Tuesday, February 5, 2008

making it up as we go


Getting ready for work this morning I told Bowser about my best friend's visit last night. I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." So she got up, unplugged my computer and threw out my bottle of wine. She's such a bitch.





Speaking of getting ready for work, I was there again yesterday (and today..yawn) where the first business was attending the annual compulsory 3 hour meeting where, among other things, hospital officials come in to tell you to wash your hands and remind you that hospitals are very dangerous environments. By the time they finished lecturing us about MRSA, VRE, bird flu, tuberculosis, security threats, physical plant disasters and what not to do with the fire extinguisher, I was ready to leave and never return.

Worse still, was listening to my co-workers before the meeting and during the break. Everybody had watched or entertained for the Super Bowl the day before. Fox apparently made it a 12 hour long circus of Super Events by including Super Tuesday and Super-Duper American Idol performances. Those at the meeting not talking about the game were talking about the commercials and their favorite performers. It was depressing and more of the old 'We're number 1' shit you hear regularly from your co-workers. Once again I was reminded of why I never attend after hours office functions. I've mentioned a few times I'll only go to one of their parties if I'm paid overtime and it always gets a laugh - like I'm joking. Is it only me who works with a bunch of ignorant jerks who really don't seem to know anything at all and prefer not knowing?

Okay, it isn't everybody but the idiots are always the loudest, aren't they? Nevertheless, a lot of the quiet ones prefer not to know either. Considering the fact I happen to be employed alongside very well paid medical professionals probably does make a difference in that I'd expect a bit more compassion and understanding than I actually experience.

When are they going to learn that not only is the US not number 1, it's not even number 30? Neither the media nor any of the presidential candidates has mentioned this little fact. The country is going bust so fast that looking at the numbers could make your head spin. What we get is talk of 'economic stimulus' and to quote one of my favorite political writers, Barbara Ehrenreich, it's as though they're trying to make a porn film and not figure a way out of this mess. Do we really need stimulation when we're already fck'd?

To read about how we got here a weekend article from In These Times is very good. Called Killer Credit it pretty much tells all you need to know about exactly how far away from being number 1 or number 29 the US actually is at this point in time as well as what would have to happen in order to start a reversal of the current debt economy. When the bankruptcy laws were changed to be heavily in favor of the credit card industry it suddenly made much more sense for poor people to dump their home mortgage payments rather than miss a credit card bill. I think they'd bring back poor houses except for the fact it's cheaper for the government to let people live on the streets.. just so long as they don't sit, sleep or bother the shoppers who still have jobs.

Okay, that's enough for now. I came, I ranted (which is very rare for me) and now it's time to do something else.

9 comments:

  1. I've never read Nickel and Dimed, but it's on the list. I've read excerpts from it. Good stuff.

    Funny joke there at the beginning.

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  2. Rant?
    It is just one of them days ... that's OK!

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  3. Merica's Number One!

    USA! USA! USA!

    WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!!

    SEMPER FI, DUDE!!!

    Eh, we're in deep doo.

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  4. I have a very large hill in the back of my house. I was speaking to a friend of my plans to hang an upside-down (American flag) at the very top of my hill so everyone on main st. could see it. A rather bulky square headed man who was eavesdropping commented that when the american flag is hung upside down, it means the country is in distress. How dare I abuse/insult our flag?! My only question to him was "We're not in distress?" How the feck do people still not know?!

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  5. Scarlet - If you haven't read it I think 'Bait and Switch' might interest you: 'Armed with the plausible résumé of a professional “in transition,” she attempts to land a “middle-class” job. She submits to career coaching, personality testing, and EST-like boot camps, and attends job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and—again and again—rejected. Bait and Switch highlights the people who have done everything right—gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive résumés—yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster.'

    Zee - Please stop me before I rant again. It could be habit forming.

    fairlane - If I do get the urge to rant again, can I do it at your house? I have to be careful of phantythat's prissy image.

    Kathie - I remember people being arrested in the 60's for burning flags but then the Supreme Court said it was a First Amendment right. Go for it. You'll be in good spiritual company and just in case you never heard it I'm going to post this song by Gil Scott Heron. Some things continue to be relevant.
    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
    You will not be able to stay home, brother.
    You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
    You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
    Skip out for beer during commercials,
    Because the revolution will not be televised.

    The revolution will not be televised.
    The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
    In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
    The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
    blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
    Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
    hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
    The revolution will not be televised.

    The revolution will not be brought to you by the
    Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
    Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
    The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
    The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
    The revolution will not make you look five pounds
    thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

    There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
    pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
    or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
    NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
    or report from 29 districts.
    The revolution will not be televised.

    There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
    brothers in the instant replay.
    There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
    brothers in the instant replay.
    There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
    run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
    There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
    Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
    Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
    For just the proper occasion.

    Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
    Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
    women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
    Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
    will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
    The revolution will not be televised.

    There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
    news and no pictures of hairy armed women
    liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
    The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
    Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
    Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
    The revolution will not be televised.

    The revolution will not be right back after a message
    bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
    You will not have to worry about a dove in your
    bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
    The revolution will not go better with Coke.
    The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
    The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

    The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
    will not be televised, will not be televised.
    The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
    The revolution will be live.

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  6. Susan, you are welcome any time. Ranting is what we do best.

    And our image couldn't be any worse at this point.

    I lost 4 links just last week because I called one of the "Popular Liberal Bloggers" a,"Pompous A**hole."

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  7. Nice rant... and yes, guess who is the loudest in my work too? The ijits of course. Hey, I can also make a list of great souls (or decent living spirits at least). Starting with some people right on this page.

    And yes, fading empires aren't pretty, but they are generally the last to know...

    Enjoy your time, make the meaning, seek the beauty.

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  8. fairlane - Thanks for the offer and the space on Jonestown to jump up and down. I feel a bit better now :-)

    Gary - I think the most bizarre thing we've been noticing down here the past few years is just how blinkered a lot of our co-workers are. Many of them appear to be singing 'LALALALALA! I can't Heear YOU!' Sometimes I just feel like staying home in the company of my books, projects and good friends on the blog as well as old style friends - most of whom would never venture on-line. Yes, there are many good souls.

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  9. i live in Alberta... yep, oil country, mostly in Uncle Sam's back pocket... for an oil company... so i think of myself as a vicarious American. the company was recently voted by Fortune 100 the 48th best place in the US to work... and holy moose noses, what a thrill to be part of something so wonderful! ...or.... not.

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