Let's get political

I know the readership appreciates the dick jokes but I got an email from a friend today that really annoyed me so I had to clear a few things up. We'll get back to dick jokes and motorcycles as soon as possible.

In the interim, if you want some information on ACORN, here you go.

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[note from my friend]

well maybe that should be at the forefront of the issue and not fining people for not having healthcare. how are you going to fine a poor person. it is absurd. obama care is like acorn--waste of everyone's time and money. can we please fix the dam economy.

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[my response, which you may find useful if some fucktard suggests that ACORN is 'what's wrong with this country' or some similar bullshit. These issues seem to be wrapped up in people's minds in an irrational way, so allow me to inject some perspective.]

What are you talking about with the fines and Acorn? first things first: do you really think they will fine people for not having health coverage? really? and if they did, how is that different from fining people for doing stuff like not wearing a motorcycle helmet or a seatbelt? Be smarter than that.

As for Acorn: don't you have a degree from an ivy league university in urban planning or poor studies or something? do you know that Acorn works to empower poor people? in the last 15 years they have collected ~50 million dollars from the Feds. That's about $3.1 million a year, and they spent it trying to help poor people be less poor. Is that a waste of time and money?

Because the last time I checked poor people hadn't bankrupted the country while collecting TRILLIONS of dollars in bonuses and bailouts (thanks wall street), started any wasteful wars (thanks GW), raped environmental protections (GW again). Don't be so obtuse. Acorn is just some smoke and mirrors. You will never be affected by it unless you suddenly become tragically poor and the only affect is that you will be more fucked than you imagined because the senate just cut the funding. 3.1 million a year - we gave $700 billion to the banks and no one knows where it went AND they're about to make more money than ever and you think Acorn is the issue?

Acorn represents a portion of the federal budget so small I had a hard time putting in my calculator because there were too many zeroes, but it's about .0004% of the money we gave to the banks this past year, not to mention what we spent on defense and everything else. The total amount, in 15 years, is .007% of what we gave to the banks this past year. That's 7 thousandth's of one percent. If you had one thousand dollars that means you gave me 70 cents. I'll try not to spend it all in one place.

W's big fat go-f-yourself to America

It seems that George W. Bush is doing all he can to suck off big business before he leaves office. In his defense I don't think he has any idea what he's doing. I think he just does whatever his secretaries tell him to do, signs whatever they put in front of him. Coal companies want to make it easier to strip-mine? Approved. Oil companies want to be able to extract oil from shale, even though it's grossly inefficient and spectacularly polluting? Approved. Build highly polluting coal power plants closer to national parks? Hmmm... that's a tough one. On the one hand, you've got coal companies, and on the other hand you've got the national parks, which are the interest of the ENTIRE COUNTRY. Yeah, fuck the parks. Build the coal plants wherever you want. Awesome.

If his people had worked as hard at not being such fuck-ups then maybe things wouldn't be so bad today.

In related disaster capitalism news, remember all the fuss about $4 a gallon gasoline? People were up in arms about allowing drilling off the coasts, so the White House and Congress let the ban expire. This opens up the coasts (which, like the national parks, belong to everyone) to drilling by oil companies that belong to themselves. Big Business: 1; The People: 0. But your gas will be cheaper by as much as 2 or 3 cents a gallon. In the year 2030. Be happy with the money you're saving.

All that political kerfluffle is bad for traffic

Yahtzee explains why Saints Row 2 is superior to GTA IV. One of his reasons is that GTA IV tried to be realistic; so much so that you spent a lot of time driving around, running errands. That's not a game, that's adulthood.