We’re All Entitled Now

We’re All Entitled Now

Posted on April 19, 2013 at 5:10 pm by JM Ashby

Considering what has transpired in Boston during the course of this week and particularly last night after a shooting at MIT lead to a carjacking, shootout, the use of explosives, and a manhunt — I’d like to take a moment to marvel at how big of a jackass Lou Dobbs is.
This is from two nights ago.

Dobbs: There seems to be a sense of entitlement on the part of many Americans that somehow they don’t have to be responsible for themselves and that they have no obligation to protect themselves, their families, and their communities in the face of these horrific threats.

Apparently, if you do not own an AR-15 and an extended magazine for it, you’re not only a liberal girly-man, you’re also an entitled freeloader. Because you should be providing security for yourself and not relying on trained, tax-payer funded law enforcement.
I wonder if the officers of Boston-area police departments would agree that they are serving an entitlement to the free-loading residents of Boston as they pursue someone who may or may not be armed with explosives at this time.

Kraken's comments

Sorry about the cut and paste job but this observation from Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog Go! was simply too good not to share. Is this the latest trial balloon of "how far can we go?" Thomas Frank discussed in Pity the Billionaire that there is no limit to the aspirations of right wing nutjobs, the crazy knows no boundaries. The contrast between monied insanity and society could not be more stark, in a week where most of us were so proud of law enforcement in Boston a sizable chunk of cretins make the dobbesian moment of derp; "MOAR GUNZ!"

How ironic that it is now the right wing authoritarian followers who are preaching Ice-T's mantra. Our so-called "conservative" movment has now finally and truly broken off to become it's own little oxbow lake of stupid and crazy if they think "Fuck the Police" is going to be a winning strategy for them.

filmhill.com: TAKE A LONG WALK OFF A SHORT PIER

For the second time this year I would like to state that this site has no connection with filmhill or any other goofball spam site. Still getting notifications that traffic is being routed to this site from the aforementioned scumsuckers so to reiterate. GET THE FUCK OFF MY KOOLAID YOU DIRTY SCAM ARTISTS!

Civics and the Republic

What is empirical evidence?
What are logical fallacies and why not a valid way to argue issues?
What does the Constitution actually say? And why is that document more important than the Declaration of Independence?
Why do both sides of an issue often accuse each other of the same things? And why are our political rivals ALWAYS LIKE HITLER AND THE NAZIS!?!

The zombie recently posted this picture:


What's the difference? I sometimes forget in my gloominess and cynicism that there are actually people out there who, in spite of great intelligence and skill in other areas, just do not know much about that black hole we call "politics." And why not? After all, if you think about it rationally, what does one actually gain by being "informed?" There are only so many hours in the day. Once you start ladling family and bills and home maintainance, planning for retirement, "" "" weddings, death, and everything else that gets in the way of a responsible person's leisure who the hell wants to read or watch the bad news? That's on top of learning a skill or profession, finding and keeping employment, advancing into a career, and on and on.

In that spirit, a friend commenting on this picture noted how he keeps meaning to read this article about how to avoid sounding like a idiot when discussing politics. Zombie and I chatted for a moment about what it means. No conclusions but maybe there are lots of educated professionals,  certainly not limited to that demo, out there who have mastered their skill, feel comfortable in their career and now want to be involved in the Great Experiment. A bit of irony there, if any truth can be found, that is exactly the reason zombie founded this blog in the first place. He even tried to build a second one called "New Deals and Great Societies" as an educational site. As academics, wannabe intellectuals, scholars even, we thought maybe we could provide a minimally biased and patient environment for a sort of adult civics class.

However, this site is called the Gloomy Historian and it is run by one now. Whatever the zombie's intentions, I feel trying to market information to the frustrated individuals with a deficit of republican virtue would be a complete waste of time. After all, we live in an age of incredible access to information. If there is a substantial population of Americans unable to understand, analyze, or process it, I do not think I can help. Who am I to even think I can make any difference either?

I would trade all my knowledge and wisdom of history, politics, ideology, and human nature for one truly marketable skill. But this is what I have, trouble is that the only politically-engaged folks out there seem to already be pretty set in their ways. Certainty, like consistancy, is a hobgoblin of small-minds and there is nothing to be gained by continuously jousting with cretins.

I would love to be proved wrong.

Patience

Note to CNN, the next time you are going to go off half-cocked; think about baseball.

Journalists really should have to take some history classes in college, it might just teach them a modicum of patience. Not that that is the only thing wrong with cable news or the entire corporate media structure, but it would be a start.

Boston Double Standard

Another day, another tragedy. I hate writing that and as my heart goes out to the victims of yesterday's bombing, I pray I will not need to write them again. And again, the speculation machine is in full force. Even worse to me is seeing the vitriol and wrath directed toward official enemies. No one, repeat, no one at this time knows who set and detonated these bombs at this time and no amount of assertion by alex jones or the new york post will validate the fears of high scoring right wing authoritarian followers. No folks, a Saudi national is not in custody and under guard at the hospital as of this writing. However, a double standard big enough to drive a truck through has already emerged. Twenty six people gunned down in Newtown, CT and an obnoxiously vocal minority screams against rational steps to curb the availability of weapons used in that massacre. But three people blown up at the Boston Marathon and this is the first thing I see in my facebook feed:

I hope someone is dumb enough to take credit for yesterday in Boston.... and when then they do, our waste of a president better come with full force and furious anger in response.

Attack America on patriot's day...? THATS YOUR ASS!

I wish that would be true but all I see is red dawn an he's up shaking hands with the assholes
 

The second indent was a comment. So, 26 dead by firearms and authoritarians blame mental illness, video games, lack of guns, the President's daughters. Anything but the tools of violence and death. Three dead and many wounded by bombs and many on the right are ready to bomb anyone they can find in retaliation. Their only worry is that "our waste of a president" will not respond forcefully enough to satiate their bloodlust.

The first thing through my mind was, "and if the perpetrator turns out to be a lot more like you than like a dark-skinned middle-easterner?" If this was the work of an American "patriot" (ho ho) lashing out in rage at the heart of liberalism (Boston) on "patriot's day" (tax day), then what? Most low scoring authoritarians, i.e. normal people, wanted the President to go "full force and furious anger" to finally do something to curb gun violence, and my friend above called Barack Obama a tyrant for the tepid weaksauce offered in the executive orders. Again, this is also speculation but the double standard is a slimy, gaping hole.

There are reactions like the one above all over the internet. I am making no predictions about what actually happened or who was responsible and will eat my words if it does turn out to be a "saudi national" after all. I just wanted to comment on the obvious, shocked initial reactions to this tragedy, as though retribution and revenge at this point serves any purpose other than soothing the ego. And to the radical right-wingers salivating over revenge... be careful what you wish for.

Still struggling

Zombie again.

The last post a while back, I finally posted it because there have been some developments that would not make sense in a vacuum and what happened last night (early morning actually) really can't lay on my chest. My father-in-law apologized to me for "overstepping his place." Bah! He's a used car salesman, insincere sincerity is a prerequisite. Anyway, it's a start, even if pressure from his wife and daughter played more of a part than any genuine remorse. So now I have two paying jobs, in addition to the unpaid eighty hours a week one caring for my daughter. One is web design/support for a friend who wanted to help me out, which I am beyond appreciative and grateful for. If only I had the time and concentration/focus to do well, hopefully as time passes I will get better at. The other is delivering newspapers...

Like the snow shoveling job, my wife sought this one out to do herself because she holds to an impossible standard of financial somethingorother. I took it instead because well, fuck the world I guess. So, seven days a week I get up at two am to drive forty odd miles putting the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a few others into tubes as an independent contractor, i.e. no benefits, no tax withholding, and enslaved for a year because quitting would entail penalties. Takes about two hours on the road, plus a half hour or so to put the fucking things together. Sundays are even worse. The best thing is, I am actually doing it for free. Just about every cent I make goes to vehicle repairs, depreciation, and buying my own gas; 15 mpg x 40 miles @ $3.79/gal (33 miles I can claim as tax deductions) = fuck math. Seventeen cents per paper x one hundred something a day = kill me now.

Then there are the other fun things, like driving off the road and having to call the sheriff to get a tow. Sitting stranded for a couple hours during a blizzard, had to shimmy my fat ass out through the window because the snow was up to my waist and couldn't open the door. Then the deputy arrives and we shoot the shit about our time in the military. But then I asked "am I gonna get a ticket for this?" after he was checking my registration, license and all that. He says "no, I think having to pay for a tow is punishment enough." Punishment, for trying to do my job, as though I would have been driving out in BFE by choice. That was my first unhappy encounter with law enforcement in forever, I knew it was inevitable just by virtue of being on the road so much.

So finally the winter from hell is over, but you know Al Gore is fat so global warming had nothing to do with it. Finally starting to feel not so despairing about my life for reasons nongermane, and all of a sudden, cherries in the rear-view. Great. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" In my head, C-3PO says "we seem to be made to suffer, it is our lot in life." Now I specifically asked the supervisor and the guy who trained me on the route whether the cops ever bothered carriers for the whacktastic way we have to drive. "No, they know we're out here." Apparently no one told this wet behind the ears deputy and he read me the riot act about appearing drunk, etc. It is not humiliating enough to be doing a job now that I had in middle school. Not hard enough to get up at 2 am everyday and then go through life as a metaphorical zombie, not just a cute screenname.

Yes officer friendly, I am well aware of the irreconcilability of doing my job and obeying traffic laws. I have to drive on the wrong side of the street, high beams and dome light on, no seatbelt, and so on. All of which are anathema to me and my lawful-good alignment, but the alternative is... well the impossiblity of doing the job and I got used to it. He eventually let me go with a warning after seeing all the newspapers in the van with me, but now I have to watch my back for johnny law and ramp my stress level beyond tolerance just to not make any money. I am probably two thousand dollars in the hole for repairs and have just about maxed out my gas card.

I spent the rest of the route muttering to myself about the degree of life's unfairness instead of enjoying some music of an audio book. Of course, I could not write any of my clever musings down because, gotta keep moving. Had to get home, hope for a little nap before baby zombie gets up and begins the day's reign of terror. There are dishes to wash, messes to clean up, laundry to do, meals to prepare; I am already way behind from writing this. FML

My Struggle

By Zombie.
Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.

Not long after Christmas I got an unsolicited call from my father-in-law. He decided it was time to kick me in the ass for being unemployed. So I got a earful about how worthless I am, how I have no sense of responsibility for my family, how he'd "stood by long enough as I dragged his daughter and granddaughter on a 'downward spiral'" and must obviously be lazy as hell.

Not suprisingly, he's a hardcore republican and follower of bill o'reilly. Also not suprising, it must be something wrong with me in his diagnosis. There could not possibly be anything wrong with any outside circumstances. But, can't dwell on that. Obviously I'm not trying hard enough. So, everything wrong with our society is no longer just "out there" remote and inapplicable from my personal situation. It started because my wife, unhappy with just our recent cost-saving moves, got a second job shoveling snow that she worked a grand total of three times. She had a fantasy about driving a snow plow for many years, and she just went out and did it without really discussing it with me. The old man found out and blew his top, as though I was somehow happy to have my wife working two jobs while I had none.

I stay home with our daughter, which is full-time and a half, and I am stuck with this position because no one else can do it. Caring for children does not count as work in our society, but it has to be done and of course the same o'reilly worshipping crowd screams about "family values" if parents put their kids in daycare. Recently my wife was alone our daughter for three hours and was about ready to crack, the grandparents are similarly exhausted from a day with her. I have her all day, everyday and do not always get help on evenings or weekends because my wife works them sometimes and often has clubs and volunteering stuff on normal days.

So, I am very tired, very stressed, and now an even bigger loser than before. Some people fantasize about winning the lottery or just taking a vacation, I fantasize about being in a coma.

There, pity party over. Just for the hell of it though, how would this crappy situation look if I were a woman? Leaving that exercise unresolved, waste of time, it would just make me look sexist.