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[personal profile] ebonlock
This "woe is me" bleat from noted Paste Eater Jeff Goldstein:

So. I’m holding this fundraiser in order to afford the maintainence of this site while raising enough money for a down payment to move us into a bigger house by year’s end (we live in a rented duplex at the moment)—when what happens? My landlord knocks on the door, tells me he’s lost his job, and that he’s going to have to sell the property. [...]

Still, this leaves us in quite a bind. Which got me to thinking: I wonder if Atrios and the rest of his progressive brethren (including such august champions of righteousness as Michael Berube, who recently shed his tweedy classroom demeanor to call me a “supercilious, ignorant, self-satisfied wanker") will step up and help save this poor young family from ending up on the streets. After all, isn’t that what “progressives” do?


Leads a commentor on Sadly, No! to leave one of the most brilliant responses I've yet read:

The spirit of Fitzmas overtook me, so I sent him some money, along with this message.
-------------------------
Jeff, I'm sorry to hear about your financial troubles. As a progressive, I've decided to help you out by donating $200. As a gesture of good will, I've decided to do it in a way consistent with your Republican beliefs. Taking the reconstruction of Iraq as my model, I did the following:

I hired some heavies to rob your house. They found $190 in the kitty above the fridge, and $10 on your bedside table. I thought it was only fair to use your money to pay them (seeing as you are the beneficiary here), so that leaves $160 for you.

Unfortunately, we broke your gate on the way out, so gave $90 dollars to my friends to fix it for you. They haven't got around to it yet. I hear the company has since been disbanded, so I'm not sure we'll be seeing that again. Oh well, these things happen. At least they painted it a nice colour.

Just before I left your property, I spotted your cat. I know your cat has a bad reputation, but I was in a hurry to leave, so I handed $30 and told it to buy you something nice. I trust your cat gave you a pleasant surprise?

I gave the remaining $40 to Mr Samarah to put in your paypal account. I think you might know him -- he owns a cement factory? Well, I have a bit of bad news on that count. Look, you've got to expect some inefficiencies in a situation like this, and consequently, only one third of the value will be getting to you. Frankly, I think you should be grateful that we liberated you-- I mean, liberated some money for you.

So that's it. There's $13 in your paypal account. I expect you to be grateful and to use it wisely. And if I hear anything bad about your financial situation causing arguments in your household, you'll only have yourselves to blame. After all, I gave you $200.

Regards,
elendil
By the way, sorry about your dog.

Date: 2006-05-15 05:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cyranocyrano.livejournal.com
I expect it's because the invisible hand of the free market is only supposed to lift us up, and therefore this is obviously the result of some socialist market manipulation. Because the invisible hand only hits us because it has to--it loves us and it hates when we make it hurt us. Why do we make it so mad, baby?

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