Homeless Guy’s wish-list
p2pnet news view | P2P:- Yesterday we ran an item highlighting the fact homeless people in Toronto and activists working to help them scored a major victory against the city and police force.
Homeless people don’t have to be addicts, although if they are, they deserve the same considerations as anyone else who has a disease.
Men and women, and even children, go to streets for all kinds of reasons.
- They have trouble at home which to them seems unresolvable.
- They can be disgusted with ‘normal’ society, deliberately and consciously choosing to live their lives as outcasts.
- They can suffer from mental health problems.
Whatever the reason, literally millions of people call the streets in the towns and cities of the world ‘home’.
Ask Kevin Barbieux (right).
He runs The Homeless Guy blog in Tennessee where he posts »»»
I am chronically homeless, having experienced several episodes of homelessness since the age of 21 – spending about half my adult life on the streets. On this blog I write about my experiences, and my opinions and knowledge of homeless life. You can email me at thehomelessguy (At) gmail dot com.
He also publishes Nashville Homeless and Homeless Journey.
The unsigned hate email I mentioned earlier ripped into me for running the story about the Toronto success, taking the line that homeless people are drunks and junkies — the scum of the earth — and that I shouldn’t be “encouraging” them by publishing posts about them just as though they’re ordinary people like you and I.
Here’s an excerpt from a December 22 Homeless Guy comment »»»
TONY
“So what do you think of my $140 coat?”PHILIP
“You look spectacularly Darth Vader-ish, I have to say.”TONY
“One of my customers got it for me. He said ‘I’m tired of seeing you out here shivering all the time. So my wife and I, we went and bought you this coat — you’ll be warmer now. You know, he actually bought me a new coat and he paid $140. I can’t believe it.”PHILIP
“Do you know his name?”TONY
“Nope. But I’ve actually known him for a while.”
Then, from Lina »»»
I saw Tony yesterday and he had his same old jacket on. Guess he left his new one at his residence so he could look more like a homeless guy while he asks you for your hard earned money.
Meanwhile, here’s Kevin’s wish-list »»»
If anyone is willing, I could use some McDonald’s gift certificates, so to get some coffee and use their wifi. I understand that times are tough and not everyone will be able to be so charitable this year. If on the other hand, you had a decent year and would like to help out further, I could really use a digital camera, so to take pics of homelessness to add to this blog. Most all of my other needs have been taken care of. Regardless, whoever you are, and whatever your circumstances, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a peaceful season.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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December 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Have a good one Kevin
Some people are homeless because they have no home, like some of the players that came to Melbourne for the Homeless World Cup they didnt want to leave
I have an update in the Shoe throwing saga(punditkitchen.com
)
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24857332-23109,00.html
Let me hear you scream for Wii lol loved it
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24856608-5014239,00.html
and The adult industry is feeling the hard times ahead
TF
December 30th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
thats funny, when I lived in California, I knew a homeless (street bum) that was worth millions, he just lived on the street because he considered it ’stress’ free living.
not all homeless are addicts.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
“thats funny, when I lived in California, I knew a homeless (street bum) that was worth millions, he just lived on the street because he considered it ’stress’ free living.
not all homeless are addicts.”
Surfer:
Don’t take this the wrong way, but did you run out of thorazine this morning, so “the voices” are telling you to write stupidity like that?
This is the same insipid line of “thinking” that led the United States government (under Reagan) to utterly fail to put adequate resources into studying/combatting the AIDS epidemic while it was still relatively small, simply because the demographics most stereotypically associated with the disease weren’t liked by the Republican/Conservative power-brokers of the time.
“Not ALL people with AIDS are heroin-using homosexuals!” — completely and utterly irrelevant in terms of actual discussions about AIDS, heroin, or homosexuality. Of COURSE “not all” of any given demographic segment are going to exhibit the traits stereotypically ascribed to that demographic. The question is: what the HELL does that have to do with the topic at hand.
If you’d bothered to actually read the post, Jon highlighted at least three reasons why people would be homeless:
” * They have trouble at home which to them seems unresolvable.
* They can be disgusted with ‘normal’ society, deliberately and consciously choosing to live their lives as outcasts.
* They can suffer from mental health problems.”
Now, assuming you didn’t just pull that anecdote about knowing a “homeless guy who was worth millions” out of your ass (as is so easy to do, especially when trolling — the guy you mentioned would probably fit into either the “disgusted with ‘normal society’ or “meltally ill” category, or both. I ask you again: what the hell does that have to do with any other situation? The tacit assumption behind finding an aspect of this article “funny” requires us to believe that ONE — unconfirmed — instance of a “wealthy homeless guy” discredits the entire topic of homelessness and/or the larger sociopolitical issues which contribute to it.
Lemme give you a counter-example:
Howard Hughes: wealthy, really eccentric recluse.
My response: “well, I knew a really rich guy who wasn’t a completely-insane nutbag.”
Obviously, you’d find that completely nonsequitur, wouldn’t you?
But somehow, in discussions of “the homeless”, people will just let you smuggle in all your unexamined prejudices and stereotypical nonsense. Why is that, do you think?
December 30th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I was countering the sterotypical propensity that homeless people are dredges, and suffrages of society, when they are not. A pretty neutral observation, if I do say so myself.
See, I made my point in less than a paragraph.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:24 am
I’ve been homeless a number of times.
When I was younger I lost everything due to circumstances. Grabbed a backpack and traveled for over 3 yrs. Gained a much better education than university or collage could ever provide. Started out with 1100 bucks and ended up with over 20k … cash, all respectfully gained.
Another time I had a camping accident and lost who I was. Took me 4 months to get back and lost everything due to being away. Lived another year on the streets and in the bush. Now I own the whole valley where I had my accident, all 250 sq. km of it.
There are 2 main ways to find out what’s actually going on in a city. Drive a cab or hit the streets. Rich or poor I do it every few yrs. I love all these supposed highly educated PPL that think they are god’s gift. I usually need to teach them or just laugh at them for their lack of actual knowledge. Many street PPL are some of the brightest, smartest and healthiest I’ve ever known, bar none.
Get the hint Henry?
December 31st, 2008 at 8:24 am
Jon, I am sorry to say P2PNet is degenerating into a site where any nut-job can get space to rant and rave and where you publish all kinds of material that has no interest for your core audience.
The situation homeless people find themselves in needs to be discussed but is this the place for it?
The same few people post over and over again without letup. You need to exert some control to avoid having this site turn into grab-bag for malcontents with nowhere else to go.
It is almost the new year and time for a new year resolution from you to consider where you want P2PNet to go in 2009.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:54 am
” on, I am sorry to say P2PNet is degenerating into a site where any nut-job can get space to rant and rave and where you publish all kinds of material that has no interest for your core audience. ”
Actually, ANY site that allows open posting has this same problem.
Visited Fark recently ?
Even the large corporate news site are not immune.
” The same few people post over and over again without letup. You need to exert some control to avoid having this site turn into grab-bag for malcontents with nowhere else to go. ”
Sounds to me like you’re the malcontent, and YOU have the ultimate control of where YOU wish to be.
If you have a problem with this place, don’t come here.
It’s that easy … really.
Most of us have no problem with the article assortment, we normal folk just DON’T READ the ones
we don’t care about.
It’s that easy .. really.
Try it for yourself.
” It is almost the new year and time for a new year resolution from you to consider where you want P2PNet to go in 2009. ”
I guess the same could be said of you.
Make your own resolution to consider if this site is ‘worthy’ of your continued attention.
Decide where YOU are going to go in 2009.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
@ Ian
I seem to think spaces for comments are just that. Feel free to join in and state your opinions anytime you wish instead of just whining about it.
I bet many come here to get the story and maybe further info, alternate point of view and even good discussion. So where is yours?
Just for interests sakes: I’m on many websites, forums, blogs about many subjects and on each there’s a few who persist on trying to shut PPL up by leaving comments like yours or worse.
You can always visit websites that are sterilized, prepackaged, politically correct, censored and certified by powers that be and big media. And then you’re subject to being some cow led by your nose and saying to yourself ‘this is great’. Your choice.
Keep up the good work Jon
December 31st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Surfer:
You “Countered the stereotype” with an even WORSE stereotype — namely the “wealthy scam-artist panhandler”. Sorry to tell you this, but that’s one of the main things used to “justify” failure to examine homelessness, it’s various causes, etc. — or even to actually give the guy down at the bus stop spare change.
“Neutral” observatiion would have been something along the line of what Jon had already done — stating that there were several reasons people could be homeless, which could then lead to a discussion of what to “do” about the different TYPES of homelessness.
Instead, in response to a post about a guy whose “wish-list” consists of Mcdonald’s gift certificates so he can have food reliably, we get the unstated assertion that he’s probably a scam-artist of some kind. Now, this is about as “neutral” as somebody defending lawn-jockeys on the grounds that “not ALL of them parody black people!”. Great.
Ian:
So you don’t like Jon’s articles? How about emailing him and discussing the possibility of submitting your OWN articles (which you’d doubtless find more interesting or relevant?) And as far as the same few people bothering to participate, the solution to that is easy: MORE PARTICIPATION.
So tell us, Ian (I know I’m just sitting here in a state of breathless anticipation): please give us a detailed list of what you view as “relevant” (permissible?) topics for p2pnet to feature. You believe it’s “degenerating”, so presumably you’ve given some thought about how to stem the tide of degeneracy.
So tell us all. (Good part about this is if he DOES tell us, it gets him participating instead of whining.)
December 31st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Oh one more thing …
Ever notice that those websites controlled by big media, like RIAA, big4 and scammers usually don’t have contact information, place for comments or require way to much personal info to leave a comment or want you to turn on all kinds of tracking via your browser?
To check a website use the least amount of options. Turn them on as needed with cookies being the last. The more you need to turn on the more crap they have. There are a good number of plugins for Mozilla that are great at privacy and security.
Quick Preferences Button
No script
Adblock
and many more
December 31st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
@Henry
Honestly, I could care less about the sycophantic dribble from an ambulance chaser in Michigan. Espousing 13 letter words only confirms you are an educated dolt, and not just a run-of-the-mill dolt.
I can imagine you representing a homeless guy who sued McDonalds (aggregating your cut, of course) for the coffee being too hot.
In an effort to clarify your obvious delusion, I did read the article, and I was referencing Jon’s hate mail response for supposedly supporting the homeless despots by lauding their plight via p2pnet, and I quote;
“The unsigned hate email I mentioned earlier ripped into me for running the story about the Toronto success, taking the line that homeless people are drunks and junkies — the scum of the earth — and that I shouldn’t be “encouraging” them by publishing posts about them just as though they’re ordinary people like you and I.”
Lighten up on the trolling, or consider Librium yourself, either, or, perhaps both.
Happy New Year y’all.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Ad hominem
The last resort of the empty.
January 1st, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Surfer:
1. I’m not from Michigan. Presumably you were referencing the homeless “despot” Jon was supposedly “supporting?”
2. The word is “drivel” NOT “dribble” (we’re not discussing your irritable bowel syndrome or venereal discharge here.)
3. “referencing 13-letter words”???? Oh goody gumdrops, NOW we get sneering at intellect/the ability to spell/the failure to keep discourse down to one sylable words. When did we become, not merely a culture of stupid cattle, but a culture of stupid cattle who REVEL IN THEIR OWN IDIOCY? What’s next, Serfer, you gonna call me “hifalutin” too?
Moreover, how a homeless guy can be considered a “despot” I have no idea. (But then again, somebody who’d get all pissy about “13-letter words” shouldn’t be expected to actually know which words to choose, eh?
Here, Surfer, I’ll do ya a favor, and go over to dictionary.com (save you the effort of mis-typing the URL six times, and smashing your head into the keyboard while throwing feces around your enclosure):
1 a: a Byzantine emperor or prince b: a bishop or patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church c: an Italian hereditary prince or military leader during the Renaissance2 a: a ruler with absolute power and authority b: a person exercising power tyrannically
Since I’m pretty sure the homeless guy had nothing to do with the Byzantine empire, isn’t the scion of a royal family, and doesn’t “rule” over anybody, how do you figure a guy merely requresting Mcdonalds gift certificants to be “exercising power tyrannically?”
The guy didn’t request money. He requested gift cerficates for McDonalds so he probably doesn’t have to dig around in their dumpster for the food.
Now please explain to us all — waiting as we are with bated breath for the wisdom of the Great Surfer — how “despotism” comes into the picture?
This guy’s worse than “Sam I am” — at least “Sam” made a shallow pretense of effort/staying on topic. This guy can’t even manage that.
I mean, honestly, “DRIBBLE?”
(I’m pretty sure Surfer didn’t have a Thesaurus on HIS Christmas wish-list!)
There, all better now.
January 1st, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Correction: Sylable == Syllable. (Damn keyboard!)
Simple typo vs. complete wrong word-choice.
Me = 10
Surfer = -2000
Lemme put it in terms even YOU can understand: ‘OMG!!! U BIN PWNED!!!’
January 1st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
” . “referencing 13-letter words”???? Oh goody gumdrops, NOW we get sneering at intellect/the ability to spell/the failure to keep discourse down to one sylable words. ”
heh, that not only tags him as american, but a likely republican as well.
We don cotton to that thar book larnin … hee hee
” somebody who’d get all pissy about “13-letter words” shouldn’t be expected to actually know which words to choose, eh? ”
ouch. … very nice.
It’s posts like those, Henry, that make me glad it’s not you and I sparring anymore.
O Snap.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 am
Henry Emrich Leads Top 5 Amazing People
@Henry, arguing online is like special olympics, its fun to watch, and the tard always wins. Congrats on your ’score’.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
” @Henry, arguing online is like special olympics, its fun to watch, and the tard always wins. Congrats on your ’score’. ”
LOL
Maybe so,
But you still crossed the finish line first .
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 am
“Fun to watch, but the Tard always wins”
Uhmmm….yeah, I’ll freely admit it, you won.
(Waits for Surfer’s head to explode when It finally gets the (self-inflicted) joke.
Honestly, things like this are at least half of why I post here: not only is there good content, thought-provoking topics and issues and such, but I ALSO get ample opportunities to indulge in a bit of “troll-smashing” fun.
Honestly, Surfer, it’s been a blast sparring with you, but now it’s getting boring:
Let’s recap some of the better moments of Surfer’s “genius in action”:
1. Unsubstantiated claim to have known a really wealthy panhandler (which supposedly means either that ALL homeless people are secretly wealthy scam-artists, or at least, we’re supposed to believe so.)
2. Whinging complaints about “13 letter words”, coupled with failure to understand the difference between “dribble” and “Drivel”.
3. After I (yet again) whipped you like the sad little troll-pup you are, the best you can come up with is a link to CRACKED.COM? What? You can’t even muster up the minimal level of creativity needed to create some kind of butthurt-fest over on Encyclopedia Dramatica? It’s times like this that I really miss “Sam” — his unthinking blather was at least interesting. Reading your stuff is just sad, like a really bad ventriloquist who not only moves his lips, but doesn’t even manage to do character voices.
Seriously, dewd, don’t even try anymore trolling until you study up on how it’s done.
Pitiful….
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 am
Dreddsnik:
Many thanks for the compliment. Also apologies to Jon for “feeding the trolls” — I just gotsta keep myself sharp, y’know? Stuff like this is almost as fun as screwing with telemarketer’s heads. (yeah, I’m mean!)
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
yup, your an ace troll’er all right, hands down.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
” yup, your an ace troll’er all right, hands down. ”
Naah.
When Henry came here, he was sure that we were all thieves, and he was going to show us the
error of our ways, AND rub our noses in it.
I remember going toe to toe with Henry on many occasions, eh Henry ?
We both really DID try to stay civil, sometimes with less than stellar results LOL.
What makes Henry different ?
He bothered to research, to really KNOW his subject , and in the course of researching and learning he
came to a realization.
He just might have been wrong, we are not all theives, and something is definitely not ‘right’ in
copyright.
THEN … he was gracious enough to come out and say .. gee .. I was wrong.
He was smart when he arrived, and he is even smarter now.
The brightest minds in the world become that way because they are always willing to
remember that they don’t know everything, and thus, are capable of learning something new.
Nope, Henry really believed in his stance when he got here, and was willing to open his mind.
That’s not a troll.
A Troll slings shit because it likes the smell, no other reason.