SuperJerk

When a thread about Middle East peace gets references to Eddie Izzard and Morissey worked into it, I know I'm in the right place.

I'm also trying to figure out how a person or couple earning minimum wage is supposed to afford child care.

This is a good place to start. The federal definition of poverty was created over 40 years ago and is based on taking what an average person spends on food and multiplying it by 3. This is a pretty ridicules indicator, given how relatively inexpensive food has become in the year 2006. For instance, in my family of 3, we spend about 7% of our income on food. The definition of poverty should vary from region to region, since the cost of living (rent/mortgage, utilities, and food) varies by region. Even by the federal standard, though, someone making minimum wage is still considered poor once you take payroll and sales taxes are into consideration. According to the government, 1 person earning $9,800 a year would be poor. That's more than someone making $5.15 an hour (the federally mandated minimum wage) makes in a year after taxes. However, I honestly do not see how someone can support themselves earning $9,800 a year, or support themselves and one child on $13,200.

Its not like he died or something.

Jesus is never coming back.

Our next Speaker of the House. Yay. Not the first time this thought has occurred to me, but the first time I felt the need to point this out: a Pelosi Speakership would probably kill any chances of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

When Mallrats came out on video 10 years ago, I thought it was one of the funniest movies I'd ever seen. Kevin Smith was the first director to make comedies I felt like I was the target audience for.

This may surprise you, but Mallrats was actually considered funny by the college kids of 10 years ago.

24 Emmy Awards say otherwise.

Bob looks 35 in that picture.

Yeah? Well, he's wrong then.

2 days of my life I remember laughing the most in my life... 1) That day I saw "MST3K: the Movie" for the first time (at the theater!), and then rented Mallrats for the first time. 2) Ten years later when I watched the final 2 hour block of "Arrested Development". Ah, memories.

I'm glad nobody mentioned the post-Sorkin "West Wing". While not great after year 4, the show never actually could be considered "bad."

I really hope there's some Revelations-reading, apocalyptic church out there thinking this is a sign that Jesus is coming back. Its always fun to watch those fuckers backtrack after setting a date for the Great Tribulation.

The sarcasm to poignant observation ratio in this post is staggering.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Exactly. Establishing a religion and using government to push your religious views on people falls within the scope of what the 1st Amendment prohibits. I don't get why there's even an argument about this. Conservatives think the government excedes its power by doing any number of things to regulate businesses, but its perfectly okay for the government to tell people to pray or to not have sex until they're married. I don't get it.

You could argue they defy gravity, I guess.

Do you really want more people like me out there?

Heather Graham has fantastic tits.

The original Star Trek went to crap the third year. The 4th season of Mr. Show just wasn't funny. Other people already mentioned... Too true. Indeed. Seconded.

Seriously, though, I'd like to see a moon-conspiracy theorist explain what the point of the Apollo 13 mission was.

And now an update from crazyville... The two women I'm working with can't fucking stand each other. The bi-polar girl can't get her shit together and is totally disorganized. The other one is so resentful of the bi-polar girl she's a bitch to her at every opportunity. So, of course, the two are trying to play me against the other. Bitches be trippin'. 2 1/2 weeks to go!

I was ignored by my parents as a child, and basically use the internet to make up for it by getting attention for myself (negative or positive) from complete strangers.

I think cynicism has become an excuse to be ignorant about politics, and I'm absolutely sick of people who claim that the government is corrupt as a reason not to vote. How is government ever going to get cleaned up if you don't help vote those people out?

Too bad poor people don't vote. I'm working with inner-city kids this summer (not the first time), and you'd be surprised by how many of them fundamentally believe that all people are either poor by choice or because they're lazy, and all you have to do to get ahead in life is get a job, and that jobs are plentiful. Although we're talking about teenagers who have no idea how much money it costs to live on, I don't see a great uprising of poor people uniting behind an issue of self-interest. I don't know what kind of cynical self-pity they've been force fed by their parents or community, but I had a difficult time demonstrating to them that there is a direct relationship between the voting patterns of a specific group and how much attention the government pays them. Given how much money the government spends on services for the elderly, and how high the voter participation rates for senior citizens are, I didn't think the connection would be difficult to make. However, the argument that "maybe if more young people voted the government would pay more attention to you" doesn't fly well with our current generation of young people, despite the overwhelming evidence. I'm seriously irritated by the whole situation. People who claim that there's no one worth voting for usually cannot even tell you who some of the most recent candidates were. John Edwards's name came up in an article we were reading about minimum-wage laws, and none of them had any idea who he was. They know they hate George Bush, but they have no idea why. There's a complete disconnection with current events, but absolute certainty that the government is completely corrupt. The self-reinforcing cynicism of many of today's youth is absolutely staggering to me.