Flattery will get you nowhere.

A new friend advised me that Topix had finally gotten around to improving their search engine so that folks could find threads easier. I had given up on using it to find threads I had almost forgotten about because, in the past, you had to to spell (or misspell) a thread's title EXACTLY like the bonehead who started the thread wrote. Sheesh- what were they doing being so anal? I mean, with google all you have to do is get close to the neighborhood and they'll get you where you want to be as if they knew what you were going for before you did. Whereas google searches for information all over the universe, the Topix search engine only has it's own Topix self to search and it couldn't even get that right. It's like walking into the Scotch Tape store, asking for some Scotch tape and being told they couldn't find any but, could you check your spelling please?

So, I googled- typed in- "Ferrerman" and was quickly rewarded with 21 threads about Ferrerman! Some, I hadn't even known about. Many had zero comments on them. They weren't very popular considering I'm rather popular in my un-popularity. I kinda though there would be closer to one hundred. Sheesh- what's a Ferrer got to do to get disrespect around here? A Ferrerman can't live on bad icons alone.

Except for two that I started myself just to be a Ferrerman, all the others were started by the troll generally known as "Sam".

I hesitate to refer to Sam as "my troll" partly because he really belongs to so many posters but mostly because I don't care to have ownership of the idiot. Some posters are flattered to have trolls of their own. I am not. I just don't see anything special about having what amounts to a stalker on the internet. Do you think John Lennon died with a smile on his face knowing that someone was obsessed enough with him to kill him? I doubt it made him feel special.

I might joke that I wish I had a better class of enemy but, the reality is that if I did those persons wouldn't be enemies. I'm a target because of my liberal politics. There is no one on the internet who is an "R" or a "T" whom I envy or even respect. Certainly none I fear. Some are just less annoying than ohers.

Well, OK, it's very likely that statements like that don't win me friends amongst the allegedly conservative crowd. But, my point is, I would not want these types as my friends. Dedicated non-readers know this. I've written a bit about this....

So, I'm not impressed that someone devotes so much time to me. I'm high-profile in the small world of Topix and if I weren't hated for my politics, I'd be hated for something else, like other posters are. Ya know, there's probably even some people who take issue with my pro-spanking of women's bottoms stance. I KNOW! How could they?

Oh well, it's nice that someone cares, right? It's the thought that counts.

It figures

I always figured that 10% of the population just doesn't get it. "It" can be there inability to conform to societal standards of respectability, alcohol/drug consumption, criminal activity- just about anything. It also includes people who grow up under varying degrees of priviledge, the same as the majority, but just don't advance along the same path as the rest of us. That same 10% figure might also speak for those that succeed in life despite the supposed handicap of poverty or race. Some will, despite the long odds, overcome adversity and some will, despite the good odds, stumble through life. There are alcoholics and criminals from the best and worst homes and from the best and worst families, regardless of race, income or gender.

It is what it is and on an individual basis we deal with it as best we can. Society too has a vested interest in this and it's why we set aside money to, for example, make sure poor children at least begin their day with food in their stomachs that their parents cannot always provide. You might say it's the Christian thing to do. You might not because other religions also provide and promote such benevolence. Suffice to say, it's the humane thing to do.

It's also thought that 10% of the population is left-handed. About the same number is gay. Again, that's just the way it is. Nuns can whack lefties on the knuckles to try to change them and Marcus Bachmann can try to pray away the gay of that 10% but, these things don't alter the natural course of people's being.

We're supposed to be the greatest country in the history of the world. We might be. We invented baseball and the '57 Chevy. Say what you will about Rome but, they didn't begin to do anything that cool.

So, why all of a sudden can we not feed our poor? How is *cost effective* now important in that equation? There were always redneck whiners who resented welfare- maybe 10% of the population- but, now there seem to be far more. In good economies these people resented giving handouts to others. If I can sorta *get* that during good times, they completely lose me during bad times. "GET A GODDAMNED JOB!"  doesn't sound very helpful in the midst of a recession or a depression. Is it somehow easier now? How so? How does eliminating the safety nets of welfare, unemployment benefits and school lunch programs promote society or encourage people to be more productive?

What you get is starving, angry poor people. It's like the tough love of the dads who, to teach the child to swim, chunk them in the lake. Sink or swim. I hate hearing those childhood stories from well-meaning, successful people. They never end with "...and that's why I won ten medals at the Olympics!"  They are as much bullshit as the knuckleheads I've known who bragged- and thanked- their dad's for beating the hell out of them, every day of their young lives to create the twice-jailed, alcoholic scumbag holding the paintbrush before you today. IF I had a dollar for everytime I heard that on a paint crew.... And not to pick on painters, because I am one but, only about 10% of us can really bring it on the job....

These republican ideals and values they are promoting disgust me. Perhaps you could tell? You cannot call America The Greatest Nation EVER, while turning it's back on its poor citizens. I think other countries are beginning to talk about us. Our enemies know that we can be had. If you sit by the river long enough you will see the body of your enemy float by.

Going out of business

There is a plethora of survival shows on cable these days. Gun shows too. Are they preparing us for a republican presidency?  I have to wonder.

We're still in a recession no matter what the news programs tell us and these things just don't end according to the calendar or because some man preached to the biggest choir. But with the R's telling us that we cannot survive as a nation being kind to our fellow man, woman and child, and that- it turns out- was the way our founding fathers intended it, we best get to surviving as they did. Since we're the greatest nation EVER, we should have no problem doing that.

So, perhaps to build towards (backwards?) to that there are more shows about shooting and eating bugs while lost in the woods with a camera crew than there were shows about buying houses with no money down a few years ago, where we learned that you cannot go wrong with real estate.

With republicans taking a chain saw to BIG GOVERNMENT (something they could have done at the beginning of this century- but there wasn't a colored guy in the White House at the time so, it didn't seem important....) we are all going to learn to live without a few safety nets in life that our founders never intended anyway. Things like Social Security, unemployment compensation, welfare, minimum wage laws, unions, etc. et-fucking-cetera. Basically anything thing that smacks of kindness and costs money that could be put to better use by Wall Street and other magical job creators. BIG GOVERNMENT's only role should be waging war against Islamic nations. That's it.

It makes a lot of sense if you don't think about. We could have near total employment if we eliminated minimum wage and those damn unions. Eliminating corporate taxes and those job killing government agencies like the EPA would practically overnight bring millions of jobs back from overseas. If they would only let the free market dictate wages and where sewage could be spilled into lakes and rivers, we could make this country strong again! How? I have no fucking idea. But, everyone who watches Foxnews is absolutely certain of this and they are number one in cable news.

I know what you're thinking: "Ferrerman, I have a pretty good job right now and I don't want to make $2 an hour!"

What are you- Muslim? The R's are offering total employment!

"But Ferrerman, how can I feed my family, making- $2 times 8 hours....$16 a day?!"

EIGHT HOURS!!? What are you- a fucking communist? That'll be a 16 hour day, ya lazy bastard. And don't moan about daycare and school either. Little Johnny and Janie will be right alongside you earning their way through life and learning the value of  a dollar, 25 cents at a time.

"No way THAT happens, Ferrerman! I won't be able to shop at Walmart at those rates. America needs me to be a consumer too, ya know!"

Oh, really? Do the children in Malayasia who make the Nikes, wear Nikes? No, because if they did, Nikes would  be really cheap and unappealing to consumers elsewhere in the world. The Nikes that you and the kids make will sold for big bucks to the Chinese and Brazillians who have yet to be fully exploited by our corporations. Those people are not all  'gimme-gimme' like Americans were before they returned to their roots and made America strong again!

And the gunshows? Them R's are pretty big on the 2nd amendment, They want EVERYONE to have guns, as the Founders gloriously intended!

Guns? No. The last thing you need in such situations is an armed populace angry at having to work for a fraction of their former wages. I don't know how the motherfuckers intend to do it but a republican will take your guns away. Have you noticed that Obama hasn't? Despite all the fears that he would, he hasn't. Hmmmm....

And that Constitution and those Founders? Inside of a generation- more likely sooner- you won't hear about those fellas anymore. They were revolutionaries. Seditionists. They are the kind of men we need right now. I bet they are spinning in their graves.  They gave us a good run though.... From the ashes of America, one day there might be more of their kind to lead us back to where we were before corporate America burned the place down for the insurance.    

I did not come here to be annoyed!

Oh, Ferrerman, where do you usually go to be annoyed?

Well, Topix, of course but that isn't important right now.

I was on The Huffington Post this morning, looking at their comedy page- TRYING TO- because as I scrolled up and down, a survey went up and down with me. You've seen these. You can make them go away by clicking on the "X". Or, you can do what they WANT you to do and take the survey. Either or, they've got you (and Ferrerman) jumping through their hoops.

I understand that advertising pays for the internet and yada-effing-yada and that because of that we have to put up with some degree of crap, like sitting through commercial before we see some videos. Ok. And MOVEON.org is HUGE on asking for donations before you see there stuff. This HuffPo thing is too much like that.

The either/or  thing pisses me off. You either take the survey or x it out. You either contribute to Moveon or x it out. Or you can opt to not go to those sites and see what they offer.

Well, that's not gonna happen and you know, they know it and Ferrerman knows it so, why do they have to fucking annoy people?

I guess that like everything else in our world today, the numbers people have to have their numbers to tell them what people are thinking. No doubt Xing out the surveys counts as a view and that means something to the numbers people and that something somehow adds up to dollars, somehow....

I think they just enjoy annoying people. They remind me of Earl, a dude I worked with in New Orleans back in the 20th century who liked to stop women on the street and compliment them on their appearance. That was his pick up technique.

I asked Earl if that had ever worked and, no, up to that point it had not but, he told me, "If it works once in 10,000 tries, it will have WORKED!"

Well, shit. He's probably a millionaire several times over in telemarketing because that kind of bullshit logic just has to be rewarded by the masses! Leastways it seems to be the common logic of all advertising once they reach the point where commercials just don't cut it anymore and they have to take hostages to move their product.

The last time I saw Earl, my girl and I were going downtown on the streetcar on St Charles avenue and Earl and his buddy were with their dates. The buddy's date was really good looking. Earl's date might have been her mother. Earl looked a little sheepish seeing Joy and I.  Could be that Earl  was trying to invent MILF's that day but he settled for a cougar.

RON PAUL!!!!!!!

I've been wanting to write about Ron Paul and-

No, I haven't. I've not really been wanting to write about Rob Paul. Rather, I've been thinking that I should.

See, he's the bum of the month or "party savior" as the republicans might call it instead because "Bum Of The Month" just doesn't have the proper zest for a front-running candidate and "party savior" is pretentious, even for the same folks who derisively dubbed Obama "The Messiah" of the democratic party.

It was just a week or so ago that Ron Paul was not getting the proper respect or turn as the GOP bum of the month and people thought he never would. That wasn't fair because everybody but Santorum and Huntsman have had their turn as have people like Trump, Palin and Christie who haven't even actually run this season. Worse, for Paul, Santorum and Huntsman, was that people were making noise about Jeb Bush! Yikes! Only three years removed from the eight year reign of terror of one of the worst presidents in history and people were talking about appointing his brother as POTUS??!! Wasn't that the whole idea of Rick Perry?

It was like Ron Paul couldn't catch a break. Of all the candidates, to me he seemed the most tea partyish/constitutiony/small governmenty of them all. But Foxnews treated him like the goofy uncle everybody describes him as and talked behind his back a lot. When they did talk to him it was to get his opinion on whoever the current front runner was. That's kinda like a father asking one boyfriend what he thinks of the other guys who are fucking his daughter.

More than the other GOP candidates, Ron Paul makes sense if you don't think too much about much of  what he says. He doesn't think we should be fighting wars all the time and I'm in favor of that. It makes sense also that the threat of terrorism might pretty much go away if we quit fucking with these Arab/Muslim countries. And why do we go around arresting all our drug users? Sheesh- if you wanna get high, what business is it of the government? And I think instead of spending billions on a fence between here and Mexico, he's in favor of enforcing the laws already in place and eliminating the lure of jobs by cracking down on those who hire illegals. That is a Ferrerman idea, dedicated non-readers might recall. Actually, to be fair to me, so is the isolationist platform. We can't force democracy on other countries and pay for it with the blood of our boys and girls (and Chinese loans). It took a generation or two but the world figured out that, left to it's own devices, communism will fail whether we shoot at it or not so- save the bullets. Same with people who insist on worshipping Allah. It's their business.

Most of life is walking in the other fella's shoes a bit and thinking about how you might react to anything, as he would. This is pretty simple stuff. Would we like to be invaded by another country because they didn't like our leader, thought we had WMD's (WE DO!!!) and their VP had a financial interest in rebuilding whatever they blew up at the expense of that country's taxpayers?

No. And, no, it's not any different because we think or know that we are the GREATEST COUNTRY EVAH!!!! That doesn't  matter. Would we accept such rationale from China or Russia? If God not be for us, who could be against us? Make the world England?

We don't have to police the world nor do we have to act like we're Mormon missionaries out to convert the world. We could just let people be. How 'bout that? We could just let Ron Paul be too. He's just a crazy old uncle, ya know, hardly worth writing about, especially when he starts rambling on about "The Fed"....

Besides, I think it's Santorum's turn about now....

And another thing....

Absolutely worse than closet case teapublicans are the republican candidates I watched tonight being interviewed by Mike Huckabee and three state's attorney generals. Yikes.

If you believe that our Civil War WAS NOT AT ALL ABOUT SLAVERY and was strictly about STATE'S RIGHTS amongst states that (IRONY ALERT!) just happened to disagree about slavery then, you might be surprised to learn that our next civil war could very well be about states rights.

Not a good idea then, nor now. The AG's, even the spankable blonde one, scared me more than the candidates. Well, maybe. Ron Paul was there....Newt....Perry....I think Santorum showed....both Romney's showed.... The usual suspects minus that Herman Palin dude.

BIG GOVERNMENT has been in the news since the day Barack Obama got elected and increased the government by one black guy, causing much consternation amongst the second-place finishers who felt government could get smaller by getting him out and one of theirs in. I've done the math and that works out to an even trade actually.

So, that math might have occured to them too so, they decided to also focus on trying to eliminate other portions of government that weren't Obama but they didn't like either. You know- stuff like the EPA, FDA, and other letters of the alphabet that might cost money and inhibit growth amongst the 1-2%  that we exist for.

Well, that's just my insane liberal opinion. Using math again, I factored in their desire to end Social Security, Welfare, Unemployment Compensation- anything that costs money that could be used in the Wall Street Casinos instead, and their anti-alphabet sentiments, carried the anti-Obama sentiment and figured;  teapublicans are greedy assholes.

Part of me thinks those things were smokescreens, at least at first. Candidates and parties make promises that sound great but aren't always doable. Guantanamo, for example. Candidate Obama says he's going to close it. President Obama found out that's easier said than done. These current GOPers can talk all they want about building electrified fences with "boots on the ground" and drones but, once they (shudder) get in the White House, they'd find there's no money for that. Maybe because they lowered taxes on their rich friends?

And part of their small government agenda is turning over more power to the states themselves. Let the states decide education, abortions, who can sit at lunch counters (and who can't) and lot's of yada-yada stuff. Let the states redecide for themselves all the stuff that happened in the few hundred years. In short, make each state it's own BIG GOVERNMENT. Huh? One big government is too much but 50 is just right?

Conflict of Interest or interesting conflict?

Yesterday, I learned that my most menacing and persistent troll (sorry, Angelique- you are slipping in the polls) is a homosexual.

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

It is a bit of a quandry for me though because, though I am a liberal who believes in freedom and equal rights  for all, I'm also a dude who likes to make fun of homos. No hatred or bashing here. Just jokes. I'm not always politically correct and reserve the right not to be. You can still have fun without denying people equal rights and/or bashing them in the head.

Maybe that's disingenuous and that's why it's a quandry.

*Sam* has an anonymizer/proxy server that allows him to post un-registered all over the country. He takes his many personas on the road, day and night. The thing is the tone is always the same; angry, *conservative* and bitchy. Why a poster can't do that as one persona is beyond me.

But, some people have a secret side to them that they can't always share, even on an anonymous public forum. If you're a tough guy, gun-loving, liberal-killing-wannabe and a teabagger, you don't want your conservative cohorts knowing that you do that other teabagging thing on the down low. They are against gay people. They might kick you out! They certainly won't show at your wedding.

I caught him making posts from Pennsylvania that were very much pro-gay and decidedly anti-Christian. That's not what cinched it though. It was his usual teapublican nastiness from the same locations  elsewhere on the threads that tipped me off.  What are the odds that some podunk town in Pennsylvania suddenly gets slammed with pro-gay posts and anti-Obama posts, that sound like the same person wrote them? And, in both cases, that person also posted (same made up name) from Philadelphia, just like Sam's usual posts from all over Ohio, Florida, etc. I don't know the ins and outs of proxies but, evidently they bounce around. I've heard cell phone posting is like that too. People use them to hide and maybe keep from getting caught.

So, the dude who considers himself to be my arch-nemesis, who's perpetually promising to have me banned and run off the threads FOR EVER, is a cocksucker. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

No, what's wrong is that he rails so against the people who would (and do) stand up for his rights while he supports a party that would love to strip him of all his rights. That's a lot of denial. Very sad for him. Odd politics indeed.

I knew there was a good reason to not like that homo!