Our Monsters, Ourselves

This blog by Katherine Ramsland was so appropo I had to re-post it on my blog.

Are you prepared for the “Zombie Apocalypse”? The third incident of cannibalism in a week and my brain is on high alert. A college student tells police he killed a housemate and then ate parts of the victim’s heart and brain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombieland

 

Military Experiment on drug addicts? Can you imagine a drug you spray on a Taliban village in Afghanistan that gets our enemies to eat each other? Beyond shocking!

 

Our Monsters, Ourselves

Does a series of bizarre crimes offer ominous signs?

Published on May 31, 2012 by Katherine Ramsland in Shadow Boxing

What is going on with the sudden emergence of weird killers this week? Have all these images of flesh-eating zombies that are floating around our cultural playground inspired copycats, or is a more serious social pathology beginning to erupt?

First, we get this naked man in Miami, Rudy Eugene, stripping another man before trying to eat his face. The toxicology results are not yet in, but police suspect that Eugene was possibly on drugs.

Then in Maryland, Alexander Kinyua, a Morgan State University student, admitted to murdering his roommate Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie with a knife. During his confession, he added a disgusting detail: not only did he dismember the victim but he also ate his heart and parts of his brain.

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Also this week in Canada, strange packages surfaced that contained recently dismembered body parts. A note attached to a severed foot warned that the killer would strike again. It was mailed to the headquarters of a political party. A severed hand was meant for another political party, but that package was intercepted. The torso was found in a suitcase dumped in the garbage. The rest of the parts might still be enroute.

Also enroute is Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, the suspected killer. The police have launched an international manhunt for the missing man. The news stations are all abuzz about an 11-minute video posted online, allegedly by Magnotta, that shows the murder and dismemberment. Supposedly, it also contains some cannibalism.

The video, by some reports, features a man tied to a bed frame. He is stabbed to death with an ice pick, then slashed across the throat, beheaded, and cut into pieces. The video was shot inside a shadowy apartment that resembles the unit in Montreal that holds evidence of a bloody homicide. The killer makes lewd gestures with severed limbs before performing necrophilic acts.

Magnotta, who offers bizarre, rambling statements on his website, along with self-promoting PR, makes it quite clear that he wants to be famous. He’s tried to become a renowned gay model, the supposed boyfriend of a notorious female killer, and an animal killer who videotapes the acts. He has certainly gained attention, but it’s not clear that anything he says (or shows) about himself is true. The only thing that’s obvious is that he seeks worldwide attention and he’s angry that nothing has worked.

Until now.

In a closet in the abandoned, bloodstained apartment is a note: “If you don’t like the reflection don’t look in the mirror.” Among other things, Magnotta appears to be making a social statement: What I did is what we’re all doing.

It’s arrogant, to be sure, but it might also be worth considering. If we examine this cluster of bizarre acts, we might see more than just the crimes themselves.

Our monsters grow out of covert social values that we abhor but still accept for certain contexts – especially expedient values that arise during social instability. When we have numerous unrelated murders with similarities within a tight time period, we have the possibility of a social contagion. They could be rooted in something larger that we don’t clearly see. Some people with low impulse control and poor coping skills may internalize social stress and play it out in aggression.

In medieval France, when the witch-finders hunted down “werewolves” as Satan’s spawn, the excitement of this form of the forbidden affected many unstable people. There were thousands of arrests of suspected werewolves and several sensational trials. Some “shapeshifters” admitted to tearing apart their victims with their teeth. 

Between the two world wars, as Germany’s resources declined and imperial Nazis took power, there were several murderous cannibals. These killers were like leaks in a damn of collective pathology that was moving toward payback. The total domination expressed in their style of cannibalism metaphorically mirrored their political leaders.

It’s difficult to say, except in retrospect, whether a spate of crimes is a social phenomenon. If they’re especially heinous, we just don’t want to see what they might be showing us.

But if we dare to make ourselves look, we can start watching for patterns.  Are these recent incidents just a copycat reflection of our zombie art, or do these violent individuals sense, the way animals detect an approaching storm, the first hints of social upheaval soon to devour us?

It’s food for thought.

 

 

Fast Food Insanity

It’s almost seems as though there’s a battle going on between the public and all the fast-food establishments, and, believe me, I think it’s very tasty food.
Regis Philbin

The intense competition among fast-food chains recently has created a sort of fast-food insanity. I was visiting my local Taco Bell slash Long John Silvers restaurant and I stood there for twenty-minutes just trying to read the Taco Bell side of the menu. They have added so many items now there must be a hundred choices.

Taco bell brought back the dozen meals, the combinations, the 99–cents menu, super value $179 menu, regularly priced items, plus newly added items like the Dorrito Chip Taco. Glancing at the Long John Silver menu the fish meal which included two frozen fish fillets, two hush-puppies, small fries, and cole-slaw was eight-bucks. Waay too much money for a fast-food fish meal. I can go to Chili’s, Olive Garden,  etc; and get a real meal for eight-bucks.

Fast food needs to be just that- “fast.”
Fast means limited menu with striving for speed and quality. In and Out Burger is an example of limited, fast, and good. I ordered a Cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk-shake which came to a grand total of five-bucks. The Cheeseburger had sheets of lettuce, not shredded like some burger joints, a slice of tomato, not the ends like Burger King and a whole slice of onion, not minced or diced or parts of an onion ring. The french-fries were a big boat not the small value fries that McDonald’s gives you and the chocolate shake was a 16 ounce real ice-cream shake not the frozen yogurt shake at McDonald’s or icemilk shake at other burger joints. My prepared  food was delivered in around five-minutes with a “Thankyou. Come Again!” Not the hurried look I get at McDonald’s.

Today at lunch, co-workers and I went to Burger King. Used to be the busiest lunch spot in town. The smoke cranking out the chimney used to create a cloud for blocks around. Today, BK was empty. Burger King has been plagued with problems leading to its demise as the number one burger joint. The announced bankruptcy and closing of hundreds of BK locations nationwide and the scandal involving the creepy looking king as BK spokesman (whom many perceived to act like a creepy child molester).

In other words, BK now has a serious image problem. Their business had dropped off at least by 50-percent if not more. Add to BK’s woes, the rising burger competition with In and Out Burger, 5-Guys Burgers, Smashburger, Sonic, Jimmy BUffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise, White Castle, Red Robin and other burger ventures and it looks like BK will not bounce back. Even though they have hired a new marketing form and dumped the creepy, leery King spokesman. I bought a whooper. In 1974, when I had my first whooper at BK- it was the best flame-broiled burger around,. The meat was juicy, fresh lettuce, tomato, whole onion slice. Let me tell you what I got today. A burger I wouldn’t feed to my god-damn dog. The meat was shoe-leather, from being in the holding tray too long. The lettuce was not a sheaf but a big knot, the tomato was a small leftover end of a tomato, and the onion was a broken part of an onion circle. In other words, it was “shit!”

I went through the drive-though. Had I been a walk-up customer I would’ve demanded my money back.

Burger King no longer has my business.

 ”I refuse to go into a fast-food outlet – to use the toilet even – in case anyone gets the wrong idea and thinks I am sneaking  a quick burger.” ~Jonny Wilkinson

McDonald’s is another fast food venue that has so diversified its menu with the concept of Healthy eating that it’s hard to find a burger on the menu anymore amidst the many chicken or salad offerings. I don;t want a freakin chicken sandwich or side salad when I go to McDonald’s.
I don’t want “healthy” french-fries in trans-fat oil that tastes like cardboard. I want a greasy quarter pounder with cheese, greasy fries, and a real ice-cream shake not some frozen yogurt crap. The heart attack is my business. I have good health insurance.

McDonald’s has added iced coffee. I took one sip- it- tasted like motor oil and I demanded my money back. McDonald’s may have served over one-billion but it lost my business despite adding free wi-fi that never seems to work properly in any of their locations.

KFC lost my business. A -three-piece chicken dinner with just a side of slaw and one biscuit should not cost you eight bucks. Not when you can buy a pound of chicken in the grocery store for $1-2 dollars.

5-Guys burgers lost my business. The $5 burger was okay but for  $5 I can go to In and Out Burger and get fries and a milk shake. If I want a cheeseburger in paradise, I’ll go to Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise or Fuddrucker’s where I can get a cold beer to wash it down at a cheaper price than 5-Guys Burgers.

Smashburger is good. Like mama used to make but again a tad on the pricy side for a simple burger smashed down on the grill. Hence, its name.

Other fast food places that have lost my business Chili’s.
Every Chili’s I go into is filthy. Tables that have not been bussed. Garbage all over the carpet. And the bar is outrageous. $6-9 for a beer? Forget that!

Applebee’s lost my business. Took my 75-year-old mother there for her birthday a dozen years ago. She was so excited. She had a coupon. 2 for 1. We had to argue with them to accept it, then when the food arrived, the portions were tiny and it was not hot. We got up and left, after a word to the manager and needless to say, I did not pay the bill even with threats to call the police.

Taco Smell lost my business when they started charging over $3 for a Chalupa which is a glorified Taco made the way they make them in old Mexico with Navajo Fry Bread. The service always sucks, employees rude or don’t care. Food quality gives you the “shits.”. Del Taco, which I visited only once lost my business. Their food is so bland it has absolutely no taste. Like eating paste. When you eat Mexican food, you expect flavorful, seasoned food. Not bland.

You know who does have my business?
In and Out Burger Sonic, I-Hop and  Domino’s who does the best one item pepperoni pizza around for $5 if you buy at lunch or after 9 pm. White Castle, Olive Garden, Wendy’s who has the only fast-food chili around like mama used to make.

And do you know why these chains have my business? Because they earned it. With fast, affordable and high quality service.

TALKIN BOUT A REVOLUTION

TALKIN BOUT A REVOLUTION

The big problem facing “Indie Authors” is this. Inadvertently- John Locke and the young Amanda Hocking took their shot,sold a million copies by creating the .99-cent rave and shredded online book sales for everyone else. I’m sure they didn’t mean to but this is what has happened. Readers don;t want to spend more than .99-cents now for a Kindle ebook. Then, after the Kindle bubble burst, there has …been this whole ebook price fixing scandal. Apple, MacMillan, Penguin, refuse to settle with DOJ while the rest of the uber-publishers like Simon & Schuster who got caught with their pants down were quick to settle with DOJ investigators.

You can be sure a big announcement by Amazon who owns Kindle, B & N (Nook) Apple iBook will be forthcoming announcing a dramatic decrease in the rate that royalties will be paid to ebook authors. Currently, Amazon pays its ebook authors like Locke, Hocking, and other’s 70-percent which is very generous while traditional publishers pay only 30-35 percent. New ebook authors should brace themselves for shocking decrease in royalty structure as well as other shocking changes. Such as having to sign up with KDP Preferred in order to publish your books, Create Space, or one of the many formatter’s owned by Amazon, Barnes Nobles, Apple. These formatter’s may require many of the ridiculous requirements that i Universe, Infinity and other online publishers require such as mandatory editing at .30-cents per word, book cover design done exclusively by them, and other requirements which limit the ability of “Indie Authors to run their own self-publishing companies like John Locke has done and make a fair price for their ebooks.

Locke and Hocking made publishers nervous. Showed them that an “indie author” with no previous experience could go outside the system and sell a million copies. Publisher’s lost control and the one thing that uber-publishers want more than your book to sell a million copies is total control. They hate it when someone goes around the system and is successful. Publishers like Curtis Brown, Penguin, MacMillian have been using “gangsta tactics” for decades and Locke and Hocking’s success scared them. They wanted the control back- thus the ebook price fixing scandal which Apple, Penguin and MacMillian are currently fighting. “My lawyer can beat up on your lawyer,” seems to be the current attitude of Apple, Macmillan, Penguin which is why they are thumbing their nose at Dept. of Justice (DOJ) investigators.

Ebook authors should brace themselves for many shocking, stunning changes in the current self-publishing system. The Kindle bubble has burst. Locke, Hocking, Konrath, and a few other’s won- but for the rest of us we’re going to have to scratch dirt just to get a decent price for our books.

Indie Authors, all independent authors must form an independent author coalition, set a price range for all ebooks of $4.99-$9.99 and stop trying to undercut other indie authors. Indie authors must work together as a coalition, help promote and market other indie author’s books so that we can all get a fair price for our books. Locke and Hocking never even asked me if I would plug their books on my many websites. I would have but the point is they were so busy making theirs they shredded the rest of us.

Either “indie authors” form a coalition and agree on a mandatory price range for all ebooks or we’re all screwed and once again, the uber-publishers like Macmillan, Penguin will once again gain control and dictate to us the way it’s going to be just as they have for decades with traditional publishing.

My Novel Is Worth More Than John Locke’s Comb and a helluva lot more than the price of a downloaded iTunes song

This is a reprint of Rob Guthrie’s blog which is so right on! For all you new career author’s- the Kindle explosion is over.

“Fuck John Locke and Amanda Hocking for giving their crappy eBooks away for the price of that kind of toothbrush they offer you at a shitty hotel when you forget yours. You know the kind I’m talking about, where the plastic is so cheap and brittle if you actually try and scrub with it you might be killed when it bursts into a million little blood-red pieces of cheap shrapnel. All this so Locke and Hocking could make themselves a few million and leave the rest of us holding the money bags with the strips of cut-up newspaper in them.” ~Rob Guthrie

I have given up trying to tell this to new career authors who won;t listen to my advice anyway. Like college grads- they think they know it all. At least Rob Guthrie and I are on the same page on this. Never! Sell your books for less than the price of a song download on iTUnes. George RR Martin became so popular …with (Game Of Thrones) he had to up his ebook price on his new release to $14.00 Kindle ebook. Most new authors should start their pricing at $7.99 -$9.99 ebook. Since Apple doesn;t give authors a choice anyway but sets their own ebook pricing at $9.99 what does that tell you? Who’s gonna pay $9.99 for your ebook at Apple when you can buy it on Kindle for .99-cents? But, I give up trying to convince new authors. It’s like talking to a wall.

Thanks Rob Guthrie!

So here’s the blog. Maybe it’ll make sense to you new author’s that actually have a business background and not just pipe dreams.

My Novel Is Worth More Than John Locke’s Comb

On May 4, 2012, in Celebrities, Famous Writers, Indie Authors, Opinion, Rant, Soap Box, The Market, by rsguthrie

Okay, this is it. The rant to end all rants. I’m warning you here. I’m done being nice. I’ve talked to too many Indie authors who feel the same way I do. I’m saying it. I have to say it. I hope all of you who feel the same as I do will rise up and have my back here. It’s gonna get bloody before it’s all through. It may be like my divorce—I may lose some comrades. I hope not. I am sick to death of this ride—I feel like we Indie authors have been led into a “funhouse” (which are no fucking fun at all: you fall down, look fat and distorted in the mirrors, and they put sticky stuff on the door handles) but we’ve been told how damn lucky we are to be where we are.

I’ve thought about it a lot, but yes, I am certain of it. I recently took a walk through the Dollar Store and saw a fairly standard, crappy hair pick priced at 99 cents. It’s been years since I had a perm (or hair) so I didn’t want the comb but I thought a lot at that moment about my novels. I thought about the durability of the piece of plastic before me.  I thought about the number of hours I put into writing the (almost) three books I have finished. That comb was pure junk. I thought about the person working on the assembly line in China making ten cents a day that may have assembled it, or at least put it in a package, and I felt for them, too.

Then I went home and read about a new book by A.J. Jacobs (Drop Dead Healthy, Simon & Schuster). The suggested retail price for the new hardcover is $26.99. No one is selling it at that price, of course. Amazon has the hardcover for $15.91 (which is pretty amazing because the KINDLE version is $12.99). I have to admit I did wonder a bit about how cool it would be to have Simon & Schuster after my book title. {Pathetic sigh}

Then I thought about that crappy little comb again, and besides being pretty pissed off by that point, I was also still pretty sure my books are each worth more than that chunk of crap. (The comb, not Jacobs’ book.) I did, however, look at Jacobs’ new book again. I like A.J. He writes a lot of stuff for Esquire and he is funny as hell. But he’s not exactly a household author name, like Stephen “I can type the letter ‘Z’ ten million times in a row and as long as they form paragraphs, my publisher will print it and charge you $20, no questions asked” King.

Yet still I wondered. Is A.J. Jacobs sixteen times the writer I am? (Okay, in Kindle math, thirteen times the writer?)

Value. Worth. It’s gotten all screwed up in the book market somehow. Well, not “somehow”—we’ll look at that in a moment. But first I want you to look at the McDonald’s Dollar Menu. I am pretty certain my books are each a far better experience (and last a helluva lot longer) than one hash brown, a SMALL McCoffee, a McChicken sandwich, or a side salad.

One. Side. Salad.

At McDonald’s.

I ordered from Pizza Hut the other night. I don’t even like Pizza Hut all that much and neither does my wife, but they are the only place that delivers where we live. We got a medium pizza that would arrive as soggy as if it’d been steeped in milk by the time it reached us. We received a side of mozzarella sticks that had congealed into mini nunchucks and some chicken wings I prayed repeatedly actually came off a bird resembling a chicken.

Before tip? $24.00. (No, I didn’t use a coupon.)

In the world of books (particularly digital ones) these concepts have become worse than distorted. The market has gone all the way to demented. Fuck John Locke and Amanda Hocking for giving their crappy eBooks away for the price of that kind of toothbrush they offer you at a shitty hotel when you forget yours. You know the kind I’m talking about, where the plastic is so cheap and brittle if you actually try and scrub with it you might be killed when it bursts into a million little blood-red pieces of cheap shrapnel. All this so Locke and Hocking could make themselves a few million and leave the rest of us holding the money bags with the strips of cut-up newspaper in them.

Have you written a book? I mean all the way to the end? Edited it, start to finish? Rewritten it? Published it? How much time did it take you? How hard was it? How much marketing does it take you to sell even one copy? Is your book any good? Even halfway decent?

Are you tired of the implication that your product is worth less than a dollar per unit? Well you can start your objections by not elevating John Locke and Amanda Hocking to the level of book market (and, perish the thought, author) deities. They didn’t do anything good for you. In fact, they are the King and Queen of 99-Centville, and it’s a pretty shitty place to live.

Oh, and another thing you can do? You can refuse to buy any more 99 cent books AND refuse to price your hard piece of work at that ridiculous amount just so you can see a few more sales.

A fellow writer said the other day “I want the kind of readers who are willing to pay $3.99 for a book.”

So do I.

Another writer told me her friend said “tell me when your book is either free or 99 cents and I’ll pick up a copy.”

It’s ludicrous, people. I mean stark raving mad running-through-the-streets-in-a-thong-with-a-blood-drenched-meat-cleaver nutzoid.

Let’s say you still aren’t convinced how badly the world of literature has been ruined by this new-age complete devaluation of your art. Here are a few comparisons to whet your intellectual disdain:

Look, if we are talking about the Sudan, I understand the dire worth of a gallon of milk (even a non-organic one). But this is America. Sorry, but it is. And I know guys who guzzle a gallon of milk after a workout. Here’s another one:

Of course, as I mentioned, we are in America, the kind of place where someone like me still owns a V-8 pickup truck, soooo:

Is it starting to sink in? I wish I could somehow substitute copies of YOUR book instead of mine. It’s painful. It SHOULD be painful. Such devaluation is almost unheard of. Honestly I cannot think of one other product that has been so completely devalued and the instigators of the devaluation lauded like heroes. It’s ridiculous. Amazon didn’t offer to publish your book free of charge because of either John Locke or Amanda Hocking. Those two simply decided to show that they could sell hoards of books at 99 cents apiece. Here’s the funny math they used:

When the Wall Street Marauders and Bankers figured out a way to make billions by falsifying loan applications and ultimately devalued our homes by, say, 30%, most of us would have been just fine with a return to pitch fork mob rule. String those greedy bastards up. We didn’t applaud them because they figured out a way to get rich quick. Sure, Locke, Hocking, and a few other Indie authors got filthy rich by lowering the value of a book to that of a plastic comb, proving they could sell millions of them at that price. WORSE, a whole other couple million Indies bought their “how-to” books (either of which should have been titled How I Devalued The Entire Book Industry And Got Filthy Fucking Rich In The Process—sequel to which is How I Forever Changed The Book Price Point So Books Remain Worthless).

Let me ask you a question: if I could come up with a car that didn’t handle as smoothly as your average sedan, didn’t have any luxuries—bare bones—but it could drive you to work and I didn’t need to make any money at all so I sold these cars for a crisp $20 bill, you think I could sell a million cars? Aha, you say, but the only ones who would get screwed in THAT deal would be the lousy auto manufacturers! Well guess what all the readers who work as executives for Ford and Dodge and GM are saying about this little snafu in the book industry?

Screw it, that only hurts those BOOK MANUFACTURERS, oh, I mean AUTHORS.

It’s our industry, folks. And no, I’m not laying 100% of the blame on John Locke or Amanda Hocking. But they deserve a lion’s share. What concerns me more is that we elevate them and emulate them and price our books at 99 cents.

It’s a tragedy. My books are far better than that. They are not 15, 16, or 17 times less valuable than any other author out there, I can guarantee you that. And yes, raising my book price to that of a latte has cost me sales. But I don’t want readers who only put a value of a book at 99 cents, and neither should you. I’ll wait it out. Keep writing great books. Keep them at fair “Indie” prices. No, I absolutely do not expect a reader who does not know me to pay the same for my book as one by Stephen King. But they can pay 33% the cost. I think a 66% markdown from Stephen King is fair.

So I’m sticking to my guns. I’ll wait it out. I’m building a brand here, and I don’t want my brand viewed as the Daihatsu of books.

If you brand it well, they will come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blank page is dead…long live the blank page.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why The @#$%! Can’t They Stay in California?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlUKcNNmywk
Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers

CALIFORNICATOR:

1. Unwelcome guest in Arizona
2. Non Driving inbacile who comes to Az but never goes back home
3. Retard who uses turn lanes for passing cars on the right
4. That guy who thinks he has a cool car and doesn’t realize normal people thinks he is a “Fucktard.” Reckless driver that inspires you to get a bumper sticker that says “Go back to California”

Californicators began pouring into neighboring states in 1995. That was the year of “the big one.” If you live out West most likely you remember “the big one.” The Northridge earthquake was an earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a “strong” moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America,  measuring 1.7 g (16.7 m/s²)^[with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, over 270 miles (435 km) from the epicenter. The death toll came to a total of 57 people, and there were over 8,700 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history

Earthquakes are such a daily occurrence in California, Steve Martin joked about them in his movie LA STORY. In the scene, he is at an outdoor cafe, (of which California seems to have an overabundance and introduced the concept to Denver and just about every big city in every Western state). Steve gets some laughs when the quake hits and his table keeps moving farther and farther away as he tries to reach for his espresso.  The Northridge Quake in 1994 sacred the bejeeber’s out of these lily-livered Californians who began pouring into neighboring states like Arizona, New Mexico, (Santa Fe) and Denver, Colorado like water.

 Besides Californians being unwanted house guests from hell who never leave, changing neighboring states into mini versions of California they brought with them bumper to bumper traffic. Or LA traffic as I call it. Fucktard’s who drive 20 mph in a 40 mph zone, use turn lanes or bike-paths for passing cars on the right. The guy/gal who thinks they have a cool car and doesn’t realize locals think they are a “Fucktard.” Reckless driver’s that inspire you to get a bumper sticker that says;
“Go back to California.”

If the Northridge Quake made these Californicators pour into neighboring Western states like water, the stalled economy, loss of jobs and high cost of living in California are making Californians once again pour into neighboring states. The cost of living and housing is sou exorbitant in California- they move to cheaper areas like Prescott, Az or Flagstaff, AZ where the cost of living is cheaper and proceed to turn these areas into mini-versions of California. I now see as many California license plates in Arizona as local Arizonan plates. Here’s the questions on most locals minds:

Why The @#$%! Can’t They Stay in California?

Moving Out Of California | A state in the rearview mirror – Los …
Dec 18, 2008 – During the last fiscal year, 135173 more people moved out of California than moved in from other states. Though just a drop in the bucket for a …

I just gave up,” said Grace Bryant, a former Glendora resident who fled to Texas after 18 months without consistent employment as a residential appraiser. “California is too much of a struggle.”Like Bryant, many of those who left California went to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

The current spate of domestic out-migration began in 2005 after six years of continual domestic growth. The trend coincided with the developing housing bubble, which peaked in 2007 when median home values in Southern California reached $505,000.

“This was the epicenter of the housing meltdown,” said John Husing of Economics & Politics Inc., a regional economic research firm. “People started leaving California because of housing prices — particularly younger couples that just couldn’t afford to buy a house.”

But then the bubble burst and Californians were faced with a new crisis — joblessness.

There’s nothing here in Arizona that they don’t have in overabundance in California. Most of my longtime Arizonan friends are telling me the professionals are all leaving Arizona because there is such a lack of jobs for professionals and the one;s that have those jobs have been in them for 12-years. Oh, sure! Flagstaff is a college town so there are lots of bullshit minimum-wage fast-food jobs but that’s about it. So what’s the attraction for Californians?

Here’s the pattern I have seen in Flagstaff since 1990. Wealthy Californians who spent 30-years building up a business, retire and turn business over to their heirs. Within a year or two young Californian heir has run that business into the ground or sells it. They take the money, move to Sedona, Prescott, Flagstaff, Sante Fe, New Mexico and with the money they do three things:

1. Buy a Subaru Outback. It was once remarked by the great local outdoor writer Mary Sojourner that you could put a rock in the palm of your hand, close your eyes, spin around three-times and throw the rock in any direction and chances are- you would hit a Subaru Outback.

2. Open an artsy-fartsy gallery, eatery or coffee shop which closes after a few years when owners get bored living in Flagstaff.

3. Buy a second home which they spend the majority of their time commuting back and forth between California and Arizona.

With the stalled economy and exorbitant cost of living in California where studio apartments go for $1500 month and gas is $6-gallon, college tuition in California is so exorbitant that California students can come to NAU or other Arizona college and the out-of-state tuition is still cheaper than in-state California tuition. Here in Flagstaff, NAU college officials, who hosted huge tuition increases three-years back-to-back and chased local kids down the hill to state college in Tempe and Scottsdale, have figure this out. They started a new program called Western Undergraduate Exchange Program. (WUE). Students who are residents of WICHE states are eligible to request a reduced tuition rate of 150% of resident tuition at participating two- and four-year college programs outside of their home state. NAU officials have already signed up 2,000 California students to attend NAU beginning fall 2012. Begging the locals to once again ask the question:

Why The @#$%! Can’t They Stay in California?

The Vision of The Guidance Center here in Flagstaff, Arizona is to be a leader in the field of Behavioral Health yet instead it has been the leader in “boneheaded stunts.” Founded in 1969, The Guidance Center was supposed to be a
Community Mental Health Center that offered a full continuum of Behavioral Health programs and services for children, adolescents, adults and families.  In the late 90′s, the Guidance Center was hijacked by wacko liberal nut jobs who emigrated to Flagstaff from California. Over the last dozen years, they have pulled their fair-share of  dim-witted, boneheaded stunts which usually wind up on the front page of the local paper, The Daily Sun. The latest “boneheaded” stunt by the Guidance Center was the Streets to Housing Project. Basically, they were giving free apartments to homeless alcoholics with no retirement to stop drinking or even attend AA meetings. After a year, the group of 20 hopeless alcoholics in the program are all back on the street. What’s worse is, you know how “homeless” guys are. Word of mouth reached the homeless population down in Phoenix that, “Hey! The city of Flagstaff is giving away free apartments. The last year, hundreds of transients, homeless, alcoholics have been moving to Flagstaff overwhelming the social-service agencies that work with this population. The “wait- time”  at the local Goodwill on Flagstaff’s East side for showers is three-hours as the line is out the door at 8:30 am when Goodwill opens. The local rescue mission which has facilities only to adequately house 12 men, are currently housing 45-guys. All because of the boneheaded stunt by these wacko nut job Californians. begging the city council to ponder in its last meeting:

Why are all these transients moving to Flagstaff?

Cali fornicators, worse than fornicators, never seem to take responsibility for their actions or the impact they have on those around them. These self-absorbed, arrogant, pushy, egotistical, wackjob liberals will practically sit on top of you in a crowded restaurant, park so close to your car you can’t open your doors. Have no compulsion about hanging out ion the grocery aisles to gossip and when you ask politely to get by give you a sneer. To Californians,it’s all about them. California is the center of the universe – no one else exists or if they do- we’re not quite as “important” as Californians.

The mere fact that they are from California- the rest of us are supposed to bow down and worship the ground they walk on. Most locals know what “Fucktards” Californians are and it’s laughable. Their sandals and white socks, their taking over a table at the local health food store every Tuesday for Spanish Class. Had Californicators had any real brains, they would be studying Chinese for as most of us, in the know realize, the Chinese are taking over the globe. Californians just “don;t get it.” Anyone who scoffs at their ridiculous, self-absorbed ways are ;labeled, “Haters.” Anyone who disagrees with their Californian liberal point of view are labeled “Haters.” Anyone not Californian is labeled “Haters.” Out West- Californians think they know what is best for everyone and they proceed to stamp their will on everyone not Californian whether we like it or not.

When Cali fornicators move into your town, almost certainty they try and take over the city council and pass ridiculous city ordinances like here i n Flagstaff prohibit owner ship of “pot belly pigs” as pets within the city limits. Here are some more ridiculous laws these Californicator legislators have installed in Flagstaff:

no skateboarding
no skate devices
no alcohol
no bikes on sidewalks
no dogs
no kite flying in city limits

Californians mostly have contempt for their fellow citizens.  They don;t talk to people or enjoy meeting people because they believe; “I think the person will have the wrong political beliefs” or “the person will probably be a smoker” or “I bet the person won’t be a vegetarian, so I can’t talk to him” or “I doubt that this person will be educated or intelligent.”

John Carpenter was onto something in 1996 when he made the sequel, Escape From LA.
In the movie, they put a big fence around LA which was one big jail.

Not a bad idea except you would have to put a fence around the entire state. Locals in the state’s of Oregon and Washington have long had their running battle with Californicators. Oregon once posted a sign that read:

Californians:
Welcome to visit.
Don’t plan on staying!

For years Oregon had advertising and a big push to keep people from moving there. It didn’t work; all the damn Californians moved up there after selling their ridiculously overpriced homes and raising Oregon real-estate prices to ridiculously overpriced amounts. That’s … what Californicators do!

Why The @#$%! Can’t They Stay in California?

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Many Americans believe California is spreading Marxist Politics, Liberalism, Socialism, Paganism, Mormonism, Atheism and Trader Joe’s through out the country because California controls the mainstream media. Too many fruits and nuts according to most Americans which list California as the most “disliked” state in the union. Californians believe that every person that doesn’t live on the “Left-Coast is a backwards redneck which is apparently why they have no compulsion about pushing their will on other’s, their liberal agenda, their wacko politics. Fueled by the most powerful media machine in the world, California can take a non-issue or a non celebrity like Lindsay Lohan and make it one while looking the other way every time a Michael Jackson, or Whitney Houston dies tragically from self-induced drug overdose. Californians not only look the other way they actually make excuses for a Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson.

Why The @#$%! Can’t They Stay in California?

People’s reasons for moving away: CA is a wonderful place to visit, but completely unable to manage itself. completely messed up state, If you move because of scenery and weather, be ready for fire, flood and earthquake to ruin all that.

Interestingly enough, most of the Californicators are not even from from California, they’re transplants from New Jersey mostly, or New York. The majority moved out to California in the 1930′s when the movie companies moved from New York to California. Called population re-distribution. All the freaks and attitudes come from transplants who descended on California in search of their Holy Grail but end up burning out are now descending on neighboring states like Arizona. You can hear their stupid never ending pipe dreams,plans,sure things etc from their loud conversations in public places. One thing i noticed over the years is a wave cycle of transplants-like they would arrive then be gone within a year. This was as sure as the tide and never relenting. Imagine if in your home state you were bombarded constantly by people arriving and leaving and have them bore you with their fantasies/complaints/opinions of your state.

Now if all those unwelcome Californians would just go home maybe the traffic would ease up and Flagstaff would return to mellow paradise. Ain’t never gonna happen. I have heard rumors that there is talk about renaming the place: Flagstaff, California. Until then, it’s just Californication.