Toe to Toe

I'm not interested in self-analysis.
I do know my room was so cold in winter
and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep.
Your house looked like heaven, high up there.
That's how I began to hate you
--High and Low (1963)
___________________

While standing in grocery lines it is easy to eyeball people and look into their lives. Specifically, looking into women's purses is rather easy to do -- one need not be Special Forces-qualified or a Private Manning to unearth a few details of a person's life.

The local Publix supermarket is where Ranger's eyeballs feast on the targets of opportunity. In Florida, the Food Stamp program uses a patriotic emblem of red-white-and-blue on their scan cards. This, he is sure, is because the recipients are patriotic Americans. Ranger has noticed a correlation between ornate manicures and the female users of these cards.

It is hard to ignore the sculptured, extra-fancy fingernails on many of the younger women's hands. Ditto the ornate toenails. The question that arises is: If a person is on foodstamps, where does she get the time and money for frivolous finger and toe nails? Ditto those recipients playing Lotto. If they need assistance paying for food, why are they frittering away their money on frivolous items.

This might sound like the typical Limbaugh screed: People on public assistance don't deserve to spend on discretionary items; if they do, they are scamming the system. But that is not our point. We are in favor of assisting the needy, but the observations have been consistent and long-term.

Imprudent spending is certainly a hallmark of modern life, from the heads of government on down. But frivolous spending on a personal level is less damaging to those who have more of a cushion than for those living closer to the bone. For the latter, living a few days a month without utilities or phone is commonplace, and along with it, exorbitant re-connection fees. Cars don't last because they are not treated to proper maintenance. Ditto teeth and bodies, which become enslaved to the healthcare behemoth.

In Florida, the FCAT is a contentious standardized test administered throughout a student's public school career, ostensibly to ensure certain basic academic goalposts are met. However, the FCATs don't test a student's knowledge of basic living skills, or the ability to prioritize.

Author Robert T. Kiyosaki has made a killing from his book and seminars, Rich Dad Poor Dad, teaching people the "secrets" to personal economic solvency. Why aren't these lessons taught in schools? Why must a person muddle along until middle age and beyond before they stumble upon someone dispensing what should be common knowledge? Values clarification was tossed out of schools in the 1970's as being akin to the antichrist -- at least here in the South -- and yet that sort of self-understanding is just what is needed in order to live a comfortable life.

There is something between the nails and the cards. Our culture of entitlement for both the rich and the poor is bankrupting us.

One wonders who profits from the maintenance of our economic caste system.

--Jim and Lisa

A Good American

The buyin' power of the proletariat's gone down
Money's gettin' shallow and weak
--Working Man's Blues #2, Bob Dylan

People who don't know how to keep themselves healthy
ought to have the decency to get themselves buried,
and not waste time about it
--Henrik Ibsen
_____________

This is the story of a small interaction while I was checking out in the cosmetics department in a drugstore.

I'll call her Margie, and she is a 50-ish manager of this large-chain store. As she rung up my orange juice she commented, "I can't afford to buy this item anymore." As I too feel the pain of weekly rising grocery prices, I said, "I don't understand how people do it."

This well-spoken women launched into a heartfelt litany of the difficulties in her life, and those of her fellows. Interrupting us was a younger co-worker going out to bring back lunch. Margie ordered a burger and Coke from, as she put it, McGrunge's.

"The Obama's tell us to eat well, but I can't afford to buy good food. Who has the time to raise a garden?" I commiserated.

I asked if she thought our legislators had any idea how the people live. "No -- they have chauffeurs and cooks; they have no worries. My car stalled on the side of the road last night. I am here because my children are driving me. I don't know how I'll afford to fix it."

I told her to inform her local representatives and she assured me she did. Her daughter works in another city in the office of an elected official and has three children. Margie said she asks her how she feeds them. I said that I didn't know what will happen in our country in the upcoming weeks and months.

She said, "I hear there's an economic recovery, but I've never heard of a jobless recovery." She said she was grateful to have a job, but couldn't recall a more difficult time. We both agreed that Obama's focus on his health care initiative was wrong-headed in a time when we need radical job creation.

We touched on the section 8 Housing Program, which provides rental subsidies to people with low incomes. The program helps offset housing costs for people who often pay 50% or more of their income on their housing needs.

However, in our area the program is currently working on rolls from three years ago (2007), and doesn't anticipate opening up for new applicants any time soon. When they do open, the news gets out in a sketchy manner, and spaces are filled in days. They then close for another few years due to the backlog and lack of funds.

The saddest thing she said was simply in passing, but very seriously:

"I think people are getting very depressed. I think they will commit suicide when they get desperate enough."

There were now two customers in line behind me. I told her it was a pleasure to meet another person who cared about politics and the direction of her country.

With the same equanimity she had maintained throughout our conversation, she said, 'Thank you, darlin'. Come see me anytime -- I'm almost always here."


[Cross-posted at Big Brass Blog]

Strawberry Fields Forever

We're not doing the world any good when
we bankrupt ourselves fighting wars all over the place.
We will extinguish the great beacon that we are
--Henry Clay

There is a condition worse than blindness,
and that is, seeing something that isn't there
--Thomas Hardy

Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all you see
--Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles
________________

Or, misunderestimating, if you're a President.

President Obama recently recommitted to addressing the unemployment issue in these United States of the Un- and Underemployed. Now, finally we're gonna solve this problem, right?

Ranger will seek recourse to his limited knowledge of warfare and tactics to understand our present circumstances. First, the president does not have the initiative, nor does he control the pace of operations. U.S. policy is now reactive -- not a formula for success. We are like the apocryphal boy who stuck his finger in the dike.

Beyond applying the principles of war, let's talk securing the perimeter of your patrol base. Patrol Leader Obama cannot secure our perimeter because he is squandering assets and lacks focus as to the mission which needs to be accomplished. He is reacting helter-skelter, spinning like a non-snow tire in the D.C. Snowocalypse.

Borrowing technology from our flailing auto industry, Obama needs General Motors to install a limited slip differential into his policies. This might give him some much-needed traction, but G.M. can't tinker with policy.

The inner perimeter of America cannot be secured while its assets are thrown into the money pits of Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan or any other nation that pops into our radar screen as the sound bite du jour.

Our President is elected by The People to serve The People (of the U.S.A.) He is responsible for our perimeter; far-flung distractions are counterproductive to our national health and welfare.
How does offering cash bribes to buy mercenary hearts and minds in Afghanistan help our national health and welfare? The unemployed folks in our patrol base would sure welcome the same handout.

The welfare of Americans is the job of the president. Forget the happy horseshit propaganda coming out of Afghanistan.

We may win the battle of Afghanistan, but to what end if we have lost the war in the streets of America?

Chinese Checkers

My little china girl
You shouldn't mess with me
I'll ruin everything you are
I'll give you television
--China Girl, David Bowie

Sometimes it seems the good times
Never will return
A lot has changed, babe
'cause evil rules the world
--China White, Scorpions
_______________

If one thing should be obvious following our recent economic upheavals, it is this: China is a successful capitalist, and it will flourish.

The capitalist model is mastered by Communists and slaughtered by -- well, by whatever we are these days.