Why Being Poor is More Expensive Than Being Rich

According to the Census Bureau, more than 37 million people in the country live below the poverty line.

1. Bank Fees

Some businesses don’t even accept paper money anymore. Renting an apartment? Don’t bring that shoebox full of dollar bills. Many places are now strictly debit or credit. And they don’t care whether it’s from a bank account that has actual funds, or one which is overdrawn and charging ridiculous fees every day that it has a negative balance. If you’re poor, you better be really good at budgeting — or begging that the bank kindly cancel your overdraft fees, which can be upwards of $35 per day. For some, that’s food for a week.

Continue Reading

Who Is The Biggest Loser Of 2011?

The cows were the first to know.

200 Delphic bovines in Wisconsin died suddenly this January. Their passing followed on the heels of other mysterious animal deaths. Hundreds of thousands of fish floated belly up in Maryland and Arkansas waterways. 40,000 crabs washed up on England’s barnacled shores. Thousands of birds plunged from the sky over backwater Louisiana towns.

The mass animal deaths baffled scientists and smacked of an unfinished Kurt Vonnegut novel. But to dooms-dayers, it was the latest incontrovertible evidence: the Rapture was upon us.

Continue Reading

What If It Doesn’t Get Better?

After a number of recent gay teen suicides, the “It Gets Better” video campaign was developed in hopes of reaching out to gay/bisexual/transgendered teens feeling isolated and depressed. In only a month, the campaign has amassed thousands of videos speaking out against gay-bashing and encouraged teens to reach out for help instead of self-harming or committing suicide.

There is no doubt that the campaign is trying to help teens, but does ‘It gets better’ promote the tolerance of bullies and homophobes at the same time? Those who believe themselves to be taking a more honest approach have made “it doesn’t get better” videos which have received much backlash, event though they are honest, non-homophobic, free of ridicule and often made by someone gay or transgendered.

Continue Reading

The Six Worst Donald Trump Blunders & Bungles

Trump has decided not to run for President, making his brush with politics seem like another gaudy (and self-centered) publicity stunt. There are a few lunatics who were actually rooting for this cold-hearted cash machine, but most of us knew that ‘President Trump’ would only bring headaches and a lot of new limousine parking lots where our houses used to be. In celebration of Trump’s decision not to run, here is an overview of some of his worst moments:

Failed Business Ventures

GoTrump.com

GoTrump.com, a search engine you’ve never heard of, launched in 2006 and was shut down only a year later.

Continue Reading

Six Of The Worst Conservative Moral Hypocrites

Scandals are nothing new in politics but as of late, the purveyors of indecent acts have often been those who had previously most vociferously demonized and chastised others for their ‘immoral’ behavior. Here’s a list of seven of the worst “do as I say but not as I do” offenders:

6. Larry ”Happy feet” Craig

Larry Craig both loves and hates naughty boys

While serving as a Republican senator for Idaho, Craig was arrested for attempting to solicit some man lovin’ in a bathroom stall from an undercover police officer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Craig was a long-standing opponent of gay rights and gay marriage, and voted against homosexuality being included in hate crimes legislation. Even funnier (and weirder) in retrospect is the quote he offered to Tim Russert in 1999 in the wake of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal:

“The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy – a naughty boy. I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.”

Continue Reading