I just got this email from an a-political friend of mine. I'm guessing she thought it was quaint and harmless, and that alone pisses me off.
I got booted from Facebook last week (have no idea why - I welcome a discussion of that in the comments as well if it's happened to you!!) so I have nowhere to rant about this crap. Normally my diaries on dKos are a little more substantial....
The email masquerades as a quaint little math lesson, and winds up being an ignorant, racist and sexist commentary. There were definitely whiffs of teabagger scent wafting from my computer screen...
Oh the ignorance! below the fold....
Teabagger email:
Subject Line: RE: bill yon a lot of zeros (in office) (sic??)
How many zeros in a billion?
The next time you hear a politician use the
word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about
whether you want the 'politicians' spending
YOUR tax money.
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
but one advertising agency did a good job of
putting that figure into some perspective in
one of it's releases.
A.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were
living in the Stone Age..
D.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E.
A billion dollars ago was only
8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government
is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain...
let's take a look at New Orleans ..
It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.
Louisiana Senator,
Mary Landrieu (D)
is presently asking Congress for
250 BILLION DOLLARS
to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number...
what does it mean?
A.
Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, and child)
you each get $516,528.
B.
Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in
New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.
C.
Or... if you are a family of four...
your family gets $2,066,012.
Washington , D. C
HELLO!
Are all your calculators broken??
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration T ax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...
and our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt...
We had the largest middle class in the world...
and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians!'
And I still have to
press '1' for English.
My response:
Hmmm… Like the concept but…
100 years ago we did not have a strong middle class; rather, at the early 1900’s income disparity was greater than it is today. We had deep, dark poverty, child labor and sweat shops. People literally worked themselves to death.
Then the stock market crashed and we had the Great Depression. It wasn’t until some of our greatest legislative accomplishments and regulations were put into place post-depression that we developed “the strongest middle class in the world”.
Over 2,000 people DIED in a freaking stupid FLOOD in New Orleans – in the “greatest country in the world”, we are still as vulnerable to natural disasters as a third world country. They need a lot of money to get back on their feet – they didn’t have enough money to protect them in the first place. I’m sorry, but the person who wrote this apparently wasn’t affected by images of bloated bodies floating in streets, and tales of people dying in feces. I’m hazarding a guess that had the bodies been of a different color we wouldn’t be having these disgusting discussions. As though the people of NOLA are having a big freaking party with this money.
Our government hasn’t spent money on anything but wars and tax cuts for the rich for the past thirty years – maybe if they’d spent a little more on infrastructure, NOLA wouldn’t have happened. Had they spent more on education, this moron wouldn’t have written this email.
New Orleans is an AMERICAN city – since when do we abandon our own?
I find this email extremely offensive. It is historically ignorant and has racist undertones.
Sorry xxx, but ill-informed teabagger shit like this, masquerading in a quaint math lesson, REALLY pisses me off.
Hugs and kisses….
After I sent it, I realized I forgot to comment on the "mom with the kids" bit... barefoot and pregnant - that's the key to a prosperous society. There are so many things wrong with this email, I just thought it might be good fodder for discussion. Hope you agree!!