Another great recipe and presentation from Scott from Hell’s Kitchen!

How appropriate that today of all days, the Social Security office in Phoenix, Arizona accused me of NOT being a citizen. I lost my Social Security in a wallet upgrade a while back. The card is long gone, and no one has ever asked for it until the other day. I need to show it to get some assistance and so I went to Tatum and Bell, about 25 miles away from me to get a duplicate. They said “bring a photo id, drivers license will do”. I ask “anything else?”. They say “nope”.

When I get there, the lady “Shelley”, takes my license and proceeds to ask me all these questions, “Name, first, last, where I was born.. fathers name.. mother’s maiden name..” Gee, amazingly I get them all right. Then she says…you never registered your move. Move?? What move? Or when you got the card and became a citizen. We have no record of that.  Ok, I was 14 when I got my card so I could work at the Dinner Theater and then the Pizza place. So she then says she needs a Passport to prove I am a US Citizen!  DOH!!

Hey you already issued it once!  I have paid into. Then she asks if I am getting benefits. Woah. Uh.. no. I tell her no one has ever asked for my card, and that I asked specifically if I needed other items today.  I even tell her, “hey I ran for office, name’s been on the ballot..they don’t let you run for office if you’re not a US Citizen.” She does not care.

At this points I ask to speak to her supervisor, or person in charge. She refuses, and says the Super can’t override that. I say, I don’t care and want to speak to them anyway. At this point she says ” You need to leave”, and the Security Guard (who by the way when I walk in asks do you have a gun or a knife on you)…walks over. See there was me and him in the big gigantic room. Just the two of us. So I leave, before he gets all excited.

Then I walk to the other side of the building, there are two entrances..there I get nothing either other than being told everyone had JUST gotten out of a meeting. Still no supervisor.  These people are bent on sending me back, as this side is “benefits”. I left the parking lot drove off for a mile and decided before I call the news station but thought I’d give it on more try. I called Senator John McCain’s office, finally after not giving in, got to talk with Gina..who placed a call and then called me back. Still no go. So I get to drive back there with a Passport.. and see what happens.

Now here’s what no one I know gets.. YOU NEED TO BE A US  CITIZEN TO GET A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD.. SO … WHY. WOULD I HAVE ONE IN THE FIRST PLACE IF I WASN’T A CITIZEN!! This little factoid seems lost on the people in the Phoenix Social Security Office. I need this card to get some assistance for something. And if I didn’t have a Passport I need my naturalization papers. Right, like I am gonna haul those over there, they are under lock and key safe at home with my folks.

When I told the  lady I did all of this back in 1970 she said “I don’t care what happen in 1970″. So I guess I am quite confused. Are we somehow handing out SS cards to people, who aren’t suppose to have them, so when they loose them they can’t get a new one? Oh, one more… they, the SS people don’t talk to the other agencies. Good to know.

So on this anniversary date, where my parents risked their live to bring me here to the US, I get slapped down by Social Security. Thanks, thanks a lot.

1. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
   – Will Rogers
2. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!
   – P.J. O’Rourke
3. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
   – Voltaire (1764)
4. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!
   – Pericles (430 B.C.)
5. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
   – Mark Twain (1866)
6. Talk is cheap…except when Congress does it.
   – Anonymous
7. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
   – Ronald Reagan
8. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
   – Winston Churchill
9. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
   – Mark Twain
10. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
    – Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
11. There is no distinctly native American criminal class…save Congress.
    – Mark Twain
12. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
    – Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
13. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
    – Thomas Jefferson

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
   – John Adams
2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
   – Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.
   – Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle .
   – Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
   – George Bernard Shaw
6. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
   – James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
7. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
   – Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
8. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
   – P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
9. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
   – Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Came across this little item on Twitter. Its actually very well done, take a look.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.