Millenials: Cheap or just not stupid?

So I saw this headline the other day:

September 2012

The Cheapest Generation

Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy

Are they, though? Are the really cheap? Or are they just not blind? They can see the world we've left them. They can see that the odds are stacked against them.

First of all, who can afford to buy a house anymore? Let alone anyone under 30?

 

Exception noted. 

 

Prices of houses and cars have both outpaced inflation by a wide margin. And wages have absolutely not kept up. And that's if these young people can find jobs at all.

And even those young people who do have decent jobs are saddled with student loans that they may never pay off. How could we expect them to save up to buy a house under that onus?

And all they have to do is look around at what working in America has become. If you work for any decent-sized company, there is, right now, as we speak, someone in the home office getting paid to figure out ways to eliminate your job.

Have you considered enslaving children?

You have a job in a factory? They'll shut it down and move it to China or someplace with even worse labor laws like Mississippi.  You have a tech job? They'll send it to India. You work with numbers? It's only a matter of time until they get a computer program that does what you do.

Why would you buy a house under those conditions? Why would you make that kind of investment knowing that the whole concept of a life-long job is obsolete. You may be doing well today, tomorrow you might be moving out-of-state to find work. And when you do find it, that job will likely disappear at some point and the whole cycle starts again.


The millenials are not stupid, even though they were raised on the Disney Channel believing that the Jonas Brothers were a rock and roll band and that High School Musical was a legitimate form of entertainment. They know perfectly well what happened to the last generation when they invested in houses.



Let's see. . .  people did what they thought was the prudent thing and invested their money in houses. Then the banks fucked up the economy, those people lost their houses, the bank took them back and auctioned them off, leaving the previous owners with nothing to show for all the hard-earned money they'd sunk into these homes. And we wonder why their kids aren't anxious to follow that same path?

Good news, rape culture is over!

(TW: Rape)


Recently, a fraternity on the Georgia Tech campus got itself into a bit of bother over the occasional rapes taking place in its house and the frat's explicit encouragement of such behavior.

'Rapebait' Frat Encouraged Sexual Violence, Lawsuits Claim

Posted: 10/31/2014 3:06 pm EDT

A member of a Georgia Tech fraternity sexually assaulted two women using the playbook described in a "luring your rapebait" email, two lawsuits filed this week against Phi Kappa Tau claim.
The Alpha Rho chapter of PKT turned a blind eye to red flags that brothers were encouraging each other to sexually assault women, the suits allege, including the "rapebait" email, songs joking about sexual violence, and chapter meeting minutes declaring "rape is good." The two suits contain nearly identical allegations but each is filed on behalf of a different plaintiff.

 The fraternity chapter has been disbanded, and apparently that has completely solved the problem of on-campus rape culture.  At least according to this guy:

Sarasota speaker: There is no campus 'culture of rape'

 

And who is this speaker with such expert knowledge of collegiate culture? Why, no less an authority than  Dennis Prager of course!


Because who would know better what goes on in today's universities than this guy?

 

To be fair, his wife may actually be an undergrad.

 So here's what he had to say about rape culture on college campuses:

“It’s a gargantuan lie to get votes. It’s as big a lie as the culture of rape on your campuses. What nonsense. There is a culture of rape on campuses run by the feminist left?
What do you cite to sell me this nonsense?

Well, I guess I might cite the fact that a large number of women get sexually assaulted on campus?

  One in 5 women are sexually assaulted on campuses. Do you know what sexual assault means? Did you ever look at what counts? An unwanted kiss is considered sexual assault. 

Well, yes. I'm not sure why it wouldn't  be. Well, I guess I'll let the expert explain why not.

An unwanted kiss is considered sexual assault. I’m stunned it's only 1 in 5. Four out of five women have not gotten an unwanted kiss? My wife gets unwanted kisses every so often.
(laughter)

Oh, now I get it! If I kiss my wife at a time when she doesn't feel like smooching, maybe she's annoyed with me or feeling unattracted to me because I look like a potato in a Bobby Cremins wig, 

 

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Anyway, that's obviously the same thing as a stranger trying to shove his tongue down a woman's throat like he's Fitzgerald Grant and she's Olivia Pope.  That wouldn't be horrifying at all!

They make light of rape because they redefine these terms. We don’t make light of it. We think it is the worst thing possible short of murder. But they make light of it by trivializing it. Culture of Rape? No. I’ll tell you why it exists on the campus, and that is: a rape of the culture.”

So there you have it. Problem solved! feel free to send your daughters off to college secure in the knowledge that rape culture doesn't exist, it was all just a problem with mis-defining the terms. What a relief!

There is really a special place in hell for people like Prager. I don't understand why these people always feel the need to stand up for the assholes. Or maybe it's just that they feel some need to stand up for the powerful against the less powerful. Whether it's taking selfies in line at Chic-Fil-A or "standing with" the Duck Dynasty creep, these people will always rush to the defense of those who neither need or deserve defending. So of course these scumbags are going to side with fratboy rapists over their victims. It's some kind of sick pathology with people like this.

Okay, Phil is a millionaire with his own television show who is regularly given a platform to air his twisted views by various magazines and radio shows. He doesn't need you to stand with him.

Um, Israel has the strongest military in the region because of millions of dollars in US support. Support for Israel is the sine qua non of American foreign policy. Even criticizing Israel can make you a pariah amongst the conventional-wisdom-mainstream pundit class, just ask Jimmy Carter. Israel doesn't need some teenybopper in a T-shirt to stand with it. 

 

Chic-fil-A is an extremely successful company with over 1,800 locations. They are hugely profitable, thanks to using almost no actual chicken in their chicken sandwiches. They are not some poor little mom-and-pop restaurant being bullied by the all-powerful gay lobby or whatever you think they are being bullied by. They don't need your help.

But any time the powerful are in any way challenged by the less powerful, right-wing scumbags will rise to their defense and call it courage. Pathetic!

Chomp & Stomp this Weekend!

If you live in the greater Atlanta area, or if you can get to Atlanta easily, this weekend would be the time to come!  This Saturday, Nov. 1st is CHOMP AND STOMP!



What is Chomp and Stomp, you ask? It's so funny that you should ask that, because I was just about to tell you what Chomp and Stomp is. It is the world's largest (I assume) Bluegrass festival and chili cook-off.

 

 Apostles of Bluegrass, Chomp&Stomp 2013

The festival is free. If you want chili, buy a spoon for $5 and sample all you can handle. (get there early, chili will run out)

Music starts at 11:00am sharp. Our personal favorite, the High Strung String Band plays at 3:30, if you like to sleep in. 

We also highly recommend Slim Chance & the Convicts at 1:00 pm





(yeah, not all the bands ar e strictly bluegrass.)

And I see "Farmland Band"  listed at 5:00pm. If this is "Smokey's Farmland Band" which I assume it is, we highly recommend them as well.








But really, you can't go wrong at Chomp & Stomp.


Also, there's beer, cabbage games, an artists' market and some other fun stuff. And the Autumn weather in Atlanta is usually perfect.

So come

How I'm Feeling Right Now

Yeah!

 

Giants, Bitch!

Georgia Senate Race coming down to the wire

The Senate race in Georgia is interesting, in that we have a choice between someone who is only on the ballot because his cousin was governor

 


 and someone who is only on the ballot because her father was a Senator.

 

 (Also, we can vote for a gubernatorial candidate who is only on the ballot because his grandfather was governor and president, but let's not get sidetracked)




Anyway, the Republican candidate seems to be trying his darndest to throw the race to Michelle Nunn, the Democratic candidate. First he went on record about how proud he was to have outsourced American jobs overseas during his time as a businessman.

"Defend it? I'm proud of it," Perdue said Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "This is a part of American business, part of any business. Outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run. People do that all day."

I mean, the attack ads just write themselves!

Now, he says that he wants to "prosecute" the president.

     Ordinarily, when one says that they want to prosecute someone, the next words are "for the crime of. . ." But Perdue doesn't even bother to pretend that any crime has been committed.  Here's what was said:

“I just don’t believe that it’s one party or the other. I think it has to be both sides coming together,” Nunn said. “I think that we do have a very clear contrast in terms of how we see breaking through that dysfunction. I don’t think it’s about prosecuting the other party; I think it’s about problem-solving.”

“I disagree; I think it is,” Perdue answered. “When you have a failed presidency, you have to prosecute it," he said. 

 

 Let's say we accept your premise that this is a "failed presidency." Just for the sake of argument. You do know that having a "failed presidency" isn't a crime, right? The consequences for having a "failed presidency" are that you don't get elected to a second term (too late) and no one comes to the opening of your library (time will tell). You don't get to prosecute the President of the United States because you think his policies are "failing."

So, what else you got?

"We deserve better than we’re getting right now," he added. 

Okay, no argument here. We should be getting Canadian-style Universal Healthcare. We should be getting a large increase in the minimum wage.  We should be getting a lot of new roads and bridges built. We should definitely be . . . oh, that's not what you mean, is it?

"We deserve better than we’re getting right now," he added. “When we look at the direction of this country, we’ve got to make a hard right-hand turn. The direction of this country is failing.”

 

Really? A hard-right turn? Really? Again? If we make one more right turn we'll have gone in a complete circle.





Although, come to think of it. . . three rights do equal a left. Nah, it's easier just to vote for Michelle Nunn on Tuesday.