Well, *I * just thought the OP was funny…and then I remembered it was in the Pit.
IMHO, it would have been better off in MPSIMS, then I could’ve cacked me’self properly sans my social conscience. It’s a tad more difficult to do that in this forum, as the previous exchanges in the thread have so clearly shown
Why DID you put it in here KalliopeCU? Did you mean it as an amusing anecdote, or as an example of the inherent wickedness of homeless people? 
So if the guy in the OP really was homeless, where do they mail his cell phone bill?
Well, it makes it possible he was legit, not likely. Either way, it’s a funny anecdote, no matter what forum it’s in.
Would still like to know if he answered it, though.
PO box is one alternative. Sometimes they’d have a relative or friend who will alllow a mailing address. And there’s also commercial mail services that have ‘boxes’ available.
Pay as you go, maybe? Or do you not have that in the States?
… and I thought this was going to be a rant about those annoying commercials, with the guy testing cell phone reception every two seconds.
Now there’s a brutal mugging I’m hoping for. And wouldn’t it be ironic if nobody heard his cries for help?
How much do you think he might be able to get for his cell phone? And how much do you think the medical bills might amount to? Does it really make much sense to cut yourself off from the world in order to pay for .001% of a bill that might be covered by Freecare?
I also have to wonder about the “they’re all scammers” attitude. Would you be willing to sleep on concrete every night just to “get over” on some people? Would it really give you a sense of satisfaction to scam someone out of a quarter, then laugh yourself all the way to the gutter?
Or does this make more sense: When we believe that all homeless people are scammers, it means that there really isn’t a problem. Which means we don’t have to worry about it or do anything about it. Which is a tremendous load off our minds.
Yes, there is tremendous psychological advantage in believing that those scummy beggars have mansions in the Hamptons.
Wow.
Yeah, HAHAHAHA! To see this guy robbed and killed. What a rush!
putz.
tdn:
I think he was talking about the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” commercial guy who seems to annoy so many people. The irony in no one hearing his cries for help would be that he’s just (ostensibly) spent the better part of a year making sure that the folks back at headquarters could hear him.
I certainly don’t think the guy on the subway was the subject of that comment.
jayjay
Um, unless you’re talking about the guy in the commercials. In which case I agree. Shove that cell up his butt and shout “Can you hear him now?!?”
Hate to break it to you, but those guys telling you sad tales are usually looking to score enough money to get some alcohol or drugs. If you want to pay for somebody’s habit, you go right ahead. Just don’t fool yourself about the nature of the transaction.
With street beggars, I apply my Bangkok Principle, something I formulated while traveling in Thailand. In Bangkok, the vast majority of Thais are good, hard-working, honest people. But they’re busy going about their business and paying no attention to me. The people coming up to me and offerng to take me to their uncle’s shop to buy silk, or to take me to a card game, or to buy some gems, were scammers–there’s no honest reason to come up to a foreigner and start acting like his best friend.
Anybody who sizes me up as a mark and tries to spin a tale of woe gets no juice from me. Ditto for lazy-assed bums rattling their coin cups at me. On the other hand, I always give to street performers, like the ubiquitous drummers who pound out beats on plastic barrels because they’re working. They’re offering a product–and that’s soemthing I can respect. But I’m damned I’m going to give my money that I worked for to some sponge who wants me to cover his crack habit.
Milossarian was talking about the annoying “can you hear me now” guy in the commercials. He said
Learn to read, TDN.
And as a side comment, Chales Krauthammer’s editorial in today’s Washington Post neatly epitomizes my position on the naivete of liberals.
All of them? Every single one? Are you stating, categorically and without exception, that there is not one single person in the world who might be hungry?
Look, I know that there are some people who scam. Possibly quite a lot of them. And they get little sympathy from me. But I also allow the possibilty that some might be genuine.
But if you can comfort yourself that all people are bad, and that there is no homeless problem, then I hope that helps you sleep at night. Truly that is an advantage to that way of thinking,
I take it that you didn’t see my follow-up post.
Calling me an idiot is hardly an effective way of convincing me of your view. And that article is a bunch of shite. A whiny conservative whining about how whiny liberals can be. Riiiiight.
I was talking to the head guy of a local mission while donating a bunch of stuff from a failed business venture. He stated matter of factly that anyone locally who really wanted off the streets could make it (with help from the missions) within a few months. Mental illness, substance abuse, and/or just a preference to the street lifestyle accounted for the majority of people there, and other then helping the few who do want out most of his job is just keeping the others in good enough shape that they don’t feel the need to hurt others. I am also fairly certain the missions assist families with young children at a much higher level than they do single men or women.
Because of this I think that while the guy described in the OP might actually be homeless it is at best unlikely that he is begging for a sick child rather than for himself, and not answering the phone kind of indicates that he wasn’t expecting any critical news, which in turn indicates that his situation isn’t as desperate as described. I would be thinking “con man exposed”, which is genuinely funny, even if he is homeless.
Note that I said, " but those guys telling you sad tales are usually looking to score enough money" Usually is not a synonym for always–again, learn to read. While there are some worthy folks who genuinely are just trying to get a bite to eat, a prudent person’s first assumption on being accosted by a beggar is that he is getting hustled. That way, if you are wrong, you are pleasantly surprised.
I sleep just fine, thank you. Homeless people are not my problem; I did not cause their plight, I do not have the solution to their plight, and I don’t concern myself with their plight. have enough to deal with in my life; I don’t need to stay up late worrying about people I don’t even know. There are people dying of cancer right now, others of AIDS. Right now, somebody is being beaten in an Iraqi prison. Somebody is starving in North Korea. Are you crying for them, too? And if not, why not, you callous bastard. 
Some homeless folks are what we used to call “bums,” just looking for a free ride. Others, like working folk who’ve hit a streak of bad luck, and who are doing their best to get ahead
definitely deserve help, but, and here’s a clue they’re working, not begging.
When did I call you an idiot? Cut and paste the pertinent quote.
And the Krauthammer op-ed is hardly a piece of shite, but some people can’t bear to look in a mirror. Part of the ultra-liberal raison d’etre is to attain a sense of moral superiority to others. Liberals don’t just want to find solutions to socail problems, they care!
Krauthammer’s got your number, Jackson.
OK, you didn’t call me an idiot. You agreed with someone that repeatedly called me stupid.
Sorry, my bad. I feel much better now.
True, and yet in your other posts you still lump all homeless people into the group of scammers. Absolutely no (or almost no) mention of those that might be genuine.
Pleasantly? Gah? “Oh, so she really IS starving! This pleases me.”
And I’m sure that you reinforce this attitude by thinking that they brought it on themselves, or that they deserve it, or that they enjoy it.
OK, maybe not you personally. But I bet that lots of people do. A little rationalization does wonders to shield one’s self from the ugly truth. And THAT is the point I was originally trying to make. Somehow that point got lost when you got so defensive.
In fact, I am. But that’s me. The Stupid Liberal™.
And some African-Americans are what we used to call “niggers”, just looking to rape white women.
Just because we used to use a term does not lend that term any validity.
A opinionated piece of bad writing that slams an entire group of people because they have empathy. Yeah, that’s pretty much shite.
I’m just fine with mirrors, thankyouverymuch. It’s opinionated conservative shite that I can’t bear to look at.
And of course, conservatives never do this. “They should all just get jobs and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” has no sense of moral superiority? That shite column you posted has no sense of it? YOU have no sense of it?
Hah!
And posting that makes you morally superior to me. Got it.
Wow gobear that’s some pretty deep shit you’re shoveling there.
First of all that Krauthammer article is one of the more idiotic things I’ve read in quite some time. More than that, it’s just plain wrong. You may think liberals are stupid and/or naive, but the stats just plain don’t support that. Academics are far and away some of the most liberal folks in the US. On the other hand some your brilliant Conservative include the Christian right, the members of the Militia movement, and the current President (who I think we can all agree is no brain surgeon).
I also disagree with the assertion that liberals believe that all people are basically good. I think you are more likely to find that liberals just feel that people should be taken care of. That the state has a responsibility to take care of her own, and that all men are created equal (a crazy idea, I know). I also don’t think that the majority of Liberals think that Conservatives are evil, the think they’re mean. There’s a big difference.
This part is just bullshit. About a quarter of all homeless are mentally ill (due primarily to deinstitutionalization). In fact, in California alone it is estimated are 50,000 severely mentally ill homeless including 10,000 to 20,000 homeless mentally ill veterans. This number doesn’t encompass those who are drug or alcohol addicted and, of course they are without decent State sponsored health insurance and drug coverage.
If you don’t want to give to the homeless, then don’t! Nobody is making you, nobody is looking down on you, and you don’t need to justify it. But I hardly think that it’s fair for you to judge me as “naive” because I do.
gobear, take a look at the link I provided in the last post I made (the one in which I complained about what you had said, and that provoked the apology I accepted), and you’ll find lots of stories of honest people who have had to be homeless and/or beg. Your friends, right here on this board.
Mqtt we’ve already gone over this. YES, I know people have been homeless; so have I. But I and others didn’t go running for the crack pipe–we got ourselves out through hard work and determination.
Well, the mentally ill have been screwed over by a system that closed down mental hospitals but didn’t givem them any ongoing care or aid in transition. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed.
Drug and alcohol-addicted people get no sympathy from me. Addiction is not a disease, it’s a weakness. Nobody is forcing you to shove that garbage in your system. If somebody would rather get high than take care of themselves, that’s their problem. I’ve had too much pain from that fucking garbage in my life already, especially from fucking drunks who let their motherfucking husbands beat the shit out of their sons.
In any event, if I became homeless again, the only thing I’d beg for would be a job and a chance to prove myself.
Shoot, i’m getting way too emotional over this issue. Let’s just agree that some beggars are honest, and others are scammers. I’m an evil, evil person, heart of stone, cruel and inhuman, so you can go on feeling superior to the hateful and awful Gobear. I’m walking away. You win.
Oh, gobear, for pity’s sake, there’s no need for that. I mean, people have called me a drama queen before but I’ve never flounced out of a thread in high dudgeon.