At Least I Get to Have Sex This Weekend
So D and her boys are coming for a visit this weekend. I know I said it was over, but D called me late one night about two weeks ago, and it was obvious that she has been wrestling with the whole issue. I have to give her credit. She is at least open enough to continue wrestling with the long-term implications of the whole situation, even though she has already taken what most of us would consider pretty decisive measures to completely end it.

The house is a total wreck, however, and I'm starting to stress about not having more done by the time she gets there. Work on the kitchen project is taking way longer than I expected. I played hooky from work yesterday to take care of what I thought were little impediments to getting my tabletop tile laid. Turns out I spent all day working on just one of those impediments -- re-wiring two outlets that were exposed by my demolition of existing walls. What I discovered is that whoever wired that part of the house cared very little about keeping to code. If I had to have that work inspected, it would have to be re-done. Open junction boxes in the crawlspace under the main kitchen floor, 3 or 4 branches off a single circuit, each of which could have 3 or 4 branches of their own. Electrical tape connecting the wires, instead of the required screw-cap connectors. I spent the entire day tracing down only one of two circuits I need to re-work before I can proceed with the finish work. And cursing, in the most venomous terms, the woman who owned the house before and who seemed incapable of doing anything without cutting corners and causing me serious inconvenience when those chickens come home to roost.

On Monday, Jerry Bowyer brought up an interesting question for discussion on his program, and I'd like to provide my take.

He asked the listening audience to call in a relate if they had prayed for the Steelers to win the AFC Championship game. Bowyer being Bowyer, this had little to do with the Steelers or sports at all, but much to do with what we, as Christians, value by examining what we pray for.

For me, the concept of asking the Almighty God to lend a hand to my hometown professional football team is downright ludicrous. Even as an athlete, I would have been horrified to have asked God to help me win any sporting contest. Is anyone really as clueless as to think that God would regard any such prayer? That's not to say that God doesn't care about sporting events, or have His own purposes in allowing a particular team or athlete to achieve for a time.

But the conversation proved even more interesting when a pastor from Greensburg called in, claiming to have prayed for victory based on Jeremiah 29:7:

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

This allowed Jerry to open up a can of economic whoop-ass on this poor, out-of-context, pathetic, schmuck. It also highlights a very big problem with the thinking in our area regarding the regional economy. Many people want to tie the success of our professional sports franchises to economic vitality. This is total crap and reflects the corrupt politics and unholy alliances between politicians, unions, the construction industry and other nefarious ne'er-do-wells who want to short circuit economic reality with quick-fix, fill-their-pockets, pipe dreams. Several years ago, the voters in this region told the professional teams of Pittsburgh to go fuck themselves on the issue of building new stadiums with tax dollars. So what did they do? The took the issue to the state government, who passed legislation authorizing construction of new baseball and football stadiums in both Philly and the 'Burgh. More recently, people like Mario Lemieux want to convince people that opening up riverfront casinos will be an economic boon, not to mention get the Penguins a new arena, having been left out of the rape of taxpayers by the state on the stadium bond issue.

And people are so stupid, that they honestly believe this whole line of garbage. Or at least they convince themselves that things will be OK, because they either want to gamble or sit in nicer seats at the hockey games. Jerry Bowyer was very eloquent in breaking down the fallacy of economic stimulation caused by gambling.

Here's how it goes. First, there is only a finite amount of disposal income available in the regional economy, and while more of it may get spent during the initial honeymoon phase surrounding the opening of any new casinos, eventually it will most likely be diverted from supporting other local businesses, some of which will go under. The nature of the gambling industry is such that in order to keep 'customers' (i.e. -- suckers) in their establishments, they offer reduced costs for food and drinks, preventing other businesses from competing and creating additional business closures and job losses.

Although Bowyer avoided making a moral pronouncement on the whole issue of gambling, there is more than enough evidence that gambling brings with it a whole set of problems, primarlily caused by the addiction issues brought on by the lure of easy moeny. People lose jobs, homes and families once gambling becomes the primary focus. Crime is drawn to the neighborhoods surrounding casinos, since those who are drawn to gambling are also going to be likely customers for prostitutes and drug dealers. Of course, they are also likely targets for robbers and thieves.

Getting back to the fallacy of justifying praying for the Steelers to win as a means to spur economic growth, let's step into the way back machine and take a trip to 1979. The Steelers had just won their fourth Super Bowl in six years, and the Pirates were the reigning World Series champions. If there was ever a time in which this theory should be tested, surely 1979 would have been the springboard for one of the biggest regional economic booms in the history of this country.

Not.

Instead, 1979 was the beginning of the worst recession in this area since the Great Depression. What happened during that time still has impacts in chronically lethargic areas, such as where I live. The steel industry was shutting down plants and laying off workers by the thousands, because both it and the automotive industry (steel's #1 customer) were losing ground on Japanese competitors. Did our status as the 'City of Champions' make a damn bit of difference? Hell, no! All it did, for some strange reason, was to entrench our entire region into a crybaby, why-can't-it-be-like-it-was-in-the-good-old-days mentality.

People still think they should make twenty-plus dollars an hour for doing simpleton work, that manufacturing, basic industry, and construction are the needed building blocks for a thriving regional economy, that the Steelers should win the Super Bowl every year. OK, that last one's probably just me.

In the meantime, our city has gone into bankruptcy, there are few new businesses willing to come here and deal with the taxes and the unionist mentality, and the people are easy marks for any politician who has quick-fix scheme to sell.

Honestly, I can see why people from other parts of the country laugh at us. We have to be some of the dumbest people this side of Appalachia.
- posted by The Drake @ 9:52 AM