Capitalism for Hillfolk

Capitalism is founded on buying and selling shit. There are several things necessary for it to work, some shit, obviously, and an exploitable population. It really doesn’t make any difference what kind of shit as people will buy anything as long as the shit maker convinces them that their miserable lives totally suck without his shit and once they obtain the shit, for a price, their lives will be better, they’ll be prettier, or their pits will no longer stink.

The exploitable population is needed for two reasons. Generally speaking the shit doesn’t make itself, the shit maker needs people who are willing to work for low wages to do the actual shit fabrication. It is great if the exploitable population is nearby, but not necessary. If the local population organizes for higher wages, benefits, or dignity, simply shift the shit processing to another exploitable population, say India or China where proles are willing to work in deplorable conditions for a blow of rice and there are none of those pesky child labor laws.

The second reason for the exploitable population is the purveyor of shit needs someone to buy his shit. It helps if the population is dimwitted and gullible because it is easier to peddle shit to them and convince them they can’t live without shit. Tell them they are ugly, fat, or behind the times, something to undercut any confidence they might have and it’s off to the races. One thing on the shit merchants side is that stupid people tend to be prolific breeders, creating a never ending string of consumers and makers of shit.

And there it is capitalism in a nutshell. Pretty basic, as the shit man will need resources, either ones readily available or raw shit he has taken away from someone else. He’ll also need one or more shysters to make sure no one gets into his shit and a tractable government that he can buy off to keep their nose out of his shit. That sums up the situation here pretty well.

Rain Tomorrow

Tonight, if the weather asshole isn't lying we're in for some rain tomorrow. Rather rare here in the desert, so most folks welcome it -- I know the grass will. The hill folk down to the NASCAR race will get a bit wet, but it won't hurt for them to have a second bath this month. Too bad it isn't "soap day" at the track.

In Qwest of a deal from the phone company

In trying to cut some costs we approached the phone company we use. There's a lot of deals for new customers, but existing customers can pretty much get stuffed. It doesn't help we've "bundled" our services with them, once they got you there's no more love for you.

Adding to the fun are all the taxes and fees (even the fair city of El Garbage gets in on the act) that are piled on to support the tax fattened hyenas that run our government. So much for the free airwaves. I swear they tax you from birth to death then feed on the corpse.

In the age of communications one would think it would be easier to manage personal communications such as cell phones, internet, and home phone, but not without getting several different customer service chimps from several different companies involved. It becomes an enormous Mongolian Cluster Fuck (MCF) in short order.

Hopefully this will all get sorted with little or no damage and few lives lost, though in an operation this size one has to expect some casualties I suppose.

On with the show

Another exciting week well under way. Mrs. Phos is a bit under the weather, meaning tonight is spicy soup night. I use the usual ingredients, celery, carrots, onion, mushrooms and chicken broth, but toss in some jalapenos and cayenne for good measure. Clears the sinuses and lifts the soul at the same time. It is also a great way to get rid of stuff in the fridge, such as the chopped onion I had left over.

The clouds are rolling in today, we are due some rain this weekend, if the weather bozo on TV is to be believed. He is a lying bastard, after all. If it does rain I'll have to take a trip out into the wilds of the AZ desert to check for wildflowers -- even the nastiest looking weed out here seems to produce breath taking flowers after the rains come.

Meanwhile the huskies are keeping watch over Mrs. Phos, Thor angry because she is taking up the whole couch (no room for him to hop up in "his spot"), and Austrella snoozing on her dog bed.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you and your significant other have a wonderful V-Day!!

Where’s Phos been?

I’ve been gone quite a while – the time has flown by and I didn’t realize how long I it was since I last posted. I wish I had lots of exciting things to report, but in fact I do not. A few things I have done:

Gone to a Videogame party:

A Superbowl party:

Mostly been husky-lazy…

There are many things I need to do, mundane for sure, but necessary. Mostly cleaning, organizing, and figuring out what I want o be when I grow up. Things were simple when I was a kid. You went to school, got a job, got married, had kids and lived happily ever after, more or less. Unfortunately that isn’t exactly the way things work. Though I have checked the blocks for my happily ever after checklist I find that there is more to the tale than I was led to believe. Now here I am rapidly approaching the edge of the cliff and I find I have to fine tune things a bit. Well better late than never I suppose.