Does anybody remember when Doonesbury was funny? Was Doonesbury ever funny? I thought it was. It sure as hell isn’t anymore. I can’t understand who reads it. I mean even if you hated Bush, it still isn’t funny. It’s just “blah blah blah Bush is bad”. Well whoop dee doo. Plus it’s full of absolute crap. It’s apparently ok to make things up, attribute them to Bush, and hate him for it.
While we’re talking about making things up, let me send out a quick note to everyone who’s gotten that “Draft” email, about how Bush is gonna restart the draft. The only legislation in Congress right now was introduced by liberals to make people hate war. The logic is that if you are confronted with a draft, you won’t be willing to go to war, saying to people that if they support the war, they should be forced to go over there. That’ll teach ‘em! Here’s my problem with that. The armed forces are voluntary because we don’t need that many soldiers. Yes, the Pentagon is drawing upon reserves. That’s perfectly natural. That’s why there are reserves. Oh, and the draft budget has not been increased by $28 million. Bush proposed raising the Selective Service’s budget TO 28 million, from something like 26 million, which represents about a 5% budget increase - not exactly cause for alarm. The head of the Selective Service has stated that it would take probably about half a billion dollars to reinstate the draft. And those “Draft Board Positions”? Replacing retirees. Someone’s gotta issue the Selective Service cards to young men as they turn 18.
But some liberal decided to lie and send around that email making it look like Bush wants a draft (which Rumsfeld and Pentagon officials have gone on record recently opposing. They don’t want a draft). I support the war. But I won’t go over there to fight it. I pay taxes, however, which pay the salaries of those who choose to accept pay and to fight. That seems like a perfectly reasonable system to me. I also like how I’ve heard that we should do a similar program to Israel’s, where everyone does like two years of service. Here’s a thought: Government forced labor. Think about that for a second. Government forced labor. Does that sound like a good thing anymore? We’re not drastically running out of soldiers, we have just enough for our current purposes, and if we want more, we can increase the recruiting budget and soldiers salaries to make the soldier job more attractive to young people. Hello, Capitalism.
I’ve been thinking about how people talk about Michael Moore’s film and that mother who runs around harassing people because her son died. I would love to run into this woman. I’d tell her two things. First, stop running around making an ass of yourself. Two, your son chose to accept money in order to risk his life. Those were the terms of the job he chose to do. He wasn’t forced over there. He was given money to risk his life. He died. It happens. I’m sorry your son is gone. But death happens. Go home now. I mean what’s the point Moore is trying to make? Bush is evil? Invading Iraq was a position many of us Americans supported. It’s not like it came out of the blue. And as President, Bush made that decision. We elect Presidents to make decisions. We don’t elect them to sit on their hands and ask the UN what to do, or better yet, the Frogs. We certainly don’t elect them to go door to door asking us what to do. If the President only did things that everyone agreed with nothing would ever happen. It’s impossible. The President made a decision to go to Iraq and some soldiers have died. It sucks that people have died. It happens. Bam. A hobo just died of hunger. Bam. A Chinese doctor died of SARS. Look at that. Total shock.
Here’s the problem with liberals like Moore. For the sake of argument, I’m going to pretend they aren’t actively trying to bring down the US. Remember, we’ve been told that liberals aren’t traitors, even when they talk about how much they hate this country and how much they wish all the white rich people would die horribly. They’re such idealists that they want the world to be perfect. They’re spoiled in the first place by living here, where they can get a whiff of perfection. So they start thinking… If this changed, it’d be perfect. If that changed, it’d be perfect. If you changed x,y, and z, the world would be perfect. Fucking America. Why isn’t it perfect?! Gee, I wish we could be like France (completely ignoring the fact that this country is much, much, much better than France, in every measure except cheese.) So they get pissed, and realize that the problem is Capitalism. It allows some people to get rich…at the expense of others! Bubba works in the plant. Bubba gets paid 5.50 an hour for slapping an endcap onto a metal part, day in, day out. The CEO of GM, who just finished months of negotiations and meetings unveils a new organization plan that will add $1 billion in revenue to the corporation. He gets paid several millions of dollars for his job. THAT BASTARD! HOW DARE HE EARN MORE! Meanwhile, Mr. CEO is vacationing on his nice yacht in the south pacific…while Bubba goes home in his Geo to a two bedroom house. It’s not fair! Bubba should get a yacht, too. He needs a better house. He has debt because of medical care for his children. He has to pay to feed his kids each week. LIFE ISN’T FAIR! OH GOD NO! AMERICA SUCKS! GOD SUCKS! MEN SUCK!
Ahem. First, read Ayn Rand. Second, slap yourself silly for all the verbal vomit that you’ve uttered for however long you’ve hated capitalism. Does anyone see what I’m saying here? Bubba slaps a part on. Mr. CEO adds much more value to the company, hence he earns more. You make money based on what you do. Yes, there are exceptions, smart ass. There’s stocks, there’s corruption, and so on. But the overall system stays intact. You get paid for your work. But the idealists don’t see it that way. They don’t see the miracle through which Bubba, who didn’t give a damn about his studies in high school and didn’t ever have any aspirations aside from getting Bobbie Sue in his back seat, can still earn a paycheck for doing something that a machine could do (and if Mr. CEO is smart, he’ll buy a machine to do Bubba’s job and save a lot of money). This is the miracle of capitalism. The smart people get ahead. Those less determined don’t achieve, but if they’re lucky the determined people will pay them for some task. There’s lots of in-between, read Atlas Shrugged for a much better explanation. I wish I were a CEO. But you know what? I don’t have that kind of skill, intelligence, or determination. So I’m not a CEO. I’m not bitter though, because I’ve found a company that will pay me for my abilities. Isn’t capitalism a wonderful, wonderful thing? Now I can buy nice things, as opposed to 200 years ago when if I were a fuck up, I’d starve because I’d have no vegetables to harvest or some such thing.
Oh but no, America sucks because people aren’t given things according to need, they’re given things according to ability. And racism and sexism and blah blah blah blah. I know I can’t win against minds that are determined to be ignorant, minds that let the New York Times and Salon and Michael Moore think for them.
“One evil empire down, one to go” - Michael Moore
From an interview with “The Director’s Chair”:
Q - What’s a worker’s best defense against downsizing?
MM - “I’ll give you one that I learned from those Pay Day [candy bar] people: Don’t do too good of a job. Because you’ll make your company too profitable and it becomes an attractive takeover target and it’ll get bought out and they’ll consolidate and throw a number of people out of work. Just keep the company solvent, but don’t make it too profitable.”
Amazing. And people wonder why so many companies move to Asia, where people actually work for their paychecks.
MICHAEL, I DIDN’T EVEN READ YOUR MESSAGE - I JUST WANT TO GO ON RECORD AS SAYING — AT LEAST SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME, AS DO ALL OF MY FRIENDS — THE U.S. OF A.IS AN EMBARASSMENT, ASND I TRULY AM SO ASHAMED OF BEING AN AMERICAN (A TERRORIST ABOVE ALL TERRORISTS) AND WONDERING WHY — WHY — DO WE THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE LIKE US!!! WE ARE SO - SO BAD TO OUR PEOPLE, ELDERLY, POOR, DISADVANTAGED, HOMELESS, WITHOUT MEDICAL CARE — BUT WE ARE TAKING CARE OF OTHER (GOVERNMENTS) TO HELP THEIR NEEDY
July 23rd, 2005, at 1:13 am #FYI, strange yelling person, Michael Moore does not post here and probably won’t see your comment. Who were you addressing this to?
My spam filter caught it, but this doesn’t seem quite like spam… just a very, very odd comment. I just can’t think of anything to say but “wtf?”
July 23rd, 2005, at 7:35 am #Dear Caps McGee,
You have embarrassed yourself by not reading this article prior to posting. Had you done so, you would have realized that this article was, in fact, pointed at people like yourself. Please move to another country and rethink how horrible it is to live in a country where people are allowed free speech, freedom of religion, and opportunity to make a decent income. Have you ever been to Mexico, where all a person has to do is PAY to become a police officer? Incidentally, the amount you have to pay to become an officer is based on how much they think you’ll be earning as a police officer - that is to say, how much you’ll be stealing from people. Yes, I am serious. True story: My brother went to Mexico and saw an American kid, roughly college-age, on the side of the road. He had been pulled over for absolutely no reason and the police, for no reason other than they are an extremely corrupt government who oppresses their people, took all his money and his car. This is actually how the police in Mexico make money - they take your belongings whenever they see fit. So, this poor kid had no money or car to get back across the border. My brother gave him $50 and wished him the best of luck. This kind of thing would not happen in the United States because there are laws in place that protect the citizens from this kind of corruption. Or ok, let’s talk about countries in Southeast Asia that cane their citizens because of offenses like vandalism. Again, this is not something that would ever happen in the U.S. In this country, you’d get a warning or public service and a fine. We are pretty damn lucky to live in such a great country where laws protect its people.
That being said, there are criminals who do get away with murder. Literally. The rich do get richer, and people can be taken advantage of to get rich. This is because no matter where you live, assholes will be among us. People will work the system for their own ends, stepping on anyone in their path. This is not necessarily characteristic of Americans — it is characteristic of a lot of humans. Period. Everyone chooses their path, and not everyone is a good soul, looking out for the needs of others. Let me say this again in case you missed it the first time: People choose to be assholes to others, regardless of being Republican or American.
As for your poor, downtrodden people in this country — People are going to slip through the cracks; realistically, we can’t help everyone because of different circumstances and sheer numbers. Yet, if the government helps 100,000 people and for some reason we weren’t able to make a difference for another 1000 people above that, does that make us bad? According to you and Michael Moore it does. What it means to the rest of us is that we need to keep working to give better opportunities for everyone, not point fingers and blame George Bush. I mean, I realize that in the liberal Utopia-Happy-Land, everyone has a job, 401k, medical and dental and the winning Willy Wonka ticket. But in reality, it is going to be impossible for everyone to have whatever it is that you’re bemoaning.
What’s your answer to those people who want to live off of welfare and refuse to get a job? They’re draining our tax dollars and have no ambitions to get off their asses and be a productive part of society. They’re reproducing like bunnies and claming bigger and bigger government checks (i.e. your tax dollars). Ultimately people like you and Michael Moore will protect them and their choices, which is utter crap.
There are a lot of good companies who offer good wages and benefits. Take Starbucks, for example. You only have to work 25 hours a week to get medical and dental, and they pay fair wages. However, not many people are interested in these options because these options are all about how hard they have to work, and not how hard the government or Mr. Corporation is going to work for us. I’m sick and tired of listening to fast food employees complain about how little they make when all they do is give you terrible service and can’t even work the fry machine properly. It’s not hard work, yet people expect to be paid a lot for doing so little. Let’s take it a step further and point out that the little that the work they’re doing is performed poorly, and yet they want more money. The thought-process of today is all about “pay me more and I’ll work harder� when if you just worked a bit harder, you’d get paid more. Too many people are thinking backwards!
I didn’t finish my college degree. I stopped going to school and joined the workforce, with the intention of returning to school later in life (in fact, I’ll be going back this fall). But even though I did not finish my degree, I make more than a lot of my friends who finished their degrees, and I’ve landed great jobs faster than they can because instead of going to school, I gained work experience. Isn’t that great? In this country, I can work hard and make a living, I have a good 401k plan, medical and dental coverage. And I get all this because of what hulk said in his post - I’ve worked damn hard to get it. In the beginning I took some crappy positions to get into a company, but then worked my way up to put some very good things on my resume that, in turn, have landed me great positions elsewhere. Thank you, America. Thank you to all the men and women in our country’s brief history who have given all that they had - sacrificed their land, their freedom, their sons and daughters and all that they had so that we can enjoy what we have today in the U.S. of A. We sure aren’t perfect, but who is?
I’d like to invite you to live somewhere else. Seriously. If you hate it the United States so much, please leave. And take all your friends who are embarrassed of this country with you. If you hate it so much, get the fuck out. I mean that. After all, it is a free country.
July 25th, 2005, at 3:40 pm #