Ka-Boom, the Poor and Hideous Sun Demons
About 6 yesterday evening a steam pipe near Grand Central Station blew up – one person was killed 4 people are in serious condition, 20 others were hurt and it seems like ever newscaster on television pissed in their pants.
The stories on the TV emphasized panic in New York, well the only ones that I saw panicking were the newscasters – pictures from the site showed people in New York doing what people in New York when something has happened – stand and watch.
Now I’m sure that during the initial moments there was panic galore I mean shit one moment you are late for the 6:10 home and the next the street opens up and there is a geyser of steam blowing into the sky, that’s going to panic me right damn quick – but any additional panic was spread by the newscasters who from the clips I saw, were having a hard time keeping their eyes from rolling around in their heads while they jabbered like magpies. Not one of the professions’s shining moments I have to say.
The pipe is yet another part of the ‘city’s aging infrastructure’ that we only deal with when it blows up or, in the case of bridges, when pieces fall off into the river. But the decay of the infrastructure is a national scandal and we’re going to be paying for that soon enough (except for the shiny new bridge to nowhere in Alaska – I swear if this wasn’t our money and real people getting killed this maddness would be hysterically funny) another thing the Next president is doing to have to deal with.
Speaking of which it seems that Edwards is the new Al Gore – at least to the press who hated and still hated Al Gore – by the way there was an attempt recently to gotcha Al by pointing out that Chilean Sea Bass (which had been endangered) was served his daughters rehearsal dinner. Okay 1) who gives a fuck what people with a lot of money serve at their rehearsal dinners 2) I understand Sea Bass was (as in past tense) endangered but is not now (which is the whole idea of conservation not that you can never do X but to stop doing X for a while and let nature restore itself ) and 3) Rehearsal dinners are given by the In-Laws of the Bride not the Bride’s family which in the old days was shelling out for everything else (not so much these days – lots of folks I know have paid for their own weddings)
Anyway the point is that somehow it’s become a talking point that since Edwards spends a lot of money on a haircut he can’t be interested really in poverty – and hence a hypocrite. If Edwards had pretended to be middle class while owning a huge house on Cape Cod or carried on and on and on about the sanctity of marriage while going to hookers I could see the hypocrite charge but otherwise no. But logic doesn’t matter once the press gang has decided you are the nerd you are done as far as they are concerned.
Edwards seems to be the only one addressing the grotesque income disparity that has emerged in this country since the days of Reagan – that seems to get the pundits backs up.
As a side note I’ll point out that during one of the blog exchanges about Edwards some GOP troglodyte started jabbering about how “poor people need to learn thrift” and moral standings and so on.
This attitude has been with us since the Victorian era – but thrift is useless if you can’t find a job or keep one because it’s been shipped out of the country and you education stinks cause nobody wants to spend money on educating poor people and you can’t find a place to live that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg and you hope to god you don’t get sick because you can’t afford it – for someone from a comfortable middle class background to go about jabbering about the need of the poor to be more thrifty is insulting in a deeply profoundly insulting way.
Poverty is a test of character that I wouldn’t wish on anybody – there were some bad times in my life that I’d rather not go into but I struggled like a lot - I’m not doing bad now but it was touch and go and when you’re ten bucks short on the electric bill and there is no way to make it up someone lecturing on thrift is looking to get punched in the mouth.
And there was also the “well they have televisions, compared to the poor of New Delhi they aren’t really poor at all” which is a pretty depressing defense, is that the best you can do? That the poor don’t live in cardboard boxes and tin shacks? Oh that makes me proud to be an American citizen I can tell you that. We don’t completely suck is not a motto I can get behind.
Yeah they have TV’s but they don’t have a future. And if we, as a society, can’t give the promise of a better future to those who don’t have one for them or their children what’s the damn point? Humvees? Big screen TVs? I got mine fuck you?
End of ranting for the day.
Random Neural Firings:
Fred Thomson, being an actor, is now doing his Hamlet impression about running for president – there is a moment where anticipation becomes impatience and I suspect Fred’s people are reaching that point. He’s been dipping his toe in the pool for months now and the act is wearing thin. I don’t really blame him, he doesn’t like to work to hard and running for president is hard work very hard work and then there’s’ all that work if you win. So I can understand his hesitation hell he’s only being talked about because the other GOP candidates are such knee biters.
Example of the long tail – the next horrible film I’m getting from netflix is coming from Tacoma Washington cause that’s the only place that has a copy of The Incredible Petrified World, which doesn’t surprise me in the least (why do I do this I keep on asking myself why? Surely I can find other things to do with my time yes? Do I have to keep beating my brains with a rock like this? Maybe I should just hit myself with an old fashioned frying pan until I black out – that would be less painful and do less permanent damage). After that the Hideous sun demon – and some well I might not make it past that.
Peace love Hideous Sun Demons
The stories on the TV emphasized panic in New York, well the only ones that I saw panicking were the newscasters – pictures from the site showed people in New York doing what people in New York when something has happened – stand and watch.
Now I’m sure that during the initial moments there was panic galore I mean shit one moment you are late for the 6:10 home and the next the street opens up and there is a geyser of steam blowing into the sky, that’s going to panic me right damn quick – but any additional panic was spread by the newscasters who from the clips I saw, were having a hard time keeping their eyes from rolling around in their heads while they jabbered like magpies. Not one of the professions’s shining moments I have to say.
The pipe is yet another part of the ‘city’s aging infrastructure’ that we only deal with when it blows up or, in the case of bridges, when pieces fall off into the river. But the decay of the infrastructure is a national scandal and we’re going to be paying for that soon enough (except for the shiny new bridge to nowhere in Alaska – I swear if this wasn’t our money and real people getting killed this maddness would be hysterically funny) another thing the Next president is doing to have to deal with.
Speaking of which it seems that Edwards is the new Al Gore – at least to the press who hated and still hated Al Gore – by the way there was an attempt recently to gotcha Al by pointing out that Chilean Sea Bass (which had been endangered) was served his daughters rehearsal dinner. Okay 1) who gives a fuck what people with a lot of money serve at their rehearsal dinners 2) I understand Sea Bass was (as in past tense) endangered but is not now (which is the whole idea of conservation not that you can never do X but to stop doing X for a while and let nature restore itself ) and 3) Rehearsal dinners are given by the In-Laws of the Bride not the Bride’s family which in the old days was shelling out for everything else (not so much these days – lots of folks I know have paid for their own weddings)
Anyway the point is that somehow it’s become a talking point that since Edwards spends a lot of money on a haircut he can’t be interested really in poverty – and hence a hypocrite. If Edwards had pretended to be middle class while owning a huge house on Cape Cod or carried on and on and on about the sanctity of marriage while going to hookers I could see the hypocrite charge but otherwise no. But logic doesn’t matter once the press gang has decided you are the nerd you are done as far as they are concerned.
Edwards seems to be the only one addressing the grotesque income disparity that has emerged in this country since the days of Reagan – that seems to get the pundits backs up.
As a side note I’ll point out that during one of the blog exchanges about Edwards some GOP troglodyte started jabbering about how “poor people need to learn thrift” and moral standings and so on.
This attitude has been with us since the Victorian era – but thrift is useless if you can’t find a job or keep one because it’s been shipped out of the country and you education stinks cause nobody wants to spend money on educating poor people and you can’t find a place to live that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg and you hope to god you don’t get sick because you can’t afford it – for someone from a comfortable middle class background to go about jabbering about the need of the poor to be more thrifty is insulting in a deeply profoundly insulting way.
Poverty is a test of character that I wouldn’t wish on anybody – there were some bad times in my life that I’d rather not go into but I struggled like a lot - I’m not doing bad now but it was touch and go and when you’re ten bucks short on the electric bill and there is no way to make it up someone lecturing on thrift is looking to get punched in the mouth.
And there was also the “well they have televisions, compared to the poor of New Delhi they aren’t really poor at all” which is a pretty depressing defense, is that the best you can do? That the poor don’t live in cardboard boxes and tin shacks? Oh that makes me proud to be an American citizen I can tell you that. We don’t completely suck is not a motto I can get behind.
Yeah they have TV’s but they don’t have a future. And if we, as a society, can’t give the promise of a better future to those who don’t have one for them or their children what’s the damn point? Humvees? Big screen TVs? I got mine fuck you?
End of ranting for the day.
Random Neural Firings:
Fred Thomson, being an actor, is now doing his Hamlet impression about running for president – there is a moment where anticipation becomes impatience and I suspect Fred’s people are reaching that point. He’s been dipping his toe in the pool for months now and the act is wearing thin. I don’t really blame him, he doesn’t like to work to hard and running for president is hard work very hard work and then there’s’ all that work if you win. So I can understand his hesitation hell he’s only being talked about because the other GOP candidates are such knee biters.
Example of the long tail – the next horrible film I’m getting from netflix is coming from Tacoma Washington cause that’s the only place that has a copy of The Incredible Petrified World, which doesn’t surprise me in the least (why do I do this I keep on asking myself why? Surely I can find other things to do with my time yes? Do I have to keep beating my brains with a rock like this? Maybe I should just hit myself with an old fashioned frying pan until I black out – that would be less painful and do less permanent damage). After that the Hideous sun demon – and some well I might not make it past that.
Peace love Hideous Sun Demons
posted by Unknown at 10:33 AM
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