Axis Mundi X discussion

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/fas...

Any of you involved in real book clubs? With (gasp!) real people? Have they been a horror or a success?

I once was going to start a book club with some friends. We may have even selected a first book, but it never took off. Probably best for my friends, as I've little doubt but that I would have been the self-anointed ayatollah, shoving McCarthy and Nabokov down their throats, showering the initiates in flecks of spittle and salami as I preached allegory as an enemy to art, didacticism a tool of fascists, demanding they remain seated as I slur bourbon-soaked passages out of Chaucer in drunken Middle English.

I'm in a book club. In fact I found GR through the club. We haven't had any fights, but a splinter club formed because apparently we were reading fiction that was too "heavy." (I assume they meant difficulty and not weight.)

And I have shoved McCarthy and Nabokov down their throats.

Yeah, sometimes the people in my group read the book.

I'm in a book group that has given up reading the same thing. At the first meeting, I was the only one who had read the book. The next time, the book we picked was so popular, people were still waiting for it to come from the library.
Instead, we just share what we're reading, and gossip. Most of us work for the library system, so it devolves into shop talk, usually.

From Isaiah's article: ...Esther Bushell, a professional book-group facilitator who leads a dozen suburban New York groups and charges $250 to $300 a member annually for her services.

Now there's a job I've never heard of before.

Since I discovered that there are animal psychoanalysts, no job title surprises me anymore.

Alright, carry on. Must go weep for humanity.

Rusty, you just need to find your obscure niche,try these on fer size:

... Ok I really did have some good names made up, but then the phone rang, and I am having a mental hiccup.

I think I would enjoy being a couch breaker(in)er... lazyboy hasn't gone under yet right?

of course they might if they hired a bunch of breaker iners.

Do ya have to pick up turds?

No, Joe that would be waste managements job.

Hmmmm.....I've always wanted a management job. But this one sounds kinda crappy.

"copacetic," Koe? I have to say that is a word I have never seen. And I've read every book in the Universe.

You must not listen to jazz, Isaiah.

I'm generally too busy listening to Eminem and slapping women.

Isaiah... you whipper snapper... you clearly have not hung out with enough hippies if you have never heard the word copacetic. :::shakes head::: ah youth.

Don't worry Isaiah...I am a fifty year old with an allergy to hippies and I have not met that word either.....

Here ya go Rusty, just for you.


Please be prepared to make your voice heard.....



Pending Legislation: The AWNAA Act

Washington, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans. The "Americans With No Abilities Act" (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said California Senator Barbara Boxer. 'We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.'

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons of Inability.

Private-sector industries with good records of "Non-discrimination against the Inept" include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).

Under the "Americans With No Abilities Act," more than 25 million 'middle man' positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. This legislation will provide substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small- and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'

'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her inability to remember rightey tightey, lefty loosey. 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Gertz added. With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Dick Durban (D-IL): 'As a Senator with No Abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.'





I hope you realize this is a joke... or, maybe it's not? Considering the ineptness and incompetence throughout the government... it could be real and this email was sent out, but NOT as a joke!

**ARGGGHHHH**

If you can even find anyone. Their ability lies in hiding from any customer looking for some help.

Nick, that was bloody brilliant - especially the last paragraph.

I agree. Excellent material. You sure you didn't pull that from The Onion? It's just like something they would put out.

sorry, larry I don't recall where I found this. But it still brings tears to my eys.

Like an onion?

yes, just like an onion.