For Fuck's Sake - WHY!?!?!? (annoyed)

[jess]

I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen. I don't think it's the norm though, and I don't think it's the prevailing reason for well-off people not supporting health care reform.

[andronicus]

My thinking about doctors and dentists at this point is that I've probably already taken a substantial life expectancy hit by not having gone to see them for so long, and so the optimal solution at this point is to double down on this strategy that's been imposed on me by my country and use the money saved to enjoy myself before I die of the terrible wasting cancer I never went in to get checked out because I was too busy watching Magnum PI on my iPad.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I kind of thought that was what was behind it, but I still don't understand how people can think like that. Especially these days, especially in a country that tried so hard to abandon the class system (though I guess it's justified in the heads of the well-off that the poor just aren't trying hard enough). Off to vomit now.

Don't misunderstand--the idea that we, the US, are a classless society is what feeds a lot of these attitudes. You know how all of us Americans start flipping out about "bootstraps" when we talk about the Republican party here, and the nasty attitude they have towards the poor? That attitude is enabled across all of our country, no matter the income level, by the illusion that class doesn't exist here. The idea that anyone can make it in America, anyone can be rich in America, anyone can be famous--just pull yourself up by your bootstraps!--feeds the corresponding idea that if you're poor and struggling and no one knows who the fuck you are, it must be because you aren't willing to do the work that's necessary to become rich and famous--or even middle-class and comfortable. So people feel perfectly OK writing off our poor and disenfranchised on the basis that they got where they are now by being lazy. It's like, "yeah, well, they're dying of preventable diseases in substandard housing in the shittiest neighborhood in Baltimore because they're lazy! Why don't they just get a job?" No one wants to hear that unemployment in urban Baltimore [which I'm using as an example because I've read books about it by the dudes who made "The Wire," so I'm a privileged cultural tourist too, and I know that] is 25%, that there just aren't enough jobs there to go around. If those people WANTED IT BAD ENOUGH, the Republicans tell us, they would find a way to get it. If they don't have health care, it's because they're lazy.

So no, it's not full-on Ebenezer Scrooge, but it's a concocted rationalization taking the place of Scrooge's class snobbery, and the effect is the same.

[diesel_powered]

And in many circles, that ignorance gets funneled into the belief that all people of lower income are simply criminals, which is why they're poor. This is how you get pundits on the TV talking about how Americans shouldn't allow Haitian refugees in because so many of them are criminals.

[Ignatius]

I'm not saying it doesn't ever happen. I don't think it's the norm though, and I don't think it's the prevailing reason for well-off people not supporting health care reform.

Definitely. I think (hope) that he was an extreme case. I certainly didn't mean to bring it up as a challenge.

[bethany_m]

If i read one more goddamn grant application about a 'new' program involving school gardening projects i might stab someone.

There are so many friggin fads in philanthropy, its stupid.

[andronicus]

Bethany I've been kicking around an idea for a summer camp to teach inner city youth basic yachting skills, if I do up a quick treatment would you take a look at it and give me some pointers?

[bethany_m]

http://www.compassproject.org/

http://www.sailmaine.org/

http://www.atlanticchallenge.com/

Just partner with one of these folks.

[diesel_powered]

So in a moment of going against my better judgement (as I passed it to him, I literally thought "I have no idea why I'm doing this, he'll lose it the second I need it") I returned the household Snow Leopard install disc to my father. And, true to my better judgement, he lost it. And that was kind of my plan for the evening. Fuck.

[elpollodiablo]

www.btjunkie.org

[Anglophile]

I prefer www.torrentz.com, but it lists btjunkie there

[morgan]

I am actually about to go on the state health care program, which seems pretty excellent on paper. Thank god I qualify for it. Thinking about the health care issues in America makes me so incredibly incensed, I usually just won't allow myself to do so. Thankfully, I am healthy enough for the most part that I don't have to think about it often, and I know that ignoring it doesn't really help the situation, but the way things are right now just makes me feel so incredibly powerless and hopeless, I don't even know what to do. Getting antibiotics for strep throat should not cost someone hundreds of dollars. Getting insulin to stay alive really shouldn't even be an issue.

At this point I'm thinking that I'll try as hard as possible to get a job in western Europe after graduating, because honestly, fuck living in a country where half of the people don't care enough about other human beings to think that they deserve to be able to go to a doctor when they're sick without going bankrupt because of it. Where insurance doesn't pay for "pre-existing conditions" and preventive care is almost non-existent. It just makes me so incredibly angry, and it's pretty rare that I get angry. I feel almost bad going off on tangents about it, because once I start, it's pretty hard to stop me. And it's gotten to the point where after a while I just think, "whatever," because I know that people's minds aren't going to be changed no matter how inhumane their viewpoints are.

[girl]

I would offer to send you my Snow Leopard disc, but I'm not quite sure where it is and I'm terrible at mailing things, so really, I should be your last choice, but if you're out of better options, let me know.

[diesel_powered]

www.btjunkie.org

Ugh, yeah I suppose. It's my work computer, though, and I'd like to keep it as legal as possible. Plus, y'know, wannit now.

I'ma just pry it out of him tomorrow. With a KNIFE.

[girl]

. . . or, you know, let me know and I'll look for my copy. It's got to be somewhere !

Holy cow I'm drunk right now. lik e ridiculously drunk. It's really haard to type.

edit: the fact that I'm drinking does not make my offer any less sincere, by the way. Seriously, if you need it, I'll send you my copy. Let me know. 

edit again: also, you probgab;ly shouldn't stab your dad. That's not nice.

[diesel_powered]

Once again, I remind you that as a pacifist, all my threats of violence are strictly idle.

[FreddyKnuckles]

boner

[hannah]

Blah, I am sort of sick of this town. I miss my friends and family.

Holy shit, two of my dearest friends are flying out here today. Now I am annoyed that I have to clean, but them's small potatoes.

[kadiekatRN]

Somehow F's company only took $1500 or so out in federal withholding last year.  His actual tax burden is something like $4000.  Thusly, even with the $8000 tax credit for buying a house, we're only getting about $5600 back.  This is no small amount, but I kinda financed some expensive home purchases (like refinishing hardwoods and installing laminate in the kitchen) thinking I was getting $8000 back. 

My credit card company is going to continue to love me a little longer, I guess.

[mixed cats]

www.btjunkie.org

Ugh, yeah I suppose. It's my work computer, though, and I'd like to keep it as legal as possible. Plus, y'know, wannit now.

I'ma just pry it out of him tomorrow. With a KNIFE.

Could you use a Snow Leopard disc that came with a new MacBook? I have about five trillion of these at work, and they'll just get thrown out anyway.
I know that discs that come with one thing frequently can't be used on another but maybe it couldn't hurt to try?

[davy]

Somehow F's company only took $1500 or so out in federal withholding last year.  His actual tax burden is something like $4000.  Thusly, even with the $8000 tax credit for buying a house, we're only getting about $5600 back.  This is no small amount, but I kinda financed some expensive home purchases (like refinishing hardwoods and installing laminate in the kitchen) thinking I was getting $8000 back. 

My credit card company is going to continue to love me a little longer, I guess.

A couple years ago, I missed out on a $3,000 tax credit because I made $200 more than the maximum annual income. That was rough.

[diesel_powered]

www.btjunkie.org

Ugh, yeah I suppose. It's my work computer, though, and I'd like to keep it as legal as possible. Plus, y'know, wannit now.

I'ma just pry it out of him tomorrow. With a KNIFE.

Could you use a Snow Leopard disc that came with a new MacBook? I have about five trillion of these at work, and they'll just get thrown out anyway.
I know that discs that come with one thing frequently can't be used on another but maybe it couldn't hurt to try?

It might, I'm not sure how closely those follow the hardware. But it doesn't matter anyway, he found it and now I'm keeping it.

[cold before sunrise]

Not one to complain, you won't see me in this thread often, but I'm effing ticked right off. Did the club crawl I've been meaning to hit for ages (am typing from my found iPhone at a massively lame house party) and don't know what I did to deserve such shoddy luck. It started out good: was adopted by a pair of attractive lesbians - the cutest one won the night's limbo contest - and was invited to an after party by a team of fantastically hot surfers on vacation from Maui. Gorgeous, like a penthouse forum story: all absolutely gorgeous. I am still stunned by how close I got to a dream come true. So we're leaving and I get in a fight with the overpaid coat-check girl, who won't give me my leather hoody that's right in front of her, and my fantasy walks right out the door. I almost cried on the way to this stupid party! There's 20 people here and the best thing that's happened is I heard Snoop Dogg was here 5 weeks ago and gave a bro's bro a $140 tip at a hot dog stand and rapped for him. I know life could be worse but the homeowner is mad so many folks are here she doesn't know and I'm close to tears. FML
     

[cold before sunrise]

And for FUCK'S SAKE not one place we hit had beer coasters! How about some napkins? Argh!

[Ignatius]

It's your fault because you have a leather hoodie. That's crime.