An American Lion

Have you heard of people who ask for money to keep blogging or to sustain their blogging? I run across things like this, on occasion, and this is one that was featured prominently on a thing that I like to call “memeorandum,” which ignores me because I am too fabulous:

Time for another blogger bailout

I apologize for this, but I need to do some serious begging here.  The car’s making noises like it can’t decide which of three potential problems it wants to develop and my settle on all three.  The laptop desperately needs an upgrade and a new power cord.  And Art the Wonder Dog ate my glasses.

I’m not kidding.

He jumped up and snatched them right off my head.  One quick chomp and they were lens-less.

So, if you can spare a couple of bucks, please hit the PayPal button in the tip jar over at the top of the left hand side bar or send a donation to the PO address listed there.  (Make checks or money orders payable to my bookkeeper, D. Reilly.)

I went to Lance Mannion’s site, and Here’s my comment, since these things are often deleted:

You know, Lance. This post speaks to a question that I have about blogging and ethics in general.

When is it acceptable to beg for money? Is it acceptable when things are a bit down, as they appear to be for you right now. Or is it acceptable when you’re living under a bridge and you don’t have any food to eat? Is it acceptable to beg when you’re seeing a little adversity or when things have really hit the fan? Where I live, here in Maryland, people routinely beg by the side of the road, and then go buy hooch. I know this because they hold up signs that say “why lie? I need a damned drink?”

Don’t get me wrong—I’ve never been generous or understanding. I’ve always been terrified of asking for help. That’s why I don’t ask for help, ever. Granted, I inherited quite a bit of money, and then, when I pushed my Father out as chairman of the family business, I became fairly well off, almost by default, since he had really botched the ownership structure, leaving my brothers and I to carve up things as we saw fit.

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve asked myself—how can anyone ask strangers for money, as they do on pretty much any blog there is out there? Is it because there’s an unspoken bond between reader and writer, allowing the reader to say, “hey, I’m getting quality stuff here for free, and I have no issues with kicking in a few bucks” or is it the guilt trip aspect at work? Is it an East Coast thing? What few Midwestern people I have known wouldn’t ask for a donut in a hail storm where nothing but donuts were falling in heaps on the ground. Is it a West Coast Offense thing, where the quarterback maintains different options so that he can find inside and outside receivers, based on the shift that the defense uses against the…hold on, I was working on something else and it got away from me.

What’s the deal with asking for money? Are you prevented from earning extra money doing side jobs by a health condition? Are you an older fellow like me, and would see no use in trying to work another job? Is there something that holds itself up and says, “nah, I’m an artist, and artists can ask for patronage because they deliver value to society” or is this just a shakedown? I’ve seen shakedown artists beg for money. They’re called Congressmen, and I used to donate quite a bit of money to politicians. I don’t anymore, since their begging has gotten so shameless I can’t stand to look at their pleading, pathetic eyes and tell them no. I suppose I should admit that, yes, I do donate money to food pantries and to things like that, but always in my real name so I can write it off at the end of the year and continue screwing someone that I like to call the Internal Revenue Service.

If you can give me a fairly good answer, I’ll come back and kick in a few bucks. Bah! No, I don’t even know what PenPal is. But you get my drift.

I doubt I’ll get a reply, but I know this—I’m certain to be vilified for having asked such an impertinent question.