Friday, July 25, 2008

Jobacalypse Now (Game the One Hundred Fourth)

According to news reports I received second hand, Randy Pausch has died. The author and educator became famous due to the “Last Lecture”, which became an Internet sensation, then a book. This is horrible news-not unexpected, but horrible just the same.


If you are among the uninitiated, I urge you to google Randy Pausch or The Last Lecture, and watch it. It’s on Youtube, and Google Video, and all over the place. It’s about an hour long, and like any great work of art, you will be different after you watch it. It is that good. Life affirming, sad, funny, heartbreaking, stimulating. Absolutely brilliant. In this particular case, believe the hype.


It's true:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/reviews/critics/la-me-pausch26-2008jul26,0,5191339.story

I'm heartbroken.

Those poor, tiny children and his beautiful wife. It's not fair. It makes me angry that the universe is this cold.








Brilliant “Word for Word” by David Cay Johnston, the muckraking reporter, about the massive injustice of the current tax system, how the very rich steal from us by sucking at the public trough for money they do not need and do not deserve.

Talk of the Nation had on the author of “The Man Who Forgot How To Read,” a memoir about a Canadian author who had a stroke and lost his ability to decode text. Dear God, please no. How terrifying.

In much, much less important news, Joba Chamberlain marched into Fenway Park and showed the Red Sox, well, that he is Joba Chamberlain and they are not. Over seven innings, the big fella gave up only 3 hits and 1 walks, striking out nine in a 1-0 whitewashing of Boston. Tampa also lost, so Boston doesn't lose any ground there, but coming up right behind us, headlights bright in our rear view mirrors, are the New York Fucking Yankees.


Like I've always said-they're like vampires-they're not dead until you pound the stake into their heart.











3 comments:

  1. " about the massive injustice of the current tax system, how the very rich steal from us by sucking at the public trough for money they do not need and do not deserve."

    I don't see how the tax system specifically has taxpayers stealing from us, since it is nothing but the government stealing from the people (and the rich end up paying far more individually, as a group, in real dollars, and as a percentage).

    Or is it referring to government expenditures in the form of payments to the rich?

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  2. Right, like you said. I wasn't being real clear. Which is less rare than it ought to be. As Lisa Simpson once put it, "I know all those words. But that still doesn't make any sense."

    He is referring to corporate welfare-massive city, state and federal givebacks and rebates to private companies for no good reason, like sports stadiums.

    He also made reference to Warren Buffett, who pays a much lower percentage of his income in taxes than his employees do.

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  3. The stadium money-waste thing does indeed frost me.

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