Oddball Update

Apple was up at the salon getting her hair cut this morning when she happened to overhear the following pearl of wisdom from an old fuddy-duddy sitting nearby:

“Why are we paying for all those Americans who are getting evacuated from Lebanon? What a waste of our tax dollars! They should have known better than to go there, and why are we having to pay for them to be rescued?”

Unidentified old poop head

The hairdresser who was listening to this old woman’s rant didn’t say anything, probably because he couldn’t think of a rational enough response to such selfishness.

Yes, violence in the middle east has flared up to new heights, which isn’t entirely unexpected given the region’s history. Yes, some Americans actually vacation in Beirut — not all vacations necessarily involve lying on a beach developing melanoma; some folks actually like to visit other cultures or learn the history of one of the world’s elder civilizations during their time off. And yes, these people are citizens of our country, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why shouldn’t our government (and by extension, us) help extract them from harm’s way? I can think of far worse uses for our tax dollars, personally.

These are the kinds of attitudes that develop when you sit around all day long in your bunker and never interact with another member of human society. Your world shrinks to the size of your living room, and you begin to think that if a government program does not benefit you personally in some way, then it’s a waste of time, money and labor. Personally, I hope that old fudgepacker someday winds up in a distant country while on vacation, a war breaks out, and in response to her pleas for help, the government says, “Sorry, we think saving your life is an inefficient use of our citizens’ tax dollars, so good luck and we hope you don’t die.”

Categorized as Rants, Rants/Stupid People