Land of Oz

Sex Offenders and others

This subject bothers me in a lot of ways. I just read where Ohio wants to make their convicted sex offenders use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars. They already have to register in most states as well as having limits to where they can and cannot live.

Here's a couple of the things that bother me. First, they (and I'm generalizing here) seem to be unable to control themselves. They know it's wrong, they know they're going to get caught and they still do it. The NBC show, "To Catch a Predator" shows that with its repeat offenders that show up on multiple episodes. These are folks who have been processed through the legal system.

Obviously the system, somewhere, is very broke. It seems that a person who's convicted and sentenced of a crime, and then serves that sentence has paid their so-called debt to society. However, for these people it's just the beginning.

The other problem is that a jail sentence doesn't seem to do much. You let them loose and they do it again. Which means that we probably shouldn't be letting them loose. It's like leaving a sharp knife on the floor of a room full of kids. Either lock the knife up or put it in a sheathe to protect or make it so dull it won't hurt. Something like this needs to be done to sex offenders. And I'm not sure what that is.

As creepy and disgusting as the crime is, most of the violators don't seem to be able to control themselves even after being convicted, sentenced and released.

Actually, this seems to be true of most criminals. Really, how many criminals only do it - whatever it is - once? So why do we keep letting them out? Jay Leno commented last night that some state wants to give multiply-convicted drunk drivers pink license plates - why give them a license plat at all!! You're always reading about drunk drivers or rapists or muggers or whatever with multiple convictions. That's why I like the three strikes rule. Let's just acknowledge that we can't fix a lot of criminals and they aren't going to fix themselves. Give them a second chance and then slam the door on them. And like I said before, I don't care if the third strike is shooting some guy in the thigh or stealing a pizza - it's a crime and obviously the criminals can't get it through their heads that it's wrong. And until we figure out how to cure these folks, we need to lock them away where they don't have a chance to swing at strike number four.

Scriva un книга en Inglese

I read a lot. One of the things that really bugs me in stories that try to be multi-lingual. The book is ostensibly written in English, but the writer keep tossing in words and phrases that are non-English. I just started reading a series now about a coroner in Quebec or Le Québec as it should be spelled. I may be in the minority here (usually am) but if you're going to write a book in English, write it in English. If you want to include phrases so you can prove your globalization, at least include the English translation. I'd rather not need to guess at what anthropologistejudiciaire or Laboratoire de Médecine Ugale means in English. I have to admit that so far this book seems to do a reasonable job about providing translations, but it is in the minority in my experience. Write it in French or Italian or write in English, but pick a language and stick with it.

This is by no means limited to books. More and more movies seem to be fascinated by adding the occasional odd foreign bits and pieces. What is really annoying is when using hard of hearing subtitles, which I usually do, the subtitles of the foreign bits are also in that language. Sacre bleu! I want to know what I'm reading/listening to, not have to make uneducated guesses about it. And yes, I know, that as a true modern human, I should be able to understand several other languages, it's not gonna happen. I'm pretty much going to stay the uneducated, ugly American who understands English and not much else - though technically, I should say American and not much else since English can cover sounds that range from the slow deep south to the rapid-fire techno-speak of twenty-something Californians.

* And by the way, I'm not too sure of how the foreign phrases I use here will end up looking like on your screen - which should annoy you to no end.

Cars

The death of an industry - this time the slamming of the coffin door. I live in Michigan which at one time was the automobile capital of the world - and not that long ago either. Now, it's the rust-bucket capital of the world. It has the USofA's highest unemployment and more people are moving out than ever before. A lot of the U-Haul rental type places can't even keep enough trucks on hand to handle the exodus.

GM and Chrysler are dumping so many workers so fast they had to take the doors off the exits to handle the bodies flying out the door. Here in Saginaw - as in most of Michigan - empty lots and abandoned buildings are about all that's left of the once mighty Mo-Town namesake. Chrysler is up for sale after dragging down Mercedes - Dr. Z not-withstanding. And it's not like people are standing in line to buy it. So far I've heard that VW, Renault and even Hyundai have passed - even Hyundai. Remember when Hyundai cars were only good for late-night comic fodder? I heard that some Chinese company might be interesting in buying. How bad are things when the Chinese might buy up a USofA automobile company. I'm trying to imagine being back in 1970 sitting in my Chevy Nova with my other hi-po Detroit iron driving friends and talking about how the Chinese will eventually buy Chrysler!

And oh, yeah - Toyota is building a new factory in Mississippi to build SUVs!! Talk about a nail in the coffin. The "Big Three's" last ace has just been trumped.

Britney, Paris, Lindsey, Anna, etal

Who really cares. On the other hand...

US casualties in Iraq since Mar 19, 2003:
killed - 3154
wounded - 23677 (offically, not that the government would fib to us)

Parental Blindness

(CNN News) Simpson, a sixth-grade teacher, says she is still tormented by her son's actions [beating a 56 year-old homeless man with bats, leaving him in a 3 week coma] and wonders if her son's irritability was more than typical teenage moodiness.

OK, it's definitely not the kid whose at fault here. Simpson is a 6th grade teacher so I'm assuming (which I know is a big mistake) she has at least a smidgen of common sense. [and I feel so sorry for the kids in her class] I know parents love their kids, but come on lady, your kid almost beat a guy to death with a baseball bat! And you wonder is that's more than "typical teenage moodiness?" Teenage moodiness is having a messy room, not eating your veggies and not wanting to go buy clothes with your mom. Typical teenage moodiness is NOT beating someone to death.

Here in Saginaw we have more than our fair share of "typical teenage moodiness." This summer some 13 year old, already on probation for a weapons charge, was arrested for holding a gun to a policewoman's head. This was of course reported on the news with a background of his mom wailing that her little baby didn't do nothing and why are the cops being so unfair.

It seems all the teenagers around here who are either killing or being killed are completely innocent and couldn't possibly be involved in such things. Well, mom - dad, let me tell you something. They could be, have been and will be involved in such stuff. You obviously have no clue as to what your kids are really doing. The shootouts are Chuckie-Cheese, fist fights at Burger King and near-riots at the mall are being done by teenagers who belong to someone - probably you. They don't come from another planet or dimension, they come from your house.

It's not TPing the principal's office or tilting over an outhouse (not that there are any of those left - maybe a Porta-Potty is a 21th century substitute) - That's "teenage moodiness." It's not piercing their ears, eyes and throats and tattooing their belly buttons - that's "teenage moodiness." Beating people to death, threatening and shooting cops, knocking old ladies into the ditch and stealing her purse - that's criminal, and since it's criminal, those "atypical moody teenagers" should be locked away where they won't do harm.

Memorable Sayings

While I wish I could claim credit to these, I can't. They are a couple of the best comebacks I've heard from people.

In reply to my question about the availability of a slice of veggie pizza at a work function from one of the managers:

"Veggies? - veggies ain't food, that's what you feed to food."


At a class reunion meeting that was taking place in a bowling alley. One of my classmates - who's pretty rich and famous now - saw a bottle of beer still sitting unclaimed on the table we were sitting at. He grabbed at it saying:

"You can't waste that. Don't you realize there are people sober in Africa?"

Snow Driving Nitwits

What is it about snow that brings out the stupid in people. I won't say I've been immune to this myself. When I was a kid (and yes, there were cars back then) I did my share of crazy winter driving. However, in my defense, I'd like to say that was almost always on back country roads and I will say that there were never other people near by.

What brings this up is the newest nitwits on our block. They've moved into the house wreck rental that used to have the little girl who stole mail and their dog chained out in the sun in the backyard. This guy has a 4x4 - large American iron kind, not little SUV kind - and can't seem to drive it on the snow with less than pedal-to-the-metal. You can see the skid marks on the snow in front of our street where he consistently goes sideways to the next corner before powering into a U-turn. In the mornings around 0630 you can hear the steady rumble as he warms up his truck for 20-30 minutes.

This morning I was driving to work. We had a new snow last night; a couple of inches, so it's not too slick since it's 7F degrees and the snow was nice and dry. However this is on top of the other packed snow that's been there for a couple weeks now. (They don't do much in the way of plowing around my house.) I warned my wife that if she sees that idiot be very careful since he is in fact, an idiot. Sure enough, just as we started a right turn off to another road, you could hear his engine roar as he started sideways down the street - thankfully not the street we were on.

OK, now as much as I hate to wish ill will on people (ok, so that's a lie, I really love to wish ill will on lots of people who deserve it). I'm sure looking forward to seeing that 4x4 wrapped around a tree on our street. I'd rather a tree than a telephone pole, since I don't want to lose power - and I'd desire a tree rather than a neighbor's house, since it's really cold right now and I really do like many of my neighbors. However, on second thought, I'd gladly sacrifice a day's worth of electricity to see it. The results of this would make the street much quieter at 0630 (should I mention this is two hours before I usually wake?) and much safer in the long run, since sooner or later that idiot is going to run into someone else.

Labels: driving

Commercials

Yes - I like to watch the Super Bowl probably as much for the commercials as for the game.
And I'm not alone. In fact, a few years ago during my Master degree level graphics design class, our professor showed us the Super Bowl commercials with the game edited out. And of course, not everyone is going to like all the commercials.

This year, however, there seems to be an especially extreme displeasure some folks are showing towards certain commercials. Specifically the Snickers and GM robot commercials. Get a life folks. So two hairy mechanics kiss around a Snickers bar - whooptydoo - who cares. I thought it funny and didn't try to psychoanalyze it. The GM commercial was a little more difficult to understand, but in the end I got it. However, bear in mind it's a robot - a chunk of metal and plastic that malfunctions and drops a screw. Then jumps off a bridge. It's broke - when a machine is broke and it can't be economically fixed, it gets thrown away. Of course it's no longer "green" to dump stuff in the river, but that is just a short trip away from a dump. However, and most importantly, it's a commercial - robots - especially the level of robot in the commercial aren't real, don't feel, and certainly are sentient, and are after all just a collection of gears, wires and bolts. Jeeze, guys, it's fiction. It doesn't seem that people know the difference between fiction and non-fiction any more.

Today people seem to spend so much time worrying about who or what is perceived as being insulted or attacked, they no longer get the joke. People blame novels for destroying religion, cartoons for corrupting the world, and jokes for destroying some race's identity. Quit being so short of fuse. So someone says something that insults you - ignore them and don't deal with them. Just because they're an idiot, doesn't mean you have to be an idiot as well. Why lower yourself to their level. All the publicity you make for the idiot is only emphasing the stupid crap they come up with. If everyone would just ignore it, it would go away. As long as people keep complaining the info will be brought before other people's attention.

Taiwan's National Museum

BBC News: "Taiwan's National Palace Museum - which boasts some of the most important treasures collected by China's ancient emperors - reopens on Thursday after a three year, $21m renovation designed to make its buildings more relevant and user-friendly."

I've had the chance to make a quick visit here about a year ago. Unfortunately, it was still under renovation then and there was a lot I wasn't able to see. My comment is more about how China feels about Taiwan's ownership of many of the relics from ancient China. Their argument is based on Taiwan's government moving the stuff from mainland China to Taiwan back in the 30s and 40s.

The question the Chinese government should ask themselves is how much of these historical treasures would have been destroyed during the "cultural revolution" when China tortured academics, destroyed their families and destroyed historical artifacts simply because it was the "communist" thing to do. They should be grateful to the Taiwan government that these priceless and irreplaceable items have been saved for future generations.