Wow...

So, since unemployment is so high (and, I would assume, everyone is so badly unqualified to do the work needed), Baltimore has come up with a...unique...solution:

Baltimore’s City Hall is mulling a controversial new mandate that, if passed, would require any business with a city contract of "at least $300,000 or any project that gets a city subsidy of at least $5 million to hire Baltimore City residents for at least 51 percent of new jobs.”

So...this is going to be like something I witnessed while I was in grad school.  A student had a twin sister who applied for (and got) a job at a clothing chain at the mall.

Two weeks later, she was fired.  She was told that she was only hired because she fulfilled a diversity quota that the company had been checking the week before she was hired.  She was fired because they didn't need her to be a token black worker anymore, and she could barely run the register, couldn't count back change, and figuring how much something a certain percentage off would cost when asked by a customer.

How is Baltimore's requirement going to be any different?

I am...less inclined to give my family goodie baskets.

Gifts for my family are proving...challenging...once again.  In the past, I've put together goody baskets, but I'm not so sure about this year.  

My mother and sister have forsworn chocolate.  Mom says it raises her blood pressure (like coffee--which has been proven to only raise it briefly).  My sister says it makes one of her many, many conditions worse (possibly true, but not by much, and there are more important things to worry about that she doesn't).  My aunts have banned it because it's not good for you (not so, where dark chocolate is concerned), and they think it's coming between them and their relationship with God.  I am disinclined to put together a goody basket that's missing a goody that they all love so much, just because of BS excuses and Puritanical* excesses.

One of my aunts has turned off her home phone in favor of one of the Obamaphones.  I get that she and her husband are trying to make it on $500/month plus church charity.  I get that.  But it doesn't have to be that way--all they need to do is get her on Medicaid long enough to get a needed surgery done (he's against it, though it would save her life, and she's giving in to what he's telling her to do because she's forgotten what comes after that lovely "wives, submit to your husbands" bit in the bible, and I doubt he's ever known it).  I am disinclined to get them anything that will make their lives easier, not after sucking more money out of my pocket, then stating that they deserve the help.

Another aunt is worried that she won't be able to do Christmas this year, because her own poor choices and lack of planning ahead have sucked her "budget" dry.  She's spent money and spent money and spent money all year, and is only now panicking about saving up for the property taxes (which she knew were coming all year, and approximately how much it was going to cost her).  Not to mention the costs incurred by the lightning strike that she didn't have homowner's insurance to help cover.  I'm disinclined to put a goody basket together for her because she irritates the living shit out of me with her spending habits and excuses for why she can't afford things she shouldn't have a problem with.

The third aunt is just, in a word, stupid.  I love her to pieces, but she's fifty-five years old, and still acts like a twelve-year-old.  A flighty one.  Wonder of wonders, she's finally got a job.  She's the one I'm most inclined to put together something for, and I'm still disinclined to put forth the effort because she's been sulking about me not bringing the kids to visit at her convenience, despite my work schedule and Odysseus's not permitting it. 

I think the thing that's annoyed me the most this year is the constant cries of "Poor me!  Pity me!  I'm a helpless victim!  There's nothing I can do to help myself!"  And I am living proof that victimhood is a choice.  I suppose their attitude pisses me off so hard because it's almost like their choices to be a victim squat over my decision not to be one.  Especially when they criticize my choices as not being Christian.

So, yeah...except where my kids and my mother- and father-in-law are concerned, my Christmas spirit is just a little lacking.

And a Merry Bah-Humbug to you, too.

I don't like Pat Robertson.  I think he's a self-righteous prick. 

Sometimes, though, he can hit the nail right on the head, like he did with the whole mean-spirited atheist war on Christmas:

“Atheists don’t like our happiness. They don’t want you to be happy.  They want you to be miserable.  They’re miserable so they want you to be miserable.  So they want to steal your holiday away from you.”

I have never met a truly happy atheist.  I've spoken with a few who claimed to be, but they've always seemed less happy than they claimed.  Usually, they have good reason, but still.

And misery loves company.

I may not enjoy the season anymore, thanks to family and over-commercialization, but I really try hard not to ruin it for anyone else.  I wish others had the same courtesy.

News flash: person who couldn't swim drowned when thrown into deep water!

Seriously.  Our government looked at Canada and Britain, at their health care system, and their doctor shortages, and thought, "Yeah, baby.  That's just what we need over here."  The media, enamored by the idea of a single-payer system where no one has to pay for their own treatment (but everyone has to pay the taxes that pay for everyone's treatment), not only overlooked, but tried to bury the information that our system isn't going to be any different: expensive, cumbersome, inefficient, and deadly to those who need it most.

Those who wanted Obamacare went further than just trying to bury the facts: they openly mocked those who tried to make clear what the nation was getting into.  And they threatened those who were openly against it in congress. 

Still, almost 70% of the American people polled said that they didn't want it, or anything like it. 

We've had that violation rammed up our collective national ass, regardless.

And now, the media has the chutzpah to be shocked, shocked, that a hospital system is instituting mass layoffs in preparation for the massive jump in costs that they're facing. 

Has anyone ever seen what happens amongst those on Medicaid?  How they treat doctors and hospitals?  How they clog the emergency rooms because they don't want to pay for anything out of their own pockets (and have no clue--because they never see a bill--how much more an emergency room visit costs)? 

Now, think about how it's going to be when everyone is forced onto Medicaid by ever-increasing insurance premiums, insurance companies going out of business, and the only going concern is "single-payer" health insurance. 

And now, imagine that with about half the medical staff in hospitals. 

This is what we have to look forward to.

"Your papers, please..."

This is getting ridiculous.  I mean, seriously.  Anyone who wants to smoke is going to have to present a specific license that allows them to buy cigarettes?  One that limits how many cigarettes a person can buy? 

Are they trying to recreate the conditions that permitted organized crime to flourish in the 1920's and '30's? 

FFOT: Uh-huh.

Where have I heard this rhetoric before?  "It's not my fault!"  It's his fault!"

Mr. Romney...fuck off.  Every fucking sitting president who fucking runs for re-election does their fucking best to fucking be re-elected.  Yes, in this case, it was Still-President 0bama fucking bribing fucking welfare queens with fucking free fucking cell phones with 250 free minutes a month (that we, the taxpayers are footing the bill for).  Yes, there are a fuck-ton of fuckwits fucking sucking on the fucking government teat.  It was your fucking job, you fucktard, to figure out a way to get them on your side, instead of his.  You didn't fucking run to fucking win.  You fucking played nice for fear of being called racist.  You didn't fucking nail him on Benghazi.  It was your fucking healthcare plan in fucking Massachusetts that Still-President 0bama used to model his fucking abortion of a law.  You fucking said you'd fucking bring back the so-called "assault weapons" ban, which fucking scared some gunowners off of voting for your worthless fucking boring fucking white-bread fucking.   The only one who lost the election is you.

If I had the power to enact one law tomorrow...I would pass a law that prohibits anyone on welfare/foodstamps, non-military connected disability checks, or taking a paycheck as a legislator on any level from voting.

And you, Mr. Romney, would still lose.  Because you're just so fucking special like that.

Fuck the fuck off, get your fucking fatuous face out of the fucking news, and just go the fucking fuckety fuck away.

Heh.

Wow, it's amazing what happens when poverty (and people needing help) is defined at a higher level of income.  Suddenly, there's not enough to go around, and people's benefits get cut.  Odd, that.  And really strange timing.

When is it tithing, and when is it enabling?

My mother, an individual on a fixed, government income, sets aside a tenth of every month's check to help those in greater need than she.  Recently, she's been buying food for my aunt.*  Calling that tithing, because that aunt has no income, no job, and has just gotten out of an abusive relationship (par for the course, for that aunt--she's one of those who feels she isn't complete unless she's married, has a room-temperature I.Q., and no spine). 

It strikes me less as tithing, and more enabling.  Without Mom buying her food, she'd have a job next week, or go hungry.  And it'll take her a while before she starves--she's got reserves to spare. 

I'd be willing to bet she'd find a job awful damn fast.  She's not nearly as broken as she's trying to convince Mom she is.

We've had new neighbors move in on our block recently.  The house they've moved into has been vacant for all but about two or three months of the six years we've lived here.  It's a wreck.  Derelict.  According to the wife, the electricity is FUBAR (the wiring in the house has been bollixed up--and the house doesn't even have a line leading in), the water pipes have been not only messed up, but glued so that it'll take replacing it all to fix it all, and they've been cheated by the owner, who gave them one price to rent-to-own, then had a second, nearly double figure in the written contract.  They're stuck, because they didn't have the money to go elsewhere. 

Tonight, they don't have any food in the house.  Their food stamps arrive tomorrow.  They have a four year old, a two year old, and a nine month old. 

Odysseus and I went to Sam's Club, earlier.  We got them a pizza for tonight, and a ten pound bag of pinto beans.  I'll be taking her to Sam's tomorrow on my membership so that she can stretch her food stamps until they shriek (like a 40 oz can of formula for $20, instead of one half that size at Wal-Mart for the same price), and maybe have something in the house to eat at the end of the month. 

I really don't think its enabling.  The husband has messed his back up to the point where he can't work, and she can't find work.

There's a world of difference between my new neighbor's attitude, and that of my aunt.  My aunt cries when my mom tells her that the money for her food came from my mom's tithing, but from what I've seen, it seems more like it's from injured pride than the gratitude my mom sees it as.  My neighbor has offered to spend some of her SNAP to pay us back for whatever we bring them to eat tonight.

I think, instead, we'll be telling her to pay it forward when she and her family get back on their feet. 



*She doesn't eat pasta.  Or beans.  Or rice.  Or anything else reasonably priced for someone on a fixed income to buy.  I don't see how she has a choice, given her claimed circumstances, but she still turns up her nose.

Well said!

I love Ricki's response to Obama's whining self-pity about being forced to sit for debate prep. 

All I can add is: Mr. President, grow the fuck up.  You are not setting any kind of an acceptable example for the rest of the nation. 

Random ramblings

The pixie is talking more and more, and her speech is coming clearer and clearer.  Same with the imp.  In a way, I'm kind of sorry--the imp, in particular, has a smart mouth, and now that he can articulate what he's thinking (and I can understand it), it gets him into trouble.  A lot.

The imp is doing pretty well on his quarter dose of Zyrtec (2.5 mg, where an adult dose is 10 mg).  When he doesn't get it, he turns into a mean little jerk.  I'm pretty sure he has at least hay fever.

I found out last night that Cricket (the black and white kitten) either is sick, or just doesn't like the pixie.  She hopped up on the pixie's toddler bed and piddled on her comforter, last night. 

Pup is doing really well in house training.  Yeah, she has accidents, but she's still only two months old, and doesn't really have full control over her bodily functions.

I had sent a short story off to a publisher for consideration in January.  I got word that it was rejected earlier this month, and am considering extending and self-publishing it.  Odysseus has some good ideas for an extended plot line, and I'm getting more and more interested.  I don't think it'll be a long novel, but it'll definitely be pushing the novel mark. 

But, like everything else, it's going to need to wait until Thanksgiving Break at the earliest, more likely Christmas Break.  My stupids are sapping my creativity by sucking down all the mental energy I have to not drop a nuclear snark-bomb on their whiny asses. 

Don't get me wrong--not all of my students are in that category.  I have a few that are strong writers, and a few others who are willing to try to find a solution to their problems ("When I try to do X, this goes wrong at this  point...what's happening, and how can I fix it?  Is there a work around that I might not know about?") instead of wailing "I can't doooo iiiitttt!!!  Do it for me, and give me full credit!"

Unfortunately, for a disproportionately small minority (about a dozen out of forty-six students), they take up a majority of my time, energy, patience, and strength. 

Out-of-touch politicians.

I ran across a news story about the Obama campaign hyperventilating about Romney saying that he won't worry about the 47% that will vote for whoever will give them the biggest share of the slops trough.  Jim Messina (warning: story at the link has a giant picture of the drooling, weak-chinned, watery-eyed moron--don't click on it while you're eating), the great zero's campaign manager, somehow interpreted that to mean that Romney felt “disgust and disdain for half of our fellow Americans.”

Romney's actual words were

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.

“That, that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax, so our message of low taxes doesn’t connect.”

I see no disgust.  I see frustration.  I see concern for the country, for those who pay taxes, and for future generations to come that will still be paying for what the government uses to pay off these lazy, entitled fuckers that whine about how they can't find a job concomitant with their overinflated opinion of their skills, ability, and worth. 

I will admit that I am one of the 49% that will get back far more in tax refund next spring than I have paid in for the last five years.  I'll accept the money, and I will use it to help afford to care for my family in an economy that the great zero has ruined.  Groceries have nearly doubled.  My family's health insurance now carries a $10 grand deductible per person so that we can cut the premium by $100/month, and keep it lower than our six-month payment on our car insurance, much less our now-paid-off mortgage.  Gas is half again higher than it was four years ago. 

But my paycheck isn't rising.  Odysseus's paycheck is also pretty static. 

Thanks, President Obama.  You did, indeed, build that.  You have fucked the useful part of this nation over so hard that it's bleeding, and crying for you to stop.

Romney isn't voicing disgust.  If you want to see disgust, listen to any of the 51% of the population that pays taxes, or the 53% that refuses to rely on government help. 

Despite how tight things are, I refuse to apply for food stamps (and I'm pretty sure that we're probably eligible for the maximum amount), or for Medicaid for the kids.  I have been in the 47%, and I see what they're like.  I take responsibility for myself.  I take responsibility for my family.

And, believe me, I do voice my disgust, loudly and in public, for those who refuse to do the same.  Because if I can get out, anyone can.  All it takes is determination, self-respect instead of a sense of entitlement, a willingness to do what's necessary, and a refusal to disdain any work that carries a paycheck.

They have got to be kidding.

How the f#$&ety F#$& is a peanut butter sandwich racist???

Here's another "Hell, yeah" moment

“Think about this, a 31, 32-year-old-law student who has been a student for life, gets up there in front of a national audience and tells the American people, ‘I want America to pay for my contraceptives.’ You’re kidding me. Go get a job. Go get a job, Sandra Fluke.”--Rep. Joe Walsh

Amen, Representative Walsh.  I've paid for my own contraceptives--and my own prenatal care, and one of two births (insurance covered the other, since it was early)--out of my own pocket.  I've paid out of pocket for my insurance and my medical care since I was nineteen years old. 

She's not much younger than I am: I turned 33 this year. I do not understand how someone can be content to remain a child* for their entire life.

She is a failure.  I bet her parents are downright proud of their daughter. 

*A child is someone who expects others to take care of them.  In those younger than about 18, they have the right to.  Those older than that, and not mentally or physically defective, but continue to expect to be cared for should lose their right to vote.

Yet another congresscritter talking out his ass.

Did you hear South Carolina Representative James Clyburn (D) said that Republicans and Conservatives think "there‘s something wrong with feeding people when they’re hungry"? 

I see absolutely nothing wrong with feeding people when they're hungry...provided that it isn't their own choices that they're feeling the consequences of.  And as long as those feeding the hungry are doing it voluntarily and with their own money (something Democrats don't like), rather than having the government rob me to do it, when I need that money to feed my kids. 

Honestly, were entitlement programs (read: welfare and foodstamps) abolished tomorrow...I'd be volunteering the day after for a local church's soup kitchen, for the times when Odysseus can watch the kids.  As it is, with government taking money from me against my will to hand to those who won't work (as opposed to those who can't--and who should be cared for by their family, or by their local faith-based institution of their choice), I refuse to enable those who choose to buy a new iPhone instead of buying basic food staples, and a basic cook book. 

Too...much...snark...

Okay...I couldn't get past the first sentence of the news story, here.   "TAMPA, Fla. -- Giant, walking vaginas have descended upon the Republican National Convention."

Let me see...first off...in context, Tampa makes me think of feminine hygiene products.  

Second...giant walking vaginas?  Isn't that the basic definition of career politicians?  (Actually, we really should be using the original Anglo-Saxon monosyllable for that...)

Go ahead.  Make fun of the situation.  I have too many smart remarks circling my mind to actually congeal enough to come out.

Can we get a HELL YEAH!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Andrea Taber: another hero of us poor schmucks that resent our hard-earned money being spent by welfare dependents on things that aren't necessities.  She refuses to accept EBT for her baked sweets at a farmers' market. 

(Shamelessly stolen from The Feral Irishman)

Really? Really?

Google is trying their damnedest to drive market share to other search engines, especially for shopping: they've just banned guns, gun accessories, and anything remotely related to such in the "shop" feature. 

Yeah.  Uh-huh.  Good job, guys.  Now nobody can find anything to do with those evil guns.

Guess they don't realize that Yahoo! and Microsoft both have the same search and shop functions they do. 

Yet another good idea whose time has come.

Republicans want to cut the $80 billion food stamps cost productive citizens by cracking down on abuses.  They rightly want to spend more on maintaining infrastructure than supporting leeches.

Of course, Democrats are terrified it'll reduce their voter base harm those who need it:

"Democrats led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York are resisting a proposal by Agriculture Committee leaders in both parties to trim a modest $250 million from the program each year by cracking down on abuses.

They say that would deprive about half a million households losing an average $90 a month in food aid."

When college students go on food stamps so that they can afford their alcohol habit and their gourmet, organic rabbit food, that is an abuse of the system.  When single moms refuse to feed their kids so that they can afford fake nails, weaves, and designer clothes, that is an abuse of the system.  When individuals buy a pack of gum with their SNAP debit cards so that they can get cash back, that is an abuse of the system.

Interestingly enough, most of the groups named above tend to vote Democrat to keep their paycheck for breathing.  Without Democrat support, they'd have to get jobs.  Without Democrat support, they'd learn just how much the rest of us hate supporting their nasty, worthless asses. 

And without the Democrats supporting their choice to keep being worthless wastes of resources, they'd have to become productive members of society, or starve. 

Personally, I'd love to see more people actually facing the consequences of their choices.  Maybe then, stupidity would be a bit less endemic. 

There's more to life than black and white.

I recently read a couple articles on grade inflation.  It's something I've seen a lot of, and something that I fight against in my own classes.  A lot of it is prompted by professors who frankly don't give half a shit about their students actually learning something, but just as much is prompted by the students who believe that sitting in the classroom is enough to get an A for the class.

You get students come in (like those detailed in this article) who don't know anything, but have been patted on the head and told that they're brilliant, and fart rainbows for so long that when a college professor gives them an F on a paper because it was an unfocused, disorganized, undeveloped rambling piece of crap that didn't follow the assignment guidelines.  I had one this semester--the paper was a causal argument, but the student turned in a freakin' biography of their niece, all to show her what an amazing person she was.  Touching, but...I don't teach anything that paper would fit the guidelines for.  The third paper was no better.

One of my colleagues told me of a student who, when he was handed back a failed paper with remarks on how to do better on the next one, the student (male) actually started crying, in class.  During my colleague's office hours, the student told him "I don't understand what happened...I've never had problems with writing, before." 

My colleague replied, "Shit, boy, you've always had problems.  Nobody ever told you you did."

Then they take it to your department head.  If they don't get the satisfaction they want there, they take it to the dean.  And then higher.  Until you've got a university administrator breathing down your neck.

If you've got tenure, you've got some security in situations like that.  However, a surprising number of us teaching lower level courses not only don't have tenure, but are at-will employees on semester contracts.  My most recent contract included a new clause saying that my job could be terminated at any time without notice--something that my old contracts written within my department never had. 

So, you get the bright ones that think your class is too easy, and not worth their time or money (about four or so, per 20 students per semester); the ones who are bright, find your class easy, but have never had someone explain how to structure a paragraph or a paper, and are glad they took your class (about 10 out of 20 per semester); and the rest think you should give them an A for turning in unedited vomit that's half the required length, because they're just that fucking brilliant.  And if you don't, God help you.

Almost half my class points (320) come from the blogs.  About a quarter of the rest come from the class forum threads on the class website.  The rest comes from the papers (400-450).  It is not hard to pass my class.  Since I permit one revision on each paper that overrides the first draft's grade, it's not hard to pass my class with a good grade...so long as they keep up with the "piddling little point assignments" (and that's a quote from my RateMyProfessor rating).

All these piddling little point assignments are clearly marked in the grade book.  Each student can clearly see how they're doing, and what they have and haven't done.  This is for my protection.  Complaints about busy work aside, nothing beats being able to pull up your grade book, demonstrate why the whiny little bitch of a student has the crap grade, and give the person they went whining to a copy of their paper, and the sample A work I include in the textbook. 

So, yeah: there's grade inflation happening.  Yeah, some of it is done by professors who just want to inflate their own pass rate/average grade to make them look like they're better teachers than they are.  Some of it is done by those who don't want to be bothered by the "but why?" whiners. 

I would be willing to bet that much is done by those like me who like their jobs, and would like to keep their jobs.

I've got the right to call BS.

Apparently, some dim bulbs see murdering babies as the only substantive right women have gained since 1950.  Why else would Cecile Richards (head of Planned Parenthood) claim that Romney's preference for not funding Planned Parenthood with taxpayer dollars means he wants to kick all women back into the kitchen in the good ol' keep 'em barefoot, pregnant, and illiterate days?

I don't believe abortion should be illegal for a doctor to perform--sometimes, it's necessary for the wellbeing of a mother, or to prevent unnecessary pain for the baby.  I don't believe it should be available as a contraceptive choice: contraceptives are meant to prevent conception, not terminate the consequences of not using birth control. 

I do not like the fact that I help pay for Planned Parenthood.  Except for the murder part, all of the services are duplicated at your local county health department.  Including the free condoms.