20070925

Best. Headline. Ever.

remind me again why we leave the government in charge of things? if a local government can be this stupid, imagine what it must be like at the federal level...

20070907

my thoughts exactly

finally, someone with the balls to tell it like it is when it comes to the poor people and money. of course, compared to him i'm poor people as well, but i'm working my way up the economic scale instead of bitching and moaning about how other people have more money than me.

also, this gives me a chance to bring up one of my favorite benjamin franklin quotes. it's going to be a longer version than I normally use, because some of it seems to fit perfectly with the article
i linked above:

I am for doing good to the poor; but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is, not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. … I observed in different countries that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and, of course, became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them…. Under all these obligations are our poor modest, humble, and thankful? And do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder, that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty.

available here, on pages 347-348. (you may need a google account to view the original)

20070906

Ooh! Ah! BJ!

phil ryan is my new hero, for posting the following video:



i make my appearance around the 1:54 mark... i'm the guy in white running in from the right and getting knocked down by vader. then i just kind of wander off. i should have been in the michael jackson scene as well, but i lacked confidence in my dancing abilities, and stayed backstage.