In the past 230 years, America has gone from the go-getter, take responsibility, have pride in yourself, your property and your country, fight for you’re your freedom attitude, and taken a nose dive into the life-sucking, quicksand muck of laziness and entitlement.
The above statement is indisputable. Feel free to write me and try to dispute it if you feel differently.
Today’s Americans don’t have a clue about hardship, strife and sacrifice. Today’s Americans have the innate belief that they were all born with a silver spoon because of the location of the dirt under their feet. Today’s Americans are apathetic. They would rather let their Big Brother wrap a warm blanket of “safety” around their shoulders, than inconvenience themselves with the real problems.
It’s just too hard to think about the big stuff. The government will take care of us all! After all, what does it matter if our Constitutional rights are dissipating into thin air? Owiiie! My brain hurts… but look at what Lady Gaga is wearing now! Angelina had her WHAT cut off? Didn’t she just adopt her sixth Namibian baby?
One of thousands of pieces of evidence that support this American laziness “claim” (fact) came out Wednesday morning in the headline, “Record 10,978,040 on Disability; Disability Would Be 8th Most Populous State.”
Well there you go folks. There are more people receiving disability benefits than there are living in the state of Georgia. Over 13 times as many people receive disability than live in South Dakota. According to this article this is the 196th straight month the number of American workers collecting federal disability payments has increased. Sixteen years ago, in January of 1997, the number taking disability was 4,385,374.
I know, too many numbers, I’m losing your interest. Let me put it this way, in 1997, 1.6 percent of Americans were on federal disability; in 2013, 3.5 percent of Americans receive a check. How does this work in the long term? The money has to come from somewhere, right? The government can’t just print more (although they do – but that’s a whole different can of worms).
Back in the day it worked, (back when people worked). In 1968, just .65 percent of Americans collected disability. At that time there were 51 full-time workers for each worker collecting. Today there were only 13 Americans working full-time for each worker collecting a check. I’m not a rocket scientist, but to me, these numbers do not work.
Do you really believe that there are that many more people with debilitating injuries or diseases that make it impossible for them to punch a time clock? I don’t. Heck no. We are lazy Americans, born and bred.
Meanwhile our government welcomes with open arms those climbing over the border. There are actually “help stations” on the Texas/Mexican border complete with a phone to call for help and a jug of water. Why do they want to come here? Not because they won’t be able to find a job, there’s plenty of those. Unemployment levels go hand in hand with economic health, right? Well, unemployment levels in America today are nothing more than a measure of laziness.
If Americans were to get their butts back to work, much of the illegal immigration problem would be solved. And while the government would still find stupid places to put money they don’t have, the actual health of the economy would see a decent upturn.
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Ok, that’s enough ranting from Lois for one week.
Here’s a few more tidbits of information from the 15th Century:
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.” There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on th floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme: “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
