Thoughts

Enough with aiding society’s trash

I am fed up with all of the aid that the world’s various governments give to society’s trash. How long have we been doing it? In some form or another, governments have been handing money out to people, with surprisingly little control over who gets it, for almost 100 years now. The way these programs are currently run, they’re not really helping those who truly deserve help, and they’re providing too much help to those who don’t deserve it. If anything, I see societies slowly declining and I see more and more goldbricks and welfare swindlers around every day. I have had it with these parasites who are walking about and poisoning our societies on our own money!

I want to make myself clear so you don’t get the wrong idea. When I talk about societal parasites, I’m talking about trash of any color and breed. I mean those who won’t work because they know they can wiggle their way through the welfare system without doing it. I mean the ones who can work, are offered jobs but won’t take them, the ones who have no problems turning down an honest day’s work but have no problem selling their children into sex, the ones begging in the streets even though they’re perfectly healthy, the ones who’d rather commit crimes instead of getting a job. Those are the shitheads I’m talking about.

I am not talking about people who have lost their jobs, who need a temporary helping hand, a leg up, who can’t get by even though they’re working, because their jobs don’t pay enough for them to support their families, the widowed, the elderly, the disabled and any other honest folks I might have not mentioned here. By all means, let’s help these people! As a matter of fact, if we stopped helping the shitheads I named in the previous paragraph, I bet we’d have a lot of money that we could use to help these people, who are truly deserving of our help.

It’s fiscally irresponsible to just hand money out without thoroughly checking who gets it and what they do with it but then, when have we known politicians in general to be fiscally responsible? It’s very easy to spend someone else’s money, especially when it means you can be a populist and earn cheap votes from all the scumbags who never do an honest day’s work, simply by promising to keep their aid flowing.

This sort of thing does nothing but encourage the same kind of disgusting behavior we now see in most developed countries of the world: shitty people being shitty, all day long, all over the place. Think about your own community for example: you know exactly who these shitty people are, the ones who live on welfare and multiply like fleas because they get more government aid that way. They’re filthy drunkards and/or drug addicts, horrible parents and as humans, they’re not only subpar, I doubt they even qualify for the title. In countries where it’s allowed, they are out begging on the streets, teaching their children to do the same, sometimes even mutilating them (yes, you read that right) in order to make them into better beggars.

In Romania for example, these assholes get free government-subsidized housing, which they shit on, literally. They get new housing and in a few years, it’s unrecognizable, in part because they shit around it and in it. Yes, in it, you read that right. They have toilets but don’t use them. They shit and piss outside the buildings, in the hallways and in their apartments. They get free TVs, free furniture, subsidized utility bills (they can spend all the energy they want, they only pay 5-15 lei per month). In return, they do nothing but evil. The law says they’re supposed to do some community work per month, but no one holds them to it. They go out and they beg on the streets. They steal. They have more children in order to have more benefits. They break the law more often than you can keep track. They pollute the city with their garbage, which they throw everywhere, including right out the window, so it piles up next to their free housing. They pollute the cities with their noise because they play their TVs and stereos loud all the time. They have fights on the streets. The list goes on and on. It’s utterly disgusting to watch them and no one wants to see them around. Come voting day, they pile up at the booths to vote for whatever politician bribed them off (the going rate is about 50-75 lei per vote). And they continue to get welfare from the government. Why in hell does that happen?

Why do we aid them? Why do we, the tax-paying citizens who support our governments and who work hard, some of us seven days a week, not just five, allow populist politicians to give our tax money to this societal detritus, to these walking piles of filth who pollute our cities and our lives? Why? That is a question for which I have yet to receive an adequate answer.

Some say it’s because the crime rate would go up, that these societal parasites would resort to crime of all sort in order to get some cash, and that we need to placate them with a monthly stipend. To that I reply that they (the parasites) are already engaging in illegal and criminal behavior. And besides, that’s we have we have police forces. I’d much rather know that my tax money goes to pay the salary of honest policemen who won’t hesitate to shoot down a parasite who is committing a crime, rather than have it go to helping that same parasite get drunk or drugged or sit in his or her own filth all day, watching TV.

Are you winching at the idea of cleaning up the filth of the world? Why? Are you more content to see it polluting your world, day in and day out, while you support it with your own money?

Some say that we need to work on rehabilitating the scumbags. To that I say they’re welcome to do it on their own dime and time. I have yet to see these efforts succeed even marginally. Some people are born to be shit and they’re going to be shit for as long as you allow them to be around.

Some say that out of the parasites we sometimes get people who rise up and become good citizens. To that I say I’ve heard enough about the exceptions to the rule. We need to stop worrying about the 0,001% of societal parasites who might at some unknown time become worthwhile people and deal with them as a class right now, the way they deserve to be dealt with.

So why are we spending so much of our money (it’s still our money even if we give it to the government in the form of taxes, I hope you realize that) to support those who don’t deserve any support whatsoever? Why?! Why don’t we cut them loose and help those who truly deserve it?

In case you’re wondering what we can do with the societal detritus, I have a plan and it’s this: mandatory community service. If they want government aid, they need to be out there on the streets, every single day, cleaning up our towns, everywhere. Whatever work to be done in our communities, they report for work every morning and they they get it done properly, under close supervision, otherwise they get nothing. They sweep the streets. They clean the garbage cans. They scrub grafitti off the walls. They scoop the poop leftover from wayward pets and the gum off the sidewalk. They clean our city parks and pull out the weeds. Etc… this list can go on and on. And it should also be mandatory for them to keep their places of living clean, to do everything by the letter of the law, or they stop getting aid. They get caught doing anything illegal, in jail they go, where they do mandatory work assigned to them.

As for the people who deserve help, I bet we can all think of hundreds of ways to help them, besides those currently available in our various countries.

Come on, let’s put a stop to the filth of society already!

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Thoughts

Beware the creepy crawlies

It definitely pays to watch out for bed bugs, because a rare bite or two may turn into hundreds of bites per night, after the filthy little critters begin to multiply. The National Geographic put together a video that shows how bed bugs crawl out of the walls to bite people right before dawn, when they’re in their deepest sleep period of the night.

And here’s a video that shows what a serious infestation of bed bugs looks like. It’s the stuff of horror movies, and one definitely wouldn’t want to live in such a place, ever. Yet those poor old folks are stuck there, getting bitten by the bugs every day and every night.

So, it looks like the thing to do you see the first bed bug is to go all out. Get the strongest pesticide you can get, apply it to all the crevices where the critters could be, squash all the ones you can see, and hope you’ve staved off an invasion. Get all the help you can get, don’t give them an inch.

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A Guide To A Good Life

The decline of personal hygiene

I’ve come across so many pungent body odors lately that I’m led to assume personal hygiene is no longer important to people.

Just yesterday, I was in a department store, and two different people smelled so bad I almost vomited as they walked by me. They’re not isolated incidents, either. I’ve seen people of all walks of life and ages whose body odor was so powerful, so acrid, so stomach-turningly revolting, that I was left speechless every time. If you can stand it, let me reassure you this isn’t the smell of sweat after a hard day’s work. No, these people truly stink, as in a medieval, once-a-year bathing, wearing the same clothes for weeks kind of a stench.

How is it possible that in this day and age and country, when a hot shower and a bar of soap are so accessible, that so many people forego this daily necessity? How can it be?

Then, seeing people use the bathroom and not wash their hands (before and after) seems to be an almost daily occurrence. How grown men can handle their private parts after they’ve touched all sorts of nasty things (keyboards and mice being among the filthiest, even more so than toilet seats), is beyond me. And then, leaving the bathroom without washing their hands is an even more disgusting sight. To think, these ninnies then go on to shake other people’s hands, and to pat them on the back, or worse, lend you their pens, or touch your door handle, sit down at your desk to type at your keyboard… The possibilities are mind-boggling.

I’m not germ phobic, and I don’t wash my hands countless times every day – just when I use the bathroom or when they’re dirty. I don’t use hand sterilizers, either. I don’t have cans of Lysol spray lying around, ready to be used. I don’t think I’m cuckoo, but it seems that I see more and more people (no, filthy beasts) acting as if it’s perfectly alright to smell like a pig and have the bathroom manners of one as well.

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Reviews

Riding on the CFR

While in Romania to take care of family matters, I’ve had the displeasure of riding on the CFR (Caile Ferate Romane), which can be translated as the Romanian Ferovial Transport, or Romanian Railroads. Its equivalent in the States is Amtrak. They’re both state-run, and that’s where the similarity ends.

There are four classes of trains that run in Romania. I’ll give you the four Romanian terms, then explain what each means. The following trains are available: InterCity, Rapid, Accelerat and Personal.

  • InterCity: clean, relatively fast train; more expensive than others, routes are limited to certain cities, and during certain times of the year.
  • Rapid: the term means “fast” in Romanian, and it’s a misnomer. It’s not fast, and it’s not clean. As a matter of fact, it’s downright disgusting on most Rapid trains. Some are indeed acceptable, but that’s about the nicest thing one can say about them. The Rapid is cheaper than the InterCity and more expensive than the Accelerat.
  • Accelerat: the term means “acceleration” in Romanian, and it’s somewhat true. The train stops (a lot) then it accelerates back to its usual speed, which is a snail-like 40-70 km/h. It’s not clean, but it’s somewhat cheaper than the Rapid.
  • Personal: the term means the same thing in Romanian as in English. It’s a train meant for moving people back and forth, as compared to goods/merchandise. If you’ve ever seen a cattle train, the similarities are striking: the wagons are rusty, hot, dirty, and smelly. It’s also slow as molasses, and stops at every possible station, sometimes even in the middle of nowhere. It’s the cheapest train one can get a ticket on, and it’s also a train one should avoid at all cost.

There are also two price-levels on Romanian trains: first class, and second class. Unless one is talking about InterCity trains, the two are misnomers. On most trains, there is no difference between first class and second class but the price. Indeed, first class is filthier than second class. At any rate, if it’s possible, one should avoid second class, unless one enjoys the smells of stale beer and spoiled food, and the possible unwelcome odors of perspiration (there is no air conditioning on any train, in any class, except on the InterCity.) I should mention these are identifiable odors. There are plenty of mystery odors that I dare not guess at.

Why am I writing this? Because as I mentioned at the start of my post, I’ve had the distinct displeasure of having to use rail transport while in Romania, and I can tell you that the experience stinks, both literally and figuratively speaking. To illustrate my point, I took photos, which I’ll display below.

The one highlight of our trip was the InterCity, which was indeed clean and looked and smelled adequately in first class. The experience was on par with American Amtrak standards. The only negative thing I can say is that the paper in the bathroom ran out during the trip. Thankfully, it was the paper towels that ran out, not the toilet paper. Here are some photos.

For most of our rail travels, there was no InterCity service on the routes we needed to take – these were major cities, by the way, Iasi being one example. What’s more, we travelled overnight, but there were no first class sleeping accommodations. We had to use the regular first class. One would think that since this was an overnight train with no sleeping wagons, the chairs in first class would recline, so one could get some sleep. Well, you’d be wrong if you assumed that. They reclined about two inches, just enough to put one in an uncomfortable position, halfway between upright and reclined. The conditions were miserable. There was visible filth and muck on the floors, chairs, headrests, walls, bathroom – just about everywhere.

On the seat assigned to me, wet engine grease was smeared on the backrest. There were more stains of unknown nature on the seats. The bathroom floor and walls wore caked patches of filth and who knows what… Keep in mind this is supposed to be 1st class! To add insult to injury, our window was stuck open, all night long. And… it also rained. It was the train ride from hell.

Again, to recap, these photos were taken in 1st class, on a Rapid. I also had the displeasure and discomfort of riding on a Personal, in 1st class. I dared not take photos. I recoil at the memory of that horrid experience. It was all you could imagine about a filthy train, and more. It stank horribly, it was hot, even with all the windows open, there were odors galore, the seats were stained, and you could scrape the muck off the armrests, the floors and the windows… did I mention it stank?

As a native Romanian, I am ashamed to write this post. I thought long about whether or not to publish it, but I decided for it. The CFR needs to be shamed into fixing what’s wrong. No company or organization should be allowed to run trains like this. It’s absolutely unacceptable that trains and wagons meant for transporting people should be this filthy, this disgusting. And when one pays a premium for 1st class, no matter which train that 1st class is on, they should get premium service and accommodations, not muck, filth and engine grease.

The InterCity service is obviously done right. Sure, if one is picky, they can still find hygiene lacking here and there, but overall, it’s a good thing. So the CFR knows how to do something right if needed. Why not take that same level of service, and expand it to the other trains in their fleet? In a country where most people travel by train, it’s unacceptable that one should put up with the inferior accommodations and service that’s so predominant on today’s CFR. Do you know what the conductor said when I pointed out the window was stuck open? He shrugged his shoulders and moved on! Is that acceptable? I think not!

The CFR also has a welfare program for certain retired people and their spouses. I believe it’s limited to those who served in the military. They get 12 travel passes a year, which allow them to ride for free on any train, in any class they desire. While it’s a laudable program, because it makes travel possible for those who may not be able to afford it since they’re on fixed and very limited incomes, it has its shortcomings. People from all walks of life can use the passes, and they usually end up in 1st class. Who wouldn’t take a seat in 1st class if they could get it for free?

What this means, and I’ve seen it myself, is that someone from the country, used to working in the field, ends up in 1st class. Mind you, their hygiene is not the same as that of a city fellow. They’ll spread on three seats and sleep, with their shoes on. They usually smell, and their shoes are dusty or muddy. Imagine what this will do to a 1st class compartment, and to those who paid a premium in order to get better accommodations. It destroys the whole rationale for purchasing a 1st class ticket in the first place. Why should I pay extra to get a nice, quiet seat, when I’m going to have to smell some country folk with no manners?

This ends up being a losing situation for the CFR. People who usually travel in 1st class choose other means of transport, like the car or the airplane, and 1st class becomes a commoditized product, where any smelly Joe Blow from the country can get a seat. The CFR then ends up losing funds. It’s no wonder things go down the hill. I think the travel pass service should restrict the seating to 2nd class. Or, there should be special wagons set aside in each train, with seating reserved for those with free passes. Those who wish to pay a sum to upgrade to 1st class seating can do so. This will end up filtering out most of the abusers of the system, who, unwittingly or not, ruin the experience for the regular paying travellers.

Furthermore, the CFR should take its job of ensuring quality accommodations seriously, and invest in proper sanitization of all compartments, including all the nooks and crannies. It also better make sure there’s plenty of paper in the bathrooms, and they’re clean and usable! This is basic stuff, but they seem to forget about it when it comes to any other train but the InterCity. That’s not right! Finally, they should retrofit all trains, especially 1st class compartments, with air conditioning! It’s absolutely unbearable to travel by train in the heat of summer without A/C. We’re not in the 19th century anymore. A/C shouldn’t be an afterthought, it should be a necessity where mass travel is concerned.

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