A local paper has posted this ad in order to boost their ad sales. Now potential legal issues of modifying Tivo's logo aside, are they actually comparing TV penetration to newspaper readership? And I'll grant that skipping a newspaper ad is a little more difficult than skipping a TV commercial. You have to move your whole arm to turn the page instead of just click a button.
You may have heard about the flack over the Obama delegate who supposedly used the word Monkey in a racially charged way. One thing in this story is being sorely overlooked. According to the AP story
[Ramirez-Sliwinski] said the children shouldn't be climbing in the tree like monkeys.
The mother of one boy called police, who issued Ramirez-Sliwinski a $75 ticket for disorderly conduct. Police say the ticket was warranted because her remark scared one of the children and disturbed a parent.
So everyone seems to agree that it wasn't racially motivated, but even if it was, can you really call the police for being slurred? This woman got a ticket for saying a word!
"You hurt my feelings! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go!"
No one said she was ranting, raving, or doing anything scary other than making the remark.
Yes I am! As mentioned in a previous entry I ended up uninstalling all of Apple's software because it kept begging to install applications I never asked for. Problem is, it just popped up again to ask if I want to install everything that is not supposed to be there anymore.
I guess the uninstall doesn't actually remove everything!!!
So I broke down and installed Quicktime to watch ONE stupid video. Then a few days later I start to get the following message nearly every day:
Updates are available, would you like to install iTunes?
Ummm, no I wouldn't, and that is not an update. Its another program. So after weeks of this I finally break down and install the iTunes "upgrade" to Quicktime. Please go away now. It did for about a week. Then this gem shows up:
Updates are available, would you like to install Safari?
AAARRRGGGG!!!!!! WTF! Is Apple actually trying to get me to believe that Safari is an upgrade from the Quicktime codec? I mean iTunes was at least in the same ballpark (or maybe city) being about media, but come on now!!!
CMD>uninstall quicktime
On the way in to work there was an add on the radio which claimed "You have a right to cut your credit card debt, by up to half!" Now these are the guys who we should be going after.
I'm pretty sure the Constitution doesn't mention anything about credit cards.
Children as young as FIVE should be put on DNA list, says forensics expert. They claim that they can reasonably identify future offenders as early as 5 years old by watching their behaviour patterns. So now we won't even wait until the kids even think about doing something bad. "You're going to be a criminal in 5-10 years! We better start tracking you now!"
This is the new idea since they can't legally DNA track everyone...yet.
Discrimination gets a bad rap. Its the first word people throw out when they don't like a decision someone else makes. "You're discriminating against them!" Sometimes that's a bad thing and sometimes its not.
To discriminate means to recognize differences between different things. Sometimes that means treating one group unfairly because of an ignorant prejudice. Sometimes that just means treating a group differently because it makes sense. Different is not necessarily unfair.
We all make discriminate choices in our daily lives - what to eat, what to wear, who to befriend, help or talk to.
That last one may make you pause and say "Hey, don't be a racist!" That is not the point. I can still discriminate among people in a reasonable way.
I believe everyone agrees that we should discriminate against criminals. We put them in jail, take away their freedom and right to vote. In some cases they get treated differently in court, for example a repeat offender. Criminals (and especially felons) are a group of people whom we treat differently - for a reason. Now whether certain crimes are bigger than others is another discussion but for arguments sake let's just stick with armed bank robbers. Anyone think we should treat bank robbers the same as you and me? Should they be allowed to walk around free just because we are "the same"? Once they are caught, do the orange jumpsuits make them feel singled out? Good! They are being singled out and for good reason!
I don't like seafood. I discriminate against seafood restaurants because I don't even consider them an option when making a dinner reservation. There is no one out there screaming for restaurant equality or requiring that X% of my restaurant visits include seabass and shellfish.
I discriminate among the shops I visit, the brands of clothing I wear, the different items I purchase. The entire media marketing world is designed to make you discriminate among competing products for no real reason at all! Our entire economy is based on differences and discriminating opinions of the differences (sometimes only perceived) in the products.
The trick is to come to an agreement as a society as to which discriminations are allowed and which ones are not.
