tvashtarkatena

My advice to wannabe pet owners: Get a cat instead.

Ah, there's another concept. "Worthwhile contribution" It's in the same mud bucket as "Pulling your own weight". Is it "being a hard worker?". Hell, Bush was in that category by all accounts...at least after 911 and all his Texas vacations. Would society have been better off if he'd been a meth head laying in a ditch most nights? Um...yes, it would have, without question. And what of our famous artists? How many also had day jobs as drunks, deadbeats, and wife beaters? What about the "hard working" contractor, who happily mows down green spaces and leaves shoddily built environmental and visual shitstain in his wake. all the while happily paying taxes so that Merca can start a misery generating war in yet another third world dump? Yes, the world would be better off if most of us STOPPED contributing and starting fucking off more. It usually results in less damage being done. It also results in people doing what really suits them, rather than whoring their free time out for some other asshole. Let's face it folks: that's what most jobs are. Consider our most revered Merkin icons: the farmer (goodbye topsoil forever...hello obesity, and can you say pollution?...also, their all on the dole), the soldier (most sit around with nothing to do, unless there's a war, and then the former is still true, but a few of them wreak havoc in places where they have no business being), the doctor gimme drugs gimme drugs gimme drugs!!! the workin man (most crap shouldn't have been built in the first place. You can already see the junk built during the boom falling apart. Hellooooo, landfill!)

As a friend of mine who tried to poo directly into a blue bag once told me: "Uranus is not where you think it is."

Tuesday morning, shot from my sleeping bag:

Kids are good eatin'.

I know, I know. Hey, how about that pellet gun I was after, people?

"utopia" means "nowhere" You-topia evaporates the moment a second angry hairless monkey appears.

The idea that everyone in a society should pull their own weight has little to no meaning whatsoever. Pull what weight, exactly? What kind of weight should a 5 year old pull? An 86 year old? Trig, the Down's Syndrome Celebrity? A heroin addict? An Olympic athlete who otherwise doesn't work? The village idiot? The person who will someday cure cancer, and yet who weighs 900 lbs, smokes like a chimney, and consumes enormous amounts of health care of all kinds? A 'hard working American' who spends 90% of his 'productive time' spraying on the interwebs? In societies of all sizes and levels of wealth, since the beginning of time, those who can have subsidized the well being and survival of those who cannot. The extent to which a society does that or not marks it's level of humanity and or level of surplus. To think it has, or can ever, work any other way among the angry hairless monkeys is to be an utter fucking fool. We are drowning in surplus in this country, even after 'the crash'. We can afford universal health care for all, regardless of ability to pay, EASILY. We can also afford housing for all and a whole host of other things we choose not to; a testament to our humanity or lack thereof. Frankly, I find the choices we've collectively made in this country pretty fucking disgusting.

The major unstated premise here seems to be that, even under conditions of open competition, profits can only be realized by cheating consumers. We don't have anything even remotely close to a system of open competition. What's not being discussed here is how do we get to a system with a) costs under control b) all citizens adequately insured, and c) patient outcomes rather than revenue the top priority with as little catastrophic disruption from the present system as possible. Using as much of the pre-existing system as possible was how every first world country save the U.S. got to a fully covered populace. Furthermore, all of us agree on these three objectives for a health care system. Opening up competition across state lines seems like a sound idea. Opening up federal insurance to all seems like an obvious winner. Moving to a not-for-profit structure seems like a good idea, but it is a massive change from what we have. In addition, there are many for-profit providers that keep their costs in check because the incentives for their doctors not to milk the patients are in check. Perhaps as a long term goal, but how far out would this requirement ripple? To drug companies? To makers of medical equipment and supplies (many of which also make non-medical equipment and supplies)? Ranking providers based on where they fall on the cost/outcome curve and requiring disclosure of that information both to consumers and partnering health care entities is a good idea. Providing discounts to consumers for obvious healthy lifestyle choices, like not smoking, seems like a good idea, although this would have to be severely regulated to prevent it from running away and penalizing people for leading interesting lives by, say, climbing.

I've got an idea for how you could thaw those things....

Good, cuz my Fry Daddy busted when I tried to crisp up an entire ham hock in it.

So what part of Thailand is she from?

That must be why you forgot my birthday gift, what, with a little one on the way and all....

so is your mom. Speaking of your mom... when the hell did you get married? Jebus, last time I checked you just got yourself a new woahman.

Isn't your wife gonna need some extra emergency room coverage comin' up here?

Hey, this makes three POS's slammed in 4 days.

You know, for when you're finished reading this TR you don't give a shit about.

I might just do a TR about the Robinson trailhead shitter for your personal benefit...you seem to be into that kind of thing.

Plus, if you think these peaks are useless, wait til my upcoming round of TRs....

Wut? According to one Robinson summit register entry, the North Couloir is the finest snow route in all of the Pasayten. We trundled a nice fat boulder down it as a scouring measure for any future takers...but there just might be one or two loose chips left on that side.

And here I thought all you Or EE gun boyz were faggot buddies.

I climbed Torment with Cal and some Russian exchange folks in the 80s, but my buddy Don knows him much better than I.

I've notified the proper authorities of your failure to make use of a your blue bags.

Jebus, Dan, be careful out there! Very nice photography.