The entitlement sink hole and the vote pump
Bookworm on Jan 27 2012 | Filed under: Welfare
Archive for the 'Welfare' Category
How to live on public benefits in California
Bookworm on Nov 16 2011 | Filed under: Welfare
UPDATED: We’ve been pwned by a very clever satirist. You will not believe this video. Or, looking at our bankrupt states and federal government, you will believe this video: Hat tip: Caped Crusader and Earl Aagaard, both of whom sent it to me
Could this be Mark Steyn’s best column ever?
Bookworm on Oct 29 2011 | Filed under: Welfare
Well, maybe not best ever, but certainly one of the best. Who better to take on the dreaded culture of “self-reliance”?
You know what happens if you don’t get government money? Sudden attacks of efficiency. *UPDATED*
Bookworm on Mar 07 2011 | Filed under: Welfare
For months now, local charitable organizations have been sounding the drum: if taxpayer money goes away, we vanish. In other words, if evil Republicans get their hands on the budget, poor people will suffer. I’m already wise to this propaganda, having lived through 1994′s welfare reform. We were told then that the poor would be [...]
Welfare versus parasitism
Bookworm on Jul 16 2010 | Filed under: Britain, England, Welfare
When I lived in England many, many moons ago, I met an English student who had spent the previous summer working, very, very hard, at the local zoo. The highlight of his work day was driving around the little kiddy train, and even that wasn’t much fun. He spent the rest of the time mucking [...]
An email that’s making the rounds, relating one vet’s story *UPDATED*
Bookworm on May 04 2010 | Filed under: Immigration, Welfare
UPDATE: I’m reprinting here Baseballmaven’s comment: This was sent to me also–researching on Snopes, while the d’Lynn part wasn’t there; however, the part about the welfare recipient in Florida was there and turned out to be NOT TRUE..variations have been circulating since 2004. The original example actually came from Canada, and even there wasn’t validated. [...]
Federal welfare and the undeserving poor *UPDATED*
Bookworm on Mar 02 2010 | Filed under: Welfare
George Bernard Shaw was a reprehensible human being and, for the most part, quite bombastic (by which I mean dull, because polemical) playwright. Nevertheless, he occasionally hit the nail on the head, as he does with this little monologue by Alfred Doolittle, from Pygmalion, a man who feels that welfare and morality should never be [...]
Using welfare to buy votes to maintain perpetual power
Bookworm on Nov 08 2009 | Filed under: Britain, England, Taxes, Welfare
The Daily Mail has the data to prove what we all knew: a political party that shifts the tax burden to less than 50% of the population, while leaving more than half the population dependent on government largesse, wins in perpetuity (or until the country implodes, whichever comes first).
Woe betide us if we follow in England’s footsteps
Bookworm on Oct 07 2009 | Filed under: Welfare
England is a benefits culture. The government, although strapped for cash, hands out benefits like candy, and each Briton feels entitled to his or her share. It’s no wonder, of course. Not only is there no stigma attached to benefits, there’s no upside to avoiding them. Already back in the early 1980s, I had a [...]
Urine or you’re out
Bookworm on Sep 28 2009 | Filed under: Welfare
Got this in an email today: THE JOB – URINE TEST (Whoever wrote this one deserves a HUGE pat on the back!) Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order [...]
The codependent liberal party
Bookworm on Feb 28 2009 | Filed under: Democrats, Welfare
In the old days, when someone was a substance abuser, the entire onus for the abuse lay with that person. At a certain point, however, someone figured out that, in many relationships, the abuser’s partner was part of the dance of drug or alcohol dependency. A new term entered the pop culture vocabulary: “codependent.” The [...]
What next for the nanny state?
Don Quixote on Jul 03 2008 | Filed under: Capitalism, Children, personal responsibility, Welfare
Here in California, the hands-free cell phone law went into effect July 1. (By the way, does anyone know whether there was an actual increase in traffic accidents after cell phones became popular?) This morning, I heard a story that said that 1,800 fires and dozens of injuries resulted from fireworks last year. Of course, in [...]
Life in England
Bookworm on Apr 21 2008 | Filed under: Britain, England, Welfare
England is becoming an increasingly alien place in terms of modern values. Two articles from today’s Daily Mail (a useful repository for stories the other papers are embarrassed to print): 1. A man was charged as a criminal for over filling his garbage can. 2. Families that refuse even to look for work, finding welfare [...]
Societal breakdown in England
Bookworm on Apr 15 2008 | Filed under: African-Americans, Britain, England, Welfare
Some months ago, the British papers were filled with the story of Shannon Matthews, a little girl who vanished from her home in West Yorkshire, sparking a huge manhunt. She was eventually found, 24 days later, at the home of her stepfather’s uncle. The big shocker, though, was the fact that both her stepfather and [...]
Attention liberals: tough love is sometimes the answer
Bookworm on Mar 13 2008 | Filed under: San Francisco, Welfare
In the San Francisco Chronicle — the San Francisco Chronicle! — columnist CW Nevius continues to complain (rightly) about the way in which the homeless are truly destroying once beautiful San Francisco (a problem I trace with unerring personal memory to the revolting decay of the drug culture in the Haight at the end of [...]
Living in the perpetual welfare state
Bookworm on Feb 12 2008 | Filed under: Britain, England, Welfare
I don’t really know what to say here. This is just so sad. If I had to guess, I’d say it was a combination of unlimited immigration, unlimited welfare, and the stagnant economy of the socialist state: More than 2.2 million British children – one in five – now live in households dependent on state [...]
Must read Mark Steyn about the real war on children
Bookworm on Oct 20 2007 | Filed under: Welfare
Mark Steyn took Pete Stark’s lunatic ravings about the pseudo Republican War on children and honed in on the real issue and the real war. After pointing out how much material wealth Graeme Frost’s family has (jobs, homes, cars), yet it still demands free health insurance funded by those less wealthy, Steyn wrapped up with [...]
Ants and Grasshoppers
Bookworm on Oct 11 2007 | Filed under: Welfare
You all remember the Aesop’s fable about the Ant and Grasshopper, don’t you? That’s the one where the Ant works hard all year, while the Grasshopper just dances around. When winter comes, the Ant is comfortable in his warm, well-stocked home, while the Grasshopper is miserable and hungry. Or maybe you know the story of [...]
Non-contributing immigrants
Bookworm on Oct 02 2007 | Filed under: Britain, Europe, Islam, Welfare
Here in America, we are (rightly) unhappy about illegal immigrants who instantly sign up for all the welfare benefits they can get. Of course, they’d be stupid not to, because only a fool says no to free money. Also, I don’t think any of us doubt that the immigrants who come here, legal or illegal, [...]
Envisioning a new world
Bookworm on Apr 06 2006 | Filed under: Welfare
It was always the Left that had a lock on envisioning a new world order, while the Right stood there, desperately trying to maintain the status quo. That, of course, is no longer the case. The Left is mired in the 1960s, and the Right is trying to rejigger the world, for better or for [...]
