Here it is almost December and I've only put the heat on maybe three times and only for an hour or less. I'm trying to use as little electricity as possible because I have this poverty meter that has to be topped up by going to the shop.

So that's cool. Can I go the whole winter without using the heater for any substantial length of time?

Couldn't do this in the Old Country. For one thing, I don't think that poverty meters even exist there. But secondly, it's just way too cold.

I used to have to shovel the snow. I'd shovel our little front walkway and the sidewalk in front of our house. I'd stop when I thought I got the neighbour's part.

This neighbour would also stop when she got to what she thought was her part. But there was like one foot difference. I'd shovel first and she'd leave this one foot strip of snow. Then my mother would tell me to go out there and shovel that strip of snow.

What kind of lunatic wouldn't shovel that little bit of snow? It's literally two shovel loads. It's 10 seconds of work. But this old psychopath wouldn't do it. And then my psycho mother would send me out into the freezing cold to do it instead of just doing it herself or having a word with the neighbour.

I don't miss anything about that shit. I'm glad that that neighbour is long dead.

Check out this shit at the Old Country Buffet:

http://www.oldcountrybuffet.com/military-2

On Mondays it's $6.29 for a lunch, $9.29 for a dinner, and $1.99 for a kid's meal if you're a veteran or a current member of the military. Family included. Up to four family members.

You also get a 15% discount every day.

This sort of stuff is frighteningly common in the US. There's a real veneration of the military.

It's interesting how you go from Vietnam where the soldiers were being spat on and called baby killers and whatnot to now getting discounts at chain family dining eateries. They really cranked up the jingoism starting in the 1980s.

Certainly by the early 1990s, with Desert Storm, it was full reverence to the military. "Oh, you have a 10th grade education and few job prospects. You're obviously better than the rest of us. Please take 15% off your pancake breakfast.

Catholic school bringing in soldiers to insult us and we just have to sit there and take it. Write them letters about how proud we are of them. So "yes, sir", "no, sir", like it's us in the military. "Please take my butthole, sir."

You think that shit was going on in the 70s? "Hey, I read about you guys raping and killing everyone in a village and then burning it down. I hope my drawing cheers you up. Please come to our school one day and tell me how emaciated I look, you big hero, sir."

I saw a Youtube video of a guy dressed as a soldier in an Olive Garden or something. Apparently, he wasn't even in the military but just wanted the praise and food discounts that come with being a soldier. This seems to be a big thing in the US now according to these videos. "Stolen valor". Even the name suggests that in the US, being a soldier is virtuous thing and we should all honour them.

You want to know how many times I've thanked a soldier for his service? Not once. This is something that I believe has only become popular in about the past 20 years, so fortunately I was out of the country for most of that.

You see it in Youtube comments. Somebody says that they're a soldier IN THE COMMENTS, with no proof, and you'll get ten kids (at least I hope they're kids) thanking them for their service.

Interestingly, most of these soldiers or alleged soldiers will say that they don't like this. They were just doing a job, there was nothing heroic about what they were doing, and they're glad to be out.

When everybody was in the military, nobody gave a shit about the military. Now that the military is the exclusive domain of the impoverished we're supposed to revere them. It's patronising. "I'd never join the military and my offspring will never join the military because we're not dirt poor but thank you for doing it instead. Enjoy your 20% off rooty tooty fresh and fruity at Denny's."

Bring back the draft and the veneration would end overnight.