Government Jobs Are for Idiots

It seems like there’s a recent surge of people looking to gain employment through the government. Specifically, people want to work from home for the government. It’s not surprising considering the failing economy that more people would be looking for work. Unemployment is around 10% which is double what it was when Bush was lambasted for having 5% unemployment.

If you need proof that idiots work for the government, you need look no further than the government itself. Of course, people looking for cushy gov’t jobs usually aren’t thinking of Congress, or the President. Although, if they are a big time tax cheat, I hear that now qualifies you to oversee the Treasury Department.

There are valid reasons for working from home. Especially if you are taking care of a family member, or need to be home with the children. It’s also fine if you’re a good self starter and don’t need to go into an office to effectively do your job. That can vary from person to person.

Especially since the primary goal of the school system is to churn out unthinking conformity bots, a lot of people aren’t going to perform well without a boss looking over their shoulder all the time. However, some people are perfectly capable of knowing what needs to be done and doing it. Especially if there is an incentive for doing a job well.

If I was hiring people to telecommute, I would probably pay based on performance. For example, if I hired someone to generate leads, I would pay them based on the number and quality of leads generated. That would mean that your pay would be based on how good you are at generating quality leads, regardless of how long that takes. If you’re really good, you could rake in the cash.

But since the government is stupid, they would probably pay people by the number of calls made, or by the hour. That would mean that being GOOD at your job would be 100% meaningless. That would also be entirely consistent with everything about the way that government actually works.

Many people who are looking to work from home think that they will be lounging around all day, watching Oprah and Dr. Phil. Fortunately for those folks, work at home government jobs are probably the perfect fit. For the rest of us, working from home just means freedom and flexibility, but we realize that you still need to actually WORK.

Progressive Insurance and Geico Drop Advertising On Glenn Beck Show

Apparently, Moonbat Liberals, being completely unable and/or unwilling to understand that they won the election and their guys now control the country have been having a little tantrum about Progressive Insurance and Geico being advertisers on the Glenn Beck show on Fox. Why are Liberals so absorbed with what other people do? I don’t know. What I do know is that Progressive has decided to withdraw their advertising from Beck’s show.

Now a bunch of whiny Righties are throwing a tantrum in response, demanding that conservatives drop their coverage from Progressive and Geico in an attempt to counter boycott them.

Here’s the deal for anyone who is not coherent about the way the world works. Glenn Beck has a lot of viewers. Insurance companies like Progressive see that as an opportunity to reach out to more potential customers, so they advertise on his show. It’s that simple. They are not saying, “We wholeheartedly endorse the politics of Glenn Beck,” by doing this. They are saying, “Beck has viewers that may be potential customers.” That’s all their is to it.

Now, Progressive stupidly caved into the demands of a few very loud, very whiny, very demented Moonbats that demanded they withdraw their advertising from the show. As a result of caving into this loud and hallucinogenic minority of TV viewers, Progressive has angered another group of people.

I like Glenn Beck. He’s a great story teller, and can be really funny sometimes. But he’s also a bit of a nut. He’s basically the chicken little of broadcasting. He’s prone to going on and on about how the world is coming to an end. That gets really old, really fast. And he’s a Mormon. By Choice. That’s one of the nuttiest Christian Cult sects there are. So I really don’t have a horse in the race for Glenn.

Personally, I don’t really care how Progressive or anyone else runs their business. I make my own choices for my own reasons who I do business with, and I don’t really care to have the audacity to tell others what basis they should use for making their choices. If Progressive wants to run their business stupidly, that’s their business.

You Can’t Choose Your Parents

Why must parents suck? If your parents are great, then I envy you. Personally, my parents pretty much suck. I probably sound like an angsty teenager saying that, yet I’m a fully grown adult… my parents still suck.

A few months ago, my wife and I met with a mortgage guy about what it would take to turn the misfortune of people that bought a house that they could not afford into our good fortune. He told us that we would need a pretty significant wad of money up front in order to make things work. I said that I really don’t think it’s ever going to happen, but women don’t listen, so we continued on.

The idea was that my Dad was supposed to front the money we needed in order to buy a house. I knew this was a bad idea, because I know my Dad, and there are two things he should never be counted on for: emotional support, and financial support. I knew this going in, but did my wife listen? Of course not.

Now, going back, I had a terrible relationship with my father growing up. I hated him, up to the point of having vivid fantasies of murdering him. Ultimately, I wound up getting kicked out of his home for punching him. The second I hit him the last second I lived there. It was that simple. Get out and get out now. Don’t come back, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass.

Well, it took years of therapy to finally come to terms with the relationship I had with my father. Eventually though, we were able to create a relationship where he was semi-functional as a father. He would help with little things, because I knew better than to ask for anything more than little things from him, and we found some common ground to have an amicable relationship.

Did I mention that my parents are divorced? Recently. Oh yes, and it was quite a bitter divorce too. The whole family split. One of my brothers disowned my Dad straight out. Another sided with my dad, at least in practice, because his livlihood depended on it, as my Dad owns the business that my brother runs. The third brother lives On the other coast of the country, in order to avoid the whole mess.

My Mom is a pretty miserable person. In fact, my brother – the one that works for my Dad – describes her as a real “glass half-empty sort of person.” That about sums it up. When she calls, I don’t answer. Then I shuffle in, like Al Bundy, with that “defeated at life” sort of demeanor and tell my wife that my Mom called and she wants to get together for Easter (Or whatever holiday it is). My Mom is the antithesis of joyfulness and good cheer.

So, here we are. We found a house we really liked. We put a deposit on it. We had an inspector come. We were gearing up for closing, and now my Dad decides that I have been far too effective at remaining a neutral party to his dispute with Mom. Now suddenly the money he was going to front us is money that he claims Mom owes him, but she won’t pay him.

The net meaning, ask your Mother for the money. He wants to put me in the middle of the situation that I have very effectively avoided being in the middle of in order to make it all Mom’s fault if we don’t get the house. What a sorry excuse for a Mother, letting her son down that way. Of course, he doesn’t have the foresight to realize that I won’t blame her for pulling a bait and switch. He’s the one that did that.

She, on the other hand, doesn’t think we should even be moving in the first place. What with being such a miserable bitch and all, she also can’t help but frown upon virtually anything that might actually bring some sense of satisfaction to me. He is so stingy he makes Scrooge look like the freaking Salvation Army, which is why you don’t ask him for money.

His parents were mentally screwed up. He’s mentally screwed up. I’m mentally screwed up. Which is why I won’t have children. I figure the defective gene pool dies with me. Speaking of which, I have suicidal tendencies. I don’t just mean albums by the band either, even if Mike Muir is a genius. I’m actually bipolar, and have been in a mental hospital for preferring to die over taking another breath of agonizing life.

According to a friend I am currently a little pissed at, that makes me a failure at both life and death. But that’s another topic for another time.

The point is, I didn’t ask to be who I am. I didn’t ask to have the parents I do. I didn’t ask to even be born. Each and every one of these things have taken me years to try and come to terms with. Each and every one is something I have struggled to overcome.

But then there’s the woman. She apparently didn’t see enough rage against my father to meet her satisfaction. She tells me it’s either don’t ever talk to my father again, for doing exactly the sort of thing I predicted he would do, or lose her. I mean she really said that. It’s him or me.

I have already been there. Done that. I have already hated my father with every sinew of my body. I have already wished countless times for him to be dead. I have spent hours of therapy trying to get past that and try to have some sort of semi-functional relationship with him, and she wants me to simply throw that away, even as I warned of what would happen.

Now, everyone has finally successfully found a way to hate everyone else. Congratulations. I just wasted the last 10 years of my life trying to find some sort of balance where I could try to have parents that acted like parents to me, and not like schoolyard bullies. Because now it’s all blown to shit by a woman that wouldn’t listen to someone that knows the central characters far better than she does.

And she wants to know why I’m pissed at HER.

Saving Money in a Financial Crisis

One of the great ironies of a bad economy is that the very thing needed to get it going is what is absent. In order to grow the economy, people need to spend money, but due to the poor economy, people aren’t spending money. Somehow, something needs to break the cycle. Somehow, people need to feel comfortable with the idea of spending their money, in spite of the feeling of economic uncertainty.

It’s a concept often referred to as “consumer confidence.” This means that people are confident that it is not going to be detrimental to themselves to spend money. However, with the media pounding day after day about how the world is going to end if this bailout and that bailout does not pass, it’s no wonder that consumer confidence is low. The media has done nothing to contribute any sense of confidence in the economy with pushing their propaganda that if something is not done right now, today, right this moment, we’ll all be living in a mud hut and starving to death.

So, the sad irony is that “saving money” is bad for the economy, especially during a financial crisis. Yet, at the same time, it’s a fact, people have lost their jobs, hours have been cut back, bonuses have been cut out. There is less money to be had. The economy has shrunk, and the average person needs to adjust his lifestyle accordingly.

I know that our income is less than it was. If any sort of inflation creeps in, we’re pretty much screwed. Most people probably take a few common sense measures to save money. For example, we are doing less eating out. (Sorry restaurant owners and employees.) So you see, My not spending money, is having a direct impact on the livelihood of the waitstaff. Who then have less money to spend on whatever, which then has less money to spend, on construction, which then means less money going to the company I work for.

That is the cycle of the economy. Anyway, I don’t mind not going out so much. I pretty much hate going out anyway. I would rather stay home. I hate going to a restaurant. Sitting forever in uncomfortable seating, waiting for my food. Then I have to wait for everyone else to finish eating. Then I have to wait for the waitress to ask if we want anything else. Then I have to wait for the check. Then I have to wait for them to come back after running the card through. Then I finally get to go home.

By that time, It’s 8:30 or later. The evening has been shot to hell, and I didn’t get any relaxation at all. I would definitely rather make dinner really quick, eat, and lay down for a bit. Then I can have the energy to do thing I want or need to do. So, I’m basically overjoyed to be eating out less.

Other money saving tips are just stupid. I have looked around at some of the money saving tips and it’s pathetic. I swear, here’s a real tip I came across. “Ask yourself when you get in the car, “is this trip really necessary?” Wtf? I hate going out. I hate driving. OF COURSE IT’S FUCKING NECESSARY!

One of my all time favorite stupid ways to save money is lowering your thermostat. Well, no shit. Who didn’t know that heat costs money. It’s not like I’m struggling to have enough money to buy food. I’m not. Why the hell am I going to spend all winter freezing my balls off and wearing a winter coat and hat inside my house to save a few bucks? I’m also not going to sit in a puddle of ass sweat all summer long to save a few dollars.

These are serious quality of life issues. When it is going to significantly impact your comfort or lifestyle, you need to think really hard about these things. I’m smart enough to know that if it came down to a choice between eating, and bumming a ride from a coworker, I will choose to eat. No fucking shit. But I will keep the personal freedom to drive myself where I want when I want until then.

Some of the tips I’ve seen must have been from 1932 or something. “Use your homemade jellies and jams as gifts.” My what with the what now? “Stretch ground meat with breadcrumbs.” Have you seen the price of bread lately? It was nearly $4 for one loaf. I think I will keep my meat bread free.

“Use self service gasoline pumps.” What? How the hell will I know if I am getting leaded or unleaded gas? Welcome back 1978. I don’t think I have seen anything that isn’t self-serve in over a decade. “move to a smaller house.” The one I have is tiny. Tell you what. Why don’t I just go live in a mud hut, eat only what I grow, and wear clothes made out of tree bark. That will save tons of money. Sure, we’ll die a miserable death from dysentery, but the planet is overpopulated anyway right?

Now that I think about it. I think I’ll limit my money saving to eating out less. I don’t like doing that anyway. All the rest is just going to make my life less worth living.

What are your favorite stupid ways to save money?

Coatesville Arson Suspect Arrested

Coatesville Police have arrested an individual that claims to be responsible for setting 9 of the fires in the recent Coatesville Arson Epidemic. Roger Leon Barlow Jr. (19) of Downingtown was arrested on Wednesday and has been charged with 9 arsons. He confessed to deliberately setting the fires, including the most devastating of all the fires, which destroyed 15 homes.

Now, I don’t know if the shithead is just trying to get a little of the limelight here by taking credit for this, or if he’s really enough of a piece of shit to have actually done it. I’m not even sure it’s any less worse if he is just a glory hound. Why the hell would someone think it’s a good thing to take credit for destroying dozens of homes and family’s lives? As far as I’m concerned, I don’t even care if Roger Leon Barlow Jr. did it or not. Someone needs to smash his freaking skull with a shovel.

Authorities labeled Barlow as a pyromaniac who got a thrill out of setting the fires.

Sources tell CBS 3 the arrest occurred after Barlow’s name was brought to the attention of police during the investigation. Sources indicate an additional arrest could be forthcoming.

There have been a total of 18 arson fires in the city of Coatesville since the beginning of the year and an additional five have been set outside the city.

Investigators do not believe Barlow is responsible for all of the arsons that have occurred in and around Coatesville.

I’m sue he wasn’t, because these things seem to provoke others to their own deranged compulsions.

Police say that the investigation is still ongoing and they are nowhere near finished investigating the source of all the arsons. They also say that the cocknozzle they arrested did not seem to be motivated by gang activity, or hate crime, whatever the hell that is. How is it worse to burn down someone’s home because they are black than it is to burn down their home because you’re a sick, deranged crusted over feces of a human being? Either way, the home is burned to the ground. What freaking difference does the motivation make?

Valentines Day Humor

Basically, I get to spend money I need on things I don’t in order to celebrate this useless, contrived fake holiday.

yay

Here’s a song I was enjoying listening to in the spirit of my anti-Valentine. Here’s an Anti-Love Song, by Tantric, ironically called “Love Song.”

Also be sure to check out 6 things about Valentines Day that Suck (Humor)

Coatesville Fire Victims Benefit

Today a charity drive was held at the Thorndale Applebee’s for the victims of the Coatesville arson epidemic. It was a huge success. There were just truckloads and truckloads of virtually everything being donated. People brought food, beds, furniture, small appliances, bedding, household items, clothes, coats, shoes, and the turnout was just fantastic.

I think we really proved that we know how to take care of people less fortunate without Big Mother Government extorting our money and sucking up 80% of it in administrative costs, only to spend most of the rest of it on pork barrel kickbacks. We don’t need corrupt government programs to act as a safety net. The community know how to come together and take care of their own. I’m proud of the good citizens of the Coatesville area today. It really restores your faith in humanity to see an outpouring of giving like this.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. Thanks also to the Thorndale volunteer fire department for being a big part of the drive. But what I ended up finding out was that super thanks need to go out to the waitstaff of the Thorndale Applebees. They were the true driving force behind making this happen in the first place. It was something that they wanted to do to give back to the community, and apparently the upper management didn’t particularly like the idea of a corporate restaurant being used as a charity dump for the day, but the waitstaff threatened to walk out if they didn’t get their way.

I also very much appreciate the complimentary meal my family and I got for participating as volunteers. You guys rock.

Rip Hamilton’s Charity Collecting for Coatesville Arson Victims

Detroit Pistons guard Rip Hamilton is a native of Coatesville PA. The city of Coatesville is in the grips of fear as at least 17 arsons have been set in the Coatesville area in the first 31 days of 2009. Hamilton’s charity, the Rip City Foundation is collecting donations for the victims of the fires.

According to Detroit Free Press:

Hamilton’s charity, the Rip City Foundation, is collecting donations of clothing for all ages, household items and linens to help people from his hometown of Coatesville, Pa.

Donations will be collected at the Palace’s West Atrium and Comcast Pavilion during tonight’s game and shipped for distribution Saturday. Monetary donations can be sent to Rip City Foundation, P.O. Box 358, Thorndale, Pa. 19372, or by telephone at 610-696-5916.

The Thorndale Applebee’s will also be collecting donations on Feb.5, 2009 from 11AM to 8PM. They need household items, toiletries (New and unused only) like shampoo, soap, moisturizing lotion, blankets, clothes, canned goods, and pretty much anything else a person needs in order to live comfortably. They also need volunteers to help load the donations.

Come on people, this is where we show that we don’t need the stinking government to be our mother.

Thorndale Applebee’s
3479 Lincoln Hwy
Thorndale, PA 19372
(610) 383-0534

4 More Arsons in Coatesville PA

Coatesville, PA 1/31/2009 – There have now been 17 arsons in the Coatesville area in the first 31 days of 2009. The most recent ones reported on January 31 occurred outside the city limits of Coatesville in the surrounding townships. The fires follow the same pattern as the arsons inside the Coatesville city limits as they usually are started by setting a trash can on the porch ablaze, and if the homeowner is unfortunate enough, more catches fire from there.

According to CBS3

Two of Saturday’s blazes were set on porches of homes on the same street in Valley Township shortly after 12:30 a.m. The third was started at a home in nearby Sadsbury Township at 3 a.m., and a fourth on the porch of a home in Modena was reported to investigators around 7 a.m.

The most destructive of the 17 fires this year destroyed 15 homes on January 24, exactly one week ago. The 4 fires reported today occurred in surrounding townships, thus it appears the Coatesville Arson Epidemic may be spreading.

Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives say that they are not sure if the most recent fires are directly related to the arsonist, or arsonist setting the fires with in the Coatesville city limits. Investigators are also looking into past arsons in surrounding communities to see if the most recent blazes might have a connection.

This is starting to get scary for the entire area. For the beginning of the epidemic, the arsons were confined to the City of Coatesville itself. I had even told a friend that I did not think it would spread to the more suburban areas, but the Sadsburyville fire is well outside the city limits in a quiet suburban community, which means the 2 miles that I am outside of the city limits is far from a guarantee of safety.

Keep those smoke detector batteries fresh.

Coatesville PA Arson Epidemic Continues Unabated

Coatesville, PA

Over the last few weeks there has been an epidemic of fires in the City of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. City officials don’t have any clue what is going on, who is responsible for the rash of arsons, or how to stop it.

From Fox Philadelphia:

28 arsons in Coatesville in the past year are under investigation, and the blazes have left the community anxious and on edge.

Thursday, police offered a $5000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

January has proven to be a popular month for arsonists in the town.

Indeed January is a popular month for setting homes ablaze in Coatesville. Over the weekend 15 homes were burnt to the ground in an 8 alarm fire.

COATESVILLE, Pa. — The latest in a string of suspicious fires in this Philadelphia suburb tore through a block of row houses, damaging 15 homes, leaving several dozen people homeless and prompting city officials to declare a state of emergency.

Oh, yes, they’ve declared a state of emergency.
State Of Emergency Called In Coatesville After Latest Arson

Fifteen homes were damaged and some may have to be demolished, and eleven families have been displaced, Walker said. Damage was estimated at $1.2 million, bringing the total fire damage since last summer to $3 million, he said.

The emergency declaration will give the city powers to deal with the situation without worrying about the budget, such as boarding up the buildings, assigning police to protect them and helping the families involved, Walker said.

Later Sunday, at a meeting with citizens and city officials, Walker called the arsonists attempted murderers.

On Saturday, I read the tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, and it was talking about how New York City caused a plummet in the crime rate by stopping people from jumping fares, and cleaning up the subway stations and cars. It was based on something called the Broken Window Principle, which basically says that when people see an area that is not well kept, and has a lot of broken windows, it encourages more broken windows.

Basically, crooks look at a disintegrating ghetto, and say “We’re open for business.” By fixing up the area, it stops sending the signal that this is where crime is to take place. Coatesville, quite frankly, is a f*cking s#1thole. It’s a dump. If the idea outlined in the Tipping Point hold true, then the very cause of the mayhem in Coatesville is the fact that the city is one big giant pile of refuse.

City Officials have told residents to clear their porches of all their crap, which is often what is being used to start the fires. But it goes deeper than that. Just drive through Coatesville, and there are all the markers of a slum. Boarded up buildings housing squatters and druggies. Condemned buildings, graffiti, and garbage everywhere. The City may be able to finally reach the arson tipping point by taking a page from New York City’s playbook, and putting their efforts into making the city look nice.

I don’t know what it will take, but at this rate, there won’t be a city left by 2010.