Slow Time in Fat City™, part 5: Quotes from the Edge.

[Doktor Howl]

"This isn't the way things are supposed to be.  The force shouldn't be hit with layoffs just when we get a lid on things, and the desk sergeant shouldn't be selling pills to the rank and file.  I shouldn't wake up screaming every night, and you shouldn't have to worry that walking down Drachmann Street means you might turn up jammed into a dumpster."
- An off duty police detective at the Hotel Congress Bar

Imagine that.  Things aren't the way they're supposed to be.  Cops shouldn't be hopped up on pills to stay awake through their new post-layoff shift durations, and crime shouldn't be getting worse.  Banks shouldn't be able to bill us for giving them a loan, and oil drilling companies should be inspected.  We shouldn't be pissing away American lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 48% of America probably shouldn't be throwing a tantrum because a Black dude got elected (There are plenty of legitimate things to bitch at Obama for, but who cares, right?).

We live in a world that had steadily - and with great cost - improved for a full century, but has now seemingly burst at the seams, allowing a century's worth of awful sewage and filth to come pouring out.  Orwellian bullshit is on the rise (Example:  Battered White Man Syndrome, where anyone who points out their racism is somehow racist for doing so.  Another example:  The Media Shield Act.), but we can all pretend everything is okay, so long as we have Hispanics to dump on.

The funniest thing about all this is that there really isn't anything wrong.  Let me say that again:  There isn't anything wrong.  Sure, we're in a recession, but that happens like clockwork.  Yes, we have an environmental disaster on the gulf coast, but we've survived those before.  Illegal immigration isn't any worse now than it's ever been (the Southern border has never been "safe".), and terrorists have become a sad joke (since Richard Reid, nobody seems to know how to build a functioning bomb anymore).  Things are basically as normal as they can get.

So the obvious thing to do - at least here in Arizona - is fire, or threaten to fire, as many teachers, police, and emergency workers as possible.  And the way you do that is to push (regressive) tax increases to "save" those jobs, and then spend all of the money in Tempe, Phoenix, Mesa, and Scottsdale, leaving the rest of the state to lay off the above mentioned people.  This creates the problem they want, so that they can use the horrible examples that result as a means to scare the honkey off of the residents of those 4 cities, and squeeze them some more...All the while crying that the democrats want to raise their taxes.

And I'm sure we're not the only state this is happening to.  I happen to know that Utah, Florida, and Texas are doing the same thing (notice a pattern here, folks?).

And everyone eats it up.

So, yeah, fuck it, they deserve what's coming.  

Okay for now,
Dok

[Doktor Howl]

Wait.

It unvanished! 

[Triple Zero]

WOOT

[Doktor Howl]

It keeps disappearing and coming back.   

[Doktor Howl]

BECAUSE I POSTED IT IN THE RUBBISH BIN!

DERRRRRRRRP!   

[Triple Zero]

... I was just going to say that

I presume you saved it to a word document by now, right? (otherwise I did, right when I saw it, .. just in case eh)



.. so anyway, enough chasing posts, let's read this thing

[Triple Zero]

Good stuff. It's unsettingly comforting to hear you say things are basically as normal as they can get ...

And in the end it's not just that "everyone eats it up", but it's almost like everything is eating itself up. I've seen it happen. Not like really for real, but on my computer, and in forgotten dark corners of my fridge. It's always the same. Something beautiful grows, and then it reaches the edges, and the edges wilt, and the soggy ends make the entire structure unstable and it collapses into a slimy gooey mess. Or on my computer the beautiful snowflake star shape corrupts slips up and becomes a chaotic mess of flickering pixels. I wish I could say it's part of a cycle, and at some point starts up again. But I guess our world is different, since so far things have always crawled back up, even if it takes a long time.

[Doktor Howl]

Good stuff. It's unsettingly comforting to hear you say things are basically as normal as they can get ...

Only if you consider normal to be a good thing.

And in the end it's not just that "everyone eats it up", but it's almost like everything is eating itself up. I've seen it happen. Not like really for real, but on my computer, and in forgotten dark corners of my fridge. It's always the same. Something beautiful grows, and then it reaches the edges, and the edges wilt, and the soggy ends make the entire structure unstable and it collapses into a slimy gooey mess. Or on my computer the beautiful snowflake star shape corrupts slips up and becomes a chaotic mess of flickering pixels. I wish I could say it's part of a cycle, and at some point starts up again. But I guess our world is different, since so far things have always crawled back up, even if it takes a long time.

Sucks if you were a Roman in 450CE, though, and it probably won't be much prettier for us.

[Adios]

More good stuff Dok. Chillingly good.

[The Wizard]

We live in a world that had steadily - and with great cost - improved for a full century, but has now seemingly burst at the seams, allowing a century's worth of awful sewage and filth to come pouring out.  Orwellian bullshit is on the rise (Example:  Battered White Man Syndrome, where anyone who points out their racism is somehow racist for doing so.  Another example:  The Media Shield Act.), but we can all pretend everything is okay, so long as we have Hispanics to dump on.

Any historical context as to whether this is just a temporary (decade or so long) slump, or are we really taking a couple steps backward? Just want to know whether I should start loading up on popcorn and weaponry now.

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Nice work Dok. Enjoying these pieces immensely.

[Juana]

Nothing like this, I think, Semaj.


I hate it when you do this, Dok. The mundanity of all that bothers me a lot, and you point it out a little too clearly.

[Cainad (dec.)]

We live in a world that had steadily - and with great cost - improved for a full century, but has now seemingly burst at the seams, allowing a century's worth of awful sewage and filth to come pouring out.  Orwellian bullshit is on the rise (Example:  Battered White Man Syndrome, where anyone who points out their racism is somehow racist for doing so.  Another example:  The Media Shield Act.), but we can all pretend everything is okay, so long as we have Hispanics to dump on.

Any historical context as to whether this is just a temporary (decade or so long) slump, or are we really taking a couple steps backward? Just want to know whether I should start loading up on popcorn and weaponry now.

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Nice work Dok. Enjoying these pieces immensely.

I can't speak for Dok, but I'd like to point out that all empires have at least one important thing in common: they collapse.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

This reminds me somewhat of a conversation I had with a friend of mine on Monday. She lives in Lawrence with her fiance and hates it there, but they bought their house there because they could afford it.

I know that Lawrence is a shithole, as I'm sure other MA spags can corroborate.

Well, she came along with A Villager and I to drop off another friend back at Plattsburg, NY and when we picked her up at her house, I had noticed that there was a spraypainted board in front of a fire station that said, "Closed. Call 911." Lawrence is too cash strapped to maintain its fire department. Calls for fires in Lawrence get rerouted to North Andover, which is populated by mostly upper-middle class to wealthy. Apparently the Lawrence Police Department is suffering the same problem, which I suppose is ok, since I think I recall her fiancee saying on Saturday night that the cops have largely given up on law enforcement anyway. Meanwhile, earlier this year, their new mayor simultaneously held office as State Rep, until the state government called into question his ability to handle Lawrence's financial crisis if he's also holding a position in the House.

They basically take anything shitty happening in their city as normal. Anything they tell me about it doesn't really surprise me.

[The Wizard]

They basically take anything shitty happening in their city as normal. Anything they tell me about it doesn't really surprise me.

Have something to say on this topic. Rant coming on.

I can't speak for Dok, but I'd like to point out that all empires have at least one important thing in common: they collapse.

True, I'm just not sure whether America's going to fall apart now. We've stepped in nastier shit than this.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Damn Dok fucking awesome!!

But, if everything is ok now, does that mean there is still a chance for improvement?  For things to get better?