The Tea Party Makes A Point

Yesterday I saw one of those "Click like if you think. . . ." pictures on my FB news feed.

The picture said that people on welfare shouldn't be able to buy beer, cigarettes, cable TV or tattoos. I can't find it now, so I give you this instead:

The one I saw did not mention food stamps, so I left that out of my comments. 

Here is a great response to this particular image. 

At first glance, this doesn't seem like a bad idea. If you need welfare, you probably shouldn't be spending your days drinking, smoking and watching Real Housewives marathons. That actually kind of sounds like a good vacation, but I digress. I assume the thinking is that if taxpayers are "giving" you money, you should be responsible with it.

Like Congress is. Ahem.

Of course, taxpayers also pay the salaries of cops, firefighters and public school teachers. Not to mention all those bureaucrats at the DMV. Should we tell them how to spend their money? We don't want them to have to get second jobs just so they can pay for expensive jewelry, do we? We want them 100% focused on their most important jobs, right? They don't need fancy jewelry or expensive vacations or those other luxuries.

And what about people on unemployment? Would they have to spend their money according to Tea Party rules as well? How about people on disability? What about people on social security? What about if you get a tax refund?

If you think the tax code is complicated, just imagine the "what you can spend your government money on" code.

And who would make this code . .would it be the government? The same government that the Tea Party wants to limit? Making extra codes and laws doesn't sound very "limited" to me. Maybe the Tea Party doesn't understand what "limited" means?

Even if you create this code just for people on welfare, you're still talking about a lot of extra laws to cover just 4.1% of the population. Also? It's .7% of the budget. Notice the decimal point - welfare is less than 1% of the budget. We could eliminate it entirely - thereby destroying a lot of people's lives - and it would not even come close to helping us balance the budget.

Thank you, Tea Party, for pointing out how completely ignorant you are.

Go Ahead And Hate President Obama

It is totally okay with me if you do not like President Obama and you would never vote for him. No, I'm serious. While I think the world would be a better place if everyone agreed with me, I do accept the world as it is. So, it's okay with me if you don't like the President.

However.

It's not okay if you dislike the President because he's a "Muslim who's going to impose Sharia law". First off, he's totally not a Muslim. You really think Michelle would have married a Muslim? Really? But even if he was a Muslim (which he is not), that doesn't mean he could impose Sharia law. Hell, it doesn't even mean that he would want to - some Muslims believe in the separation of church and state, just like some Christians do.

It's not okay if you hate the President because he doesn't look like you. Or because he lived in Indonesia. Or because his father was from Kenya. Go read some children's books about accepting differences. Accept and Value Each Person (Learning to Get Along) is a good place to start.

It's also not okay if you dislike President Obama because he's "going to take your guns away". Um, the President has done jack shit about guns, actually. The Brady Campaign (James Brady, Republican, shot with Reagan, wants more gun control) gave him a fucking F. All he ever says is that he wants to enforce the laws we have, which is also what the NRA says.

And it's not okay if you hate the President because "he hates America". Yeah, that's why he took a stressful job, moved his family 1200 miles and took a pay cut. That's why he's subjected himself and his family to vicious death threats and hate campaigns, because he wants to serve a country he hates.

Maybe he hates the America you imagine - the one where people of color and gay people don't expect equality, the one where rape/domestic violence/sexual abuse victims keep their mouths shut, the one where it's totally okay for two people doing the same job to get paid differently based on skin color or gender, the one where people who aren't Christians don't count, the one where immigrants are ashamed of their heritage, the one where birth control use is shameful, the one where it is assumed and accepted that people outside the norm should be bullied.  You want our President to love that America?

Or do you think he hates America because he wants everyone in it to have health care? Or because his wife wants us to be healthier? In my experience, people who hate you don't care about your health.

Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck LIE. They do. Go to factcheck.org. Please. It's non-partisan. Fox and MSNBC are slanted (although when MSNBC calls for people to interview, they don't only look for one side), I'll grant you. But facts are not slanted. Find out the facts, especially on the issues that personally affect you, and then decide who you're going to hate.

The Retard List

I hate retarded people.

Not people with Down's Syndrome or other medically tested mental issues, I like them just fine. In fact, it could be said that I like them more than most so-called normal people, because most of them work hard to learn as much as they can.

The same cannot be said for the normal brained masses. Hence my use of the derogatory term, "retarded" (please don't come back and haunt me, Eunice Shriver. I didn't mean it that way, and you were scary enough in real life). Call them the intellectually lazy, the undereducated or the people who NEED A FUCKING CLUE. I don't care. I'll be calling them "retarded".

And who are these people?

People who don't understand that plural words don't need apostrophes.

People who say that Sarah Palin is not a quitter.

People who do not give their children rules and boundaries.

People who have appeared on Bridezillas.

People who give their kids names that are really nouns, like Lexus or Princess.

People named Jon Gosselin.

People who can't name their Senators but still bitch about politicians.

People who leave comments on here that say, "Nice post, thanks. Try my new hand sanitizer product." (Dude, at least read the so not nice post before your blatant advertising. Sheesh.)

People who can't pronounce the word "specific".

People who want to ban books.

People who find sex scarier than war.

People who cannot tell the difference between "your" and "you're".

People who think women shouldn't breastfeed in public.

People who fight against gay marriage.

People who wear Crocs to any restaurant nicer than McDonald's.

People who wear Uggs when it is not below freezing.

People who can't tell the difference between "are" and "our".

People who think Paula Abdul is not on drugs.

People who don't let their kids read Harry Potter.

People who write to eHow for advice like, "How many credits after a law degree does it take to get a Bachelor's?" and "How many credits do I need to graduate?"

Let me state that except for the eHow idiots, I have personally known all the people on the retard list. I may even be related to, or friends with, some of them. Hell, I may even love them. But that doesn't mean that I don't think they're retarded.

Who do you think is retarded?