Archives for May 2011

Here’s another piece of evidence about the sense of entitlement that our modern state welfare culture breeds. In Michigan, a man won $2 million in the state lottery, but he still gets food stamps, which are legally issued according to federal guidelines.

The man isn’t doing anything illegal, because food stamps are issued according to income — and he has no income. Even though more than half of his $2 million lottery winnings went to income taxes, Leroy Fick still had a tidy sum left. He drives around in an nice Audi convertible and presumably lives off the rest.

“If you’re going to … try to make me feel bad, you aren’t going to do it,” Fick told Detroit TV station WNEM.

We’ve created a society where people feel so entitled that “aid” that need isn’t even the standard. He’s “entitled” to free food from taxpayers — and taking money that you haven’t earned is no longer considered anything to be ashamed of. Considering the values that we’re teaching through the monster system we’ve created, is it any wonder that more and more people (and companies) are willing to demand that governments support them?

Other than planning and thinking about the future of personal freedom, my biggest passion is probably the animals in my life. I’m a sucker for homeless animals, so all of the ones I have were homeless in one fashion or another. This is Charlotte, who is almost 2 years old. She and her two sisters are from a stray I took in not too long before they were born. The mother was too skittish to be adoptable, and her daughters inherited a good deal of her fear of people, so I didn’t believe anybody would be happy with them since they were never going to be typical cuddly house cats. Charlotte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, were named for the writing Bronte sisters. I’ll introduce you to others of the McElroy Zoo along the way, because I can assure you that they’re more interesting than I am.