Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Slow Stupid and Rich

If you are an astute businessman, you will soon realize that the government is your dream customer, slow, stupid and rich.

Ross Perot came to this conclusion and became one of the richest men in the world because of it. It's almost hard to believe that a little chicken necked conservative like Perot made his billions by milking the welfare system.

Private industry takeover of government programs is not a new phenomenon. In the early 1960s Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems won the contract to manage the Texas Medicaid program. "For years," writes Washington Post reporter Judith Havemann, "states have been relying on business to carry out what used to be considered government work; food conglomerates manage school cafeterias and banks in many areas have taken over the collection of taxes. More recently, an entire new industry has emerged to run prisons." Time magazine notes that passage of the welfare reform bill set off a "welfare-management goldrush."
http://www.arc.org/welfare/prospecting.html

Perot saw that the government is the perfect customer because it is Slow, Stupid and Rich.

This is also the principle behind why the giant sloth is extinct. The sloth was so slow and docile that it was fabulously easy to hunt and kill. You didn't even need a bow and arrow. You could walk up and hit it in the head with a club. And once you killed one, you could live on it until the meat you couldn't eat rotted and then you would kill another one. There is evidence that the human migration which populated the Americas from the Bering Strait to Patagonia was a quest for the easy meat of the giant sloth.

Stone Age man finally hunted them into extinction because they were such easy meat.

Now the only sloth we have left is the three toed sloth. You know what the three toes are called? Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The sloth is not as big, but it's still easy meat. Slow, Stupid and Rich.

sloth is a sin

Main Entry: sloth
Pronunciation: 'sloth, 'släth also 'slOth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural sloths /with ths or [th]z/
Etymology: Middle English slouthe, from slow slow
1 a : disinclination to action or labor : INDOLENCE b : spiritual apathy and inactivity <the deadly sin of sloth>
2 : any of the slow-moving arboreal edentate mammals that comprise two genera (Bradypus and Choloepus), inhabit tropical forests of So. and Central America, hang from the branches back downward, and feed on leaves, shoots, and fruits -- compare THREE-TOED SLOTH, TWO-TOED SLOTH
[sloth illustration]

http://www.m-w.com/

Gore Vidal refers to the privatizers of Social Security as The Gold Miners of '05.

They are set to rob, he says, the largest bank in history.



--Z

....In the early 1960's, Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems won the contract to manage the Texas Medicaid program....

(the original "giant sucking sound", with which Ross Perot was associated, as it were)

I donno, Z
Even though Vidal is generally accurate, I think that SS will remain the deadly untouchable third rail of American politics. I don't think the privatizers will prevail.

mnaz,
Back in the late seventies when Perot was feeling his oats and getting limbered up to run for president, he went to Austin with a bunch of his lawyers and made a big production of lobbying for new drug laws. He put on a ridiculous dog and pony show before the legislative committee. He went to the local head shop and bought a bunch of bongs and glass pipes that looked like dildos and an assortment of rolling papers etc and did a little show-and-tell routine. Then he had his lawyers draft what eventually became the Texas Comprehensive Controlled Substance Act of 1980. This is a terrifying document. Read it sometime. It's only about a hundred fucking pages long and it's got something in it for everybody. They can arrest you for even thinking about getting high.

Let us forge ahead waving the Great Dildonic Bong!

I hope you're right, LR, about Social Security.

One of the great name coinings for characters in cinema was in "Barbarella"-- the hero and leader of the underground rebels, played by English actor David Hemmings ( "Blow-up")--
The character's name was "Dildano."

Another fine name from that film was "Duran Duran" ( later adopted by a rock group.)

A great exchange in that film:

"De-crucify the Angel!"

"What?"

"De-crucify him or I'll melt your face!"


and

"Don't you want to make love to me ? Everybody else does . . ." ( Barbarella to the Angel)

Angel:

"An angel does not MAKE love. An Angel IS love . . ."


Ah, 1968-- an interesting year . . .


--Z

1968, yes interesting but tragic
not only Duran-Duran
but also Sirhan Sirhan

When Blow Up came out I was working as a projectionist in a movie theater. I saw that movie at least forty times.

His fate of the union speech last year he bragged how he was going to spend his political capital. Bushie don't talk much about SS anymore. I think his political capital has run out It was a nice diversion from the war. And they got their dictionaries out again. It is no longer private accounts, it is personal accounts. I heard a Wall Street journal reporter say that the big brokerage companies don’t want to see the money invested in Wall Street because it will be a big hassle for them. They don’t want to deal with all those billions of dollars. Please don’t through me in that briar patch. I was twenty-eight in 1968 and starting to lose my faith in John Wayne war movies. Blow Up I saw that movie a long long time ago. Still remember it pretty good. Riveting maybe a good word to describe my reaction to it.

also Sirhan Sirhan

his last parole hearing he said RFK would want to see him paroled. Too bad he killed him, he lost his chance for RFK to appear as witness for him.