both Horus and Jesus successfully resist this temptation.
22.Both have 12 disciples.
23.Both walked on water, cast out demons, healed the sick, and restored sight to the blind.
24.Horus “stilled the sea by his power.” Jesus commanded the sea to be still by saying, “Peace, be still.”
25.Horus raised his dead father (Osiris) from the grave. Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. (Note the similarity in names when you say them out loud. Further, Osiris was also known as Asar, which is El-Asar in Hebrew, which is El-Asarus in Latin.)
26.Osiris was raised in the town of Anu. Lazarus was raised in Bethanu (literally, “house of Anu”).
27.Both gods delivered a Sermon on the Mount.
28.Both were crucified.
29.Both were crucified next to two thieves.
30.Both were buried in a tomb.
31.Horus was sent to Hell and resurrected in 3 days. Jesus was sent to Hell and came back “three days” later (although Friday night to Sunday morning is hardly three days).
32.Both had their resurrection announced by women.
33.Both are supposed to return for a 1000-year reign.
34.Horus is known as KRST, the anointed one. Jesus was known as the Christ (which means “anointed one”).
35.Both Jesus and Horus have been called the good shepherd, the lamb of God, the bread of life, the son of man, the Word, the fisher, and the winnower.
36.Both are associated with the zodiac sign of Pisces (the fish).
37.Both are associated with the symbols of the fish, the beetle, the vine, and the shepherd’s crook.
38.Horus was born in Anu (“the place of bread”) and Jesus was born in Bethlehem (“the house of bread”).
39.”The infant Horus was carried out of Egypt to escape the wrath of Typhon. The infant Jesus was carried into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Concerning the infant Jesus, the New Testament states the following prophecy: ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son.'”
40.Both were transfigured on the mount.
41.The catacombs of Rome have pictures of the infant Horus being held by his mother, not unlike the modern-day images of “Madonna and Child.”
Noted English author C. W. King says that both Isis and Mary are called “Immaculate”.
42.Horus says: “Osiris, I am your son, come to glorify your soul, and to give you even more power.” And Jesus says: “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.”
Horus was identified with the Tau (cross).
i have a militant missouri synod lutheran friend who would claim that the above horus stuff is patently false…because it is not in the bible…
john prine explains j.c.’s missing years…
My wife developed MS while under a long-term disability insurance plan. When she was eventually forced to go on disability*, the insurance company quickly got her signed up for Social Security Disability. Why? To reduce their (the insurance company’s) liability. Getting her on SS reduced their financial obligation to her by about 50%. It’s a standard play by LTD insurers.
So SS Disability also aids insurance companies, in case you didn’t know.
*There are many dickish ways to make work life unbearable for the disabled. I think nobody’s surprised about that.
Sociopaths are generally driven to self satisfaction. They don’t really give a fat shit about people starving or doing without health care or a decent education. They’re more concerned about feeding their own monsters than dealing with social monsters that don’t really affect them.
So the argument that far right conservatives/fascists are sociopaths holds up, I think. The idea that they can vilify any innocent group to promote their own agenda and rally their troops clearly shows that they have no capacity for empathy or the ability to separate right from wrong, even in the most simple of ethical dilemmas.
This, of course, only applies to assholes like Selwyn Duke and Osama Bin Laden. We’re talking about fascists who use the specter of some group taking over and subjugating them to motivate young, disaffected (primarily) males into violent action.
This also applies to chickenhawk presidents that send kids over to the Middle East to fight wars that were specifically conceived and managed to be endless and costly. They have their own motives–Obama wants to look like a fucking tough guy, and Bush was feeding his defense contractor constituents like Haliburton and the like–but the net result is a whole goddamn bunch of people dying. And they somehow manage to rationalize this shit to themselves and Americans that are sleepwalking through life–just waiting for their next fix of reality television or an alcohol binge.
That they can convince themselves that it’s OK to just let these things play out while people are dying every day is a clear indication of a moral deficit.
No, Meri was not Horus’ mother, that was Isis. She wasn’t a virgin having just sewn Osiris back together, except for his PENIS which was eaten by a catfish (in some older tellings his PENIS survives) then brings him back to life and crafts a gold PENIS and they have hawt sex.
Jesus is “sometimes” said to be born in a stable? BULLSHIT. As is much of the rest of that list.
There were lots of mystery cults with dying and rising gods back then, notably – because it was one of the main antecedents of Xianity – the Roman cult of Sol Invictus. Most of them celebrated the birth near the solstice because that’s when such gods are born. It comes from the agricultural nature of their lives – that’s when the sun starts returning. Jesus wasn’t born on the 25th. If there even was a Jesus his birthdate was assigned by the early church leaders to coincide with Saturnalia. That was in the fourth century because prior to that the early Xians did not celebrate Jesus birthday.
There were certain celebration days including Preparation Day, Passover, and Pentecost. The Nativity is not mentioned. See Origen, Against Celsus, VIII.22.
I won’t bother to debunk any more of that but rest assured, most of it is bullshit.
If you have an interest in such things, I recommend almost any by Robert Price or Earl Doherty. Richard Carrier is also a great source for actual facts and shit. Bart Ehrman’s earlier works are also good but “Did Jesus Exist” is total bullshit, full of misrepresentations, outright lies, full of fallacious arguments. Oh, Elaine Pagels also too.
Also FYWP
Anecdata: I’m a sociopath and I see the need for safety nets.
Anecdata: I’m a sociopath and I see the need for safety nets.
Yeaaaaaahhhh, I’m pretty much gonna hafta say no
I won’t bother to debunk any more of that but rest assured, most of it is bullshit.
well, poo! but my militant missouri synod friend says that any ‘religion’ before jesus was not so…jesus is the one and only and there wasn’t anything before that…
thanks for the recommended reading…i’ve been wanting to ‘splore some of this stuff…i’ve forgotten quite a bit of what i learned in my world history and religion to 500 class…the prof was named mimi and was a ‘character’…she made her own text book…i’ll have to dig that out too…
Erich von Daniken is also very good.
Well, I’m disappointed. I was a Missouri synod Lutheran before I gave up on religion for good. I even went to parochial school from k-3rd grade and went to Sunday school and got confirmed and everything, and we were never taught anything so profoundly ignorant. We were taught before jesus was jews, and any religion that wasn’t that was just straight up idolatry. Any similarities to magical jewish zombie carpenters was just satan being tricky and unoriginal. Sheesh. Your friend can’t even get her xenophobic dogma right.
…at what? because it isn’t history.
Because…ALIENS
If the Christians had made Jesus up whole sale, they wouldn’t have made him a convicted felon from Nazereth.
If the Christians had made Jesus up whole sale, they wouldn’t have made him a convicted felon from Nazereth.
although it fits in so well with their persecution complex…
Pagels’ The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics is a fairly easy read and gives a faskinatin look at the early development, focusing mostly on the politics, of the church.
Bart Ehrman’s , Misquoting Jesus is similarly not a heavy read. It presents a great account of how the sacred texts we have came to be what they are. Scribal errors, interpolations, all laid out in exquisite detail.
If you’re interested in the historicity of Jesus (my main amateur scholarly pursuit) you should not read Did Jesus Exist, a pile of turds. The rebuttal Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist?, is very much worth reading. The authors, Carrier, Price, Doherty and other Mythicists, slap Ehrman upside the haid with an iron glove. Reading it will send you to the dictionary quite a few times and you’ll also be googling stuff furiously. It’s a bit of a slog but you’ll find all sorts of things to look into further.
If you’re a masochist, you can read some of Robert M. Price’s stuff but you’ll be looking up every other word and googling shit every sentence. It IS worth doing, you’ll learn a whole lot of stuff and keep saying “I see why they didn’t cover that that in church!”
Earl Doherty’s stuff is all very accessible and you’ll likely strain your levator palpebrae superioris from all the really neat stuff that was suppressed or ignored by the early church leaders on their way to developing what is now Xian orthodoxy.
Your link on Earl Doherty is borked.
If the Christians had made Jesus up whole sale, they wouldn’t have made him a convicted felon from Nazereth.
They didn’t so much make him up wholesale as invented him over the course of many generations. There were any number of Jesus cults who had different takes on the story – most of them docetist, btw – that amalgamated and merged and morphed and shit over the course of a couple hundred years. Jesus is, IMHO, best viewed as urban legend.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=earl%20doherty&sprefix=earl+do%2Cstripbooks%2C334&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Aearl%20doherty
If that don’t work go to Amazone, search in books for Earl Doherty.
OT snowpocalypse update: 10 inches of snow on the ground, it just started snowing again with 3 to 7 inches more expected here by tonight. At which point we are supposed to top the whole thing off with a half inch of freezing rain. It’s really pretty but we just don’t know how to deal with this shit around here.
My wife missed the 20 car pileup that shutdown I-5 yesterday by 5 minutes because she works for the one school district in the area that thought it would be a good idea to keep school open even in a total whiteout. They changed their minds an hour after she got there.
My wife missed the 20 car pileup that shutdown I-5 yesterday by 5 minutes because she works for the one school district in the area that thought it would be a good idea to keep school open even in a total whiteout. They changed their minds an hour after she got there.
You know, they pull that bullshit here in Spokane during those freak snowstorms that dump more than 6″ at once. It’s fucking stupid. Employers, my clients (dumbshit contractors), school officials…all these fucking people give no thought to the lives they’re endangering. It won’t kill anybody to stay home and let the municipal/county workers get the roads cleared without a bunch of people clogging up the roads and blocking the plows.
They changed their minds an hour after she got there.
man, i would have been pissed! one thing i really, really appreciate in not being on the air full-time anymore is bad weather…#1 weather related announcements blow…tedious, tedious stuff and being a one person studio meant not getting much done but answering the phone #2 either getting up before the crack of dawn to leave well early enough in case of getting stuck or going off the road because the plows haven’t even been out yet #3 having to stay overnight at the station…thank bog i never had to stay out in the original building which was a decrepit old schoolhouse out in the country…our last building which took a serious hit in the big storm we had in june used to be a furniture store…and before that a furniture store/funeral parlor combo…creepy as fuck staying there! had some pretty surreal moments in the middle of the night…makes me shiver to think of it…
The Volunteer Public Works Department professionals will be along eventually. I urge citizens to obey the Troll Warning signs by the Sadlyville bridge. Do not provoke. Do not feed.
bbfk: I hear ya. Nasty weather during a solo radio shift is no fun, no fun at all. I’m sure Minnesota has tornadoes … but southeast Kansas is smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley. Constantly running back and forth from the booth to check the NWS teleprinter. (Hey, it was back in the Cretaceous: pre-computers, pre-internet.) And the phone going nutso.
I was on a solo weekend shift when nearby Cherryvale, Kansas got chewed up by a tornado. [No deaths, minor injuries]. I’ve seldom experienced such stress.
The only time I ever had a radio show, bad weather was a given. Of course, it was only a two hour show, during the winter I stayed in Antarctica, and the studio was like 200 yards from my dorm, and during blizzards, I could simply follow the ropes strung from building to building.
At least our studio was in town [Independence, KS]; So I didn’t face the ‘isolation’ problem (i.e., having to stay overnight). If the snow or ice was too bad for safe driving, then I could trudge a mile to the station, which was located in a small one-story building formerly an insurance agency.
during the winter I stayed in Antarctica,
You gotta tell us the story !!! This sounds fascinating.
tagfail. I blame Benghazi.
If it makes anyone feel any better, and also if it don’t, The Omagerd Snowpacochoco here is that it *stopped*. Lake Superior has pretty much locked up for the winter, which means our daily 2 to 12 inches isn’t coming no mer. This place lives and dies on tourism, so with fewer snowmobiles, the piles in the tills are gonna get shorter. Oh well. The sun is shining.
They’re forecasting just enough snow in Memphis tonight to make my life miserable.
Oh well. The sun is shining.
it’s a lovely day today here…sun is shining it is 12 degrees out and just a light breeze…stuff is actually melting! now if the city would just get out there and scrape up all the melty stuff before it re-freezes life would be a bag of tits!
I used to comment here under the username 77south, which referred to the location of McMurdo Station at 77degrees south latitude. Then I realized that username was getting obsolete, because I was only there for a year from October 99 to October 2000, so my year there was increasingly irrelevant to my current situation.
But briefly, I was made redundant from my job as the system admin of a glass factory, and during the time I was training my replacement I recalled a conversation I had with a ski patroller at the Illinois ski resort where I taught skiing for a few seasons. She had met a hiring manager for Antarctic Support Associates, who hired all of the non scientists in the US Antarctic Program. So I looked them up and filled out a job application in March or April. Fast forward to August, my last day at the glass factory had been in May, and I was reduced to working at the help desk at UW Madison to keep sleeping indoors. So, on that lazy August afternoon, I answered the phone to a nice lady asking me if I was still looking for work, and how I felt about foreign travel and cold.
I explained the four years I spent as a downhill ski instructor and the three years I spent growing up in Norway, and she agreed that I might be able to handle the weather. She mentioned that I wasn’t their first choice but the first three or four people they had tried to hire failed to physically qualify. Then I had to physically qualify which basically meant I got tested for a every common disease, and got a physical more thorough than anything short of the space program. I spent the next month getting my wisdom teeth pulled and my stuff packed and my apartment sublet and flew south October of 1999 I spent the next few months building computers from parts so that we wouldn’t have to worry about y2k on the ice. After new years, we did regular computer maintenance till the end of the summer season in February.
At the end of the summer season I learned their telephone tech also failed to PQ, and since I signed up as a winter over alternate, I got trained to install cabling and spent the winter installing telephone, ethernet, fiber optic and cable TV coax all over McMurdo station. I learned how to terminate fiber optic cabling and since someone in purchasing neglected to buy patch cables, I ended up using up all of 200 of our connectors making 50 patch cables.
I went swimming in the Ross sea, when our Kiwi neighbors just over the hill would cut through six feet of sea ice to make a swimming hole. I rode a helicopter twice, once to help gas up the generators in the seismograph stations in the dry valleys and once as a boondoggle to look at whales and penguins at the edge of the sea ice 20 miles from base.
Afterwards I backpacked and surfed in New Zealand for a month and Australia for 3 weeks and spent a week in Thailand. I cut my planned trip to Africa, since my little sister got my truck stolen for me when she borrowed it to go to a concert in the twin cities. (I didn’t realize I was still bitter about that) Worst part was, they found my truck and I got it back with a broken window after the thieves took it joyriding god knows where. (my preference would have been to take the insurance money and buy a new truck or keep traveling) So it was a great experience and I’d spend another summer there in a heartbeat, to get me to do another winter would take a lot of convincing. The cold and dark was brutal.
I was on a solo weekend shift when nearby Cherryvale, Kansas got chewed up by a tornado. [No deaths, minor injuries]. I’ve seldom experienced such stress.
that would suck…we had some major flooding the spring of ’97…after record snowfall amounts…and ice! omg, the ice that year! thank god we were a three person staff going through that winter…that’s the year my hatred for weather related announcements began…we were just starting to automate then, so you had to record the wx relateds to replay over and over…you would just get them done, get your hour timed out…and the phone would ring with another one…
I used to comment here under the username 77south,
i wondered what happened to that guy!
Bagoas’ first snow has turned him into a maniac. There’s a big vacant lot next door with some frozen puddles. He was running around like a madman, hit the slick ice, faceplanted and slid ten feet. Wish I had video.
They’re call for another six inches here. We got 3 – 5 yesterday which was enough to shut things down just about completely. Fortunately for us, looks like OBS is in for worse. Not so fortunate for him. Maybe I can brighten up your day OBS by saying the 2014 Full Sail bourbon barrel aged stout is being released in the next week or so. There’s a tasting (somewhere here in PDX, got to look it up) where they’ll serve each of the three varieties as well as the final blend.
BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI BENGHAZI!! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI!
tales of the gun, continued:
i pretty much cut and pasted what chris said earlier today:
@bbkf – the NRA whining about “compromise” is hilarious. Would have loved to see Biden turn to them and say, “OK, here’s a compromise: you stop shilling weapons of death and inducing paranoia, and we don’t seize every dollar in profits the gun industry has made since 1980. Deal?”
Half the problem is the NRA pushing “your 2nd Amendment rights supersede your right to not get shot by random weirdos who think Obama is trying to mind-control them using their toothpaste” noise for YEARS.
and here’s his response:
sc/pga:
haha, my ideals have blinded me, but his aggressively dogmatic stance on everything is a-okay…l to the o effing l…
also, that was the worst minnesota accent attempt i’ve ever seen…
Assuming he’s correct that the NRA’s position on gun control (NO!! NEVER!!!11!) truly reflects that of “most gun owners” (which I doubt), “true gun control” and “acceptable to most gun owners” are non-intersecting sets.
Helmut Monotreme said,
February 7, 2014 at 22:41
Cool story, brah. No really – I’m jealous.
Like the NRA really wants to discuss gun control! They don’t even want gun violence studied!
Gun control according gun nuts is letting them buy machine guns and grenades again.
Fenwick, here’s one for the battle of the bands:
His PENIS Survives
Like they can now buy automatic – oops, ‘scuse me – semiautomatic weapons again?
But, no, I suspect “gun control” according to the NRA (and whatever other front group the weapons manufacturers come up with) has more to do with maximizing profits.
Just got back from our big annual meeting regarding our healthcare coverage. While the plan is largely identical to our past plans, there is now a law in place mandating dental and vision care for dependents up to the age of 19, even with strictly “medical” coverage (because an adult’s eyes and teeth aren’t part of their body, doncha know).
THANKS, OBAMA!
Gun control means using two hands.
One to hold the picture of the dead n***er and the other to violently jerk the fuck off all over that picture.
holy shit…where did that come from?
Helmut, figure out a title and start blogging, man!
We’re up to 13 inches in the yard now and no sign of stopping. Thanks for the heads up regarding the Stout — I’ll keep my eyes open for it.
Sorry…but your liberalism has you blinded too much to continue this conversation.
Now THAT’s a flounce!
We’re up to 13 inches in the yard now and no sign of stopping.
GEEEEZ. We’re up to 2″ here in Spoklahoma. I feel inadequate.
Helmut, my little brother also spent a summer in the Antarctic. He loved it.
A marine biologist by trade, he would be lowered below the ice through a hole blasted in it and tied to ropes while he collected krill samples. The ice would close over him if he was not up and out in 20 minutes.
He said the experience that stayed with him the most was coming back to NZ after and seeing ducks and ponds and little kids and old people – culture shock after the White bubble was intense.
Sorry…but your liberalism has you blinded too much to continue this conversation.
Hm, yeah, sorry, but your intellectual laziness has made progress in this conversation impossible, considering that you’re ducking out of it instead of thinking harder than your own hard line mentality.
Helmut, suezboo, have you seen Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World? It’s a gorgeous film, with some very funny vignettes.
I 2nd B^4 recommendation, it’s a good film.
It’s a good film but I prefer William Dyer’s documentary At The Mountains Of Madness.
Clark Ashton Smith as well wrote a history of one Antarctic denizen but I don’t think a movie was made from it.
It’s one of his synopses of stories he meant to write but never got around to doing so.
Anybody looked at Bobo’s latest?
Clark Ashton Smith as well wrote a history of one Antarctic denizen but I don’t think a movie was made from it.
It’s one of his synopses of stories he meant to write but never got around to doing so.
Are you guys thinking of The Coming of the White Worm?
Also, Guillermo Del Toro was thinking of filming an adaptation of Eich Peeyell’s At the Mountains of Madness, but Prometheus kinda stepped on his dick.
Getting back to VonDaniken for a moment, there’s a neat essay, Chariots of the Old Ones, positing that he was writing a Cthulhu Mythos pastiche.
Anybody looked at Bobo’s latest?
driftglass (who else?) has eviscerated it.
No, the White Worm is in the Hyperborea series, which is clearly located in the Northern Hemisphere of Clarks fictitious Earth. The Antarctic synopsis is called “The Thing from the Antarctic”. The stories and the synopses can be found here:
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/
Every year, an average of 9,200 Americans are murdered by handguns, according to Department of Justice statistics. This does not include suicides or the tens of thousands of robberies, rapes and assaults committed with handguns.
This level of violence must be stopped. Sarah and Jim Brady are working hard to do that, and I say more power to them. If the passage of the Brady bill were to result in a reduction of only 10 or 15 percent of those numbers (and it could be a good deal greater), it would be well worth making it the law of the land.
And there would be a lot fewer families facing anniversaries such as the Bradys, Delahantys, McCarthys and Reagans face every March 30.
Eldritch Dark is one of my all time favorite websites. I actually cut-and-pasted all of the Hyperborea, Averoigne, and Zothique cycles from the site into Open Office Docs and then created PDFs. I’m partial to the Averoigne stories- Gaspard du Nord is the closest thing CAS has to a conventional protagonist.
I have to say, though, that The Seven Geases may be my single favorite CAS story- it was a clear inspiration for Jack Vance’s The Eyes of the Overworld.
My favorite story for recitation purposes is The Last Incantation.
It’s one of his synopses of stories he meant to write but never got around to doing so.
Allow me some artisticalish license, wouldja?
god must watch Fox News
My favorite story for recitation purposes is The Last Incantation.
That is a good one, one of the few in which one of CAS’s “weird sorceror” types exhibits any genuine human emotion.
The Door to Saturn is a hoot, it ends up being a weird “mismatched buddy” narrative. Get Nick Nolte to play Morghi the Inquisitor and Eddie Murphy to play Eibon, and you’d have box office gold.
No. God is supposed to be an INTELLIGENTdesigner.
No. God is supposed to be an INTELLIGENT designer.
God’s overdue in issuing an appendix recall.
Butter chicken, saffron rice (basmati of course), aloo gobi. Making “naanas” but without a tandoor it’s just bread. Oh well.
DIY tandoor, Pup. Make it happen!
box office gold.
Shirley you mean “Box-office strange red metal, darker than ruddy gold or copper”.
At The Mountains Of Madness
Big sister spent a season on the ice doing sciency stuff but did not report encountering any 5-fold-symmetrical monstrous entities.
There are certain minimum health requirements to be met before flying to Antarctica, so no chance of Smut-related activities there.
Helmut: Thanks for taking the time to tell the Antarctica story! Also it sounds like you had some marvelous traveling adventures after you left there. I’m continually surprised by the remarkable backgrounds that Sadlies have.
Yes, Helmut, that was a fascinating story.
srsly…the u.s.a.’s olympic gear tonight…ewww…how many grandmas did they have knitting that shit…also, the history of russia…mmmm…dragged on a bit…
Battle-O-the-Bands Comments, Part 2
Prepare for Blisters
Stealthy Hilarion
Dingo Boots
Toothpaste Noise
Rough Metaphor
Blunt the Harsh
Born in a Cave
Symbols of the Fish
Wrath of Typhon
Social Monsters
Sleepwalking Through Life
Poo
Scribal Errors
Mythicists
20 Car Pileup
Follow the Ropes
Bag of Tits
Seismograph Stations
All Over McMurdo
Edge of the Sea Ice
Intersecting Sets
His Penis Survives
Krill Samples
Mountains Of Madness
Mythos Pastiche
Antarctic Synopsis
Zothique Cycles
Appendix Recall
Strange Red Metal
Late entry to BOTB:
How Many Grandmas
Shirley you mean “Box-office strange red metal, darker than ruddy gold or copper”.
Needs the word “extratellurian”…
Coming of the White
Militant Missouri
Mismatched Buddy
Clarks’ fictitious Earth
A Season on the Ice
I’ve been a bit busy lately and haven’t kept up with S,N! the last couple weeks, but I had to stop by to share this with you. Apologies if someone has already posted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmhIlW15qw
Would you like to learn how to speak to an octopus?
PENIS
Pupienus said,
February 8, 2014 at 22:29
PENIS
How appropriate, seeing how that storm totally fucked Portland.
Food porn: Fried calamari pizza slice with just enough pickled hot cherry pepper slices to give a nice, low key mouth burn.
I just got a pic from family in Portland. It’s their back yard, I think. Small flip phone screen and lotsa snow make it hard to tell. My bil is from MI, so he’s no stranger to snow, but in Portland’s another matter.
As I feared it was snowing in Memphis during the early morning launch.
Amazingly enough we were the first ones out the gate so it was a non-event.
I will still submit Memphis Snow Apocalypse for Battle of the Bands.
Food pr0n? Challah French toast with blueberry sauce and whipped cream. Best French toasticles I ever had away from home. http://imgur.com/858QmzG
Grilled hanger steak on cornmeal pancake, roasted jalapeño butter, cheddar eggs. Exquisite. http://imgur.com/O69TChX
Tasty n Alder, yet another John Gorham resto I love.
Bruleed banana panama cotta. http://imgur.com/cO5StpO
Teh Ho suspended their spring radio campaign (aka pledge, though he had outlawed that word) for the storm. Posted to the NPR Facehugger with a pic, saying “canceled for what in PA wouldn’t even be a snow day.” Twin Cities Public TV said OPB should lose their license.
OBS, according to reports and forecast, has already gotten much worse than us and is in for even worse. Corvallis got 18″ to our 7″ and an ice storm is headed their way. Gonna get real ugly real quick.
It
Closer Vassars My
The Hormones Mistake
Hunter Rage Whiteland The
The Hubb’s
The The A
Phone Fenster Digits Sadly
Guns Sarah Raises
Were Soros Band
Band
Offense The and Fen, Blame
My
Piling The From Tokens Bad Not
It
Penchants Once The Re-Uptakes The No Failure In TinTin for Pussies
Priestly Farewell Another Tonan Man All-Whites Failure The Jerome
Missing
Dudes
Nevermind Cerb
Copycats Stereotypical
My
Madeline Shovel-Readies For Toy On Two
The new Herblock documentary is great even despite some of the talking heads belonging to Brooks and Friedman
http://m.hbo.com/documentaries/herblock-the-black-and-the-white/
The freezing rain portion of Snowlandia the Snowmageddon has begun. Getting real ugly out here. Good thing we stocked up on gin Thursday.
WTF, internet? I found this entry in my blog’s “top search terms” for the week: can you use razor clams as dildos?
Just read the IMPORTANT ADDENDUM and woot! Gratz! Glad things have ended well.
Also too, do let us know what book.
ERMAHGERD! NERNERBERTS!
can you use razor clams as dildos?
Gentle Reader,
The food pr0n obsessed Emperor of Portland, himself an initiate of the kinkier realms of both sex and food, appreciates your question. The answer is, sadly, no! This sad fact is due to the diminutive nature of the razor clam. Despair not because geoducks make excellent dildos.
I must ask how that search lead to your blog. I await, intrigued to learn the connection.
Despair not because geoducks make excellent dildos.
Not sure I want to know how this was researched.
The only entry I have with the word “clams” features an embedded video of Shannon and the Clams (too late, Fenwick, it’s taken!), but veers into Arthur Rackham fanboism. I have a couple of posts about Clamato, though.
I can’t imagine anything with the word “razor” in the name makes a good dildo.
EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE
I can’t imagine anything with the word “razor” in the name makes a good dildo.
It would certainly make a humorless one.
I don’t much feel like cooking tonight so I’ll just throw together a Provençal pot roast and a salad. And some fresh baked bread. And maybe fresh pasta but probably not. If I don’t get too spifflicated I’ll make tarte Tatin.
That hardly qualifies as “not cooking”, Pup.
ARF & ARF! (via Le Wonkette)
DA: Your 19:23 comment is rock-solid for B-o-t-B! I didn’t even spot four of them; I considered ‘Militant Missouri’; pitching it was a mistake on my part.
But yer 0:25 list is shakier: I cull the thread looking for quirky band names that appear in what Sadlies have written. For example, Speak to an Octopus [in your 20:30] is a brilliant example
Now that you’ve put up your ‘invented’ band names they are eligible for the next B-o-t-B. But it sorta runs against Sadly traditions, imo. (Also the line breaks are awkward; hard to know what words are intended as band names.) Everybody is welcome to play, of course. For example:
– – – – – –
Major: Memphis Snow Apocalypse is terrific!
– – – – – – – – –
Pup: Excellent food pr0n … with illustrations! It sounds like the Oregonian Sadlies got totally shellacked by the storm. I’m gonna call my brother in Eugene and see how they are coping. The ice sounds awful. Here’s hoping for balmy weather and lots of sunshine [in Oregon???] to melt all this crap away pronto. Also see if you can get some Bogoas in the snow fotos. Your description of the icy faceplant was funneh!
Oregon Snow Apocalypse update: Called my sister-in-law in Eugene–just south of OBS in Corvallis. They had 3″ then a layer of ice. On top of which they got another 7″ topped with a second layer of ice … which brought down lots of power lines. They lost power at mid-afternoon. Unfortunately they live in a semi-rural area just outside Eugene; priority electricity restoration goes to more populated areas–town, then suburbs. They have a wood stove, so that’s good.
Fenwick, I took a list that our puffy troll kept copypassting here, ran it through the Janus Node program, so WYSIWYG.
nonsense nonsense,
people tell
intended regular and
Seems your your can’t
between
DA.
Twin Cities Public TV said OPB should lose their license.
why so? you upper left-coasters have had a shitty bout of weather…and i do feel bad for you…how ever, i am looking forward to new ‘ermegerd we’re sliding!’ pics from portland…
I have a couple of posts about Clamato, though.
i hope they point out how gross and disgusting clamato is…
Clamato is suppose to make alcohol more palatable, not to be palatable by itself.
Clamato’s actually not bad- besides tomato juice, the most significant flavor is celery seed. On the downside, the stuff contains HFCS, even though it’s not particularly sweet.
Think of it as a cold soup and you’ll be less squicked out.
DA: Troll-generated band names only qualify as B-o-t-B candidates if they remain in thread, visible to all. If Volunteer Public Works professionals erase them, then no go. Also Janus Node manipulations defeat the whole purpose of B-o-t-B, and therefore don’t qualify either.
How do I know these things? I have consulted Sadlyburg’s Arcane Top Secret Tome of Imaginary Rules.
(((Wow. Without even thinking about what I was keying, I created three candidate Band Names: Arcane Top … Secret Tome … Imaginary Rules)))
Finally, in my own personal opinion, using erased troll band names violates the spirit of Don’t Feed or Provoke the Trolls. I wish you and the troll would find another venue for your mutual vendetta. (I don’t think I’m alone in that opinion.) Don’t mistake this comment as animus on my part: you have made some fine NON-troll-related contributions to Ville du Sadlie.
(((Again, without thinking, two candidates: Provoke the Trolls … Mutual Vendetta)))
erased troll band names violates the spirit of Don’t Feed or Provoke the Trolls.
He wanted a moment in the sun, and I felt pity for his 4th iteration of the list yesterday. I have also found that Janus Node always improved the Dennis copypasta, but that could be a mere esthetic perception on my part.
Half inch of ice on top of 9″ snow. It’s fugly out there.
Bagoas: http://i.imgur.com/cT4DL7A.jpg http://i.imgur.com/DEwyIM6.jpg
Pup: Half-inch of ice? That must have taken down limbs and power lines everywhere. From Portland up north down to Eugene downsouth–plus OBS in Corvallis–Oregon was really pounded by this monster. (Or more like a double-barrel whammy? One weather front followed by second weather front?) Is any temperature relief on the way? Thread also needs some Comfort Food pr0n.
Past the purple geckos
and the pink-blue dragons of Kandor
There is an imminence of insanity
when a fool considers the river
flowing past him.
Provider: Can we have full techicolor account of yer time in the studio? I imagine Sadlie musicians would enjoy reading it; I know I would….
Looks like the snow went as far south as Cottage Grove, which is about 30 miles south of Eugene.
Half inch of ice on top of 9? snow. It’s fugly out there.
Usually, when there is a shitton of snow, I put on a big pot of Sunday gravy to cook while I shovel snow, then I’ll roll out some fresh pasta when I get back in the house. Hopefully, you won’t have to come up with your own “shitton of snow” tradition.
We’re supposed to get an additional 1″ to 3″. I’ll probably have to dig out yet another spot when I get home from work.
I may have to make Sunday gravy sometime. Sounds pretty good.
Portland and Eugene were Near the northern and southern boundaries. Salem, Corvallis, Dallas got slammed hard. Our 1/2 inch ice over 9 inches snow is mild by comparison. Now we’re getting light rain. Portland doesn’t plow residential streets so most people are faced with packed snow covered in ice with some moisture on top. Even in the West Hills and other hilly areas. Portland sent out an emergency alert (Which everyone with a phone got – the alert tone angered a lot of hungover folks ) at 8 a.m. this morning telling people stay off the fucking roads. I’m making a big batch of bolognese.
Rob Ford blows.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rob-ford-gay-pride-flag
TIL Neutral Milk Hotel is a real band.
Pup: I still remember the hilarious video from you balcony … with cars sliding on icy shallow gradients. It’s like I’m thinking “Don’t do that. Bad idea” … and the driver does exactly that and you watch the collisions develop. I especially like the episode where the driver banged into four or five parked cars before coming to a stop.
I hope OBS is okay; he hasn’t commented here since Friday’s snowpocalyse update….
I may have to make Sunday gravy sometime. Sounds pretty good.
It’s a particularly “customizable” recipe- you can make all sorts of variants. I’d usually add meatballs, sausages, braciole, a couple of pork chops or country spareribs. It’s a really good winter dish, pretty funny for something that originated in the Mediterranean.
It’s funny how many Caribbean recipes are also really well-suited for cold weather- Jamaican stewed oxtails and Dominican sancocho come immediately to mind.
TIL Neutral Milk Hotel is a real band.
Don’t know how I missed these guys. Currently listening to Holland 1945, reminds me of an alternate universe collaboration between Hüsker Dü and Robyn Hitchcock… slightly disturbing vocals, interesting arrangements. Wiki says they were contemplating a Fall 2013 reunion, but no followup info is given.
Thanks, Pup!
They played Portland yesterday or maybe tonight or something. I never heard of them.
Too funny, Pup! I listened to a bunch of their stuff, they’re pretty good.
Oh, most certainly! Me, for example. I’d love to be able to do something productive, to earn money instead of being handed money from the government (in the form of an SSI check.) And I still sometimes hear people tell me, when they hear that I’m trying to live in the San Francisco Bay Area on under $10k a year, and that both that money and Medicaid get taken away if I start working (at least pre-ACA that was the case) that they’d love to be “hooked up” like I am, doing nothing and getting paid to kick back and be lazy “like me.”
Cerberus, sorry to hear you and yours are having to deal with this kind of shit. It really is depressing to see that the “opportunity” that opened up after all was because the agency was desperate…
I’m in an interesting situation myself, right now; seeing the other Sadlies’ Backstories I thought I might throw a bit of my own out there too.
I’m currently looking for housing, for the 10th time in 5 years or so. The last half-decade has been difficult, beginning with coming out as transgender to my Mormon family (both sides, back several generations, very devout.) I’m not the Good Little Mormon Boy they tried to raise, obviously, but I was lucky enough not to be completely disowned… just barely acknowledged and seldom spoken to.
Trying to figure things out on my own has meant the quick shock of learning to navigate poverty after living in a comfortable middle-class environment until I was almost 30. No documented work history in the last decade, no formal training in any particular marketable skills, no degrees or certificates or whatnot. I’ve been in the Bay Area my whole life, and my folks even still live about 45 minutes away, but they may as well be across the globe for as close as they have been.
In the time between that coming out and now, I’ve lived: with a couple of guys who smoked cigarettes in the house, threw crazy orgy parties where all manner of drugs were passed around, and the lice from the stray cats swarmed enough to coat a fresh-out-of-the-laundry white sock in black; with a woman who lied about the reason for the room being available, and then moved her boyfriend into the house (and his horse in the front yard,) consistently went into my room and messed with my stuff, and sent me an email just before I left saying that “if she could just avoid renting to folks on SSI she’d do fine, because y’all are fucking CRAZY!”; in the living room of a small apartment with a couple young women who almost always had their boyfriends over, were paranoid that the Census Workers were secret agents trying to do weird things to them, and who spiked my chewing gum with Ketamine; with a group of women who were just about to graduate college and move away, but were great roommates; in the Really Bad Part of East Oakland under a slumlord and with a physically abusive girlfriend who nearly broke my jaw and believed she was The Highlander; with a handful of druggies and their “not really living here” friends who lived there, in a building with mold, roaches, and waterlogged walls; and the current spot, which I got with my now ex-girlfriend (who has family money) but where the rent is double my income — which is still way below market price for this area.
Lucky to have plenty of little things running in my favor, but short of a happy accident/miracle/whatever (like that shelter calling your girlfriend back and the driving requirement suddenly going *poof!*) I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I know at minimum I won’t be on the streets; I’ve got at least one friend’s couch to crash on short-term, though I don’t know how long that will last. At least I won’t have to deal with punishment for the “crime” of Attempting To Access Shelters While Trans* — at least not right away.
My apologies for the length of this comment… I assure you, this is brief by my normal standards!
“In the time between that coming out and now, I’ve lived: […] but where the rent is double my income — which is still way below market price for this area.”–Sophia
Interesting reading, but it’s evident you can’t find housing in that market — not without meeting the right person(s), whom you’ll then be dependent upon, with no fallback option.
Scrape up the money to move out of commuters’ distance of the Bay Area; recover all the time and energy spent developing an already-sufficiently-colorful domestic biography; use said personal resources to do things you find meaningful.
if there were only disincentives to working, people might be tempted to take them if it was economically feasible with government assistance.
I can assure you that under 10K$ in the Bay Area is no easy ride, and those who think so have the economic understanding of a Canada goose.
This just in: some people long for lives they would hate in reality!
On the downside, the stuff contains HFCS, even though it’s not particularly sweet.
Think of it as a cold soup and you’ll be less squicked out.
eck…the most objectionable ingredient in there (to me) is clam juice *shiver*…i could not consume it if i was paid to…
also, idk WHO i want to live with some days: pup or b^4…i also made italian this weekend, but nothing as awesome sounding as sunday gravy…
haha…just the thought of endless gourmet meals has caused a massive tagfail on my part…
eck…the most objectionable ingredient in there (to me) is clam juice *shiver*…i could not consume it if i was paid to…
Even better, it’s reconstituted dehydrated clam juice.
also, idk WHO i want to live with some days: pup or b^4…i also made italian this weekend, but nothing as awesome sounding as sunday gravy…
Why choose? You can simply jet from coast to coast.
Why choose? You can simply jet from coast to coast.
you are so smart!!! and i know just the guy who flies planes and is centrally located…he’s also a pretty good cook…this could work out well for me…
you are so smart!!! and i know just the guy who flies planes and is centrally located…he’s also a pretty good cook…this could work out well for me…
It’s like a film comedy, Three Men and a Babe.
i know just the guy who flies planes and is centrally located
The chickens would probably like having some company.
There’s a comfortable spot atop the “chemtrails” tank.
Only mark I through III chemtrails required a separate fuel tank. Ever since mark IV chemtrails were developed in 1982 it’s just a fuel additive. That way chemtrails can still be spread with fewer people in the know. /madeupbullshitthatkindasoundsplausible
It’s like a film comedy, Three Men and a Babe.
you, sir are too kind…i was thinking that a reality show could be made…and know we have a working title…although we might have to change it to three men, a babe, a ho, and some adorable pets…
Only mark I through III chemtrails required a separate fuel tank. Ever since mark IV chemtrails were developed in 1982 it’s just a fuel additive. That way chemtrails can still be spread with fewer people in the know. /madeupbullshitthatkindasoundsplausible
You’d be a natural on Late Night Sasquatch Radio, but you’d hate yourself afterwards.
Ever since mark IV chemtrails were developed in 1982 it’s just a fuel additive.
So this Chemtrails On/Off switch doesn’t do anything?
POOP.
POOP.
i totes believe that…’piece of excrement’ is the preferred usage in a professional setting…
Re: “Neutral Milk Hotel” — I have the In The Aeroplane, Over The Sea album. It’s good.
Here’s the first track.
Also, there’s a new post up. Too.
Sure it does, check the manual again. For takeoffs and landings, when the switch is on the off position, the injectors run hotter and all of the chemtrail agent is consumed for thrust. At cruising altitude when the switch is in the ‘on’ position, the injectors are run at a lower temperature so the agent can pass through the engine intact and be dispersed properly. You may notice the .5% loss of thrust when the switch is in the ‘on’ position. /madeupbullshitthatkindasoundsplausible
@CRA — Thanks, I needed a good laugh. “Scrape up money!” Ha… wow. Knee-slapper material, comedy gold! Ever thought about doing stand-up?