From Blue Lyon. This is her fab email sig

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid. ~ Marcus Aurelius

But if I used it, I would have to replace this:

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

So I am just going to post it here instead.

How are you all liking the shared items section?

Have you clicked on any links there? Do you think it’s in an awkward place? Have you not even noticed it?

I’m loving it. It means not having to write a blog post every time someone phrases something more elegantly that I can. But maybe it makes me slack a wee bit in posting.

Come on- tell me whatcha think.

I have no idea who this person is- but I just got this little bit of joy in my mailbox.

URINE TEST

(Whoever wrote this one deserves a HUGE pat on the back!)

Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test to show I am clear of drugs, with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. So here is my Question. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their rump –doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? I guess we could title that program, ‘Urine or You’re Out’..

Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t.
Hope you all will pass it along, though.
Something has to change in this country — and soon!!!!!!!

Oh look- let’s make it even harder for poor women with children to get help. Let’s require them to submit to tests that we don’t require for anyone else except criminals. Cause being a poor female with children is a criminal act- doncha know.

Let’s put aside that it’s racist, classist, and sexist and just focus on fairness.

Do we require people to take a drug test when they get a tax deduction or rebate? How about when they take a driver’s test? When they apply for a FHA loan program? Or Stafford or Perkins loans for college?

No. But for poor people applying for Welfare (which means overwhelmingly female, with children and often WOC) getting assistance from the government means subjecting yourself to criminal investigation that other people aren’t subjected to.

(FTR- I don’t do drugs. Haven’t since high school. Testing me would just be one more in a long line of humiliating acts that I have to go through to make sure my kid is housed and fed. But for women who do use drugs to self medicate the stress from a life lived in poverty and despair- CAN YOU REALLY BLAME THEM?).

ETA: I just forwarded this entire response to all 61 people who got this email. How much haterade do you think is going to be clogging my inbox in 3…2…1…

But you know- wingnuts aren’t all about preaching the hate and violence and murder. NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPEE

Godless whores and the Christians who read the bible: 12 donations, $564.78

“Good” Christians: Nada. Zilch. Apparently the devil has infested their paypal accounts and things can’t be cleared up till an exorcism is performed on the whole internet.

Evo psych bingo!

Via

And just for Bob- our current troll-in-residence

(FTR and for evo psych blowhards- I have better spacial relation skills than anyone I’ve ever met- male or female. Rotating 3d objects in my head is a piece of cake. Try recreating entire floorplans from a handful of real estate porn photos or packing a 3 bedroom house into a 10 foot Uhaul. Or making custom clothing patterns from scratch. I think in 3d pictures.)

I’m just waiting for the “THAT’S DISRESPECTFUL!” comments to come rolling in

Kid: Bye Mom, I’m off to the library

Me: Aren’t you going to eat your sammich?

Kid. I’ll eat it later.

Kid: Don’t you eat my sammich.

Me: Oh I’m going to eat your whole sammich, and mine too. And when you come home from the library I am going to be covered in crumbs, rubbing my belly and complaining cause I ate too much of your sammich.

Kid: You’re evil

Me: And then I’m going to tell you that I am just a momma bird. I was pre-digesting your sammich for you.

Kid: that’s sick and wrong and wrong and sick and sick and wrong and wrong wrong wrong.

(FTR_ the Kid’s sammich is safe and sound. But I am covered in dorito dust. If only I lived in my mom’s basement (and hated women)- I’d be a real internet troll.

Because the left leaning types don’t shoot doctors.

Or blow up buildings.

Or bring guns to meetings.

That’s why I wouldn’t vote for McCain. That’s why even though I think we have the second most useless president in history, he’s still a hair’s breadth better than the alternative (mind you- I think we deserve much better than either of them.)

But I am not impressed or amused by violence as a political tool. Actually- there is a word for when non-governmental agents use violence as a tool for political gain. It’s called terrorism.

I keep running into this certain type of fauxgressive dude-bro- the communicator.

They are big on communicating, they just wanna talk things out, have a little chat, etc.

Except they don’t really have 2-way conversations. They talk at you, over you, interrupt you, around you. They don’t listen when you speak cause they are too busy planning their next barrage. Basically their m/o is to talk for so long that you are finally worn out and agree with whatever they are saying just to make them go away.

And I am over it. I no longer have any sort of strength to summon politeness when dealing with them. I hang up on them, slam doors on them. The conversation wasn’t mutual anyways, they can keep babbling at a slammed door if they feel the need.

on how much we spend on health care per capita vs. every other developed country. I could give you child mortality rates and life expectancy rates. I’ve worked in the insurance field managing benefits packages and in medical billing, so I can give you the ins and outs and nitty gritty on the horrible ways our system works.

But I think I’d rather you had a view of a system that works really well.

They spend less per person than we do and they cover everyone. And their system has something that a free market system can never include- common decency.