Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

Saturday night, Ben and I had people over to hang out and play games. A tray of chocolate-covered rice krispy treats was brought, and I made a point to tell people to make sure the cover was on tightly because one of the cats gets into all the food.

Apparently people don't fucking listen, because I got up at one point to put some fruit in the fridge, and Luna jumped guiltily off the counter, after having nudged the top off the tray and licked a bit of chocolate off one of the bars. She would absolutely have gotten a lot more if I hadn't coincidentally gotten up right then.

Apparently Luna having done this didn't make an impression on people, because a couple hours later, I heard the sound of top sliding over foil as Luna pushed it off.

Last night when Ben cleaned the litter boxes, he found a huge liquid poop in one of them and a smaller goopy poop in another one. This morning, Luna ate really slowly and then barfed up her entire breakfast. She's acting fairly normal otherwise, but we still may have to take her to the vet--because of someone fucking else's fucking inability to listen to fucking directions.

I've been called "bossy" and "bitchy" and "anal retentive" for insisting that people do basic things like NOT POISON MY CATS. "Ugh, C's just being a bitch again." I've been made fun of for having a particular way of doing things. I HAVE A PARTICULAR WAY OF DOING THINGS BECAUSE THAT'S HOW I KEEP THE CATS OUT OF MY FUCKING FOOD.

Maybe I'm overly sensitive because I don't want to make a fuss and have people roll their eyes at me for making a simple request to keep food from marauding cats. When Isis was still alive, I had to pick up all sorts of dropped food, following people around like their fucking mother, because she had diabetes and a severe grain allergy. I said, "hey, Isis can't have crumbs, so please be careful and pick your crumbs up," and that didn't work.

I am really pissed right now and scared for my cat. And I don't want to have to spend money on a vet visit because of someone else's fucking carelessness.

I make no secret of my far-leftward (at least in the US) leanings, nor of my distaste for privileged assholes living in a thought experiment which, unleashed upon the world, would result in the deaths of millions, and corporate feudalism.

It is an immoral "philosophy" because their dogma, applied to the existing society, would result in "unintended" consequences, and for people whose battle cry is "laws have unintended consequences, therefore laws are stupid and should be abolished," the hypocrisy is, well, not charming or funny, just typically appalling. Allowing GM to fail, for example, wouldn't "punish" just GM's board for their bad decisions, but the thousands of workers who would lose their jobs at GM factories, those workers' families, the various store owners and employees in the town where the GM employees, now laid off and spending less money, live and shop, and even further reaching consequences, such as the suppliers of parts for the now-closed factory, their employees, their employees' families, and the various store owners and employees in the towns where GM's suppliers live and work.

Ignoring the real-world consequences because they're inconvenient for your theory is not only immoral, but monstrous and disgusting.

Their naïvete is inextricable from the enormous socioeconomic privilege that Libertarians have. They pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, attached to the finest hand-tooled leather boots their parents' money could buy.

A common Libertarian argument is that if people don't like the conditions at job X, people can negotiate better conditions, or they can leave and find a new job. They also apply this to their perfect, free-market "minarchist" society, where each city/state/corporatofeudal region has its own system of laws and rights, so for example in Libertarian Utopia America, San Francisco would be able to have its own set of LGBT-friendly laws, while Alabama could have its own set of racist, homophobic laws, and the Holy Invisible Hand of the Perfect Free Market would sort everything out, because people who want gay-friendly places to live and work could move to SFO, and bigots could move to Alabama.

(Sorry, non-bigoted Alabamans. I know there are some out there. Just your state came to mind because of the Christofascism evinced by an elected official recently, in which he said that only Christians are his brothers.)

In a perfect world, where packing up and moving 2000+ miles is inexpensive and risk-free, SURE. But people aren't robots without ties to places, like friends or family. There are a lot of reasons that moving is difficult, like the cost of hauling all your things, or even some of your things, 2000+ miles, wondering whether you'll make friends there, giving up free or low-cost child care if you're leaving your family behind.

Only someone who's never had to worry about making this month's rent could so blithely say, "Well, you can just move."

Only someone who's never had to worry about being fired for missing work to take their sick kid to the doctor could so blithely say In the USA, we have the freedom to negotiate whatever vacation we want. The idea that it’s generous to force employers to give holidays is just populism for suckers. I get 5 weeks holiday per year, because the free market works just fine. Some people have other interests.

Disgusting.

There are other reasons, like their privatization fetish and ludicrous belief that corporations are people, but other people have discussed those elsewhere.

I got free lunch starting in 4th grade.

We wore off-brand, knock-off clothes, or clothes from second-hand shops.

We got food at the store where they send the dented cans.

When my mom's 78 Olds started to die (in 1991), she wasn't sure she'd be able to get a replacement vehicle.

When I got The Letter from CTY, mom wouldn't let me go because we couldn't afford it, even with the scholarships available.

When my high school German club did an exchange program, I begged and pleaded to go, because I thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. (My grandparents paid for most of it. I was lucky to have extended family with money.)

It was the first time I was on a plane.

I was 16.

I didn't get new eyeglasses as often as necessary.

We didn't have health insurance.

I know it could have been worse, and I know I'm lucky -- privileged -- to have had a PhD grandfather who worked as a grant reviewer at NIH, who could cover things like clothes or food or help with the house payment when mom was laid off again.

I also know that there are a lot of people in the 15% of the population we were better off than who don't have access to middle-class grandparents or other forms of help than welfare.

Those of you who grew up in your comfortable middle-class families, whose parents didn't have to worry about being able to repair the roof when you found a puddle in the living room, and don't realize just how goddamn lucky you fucking were and think your experience is what everyone has, who think that everyone can do what you did through Hard Work, are really goddamn naïve.

That naïvete is your privilege. The way you think the world works only holds true for the top 50%.

Examine your fucking privilege. You might gain some compassion in the process.

Yeah, it's TOTALLY fucking mockworthy that people are in their 30s. FUCKING LOLARIOUS.

Note to all and sundry: this is PRECISELY why I quit.

ETA: It's been pointed out that said person has welcomed mockery. My opinion is still the same. I hate the idea that because you've reached an arbitrary number of years lived, which really isn't all that goddamn many tbh, that's worthy of scorn, derision, or mockery.

It's ageist bullshit, and society needs to stop propagating it with bullshit black cakes and balloons and "over the hill" nonsense.

Trying to explain to somebody why the method currently in use is resulting in shitty results that aren't useful for the decision-making process and that we may have to turn it over to the pros and having the only response being incoherent grumbling and "I don't think that'll make it any better."

Right, because having a huge spike due to stress at the time the NADIR is supposed to be happening is going to be really fucking useful in evaluating the current insulin regimen's efficacy.