CleverBlogName

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are. I believe there is hope. I believe even the …stupidest, greediest, laziest whites can break the cycle of dependence like this November when we finally move George Bush out of public housing.

Sometimes, just sometimes, political comedy just works.

…please tell me this is for real.

There is an quip that goes along the lines of “When the shoeshine boy is giving you stock tips, it’s time to get out of the stock market”; it harkens back to the Crash of ‘29.

The most recent boom and bust was signified, for me, by something a little different: property magazines. Glossy little booklets scattered about town, some as publications set up my many real estate agents, while one agency had a magazine all its own (complete with human interest stories and a little essay from the agency’s founder). On any given day you could go into an office and find them all over break rooms, on peoples’ desks, and whatnot.

The surest sign that the housing market mania is dead, dead, dead is those same magazines, piled up unloved in their distribution stands, no longer on desks or in cafes.

For a last month or so, Lias has been sharing Ada’s nanny twice a week; this has been a great success. Lias apparently charged out of the house as fast as little legs can carry him on mornings with Ada, and Ada looks forward to him being dropped off.

As you’d expect with a not-quite-two year old and a not-quite-18-month old there can be a certain degree of sorting out to be done. Ada’s time at creche has left her with the habit of loudly telling other kids if they start doing something she doesn’t want them to. This has carried over to her sharing her home and things with Lias on his visits—to the extent that she sometimes rehearses what she’s going to tell him he can and can’t do the next day (yes, Lias has three parents, and one of them is two feet tall).

At one point Ada was declaiming in an evening “Ada books Lias NO!”; we explained that Lias was allowed to share her board books, which lead to her spending some time practising:

“Ada paper books Lias NO!”

“Ada board books Lias YES!”

Fast forward to Lias’ next morning at our place. Shortly after he arrived and headed through to the lounge, Ada bailed him up and repeated…

“Ada paper books Lias NO!”

“Ada board books Lias YES!”

…and then, to my delight, carefully pulled one of her books of a shelf, presented it to a rather bemused little boy and announced:

“Lias Scarface Claw!”

So cool.

So, let me get this straight. When people in New Zealand complain they are having trouble affording food, the collective response from farmers is, “We aren’t a charity, let the market decide.”

So why am I expect to sympathise when potential workers say the same thing.

Exploited, my arse.