Democrat Rep moans how a million bucks doesn't go so far these days but fails to offer a trade with me.

This is the Absurd Disconnect buying the souvenir mug right here--the above "quote of the day" comes from the NYTimes daily top headlines email. Just so Google can see it, here it is in the text:

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"To say that I'm enjoying a millionaire's lifestyle - well, I can tell you, I guess a millionaire's income doesn't go very far these days."
ED PASTOR, an Arizona Democrat who is among 250 members of Congress with a net worth of $1 million or more.

What a douchebag. Um, hey man, you want to try trading incomes with me? Because I'll gladly take the tough life you've got going on and then you can see how the other half lives--er--the other 99% lives, I mean.

Ed Pastor is profiled in an NYT article today where his comments clearly show that, Republican or Democrat, money makes you stupid--or at least amoral, or maybe both--I mean, how, in today's economic climate, do you talk about being a millionaire and that a million doesn't go very far these days??? Did Pastor even stop for a split second to consider how that sounds to himself, let alone the rest of us?

The article also reports on how the income gap between our leaders and us is more dramatic than it has ever been. It even goes so far as to refer to Pastor and other millionaires in Congress as "aristocrats." That sure sounds accurate to me. These guys need to wake up and smell the reality that their corporate overlords/golf-buddies are robbing us to pay them. If they can't make a million go very far then maybe they should try giving the money to people who will put it to better use. For instance, shelters, hospitals that can't afford to stay open, schools, charities that provide relief to disaster-stricken areas or ANYONE who isn't a rich, jerk-off, politician.

The Absurd Disconnect regarding what we fear illustrated to perfection. We’re a bunch of cowards.

motherjones:

“The Right is going insane. A hundred years ago, when Chesterton was asked ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’ his answer was succinct: ‘I am.’ Now the answer is from more and more of the Right is, ‘They are!’” —Blogger Mark Shea

SIGH… it’s still us that’s the problem. 

NEWSWEEK: Should bullying be a crime?

NEWSWEEK: Should bullying be a crime?

As a soon-to-be dad, in a recent post, coalspeaker writes eloquently about his concerns about bullying. But yesterday he wrote a great post called “The Great Division meets the Great Diversion” where he points out:

Americans have been forced to debate fraudulent issues.. Gay marriage, social issues.. we are blinded by anger that has no bearing on our lives.

This is something I’ve taken to calling “the Absurd Disconnect.” And sadly, I think even coalspeaker got hit with it in between writing these two posts.  Bullying is like terrorism—it’s always been with us and it probably always will be with us.  And just like the media took a handful of extremists and helped the government turn them into a war against our very way of life, the media is blowing this whole bullying thing completely out of proportion.

Should bullying be a crime? Of course NOT. The things we already designate as crimes are already more than enough to cover our bases.  In fact, these things are too much since hate crimes are essentially punishment for wrongthinking. It shouldn’t matter why I kill someone. All that should matter is that I kill someone.

Likewise, you can’t arrest someone for being a horrible person unless he/she actually does something horrible (and illegal).  And if picking on someone smaller than you is horrible then you better start arresting people in the US government and the US military and… you get the idea.

I believe firmly in a human right to choose to live or die on your own terms, but killing yourself because of what other people think? That seems pretty stupid to me. 

Is it sad that a bunch of gay teens killed themselves? Of course. Is the bullying they experienced wrong, unfair and mean? OF COURSE.  But were these kids ultimately responsible for their own choice to end their lives? Yes.

You’ll never make everyone happy—there will always be someone out there who hates you vindictively, whether he’s a bully or a Taliban.  The smarter thing to do is just live your life as best as you know how and let the hard times make you stronger and smarter.

And does ANY of this have any bearing on saving our way of life?

Nope.

Just another absurd disconnection.

Arianna Huffington combats the Absurd Disconnect (aka states the obvious)

Another cogent post from fredericguarino this one has Ariana Huffington bridging the gap that occurs when what we think is so different from what the reality really is (aka the Absurd Disconnect):

“we also need to recognize that we all have a responsibility to do our part and rebuild our communities and rebuild our lives, beginning with rebuilding our own financial literacy so we can move our own family onto safer financial ground. Because this is financial warfare. The credit card companies, the mortgage companies that have been offering us, supposedly, a ticket to the good life, are really filling their contracts with tricks and traps, charging usury rates, 28, 29, 30 percent on our credit cards, and basically undermining the very idea of the American dream.”

—

Tavis Smiley . Shows . Arianna Huffington . September 20, 2010 | PBS

I’ve always been a fan of Arianna Huffington (even if I hate her website) and once again, she speaks the truth, even if it is a pretty obvious truth to anyone smart/cynical enough to look past the wishful thinking all of us did when signing up for a credit card.  Her mention of interest rates made me think of something I heard Robert Scheer say on Democracy Now yesterday:

So, you know, something that the Bible scripture calls for, whether you’re Hebraic, Christian or a Muslim tradition, usury is condemned. It’s condemned far more than anything else in the Bible. And yet, you know, if you dare suggest we not charge 35 percent interest to somebody on their credit card, my God, no, that can’t be.

Yeah, I always forget about how, if you’re a good Christian, Jew or Muslim, you should never charge interest or be willing to pay it, really.  That’s what usury is—or at least, that’s what it was.  Once greed kicked in and money became more important than the Bible or God, usury became excessive interest.  So, imagine if “thou shalt not kill” became “thou shalt not kill, very often.”  It’s sort of like that—ridiculous.

But now our entire economy is based on usury.  The Federal Reserve loans money to the US economy and the US economy has to pay it back with interest.  That money is then loaned out by banks to us with interest.

Huffington is right, but it’s not just with credit card contracts and mortgages. It’s with all money period—every dollar in our pocket or digit in our bank account represents money borrowed ultimately from the Fed for a fee.

And we are never taught this growing up. Well, I know I wasn’t.  We didn’t have so much as a section in Home Ec class in how to balance a checkbook.  I can, however, make a killer egg-in-a-frame, to this day.

Episode 20 of the 666cast! This week’s rant is all about how we waste time focusing on useless things. Yep, another shade of the Absurd Disconnect. Please subscribe to the feed.

Episode 20 of the 666cast! This week’s rant is all about how we waste time focusing on useless things. Yep, another shade of the Absurd Disconnect.

Please subscribe to the feed.

GOP missing their own Absurd Disconnect: WTC = hallowed ground but 9-11 1st Responders?

Well, I couldn’t let a day go by without pointing out at least one example of The Absurd Disconnect, could I?? ;P

“Isn’t It Ironic?” from underpaidgenius:

The GOP has no self-awareness, and neither do their constituents.

Carl Hulse, G.O.P. Sees Mosque Near Ground Zero as Campaign Issue - NYTimes.com

Democratic campaign officials accused Republicans of exploiting the Sept. 11 attacks, noting that their outrage over the Islamic center came just weeks after many House Republicans opposed a new medical program to monitor and treat emergency workers and others suffering ill effects from exposure to hazardous materials at ground zero.

All the horseshit about ‘hallowed ground’ is posturing. The real story here is xenophobic hatred, not love of America and its ideals.

Sadly, I think it’s worse than that—it’s not about xenophobic hatred or “fear of the other” but about inspiring that xenophobic hatred/fear of the other in the American people. 

This is how you keep your citizens in line.  If you cite a threat and convince people it’s real, you look like someone who knows what’s going on, so those people who fall for the threat trust you to keep them safe.  This makes it much easier for Republicans and Democrats, alike, to keep their jobs and explains why the Democrats don’t pull out the metaphorical big guns to end the Republican party once and for all.  The Dems enjoy this kind of power, too.

Of course, how they’re all getting away with it is something I’ve wondered, too. I think it boils down to a media that has decided it doesn’t need to do it’s job.  Which is a shame since a free press is the most important tool to guarantee democracy.  I can’t find the quote now, but I think Ben Franklin once admitted that he’d rather have a strong independent press and no government at all, rather than the other way around. 

Absurd Disconnect much?

From coalspeaker:

President Obama attemps to convince everyone it’s safe to swim in the Gulf by not swimming in the Gulf but kind of pretending he did..

But, as the article Coalspeaker links to reports:

Yet it soon emerged that the private beach on which it was taken, off Alligator Point in St Andrew Bay, north-west Florida, isn’t technically in the gulf.

via independent.co.uk

COUGHliarCOUGH

And here’s another gem from CoalSpeaker:

Tell us what you NOAA

Now we knowa this: Seafood from the Gulf not being tested for dispersants..

via coalspeaker.com

Yummy!  Coalspeaker links to a C-SPAN video that features Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, and Larry Robinson, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), testifying on the Hill about the use of dispersants in response to the BP Oil Disaster.

I’m sure we can trust BP and our government 100% that dispersants aren’t bad for our health!

…we’re all gonna die!

The Absurd Disconnect Continues: noticing greedy employers

If you’re not familiar with what I call “the Absurd Disconnect,” in a nutshell, it’s when people look at the sky and tell you it’s green—or when someone tells you it’s safe to go swimming in a part of the ocean that just had millions of gallons of oil dumped in it—like that.  There’s been a lot of this kind of thing going on lately and it’s continuing.

In this instance, I saw a link on Newsweek’s Tumblr to an article on Newsweek’s main site claiming to be “What the JetBlue Guy Says About the Economy” well, it wasn’t that. I was hoping to literally hear Slater’s take on the job situation, but alas, I got some reporter-guy’s opinion of it. Part of his opinion was based on USG docs.  Yeah, yeah, let’s trust USG docs.  They’ve never been wrong before.  Anyway, so here’s the part of the article that pissed me off the most (italics are mine):

For the past year, the U.S. economy has been whipping roughly the same number of workers to do more, produce more, serve more, with each passing week, without much assistance, and without much of a raise. Over the past four quarters, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, “unit labor costs fell 2.8 percent as output per hour increased faster than hourly compensation.” But when the BLS reported the second-quarter productivity numbers on Tuesday, Aug. 10, the results were a little shocking. For the first time in several years, productivity actually fell—at a 0.9 percent annual rate. Workers put in more hours, but output didn’t keep up. They simply can’t run any faster.

via newsweek.com

OH, REALLY? Just the past year?

Since college, I can’t name a single boss I’ve ever worked for who didn’t hire me for one thing who didn’t then pile on extra responsibilities.  Sometimes those responsibilities were tenuously related to the work I was paid to do (so I dealt with them) but *every* time I didn’t get a raise to make up for the extra work.  I finished college in the early 90s, right when the downsizing trend was kicking into high gear.  Shortly thereafter, it stopped being a trend and became business as usual.

Seems like some folks never noticed that. I remember Paul Krugman, not too long ago, saying something about how he was worried high unemployment would stop getting apologized for and would just be assumed to be part of the system.  He hadn’t noticed that it’s already part of the system. But that’s what he gets for being one of those people that base their reality almost entirely on what they are told by “authorities” and not what they’ve experienced or heard from other “grunts.” 

I worked for a company from 1999 to 2006 and held two positions. In that time, the first position never saw a raise. Not for the 7 years I worked there.  In the other position I only got a 75¢/hr raise after I demanded $1/hr.  This was after they tried to get me to become the receptionist for the entire company, sort the company’s mail AND do my original job of running my department (which was something I did only because my boss, the actual head of the department, wasn’t doing it).

That’s just one example. 

It’s amazing to see the media just now catching on that employers are greedy.  What’s next? Choice words for executives for this “new trend” of owning expensive luxury cars and wearing expensive suits?

Yes, that op-ed will no doubt be written by Sherlock Holmes—for only someone as brilliant as the fictional detective would be able to make such profound observations on humanity today.

>_<

Why is the media so slow to do it’s job?  Why are we so willing to put up with being shit on by our bosses?  The last time I had an office job where my boss tried to dump more duties on me, I put my foot down and they survived without me having to do work I didn’t sign up to do.  The work I was not willing to do was absorbed by other employees whose job it already was.  Later they laid me off when all of my duties got folded into other folks’ jobs (d’oh!).  They offered to hire me elsewhere in the company but couldn’t tell me how much more I’d be making but that I’d be working directly for the top executives at the company.  Bleh—not for me.  So, I turned it down.  Turns out the woman who got the job ended up being forced to work 6 days a week without OT. Yep. She felt compelled to not risk the gig because she was a single mom. 

This was three years ago—before the recession.

Well, it was before the officially recognized recession, anyway.

That’s the other falsehood that the media and other “authority” types haven’t noticed yet.  Thanks to a number of factors, our economy is on a downward trajectory and has been for some time.  It was just easier to ignore before.

Shame we can’t all just face reality and do something about it.

What are those factors?

Outsourcing

Offshoring

a money system not based on anything tangible

lousy regulation

corporations having the “right” to “give” as much as they want to campaigns

These five factors, I believe, are behind every problem facing America, and the western world, really.

The Absurd Disconnect: Global Warming Edition

Back on August 2nd, I posted about how America imprisons 1% of it’s citizens while leaving another 10% of them unemployed and commented that the rhetoric promising to end this situation is just that, rhetoric—not actual promises to change things.  This morning I came across “Why Even Bother With Science?” from underpaidgenius:

Tom Toles, Friday Rant — Heat Exhaustion Version

This will be my last rant about the climate. Cartoonists sometimes look just like the archetypical cartoon character crawling across the desert. Gary Larson did a cartoon about two guys crawling across a desert, dying of thirst. They have come upon a drinking fountain. One is letting it run without drinking and saying he’s going to let it run until it gets cold. That’s about as sensible as the debate on climate change.

We are apparently going to let the debate on the science run until hell freezes over. If you can’t accept the conclusions of 98 percent of the scientists whose FIELD IT IS, then why even bother with science? If that high a percentage of field of study is to be discounted ENTIRELY, then we are in deep trouble, which, of course, we are. It would be so simple if it were just a matter of ignoring the yelping commenters hereabouts: “Move on, Mr. Cartoonist! Chill out Tommy! There are more important things to worry about!”

Really? Which would those things be? This may be the only political issue whose results could be catastrophic PERMANENTLY. But the deliberate dust storm thrown up by fossil-fuel-centric interests has succeeded in contaminating and paralyzing the American response. Quite a victory for the deniers! It looks like mass-suicide to me. And so, my final rant on climate. Except not really. There has to be a drinking fountain out there somewhere.

In the latest edition, episode 18, of the 666cast, I talk about “The Absurd Disconnect”.  This is what I call the difference between our beliefs and our reality.  Tom Toles provides a wonderful example of this kind of thing in action—we see the reality but we refuse to accept it.  Paul Krugman in my above linked post from August 2 also provided a great example, though, unlike Toles, was unaware he was doing it.  In that post, I suggest Krugman should wake up and smell the bullshit he still believes is honesty from our leaders. To Toles, I say: you SHOULD chill out, but not because there are more important things to worry about, but because humanity isn’t doing a great job of paying attention to the threats facing them.  The more upset you get, the more crazy people will think you are—even if you have the facts to back you up.  That’s The Absurd Disconnect.

What’s really sad and frustrating is that there’s not a whole lot that seems to be effective in changing the minds of enough people to make a difference.  When given the choice, most folks seem to choose the more fearful path over the logical one, even if the logical one is easier (like hating gays—isn’t just easier to leave them alone?)

Of course, people like Toles and Krugman being worried that things are going to get worse, even though things are already worse, is just another example of The Absurd Disconnect—where the symptoms you’re concerned will appear at some point in the future are erupting all around you but you just choose to ignore them.

In the end, a lot of what we criticize about our leaders and ourselves has become, for me, one giant “DUH!” moment.  I look backward at the last 400 years (essentially, since the invention of the first immortal corporation) and see the logical end game of capitalism/free market/the greed-is-good mentality.

I also see a world too bamboozled, too willingly distracted by their own greed, to change this path that humanity is on.

But no need to despair! Take a lesson from Hollywood actor, Slim Pickens (ironic name!):