Jay Leno wrote this; it's the Jay Leno we don't often see....

"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ''What we are so unhappy about?''

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?

I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings.

Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes , an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have , and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks?

The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad?

Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the "Media" told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go.

They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells , and when criticized, try to defend their actions by "justifying" them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way......Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad.

We are among the most blessed people on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative."

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, "Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

Jay Leno

Who?

I like the idiom "there is exponentially more good than bad". The mark of a great mind.

Don't worry, be happy, drink the Kool-Aid.

As long as it's not Lime.

The PC lemmings have been heard from. Save it until you solve Belgium’s problem of overpopulation.

It's just the new math that's got him going.

It doesn’t really matter to me who wrote it. I get forwarded a lot of stuff. I don’t necessarily agree with many of the points made and the political slant, but it makes me think we’re a bunch of spoiled candyasses. Not as spoiled as the Belgians though.

They even get mayonnaise on their french fries.

They stole that from the Dutch.

Yes, we are lucky to live IN the empire as opposed to being the victims of it but no, the President didn't "guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11," he cynically exploited it to promote an already planned illegal agenda. We are actually much less safe, have many more enemies and less friends, a sinking economy and dollar, a shredded constitution that allows the President to have anyone arrested and tortured without charges or to declare marshall law. Did I mention hundreds of thousands of dead for nothing and no, our military is not "out there defending you and me" or freedom or anything else. They are on their fifth and sixth tours of a hell we created dying and killing for contol of oil we could have had all along. Maybe some of us are "spoiled brats" but most of us are slaving away our lives to pay the bills a paycheck or three from destitution.

Leno is full of crap but he get paid the big bucks to shill.




but at least we've got booze.

Yup, "slaving away our lives to pay the bills a paycheck or three from destitution", while millions are already there. You've got it tough. Whine all you want, you still waste more than the majority will ever have.
In case you weren’t paying attention, communism doesn’t work. I always found it funny that they called it a workers paradise. The whole of my Mother’s family was under it, in East Germany. There was plenty of work, but not much paradise. I spent four summers there and I stood in the food lines. I took my Grandmothers place, since I had nothing but leisure time. I know how little was available. I know how brutal the work conditions were.
If you are so fucking unhappy, I hope you get the chance to live under it some day. I’ll keep my union gig, even with Wild Bill trying to drag down my wage with his scab crew.

Not to mention, Americans can have porn stars as their MySpace friends. Life is good.

I feel better.

Oh, wrong thread.
I'm pretty much a non consumer, but Jay really put in my place with that one.

Since your day-rate still borders on ass-rape, looks like we can keep lowering our prices. We'll drive the illegals back home looking for better work.

Not that anybody cares but:

I think that in a way some Americans are spoiled rotten candy ass backstabbing whiny bitches. Yes we have computers, cellphones, cars, homes, nice clothes, grocery stores, fire depts, police depts, a volunteer military, jobs, t.v. with 1,000 channels, and many other luxuries of life. But I also think that in a way we earned it. America adopted a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution by the founding fathers that made it this way. America has stood for freedom and responsibility since her birth. Most that come to America now forget the responsibility part and think that freedom means you can do whatever you want and that is why things are so messed up in this country right now. Once people start accepting responsibility for their freedoms things will start to even out again. But until then the ultra-liberals want to placate everyone and anything that might make someone unhappy and that isn't how it works. America's freedom and responsibility wasn't easy. Many have fought and died for it and many now serve to protect it, foreign and domestic. There isn't anything wrong with America right now we just have to show the people that come here and the ones who have been here but forgotten, that with great freedom comes great responsibility.

I wouldn’t know, I’ve always fought to keep wages up. Your scenario reminds me of all the “union shops”, where only the head asshole has a card. Except, in your case, you didn’t even bother with that formality. You’ve got to be loving the new lower scale “Teamsters”. Loading the trucks Americans don’t want to load.
Oh, btw, my day rate is only high on the road. Unions feel that workers should be compensated for extra effort, not treated as expendables.

I agree and much of that domestic fight continues against those who want to erase the Bill of Rights, our hard won safety-net (what's left of it) and our right to organize for decent jobs. Being a responsible citizen is the only way to regain and protect democracy and the values America was supposed to stand for. We don't need a corporate dictatorship and we don't need to rule the world militarily.

I'm cornfused, Cros. I thought you started this thread because you liked the sentiment of the "Leno" letter, that Americans need to stop whining that they don't have it good enough.

But now it looks like you're on about how you're being screwed by all the people below you who are willing to take low-paying jobs you don't want anyway. Isn't that how capitalism works? You take your job at the Opera, I'll help out the little guy that rented a hall for the night and can't afford to pay four union guys to stand around drinking coffee while one video-projector runs itself.

But no, I've got to refuse to take that job because the union can't do it on the guy's puny budget. And he doesn't get to have his show, right? Fuck him. He wants to do a show that small, he should move to a free country.

What a crock of horse shit.



You brought up undercutting union labor with illegal aliens. I fail to see how fighting to keep your job is whining. It has nothing to do with this thread.



I’ve done much more in this business than work for the Opera. No one makes an issue out of the little guy in a little hall. That’s just your paranoia. It’s always Disney, Clear Channel and HBO that cry poor and want to lower wages and hire non-union. Once again, how is fighting to preserve my livelihood un-American?



More baseless paranoia. Little guys have their shows every night. Give me one example of the union interfering.

This guy is pretty entertaining. He's telling it like it is but that isn't really what people want to hear.

No, you brought up me trying to undercut your wage with my legal labor. I'm defending my right to take the small jobs your union doesn't want. I've already told you many times that we don't cross picket lines to take jobs you do want, but the union guys still act like we're unAmerican for taking any work at all.

I never said you were whining. I said that while you talked about others whining, you were also claiming that people like me were making things too hard for you. My point is that we aren't. You're doing fine.

Fucking theatre geeks.

You just noticed?

[quote name='Wild Bill Turkey' date='Apr 28 2007, 02:41 PM' post='176724']
[quote name='Crosby' post='176704' date='Apr 28 2007, 05:09 AM']
I’ll keep my union gig, even with Wild Bill trying to drag down my wage with his scab crew.

No, you brought up me trying to undercut your wage with my legal labor. I'm defending my right to take the small jobs your union doesn't want. I've already told you many times that we don't cross picket lines to take jobs you do want, but the union guys still act like we're unAmerican for taking any work at all. [/quote]


Your legal labor? I think you were the one that just pointed out that that was not the case. Once again, my union doesn't give a fuck about the small gigs. Show me where we, have ever cared or interfered. I’ve asked you for an example, rather than just your nonunion paranoia. I've watched this crap go on for the better part of 20 years. The union keeps the big employers from dragging down wages, but never bothers with you and your scab buddies. I’ve dealt with this in the commercial world too, which is really the saddest arena. You need to figure out that the union guys are the only reason you can charge what you do. As soon as the unions are gone, your cut-rate prices will be the next target. Get past your avarice and find your place in the food chain. Though, unlike you, I find it distasteful to exploit a person’s coming from poverty, so I can make a buck. I am sure you sleep well at night, thinking you ALLOWED them to send money home. Ask any of the people(Mexicans) that worked on my house, I paid them fucking scale. Ask any of my white, union brothers too, I paid them the same. Maybe if enough people do the same, they won’t have to eat shit for people like you. That’s on my own home, something you can’t even manage to do in the work place. I doubt you’d miss one of Oxy’s sample sales, just to pay your “Trained Monkeys” a livable wage. I’ll always strive to bring wages up for my crew, rather than watch my bottom line.

Well put Cros, you're a good man. We either help each other do better or we join the competitive race to the bottom. Unions are a good thing for all of us.

Where is it you think I said my labor was illegal? My joke response about driving the illegals back across the border with our lower wages? First, that says nothing about my labor being illegal, and second, you'd have to be crazy not to get that it was a joke, made back when I thought you were randomly attacking me in the spirit of good fun.

Now that I know you're perfectly serious, let's clear one thing up:
SCAB refers to someone who crosses a picket line to help break the back of a strike by the rightful workers at that facility who are protesting unfair conditions or wages. Scab is a hateful insult, as you well know, and it refers to a shitty practice.

It DOES NOT refer to just anybody working outside the union in an industry that has a union.

I have every legal and moral right to work in this industry without being in your union. We respect your picket lines and your territories. I have refused many gigs that were offered because there was a union conflict on the job, and I deserve the respect of not being called a fucking scab.

What do our guys get paid on the job? What did I pay the people that worked on my home? You don't know, but you're willing willing to launch into a tirade against me and my bargain prices. First of all, I don't own this company, I just joined them, but I believe in their right to do this work without your say-so, and I joined them because I wanted the money. The pay is pretty much on par with scale. And for what it's worth, the people who worked on my house got scale, too. It really isn't about lowering wages, the point to being non-union is to scoop up the little jobs that the union doesn't want, or doesn't have guys to fill, or to pick up the few clients who prefer non-union venues or just don't want to work with the union because of their attitude.

I never said the union interfered with our smaller jobs, so there's no need for me to cite examples for you. What the union does instead is to call us when we've gotten a big job and tell us we have to put union guys on it or there'll be a problem. They'll call us and say "We see you've got twenty guys working the job out at the pier, and you're not hiring any union guys, what are we going to do about this?" The result is that we usually fire a couple of our guys and hire some union guys we don't need to keep them happy. We were paying scale anyway, you see, but now we have to pay to guys who aren't working for us. Guys who hate us and call us scabs.

I never wanted to get into union politics in the first place. I'm just a guy with enough skills to do some basic stagehand work, and I want to work. I'm no master carpenter, and I don't "know" anybody, so I'm not going to have a prayer of getting into the union, but I can put up a few flats and some black drape behind some guy's rented stage. And it turns out there are clients who don't need any more than that. Why can't I take those jobs without getting this kind of shit from you?

You’re awfully sensitive, most designers are.
I’ve seen the trends and I stand by what I said. If you really want to have this conversation, let’s do it over a beer. No Coors though, they’re antiunion. Not to mention it’s shitty beer.

There's lots of shitty union beer out there too.

I forget what this thread was even about in the first place.

I'm gonna fix that though...

new thread coming.

Grate.

Oh yeah!

I've suggested the beer thing a few times already, Cros. Might have been cool to meat you in Boveresse, though. That definitely not happening?

I don't eat much beer these days, anyway. I've taken up drinking...

I've got 5 gallons of crappy Aventinus clone.

Come on now, you gotta eat.
I know the unions do a lot of good, I also believe in a right to work.
The union has a chance , as long as they use their power to better their ability to produce a superior product.

of course, if they they do that,
the hacks will copy it.

Please put all union or non-union sentiments in the "Union vs. Non-Union" thread. Thank you. (I started the thread so I want the numbers up in there. A thread isn't good until it has the numbers up.)

Way to Mod, Loog.

He ain't no Mod,
he's a Rocker.

Yeah, a butt-rocker.

Here is another something to think about...it is thirteen minutes long but it says a lot...please be patient and watch 'til the end. Thank you.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=40...65&q=number

13 minutes?
13 seconds is too
fuckin' long.

When the speaker separates the chart out into native-born Americans vs. immigrants and their descendants, I can't help but notice the importance of the fact that he chooses an arbitrary cut-point of now. If he'd chosen an arbitrary cut-point a hundred years earlier, I'd be recategorized from the former category to the latter.

He claims not to engage in conjecture, but that's silly. His conclusions have everything to do with where he is drawing the lines on his admittedly nice chart.

I'm reminded of my friend José's somewhat pissy comment that, "My family has been in Calidornia for 6 generations. Your cracker ass is the immigrant."

I'm indebted to José for helping me revise my own chart.

We fought that battle already.
Someone left the door open.

Don't open the door
to smart fucks if'n
yer gonna stay
on the udder side.

His wetback ass drove off people that where there for a lot longer than 6 generations. They prolly drove off some other native peoples we've never heard of, etc, etc, etc...

I'm moving to Calidornia.