Stuff

In the latest of Utah's weekly embarrassments, Representative Jason Chaffetz gave considerable support to the stereotype that Republicans are jerks who hate the poor when he said "You know what, Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice. And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own healthcare." So ​that's why many Americans can't afford health insurance? They have plenty of money, but they just choose to spend it on stuff like iPhones instead? And also the cost of an iPhone is suddenly comparable to the cost of health insurance? Bizarre. (P.S. Not an iPhone per se, but a cell phone of some sort and regular internet access aren't really luxuries so much as they are necessary to function in the United States. Good luck finding or keeping a job without them, for example.)

​I do find it almost funny, though, that Republicans are merely replacing one government healthcare program with another. Funny because for nearly seven years, so many people who believe the government has no business in healthcare trusted the Republican Party to stand up for their interests. Funny because some people were dumb enough to believe the Republican Party has anything to do with conservatism or limited government. But not quite funny because this legislation will most likely be equal to or greater than the first in terms of suckitude, and we know that according to Chaffetz and his ilk the poor can go screw themselves. Still, I personally appreciate not being forced to buy health insurance because I don't want to. I'm healthy and willing to gamble that I'll stay that way. If I'm wrong, then... sucks to be me.

International Women's Day was on Wednesday and I don't want to say too much about it because when other men expound on how much they respect women and support feminism and stuff it just comes across to me as really ingratiating, and I'm sure in most cases that isn't their intention at all but that's just how it comes across to me so I can't do it because that would make me a hypocrite. I'm also not very good at being an "official" feminist because despite the best of intentions I often say or do the "wrong" things. Mackenzie got rather annoyed at me once for calling her "outspoken" because she said that term has connotations implying that women shouldn't speak, even though she has no problem calling herself "bossy" while I would never dare to. And Mackenzie got rather annoyed at me once for walking between her and the road in case a drunk driver jumped the curb, because she can walk on whichever side she wants. And Mackenzie got rather annoyed at me once for saying she would win in a fight and I wouldn't resist, because she wants me to fight her to the death if the situation calls for it.

It turns out I was supposed to wear red for International Women's Day, and I didn't know that but I wore red anyway and Mackenzie noted it so that was a happy accident. Or maybe that was just for "A Day Without a Woman"? It was also supposed to be "A Day Without a Woman" this year, where women skipped work for political reasons, but I didn't notice at my job where it was business as usual for most of them although some, including some of my favorite people, were gone for spring break. That was rough. Almost as rough as being all excited about getting trained to drive the forklift and then bumping the shift buzzer off the wall on my first day and descending into a spiral of self-loathing for my unequaled incompetence. So this was a crappy week, but cleaning the bathrooms with my tongue for minimum wage would still be better than my call center job, so I managed.

At least we had food every day. Usually they only give us food once a week. I don't really know how they make a profit. They give us the food, they have gift card drawings every month, they have to pay us of course, they have to pay the thrift stores etc. for the books that come in, they only get to accept maybe ten to twenty percent of the books, tops, and then they have to pay Amazon to store the books and then just because they're for sale doesn't mean they'll be purchased. They do also get money from recycling the rejected books, so that must amount to a lot. I guess it works because they seem really successful. I'm no financial expert.

Frank Sinatra - From Both Sides Now

Did I mention that I get to listen to music at work? So over the last couple weeks I've listened to hour after hour of Frank Sinatra and I've got to say it's been incredibly soothing. It feels like it's filtering impurities out of my soul. I listened to this Joni Mitchell over four times in one day, entranced by the beauty of both the music and the lyrics. It's a very polarizing song that some people think is terrible because it doesn't fit Sinatra's style or isn't faithful to the original or whatever, but those people are wrong.