Live in Hog Country

Two blogs diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not blog both and be one blogger.

So it’s been awhile. It’s not like I haven’t wanted to blog. I’ve just been too busy to write…so here are the blogs I didn’t write.

Steve Jobs is dead and Macs still suck. 

Once a douchbag always a douchbag

After a week of listening to people credit Steve Jobs with everything from inventing the internet and cell phone to revolutionizing the music industry  – I was really about ready to blow wild chunks across the internet.

So let me say one thing and then let it rest.

Steve Jobs was a megolomanical, nutcase who was fired from the company he founded over the controversy surrounding him being a dead beat dad. He wasn’t a great inventor. (that was Wozniak) He was a great salesman. He was extremely good at selling yuppies overpriced and under powered computers that suck.

Wall Street is still Occupied and now everyone cares but me.

As quickly as the media blackout started it was over. It was on the front page of every news paper in America – every news agency covered it. Blogs and Websites offering streaming video from multiple locations flooded the web.

Stonygirl Occupies Dickson Street

I think the Rolling Stones said it best.

“And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, “We’re gonna vent our frustration
If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse”
Sing it to me now…

You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need
Oh baby, yeah, yeah!”

So what did I learn in my day of demonstrating? Most of my life I have been referred to as a “tree hugging hippie.”  I was considered to be such an extreme liberal that “radical” (in the true sense of being far left wing and not in the NewsMedia sense which should really be “reactionary”) was a title I wore kinda proudly.

The nutbags who are running OWSNWA make me look like a conservative. I have never met so many dumbass kids who simply have no idea what they are doing or the greater implications of their movement.

400 people turned out to protest on Oct. 15th – most of them over 35, most with jobs and careers. All of them were concerned about the economy and getting corporations out of politics. I thought I was witnessing a powerful people’s movement that could possibly affect change in government if everyone would just vote for people who felt the same. So after the protest I went to a meeting where the only discussion topic was “Should we have a weekly drum circle?’

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not totally anti drum circles. I just think they get insanely boring after an hour unless you are trippin’ hard on acid. I also don’t think that sort of public function is really going to help the movement draw in the type of voting public need to create real change i.e. the middle class. When I brought this point up for discussion I was told that not allowing the drummers to drum would infringe on their personal freedom and that was what the movement was about. (what happened to taking back government from corporations?)

Needless to say – I haven’t gone to anymore meetings. I have since heard that every meeting devolves into an argument between the two factions that show up – The Ron Paul 2012ers vs. the Legalize Mushrooms crowd.

Next weekend they will start to Occupy some space here in town. (the joke here is that they keep sending out messages saying this will happen but not saying where.) So now that the weather has turned wet and cold they are going to camp. These aren’t smart kids. I wonder how many will end up with hypothermia. The Arab Spring worked because it was spring. What good will these kids be if they all freeze to death before election day?

I think Oakland City Council Woman Desley Brooks said it best.

“This is bigger than Oakland,” she said. “It’s bigger than a space. The movement doesn’t die because you aren’t able to camp in front of City Hall.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/03/MNCL1LQDFG.DTL#ixzz1d2ckORiQ

So I would hereby like to offer my own suggestion to occupiers everywhere. Quit camping out and costing your local government a bunch of money they can’t afford. (that is only going to cause them to cut funding somewhere else or raise taxes to pay for all this) Take your sign and put it in the front yard of your home. Or in your apartment window. Instead of occupying a space in public. Occupy the space that is yours and let the public know it is  occupied.

But most importantly Occupy the Vote. Check out all the candidates in your area and see where they really stand on things like the return to Glass-Steagall. and what their background is.

Speaking of voting – that brings us to the next rant

HERMAN CAIN IS NOT A SMALL BUSINESSMAN – HE IS A LOBBYIST!

Herman Cain spoke in Springdale, AR the same day his former company  (Whirlpool) announced they were shutting their doors in Ft. Smith, AR for good. No wonder he wouldn’t do any interviews that day.

One of these rich brats I work with is a huge Herman Cain supporter… even shelled out the money to go see him speak. (well I guess technically mommy and daddy shelled out the money for him) So I asked him why he supported Cain. He had two reasons. 1. He’s a small businessman and 2. He’s not a politician.

So I gave him the following facts about Herman Cain thinking that an intelligent dialogue might make the kid rub two brain cells together and think about how a Cain presidency would affect his life. – I don’t think it worked. But just incase you are thinking of voting Cain here are somethings you should know.

His small business Godfathers Pizza is a direct subsidiary of Pillsbury. He did not found the company. Pillsbury did. They brought him in to be the CEO of it after the great job he did with another subsidiary of theirs a “small business” called Burger King.

He has served on the Board of Directors for Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader’s Digest and Aquila Inc – Aquila is a power company. He has NEVER been a small business owner.

The National Resturant Association is a political Lobby (that makes Cain a politician of the worst kind  – the not elected bought by companies kind) during his time at the National Resturant Ass. Cain lobbied congress to LOWER the minimum wage. (and evidently grabbed some ass also).

While he was on the Board of Directors for Whirlpool they laid off over 5000 people. (how does that stimulate job growth?)

His 9-9-9 plan (stolen from Sim City) would completely eliminate Social Security and Medicare. Screwing me and forcing me to work until the day I die just to keep the roof over my head and insurance to keep me healthy.

He did not pay his 2006 State income taxes until the State of Georgia placed a tax lein agianst him in 2008.

Last year he made over 1.2 million dollars and his net worth is between 2.8 and 6.3 million bucks. (no wonder he hates the Buffet Rule!)

Last but definitely not least…

I’m pissed at HBO

April ? really April? You are gonna make me wait until April??? I don’t think I can last.  Plus it just seems wrong – Winter is Coming in April.

If you have not watched Game of Thrones on HBO you missed the best show on television last year.

I have really become a huge fan of GoT. I actually decided I could not wait – I just had to find out if Arya got to stick it to Joffery with Needle so I read the next book, and the next and well now I’ve read them all  – and I’m rereading them all. I did I mention I bought the video game as well? – not as good as the books.

Dang it! April is not going to get here soon enough.

Speaking of April – Last April I made a post about one of my coworkers being possessed by Hitler – Well Hitler returned from vacation a few weeks ago and in the end I decided to change departments at work just to get away from Das Fuhrer. It kinda sucked. I liked everyone else in that department, enjoyed the work immensely and other than Hitler everyone thought I was doing a great job. But Hitler was just too much and in the end I kept thinking of one of my rules of life – “Life is too short to work for idiots and assholes” – so I took a transfer back to my old department. I still have to deal with Hitler – but only through other people.