[Zardoz]

I don't know what to think of this:

Soup kitchens serving the homeless have been banned in the US city of Las Vegas with fines coming into force for anyone caught giving hand-outs in its parks.

On the one hand, it seems mean as hell. OTOH, I gotta agree with this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')If you were to provide a hot meal to somebody in a nice shady park as opposed to maybe a soup kitchen where they have to wait in line longer maybe it's an attractive thing, but at the same time once you leave the rescue mission, once you leave the shelter, you're left alone in that park.

"No bed, no doctor, no social service provider, and the neighbourhood has to pick up the problem."

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

They just want to stop the roving soup wagons that congregate in the parks. Cause all the homeless flock to the soup wagons and its making the park unuseable by the residents and families. You can still have soup kitchens else where etc. just not in teh parks.

Frankly, I don't blame them, everytime I have to walk past the place where they give out free lunches where I live you get hit with the unmistakeable aroma of urine. Like can't the homeless go to the side of the building? They have to piss in the bushes right on the sidewalk?

I'd hate to be one of the people who live right beside that place to have my front yard smelling all the time.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

It is an interesting paradox I think... Everyone hates poor people but everyone wants to be the victim in any situation, and face it being poor is a means to be the victim. Such a weird bloody world we live in.

[Ayame]

They say that you can judge a civilisation by the way it treats it's most vunerable.

Most people I know think that homeless people are lazy ass down and outers who need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Whereas in reality the majority of homeless are mentally ill who can't just 'snap out of it'. But hey as long as the government can sweep them out of sight it doesn't really care.

In some third world socities the mentally ill are better integrated into society (mainly through the support of extended family) and are not throw by the wayside.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

"It is no measure of mental health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" or so that is what I keep telling my doctor...

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', '[')i]Everyone hates poor people

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hey say that you can judge a civilisation by the way it treats it's most vunerable.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

When I say everyone hates poor people, I mean the average joe. Just look around you and you will see that everyone lives in fear of these poor people. In fear of loosing "it all", in fear or being out and of "not having".

Its the antithesis of the consumer lifestyle. It is everything to fear. It is everything they fear. Only instead of some nebulous ghost that usually stays in the dark corners of their minds, they have to stare at and face the reality of it, because these "poor people" just won't go away and hide like they should if they had any shame.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'W')hen I say everyone hates poor people, I mean the average joe.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

No way babe, I keep the faith!

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'W')hen I say everyone hates poor people, I mean the average joe.

[Chaparral]

Humbug! The problem with the winos druggies, ex felons and those folks who walk around my neighborhood carrying on heated discussions with the atmosphere is that you can't put them to work on your farm or use them as cannon fodder in your militia. No one likes that kind of poor person except do-gooders who are into constituency farming for fun and profit.

The poor people that we aspiring feudal lords like are the "working poor" who will do anything if it means that their children will have another meal that evening and a roof over their heads during the next snowstorm. A proper warlord can do something with these folks because they're useful. They can work the fields, pick strawberries, thresh wheat or go off and attack the neighboring ecovillages. The meritorious among them may be promoted to foreman or lieutanant while the perennial slackers, liabilities and flight risks may be sacrificed on suicidal missions to "hold ground till the reinforcements come". These are the poor people that we all know and deeply love.

[Chaparral]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') hate NASCAR phony pickup truck cowboys and especially suburban SUV soccer families who spend the planet's sweet energy for their own pathetic vanity.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'w')hatever happened to civility? I remember a time when most Americans actually had jobs i.e. work--where the movement of their bodies actually caused things to happen. Back then people said 'ma'am,' 'sir,' 'thankyou,' 'please,' and 'excuse me.'

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', '.')..Corn ethanol will surely save us.

[Zardoz]

What do you think Vegas will be like in ten or fifteen years, when the commodity that made its creation and growth possible becomes so expensive and so hard to get? What will happen when people can't fly or drive there, and electric power is so scarce and expensive that they have to turn off all those fantastic lights?

Do you suppose they'll be allowing mobile soup kitchens to operate in the parks then?

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '
')Do you suppose they'll be allowing mobile soup kitchens to operate in the parks then?