Amusing? Sad? Aggravating?

[wal]

Ecc 5:8 Don't be surprised if the poor of your country are abused, and injustice takes the place of justice. After all, the lower officials must do what the higher ones order them to do.
Ecc 5:9 And since the king is the highest official, he benefits most from the taxes paid on the land.
Ecc 5:10 If you love money and wealth, you will never be satisfied with what you have. This doesn't make sense either.
Ecc 5:11 The more you have, the more everyone expects from you. Your money won't do you any good--others will just spend it for you.
Ecc 5:12 If you have to work hard for a living, you can rest well at night, even if you don't have much to eat. But if you are rich, you can't even sleep.

Ecc 5:13 I have seen something terribly unfair. People get rich, but it does them no good.
Ecc 5:14 Suddenly they lose everything in a bad business deal, then have nothing to leave for their children.
Ecc 5:15 They came into this world naked, and when they die, they will be just as naked. They can't take anything with them, and they won't have anything to show for all their work.
Ecc 5:16 That's terribly unfair. They leave the world just as they came into it. They gained nothing from running after the wind.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The KJV prose is so much more Biblical than this politically correct shit.

[apparatus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4teq7aKTNJ4

One of my favorite Stossel moments.

[David1982]

Who in their right mind would choose to live on the street? In the rain, frost, snow and unhealthy & dangerous conditions that homeless people live in. They do it because they're not in their right minds. Something I've come to realize is that people who are mentally healthy and stable find it almost impossible to understand mental illness and exactly what people who are mentally ill are going through; why they behave the way they do, why they don't just suck it up, put some more effort in, get a job, stop being lazy, stop messing up so bad. Mental illness is incomprehensible to someone who's not going through it. Homelessness is largely a mental health issue. It's about mentally unstable people not being able to cope with living a 'normal', everyday life. Getting them medical care is most important.

[Peoria]

It's not a matter of fault.
Fault doesn't matter when someone's in trouble. We help one another. That's civilisation.

I applaud the sentiment and good samaritanism has it's place. But you have to have a hard eye about these things and understand that some people actually choose to go down that path and aren't interested in whatever your idea of "help" is. In those cases, the fault is all their own, and the consequences should be as well. I'm not all that sympathetic when I get off the train to work day in and day out and see the same people begging in the same spots they've been in for the last 12 years. When rush hour's over, they're going to go get high for five or six hours, while the rest of us are being productive. I don't begrudge anybody the lifestyle -- but it's ludicrous to expect me or anyone else to pay for it, or clean up the hangover. And I don't want to hear any BS about helplessness before addiction etc. etc. because its damn hard work to become a full-blown, full-time junkie or drunk and it takes an enormous amount of dedication and perseverance.

[David1982]

I applaud the sentiment and good samaritanism has it's place. But you have to have a hard eye about these things and understand that some people actually choose to go down that path and aren't interested in whatever your idea of "help" is. In those cases, the fault is all their own, and the consequences should be as well. I'm not all that sympathetic when I get off the train to work day in and day out and see the same people begging in the same spots they've been in for the last 12 years. When rush hour's over, they're going to go get high for five or six hours, while the rest of us are being productive. I don't begrudge anybody the lifestyle -- but it's ludicrous to expect me or anyone else to pay for it, or clean up the hangover. And I don't want to hear any BS about helplessness before addiction etc. etc. because its damn hard work to become a full-blown, full-time junkie or drunk and it takes an enormous amount of dedication and perseverance.

Yes, that's exactly how it happens - they say to themselves, 'Shall I go and get a good career and become successful, or shall I just go and live on the street and take drugs and drink myself stupid in the rain and cold? Yes, I'll go live on the street, that seems like the best way to live my life'. That's exactly how it happens. And yes, it's really really difficult to drink lots of alcohol and then go to sleep on a bench day after day. Takes a lot of dedication.

I have a friend who became mentally ill and convinced himself he had Mad Cow Disease and cancer of the brain and liver, and he became a danger to his own life. He wasn't interested in any of the help offered to him, just like the homeless people you talk about who aren't interested in the help offered to them. But he needed it, so they sectioned him and forced the help upon him. Sometimes people need help, but they're too messed up to realize it themselves. Just because they don't take the help or try to help themselves, doesn't mean it's their fault or that people should give up on them.

[wal]

The KJV prose is so much more Biblical than this politically correct shit.

Mark your a purist after all, I am impressed, I knew there was something deep down there somewhere. Nobody can train with barbells and read those modern translations.

cc 5:8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
Ecc 5:9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
Ecc 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
Ecc 5:11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
Ecc 5:12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Ecc 5:13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
Ecc 5:14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
Ecc 5:15 As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
Ecc 5:16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

Jos_1:9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Mark you certainly exercise the mind as well at the body.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Mark your a purist after all, I am impressed, I knew there was something deep down there somewhere. Nobody can train with barbells and read those modern translations.

Yeah, to think those rich white guys on the Eastern seaboard had any idea how to run someplace when they wrote the Constitution in that absurd 18th Century English. It really has no bearing on the conduct of our lives and business today. The Constitution is a living document that has to breathe and grow. More recently when I read or hear this breathe and grow line all I can think of is Darth Vader (cue aqualung sound effect) and the Imperial Senate. Maybe Jar Jar can explain it better. He's a good stooge.

[Peoria]

I have a friend who became mentally ill and convinced himself he had Mad Cow Disease and cancer of the brain and liver, and he became a danger to his own life. He wasn't interested in any of the help offered to him, just like the homeless people you talk about who aren't interested in the help offered to them. But he needed it, so they sectioned him and forced the help upon him.

They "section" people in the UK but not here in the US. How's that working out for you guys? British cities are in WONDERFUL shape. The homelessness "problem" is as large or larger over there as it is here. Oh, and I never said anyone chooses to sleep on a bench, you condescending nitwit -- they choose to blow all their cash on getting wasted during business hours -- the rest of it is collateral damage.
Make sure to get back to us when your friend gets out of the group home or wherever the taxpayers are lodging him/her -- as much as I'd like to project your uninformed optimism, something tells me things will revert to their former state. After all, for most people who seek so-called treatment, it's really just a way to recharge their potassium levels, catch some shut-eye and avoid the law.

[tertius]

Mark your a purist after all, I am impressed, I knew there was something deep down there somewhere. Nobody can train with barbells and read those modern translations.

<snip>

Mark you certainly exercise the mind as well at the body.

I think Rip might be more likely to follow the advice of the Hávamál, really.