Current events - Just venting and whining
Submitted by Brick on Sun, 12/11/2005 - 3:31pm.
This type of PC inspired stupidity makes my brain hurt.
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Onward and upward with progressivism: In a Las Vegas suburb, the United Food and Commercial Workers union hired temp workers at $6 an hour to picket a nonunion Wal-Mart, where wages start at $6.75 an hour. A British teachers-union official proposed that instead of bad students\' receiving a \"failing\" grade, their grade should be called \"deferred success.\" A Milwaukee 17-year-old and his father sued to end summer homework because the stress of honors precalculus assignments spoiled the lad\'s summer. When Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of actor Will Smith, told a Harvard audience that women \"can have it all�a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career,\" the campus Bisexual, nice and I\'m a lumberjack and I\'m okay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance said its members were made \"uncomfortable\" because Mrs. Smith\'s words were \"extremely heteronormative.\" A majority of teachers, parents and students at Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley favored renaming the school Sequoia Elementary because Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves. Under Chief Sequoia, the Cherokee nation owned more than 1,500 black slaves. You cannot be too careful, so Timnath, Colo., banned smoking in bars and restaurants, of which Timnath at the time had none. The often hilarious New York Times, which opposes capital punishment, reported disapprovingly that a life sentence \"is death in all but name.\"
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Excerpted from an article covering the events of 2005 located at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10413793/site/newsweek/
Does it seem to anyone else that the general public in this country is completely unable to think? It seems like everyone is in continual knee jerk mode walking around in a perpetual state of outrage.
I mean, what\'s up with all the investigations and talk about examining the Air Marshalls that were involved in the recent shooting. They did exactly what they were supposed to do in that situation. I read an interview with a passenger on that plane where the passenger was like, \"wasn\'t there some other way to subdue him?\". I mean, WTH...we are putting guys with guns on planes to take out guys with bombs on planes before they kill everyone around them. I\'m sorry the guy was mentally ill, but I have very little sympathy for someone who tells a guy with a gun that he is a guy with a bomb and then refuses to follow instructions.
And it doesn\'t seem like the lunacy is relegated to liberals either. I understand why people get upset when there is a perceived attempt to remove Christ from the celebration of Christmas. What I don\'t understand is why people can\'t use a little common sense before unleashing their righteous indignation. Specifically I\'m referring to the outrage from certain sections of the conservative Christian crowd over the White House\'s holiday cards. I mean c\'mon, we have to use a little common sense here. Bush has never shied away from expressing his personal beliefs when it comes to his Christianity... and yet I am seeing and reading comments like the following...
A section of the printed media prominently displayed a copy of the Christmas card that was issued from the White House this month. It reads thus:
With best wishes for A holiday season of hope and happiness 2005. US President George W Bush and Laura Bush signed the Christmas card that did not contain Christmas wishes. Bush claims to be a born-again evangelical Christian and yet it seems he is more worried about what the world thinks of him than what God thinks of him.
I mean, really now. With everything else he\'s got on his plate, now he has to deal with this type of ignorant garbage from his own party\'s base. Why do I go so far as to label it as idiocy? Well here\'s the kicker, I spent 30 seconds surfing the web until I found a picture of the card (I swiped it from CBS). You know what the line right above the line that has everyone all riled up is? It\'s a verse from the Bible.
Beyond that, there is a distinct difference between a card sent from the whitehouse, and a card sent from Bush\'s family.
I\'m feeling distincty un-jolly right now. Bah bah bah bah.
This type of PC inspired stupidity makes my brain hurt.
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When Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of actor Will Smith, told a Harvard audience that women \"can have it all�a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career,\" the campus Bisexual, nice and I\'m a lumberjack and I\'m okay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance said its members were made \"uncomfortable\" because Mrs. Smith\'s words were \"extremely heteronormative
I\'m feeling distincty un-jolly right now. Bah bah bah bah.
o.Oa
Brick, you and I need to sit down and talk more; I completely agree with your points of view.
It pisses me off that a single man with a loud enough voice would piss of 97% of the population to please the other 3%. Why do people have to be so willing to help the minority? Yes, they have the same rights we do, but that doesn\'t give them a special ability to make us, the majority, bend over backwards to do their bidding!
I\'m sorry that being heterosexual offends you, Mr. (or is that Mrs.?) Bisexual, nice and I\'m a lumberjack and I\'m okay (damn vulgarity filter), Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance, but that\'s how most people are; that\'s the way we were supposed to be. Now let Mrs. Smith exercise her freedom of speech!
The Air Marshalls did what was right. The needs of many outweigh those of a few. The lives of hundreds outweigh those of one family member. Was there another way to subdue him? Probably, but not without further risking your life. Would you rather the Air Marshalls tried to subdue the man with tranquilizers, in which he\'d have a couple extra minutes to detonate a bomb that you do or do not know exists? How about they just attack him with sticks? Would that make you feel safer?
Christmas came about because it\'s the celebration of Jesus\' birthday. You don\'t want Christ during your Christmas? Ok. Let\'s negotiate a trade. We take away Christ from Christmas, and you take away something of equal or greater importance. How about the all the gifts and decorations? I didn\'t think so. That\'s not even equal or greater. And Xmas isn\'t a word; nobody calls it Crossmas.
Grrr. With the \"land of the free\" comes the \"land of the easily offended,\" I suppose. Pisses me off that people can\'t have a lick of sense, though.
Oh well, I still love America. If I offended anyone, I\'m sorry, but I\'m not gonna take it back!
EDIT: I almost forgot, +1 :)
Brick, you and I need to sit down and talk more; I completely agree with your points of view.
You guys really do, you know? Heart to heart, man to man. I\'m so glad to see guys who still like to talk. Thats rare these days. GG to that, +1 guys... +1!
Brick, you and I need to sit down and talk more; I completely agree with your points of view.
You guys really do, you know? Heart to heart, man to man. I\'m so glad to see guys who still like to talk. Thats rare these days. GG to that, +1 guys... +1!
I don\'t know if I should feel insulted or praised...
I just caught this response to something I said in this thread...http://hushedcasket.com/index.php/topic,1136.msg8082.html#msg8082
I chose to respond in this thread because it dovetails into what I was complaining about the other night.
When I was at the PX, I remember the manager telling us that it would be illegal for them to withold supply for their employees, that\'s why a guy who worked at the PX was standing in line with us. It\'s possible it\'s illegal according to store policy, but it\'s still wrong and people should get fired.
Mintz, you\'re basically in your own little autonomous provence there. There are several things that are illegal to do on post, that aren\'t illegal to do off post. I could see why there would be federal regulations preventing that type of behavior in the PX.
I was seconds, SECONDS, from stopping your triple post!
Edit: Well, minutes.
Very true. Personally, I think it should be illegal off post as well. Wouldn\'t that make sense?
First a disclaimer. I know you already have a 360. I\'m generalizing my argument to speak to the position that you\'re last sentence advocates.
No it doesn\'t make sense.
The PX is there to supply military families with needed goods and services. It is federally run enterprise with safeguards instituted to make sure that goods and services are not siphoned off from the supply chain by PX employees during times of shortage, or in foreign contries. If this happens to mean that they can\'t sell x-boxes to employees outside of normal store hours, then great for you.
A private business should be able to sell to whomever they want to, whenever they want to as long as they are not being discriminatory in their practices as defined by the bill of rights or the constitution, they are not violating a legally binding agreement that they have made with a supplier or some other third party, and they are not violating any federal, state, or local laws that have been passed. (I am not aware of any that would prevent this, but I\'m not a lawyer. If there are any, feel free to point them out.)
In the grand scheme of things no one owes you a shot at buying a 360. It may be a poor business practice to not make them available to you, but your rights are not being violated.
We should be very carefull about enacting legislation to increase governmental intrusion into private enterprise. You have to think about these things, you can\'t just go off half-cocked. Today you are a teen willing to enact legislation to interfere in a private transaction because the way some local businesses are handling distributions of gaming consoles strikes you as patently unfair. Ten years from now you may be a business owner complaining about all of the intrusion into your life by the government.
If an organization\'s business practices irritates people and create a negative public perception, then it will come back to bite them. The free market works. Instead of hollering that someone ought to do something, why don\'t you do something. Write a letter to the store. Make them aware that you are a potential revenue stream that is going to disappear if things keep going this way. Start a public campaign, blog about it, get active, but for goodness sakes don\'t ask papa government to come protect you from big, bad, mean Walmart who isn\'t getting you your games fast enough to suit you.
I just applied some \"negatively challenged\" karma to you, Brick. Nice rant.
I keep trying to give you positive karma, but I keep getting this error message: Sorry, you can\'t repeat a karma action without waiting 12 hours.
Oh well, you deserve it! I agree with you now. Today in this world of newly-discovered freedom of speech with blogs and online journals, it\'s now easier than before to network with others who have shared similar problems, helping people work together to inform others about a problem. rapture posted a perfect example of this. (As of this post, it\'s only two Diggs away from 8000 diggs; it\'s the most popular story all year)
Well said Brick, well said.
Glad someone else went off about that before I had to.
Very true. In a free market you vote with your dollars. If you don\'t like how a business operates then you don\'t patron them. If you want to multiply the effect then you convince others to do the same.
Side note:
About two weeks ago I learned that an English teacher in an Austrian high school was imprisoned for \"denying the holocaust happened.\" Apparently publicly denying the holocaust happened is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Lesson 1: Not just third world crapholes suppress the rights that we enjoy in the US. Fully civilized, NATO countries are just as capable.
I relayed this story to a colleague at work one day. I told the story and before I launched into my \"How horrible is that?\" discussion he interjected \"Hmm, that\'s pretty cool!\"
\"What?!?\" \"That\'s pretty cool? Do you not see the problems with freedom of speech that presents?\"
\"Oh, I didn\'t really think about that part of it. I suppose you are right.\"
This is another officer in the Marine Corps, mind you.
\"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy\'s First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world\'s one and only truth.\"
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