> > > Two Different Versions! --- Two Different Morals!
> > >
> > > OLD VERSION:
> > >
> > > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
> > building his
> > >
> > > House and laying up supplies for the winter.
> > >
> > > The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
> > >
> > > Plays the summer away.
> > >
> > > Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
> > >
> > > The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
> > >
> > > MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ------
> > >
> > > MODERN VERSION:
> > >
> > > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
> > building his
> > > house and laying up supplies for the winter.
> > >
> > > The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and
> > dances and
> > > plays the summer away.
> > >
> > > Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press
> > conference and
> > > demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well
> > fed while
> > > others are cold and starving.
> > >
> > > CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the
> > > shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his
> > comfortable home
> > > with a table filled with food.
> > America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
> > > How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor
> > grasshopper is
> > > allowed to suffer so?
> > > Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and
> > everybody
> > > cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
> > > Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's
> > house where
> > > the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.'
> > Jesse then
> > > has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
> > > Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry
> > King that
> > > the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both
> > call for
> > > an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
> > >
> > > Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-
> > Grasshopper Act
> > > retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
> > >
> > > The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number
> > of green
> > > bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his
> > home is
> > > confiscated by the government.
> > >
> > > Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
> > > Defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a
> > panel of
> > > Federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-
> > parent
> > > Welfare recipients.
> > >
> > > The ant loses the case.
> > >
> > > The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the
> > last bits of
> > > the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just
> > happens to
> > > be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't
> > maintain it.
> > >
> > > The ant has disappeared in the snow.
> > >
> > > The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and
> > the
> > > house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who
> > terrorize the
> > > once peaceful neighborhood.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > MORAL OF THE STORY:
> > >
> > > Be careful how you vote.
The Ant and the Grasshopper!!!
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Mar 25, 2008 19:12:33
Mar 26, 2008 06:24:12
Who would Jesus allow to starve? What would he teach the ants to do?
Mar 26, 2008 07:07:24
It was amusing until it started becoming a political message rather than a joke.
Richard & Sammy ('73 Black Tulip BGT)
Mar 26, 2008 09:11:47
You forgot the part about the grasshopper being due to deploy to Iraq for the third time.
Mar 26, 2008 09:27:10
Good God! Not everything that happens in the world is connected to Iraq!
However that is typical of the short sighted thinking of most liberals, Iraq is bad therefore everything bad that happens must be caused by Iraq. The grasshopper is hungry therefore feed him. Eventually there will be more people riding the gravy train than pushing it. Guess what will happen then.
Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime.
Mar 26, 2008 11:51:11
"Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime."
Only if the greenies allow fishermen to fish. Fishing causes fish to feel pain dontcha know? Therefore we cannot be allowed to kill any living thing for food. Hell, had one even tell me that grass feels pain so it's immoral to cut grass! Now that I might agree with;o)
Mar 26, 2008 12:11:45
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.
Mar 26, 2008 13:31:16
bbrower Wrote:
Quote: "
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.
"
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day.
"
Sounds like a plan!
Mar 26, 2008 13:37:26
TKMad Wrote:
Quote: "
Good God! Not everything that happens in the world is connected to Iraq!
However that is typical of the short sighted thinking of most liberals, Iraq is bad therefore everything bad that happens must be caused by Iraq. The grasshopper is hungry therefore feed him. Eventually there will be more people riding the gravy train than pushing it. Guess what will happen then.
Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime.
"
Good God! Not everything that happens in the world is connected to Iraq!
However that is typical of the short sighted thinking of most liberals, Iraq is bad therefore everything bad that happens must be caused by Iraq. The grasshopper is hungry therefore feed him. Eventually there will be more people riding the gravy train than pushing it. Guess what will happen then.
Give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime.
"
Good God! Not everything that happens in the world is connected to Hillary!
However that is typical of the short sighted thinking of most conservatives, Hillary is bad, therefore everything bad that happens must be caused by Hillary. The grasshopper is hungry, therefore starve him. Eventually they will either go to work or starve to death. Guess what will happen then. The obits will be full of people who cannot work, and the children of those who refuse, because those who can work will work or will steal from those who do.
If you want to grouse about how much welfare costs, lets compare that with how much money is wasted by the Pentagon, the Congressional leaders on the take from the so-called defense contractors, the "price supports" Congress hands out to corporate farming, need I go on? Sure there are abuses in welfare, but I can assure you they are one heluvalot less than other abuses going on in our government. Look and I think you'll find the total US budget can be broken down as follows:
21% Defense
21% Social Security
21% Medicare/Medicaid
9% INTEREST ON DEBT
9% "Safety Net" programs
21% Everything else.
The Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid categories are funded not by the general income tax, but by special taxes earmarked for the purpose. SO, if you back them out of the budget - from this you can see that defense spending would exceed 1/3 of the budget NOT funded by Social Security and Med. taxes...
Interesting sources for 2003 and for 2007 budgets:
http://www.icdr.us/atreportweb/images/chart5.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cbpp.org/4-20-07tax2-f1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mgmt339.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/us-federal-budget/&h=131&w=124&sz=71&tbnid=kkcnVI8lJ8cJ:&tbnh=131&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DUS%2BBudget&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1
Mar 26, 2008 14:02:31
JackMG Wrote:
Quote: "
21% Defense
21% Social Security
21% Medicare/Medicaid
9% INTEREST ON DEBT
9% "Safety Net" programs
21% Everything else.
"
21% Defense
21% Social Security
21% Medicare/Medicaid
9% INTEREST ON DEBT
9% "Safety Net" programs
21% Everything else.
"
Defense is the only thing we actually NEED, and the only thing in that list the federal government was created to actually do. Everything else is optional and created by people who have created a nice livelihood for themselves by convincing others that it is required in order to be 'civilized'. If the grasshopper chooses to starve then yes, let him starve. But of course they won't starve and believe it or not they won't all turn to crime.
Your thinking is what contributes to people like my brother, 40 years old, who was out drinking with some friends one night, they were driving home (he wasn't driving) hit some parked cars and he broke his hip pretty badly. He has worked numerous jobs all his life and has a nice car and apartment but he chooses not to pay for medical insurance. The state ended up paying all his medical bills, $80K, and now he hasn't worked for over a year because the insurance gave him $50k for 'pain and suffering'. Where did that $130k come from? Does that make us more civilized?
He still doesn't have insurance and why should he? Anything bad that happens will get taken care of by suckers like me who pay thousands every year for insurance and taxes.
We have lost all semblence of personal responsibility in this country and to make it worse there is no longer any social stigma for being a deadbeat. My brother's friends all think it is great how he didn't have to pay for anything and now sits at home playing online poker all day. Quite the utopia...
Mar 26, 2008 16:15:14
Sure wish y'all wouldn't post those long links. Makes reading any post on this page almost impossible
Mar 27, 2008 05:23:55
TKMad Wrote:
Quote: "
...
Defense is the only thing we actually NEED, and the only thing in that list the federal government was created to actually do. Everything else is optional and created by people who have created a nice livelihood for themselves by convincing others that it is required in order to be 'civilized'. If the grasshopper chooses to starve then yes, let him starve. But of course they won't starve and believe it or not they won't all turn to crime.
Your thinking is what contributes to people like my brother, 40 years old, who was out drinking with some friends one night, they were driving home (he wasn't driving) hit some parked cars and he broke his hip pretty badly. He has worked numerous jobs all his life and has a nice car and apartment but he chooses not to pay for medical insurance. The state ended up paying all his medical bills, $80K, and now he hasn't worked for over a year because the insurance gave him $50k for 'pain and suffering'. Where did that $130k come from? Does that make us more civilized?
He still doesn't have insurance and why should he? Anything bad that happens will get taken care of by suckers like me who pay thousands every year for insurance and taxes.
We have lost all semblence of personal responsibility in this country and to make it worse there is no longer any social stigma for being a deadbeat. My brother's friends all think it is great how he didn't have to pay for anything and now sits at home playing online poker all day. Quite the utopia...
"
...
Defense is the only thing we actually NEED, and the only thing in that list the federal government was created to actually do. Everything else is optional and created by people who have created a nice livelihood for themselves by convincing others that it is required in order to be 'civilized'. If the grasshopper chooses to starve then yes, let him starve. But of course they won't starve and believe it or not they won't all turn to crime.
Your thinking is what contributes to people like my brother, 40 years old, who was out drinking with some friends one night, they were driving home (he wasn't driving) hit some parked cars and he broke his hip pretty badly. He has worked numerous jobs all his life and has a nice car and apartment but he chooses not to pay for medical insurance. The state ended up paying all his medical bills, $80K, and now he hasn't worked for over a year because the insurance gave him $50k for 'pain and suffering'. Where did that $130k come from? Does that make us more civilized?
He still doesn't have insurance and why should he? Anything bad that happens will get taken care of by suckers like me who pay thousands every year for insurance and taxes.
We have lost all semblence of personal responsibility in this country and to make it worse there is no longer any social stigma for being a deadbeat. My brother's friends all think it is great how he didn't have to pay for anything and now sits at home playing online poker all day. Quite the utopia...
"
Perhaps Simi Valley High School's civics classes didn't teach you the following - or maybe you didn't attend..:
The preamble to the Constitution of the United States:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
As for your brother he may a worthless lout - that's not my judgement to make. The insurance settlement had nothing to do with welfare or taxes. In South Carolina, the driver's liability insurance would have paid for the hospital, and I SUSPECT that's really what happened in your brother's case. Sounds like you're just pissed at your brother for being irresponsible. You still haven't shown me what this has to do with Federal welfare spending, though. But you tell me where to draw the line on refusing medical treatment for uninsureds.. Do you refuse for all of them? If you brother has kids, do you refuse them, too? If he got in wreck and had his hip boken badly, would you refuse treatment for him because he had no insurance. Like I said there are abuses. But are they any worse than the goat farmers paid to raise Angorra goats for wool that the Army doesn' use anymore? Or the "defense" contractors who are paid billions for weapons systems that the Generals will tell you are obsolete and not needed? I'm saying this country can afford to pay for a reasonable amount of both. But you guys are acting like anyone who goes on disabilty is a lazy oaf when I know better! I had a very good friend - had polio when he was a child - it affected his legs. In his early 50's his legs became so weak and painful he could no longer work - in spite of the fact that he had stood, working as a mechanic (with the aid of leg braces) since he was a teen. He retired on social security disability. I am thankful I live in a country that will not let people like him down. And despite the fact that I also have a physical impairment, I will gladly work and pay my taxes until I am old enough to retire. The ones who cheat welfare are in the smallest minority and in a system as large as ours, you are going to have to accept that there will be some of that. I say, go after the big fish, the little guys like you point out are just that, small potatoes...
And as for there being no social stigma to being a deadbeat, I'm sorry things have reached that point in Kalifornya, because it hasn't gotten to that point here, yet.
Mar 27, 2008 09:55:23
"Promote the general welfare" has become the most liberally translated and abused line in the constitution. Do you really think the founding fathers had the nanny state we have now in mind when they wrote that?
No, I wouldn't turn the people who are injured away, but I would make them responsible for their own care. It should be a bill where the hospital can collect no matter what, like student loans.
Yes, I am pissed at my brother but I used him as an example of how liberals take away any incentive for personal responsibility. Just because we can afford it doesn't mean we should. I believe that only encourages more irresponsible behavior.
You think the abusers are a small percentage? Go visit an emergency room in a city hospital any day and see who is waiting in the waiting room. It is surprising.
You mention your friend who is disabled. America is an extremely generous nation and private institutions and churches would be more than happy to take care of individuals like him, but why should they now when the government has taken over that job? I would be happy to give to charity but why should I bother when the government forcibly takes from me to give away as 'charity'? Again, it destroys incentive.
We have here a classic conservative/liberal difference in our views of how society should work.
Mar 27, 2008 11:02:20
Hi Don,
I've kinda been lurking about. I've got 4 British cars currently so I like to check in and see what people are up to with theirs. I enjoy reading the off topic board but don't usually say anything, since I know I won't be changing anybody's mind, but sometimes I can't resist ;-)
Tyler
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