This isn’t gonna be a regular post, I won’t stay on topic, and most likely none of it will make sense. But that’s okey-dokey. (It’s the new, improved, mellower me… see how long it lasts.) (Oh, about five minutes.) I’ve been reading the LA Times website, much to my mellower me’s chagrin – everything I see is making me feel disgruntled and fluffy.
“Chellie of Los Angeles thinks a “fit or fat” fee could solve both the budget and the obesity crisis. Every Californian selects a preferred diet plan — Atkins, Pritikin — and receives a membership card to show with each grocery purchase. Buying anything not on the diet plan costs a 50-cent fee. Rigorous dieters get gym membership rebates, and people who choose no diet plan must pay a $100 yearly fee.”
I don’t hate this, especially if the fees collected are put toward mitigating the public heath costs incurred by those people who simply won’t pay attention to what and how they eat, then have the nerve to be surprised when the fire department has to cut them out of their toilet, bedroom, car, whatever, in order to transport them to the hospital in the event of a medical emergency. Being freed by the Jaws of Life ain’t free, ya know. It’s a matter of personal choice and responsibility right up to the point that my tax dollars are going to pay for someone else’s poor choices and lack of personal responsibility. Same thing with the helmet laws. And yeah, that’s a broad, sweeping generalization and patently unfair to a lot of folks, but I’m all seditious and irritated about my tax burden right now, so deal with it.
And another thing that’s fucked up – finders-keepers, losers-weepers? The woman loses her dog, finds it again, only to be told it’s no longer her dog? At that point it’s called kidnapping – she should sue for emotional damages and whatever’s the most expensive charge that would result in the greatest public outcry. The new *owner* (heartless bitch) of the dog in question should be slapped upside the head and possibly smacked around a bit too – and her house should be TP’ed. What ever happened to common decency, much less a sense of honor, honesty or justice? (Yes, I get the irony in the previous two statements being strung alongside each other – reference the above fluffy and seditious state of my brainpan and deal with it.) Just because I find an empty wallet on the street and decide that I like the wallet doesn’t mean that I get to keep it if the original owner shows up – it’s still someone else’s property.
Back to my tax woes, ‘cuz I’ve gotta bitch to someone and I’ve already bitched to almost everyone I’ve spoken to on the phone recently and they’re tired of hearing about it – I changed my filing status from married claiming 8 deductions because of the house, to single claiming 2 deductions ‘cuz I am no longer landed gentry nor married. The dang-gummed gummint is taking another $800/month outta my wallet. Gol-dangnabbit revenoooers! I’m gonna go take over a small island, or possibly just a relatively stable sandbar in the middle of a wide and muddy river, and glare menacingly at anyone who looks remotely like a G-man. And I’m gonna make all my own moonshine and grow my own carrots. Anybody who doesn’t like it can shoo. Worst part is, that was my gun money. No shiny new toys for me for a while. *harrumph*