You Have Flunked Humanity

Not only have you flunked but, as I said to TD over on Facebook where this first showed up, you have missed the exam, failed to turn in your papers, biffed the reading, showed up drunk to your study session and hit on the prof:

The Colorado Department of Education requested an additional $124,229 for the Start Smart Nutrition Program, which subsidizes the cost of breakfast at school for poor children, for the current budget year ending in June.

However, the request failed on a 3-3 party-line vote.

Because Republicans have regained the state House this year, the JBC is equally split for the first time in almost a decade. There have been a few 3-3 votes this year as the committee has considered budget items, but the one on school breakfasts raised eyebrows at the Capitol.

"As a family guy myself with children and grandchildren, I take a very strong responsibility to earn money to feed my own family," said Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, who voted against the request.

He said charities could step up if some families have difficulty paying the fees.

"I think if that need is out there, there are charitable groups that are out there that go way, way beyond that to take care of families in need," Lambert said. "Out here in El Paso County, for example, we have churches all over the place."

Right. It's all somebody else's problem. Fuck it. There are churches all over the place. Surely one of them can deal with this. There's no need for me to get involved. After all, it's not my family we're talking about here. Not my kids. I work hard and I feed them, my family. My own family.

What a monster. For serious and I'm not being hyperbolic, people like this, who are probably quite nice to you if you meet them in the Starbucks line, do more damage to civil society than a hundred thousand mouthbreathing Palinistas screaming about socialism. Because for every dick out there who can't spell to paint a sign, there are a few dozen people like this, who just assume somebody else should be taking care of things.

I get it, I mean, I really do. Until you actually get out there in the world and realize just how tenuous our grasp on civilization actually is, until you see how the world works under its skin, and realize that but for the efforts of a few thousand extraordinary people who work their asses off and organize we would be so fucked, it's really easy to convince yourself that surely, someone out there has this handled, kids who can't have any breakfast because they can't afford it. There are tons of churches in the area. One of them MUST be on it. Right? RIGHT?

And it's scary as hell when you realize that no, actually, somebody isn't on it. Nobody is on it, actually. Nobody is on anything you see because if you can still see there's a problem, clearly THERE'S STILL A PROBLEM. And the only way to keep from going completely bugshit crazy bonkers at that point is to be the somebody on the problem. That sinking feeling in your gut that leads you to say sociopathic things like, "out here in El Paso County, for example, we have churches all over the place," that feeling is a HINT, and you ignore it at the peril of your goddamn soul.

Because: I take care of my own family. Sure you do. So does everybody, until they can't. And it could be you tomorrow. And you never, NEVER, think it will be, until it is.

And when it is, you better hope to fucking God your kid's morning cereal isn't up for debate before some kind of penis who believes you aren't his own family, and that some church, where they believe in commie shit like taking care of the poor, will get you sorted out. 

Update via Spork in the comments: gyma has more.

A.

 

Comments

[outrage broken]

Thanks A. Both of my daughters are in this program, and while I can certainly budget $.30 a day if need be (unlike many people in it), its still taking away from something else, and that's not even the point. Its the notion that this insular tower-dwelling motherfucker has the all-knowing wisdom to see something this simple and helpful as a primary cost-cutting solution in a far greater problem. He provides for his family, which is hard, so he must know how everyone else does it because he does it. Profit!

td

[Doc]

Do guys like this ever really LISTEN to what they're saying before they say it? Is there a filter or a "brain brake" or something that stops stupid shit from coming out of their mouths before it does?

Did this guy ever think for a second that people are TRYING to feed their family? That the indignity of having to TAKE this money has got to kill them, let alone having some douche bag at the capital saying, "Hey, get a job, you fucking welfare cheat!"

I've had this conversation with someone I know and love who once had the unspeakable happen to her family. They needed help, and yes, the church provided. Even as a child, though, she was outraged that she needed this help. She wanted to help others. She didn't want to be on the receiving end of it, even though her family really needed it. She's spent half her life giving back now that she can. Every food drive, every time something happens at a school function, every time disaster strikes.

When a kid's home in the Midget's school district burned down, the school sent home a letter asking that every family put a dollar in an envelope and send it back to school so the family could get food and clothes. I think I stuffed a 20 in an envelope and sent it back, no questions. It was the human thing to do. It was the right thing to do. I didn't say, "Well, why didn't they have insurance?" or "Well, maybe the church could do something?" or "Fuck 'em. I got my house."

No. You pony up and wish you could do more because that's basic human dignity and decency. You hope others never have to pay it back to you, but you give because it's the least you could do.

A church... Yeah... Apparently that's the thing. Give unto God what is God's and give unto this asshole a swift kick in the balls.

[idiosynchronic]

I notice this fuckstick is representing Colorado Springs - one of the most conservative areas of Colorado. Home to Focus of the Family, the World Church, & the Air Force Academy, all of whom have been ridiculed or lambasted by the blogosphere for being sociopathic Christianists.

This: For serious and I'm not being hyperbolic, people like this, who are probably quite nice to you if you meet them in the Starbucks line, do more damage to civil society than a hundred thousand mouthbreathing Palinistas screaming about socialism. Because for every dick out there who can't spell to paint a sign, there are a few dozen people like this, who just assume somebody else should be taking care of things.

This, Athenae, is more true than you let on. These are the same nice people whom believe an armed society is a polite society, pack heat, quietly deny climate change and rationalize their need for a 10mpg Hummer, sincerely believe they're overtaxed, and refuse to send their children to the icky public schools.

Sure, they're nice people. Up until they (and their friends) stick the knife in you from behind.

[Southern Beale]

And let me say: as someone who served on the session of our progressive Presbyterian church for 3 years, and served on the outreach committee for 5 years, where we funded things like this and gave out grants to local groups, let me point out we CONTINUALLY STRUGGLED to come up with the money -- not because our congregation is so chintzy, because they aren't, but because THE NEED IS SO FUCKING GREAT that all of the churches in the world cannot possibly meet it.

You know, not everyone cares about feeding poor kids, it's not their pet issue. Some people want to give money to the symphony. Some people want to give money to the zoo or the art museum. Some people choose to give their money to fighitng AIDs in Africa and some people donate to Derek the Abstinence Clown. That is their right. That is their GOD GIVEN RIGHT.

And that is why we have TAXES and GOVERNMENT to more equitably distribute funding to fill social needs. That is why this is different from charity.

I don't understand why wingnuts don't get that. They feel like "I give to MY church so that should be enough." You CHOOSE to give to your church and they may or may not take care of some of these problems but if churches were up to the task of dealing with poverty and inequity we wouldn't have had a thousand revolutions throughout the course of human history.

Get. A. Fucking. Clue.

[noblejoanie]

Suffer the little children.

Under the wingers, they surely will and more.

[spork_incident]

My co-blogger, a Coloradan, has some more on this.

.

[idiosynchronic]

Southern Beale:" . .let me point out we CONTINUALLY STRUGGLED to come up with the money -- not because our congregation is so chintzy . . "

I wish - I WISH - I could say the same about my local congregation. It explains why I don't go to church any longer. Those bastards look at church giving with about about as much distaste as they do taxes.

[Southern Beale]

Oh and there is so much irony in reading this story about an hour after I just heard Peggy Noonan pontificate about how she "always got the feeling that Jimmy Carter just doesn't like people." Really. REALLY? Jimmy Carter who is out building houses for poor people, totally hates people! But Nooners and her friends in the GOP who want to make sure poor kids get a bad start in life by not having adequate nutrition, so when these kids perform poorly in school they can pretend "well we ALL had the same opportunities, didn't we? In post-racial America? Can't imagine why those kids just got failing grades until they dropped out!" They are lovers of the people.

Yes, that is what they will think.

Assholes.

[Southern Beale]

idiosynchronic:

Colorado Springs is a Christian Libertarian paradise. They've had to cut back on police, fire, trash collection, street lights, etc. Of course, the wealthy neighborhoods can pay to have their street lights turned back on should they choose. Free hand of the market and all.

It really sucks to be poor in America but it really sucks to be poor in Colorado Springs the most.

[Athenae]

Jimmy Carter doesn't like people? Jimmy Carter may not like ASSHOLES, Peggy, but he sure as hell likes people.

A.

[Southern Beale]

idiosynchronic:

Well it was church finances that ultimately caused us to leave as well. Our church always prided itself on giving 20% of what it took in to benevolence, straight off the top. We gave out over $100,000 in grants to local and national groups focusing on poverty, social justice and the like. Being progressive we were one of the few groups who could, say, donate $10,000 to help build a shelter for runaway gay teens.

Anyway, it's a long story short but basically our church burned down and we rebuilt bigger and grander than we should have and the utilities were astronomical and unprecedented so they decided to basically "reclassify" what is a benevolence. Suddenly the Adult Day Care program at the church, the after school program for refugee kids, the one night a week we hosted 20 homeless people ... all of that was now "benevolence." They calculated a building use dollar figure and presto-bingo, we call all pat ourselves on the back about the good we're doing, but we no longer give as many cash grants to local groups.

And you know, there are a lot of small local organizations who are constantly struggling for funds because the big national organizations tend to suck up all the grant money available. That's just the way it is.

So we left in protest.

Long, boring story but probably not one that hasn't been repeated a thousand gazillion times.

[gidget commando]

Because: I take care of my own family. Sure you do. So does everybody, until they can't. And it could be you tomorrow. And you never, NEVER, think it will be, until it is.

And when it is, you better hope to fucking God your kid's morning cereal isn't up for debate before some kind of penis who believes you aren't his own family, and that some church, where they believe in commie shit like taking care of the poor, will get you sorted out.

They never, EVER think it could be them. They're speshul. They're new teapot people who think that broken teapots must have done something wrong to get cracked, chipped or shattered. Hint, kids: sooner or later, we're all broken teapots.

[erehwesle]

This kind of reasoning drives me insane as well. These people (if you can call them that) are seriously convinced not only that they are self-made, but if the rest of us and our guvmint just up and went poof away one day, that they'd do just peachy, damn-it. Roll up their sleeves, start a small farm, shoot a few looters to keep the rest of us in line with their guns.

Think I'm kidding? Check out some survivalist, libertarian, or gun sites from time to time. They actively drool over what they call TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It) scenarios, and guess what? ALL of them end in some Heinleinian Bircher paradise where all the good self-reliant conservatives are just peachy (after killing some looters off, 'natch), and all us bleeding-heart liberals just don't know what to do and quickly starve to death out of sight. None of these little fantasies end, oh, say in them dying of cholera because they can't get drinking water.

I mention this, not because it relates to Colorodo, but because this is the mindset. A lack of realization of how much our fates are intertwined in this project we call civilization, and how precarious it really is. Liberals often get accused of Utopianisim, but, really, is helping each other out a bit if we can really that unrealistic? Plus I'd rather live in Utopia than in some Mad Max hardscrabble world where everyone is only out for number one, and to hell with anyone else.

The thing is there is a certain segment of the population, and the bastards seem to vote, who are not only not afraid of that scenario, but who think that they'd THRIVE there, that think that that would just be really keen. Finally, all us liberals with our rules and demands and the guvmint would be off their back! Paradise! they could live like God intends.

They really don't realize the amount of discomfort and pain this weird return to frontier-times fantasy would entail to Them Personally, much less to everyone else.

Blame the victim is fine, but A is very right. Some day you're going to be the victim. It will happen. And you're going to need a hand, some help, or even breakfast for your kids, god forbid. What are you going to say then?

They think it can't or won't ever happen to them, and truly can't see all the things in the present, and times in the past, where Society-with-a-capital-S has helped them get to where they are now, and provided them with what they have.

Gods above, deliver me from those with delusions of being self-made men, please.

[hoppy]

I took a different lesson from this. One of the crosses those of us who are not in financial dire straits bear is the responsibility for those who are in financial dire straits. We look around and see that we could hand out $20 bills all day long, and never seem to make a dint n the problems. We feel guilty for our own comfort, knowing about those who don't have that comfort. "Give what you can" is so subjective. I could give away all that I own, and live on handouts from my two kids, unless I chose to give that too.

In many, if not most European countries, private charity is discouraged, the government takes care of those in need. Only the government has the ability to help everyone, and do so equitably. Being an extreme leftist, I believe that is the only rational answer. Sure, I would pay a lot more in taxes, but I could sleep a lot more peacefully, knowing that I truly was "giving" my share. I can never know that now.

[rm]

I just looked up the special Colorado Springs edition of the Bible that Kent Lambert uses. Here's part of Luke 10 from it:

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who was a close blood relative to him.”

Jesus told him, “That's exactly right. Only those in your immediate family deserve your attention and help.”

And also, too, this asshole shares with old GWB the christianist belief that government help is ungodly, and that private Christian charity will somehow ramp up to meet all the needs that government won't under their rule.

They are sociopathic antichrists, but they have a rationalization that helps them feel righteous.

[pansypoo]

they are unchristian. period. the right thinks everybody has bootstraps to fucking pull on. so, those without shoes. tough luck. your fault you have no shoes, or no feet.

dickens would have a field day now righting about republikklans.

[jeffrey]

It always comes back to "Are there no workhouses?"

[Silver Owl]

Lambert is a typical lazy ass conservative man. He does nothing but bitch about things he is absolutely clueless about. In a manly angry daddy voice of course.

[mothra]

I am guessing Lambert is a self-righteous prick who goes to his mega-church in Colorado Springs and smugly thinks his soul is saved. I surely hope his relatives dress his corpse in shorts and a tanktop for the heat he will endure for eternity. I'd also like a snapshot of the look on his face when he arrives not at the Pearly Gates, but the fiery, fiery doors of hell.

Fuckstick.

[MapleStreet]

" I take a very strong responsibility to earn money to feed my own family"

Uh, do you not know that unemployment is over 9%. That many of the employed are underemployed. That many people are disabled.....

[Scott]

Thanks, Athenae. It's depressing to read this stuff -- I wish like hell there was something that could be done.

Empathy is so damn easy and cheap, and so few people use it anymore. :(

[drew]

I fucking hate how impotent this kind of shit makes me feel, why can't i just run up to this guy in front of his whole 'congregation' and call him out on this, i want to ask how he reconciles this with, no doubt, his belief that the bible should be taken literally, yet only without all the parts where Jesus is telling us how we should give all that we have to those who need.
the bible did not leave room for interpretation on that point.

[outrage broken]

I live outside Denver. I live in a Habitat house. We have two incomes, and we get by. 60 cents a day for my girls in the morning would have to be planned for, not because its a burden, but because there are a few days each month when the bills get paid and things get sketchy.

My wife works from home, and takes the girls to school early for breakfast which allows her to work, allows my girls to have a quiet meal and get some extra reading or work done, and frankly its one less thing to worry about. Having some douchenozzle from the Springs railing a six-person budget committee taking away something so fundamentally beneficial and right for such moronic reasoning (seriously - this committee is trying to find logical ways to control spending in an $18 billion state budget and he's peeing on a $125K childrens program) just reeks of "see Mom - I did something!"

And, as I said roughly nine times on Facebook, Fuck. You.

[wayne from sheboygan]

Good rant, A. If they gave Pulitzers for rants you wold have a dozen by now. That's what modern day conservatism is all about: throwing people out into the street. And then calling it God's work.