Why The Name "No Government Cheese"

I was introduced to a relatively unknown band in undergraduate college called The Rainmakers. Their first album, coincidently called The Rainmakers, had a song called Government Cheese. I love the song, and as I am a neo-libertarian (also called a "livid terrier" and "librarian" in some demented circles), it summarizes a part of my personal political philosophy that our welfare state, which has largely incorporated a prejudice of low expectations of the American people that enter it, creates dependency more harmful than not helping at all.


Government Cheese
by Rainmakers

Give a man a free house and he'll bust out the windows
Put his family on food stamps, now he's a big spender
no food on the table and the bills ain't paid
'Cause he spent it on cigarettes and P.G.A.

They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please
They're feeding our people that Government Cheese

Give a man a free lunch and he'll figure out a way
To steal more than he can eat 'cause he doesn't have to pay
Give a woman free kids and you'll find them in the dirt
Learning how to carry on the family line of work
It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple
Passing out drugs to the American people

I don't believe in anything, nothing is free
They're feeding our people the Government Cheese

Decline and fall, fall down baby
Decline and fall, said fall way down now
Decline and fall, fall down little mama
Decline and fall, decline and fall

Give a man a free ticket on a dead end ride
And he'll climb in the back even though nobody's driving
Too God damned lazy to crawl out of the wreck
And he'll rot there while he waits for the welfare check

Going to hell in a handbag, can't you see
I ain't gonna eat no Government Cheese

Full Disclosure -- I'm Not On The Bush Payroll . . . Yet

Given the recent scandals over the Bush administration's payments to op-ed writers, I am told that the new journalistic ethic is to publicly disclose all sources of payment and biases. Well, this Blog is going to be only my unpaid opinion. I will gladly take money to express someone else's opinion, if you like. Also, I might not tell you my real opinion, because I'm hiding it, trying to be funny, playing devil's advocate, or just afraid to let on what I'm really thinking.

In the real world, I don't get paid for my own opinions either -- I'm paid to express the opinions and legal positions of my clients. So now that I think about it, if I were you, I would not really believe anything I say here anyhow.

As for my other biases --

I live in Georgia.

I work in Atlanta.

My teams are the University of Kentucky Wildcats (naturally I live for basketball season), Atlanta Braves, and the Atlanta Falcons.

My musical tastes are very wide. My favorite genre is blues. My favorite living artist in this genre is Jonny Lang. One of my favorite unheard of artists, not blues, or any other genre that I can pinpoint, is James McMurtry.

I love debating politics, which I do often at my favorite blogs, watching and playing sports, and drinking Scotch and Kentucky Bourbon.

If you read more, you may learn more about me. More likely, however, you will get bored and just quit reading.

IT IS SAFER THAN JUMPING OFF A CLIFF

OK, so I'm going to dable in this. Everyone else is doing it. I struggle to find time to read, comment and surf the blogs I like. Why not struggle for the time to actually write one occassionally.

FAVORITE BLOGS:

For the record, these are my favorite "blogs": Villainous Company, The Ebb & Flow Institute, Blame Bush and Scrappleface. There are way too many good Blogs to put them all here. I read a lot more than this, and I will create a link bar eventually, but these are ones I try to read nearly daily and often comment.

I also have been invited to guest blog at The Ebb & Flow Institute, a great site hosted by Pile On. Other guest Bloggers there are spd rdr and Rodney Dill. These are very funny people, and you should go there even though you might have to skip my work.

I will focus my general efforts at The E&FI for now. I will do things here not appropriate for places where I am merely a guest. I will try to link my efforts there - here.

My first blog creation, for The E&FI, was called Cruel and Unusually Vacant. I was honored when that entry was promptly nominated for a "best of the week" award by some group I never heard of called The Watchers of Weasels. I received one lousy secondary vote. At least I didn't get shut out like some people. No accounting for taste.

I look forward to working with you on this project.