The Old Jarhead http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/>


    Thursday, February 19, 2009


      I'm Tired
 http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2009/02/robert.html>

 I'll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs
 were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but
 job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18.


 Response:
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 I'll be 63 in November. I started my first full time job when I
 was 17. Since then I haven't had a total of 6 months of
 accumulated unemployment.
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 Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks,
 and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 I haven't called in sick in so long, when I had to call in to
 tell them I couldn't work a scheduled day off when they wanted
 me to I couldn't remember the attendance control phone number.

 I still work in a factory where it is chilly in the winter, and
 damned hot in the summer. I climb stairs and ladders and work
 from pits in the floor to 40 feet up near the ceiling where the
 heat accumulates. And yeah, I'm tired.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I
 worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no
 retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

 Response:
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 I didn't inherit a job or my income, I worked to get where I am.
 There is no retirement in sight for me either, and I am also
 very tired.
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 I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth
 around" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of


 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 I am tired of desk jockies who claim some superior work ethic,
 while spouting right wing talking head non-sense. Or does Mr
 Hall have some objection to giving the low paid a chance to move
 up in the world, as Mr Obama said, and thereby giving them a
 chance to share in the wealth, thus spreading it to those who
 work hard? The poor in this country are overwhelmingly the
 working poor, and they probably work harder than Mr Hall does on
 a bad day.
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 being told the government will take the money I earned, by force
 if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn
 it.

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Anyone who makes a point of saying the government will take his
 money by force should never be taken seriously. This government
 relies mostly on people who submit their taxes without having to
 have someone knock on the door.

 Since when has any government ever taken money by any means than
 requiring you pay with the threat of enforcement in the
 background.

 Mr. Hall, if there was no threat of enforcement, which means
 force, I doubt you would pay any taxes for any purpose.

 In a country where unemployment has been government policy for
 decades, what standing does anyone have complaining about those
 who cannot get decent paying jobs?
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep
 people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got
 sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at
 three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on
 one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters
 who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act
 that created the bubble help them - with their own money.


 Response:
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 I'm tired of the lies the right tells to escape their
 responsibility. Fannie and Freddie were minor players in the
 meltdown, and the Community Reinvestment act had zero authority
 over the unregulated mortgage brokers who made most of those bad
 loans, and the investment houses that packaged and sold them as
 derivatives. BTW, those derivatives are still unregulated, despite
 the Clinton administration commodities regulators trying to
 bring them under control well over a decade ago.

 Oh, and if you can afford a paid off $250,000 condo I have no
 sympathy for you.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 I'm tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing
 millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood
 entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities
 America offers.

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 I don't pay much attention to Hollywood entertainers, and don't
 recall George Soros saying much on that subject, but you
 certainly have gotten your facts wrong on Michael Moore. He
 doesn't say America is bad, he does say some Americans are bad.
 And if you deny that I will get a much needed laugh.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 In thirty years, if they get their way, the
 United States will have the religious freedom and women's rights
 of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the
 press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance
 for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela.

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 You just described the policies of the religious right,
 Limbaugh and the Bush administration, Wall Street, the political
 right, and the Tea Party and Fox News.
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 Won't multiculturalism be beautiful?

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Yes.
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 I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace,"

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Would you feel better if I sent you a couple quotes from GW Bush
 saying exactly that?
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 when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men
 killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family
 "honor;" of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims
 murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers;" of
 Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage
 rape victims to death for "adultery;" of Muslims mutilating the
 genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the
 Quran and Sharia law tells them to.

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 Your ignorance is frightening. None of that is in the Quran.
 No where does God say that. Sharia is an interpretation of
 Islamic Law, it's not Islamic law, and every Islamic group comes
 up with it's own.

 What you described is not Islamic law, but cultural factors.

 Another thing that is offensive is people who use "Allah" when
 they write in English, whether they are Muslims or Muslim
 haters. Allah is the Arabic word for God, and in English the
 word used should be God.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 I believe "a man should be judged by the content of his
 character, not by the color of his skin."

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 And when that happens most of your racial complaints will be
 resolved.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the
 post-racial world of President Obama, when it's all that matters
 in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and
 graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most),
 government contract set-asides,

 Response:
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 I'm tired of being told race doesn't matter when it's almost
 always whites saying it. Race most certainly does matter. It
 matters when people like you see affirmative action as a
 significant factor. When was the last time you heard of anyone
 near you being affected by it. Last time I looked the write up
 in the World Almanac reported that 90% of the benefits of
 Affirmative action went to white people.

 And where do you see lower admission standards for minorities?
 Do you count the advantage being a legacy gives whites? Is that
 a lower standard? Do you count the advantages of better schools
 give to whites? Doesn't overcoming disadvantages count as better
 qualification?

 What college has lower graduation standards for minorities? And
 where do you get the gall to find yourself qualified to claim
 any thing you mentioned harms them the most?

 Always love it when some white guy claims to know what's best
 for minorities.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------

 tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless
 children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the
 appointment of US Senators from Illinois.

 Response:
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 Once more the white guy knows what's best for minorities. What
 makes you think the 'ghetto culture' of violence is tolerated by
 anyone but the suburban whites who feel themselves insulated
 from it?

 What makes you think a white culture of fatherless children,
 well on it's way to matching the black numbers, is any less
 harmful? See to the beam in your own eye.

 Here's one you won't believe, the birth rate to unwed black
 women peaked in *1961*, and has gone down some 34% since then.
 The rate for unmarried white women has gone up some 300% since
 then. The shift to unmarried black mothers is not due to
 increasing birth rates for unmarried black women, but to the
 decline in births to married black women. The actual birth rates
 and numbers for both are going down, but the numbers for married
 women have gone down faster. Of course, that was before Bush
 took office. Since the only increase in birth rates for
 unmarried black women after '61 were in Reagan's time, who knows
 what damage Bush did.

 Oh, and where were you when GHW Bush was appointing Clarence
 Thomas to the Supreme Court?
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BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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