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FREEDOM WRITER-801740
Articles Posted: 10; Links Seeded: 236
Member Since: 1/2009Last Seen: 11/22/2009
Member Since: 1/2009Last Seen: 11/22/2009
24 Comments
PrintAre You An Ant Or Are You A Grasshopper?
News Type: Other — Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:49 AM EST
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OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share..
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper..
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
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- Public Discussion (24)
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12
{"commentId":10698871,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
Just something to think about.
{"commentId":10698871,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
- 2 votes
#1 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:50 AM EST{"commentId":10700071,"authorDomain":"jaker023"}
looks like this article belongs in the politics section rather than Odd News....
{"commentId":10700071,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"jaker023"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10700143,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10701912,"authorDomain":"jaker023"}
fair enough.... interesting spin on the classic fable....
{"commentId":10701912,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"jaker023"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10749276,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10701133,"authorDomain":"sethster"}
stupid.
Maybe the grasshopper worked hard all summer but made minimum wage while the ant made millions in the oil business. Maybe the grasshopper just needs affordable health care andbetter wages and a little less judgment from ants who are quick to judge and slow to feel compassion.
We tried it the Republican way for 8 years, and it didn't work. We tried that. What's so bad about trying it the Democrats' way now? You got your turn. Now it's our turn.
{"commentId":10701133,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"sethster"}
- 2 votes
#2 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:51 AM EST
{"commentId":10701876,"authorDomain":"jaker023"}
in this example, both insects had access to the same resources (information), had the same opportunity to save, and probably even the same education.
the difference here is that the grasshopper choose embelish on immediate gratification rather that future gratification.
now, had the grasshopper been injured, or had some other type of situation that could prevent him from getting the same opportunity as the ant, then perhaps he could some assistance (so long as he does not squander that away)
but a key aspect of this story is that both started out with nothing in the spring time.
{"commentId":10701876,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"jaker023"}
- 5 votes
{"commentId":10702053,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10726865,"authorDomain":"ruthlessmoose"}
Well said Jaker and freedom writer.
maybe if the grasshopper had tried harder in highschool, gotten better grades, and had gotten even a partial scholarship to use at a community college and get a degree he could have gotten a better job and EARNED that money that he "deserves".
also.... I'd like to point out that we are have a socio-economical discussion about ant and grasshoppers lol
{"commentId":10726865,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"ruthlessmoose"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10749308,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10773398,"authorDomain":"ruthlessmoose"}
me and a lady at my work were just talking about the rewards/punishments for decisions we make in life..... she was talking about her daughter lol
{"commentId":10773398,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"ruthlessmoose"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10704531,"authorDomain":"rst104"}
"if the person truly made minimum wage they would already be eligible for the puclic option called medicaid for insurance. Also they would be getting food stamps and housing assistance that the ant who paid his taxes helped provide for."
I question the accuracy of this. Having been there i assure you people on minimum wage do not all get food stamps, and housing assistance in my area is not much help as there is a housing shortage for renters. If you try to imitate the ant you get squashed because as soon as you put ANY cash aside you are considered out of danger and you are back to living hand to mouth again.
{"commentId":10704531,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"rst104"}
- 3 votes
#3 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:26 PM EST{"commentId":10705846,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10708686,"authorDomain":"snowgolpher1"}
teopa -
If your situation is as you have described, I'm willing to bet there is the possibility that you would have qualified for other programs at the time you filed your tax return. If you cared for a dependent as described by the tax law, you would have received a windfall. It's called the Earned Income Credit (EIC). It's flat out welfare, but....
{"commentId":10708686,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"snowgolpher1"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10704647,"authorDomain":"rst104"}
P.S> Likewise, not aLL ants work hard either. Some of them live off the colony, they just have rich indulgent ANT-cestors.
{"commentId":10704647,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"rst104"}
- 3 votes
#4 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:31 PM EST{"commentId":10705808,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10709099,"authorDomain":"beamerab3"}
Yeah, you forgot to mention the ant's name. If it's Bernie Madoff or Kennett Lay (Satan rend his soul), I'm disinclined to accept your allegory.
However, if the ant's name is someone who truly was self-made, like Bill Gates, I'm inclined to agree with you.
Some ants make their home and comfort off of the backs of others. Don't automatically assume that a person who is struggling out there wasn't trying to work. You never know what's going on in another person's life until you "walk a mile in their shoes."
{"commentId":10709099,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"beamerab3"}
- 1 vote
#5 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:45 PM EST{"commentId":10709579,"authorDomain":"hmw82"}
This might be my new favorite fable!
{"commentId":10709579,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"hmw82"}
- 2 votes
#6 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:07 PM EST{"commentId":10712329,"authorDomain":"sethster"}
Let's leave the judgment of the grasshoppers to God, or to whatever higher power each of us believes in. In the meantime, we should not judge, we should help. Worry less about whether it's "fair" that someone might get something for free that you did not. Why get so hung up on that? If the person truly is lazy, truly is deceitful, and truly takes advantage of the hard work of others, that person will be judged in the afterlife and will get his or her due. I find it ironic that the most conservative Republicans who are all about Jesus don't listen to some of his more important teachings - having compassion for the weak, feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, and NOT hoarding wealth and living life for want of money. For every person who takes advantage of the system, there are ten more who really need and deserve help and aren't getting it.
{"commentId":10712329,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"sethster"}
#7 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:13 PM EST{"commentId":10721813,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
{"commentId":10723303,"authorDomain":"jaker023"}
I agree with the notion that charity should be voluntary, not mandatory. however, helping your neighbor to prevent themselves from going bankrupt and foreclosing on their home is actually in your best interest. thus, dems would argue that the reason why republicans give more, is b/c they are doing it for selfish reasons. afterall, anonymous charity is the best form of charity - but that doesn't make it the ONLY form of charity.
I did find it rather ironic that dems blast cheney, yet according to his tax returns from one year, I recall seeing him make $9mm, but donated $7mm to charity.
that, of course, does not unmake him from being the harbitor of death, but just an interesting fact.
{"commentId":10723303,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"jaker023"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10716107,"authorDomain":"Randilly"}
Political debate be darned! This story is going into my clippings! All the political Hydrophobia cases can just enjoy themselves foaming at the mouth at each other.
This is good, straight for the jugular, humor. If it stings, it should!!!
{"commentId":10716107,"threadId":"725465","contentId":"3506525","authorDomain":"Randilly"}
- 1 vote
#8 - Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:32 PM EST{"commentId":10721692,"authorDomain":"leathernlacekitten"}
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