Arkansas Blog

I will confess that I am 45 and do not work. Neither does my wife. We busted our asses for 20 years in the telecom world (equivalent to about 140 years in the normal work world), and now we're living off the money we saved. Clearly we can't go without working for the next 30 years, but the idea is to die broke. I won't want to go to Machu Pichu when I'm 80. I'm going now.

Somehow this does not surprise me. This is the "no commitment" generation. They sometimes have meaningful relationships, but somehow cannot make a "real commitment" of marriage and family. And when they do, they want legal documents to cover them when it does "belly up"!

Typical Democratic view point. "vote democratic...it's easier than working."

Roland...'"dieing broke" ain't your wife's idea ! She married you thinking you would provide. Now you're sittin' around on your lazy liberal a-- all day doing nothing. She knows now that she should have married a good republican and had a life of Style & Confort & Respect. She blew it !!!!

Some women prefer love to money.

Out here we call that "bein' lazy." In the good old days, instead of praising him for "filling his days with diversions," he would have been lampooned for being a good for nothin' scoundrel. Guess what happens when he gets sick...we all pay for it because he is to "good" to take a job that might subsidize his health care.

Anon 9:23 said: Typical Democratic view point. "vote democratic...it's easier than working."

How is not working at some dull day job for $5.15 any different from floating penny stock scams and trading on your former contacts with federal agencies?

Interesting topic--thanks for putting this in the mix, Warwick. I've often wondered about this, curious as to where I stand, so to speak. I'm in my late 40's, single, drawing a modest pension--but substantial enough to pay my mortgage and all essential bills--from my USAF career. My health care is virtually free, and my living expenses quite low. I supplement my pension with a stress-free, very flexible, low-wage job very near my home. The extra cushion is nice, plus I continue to accumulate social security credit and it allows me to continue contributing to my Roth IRA. I also have a modest taxable investment account. I could bust my ass looking for a "respectable white-collar job," but why bother? Someone my age is a pariah to most employers, even with my excellent resume and no need for bennies. I've long suspected that most employers want younger employees whom they can work to death and treat in a despicable manner, and this was recently confirmed through the excellent work, 'Bait and Switch,' by renown author Barbara Ehrenreich. Time is the greatest luxury of all, and now I have an abundance of it. Though I despise the military-industrial complex and all of its evils, I am grateful for the very satisfying military career I had and for the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. It was, however, a different era, and I have the greatest sympathy for those embarking on a military career today. Many of them are fine young men and women, but they are regarded as nothing more than expendable units of flesh by the war profiteers who now hold sway over our government. Pity. Anyway, it is indeed nice to be out of the rat race, sitting here not worrying about whether I'm going to get the axe as a result of some merger or other such factor. Best of all, there's time for much reading. Tah-tah! P.G. Wodehouse awaits!

Gosh! You anonypussies must not be the hardworking stiffs you claim to be since you're obviously taking time off to write to this blog.
It's always great to hear from you hypocrites anyway. Just wait until November when we put a lot of Repub cranks onto the doles.
That ought to cheer you up because it'll mean more of your ilk will have time to blog.
More Gits having fits. I can hardly wait.
Col Travesty

I can't blame this guy, if I had the means to live comfortably without working, I'd do the same. If you don't have to treated like a piece of meat by the corporate machine, why would you? Corporations don't give a good godd*** about the people who work for them, and likewise I don't give a hoot about them. If you're going to bust your ass for something, and then get put over a barrel at the end of the day for your efforts, why should you bother? Thanks to GWB, we're creating a society where work isn't valued. The corporations are all on welfare, the people who need government help don't get it, and those of us who do go to work just might get told one day we're not allowed to go back to our desks. I don't care about doing a job for someone if I might get laid off for my efforts. The repugs answer to this problem is to force more poeple into poverty, that way people will HAVE to work in order to avoid starving to death. And the poor will be the only people who are taxed becasue they will be the only ones who work, thus they will subsidize those poor corporations who can't defend themselves. Thats why Repugs love regressive taxes.

Democrats...Lazy, won't work, wants the republicans to fund everything, Mayberry will help when he sends Snyder back to Oregon where he belongs. I assume Miss Singleton will join him.

"Some women prefer love to money."

Yes, all two of them. The rest prefer money.

I see anonymous 10:19 is reporting for work here on the Monday morning blog, as usual. You can say one thing...he's consistent with timing and content.

As good as your site is at keeping up with Arkansas politics, society, and culture, I feel you are damaging your credibilty greatly by constantly referring and linking to NY Times aritcles. That newspaper has shown time and time again it is not a legitimate source of reliable information. Currently, it is seen as an equivalent to tabloids in areas of accurate reporting and biasedness. Your site is a valuable tool and the people of Arkansas deserve that it not be infiltrated with the Times' disease.

The NYT is a very credible newspaper, it's not a right-wing apologist like you are. So go stick your head back up yer arse where it belongs.

Hugh Man, Get a job little guy. You too can break the hold that Socialism has on you. You can gain some respect and be a credit to your race. But, the only way is the conservative way. Earn your own money. Don't rely on others. Nothing is free. Now...you do have a skill don't you?

Well Roland, looks like it's hard to have a serious discussion with the Fox News crowd lurking about.

I think it's pretty safe to say most of us grew up thinking we'd be a failure if we didn't follow our parent's examples. Someone said you spend half your life learning what you're parents wanted you to know and do and the second half of your life trying to unlearn all that stuff. I guess everyone's mileage may differ.

My father was the typical type A, 50s father. He was king, he made the rules, he handed out the punishment, he viewed the world as a dangerous place where no one could be trusted, he had no clue what to do with a wife and children, so he ran our house like a concentration camp much like Sessue Hayakawa in The Bridge on the River Kwai, he died at 55.

Funny thing is, after he died for the first time in my life I suddenly quit having stomach problems. I spent 27 years of my life throwing up at the drop of a hat. I spent 30 years eating the blandest of food because my stomach couldn't take it. Cheese pizza was dangerous. First time I put my hand in a girl's pants, I threw up on her.....sexy, huh?

He never spent any money, Ma says his goal was to save half his paycheck every payday. He was going to retire to a beach in Florida at 55, he waited all his life to live and spent the first 3 months of his 55th year dying. Thanks for the money Dad, but really, you shouldn't have.

When he died he had half a million, lived by himself across the street from my Mom in a $25,000 house furnished with used furniture, owned no car of his own because he drove a company car. We crept around his house like an old bear lived there. An old bear did live there.

I remember after a good beating, at about 7 years old thinking the best thing I could do was to remember everything he did and then do the opposite. And so far that's worked out pretty well. I don't treat my wife like a servant. I actually know and enjoy my own children. No one tip-toes past my door our of fear. None of my children throw up or have nightmares or think they're defective because of things I've told them thru the years. My family appears to like me, even love me. And I think they'll be properly sad when I'm gone.

I don't have half a million dollars, and I haven't got a paycheck in 10 years, but judging from the happiness level around my house, I'd say I'm the most successful guy I know. It's hard to pay these electric bills, but in 20 years of being a parent, we've never had 1 minute of trouble from our kids. No calls from the Principal, a mad teacher, a mad parent, or the cops.

Ten years ago after my business failed, my wife got a chance at a good job, so I agreed to stay home with the kids. I had no idea I was making a deal for life, or at least life so far. It turned out to be the best move we made. Today she is successful beyond our dreams.

While it doesn't feel very manly to stay home chasing kids or be introduced as Mr. She at parties, I figure it's no worse than what most of the women of my mother's generation had to go thru. I've still got an ERA Now bumper sticker floating around the house somewhere.

Without the addition of an invalid mother, it's mind numbing hard work being the Mom, attempting to keep up the house, buy all the groceries, cook all the food, be a taxi service to kids and be standing by the front door with my wife's slippers in my mouth when she comes home at night.

It's hard work teaching kids right from wrong and making sure 2 nubile teenagers don't come home with a bun in the oven. But someone has to do it and I've learned you don't have to have ovaries, but it probably helps.

I also know without me doing everything in the background, my wife could have never built a business. I am her only unpaid employee and I was there on day one hauling in the desks, snaking wires under the carpet, hauling off the trash. Though she doesn't abuse me, I know I am on-call night or day if her biz has a problem. It works for both of us, but it makes for lousy conversation at parties and again, no paycheck, no credit, no gold watch after 50 years.

And while I may be fooling myself, I think I'll live past 55. Not being the monster, not being the boss god of the universe, not getting mad 2 dozen times a day will surely lengthen my life. If not, so be it, I've still created a happy family who loves each other, a fun, if dirty home and I know if I drop dead my wife's business will feed them for the rest of time.

So I'm not the he-man who shakes the earth when he walks. So I'll never get salesman of the year at a company secretly making plans to move to Mexico. So I don't get to have an affair with a co-worker. We really should quit trying to make every square peg fit into a round hole. We should try skipping the labels. We should have a mandatory limit on egos, male and female. Life is short, it's purpose is hidden from us and we might as well spend it being fun, having fun and spreading fun. If I get 72 virgins when I die, at least 20 of them will want to start their own business........and you know the rest.

Umm...I read this article and didn't see anywhere where any of these guys were liberal, Democrats, or even remotely political (closest thing was a guy who used to be a union rep).

So the question I have is: why are you attacking these guys as liberals or Democrats? And what the hell does Vic Snyder have to do with it? Doctor, lawyer, Marine, Congressman, new father does not equal lazy.

I do recall a newspaper article about Andy Mayberry in the primary which said he supported a wife and a bunch a kids on less than $20k or something like that. I don't know if he's lazy or not, but I'd like to know how to do that.

Attack the guys in the story, maybe, for their lifestyle choices, but their politics are nonexistent in the article .

DBI...Typical lazy democrat. No wonder you are a weirdo.

DBI,

You've made some wise choices if you ask me. Life is indeed short. My dad died at 50 and both my younger brothers are already dead.

I was a Mr. Mom type for a while. My wife had a job that required a lot of travel. I worked at home and was able to have the flexibility to raise my daughter. More than anything, the desire to spend more time with her (she's 10) factored into our decision to step out of the hamster wheel.

I have only been not working for about 4 months now, so I don't really think I have settled into it yet. Odds are I will get bored and do something more than the church volunteerism I do now, but time will tell.

Sounds like we both are lucky guys. The road less traveled is usually the right one to take.

Roland..you and DBI are lucky stiffs...have two wives who will support two lazy ass liberals who won't work...And to think our tax money will have to take care of worthless no good bums like you two welfare cheats....Lord help us.

Lorax...Isn't that a feminine hygine product or a laxative? At least you know your place.

Roland,

Congratulations - having and still putting in my 18 hour days at our small business, I look forward to the day that I can step back - if I'm lucky, maybe at 55.

It seems odd that the Reds who troll here everyday wish to take a swing at you - a guy who has worked and earned his day in the sun - trying to allude to the fact that you're just a lazy Dem.

Yet, they rabidly defend the Paris Hiltons and Walton kids, who really didn't EARN ONE red cent of their "money". The Reds, including these trolls defend their right to keep it all, forever, have no problem upholding and celebrating their entitlement lifestyle because in the Reds mind, HUGE money makes you a rock star in the Reds mind. And earning it is not a prerequesite to star status.

Hardworking guys like us, well, if we don't have millions laying around, and we are not a Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, Walton or Paris. Then we a just the faceless working droans that what used to make America great.

For you little Reds out there - here's a little education for ya;

Small firms
? Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
? Employ half of all private sector employees.
? Pay more than 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
? Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade.
? Create more than 50 percent of nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
? Supplied more than 23 percent of the total value of federal prime contracts in FY 2005.
? Produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms. These patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.
? Are employers of 41 percent of high tech workers (such asscientists, engineers, and computer workers).
? Are 53 percent home-based and 3 percent franchises.
? Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 28.6 percent of the known export value in FY 2004.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census; Advocacy-funded research by Joel Popkin and Company (Research Summary #211); Federal Procurement Data System; Advocacy-funded research by CHI Research, Inc.(Research Summary #225); Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey; U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration.

Now the question in my mind is - the facts being the facts here - why does the Red Army not protect this "segment" of the economy with the same fervor that they protect the "entitled" few?

Because, I'm sure my fellow small business owners will attest to you that everyday this Red held government makes it harder to survive and easier for big Business (Haliburton...big oil...big pharma) - seems to me there's some problems with eggs in the basket here.

Anyway, Roland...you earned it - enjoy

Blue Ticker...And just what is it you do for a living?. You must work at night. Or do you work? Or...are you a lazy bum like your Buddies here? I suppose you make your wife work. How can you live like that..oh well, I suppose you are taught that in The Young Democrats.

BlueTicker,

I doubt any of the anonymous trolls are going to answer your question, because to them Paris Hilton is the epitome of capitalism. George Bush is another great example of someone who would be working the counter at the 7-11 right now if he weren't born into the lucky sperm club. Level playing field? Bwahahahahahahahaha!

I was raised by a single mom working multiple minimum wage jobs. I am a Republican's worst nightmare because I worked my way up from nothing and now I'm a damn liberal with nothing to do but expouse and support liberal causes.

I have three cousins who were born into wealth - their dad is a real estate developer and a hard core Republican - and not one of them has done anything for themselves. They're in their 30s and 40s and Dad still makes the house payments and buys gas for the cars. I think this is typical.

Tthe higher I worked my way up, the more I observed that the system rewards the Paris Hiltons and George Bushes while screwing the little guy.... government of big business and the rich, by big business and the rich, for the benefit of big business and the rich.

People who can't see that were either born stupid or have drank the Kool-ade to the point they believe it.

Stay on subject son, try and answer my concerns, my questions, and defend your points - re: the entitled few.
You belittle your blog exsistance by name calling and making ridculous assumptions and baseless ascusations.

Oh - and one last thing - I started life out as a young Republican - found Jesus and have been saved ever since.

If this troll ever had an original, substantive thought, it must surely have shriveled away in disgust at the company it was forced to keep in that brain of his--nothing but baseless insults, apparently.

If some woman has been wreckless enough to marry him, she has my sympathy. If she has been smart enough to divorce him in the meantime, she gets a cheer from me.

If she's still married to him, though, he should feel lucky she has not killed him in his sleep before now.

Lorax...Isn't that a feminine hygine product or a laxative? At least you know your place.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 31, 2006 11:41 AM

The Lorax is a character from the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. Not sure about you, but my kids don't read books about feminine hygiene products and/or laxatives.

More to my point: did anybody but me bother to read the article? My only point was that the article had nothing to do with liberals or Democrats. It was about a variety of men--engineers, factory workers, teachers, etc--who were no longer wanting to work.

widj, I am anon 11:47 and I am a woman. I am not a man. I have had my own business since 1967 have done well and am worth eight figures. I am sick and tired of paying the bills you lazy liberals won't pay. I, and the rest of the anons on this blog will continue to argue and bash your kind. Live with it. We "ain't goin' away !!!!!"

I am worth 15 figures, have a super model girlfriend, fly my own jet to my dacha in Russia, and am personal friends with every living President. My submarine loots treasure ships while my multi-national companies have a global tampon cartel. I have been a multbillionaire since 1903 and am sick and tired of you petty liberals standing in my way. If you post one more time, I am going to track you down, buy the mortgage company that owns your loan, foreclose on your house, fuck your wife in the street and cut your dog's leg off.

" I am sick and tired of paying the bills you lazy liberals won't pay."

Substantiate that please, chapter and verse would be nice.

It'll be interesting to see your laundry list and how it directly corralates to the Christian believes of feeding the hungry, tired and poor.

Seems to me the Wizard in Washington's less-then-wise ressurection of what his father once called "Voodoo Economics" has resulted in fewer jobs for the middle class in America. Seems like this is the highest level of unemployment we've seen in this demographic -- aren't these the people who supposedly voted chimpanzee boy into office? What's wrong with deciding not to work for $6 dollars an hour if you used to make $70K? As the one guy said, he's waiting for the "home run" -- can't imagine any of you Republican hind-ends would go out of your way to work as a fry-cook at McDonalds if (when) you lose your job as Amway upper management...

Wow, worth EIGHT FIGURES...and still writes and punctuates like a 3rd grader.

"Democrats...Lazy, won't work, wants the republicans to fund everything, Mayberry will help when he sends Snyder back to Oregon where he belongs. I assume Miss Singleton will join him."

I don't know who keeps posting this, but believe me, Vic will be back in congress and Miss Betsy will be back in her pulpit and Mayberry will be back in good ole Mayberry, USA, with Deputy Barney.

I haven't seen anybody say this yet, so I will say it. I actually LIKE working. I have a good job and have put my money aside for what I hope will be a sufficient retirement to maybe start a second career doing something completely different from what I do now. I cannot imagine not doing SOMETHING. I would be bored stiff. I like staying busy. It makes me feel vital and productive. I enjoy the fact that people depend on me. I don't see that ever changing.

Well, let's see.....I have read the article and this entire thread and I think something is wrong with this picture.
To call a non-working-outside the-home man "lazy"
implies that every woman who does the same thing is also lazy.
But wait! Don't the Republicans promote "family values" where one spouse works and the other stays at home?
So, ANONS, I guess every adult has to work, right?
As it happens, both adults in my household work outside the home, so I have no dog in this hunt, but the rabid attacks on fellow bloggers who have chosen to have the female earn the living is just wrong.
And I am pretty tired of that old bullshit line, "Republicans pay all the bills." No, you don't. I bet that I pay more in taxes than you, ANON, earn in a year. It pains me to know that my tax money is being thrown away by the most corrupt, incompetent, administration ever to occupy the White House.
DBI, Roland, and BlueTicker have it right.
Anon, I feel sorry for you.

PJ, it's all about women staying home like "god intended" and the men being out working so they can have free run of the world. "Family values" are irrelevant, it's the control of women that is imperative.

ANYTHING that steps outside of that little teeny tiny box is "WRONG!!!" the right wingers say hysterically. They will fight tooth and nail for it.

No matter that some men are just better at taking care of the children, while some women are just better at working outside the home. Noooooo, we have to fit all those round pegs in those square holes!

That's what feminism is about: each doing what suits them, women AND men. The right wingers have screamed bloody murder for so long that that basic premise has been lost to everyone. It was about liberating EVERYONE from stultifying gender roles.

It's gratifying to see that there are some that get that basic premise these days, whether they realize it came from the feminists to begin with or not. I really don't care if they know it, as long as they GET IT.