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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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Entitlement monster? $2-million lottery winner uses food stamps

By David McElroy · May 18, 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?

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I’d be thrilled if Ron Paul were elected, but I won’t vote for him

By David McElroy · May 18, 2011

I won’t be voting for Ron Paul next year, but that’s only because I won’t be voting for anyone. Despite the fact that I don’t want to give my sanction to a system I feel is illegitimate, my sympathies are with Ron Paul and his supporters. If he were to do well, I’d be happy. If he were to win, I’d be giddy. What’s the source of this inner contradiction?

For me, it’s a matter of being consistent with principle rather than pragmatism. I’m not going to criticize others who come to different conclusions, but I can’t give my stamp of approval to the majoritarian system by participating in it. When someone votes, he tacitly acknowledges that the winner of the election has the right to govern (or do whatever the rules ahead of time stipulate). I can’t agree to that.

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Meet Charlotte, one of the important women in my life

By David McElroy · May 17, 2011

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.

 

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For those who are in places where it’s miserably h For those who are in places where it’s miserably hot today, here is a minute of light rain and gentle thunder from my back yard late Saturday afternoon. It’s very relaxing to stand at my back door and watch this, especially since the heat is pretty mild today — 80 degrees (about 26 celsius) — for July in the American South.
Alex was willing to cooperate with me for a new po Alex was willing to cooperate with me for a new portrait late Wednesday night. It’s been roughly three and a half years now since the cold night when I was able to lure him out from behind a garbage dumpster into a trap — but I don’t think he’s sorry at this point that he fell for the trick. 😺
This is the face of a man who’s thrilled that the This is the face of a man who’s thrilled that the weekend is finally here. It was a very long (and productive) week, but the time has finally come that I have time to write and read and think. Late Friday night, I’m at the McDonald’s near my house with a Diet Dr Pepper and a MacBook. For me, it’s like Cheers without the booze.
Donald Trump has figured out who to blame for the Donald Trump has figured out who to blame for the the D.C. Reflecting Pool turning green. The dastardly deed was carried out by a specially trained squad of Antifa cats trained by the Far Left. It’s not his fault. Arrest all the cats! #satire #parody
This was the sunset that faced me as I left Walmar This was the sunset that faced me as I left Walmart near my house just a few minutes ago. It was a beautiful light show for just a few minutes.
Here’s proof that reality and satire are indisting Here’s proof that reality and satire are indistinguishable these days.
This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot out This was the sunset I saw from the parking lot outside of the Walmart near my house just after the sun went down Friday evening.
This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy This little parody was inspired by my trip to buy gas a little while ago. Even at a no-name brand, the price was $4.09. If I remember correctly, it was $2.29 a gallon at the same station on the day the war started. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of winning. 🤣
For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, For the best and most sophisticated in lawn care, check out the sponsor of one of my upcoming YouTube video episodes. 🙃 #parody #threestooges
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From the CritterCam: In this brief clip, Alex walk From the CritterCam: In this brief clip, Alex walks past his bed — on my desk — and decides to make the mighty leap to the nearby castle instead. It’s a dark and rainy day, so the office looks very dark.
Sam is watching me from a dark corner of the bedro Sam is watching me from a dark corner of the bedroom at midnight.
From the CritterCam: I’m not there to see what has From the CritterCam: I’m not there to see what has Alex’s attention, but something outside an office window has him concerned enough to sit up in bed. His beauty sleep is disturbed now.
A few minutes after 2 a.m., Oliver was relaxing in A few minutes after 2 a.m., Oliver was relaxing in my arms when he suddenly noticed that Alex was stalking him. He went into hurter mode himself and launched himself at Alex about 30 seconds after this. They’re not chasing each other back and forth between the office and the bedroom, leaving Sam as a bewildered observer.
From the CritterCam: Alex seems despondent that he From the CritterCam: Alex seems despondent that he hasn’t had his dinner yet Saturday night and I’m not home for him to complain about this injustice. The service gets worse and worse in this feline restaurant. There must be some law against this sort of abuse. 😺
Late Friday night, Sam was peacefully hanging out Late Friday night, Sam was peacefully hanging out in my lap, but as soon as I started talking about him being with me, he suddenly made a mighty leap and he was gone. This is short and is mostly funny — to me, anyway — because he seemed so eager to contradict what I was in the process of saying. 😺
From the CritterCam: Oliver seems to have taken ov From the CritterCam: Oliver seems to have taken over the cat bed on my desk this evening. I’m betting that I’ll find Alex on top of the castle instead, but the fact that I find myself thinking about this on the way home from work says a lot about my unorthodox priorities in life. 😺
From the CritterCam: I have no idea what was outsi From the CritterCam: I have no idea what was outside an office window to catch Alex’s attention — birds, maybe? — but he briefly looked very intrigued.
By the time I got back home, it was dark outside a By the time I got back home, it was dark outside and pouring rain. Alex had taken over my chair in the bedroom. His extended paw makes him look as though he’s a weather god giving orders for the storm to go away.
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It turns out that the radical far left has been training “Antifa cats” to sabotage anything important to Donald Trump. Everything he did was perfect. Honest. It was all the cats’ fault. Arrest all the cats! This is the latest of my ridiculous satirical shorts. Please go watch it. Then “like” it and subscribe. Please. I’m begging you. (Too much?) Although a couple of the previous videos have had views in the hundreds, most have still been seen by fewer than 20 people. So I seem to be having trouble letting people know that page exists.

Here’s the latest of my ridiculous parody shorts. It crossed my mind Tuesday to wonder what a slick and fast-talking car dealer might do right now to try to turn the high price of gasoline to his advantage. So I conceived of a fat and lovable character who tried to sell cars that don’t use any fuel — and then I started wondering if it would be funnier if all the characters were felines. Designing the King Cashpaw character took about four hours, but the rest took only another four hours, so this was a relatively quick piece that virtually wrote itself. I know it’s almost impossible for these parody videos to find a larger audience, but at least they amuse me — and there are 19 of them on my YouTube page now. The first few were very limited, but they’re getting more complex.

The Republican Party is dead. It still exists in name, of course, but it’s nothing but a shell. All that’s left are idiots and stooges and con men of the MAGA party. When Donald Trump is gone — which won’t be long — those populist idiots and pragmatic fools will have no one to follow. Democrats will thrive. They will take more power than ever and they will push the federal government further to the radical far left than ever. When that happens, don’t just blame Trump if you’re a conservative. Blame every person who has claimed to be a conservative and has given up on principles, character and everything else that Republicans once claimed to stand for. As someone who worked as a GOP political consultant for many years, this is disgusting and disturbing to me. Those who have enabled Trump to have almost unchecked power are going to be shocked when they see what they will unleash in the long run. It’s been plain all along what this narcissistic con man is. It’s your fault that you chose to pretend not to see what he really is.

We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

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