Absolutely.  I also think that if you see a problem, know that you have the ability to fix the problem, but fail to do anything about it....well, that's reprehensible and you're failing yourself as well as your community and country. 

It was a RANT.  Is ranting ever "called for"?  Did you not notice the "[rant] [/rant]"?  But, that is still my opinion.  I am tired of people saying that we should take from the rich and give to the poor.  It's not the government's place to force charity.

Do you think the "government" read blog sites?  The government does listen to the people- but you have to get your message to them.  Idle whining won't do that.

It's funny that you said "lucky".  Why does "luck" have anything to do with it?  Do you think that I have my job, or my good relationships with people because of luck?  Or was it that I took risks and worked my ass off to accomplish what I want?  Hell, if I wanted to take the easy route in life, I could be living on social security disability.  But, I don't because I know what I want to accomplish in life.  Life is what you make of it, not what is handed to you. 

And about the "action" part of my rant.  How do you force people to quit whining and do something?  Should we just ban whiners?  

Again, if anyone is confused about this article, it is a RANT.  It wasn't supposed to be well said.  It wasn't supposed to have great meaning to people.  If you don't agree with it, fine, that is your opinion.

See Draginol's reply #30 if you are still unclear on the difference between whining about something and *doing* something to change it.

**My whining related rant**

I tend to feel like a lot of the whining, like what Karma is ranting about, comes from people who don't actually do anything and is directed at people who do.  I have witnessed this in small communities like neighborhoods and schools and it applies all the way up to the biggest communities.  Some people (whiners) sit back, wait for someone to do something, then jump all over them about how wrong things were done and how they should be done in the future.  Do these whiners committ to applying these changes?  No!  They wait for someone else to do it.  Then, when noone wants to step up because they saw how much flack their predecessor got, the whiners start whining because now nothing is being done at all.

Whiners seem to believe that others are "lucky" enough to have more time, energy, money, etc. so they should have to be the ones to get things done.  There is a big difference between constructive input and whining.  Too many people are unfamiliar with the former and too adept at the latter.

**End of rant**

Karma, hope this was enough on topic to avoid trolling   I thought one good rant inspired another.

You can do what the other two listed in this same comment did... Get out there and *take bloody action*. Get a job in the peace corps, earn a taxable wage, contribute to the contry or what have you. I am not saying that *you* do not dothese things, but the targets of Karmagirls obviously indicated rant do not. They just gripe that someone else ough to be handing them theirs.

Not very good debate technique when you provide the riposte in your own argument. The action was the boycott.

I will agree with Muggaz that there is *some* luck involved in things. Being born in the United States versus Zimbabwe is obviously a matter of chance.  But that's not what Karma girl is talking about.

In the US, most people get a reasonably equal shot. There is no excuse for any American to be living in poverty other than something like mental deficency (i.e. having somethign that affects your ability to do basic things).

Different people have different obstacles they have to overcome. But I'll tell ya, anyone who knows Karmagirl would not use the words "luck" with her. At the risk of divulging some personal information in here, I would bet real money that no one participating on this conversation has anywhere near as many obstacles facing them as Karmagirl.  Where to start, first she has Lupus and has that fairly severely. If she wanted to, she could sit at home, collect disability and whine how unfair it is that she has so many health problems.  But she doesn't. She gets up every day and goes to work and does a damn good job at it. She has worked her way up, based purely on merit, to the point she is today. She doesn't have a bachelor's degree. She doesn't have a rich family. She did it all on her own.  So don't tell me that luck has to do with how well she's doing today. She earned her success the hard way.

So it's not surprising that she has little patience for people who take every minor setback as an insurmountable obstacle. Or people who have such a low threshold for believing they're doing something that writing a whiney post on some forum is "doing something".  I tend to think of writing things on-line as a good FIRST step but not the end in itself.

Well said....

The thrust of the article didn't seem to be directed at blog writers anyway but toward the masses we do the the thing the Karmagirl does *not* do. Namely allow their own lives to serve as their excuse for failure.

Thanks for posts #38 and #39.  Your kind words are much appreciated, especially after I was seriously questioning myself as to why I was getting out of bed at 5am to go to work when I could barely get my hips, knees and ankles to cooperate (Michigan flip-flipping weather and arthritis don't really make a good combination).  But, I hauled my sorry butt into work, poured a cup of coffee and got back to what I like to do- work.  Why do I like work?  Because, at the end of the day, I can say I *did* something. 

Muggaz demonstrates once again why he is considered to be a troll by so many people.

Doing something about a problem means putting in effort. If you think flying to have a "little meeting" with "buddies" is what I described then I don't know what to tell you. I suppose you can belittle any sort of action if you put your mind to it.

nah- just move to the hills of Kentucky.  Heck, most counties don't even have building codes there!

No, the government won't solve your problems- that's not what the government is there for.