I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, February 18, 2011

Linkee-poo attempts to flush it out

Jim Wright says it better than I could. I think the teeth gnashing of the conservatives who were shouting to high heaven that Obama's budget didn't address the "entitlement" programs should be ashamed. They, after all, were the ones who ran on the platform, promised everybody they would do it, say we can't balance anything unless we cut them, and when the President says, "Okay, you go first," they revert to the 5 year-olds they are. To paraphrase Dean Vernon Wormer, "Put Christie on it. He's a sneaky little shit just like you."

Hmm, well that's interesting. I guess WI wasn't going to have a budget deficit at all until the recent tax cuts pushed through by the very Governor who is now bemoaning his outcast state. In fact, their own budget office was predicting a surplus. So, tax cuts, payouts to friends and acquaintances, and then crying wolf over not having enough money to pay the people who get the work done. Gee, sounds like our own governor. How long does it have to go on before we can use the term, "corrupt"?

And related to that, while it's not as large as WI, we've had our own marches on the statehouse. Didn't see much of that on the local news last night. Your liberal media at work. Also, yes, there was a counter protest by TPers. However, as the report states, they were outnumbered by those protesting the new proposed rules. And really, I still have difficulty wrapping my head around people who believe that removing workers' right is a good thing. SO not only do we have to refight the culture wars of the past half century, we also need to go back to the late 19th century and fight those again.

edited to add more links

Some more on the Ohio protests. I love that people think government workers get paid too much because their public officials get paid too much. For our own Village, we had several people over the years who complained that we councilmen are paid "way too much." When we explain that we only get $400 a month, that story quickly changes (when I started, we were paid $200 a month, which PERS considered too low to be considered a full year's salary, so our time in office as recorded for the state pension was listed at 0.5 years for each year of service). And you wonder why we pay all of their health insurance and pension? It's because we don't pay them squat to begin with. I've tried to help with that, and I think we now pay livable wages, but none of our employees are getting rich. Last year we also started to require them to pitch in for their health insurance. We're starting small and increasing the percentage each year. Our employees, however, haven't had a pay raise in three years. (Grokked from John)

Some opinion about the submerged state. You may remember an earlier link to a survey that showed how people who receive government benefits don't realize they are a part of the welfare state, and so rail against the welfare state. You can add in to this thought process those that believe their food comes from "the store" and have a complete disconnect that those cows they drive by are either supplying the milk they had poured on their Cheerios that morning, or will be the hamburger they eat at lunch (let alone the corn growing in that field will go to feed those cows so they can have the milk and meat). (Grokked from Eric)

Swelled with the confidence of Egypt, nations around the middle east are seeing uprisings to some degree or other. The difference, no major media support and some of these rulers aren't so interested in dialog. He had to (fairly) peaceful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that got (mostly) what they wanted. However, as the investment saying goes, past performance is not indicative of future returns. I also think it's interesting that the various talking heads who were all about bringing democracy to Iraq tacked on the form of an M1A1 Abrams, and all agog about how this will begin a tidal wave effect that will change everybody into democracies are now saying, well, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. As I said before, I'm all for people demanding change and marching, I'm just not sure we're ready for the fallout (of them getting what they want, which may not be what we want - which is okay - or of people dying to try and get that freedom). This is where the real world trumps idealism.

2 comments:

Rick said...

Hey, Steve, are you on panels at Penguicon this year? I'll be on a few and I was hoping you were, too.

Steve Buchheit said...

Hey Rick, because of work (potential travel plans) and school concerns (close to finals, just like last semester when I had to travel the week before finals), I can't make it the end of April. I'm being to feel like the cheap Wil Wheaton. I keep wanting to get there, and something always gets in the way.