Sad but True

[E5B]

I am in no way promoting my political point of views (uh-hum)...I read this somewhere and thought it was funny....


"THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

CLASSIC VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome". Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".

Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti Grasshopper Act", retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: VOTE REPUBLICAN



Ain't that the truth! "

Unknown

 

[wildflyin69]

hehe....it explains hillary's election to the New York State senate....She buys a house here, shakes a few hands, doesn't actually move in, claims to be a New Yorker, gets elected by the grasshoppers of New York, sells the house, sends her husband to Harlem, invites Satan to live in upstate New York. I hate that lady....

"Push the stick foward, the houses get bigger; pull back, the houses get smaller... unless you keep pulling back, then they get bigger again."

 

[jaerose]

The bad thing is that it's exactly like that (some exceptions...but not many)! I love our country, but sometimes the way it works is just arse-backwards.

JR

 

[BigWorm]

 

[starter5]

that is great

 

[jaerose]

I really hope he's getting ready to push her off (Hillary, right?) =)

JR

 

[wildflyin69]

great pic...I love the sunlight shining on them in the underground station...lol

"Push the stick foward, the houses get bigger; pull back, the houses get smaller... unless you keep pulling back, then they get bigger again."

 

[dufault.2]

F'ing hilarious pic bigworm. Do you wonder if Hillary's frigid gaze might stop the subway in its tracks though?

 

[jaerose]

Sunlight...so NY subways have skylights and such...WOW! Engineering marvels...I really need to get out more =)

JR

 

[kimphil]

Yes. Preach on. There are so many people in America who are subsidized by the rich. Like poor children. I mean, come on, we know its their fault they're poor. After all, if they'd only go out and get rich parents, they wouldn't need a public education or subsidized school lunches.

And why do women and minorities expect affirmative action? Everyone knows we live in a colorblind, gender neutral society. Just ask Rodney King. Or Sandra Day-O'Connor.

And the elderly make me want to vomit. If they didn't get sick, they wouldn't need a prescription drug plan to afford their drugs.

Yes. I wish (really) that I could pattern my life like my President. If I could be born into a rich family that's distantly related to the British Royal family, I'd have every material advantage. If only my father, grandfather, etc. went to a school like Yale, then I wouldn't have to worry about getting good grades at the elitist boarding school I would attend because I'd know my place at Yale would be guaranteed. And regardless of how poor my grades were at Yale, I'd know my old man would get me into Harvard Business School. And when I engaged in shady business practices (a la Enron) I wouldn't have to worry about the SEC roasting my ass because my old man was President.

Yes. The problem with America is that the poor grasshopper should have been born an ant. He had a choice I'm sure!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mongol General: ...Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!
Mongol General: That is good.

 

[wildflyin69]

"Kimphil's here to save the daaaaay!!!" <sung to Mighty Mouse Theme>

----and here we go.......

"Push the stick foward, the houses get bigger; pull back, the houses get smaller... unless you keep pulling back, then they get bigger again."

 

[jaerose]

That's funny...I definitely smell the bleeding heart =) No, I think the government should help people, too, but haven't you heard the old saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for his life?" I think we should worry more about helping people learn how to get onto and stay on their feet instead of telling everyone 'you poor soul...here's a handout.'

Trust me...I'm a pro-Capitalist, free-enterprising Republican, but I am not (yet) rich, nor is my family. Actually, we could be considered quite poor. For instance, I come from a single parent household...lived with my grandparents my whole life...grandpa works 2 jobs and grandma one job and they'll never be able to retire, mom worked 3rd shift as a custodian at my college to help pay the tuition that I didn't get from scholarships and financial aid (and subsidized lunches in HS)<--see I benefited, too, and I'm all for it.

I was raised with pride and dignity and taught to work for what I want, however, so I busted my butt in school and athletics to get where I am today (which might not be much to some people) and I strife to improve myself daily. Yes, I have compassion for those who are less fortunate than I, but I think there are better ways to go about solving some of our problems than 'here you go.' Not everyone is poor, sick and helpless, but some people are lazy. Not everyone wants everything handed to them. I'm proud of who I am and where I came from and I will be financially independent at a young age, but I will be more satisfied about it because I achieved it on my OWN and on my own terms (with God's help).

I will give back to the less fortunate and be very charitable as well, since my family and I did need help, too. I do hope, though, that someone in our government tries to look after my rights and protect the hard work that I've done, too, because more and more it seems like in the effort to protect some people's unalienable rights...the rights of others are disregarded and trampled (ie. the Pledge of Allegiance controversy, the National Anthem at sporting events, Prayer in School etc.). The fact is that we are the Country we are today because of things like free enterprise, freedom of religion and also due to the government aiding people and offering assistance programs. It's a combination that makes us strong, but it seems like anymore the popular cause is to punish people for being successful...it's the Robinhood Effect...steal from the rich and give to the poor, only not in all instances have the rich gotten that way by cheating people.

I don't know...it's late and I need to quit typing. I have a feeling that when I read this tomorrow it's going to look like gibberish. Oh well. Enough rambling.

JR

BTW, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton aren't so scandal free...sketchy business...does Whitewater ring a bell?

"Learn to fish!"
--ME

 

[wildflyin69]

You should see the get rich quick crap that goes on in the neighborhood where my mom has to teach..they scout for people that look reasonably well off and then pull some really sleazy stunts...like put their foot under a car stopped at a light and beging screaming that they just had their foot ran over...of course the 49 members of their immediate family are all there as "witnesses"...it's really appalling. What really makes me sick is that they actually win their cases...

"Push the stick foward, the houses get bigger; pull back, the houses get smaller... unless you keep pulling back, then they get bigger again."

 

[dufault.2]

Hey JR-Are you a Ayn Rand fan by any chance? If not, you should definitely read Atlas Shrugged. If the Robin Hood Effect bothers you (as it does me-"punish the wealthy!!") you would really like what she has to say.
It is a tough line to draw. I don't think the wealthy should be heavily taxed becasue they are successful, but I also know that kids don't deserve to starve becasue of their no-account parents. I know we still have a lot of sh**y race issues in America, and the disadvantages some minorities have to deal with everyday should be delt with immediately. But can you really justify excessively taxing the haves (not all of whom, nor the majority of whom are white collar buisness class criminals) becasue they have? I don't really have a solution, just questions about why you feel like you do. BTW-so do we blame G.W. Bush for being born into wealth? Easy on the Enron stuff-heading into the military while calling our commander in chief a criminal before the courts do might be a bad idea.
Hey kimphil-I'm just looking to open up the discussion a bit. I hope you don't think this a flame.

 

[esday1]

Here's a version of the same fable with a slightly different political slant:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbytopic.asp?topic=National%20news&id=686

It's funny how little connection a lot of political arguments have with what the government actually does. If you look at how the money the government spends is actually divided up, it's pretty much a retirement plan (soc. sec., medicare) with an army. Discretionary social programs are a very small part of it. Further, a lot more money gets spend on things such as infrastructure and various subsidies (which directly benefits business), than on those social programs, but very few people complain about those. And if you look at how taxes are really collected, rich people don't really pay a much higher percentage of their income than middle-income or poor people, when you consider that most taxes other than federal income taxes (payroll taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, tariffs, etc) are pretty regressive (poorer people wind up spending a higher percentage of their income on them), and there are a lot more clever tax loopholes for people in the upper tax brackets. Personally, I think the government works best when it stays limited (<20% of GDP in taxes, as it is right now, is fine) and does a few things well, such as provide for defense and domestic security (lots of firehouses shutting down lately, btw), and give poor kids a decent shot of getting rich through their own hard work. I started off pretty goddamn poor and the gubmint gave me a good public high school and a few thousand bucks to go to one of them fancy colleges back east with the ivy on the walls, so you're not going to hear me complaining too loudly about my taxes.

I've tried to get out of the habit of writing these long posts, especially at work, but my OSO is calling me back any minute with some news about my medical clearance so I can't really do much else.