They never talk about being in debt so it just seems like they like working way too much.

Most people don't. Debt's a dirty little secret in most people's closets.

I definitely don't in general think people who have three jobs are lucky -- more like crazy, at least the ones I have met.

Crazy how? Because they want to make ends meet and three jobs is the only way?

They never talk about being in debt so it just seems like they like working way too much.

In my experience, people who are truly poor, in the below-the-poverty-line sense, don't talk about it. I can't think of anyone who would work 3 jobs for the fun of it.

The building I work in is hosting the LA chambers of commerce's big annual dinner. They set up a really nice tented area in the outdoor plaza in front, complete with carpeting, a sound system, and special lighting.

It's been raining.

Hard.

Science fiction writer Jack L. Chalker died today after a long illness.

That's a shame. I really liked his Dancing Gods books.

I am rendered constantly agog with each revelation that this administration is, well, evil.

I have a hard time convincing people that this administration is not just "politics as usual" nor a "typical Republican administration." The Bush administration is a radical departure from the way politics has been practiced for the last century or so, from their obsession with secrecy to their contempt for any sort of congressional oversight to a mile long list of other stuff. This should be of concern to conservatives too, and to people who think that giving unlimited power to the executive branch is a bad thing.

Maybe it will stop, Lee.

I've met people that I think are crazy for working too hard--but they're usually career track people who make good money in just one job, and are so driven that they all but live at the office, and not just for the occasional crunch time.

Then again, when the muse is upon me I can be hella driven, focused, and hard-working myself, so maybe all those people just love being consultants or directors of development or whatever, and I assume they're all about the money and prestige and workaholism because I think their jobs are boring.

But that's a digression. IME, people who work more than one job are doing it out of necessity to make ends meet (with the rare exception of people working in one field to pay the bills while building enough experience in a new field to transition into it or because it's a passion that won't quite pay the rent), and the jobs are of the soul-sucking and low-paying variety.

I don't have the answers. But I do know it's messed up, and I can't see a single mother working three jobs as something that ought to be praised as a wonderful example of work ethic in action. It horrifies me, to think of living a life with no time for family, no time for friends, no time to curl up with a book and just be.

Maybe it will stop, Lee.

Too late.

Did I mention the carpeting laid out on the ground of the outdoor plaza?

Every attendant I've ever had has had at least two.(Attendants don't get health insurance.) My friend K., when we were roommates had four Bush can kiss my big white crippled ass.

I'm not really an American exceptionalist in my brain, either, but I am in my culture.

Can you clarify this sentence? How do you define exceptionalist, and are you saying you're one in your culture, but not your brain?

It's easy for me, being from a small and broken country like Jamaica, one I love with a fierce and burning love. I don't believe in any perfection. There is bad, but it is rarely uniform, and strange and marvellous things like the end of apartheid happen, and terrible things like the rise of Nazism also happen. I'm loathe to use the word unique at all, much less to credit one nation's actions or characteristics. We're just not different enough for that.

eta:

I have two jobs, admittedly for the fun of it. There's the one that pays my rent, and there's the one that's a dream that could never keep me in the style to which I've become accustomed (plus I'd be scared). I've been dubbed charmingly Jamaican for it.