Posted 6/04/2008 05:02:00 PM by Douglas

I'm so sick of this story I could puke blood. Long story short: People can't afford their lifestyles, but up in this round of CNN tear-jerkers: Pets.

Her greatest fear: that she could be forced to surrender the animals as she struggled to stretch her food stamps and Social Security income to meet the escalating cost of living.

Some hope was restored after she visited a local food pantry, which has started offering free pet food to help owners keep their animals out of shelters.

"I know a lot of people will probably say, 'Well, if you don't have enough money to be able to feed your animals, that you shouldn't have pets,"' said Bardsley, 53, of Franklin, as Hunter played in the living room with three of her grandchildren.

But, "Just because financially you may go downhill a little or a lot, doesn't necessarily mean you have give the part of your family that you love," she said.

Well, it kinda does. If you can't feed your kids, the State will take them away from you. Not so with your cats, but if you leave the door open long enough, they'll run out on your dumb, broke ass and go eat a squirrel.

OK, here's what pisses me off about this: They always target "fixed income" people to whine to the press about the increasing cost of living. Ya know who lives on a "fixed" income? Everyone. I'm sorry that people drawing retirement physically can't make more income, and if there was a way to exclude a certain subset of the population from inflation I'd vote for that (assuming I was in said group).

But what really alarms me is how the ignorant masses chose to blow their discretionary income. I have complete empathy for those that can't take care of their own needs. I just question what those needs are and how their money is spent. In my corner of Generica, there's a gourmet coffee/burrito shop, a custom chrome wheel shop, a cell phone store, a smoothie store, and a tanning salon on every damn corner. I'll feel bad for people that "can't make ends meet" when I can drive for more than 100 yards without seeing one of these festering money pits.