Incentives to small businesses don't usually bother me. Incentives to major corporations often do

Well here's where the pickle is, for me.

Which I would have fewer problems with if the people advocating it weren't against social services for people.

Here's the thing. Social services for people work in that it prevents us from living in a society where we have people with carts tolling bells and bellowing, "BRING OUT YOUR DEAD."

The gorgeousness of social services is that the intent is that people who need the services won't always need them, or haven't always needed them, so that they are investing in a society in which bell-ringers are obsolete.

Low interest student loans are a form of welfare many of us are familiar with. The Government says, "We will front you the money at a low rate of interest. Statistically speaking, if you have a college education you will be more likely to find a job and pay back into the system with your yummy yummy taxes. We're investing in you."

This is the way it is with tax incentives for businesses, as well. You can get low-interest loans for your business, or get tax breaks for your business, in the hope that you'll be successful and contribute to the ecomony and keep the bell-ringers at bay.

Food stamps are supposed to work the same way as the tax incentive. The Government's interest is in you putting your shoulder to the wheel. You're not supposed to rely on it for a lifetime, just til you're on your feet.

Some folks leech off the system, have children who leech off the system, and live forever as wards of the state for their daily bread. Big business can do the same. Welfare isn't supposed to be a reward for you having been born, anymore than tax incentives for businesses are supposed to be a reward because you (or your grandpappy) had a groovy new idea that created jobs.

At some point, you're a leech and need to get off the dole. If your profit margin is such that you own a yacht and a home in Tuscany, you're not getting a break, you're getting a bonus check. And you don't fucking need it. Your reward is your success, yo. You can stand on your own two feet, fucko.

And maybe conservatives bitching about social programs also hate the Big Business Welfare and grumble. I hate Welfare leeches just as much. This coming from someone who knows, at heart, that if by some fate that her dad didn't stick around, she'd have grown up on Processed Cheese Food in Large Industrial Sized Blocks.

Ever look back at the thread and wonder, "what the fuck does this have to do with Minear?"

Ever look back at the thread and wonder, "what the fuck does this have to do with Minear?"

Well, this discussion did recreate most of the dialog from 'Moon,' but with more spirit and human interest.

Nobody has offered to sleep with anybody yet. Ergo, not Heinlein.

Wait Betsy.

ahem

Oh my god! Math is so hard! I need to be fucked for I am an emptyheaded hole! Teach me how to breed?

Either Betsy is on a plane to LA to take me up on the offer, or is looking for a blunt object with which to bludgeon me.

Just for that, I shall smite you with the mighty powers of my BNFosity...except no. I wasn't really ever a BNF. I think that I achieved a certain amount of notoriety within the Bronze community but that was a fairly small pond and not representative of the BtVS fandom.

I knew I was going to be smitten. Damn.

You're right. It was more of a...what? A duchy, maybe. For me, it was my introduction of fandom, so I lacked any sense of proportion. Even now, ME/ME-related stuff is my only fandom, so I have a certain tunnel vision.

And also, I could point to a dozen Brozers off the top of my head that had a higher profile. It wasn't ever as if anyone outside of the small pond knew who I was.

Well, do you mean people like Mere, RD, or who? You weren't really only known in the Bronze. Even before I ever posted linear-side, I knew your name from the GBAE campaign. You wrote for ScoopMe. You were the webmistress for jw.net (which I'd found independent of the Bronze), and ran scoobygang. At some point, you built a site for Tim. Some things you did, like the refugee board, Caritas, etc., were Bronze-specific, but not all. Ditto Allyson and t accomplishments laundry list . And I'd always assumed (but didn't know, because I'm not in those fandoms) that people like shrift and 'suela are BN Farscape Fs.

Oh and before I go, I meant to say this earlier but I've only ever been aware of "BNF" with the associated negative connotations and that was long before I'd even heard of LJ.

I never realized the bad connotations BNF has for people. Well, I might have realized some of it, but never paid it much mind. I have seen it used snidely, but usually that's been by people mocking themselves (probably Allyson mocking herself and the concept), or by people who are jealous, or have been corrected (like you know, people who were going to send apples to Fox).

The Buffistas aren't a fandom, but they are of fandom. We may be no more representative than, say, the Kittens, but we're both 'net fandom, no?

Yes, this. We're a part of the greater Buffy/Angel/Firefly (and now Wonderfalls) fandoms, or the ME fandom. And the fandom is huge. There are a lot of overlaps in the sects of our fandom, but still, it's huge. There are 'shipper sects, sects devoted to each character and actor, and most (if not all) of the writers, the production company, fic sects and subsects, etc.

To me, while a BNF can also be a beloved member of an internet community, they aren't the same thing.

I do agree with that, too. I guess to me now, it just is neutral, or at least it is useful enough shorthand in some situations for me to assume it's not always going to be meant as negative. That's why I could (correctly or not) think of Kristen, Allyson, shrift, and 'suela as BNFs. To me, it means a well known, prolific and/or active fan, probably usually (but not always) one with some VIP contact. I pick up any connotations BNF might carry from the context in which it is used, rather than inherent in the term, itself.

Historical note: At the Hugo awards, the presenter mispronounced Minear. (In the way you'd expect.) I couldn't tell whether it was a speech error or a fuzzy sound system, but it sure sounded like she said "Josh Whedon" too.

Economic policy and partisanship amuses me no end. In 1996, a number of republican heads exploded when Bill Clinton stole their tagline and said, "The era of big government is over." Those head-splodey republicans were consequently not around to prevent republicans from becoming the party of fiscal insanity. It's been a total switch, within my lifetime, of which party likes to spend like there's no tomorrow and which gets all angstful about balancing the budget.

I think Tip O'Neill is laughing in his grave.

I think Tip O'Neill is laughing in his grave.

Mr. Speaker! My dad used to point him out to me when we'd drive past the hill and see him walking every now and again. I was soooo little. "Allyson, that's the Speaker. He's very important."

He just looked like a grampa to me.

When my friend's mom was a teenager, her dad (my friend's grampa) wrote editorials for the Globe. Every now and again Tip called the house and said, "Kathleen, I like your father, but today he's an asshole."

Either Betsy is on a plane to LA to take me up on the offer, or is looking for a blunt object with which to bludgeon me.

Betsy was in bed with Mr. Migraine Drug. More the bludgeonee than the bludgeoner.