I know your run of the mill circuit city has the electronics knowledge of a small ferret, but most of Europe is even worse. I’m fed up of telling the numbnuts there that they’re giving me the wrong accessory.

#37 I had a conversation on the fat subject with people from Spain. They said that the Americans are all fat. Then, everytime I saw a fat Spaniard (and it was a lot) I told them: There goes an American.

The first three or four times they tried to correct me. Afterwards they caught the irony.

Worse still, now everyone and their mother have those four wheeled walkers.

They advertise both on TV 24/7 in the NYC area with the tagline “if your insurance won’t pay for it, we will give it to you absolutely free”

(it’s an old medicaid-medicare subsidy scam that’s been going on for years on the street, but now that major cutbacks are on the horizon (and some already in play) it appears they are trying to sell as much as possible before the subsidy is fully killed, scrutinized and/or broke. –hence the saturation bombing on tv)

One thing we have in spades here is the “if it’s free it’s for me” crowd that is always mumbling, “F that, I’m gettin minez too”

’nuff said?

The walkers are largely being exploited for free rides on the bus (handicapped in chairs ride MTA buses for free in NYC -walkers are supposed to pay half fare, but most never pay.

Once off the bus, they trot away like it’s ok..

Get on the bus at the wrong time and the ride can take 25 minutes longer than usual as the chair lift is cycled multiple times within a 15 block stretch.

On the flip side, I have never seen so many friggen HUGE people in my life now that these things are being handed out like candy.

You will get run over by one at the Pathmark on 125th and Lex if your not careful and in there at the front of the foodstamp cycle. (esp in the ice cream isle)

They actually have a small fleet of them out front by the shopping carts for those who feel the 6 month supply of fat stored on their body needs to be topped off, yet have not figured out how to get one themselves yet.

Something to think about:

When the food riots hit next year and these people start burning the decades old fat stores on their bodies for lack off food.

No doubt, we are going to see a lot of them hospitalized with all sorts of interesting “effects” as the multitude of toxins stored in their fat is released to be burned for energy.

It’ll be interesting to see how this new “toxic fat shock” syndrome will be spun in the news and what conclusions will be drawn as to the original source of the toxins.

/rant over

-s

Assumption No 1 is easily proven to be false by e.g. the current health care debate in the US, and No 2 is superoptimistic, even within your own family, not to mention a country of hundreds of peoples, founded by 13 different anarchies who grudgingly ceeded some power to a central government under the explicit condition that they would take the power back from the federal authorities at any provocation whatsoever.
What is amazing is that it works at all, given the bureaucracies, lawyers and media that try to kill it off.

When I was volunteering at the Chapel behind the WTC at 209 Broadway, about every 20 minutes someone would comment to the effect “does anybody in this country or the service industry here know how to take a bloody order anymore..or speak English?”

Getting eggs over easy or lightly scrambled with “floppy bacon” seemed to be an impossibility from the surrounding food vendors in the area.

“no matter where i have gone i get overcooked eggs, broken yolks and bacon practically burnt to a crisp.”

Me being somewhat of a chef, a lover of breakfast and a huge fan of lightly cooked eggs in any style, (and floppy bacon) understood completely, the tragedy of having to start the day with a screwed up breakfast. (Which in my opinion, is the easiest meal of the day to cook)

The other comment was how rude and “bloody stupid” many floor people were in the larger retail stores and
the almost complete lack of knowledge they had of anything to do with the inventory of items the store(s) sell.

The most popular “ignorance” of note was the complete lack of knowledge the staff in electronic stores had of anything on the shelves.

Alas, most noted a similar trend forming in their own countries, but nowhere even close to the level they found here.

The cause they most fingered as the reason behind the escalation of “morons running everything” was the “bloody plague” known as Affirmative Action, -and by extension, Political Correctness.

(some reversed the order, but at least eight out of ten conversations ended with the same conclusions)

Make friends with any foreign born visitor or resident, and behind closed doors this observation will spill out into the conversation in short order..

As most know, since 2001, it has only gotten worse. -much, much worse.

-my 2¢

-s

Now:

Funny that Stephen Fry, a much more insightful guy, just finished a 50-state tour and came away telling Brits to stop bashing the US…he found the real US a great place. Listen to his podcast about it…he roundly attacks Brits who slam the US.

Clarkson knew what he wanted to find, came and found it. If he stuck to the highways and Denny’s, no wonder he found the blandest and worstest and most banal.

Yes, the laws are getting ridiculous, but what bloody cheek for a Brit to complain about it…the UK is where all this crap is coming from, and where it’s much much worse. A few years ago I was threatened with arrest and had my camera taken and inspected because I took a picture of the Big Eye…because there might have been children on it and my camera had a telephoto lens. They then got nervous when they saw pics of the hub mechanism (I’m a mechanical engineer, and it was a nice piece of design). Then I became a terror suspect. The US criticized for silly laws by a Brit? Blow me.

By the way, I’m not anti-Clarkson, far from it.

I would be interested in reading Clarkson’s views of my country. We have plenty to be ashamed of, but an external appraisal is always an extra help. It’s a favor! Like someone telling you that you have something stuck in your teeth. If you’re smart and have at least a modicum of dignity, you WANT to be given that kind of information and do something about it.

Article is 3-years old. So fucking what? It still stand. No place can change that much in 3 years.

Despite his often rather controversial and seemingly puerile remarks he’s actually a highly intelligent, well read, and accomplished journalist.