Land of Oz

Copies

I just read an article that says ushers have been issued nightvision goggles to watch for people making copies of Harry Potter. How is this such a problem. I can't for the life of me see how people video taping a movie is going to hurt business. Is a tiny crappy copy of a movie really going to stop anyone who wants a copy of the movie from getting one? I can't see how getting some poor quality download of a movie is really worth seeing.

MP3s and DVD copies are one thing. Let's face it, a copy of a DVD is going to replicate the movie perfectly. However a video of a movie isn't going to come anywhere close. Maybe if you set up a tripod and and kept everyone around you from talking and walking in front of the camera you might get a fairly good copy. But if I want to see a movie, I'd much rather spend the $15 or so, than watch a free crappy version. And if I am so interested that I want to watch a free crappy version, I will probably buy a real copy anyway.

Harry Potter - the movie or Harry Potter - the book

Dying Young

Here's the kind of thing that really pisses me off. Purely by accident I can across Army Pfc. Leslie D. Jackson. I know nothing about her. She has the dubious distinction of being the youngest GI to die so far in Iraq. She was murdered by some faceless terrorist triggering a bomb on a roadside. Actually there are 13 others listed who are also 18 years young. This particular Web site lists an additional 788 who had the misfortune to die for their country. As of this writing that's 802 dead GIs. Who knows how many wounded should be added to that number. There seems to be a pretty strong attempt to keep the number of wounded faceless. I've seen numbers of evacuated casualties from Iraq that are up in the several thousands. Makes you wonder how many missing eyes, legs, arms and other parts those total up to.

Many people see this as some kind of noble sacrifice for your country. Noble? It's some poor kid who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A sacrifice to be sure, but why? I don't understand why people keep killing people. In Iraq they do it for some dusty strip of road with the idea of us versus them. In Saginaw it's over some stupid song in a nightclub. Where is the nobility in either place?

Don't get me wrong, I greatly admire those poor kids whose life in on the line in defense of our country. I can't quite say the same of those not so poor leaders who put the kids on the line. Here's a quote from one of the dedications to Pfc. Jackson. I can only hope the person's problem is with English and not thinking.

"Thank you for sacrificing your life for our great country. People like you are the reason people like me live in freedom and comfort. Our country is never thankful enough to people like yourself who go the extra mile and do what is right in..."

"Thank you for sacrificing your life ..."?? That just sounds wrong.

2fers:Fallen Heroesand How They Get There

Taiwan and China

Here's a recent (May 29)quote from President Bush:

"BEIJING (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) has restated his commitment to a "one China" policy, days after Beijing lashed out at Washington for allowing Taiwan's vice president to make transit stops in the United States. ... In a telephone conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday, Bush strongly reiterated U.S. adherence to a one-China policy and pledged to oppose "Taiwan independence," the official Xinhua news agency said"

Could someone explain this to me? I thought one of the reasons we're in Iraq to ensure that an independent democracy could be formed. Did someone forget to inform the White House that Taiwan recently held their third democratic presidential election? How many has China held recently?

China just sent 8 warships into Hong Kong harbor because the folks there were talking about democratic elections. China is currently mad at Canada because the Canadians allowed the Dali Lama to visit. How about a free and democratic Tibet -- or for that matter, just a free Tibet. Here's another quote from the BBC (Mar30):

"Chinese security agents have detained the relatives of three people killed during the Tiananmen demonstrations 15 years ago. The three are all prominent members of the Tiananmen Mothers' Organisation. [one of whom is 67]"

or how about

AFP, BEIJING (May 29)'China's secretive state security police have set up a special task force to clamp down on students and political dissidents in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre, sources said yesterday.
"The universities are under strict control and there are several kinds of restrictions and regulations dealing with the anniver-sary," a Beijing academic said.'

And this is the kind of country President Bush wants to support? A country with slave labor, politcal prisoners and one who forced down an American recon plane just a couple of short years ago? And people wonder why I don't particularly care for Bush's policies.
2fers:Taipei Times and Taiwan's News Net

Space - The Lost Frontier

Well, have you heard the latest about the glorious US space program? Those poor guys in the Space Station, Alpha, or whatever the hell they call it these days have a bunch of bum space suits. Along with a grounded shuttle, bad gyros, crappy climate control, high decibel fans and air leaks, their suits suck as well.

It seems for the upcoming space walk they have to use Russian space suites since the US space are falling apart. Wasn't it just a few short months Bush was laying out plans for a return to the moon and plans for a Mars mission? Hell, we can't even keep three overworked astronauts in a serviceable space suit.

And of course, the Hubble telescope is being written off along with who knows what else. It's pretty hard to believe that we are actually keeping two glorified golf carts running on Mars. And it's taken them months to do what some half-assed geologist could have done in a short afternoon.

But even though the space program is in shambles, things look good here on earth, the terrorist threat is lessened, Osama is caught, the Iraqis are still happy to see us, the oil situation is improving, illegal immigration is down, crime is down, good employment is up -- oh wait -- not really. In general things suck and seem to be getting worse.

2fers: Optimism in the Extreme and 7 mpg

The Fall of the American Worker

It's interesting how far the situation of the American worker has fallen in these days of business rules. I heard an interesting story today about some company that is growing through mergers and has big plans for the future. Supposedly there was some meeting where the usual buzz words about looking to the future and the customer is always right and more with less, etc. etc. were bandied about.

What surprised even your cynical blogger host was what was reported about the company CEO's outlook on his employees' morale. Basically it was that employee morale isn't wasn't the company's worry. Only the local levels should worry about their employees' morale. I'm kind of surprised at how this CEO expects his company to look at the future and take care of customers etc. etc. when no thought is given to morale. Screw the employee -- we want more customers.

I guess that's a good way to ask if you like curry for lunch? I've heard that a good paying job in India answer phones is costing a company around $2 an hour compared to whatever is being paid in the USA. The average pay for an automobile manufacturing employee in China is around $1,700 a year. If you get that a month here you're looking at legal poverty level.

The problem is that the CEO's outlook is right for his company. He doesn't really care if anyone quits over low morale -- there are thousands waiting outside the door to take their place - at a lower wage. They talk about business improving -- it is. It's business doing well and the businesses' workers that are making it happen. You can now get away with treating your employees like the replaceable stock they are. If they don't like it, there's always more where they came from. Let's face it, to an employee making $6 an hour at WalMart, a job making $15 an hour is worth putting up with a lot of hassles. The company has its replacement, the new worker is making almost three times a much as they did and the company no longer has to keep a high-paying experienced employee in the ranks.

2fers: Fucked Company dot Com and US Chamber of Commerce

Hockey Without the Skates

Some people call it boxing. I guess Stallone and his gang is getting ready to do a reality show about boxers. Not just about showing them beating each other's brains out, but also showing them as people. Here's a quote from the article:

"We're looking for star power," said Mark Burnett, the series' executive producer and the creator of such hits as "Survivor" and "The Apprentice."
"To be a star, you've got to be a great boxer, but you've also got to have great charisma," he said. "What's wrong with boxing today? There are not enough great characters."
Burnett intends for his show to establish great characters in the boxing arena and bring them to a huge, new audience that, until now, was immune to boxing's charm: "Maybe we can kick-start a wonderful, noble sport."

You gotta love that last line - "a wonderful, noble sport." Think about what boxing is. You get two guys, or nowadays women, stick them in a ring surrounded by screaming "fans" who watch them try to beat each other's brains out -- literally. If you don't believe me, watch Muhammad Ali these days.

Sure, there's skill there. I'll admit that. But skill in what? How to hit another person hard enough to make them lose consciousness. Or if you can't do that, hit them hard enough so that they are bleeding bad enough they have to quit. Or lacking that, just beat on them in general enough until they pass out.

Aren't we the same people who call ancient Rome brutal and uncivilized? It's not like you're going to get rich as a boxer. For every millionaire there's probably tens of thousands of boxers who don't earn enough to keep themselves in aspirin.

However, on the other hand, if that's what they want to do, so be it. It annoys just as much when I see all these folks bitchin' about those ToughGuy competitions where common folk get to beat each other's brains out. Hey, if you're into that sort of thing, who am I to stop you. Just don't come running to me for the taxes to pay for your health care when you're a vegetable.

2fers: Amateur Boxing and Neurological Disorders

Double Standards

Have you heard that the Bush government is planning on paying the Iraqi prisoners who were mistreated in Iraq.

Have you heard that the Bush government is opposed to letting the 17 American POWs get paid by the Iraqi government who mistreated them.

What more can I say?

High Gas

Yesterday I was cruising through town and had some guy in one of those huge Chevy 4x4 Avalance things wave at me through the window and ask what kind of mileage I get. BTW, I drive a VW New Beetle. It was nice to tell him I was getting close to 30 mpg. I see the Avalanche has mileage ranges from 10-15mpg.

A couple things about this. First, yes I do realize that he can carry a lot more stuff than I do and go through places I can't How often does the average person really need the load hauling capability of a full size 4x4 pickup truck? I still think it's a lot more reasonable to either rent something for that occasional hauling or even buy an old junker that you drive once in a blue moon.

I will admit there's times when having a 4x4 would be nice, however, I've been here in Michigan for about 8 years. The first 5 with a little Saturn wagon and the last 3 with my Beetle and haven't gotten stuck or been late work because of weather yet. Granted, now that I've mentioned it, tomorrow we'll probably have a freak snowstorm and I'll get snowed in.

The last thing is gas prices. Yep, going over $2 per gallon makes one take notice. My bug uses premium, so I'm forking out about $2.25 or so a gallon. It's been a week since I put some in so I'm guessing it well over $2.35 right now. Anyway, instead of griping about the price of gas, why not gripe about the price of water?! Yes water. The same you get out of the tap for a few bucks a month costs around a dollar for a small bottle (this is the cheap stuff too). Those prices put plain water somewhere over $3 a gallon and no one seems to mind that too much.

2fers: Michigan Gas Prices and Bottled Water Prices

Drivers From Hell

I have a ten minute ride to work through a pretty low traffic (by LA or Chicago standards) urban edge neighborhood. This was today's ride:

• I stopped at an intersection and the car facing me had their left turn signal on and was over in the left side of thier lane. As soon as I started my left turn, the lady changed their mind and started to go straight.


• About 6 blocks later, I'm going down a one-way street (yes, I'm going in the correct direction) and some lady stops in front of me and starts to back up. Finally she just stops in the middle of the lane.


• A few blocks later I'm behind a big semi at a stop light. Going through the light, there are now three lanes of one-way traffic. He (a stereotyped guess) stops just past the light in the middle lane, puts on his hazard flashers, and stops across two lanes of traffic.


• I finally get around the truck and enter an interstate highway for the finaly mile or so to work. The posted speed limit is 70 mph, and I'm allegedly doing about 5 mph faster when an older Thunderbird blasts past me probably doing close to 85. Do I need to mention he's running on one of those dinky little spares as he bobs and weaves (literally) down the road?

2fers: Where are they when you want one? and Too late...

People Suck

What the hell is wrong with people. I’ve just been watching the mini-series Band of Brothers about a tiny smidgen of World War 2. Troy is coming to the screen in the near future. A few months ago, it was Cold Mountain, about the Civil War. There’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Blue Max about World War 1. The Battleship Potemkin will get you a bit of one of several Russian revolutions. Do I really need to go. What are all these movies about?

People killing people by the hundreds, the thousands, the millions. Wouldn’t you think we’d learn by now? We haven’t learned a goddamned thing in thousands of years of full scale butchery. I’ll take that back, we have learned to kill better. We can now kill more people for less reasons with less work than ever before. And why do we kill them? To make sure they understand that killing people is bad. I mean, what the hell?

Just look what is going on now. There’s a bunch of kids in Iraq who are now in deep shit over mistreatment of prisoners. These are the same kids who are dodging shrapnel filled bombs (oops IEDs – sounds more polite) in some dried out country with no idea of when they might be able to leave. Halliburton is making billions over there and we’re taking some poor kid who’s making $25,000 a year to court because they humiliated someone.

The president said, “Bring ‘em on” and they did. The goofballs over there are chopping heads off on Iraqi MTV! They’re shooting kids who were told to go there and protect the USA against all enemies. Just make sure you pick and choose your enemies. After all, blowing up a city is fine and dandy, but go around thinking you lock up some prisoner in a dark cell and get away with it.

This is really bullshit. Let’s just get all the nuclear countries together – the good and the bad. (and why is a nuke in Pakistani hands good, but in North Korean hands bad?) and just push all the buttons together. Have a block party and press the goddamned buttons. Quit screwing around with killing a few thousand at a time and kill everyone everywhere all at once. Why have an inner city drive-by when you can vaporize the whole city. Screw blowing up a bus with bomb strapped to your ass. Think big! Vitrify the entire country. We can give the world back to some mutated ecoli bacteria sitting in a mud puddle in what used to be the Caribbean and start all over again.

People suck!

2fers: Good Darwin and The other Darwin

Iraq Prisons

First, let me get the obligatory “oh gee – that’s so terrible, how inhumane, etc.” out of the way. And actually it is – it should never have happened. OK, now let’s look at who was involved in this. These are basically kids. In a normal world they’d be hanging out around McDonalds playing grab ass and wolfing down hamburgers. Instead, they’re indefinitely stuck in a foreign (and I don’t mean foreign like England or Germany – I mean foreign like an alien world) country where everyday a couple of their friends are dying and a few more are getting their arms and legs blown off. It’s hot, dusty, dirty and dangerous and they’re in their 20s.

What were you doing in your twenties? Were you driving down some desert road where every pile of garbage or dead dog could be bomb with your name on it? Were you trying to control a hostile crowd of people who have no idea what you’re saying. Were you somewhere where many look at you as foreign invaders (basically because you ARE foreign invaders). Were you wondering why you were traveling around in an unarmoured vehicle and why your bosses wouldn’t let you armour it?

Or were you driving down to the mall to buy some CDs. Or maybe griping about the cost of gasoline. Maybe you were pissed because 7-11 quit carrying your favorite candy bar. This is what those kids should be worrying about. They shouldn’t have to be worrying about whether an order was legal or not or whether some CIA spook in civvies was actually who he said he was. You have officers who are supposed to be in charge. They are the ones who should never have let this mess occur.

Yep – there is something seriously disturbing about the photos of the female GI and her “thumbs up” gesture and broad smile standing among naked prisoners. However, there’s something even more disturbing that her chain of command allowed her to get into that situation in the first place.

2fers: The Salon and US Army

Hair Stuff Smell

My girlfriend has asked me a few times to try some “stuff” for my hair. Up until now all I’ve ever done is to shampoo in the morning using some generic dandruff shampoo and comb it which has been fine for me for a couple of reasons. First, there isn’t that much up there anymore and what is there is very fine (as in thin, not as in wow – good looking hair). It will start to curl around the ears after awhile and small bits and pieces tend to stick out here and there, but overall, it’s not that bad.

However, I thought I’d try some “stuff” for my hair this week. I bought some Vitalis to try – eeewh what a smell. To me it was a pretty crappy scent. I could it smell it wafting around during work and then later at home. Even after a quick shower I could it smell when I went to bed. Enough of that. After that one use, the $6 bottle took a dive into the trash.

A couple of days have gone by and I decided to look for some other stuff today. It finally struck me. After walking through about 3 aisles of various women’s hair care products, I came to the men’s section. I think there might have been three shelves about 18 inches wide. Most of that was Just for Men hair color. There was Vitalis and some generic Vitalis and some hair spray and a couple of tubes of some cream stuff (lard?) – and three aisles of women’s hair care stuff. There were a couple of empty spaces for non-scented men’s hair stuff, so I guess I’ll keep looking for that.

As if I there was anything I could do that would help my looks. In our relationship, she got all the looks.

That’s odd, there doesn’t seem to be a company web site for Vitalis – I guess you have to sniff it out.

2fers: Cover that gray and P.U.

Dining Solo

I just read another article about the problems with dining out alone. I don’t get it. What’s the big deal about it. I do it all the time in all kinds of restaurants and never feel awkward about it. I don’t seem to remember ever having a hassle from the restaurant either. In my case I usually have a magazine or sometimes a book with me. There’s always a couple of them in the car and I just grab it when I head in to eat. When I don’t have something to read, I usually just watch people. Don’t believe it when you hear nobody pays attention. I know I’m not unique, so if I’m watching so are others. Think about that the next time you stuff a hot dog sideways into your mouth.

Which brings me to coupons for eating. Why is it that 90% of the coupons are two for one deals. Granted, I’m sure you want to sell two meals hoping for making some extra bucks in drinks and stuff, but why ignore the single diner? How about a two for one or a couple bucks off a single meal? Grocery stores that do this piss me off too. Kroger’s even has this deal as an acronym “Buy One, Get One (BOGO)” on their packages. In my case, I normally buy none. I hate to buy something that as a single eater I’m going to throw half of it away. And why should I buy one of something that is BOGO and get shafted on the price. I think in many ways, it’s just the fact that I’m annoyed over the BOGO and just decide not to buy any.
2fers: Krispy Kreme Koupon and Single Traveler Hints