hypocrisy, crystallized

Finally - this is exactly my problem with American crony capitalism. When the poor or underprivileged are hurting, it's their own damn fault for not being smarter (reading the fine print, understanding what exactly a variable-rate mortgage entails, etc.). If a business "happens" to profit off that ignorance, well, that's just social Darwinism.

But when it's the mighty who are being screwed, oh how quickly the tables turn. It's not just the big profits of big business that are evil, but the entire insurance industry! What blazing rhetoric! What unbridled hypocrisy! lol

What's not to love about the American system? People wonder why we're so quick to litigate, but my belief is that it's simply because our corporate antagonists have so much greater an upper hand in American than anywhere else that we are more often forced to resort to extreme measures simply to gain some basic injunctions against abuse - injunctions which are commonplace in many other developed nations.

all your fault

So, let me get this straight. A woman educator in Sudan lets her students name a teddy bear 'Mohammed', and she's jailed, convicted, and deported?

A woman is raped, and she's sentenced to jail time because it's her 'fault'?

Why can't logic and religion reside together, in harmony, inside more people's heads? Why do we let such things get in the way of getting along? I know to many people issues of religion are paramount ... but until everyone can manage getting along, can't we leave religion out of the equation? I mean, wouldn't a just and loving almighty deity respect us more for trying to fix our world and enhance our relationships with one another, for mutual gain and respect, than if we just jump right to religious disputes? Shouldn't we save the afterlife and our views of the spiritual realm for the time after we've mastered this corporeal realm?

One would think ...

and now for something totally different!
On a final note, which is the greater tragedy: being murdered by your father, or having your entire life summed up in the following eulogy?

Dunaway said Loebsack, 36, who lived in Gastonia, North Carolina, was married and had two children, ages 8 and 10. "It's a real tragedy. She was a beautiful soccer mom," he said.

all your fault

So, let me get this straight. A woman educator in Sudan lets her students name a teddy bear 'Mohammed', and she's jailed, convicted, and deported?

A woman is raped, and she's sentenced to jail time because it's her 'fault'?

Why can't logic and religion reside together, in harmony, inside more people's heads? Why do we let such things get in the way of getting along? I know to many people issues of religion are paramount ... but until everyone can manage getting along, can't we leave religion out of the equation? I mean, wouldn't a just and loving almighty deity respect us more for trying to fix our world and enhance our relationships with one another, for mutual gain and respect, than if we just jump right to religious disputes? Shouldn't we save the afterlife and our views of the spiritual realm for the time after we've mastered this corporeal realm?

One would think ...

How much is that goose in the window?

The one with the so-o-oft down? haha! Hungary in the news!

Et tu, Truth?
Only Republicans could possibly deride someone for being "too" truthful. I mean, who are they to talk about truthiness when they have so little experience with it themselves? Maybe they lie about how experienced they are in their dealings with, and telling of, the truth? A good lie is better than a bad truth, eh? Well, I find your nonchalant acceptance and implicit promotion of censorship offensive in its own right.

Besides, who but tweaked-out, druggie, high-school kids having gay premarital bestiality sex would honestly look to Bush as a role model? Lawd knows that's all our secular schools are filled with these days - dirty Jesus hating little demons!!

Funny, I don't feel more appreciated
Must be one of those initiatives that pass like a slow burn - you know, like a big fat (legal) Dutch roach! lol

The Dutch Don't Learn
Time to get out the riot gear! I wonder if any of the disenfranchised Parisians will trek over here just to firebomb something?

business model

I'm all too familiar with businesses that have a similar MO.

Wriking Striters Unite!

If Heaven has a web-based, streaming media-content provider based on a popular cable channel show of the same name, then it must be Jon Stewart guarding the pearly gates of that ... I don't know what, lol.

Hypocrisy on tap at Toyota
In unrelated news, fuck Toyota. These shitheads want to talk the talk without walking it now that they've got a #1 auto manufacturer dick to swing that's all but guaranteed them in the next year or so. How can you read this bullshit and not realize the hypocrisy inherent in these statements, namely:

a) Toyota is stalling on CAFE standards as well, which are, um, NATIONAL!

b) Toyota's reluctance to introduce more diesel cars, on the grounds of higher sulfur emissions. Fair enough, but what are the benefits of the greater fuel economy versus something like requiring their vehicles to use low sulfur diesel?

They talk about recycling paper and water at their plants, about all the "options" they're giving consumers to go green (like the new hybrid Lexus that actually burns more fuel on the highway than its regular counterpart), but whereas Toyota used to be the leader, they are fast slipping from that position. Honda already touts that it has the most fuel-efficient fleet in the US (overall), and GM and others are ready to one-up Toyota with things like the Volt - assuming vehicles like that make it to production, which is a big hurdle in the auto industry. Still, Toyota could be doing a lot more, and it's not.

Girls Who Game
If you were ever wondering what a male's concept of a Gamers' Heaven looks like, I believe this is it.

Hell comes later, after you realize the girls can kick your ass! :oP

mad borals

I firmly believe that most of the people who fall for neo-conservative tripe simply cannot read.

No rational person can believe that cutting emissions will not spur American business and innovation. Republicans campaign as "hard-working," but they're intellectually lazy. If you forced Detroit to adhere to higher CAFE standards, how would that put people out of work? That's insane, you'd need to hire more engineers, consultants, and skilled labor to comply with the regulations, not less. Leaving them the same would be the case for corporations (which are supposedly marching relentlessly towards ever more efficient, profitable, and leaner operations) to cut jobs because the processes are well-established and understood.

eat shit OR die

Small difference, but it could enhance your life in the long run. Apparently, there is much truth in jest:



God I love George Carlin. He's actually quite right about germs to "practice on" - of what do you think most vaccines are comprised? There never is any magic bullet in human technology, just deviously clever, one-step-ahead-of-the-curve quick fixes.

On an unrelated note, I've noticed the Dutch police sometimes randomly set up checkpoints to check motor vehicles. Not like, check for drunk drivers check, but check the tires, under the hood, etc. They also set up checkpoints every so often and search everyone coming off the tram (usually the #17 by Hollandspoor in Den Haag). I'm not sure how such searches jive with personal freedoms. I can understand if someone's called in a threat, but I suspect it's more banal than that. I think it's a "random" routine because a lot of expats use that particular tram, so it may either be a target, a former target, or a tactic the police use to keep people feeling safe. Not sure if the latter is a valid reason any longer, because if I am to believe some recent news articles, the Dutch aren't as adamant about all the freedoms (for which they've garnered quite the reputation) as they used to be.

I am your Farker ...

I hereby claim the title Son of Fark: the cultural unlearnings of a man for make great the glorious Internets surface roads.

financial literacy training

People are complaining that credit card companies are poaching college students. I disagree with the proposed remedy, that people need "financial literacy training&qout;. What people need are anti-stupid pills, which would not only allow them to become credit card deadbeats, but also avoid such unnecessarily idiotic statements as:

They should put warnings on credit cards like they do on cigarettes," Rhoades says, "to make sure people know how dangerous the cards are.

Someone help, I used my credit card twice a day for 4 years without having enough income to cover my expenditures. Now I am in debt, and it's all the company's fault. Why did they give me easy access to credit? Why?! Think about that suggestion - the students are already ignoring the writing on the credit card applications, how much more likely are they to read another warning instead of just, um, ignoring it also?

I'm not defending the credit card companies when they are being evil (which, incidentally, they are quite talented at), what I am saying is that children who are attending college should not be so dumb. Shame on them. Just signing up for a card doesn't make you liable for what you do with it, and roughly half of the people who do own credit cards not only manage, they carry little to no debt month-to-month.

the clothes make the corporation after all ...

Wow.

Wow.

So if I wore a shirt that said "cunning stunts," I had better watch out? Maybe I just won't travel. Maybe I should buy the most offensive t-shirt I possibly can for my upcoming trips.

WHY ARE YOU ALL SUCH SHEEP!?!? Toughen the fuck up.

On an unrelated note, I wonder if he downloaded Team America: World Police ...

the information superparkinglot

I make the following claims.

1) When you visit such an establishment, dead chickens are not a primary concern for you.

2) Nowhere on the "Information Superhighway" is it stated you have to have a wheelchair ramp like a Target parking lot.

I'm not saying companies shouldn't make the effort, but how much can you expect when you cannot see the visual interface? Are there verbal commands, like "click at the link at the bottom of the page for more results." How would one execute such a command? How does this jive with advertisements and other audio content - does the software displace the original audio of the website?

This case seems akin to saying that movies need to release a DVD that is like an audiobook - someone reads the script that describes the action on-screen. I think that's a bit absurd. Are you going to have BlindTV too? If the screenplay was adapted from the book, just get the audiobook (it'll be better anyway). You can't have equal everything. The deaf have subtitles, but there are no requirements that a movie theatre has to have screenings with subtitles for people who are deaf. I am not saying they couldn't, I'm just saying there is a massive difference between being accomodating and making something mandatory.

gone nukin'

Actually, I happen to agree: nuclear power is one option to mitigate global emissions. I can't believe anyone can seriously levy the argument "you emit when building the plant." Are you retarded? You emit to build a COAL-FIRED PLANT AS WELL! Talk about grasping at straws ...

Associative Proof

How NBC's new television show, Heroes exemplifies the design argument central to Alan Cooper's book, "The Inmates are Running the Asylum," and, subsequently, the design theory for his company, Cooper.

You don't please the masses by catering to the masses, you please the masses by catering to one facet of societal norms. That is the secret to success of things like M*A*S*H (Korean/Vietnam war vets), Seinfeld (yuppie Jews), Friends (yuppies), House (cynical people), Law & Order (those with OCD and those who wish their lives were better organized), CSI (OCDs who are closet voyeurists, lol), etc.

It all goes back to that old adage, "do one thing and do it well."


... or was that "Jack of all trades, master of none; oftimes better than master of one?" :o)


... just so long as the trade's not humor I guess, because then you get a fat slice of oppression from the political machine! Be careful now Romney, or you might wind up in Putin's cabinet! haha

how to lose "yous guys" in 7 days

I give you: Trumpia! If you think about it like I did, it's like the anti-social social networking/communication tool.

With further ado, I give you: the comment I left them! (which I wonder if they will answer):

Dear Trumpia,

Let's say a friend of mine is using your service and I get contacted via all my devices until I respond to one. I feel included, and I didn't miss the change of venue for our club meeting. Now let's say I want to sign up for Trumpia. What are the odds that I will want other people to "blast" me on all my devices when, say, I carry my phone with me "all the time?" Close to zero. So I will set my own personal settings to the "path of least annoyance" - the device I have most frequently with me. Odds are also that the person who contacted me originally will have done the same thing. And so on.

Everyone is going to tend toward that setting, especially after the first time they happen not to have their most convenient device with them and they get blasted on all channels. So your service only works well until people either sign up (and change the permissions) or opt out. In the former case you end up back where you were before Trumpia, with everyone being no more connected than the days of just e-mail or chat or text, all of which were supposed to connect people (and did, until they got used to the tech). In the latter case, you aren't using Trumpia, so it's no longer relevant.

I'm not trying to knock your company, because I think it's a move in the right direction, but to me this is a downside that says "fad" rather than "game-changer." Everyone wants to be connected yet no one wants to be annoyed, and I believe people are going to opt for, as I said, the path of least annoyance to them. This will result in the sum of all their communication devices bringing no additional benefit beyond their most commonly-used device.

Have you done user testing to see if the above is an issue?

freedom of information

NYTimes and IHT abandon Times Select. "It was a success." What a terrible, bullshit argument. No business, especially not the struggling newspaper dailies, would dare shelve an idea that was actually making them money.

I'm also glad that a bespeckled geriatric is one of the few people in America with the testicular fortitude to state plainly that the war in Iraq is over OIL and that Bush is a nitwit. Christ, people, W A K E U P!

mmm ... Orwellian

Couldn't have said it better myself:

"After all, it seems the burden of ending the war will fall to the next president. Bush was clear on Thursday night - as he was when he addressed the nation in January, in September of last year, the December before that and in April 2004 - that his only real plan is to confuse enough Americans and cow enough members of Congress to let him muddle along and saddle his successor with this war that should never have been started."

Thanks for that concise and scathing summary of our failures, International Herald Tribune!

lunatic lottery-winner

In stunningly vivid irony. What a greedy son-of-a-bitch. Why is it so hard for society to call a spade a spade? This is greed, exemplified, and yet we'd prefer to make all sorts of excuses for our behavior.

He's beset by sob stories? Here he is on CNN, another sob story. Here is a modest business proposal: if you want to be remembered, be like Buffett. I'll found your non-profit donation (and make sure to funnel 40% of the profits to myself, so that the organization generates no net profit).

Men are from Mars ...

If there were Martians, their preferred method of transport would be second-hand motorcycles.

these are a few of some interesting things

1) Random Mastadon-ness!

2) Just plain cool. (hint: it's a trick of the mind)

3) not cool ... not cool at all. A warning label would add what, $0.04 to the cost of manufacture? It may be a ridiculously small percentage of lives saved from injury, but it's undue injury. And if you merely think about how many teens ride with severely reclined seats, even when driving (not that teens would heed the warning labels). Also, even if you don't heed the warning, you do retain some of the information (like advertising). The potential for an airbag to deploy improperly and unduly injure you is very slight, but vehicles still carry warnings about those.

And given the yearly stories of dogs and babies killed in overly hot cars, maybe there should be a warning on the windows. Stupid individualistic sheep need constant reminders in order to maintain their vigilance of their fragile, ignorant little lives (and the lives of their pets - children included).