Joint Contrast

By – J.C.

When you’ve got too much time on your hands the littlest things in life tend to amaze you. I’ve been reading the newspaper quite a bit as of late. Just trying to do my part to keep the industry up and running, I suppose…

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Another reminder of how our white ancestors have attempted to rid the Native Americans from our collective consciousness came and went last week with the 100th anniversary of the American penny, at least the version we currently recognize.

On Aug. 2, 1909 the likeness of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln replaced the Indian Head on our 1-cent piece of currency in recognition of the 16th president’s 100th birthday. It was then-U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt that made the call on that change. To celebrate Lincoln’s 150th birthday the Lincoln Memorial then replaced the wheat shock on the back of the coin in 1959.

Now, 200 years after Lincoln’s birth, there will be four brand new special-edition pennies hitting the streets themed after Lincoln’s life in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Washington D.C.

Not that I mind the penny floating around in our everyday lives, but couldn’t the U.S. Mint find a cheaper way to make a piece of currency that values in at just a cent? It costs approximately 1.4 cents to produce a penny.

Take This Job Or Get The Fuck Out

Remember the good old days when you had choices of where, and where not, to earn a paycheck? Well they’re all but gone for now, my friend. And more American than ever are stuck with applying for jobs that they not long ago found appalling.

I recently read somewhere that many people are now applying for jobs that they otherwise thought unthinkable in the past, at prisons, sewage plants and slaughterhouses, to reference those that were mentioned in the story.

Be warned though, your new low-society co-workers are poised to greet you like inmates in a penitentiary shower. Just kidding. But they’ll get a good laugh at your lack of experience on the factory line.

Maybe that’s the only good think to come out of this current economic condition we’re in. Money snobs get a taste of the shit we’ve been shoveling for far too long.

In all seriousness though, wrap your mind around these numbers that were included in the story: a net total of 6.7 million jobs have been slashed since the recession has begun, making it “the most punishing job destroyer in at least 60 years.”

Watch Out For The Crazy Guy In The Corner

You might figure that such stress-inducing measures as not having a job would drive a man insane. But insane enough to shoot up their local fitness club? Crazy.

That’s what George Sodini recently did outside of Pittsburgh, killing three and wounding nine, before taking his own life. The mystery about it doesn’t even include professional troubles as the guy actually had a damn good job.

Excerpts from Sodini’s blog makes mention of his troubles with trying to find a date. That he hadn’t been out with a woman in 19 years. Which leads me to wonder if his expectations were a bit too high. Maybe he should have been looking in other places, for women a little lower on his grading scale.

What’s worse is that the blog was posted online for the world to see. Only the world apparently didn’t think much of this piece of shit to read it in the first place. The problem now is that somewhere, as you read this, there’s some other angry loner with an agitated mind that’s continuing to deteriorate as he shines his own guns.

You see, that’s why I don’t keep those things in the house.

Billy The Kid Was A Rat

Four months before being gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett, in a world that seems oh so far from here, legendary outlaw Billy the Kid penned a letter to Governor Lew Wallace of New Mexico in March 1881.

That letter, along with another from around 1979, is now on display at a history library in Santa Fe. In that first letter he tells the Governor that he witnessed a murder the month before and would testify for the state if protected from enemies and the indictments against him. That trial came and went with no word on his release.

The second letter was written because the pardon never went through on his behalf. So what’s a man to do as he faces sentencing, an eventual hanging, and an angry mob of people he ratted out? Bust out of the joint, that’s what.

His run from the law didn’t last long though.