Friday, January 27, 2006
Sinking deeper into geekdom
Turner Classic Movies came through for me again; they apparently didn't have access to any of the other movies directed by anime genius Hayao Miyazaki to round out their month of paying homage to him, so today they showed a couple that he produced for long-time friend and associate Isao Takahata, "Only Yesterday"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102587/
and "Pom Poko"
http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/DisplayMoreMovieProductDetails.action?channel=Movies&subChannel=sub&movieID=149336&displayBoxArt=true#Full
Although neither of these movies has the magic that characterizes Miyazaki's writing and directing, they're still both fantastic... and mind you, "Only Yesterday" hasn't been dubbed yet, so I had to watch it with subtitles, TWICE (since I was only able to halfway watch it the 1st time around, which doesn't cut it with subtitled movies), and I won't do that unless the movie's REALLY worth watching.
We got 2 DVD's from Blockbuster in the mail today, another anime feature and one of the Babylon 5 movies, and when the final credits for round 2 of "Only Yesterday" finished up, we had to decide what to watch next; I said "Well, I just watched almost 7 hours of anime, so..." and my husband, laughing, pointed to me and chanted "Geek! Geek! Geek"... despite the fact that he'd watched nearly all of it with me, the hypocrite. I don't know what would've been more geekish at that point, watching 2 more hours of anime or watching the scifi movie, but we chose the latter... and we're both working on our computers as we watch it, too, so we're hitting the geekdom on all cylinders.
Also in geek news; I found another site with cool Flash clocks. These are all digital, some mimicking the "flip" clocks that preceded the ones with actual digital readouts, and some with a slowly scrolling lineup of #'s for the hours with a little doodad that moves between them to mark off the minutes; once again it's a Japanese site that's got 'em... isn't anyone outside of Japan making Flash clocks? As always, it's easy to get the code for a clock you want even if you don't understand Japanese; it took a little bit of intuitive maneuvering to get from the front page to the one with the clocks, and I was vaguely proud of how quickly I managed it, but this URL is for the actual page with the clocks, fear not:
http://www.postpet.so-net.ne.jp/webmail/blog/
I swear, some day when CPU usage isn't an issue for anyone anymore, I'm going to have a site with nothing but all the neat Flash clocks I've found; I dunno if anyone other than me would find it cool, but it might at least be useful, especially if I got ambitious and included download and posting instructions for all of them so that anyone who wanted one could have it.
The final proof of geekdom, or perhaps of incipient insanity, is if, when you're dreaming or half-awake, you're always trying to do some sort of computer-related thing. Wherever I am in my dreams, I'm always finding keyboards and screens as part of tables and dashboards, buried in the carpet, poking through the sand on a beach; usually, I'm trying desperately to place an eBay bid, or do something else that I'm convinced is ultra time-sensitive, and nothing's working the way it's supposed to... the geek's deepest fear. Even weirder is how often I'm waking up and looking at my digital clock expecting to see a computer screen, or to be able to push the buttons on it and GET computer stuff on there; sometimes I expect a screen to be on the wall over my head, like in a scifi show, or to maybe find my laptop next to my pillow... and sometimes I have to be fully awake for a minute or 2 before I realize that there's no computer equipment in the room.
An even worse example of this sort of confusion just came to mind; periodically, when I'm reading a book or magazine, I'll want to take another look at something I saw a while ago, or jump forward to a different subject, and my 1st reaction is to try to do a "find" or "search," as if I were reading on a screen instead of on paper... and I come to a complete stop for a few seconds while my brain snaps back to reality, after which I feel irritated, not that some part of my mind wasn't remembering what I was looking at, but that there's no way to search/find on printed material.
If there's a way to be MORE of a geek, I don't wanna know about it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102587/
and "Pom Poko"
http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/DisplayMoreMovieProductDetails.action?channel=Movies&subChannel=sub&movieID=149336&displayBoxArt=true#Full
Although neither of these movies has the magic that characterizes Miyazaki's writing and directing, they're still both fantastic... and mind you, "Only Yesterday" hasn't been dubbed yet, so I had to watch it with subtitles, TWICE (since I was only able to halfway watch it the 1st time around, which doesn't cut it with subtitled movies), and I won't do that unless the movie's REALLY worth watching.
We got 2 DVD's from Blockbuster in the mail today, another anime feature and one of the Babylon 5 movies, and when the final credits for round 2 of "Only Yesterday" finished up, we had to decide what to watch next; I said "Well, I just watched almost 7 hours of anime, so..." and my husband, laughing, pointed to me and chanted "Geek! Geek! Geek"... despite the fact that he'd watched nearly all of it with me, the hypocrite. I don't know what would've been more geekish at that point, watching 2 more hours of anime or watching the scifi movie, but we chose the latter... and we're both working on our computers as we watch it, too, so we're hitting the geekdom on all cylinders.
Also in geek news; I found another site with cool Flash clocks. These are all digital, some mimicking the "flip" clocks that preceded the ones with actual digital readouts, and some with a slowly scrolling lineup of #'s for the hours with a little doodad that moves between them to mark off the minutes; once again it's a Japanese site that's got 'em... isn't anyone outside of Japan making Flash clocks? As always, it's easy to get the code for a clock you want even if you don't understand Japanese; it took a little bit of intuitive maneuvering to get from the front page to the one with the clocks, and I was vaguely proud of how quickly I managed it, but this URL is for the actual page with the clocks, fear not:
http://www.postpet.so-net.ne.jp/webmail/blog/
I swear, some day when CPU usage isn't an issue for anyone anymore, I'm going to have a site with nothing but all the neat Flash clocks I've found; I dunno if anyone other than me would find it cool, but it might at least be useful, especially if I got ambitious and included download and posting instructions for all of them so that anyone who wanted one could have it.
The final proof of geekdom, or perhaps of incipient insanity, is if, when you're dreaming or half-awake, you're always trying to do some sort of computer-related thing. Wherever I am in my dreams, I'm always finding keyboards and screens as part of tables and dashboards, buried in the carpet, poking through the sand on a beach; usually, I'm trying desperately to place an eBay bid, or do something else that I'm convinced is ultra time-sensitive, and nothing's working the way it's supposed to... the geek's deepest fear. Even weirder is how often I'm waking up and looking at my digital clock expecting to see a computer screen, or to be able to push the buttons on it and GET computer stuff on there; sometimes I expect a screen to be on the wall over my head, like in a scifi show, or to maybe find my laptop next to my pillow... and sometimes I have to be fully awake for a minute or 2 before I realize that there's no computer equipment in the room.
An even worse example of this sort of confusion just came to mind; periodically, when I'm reading a book or magazine, I'll want to take another look at something I saw a while ago, or jump forward to a different subject, and my 1st reaction is to try to do a "find" or "search," as if I were reading on a screen instead of on paper... and I come to a complete stop for a few seconds while my brain snaps back to reality, after which I feel irritated, not that some part of my mind wasn't remembering what I was looking at, but that there's no way to search/find on printed material.
If there's a way to be MORE of a geek, I don't wanna know about it.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
My disgust knows no bounds
WARNING: much of the commentary in this post is political in nature. Despite what some people think based on my opinions on social issues like gay marriage, and my hard-core PC-ism in many areas, I am NOT a liberal; if you'll be upset or offended by opinions that don't adhere to the liberal viewpoint, please skip this post.
You might have seen the cover story in this past Sunday's "Parade," "The World's 10 Worst Dictators"; if not, at least for now you can read it here:
http://parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_01-22-2006/Dictators
Because that URL might not be valid for long, and I think people need to see this stuff, here's the list; if your country, or country of origin, appears below, please keep in mind that no criticism of you or the other citizens of these nations is implied... it's only the actions of the dictators that are being criticized:
1) Omar al-Bashir, Sudan. Age 62. In power since 1989. Last year's rank: 1
Since February 2003, Bashir's campaign of ethnic and religious persecution has killed at least 180,000 civilians in Darfur in western Sudan and driven 2 million people from their homes. The good news is that Bashir's army and the Janjaweed militia that he supports have all but stopped burning down villages in Darfur. The bad news is why they've stopped: There are few villages left to burn. The attacks now are aimed at refugee camps. While the media have called these actions "a humanitarian tragedy," Bashir himself has escaped major condemnation. In 2005, Bashir signed a peace agreement with the largest rebel group in non-Islamic southern Sudan and allowed its leader, John Garang, to become the nation's vice president. But Garang died in July in a helicopter crash, and Bashir's troops still occupy the south.
2) Kim Jong-il, North Korea. Age 63. In power since 1994. Last year's rank: 2
While the outside world focuses on Kim Jong-il's nuclear weapons program, domestically he runs the world's most tightly controlled society. North Korea continues to rank last in the index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders, and for the 34th straight year it earned the worst possible score on political rights and civil liberties from Freedom House. An estimated 250,000 people are confined in "reeducation camps." Malnourishment is widespread: According to the United Nations World Food Program, the average 7-year-old boy in North Korea is almost 8 inches shorter than a South Korean boy the same age and more than 20 pounds lighter.
3) Than Shwe, Burma (Myanmar). Age 72. In power since 1992. Last year's rank: 3
In November 2005, without warning, Than Shwe moved his entire government from Rangoon (Yangon), the capital for the last 120 years, to Pyinmana, a remote area 245 miles away. Civil servants were given two days' notice and are forbidden from resigning. Burma leads the world in the use of children as soldiers, and the regime is notorious for using forced labor on construction projects and as porters for the army in war zones. The long-standing house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and Than Shwe's most feared opponent, recently was extended for six months. Just to drive near her heavily guarded home is to risk arrest.
4) Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe. Age 81. In power since 1980. Last year's rank: 9
Life in Zimbabwe has gone from bad to worse: It has the world's highest inflation rate, 80% unemployment and an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 20%. Life expectancy has declined since 1988 from 62 to 38 years. Farming has collapsed since 2000, when Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms, giving most of them to political allies with no background in agriculture. In 2005, Mugabe launched Operation Murambatsvina (Clean the Filth), the forcible eviction of some 700,000 people from their homes or businesses-"to restore order and sanity," says the government. But locals say the reason was to forestall demonstrations as the economy deteriorates.
5) Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan. Age 67. In power since 1990. Last year's rank: 15
Until 2005, the worst excesses of Karimov's regime had taken place in the torture rooms of his prisons. But on May 13, he ordered a mass killing that could not be concealed. In the city of Andijan, 23 businessmen, held in prison and awaiting a verdict, were freed by their supporters, who then held an open meeting in the town square. An estimated 10,000 people gathered, expecting government officials to come and listen to their grievances. Instead, Karimov sent the army, which massacred hundreds of men, women and children. A 2003 law made Karimov and all members of his family immune from prosecution forever.
6) Hu Jintao, China. Age 63. In power since 2002. Last year's rank: 4
Although some Chinese have taken advantage of economic liberalization to become rich, up to 150 million Chinese live on $1 a day or less in this nation with no minimum wage. Between 250,000 and 300,000 political dissidents are held in "reeducation-through-labor" camps without trial. Less than 5% of criminal trials include witnesses, and the conviction rate is 99.7%. There are no privately owned TV or radio stations. The government opens and censors mail and monitors phone calls, faxes, e-mails and text messages. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, at least 400,000 residents of Beijing have been forcibly evicted from their homes.
7) King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia. Age 82. In power since 1995. Last year's rank: 5
Although Abdullah did not become king until 2005, he has ruled Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, Fahd, suffered a stroke 10 years earlier. In Saudi Arabia, phone calls are recorded and mobile phones with cameras are banned. It is illegal for public employees "to engage in dialogue with local and foreign media." By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. According to Amnesty International, police in Saudi Arabia routinely use torture to extract "confessions." Saudi women may not appear in public with a man who isn't a relative, must cover their bodies and faces in public and may not drive. The strict suppression of women is not voluntary, and Saudi women who would like to live a freer life are not allowed to do so.
8) Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan. Age 65. In power since 1990. Last year's rank: 8
Niyazov has created the world's most pervasive personality cult, and criticism of any of his policies is considered treason. The latest examples of his government-by-whim include bans on car radios, lip-synching and playing recorded music on TV or at weddings. Niyazov also has closed all national parks and shut down rural libraries. He launched an attack on his nation's health-care system, firing 15,000 health-care workers and replacing most of them with untrained military conscripts. He announced the closing of all hospitals outside the capital and ordered Turkmenistan's physicians to give up the Hippocratic Oath and to swear allegiance to him instead.
9) Seyed Ali Khamane'i, Iran. Age 66. In power since 1989. Last year's rank: 18
Over the past four years, the rulers of Iran have undone the reforms that were emerging in the nation. The hardliners completed this reversal by winning the parliamentary elections in 2004 -after disqualifying 44% of the candidates-and with the presidential election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005. Ultimately, however, the country is run by the 12-man Guardian Council, overseen by the Ayatollah Khamane'i, which has the right to veto any law that the elected government passes. Khamane'i has shut down the free press, tortured journalists and ordered the execution of homosexual males.
10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea. Age 63. In power since 1979. Last year's rank: 10
Obiang took power in this tiny West African nation by overthrowing his uncle more than 25 years ago. According to a United Nations inspector, torture "is the normal means of investigation" in Equatorial Guinea. There is no freedom of speech, and there are no bookstores or newsstands. The one private radio station is owned by Obiang's son. Since major oil reserves were discovered in Equatorial Guinea in 1995, Obiang has deposited more than $700 million into special accounts in U.S. banks. Meanwhile, most of his people live on less than $1 a day.
I'm sure you're as appalled as I am at what the people in those nations are enduring... and also appalled at how little of this is being shown in the mainstream media. We in America are eager to hear every detail of celebrities' lives, but the horrible conditions that millions of people in distant lands live under apparently doesn't concern us at all; think about it, when's the last time you heard ANYTHING about some of those countries? Even those countries that ARE in the news get far less coverage that what Brad and Angelina are up to, and the average American can tell you alot more about the latter than about the former.
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more nauseated and dismayed, I noticed that Parade.com has a setup for people to post comments on this story, and... words fail me. I copied an example of what's in the comments area, and I copied it EXACTLY, so as to provide an accurate reflection not only of what's being said but of what kind of person is saying it:
"Is prarade a subsidery of the US State Department?
By tef on 1/24/2006 01:05:50
Not that I disagree with who is on your list, but it looks like all the countries that the State Department does not like is on your list while some clear leaders are missing... Here are my top 5 1. George Bush... He stoled the 2000 election... Holds American Citizens without acsess to a lawyer... spays on Americans violating US law... kills 1000's Iraqi children with 'smart bombs'... itimidates those who have opposing opinions and probabley reading my email to you before it gets to you."
When will these blithering idiots learn how to use a spellchecker? And how about a FACT checker? I'm so TIRED of seeing these gross exaggerations and distortions of the truth, and outright lies, being spouted as gospel all over the internet!! I don't care if you hate Bush, it has no impact on me or my life, but if you want to say something about him how about staying somewhere near the truth?
That's not what I'm disgusted about-I just wanted to get it off my chest. The thing that revolted me to the point of needing to post about it is that there are a bunch of others just like this cockroach "tef" who feel justified by their hatred of Bush to call him, not just a dictator, but a worse dictator than the monsters on the list. Granted that these people could easily be stupid enough to not know what a dictator actually IS, but the 1st thing in the Parade article is a definition:
"A 'dictator' is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means."
There's no gray area here; the president of the United States absolutely, positively, does not, can not, qualify as a dictator, EVER, because he's an elected official with very limited authority, and in fact NO direct authority for the most part over the lives of his citizens, who CAN be removed from office through legal means. I don't care how many things he does that some people don't like, that does NOT change the definition of the word "dictator," nor does it alter the fact that the word doesn't apply.
It's not the misuse of a word by some ignorant twits that's the real issue, though; it's that their claims imply that the safe, free, easy, cushy lives that we Americans enjoy are somehow worse than the lives of the victims of REAL dictators. Imagine if someone from Sudan or North Korea, or any of the other nations on the list, read that cr@p, that what they and those they know have suffered is somehow BETTER than living in the richest, freest, most powerful nation on Earth because BUSH is president-how would they react? Do you think that one single person living under a REAL dictator, and not in a favored group or class, would choose to stay there rather than come to America? Can you imagine one of them saying, "Yeah, there's alot of horrible things going on in my country because we have a dictator, but I don't want to go to America, because BUSH is there"? Even more tellingly, and at least one person said this in the comments on Parade.com, if you offered "tef" or any similar commenter the chance to live in any country with a REAL dictator, would a single one of them agree to it? HELL NO.
What kind of a person reads about the horrific conditions the dictators are imposing upon their citizens and then takes time out of what 99% of the people who ever lived would see as a life of unimaginable laziness and luxury to compose a post to declare that BUSH is worse than those madmen? Hate Bush all you want, it's a free country, blame him for everything that goes wrong everywhere on Earth, stupidity isn't illegal, more's the pity, but show some frigging respect for the people in other countries who actually have VALID things to complain about, who know what REAL suffering, poverty and fear are, and maintain some shred of perspective and grip on reality when you compare Bush to other leaders, and America to other countries, in a public forum.
Do you know what the really sad thing is? After seeing the abuse that Bush has taken, no sane person would want to be the president... so what are we going to have in the Oval Office in the future?
You might have seen the cover story in this past Sunday's "Parade," "The World's 10 Worst Dictators"; if not, at least for now you can read it here:
http://parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_01-22-2006/Dictators
Because that URL might not be valid for long, and I think people need to see this stuff, here's the list; if your country, or country of origin, appears below, please keep in mind that no criticism of you or the other citizens of these nations is implied... it's only the actions of the dictators that are being criticized:
1) Omar al-Bashir, Sudan. Age 62. In power since 1989. Last year's rank: 1
Since February 2003, Bashir's campaign of ethnic and religious persecution has killed at least 180,000 civilians in Darfur in western Sudan and driven 2 million people from their homes. The good news is that Bashir's army and the Janjaweed militia that he supports have all but stopped burning down villages in Darfur. The bad news is why they've stopped: There are few villages left to burn. The attacks now are aimed at refugee camps. While the media have called these actions "a humanitarian tragedy," Bashir himself has escaped major condemnation. In 2005, Bashir signed a peace agreement with the largest rebel group in non-Islamic southern Sudan and allowed its leader, John Garang, to become the nation's vice president. But Garang died in July in a helicopter crash, and Bashir's troops still occupy the south.
2) Kim Jong-il, North Korea. Age 63. In power since 1994. Last year's rank: 2
While the outside world focuses on Kim Jong-il's nuclear weapons program, domestically he runs the world's most tightly controlled society. North Korea continues to rank last in the index of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders, and for the 34th straight year it earned the worst possible score on political rights and civil liberties from Freedom House. An estimated 250,000 people are confined in "reeducation camps." Malnourishment is widespread: According to the United Nations World Food Program, the average 7-year-old boy in North Korea is almost 8 inches shorter than a South Korean boy the same age and more than 20 pounds lighter.
3) Than Shwe, Burma (Myanmar). Age 72. In power since 1992. Last year's rank: 3
In November 2005, without warning, Than Shwe moved his entire government from Rangoon (Yangon), the capital for the last 120 years, to Pyinmana, a remote area 245 miles away. Civil servants were given two days' notice and are forbidden from resigning. Burma leads the world in the use of children as soldiers, and the regime is notorious for using forced labor on construction projects and as porters for the army in war zones. The long-standing house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and Than Shwe's most feared opponent, recently was extended for six months. Just to drive near her heavily guarded home is to risk arrest.
4) Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe. Age 81. In power since 1980. Last year's rank: 9
Life in Zimbabwe has gone from bad to worse: It has the world's highest inflation rate, 80% unemployment and an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 20%. Life expectancy has declined since 1988 from 62 to 38 years. Farming has collapsed since 2000, when Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms, giving most of them to political allies with no background in agriculture. In 2005, Mugabe launched Operation Murambatsvina (Clean the Filth), the forcible eviction of some 700,000 people from their homes or businesses-"to restore order and sanity," says the government. But locals say the reason was to forestall demonstrations as the economy deteriorates.
5) Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan. Age 67. In power since 1990. Last year's rank: 15
Until 2005, the worst excesses of Karimov's regime had taken place in the torture rooms of his prisons. But on May 13, he ordered a mass killing that could not be concealed. In the city of Andijan, 23 businessmen, held in prison and awaiting a verdict, were freed by their supporters, who then held an open meeting in the town square. An estimated 10,000 people gathered, expecting government officials to come and listen to their grievances. Instead, Karimov sent the army, which massacred hundreds of men, women and children. A 2003 law made Karimov and all members of his family immune from prosecution forever.
6) Hu Jintao, China. Age 63. In power since 2002. Last year's rank: 4
Although some Chinese have taken advantage of economic liberalization to become rich, up to 150 million Chinese live on $1 a day or less in this nation with no minimum wage. Between 250,000 and 300,000 political dissidents are held in "reeducation-through-labor" camps without trial. Less than 5% of criminal trials include witnesses, and the conviction rate is 99.7%. There are no privately owned TV or radio stations. The government opens and censors mail and monitors phone calls, faxes, e-mails and text messages. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, at least 400,000 residents of Beijing have been forcibly evicted from their homes.
7) King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia. Age 82. In power since 1995. Last year's rank: 5
Although Abdullah did not become king until 2005, he has ruled Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, Fahd, suffered a stroke 10 years earlier. In Saudi Arabia, phone calls are recorded and mobile phones with cameras are banned. It is illegal for public employees "to engage in dialogue with local and foreign media." By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. According to Amnesty International, police in Saudi Arabia routinely use torture to extract "confessions." Saudi women may not appear in public with a man who isn't a relative, must cover their bodies and faces in public and may not drive. The strict suppression of women is not voluntary, and Saudi women who would like to live a freer life are not allowed to do so.
8) Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan. Age 65. In power since 1990. Last year's rank: 8
Niyazov has created the world's most pervasive personality cult, and criticism of any of his policies is considered treason. The latest examples of his government-by-whim include bans on car radios, lip-synching and playing recorded music on TV or at weddings. Niyazov also has closed all national parks and shut down rural libraries. He launched an attack on his nation's health-care system, firing 15,000 health-care workers and replacing most of them with untrained military conscripts. He announced the closing of all hospitals outside the capital and ordered Turkmenistan's physicians to give up the Hippocratic Oath and to swear allegiance to him instead.
9) Seyed Ali Khamane'i, Iran. Age 66. In power since 1989. Last year's rank: 18
Over the past four years, the rulers of Iran have undone the reforms that were emerging in the nation. The hardliners completed this reversal by winning the parliamentary elections in 2004 -after disqualifying 44% of the candidates-and with the presidential election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005. Ultimately, however, the country is run by the 12-man Guardian Council, overseen by the Ayatollah Khamane'i, which has the right to veto any law that the elected government passes. Khamane'i has shut down the free press, tortured journalists and ordered the execution of homosexual males.
10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea. Age 63. In power since 1979. Last year's rank: 10
Obiang took power in this tiny West African nation by overthrowing his uncle more than 25 years ago. According to a United Nations inspector, torture "is the normal means of investigation" in Equatorial Guinea. There is no freedom of speech, and there are no bookstores or newsstands. The one private radio station is owned by Obiang's son. Since major oil reserves were discovered in Equatorial Guinea in 1995, Obiang has deposited more than $700 million into special accounts in U.S. banks. Meanwhile, most of his people live on less than $1 a day.
I'm sure you're as appalled as I am at what the people in those nations are enduring... and also appalled at how little of this is being shown in the mainstream media. We in America are eager to hear every detail of celebrities' lives, but the horrible conditions that millions of people in distant lands live under apparently doesn't concern us at all; think about it, when's the last time you heard ANYTHING about some of those countries? Even those countries that ARE in the news get far less coverage that what Brad and Angelina are up to, and the average American can tell you alot more about the latter than about the former.
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more nauseated and dismayed, I noticed that Parade.com has a setup for people to post comments on this story, and... words fail me. I copied an example of what's in the comments area, and I copied it EXACTLY, so as to provide an accurate reflection not only of what's being said but of what kind of person is saying it:
"Is prarade a subsidery of the US State Department?
By tef on 1/24/2006 01:05:50
Not that I disagree with who is on your list, but it looks like all the countries that the State Department does not like is on your list while some clear leaders are missing... Here are my top 5 1. George Bush... He stoled the 2000 election... Holds American Citizens without acsess to a lawyer... spays on Americans violating US law... kills 1000's Iraqi children with 'smart bombs'... itimidates those who have opposing opinions and probabley reading my email to you before it gets to you."
When will these blithering idiots learn how to use a spellchecker? And how about a FACT checker? I'm so TIRED of seeing these gross exaggerations and distortions of the truth, and outright lies, being spouted as gospel all over the internet!! I don't care if you hate Bush, it has no impact on me or my life, but if you want to say something about him how about staying somewhere near the truth?
That's not what I'm disgusted about-I just wanted to get it off my chest. The thing that revolted me to the point of needing to post about it is that there are a bunch of others just like this cockroach "tef" who feel justified by their hatred of Bush to call him, not just a dictator, but a worse dictator than the monsters on the list. Granted that these people could easily be stupid enough to not know what a dictator actually IS, but the 1st thing in the Parade article is a definition:
"A 'dictator' is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means."
There's no gray area here; the president of the United States absolutely, positively, does not, can not, qualify as a dictator, EVER, because he's an elected official with very limited authority, and in fact NO direct authority for the most part over the lives of his citizens, who CAN be removed from office through legal means. I don't care how many things he does that some people don't like, that does NOT change the definition of the word "dictator," nor does it alter the fact that the word doesn't apply.
It's not the misuse of a word by some ignorant twits that's the real issue, though; it's that their claims imply that the safe, free, easy, cushy lives that we Americans enjoy are somehow worse than the lives of the victims of REAL dictators. Imagine if someone from Sudan or North Korea, or any of the other nations on the list, read that cr@p, that what they and those they know have suffered is somehow BETTER than living in the richest, freest, most powerful nation on Earth because BUSH is president-how would they react? Do you think that one single person living under a REAL dictator, and not in a favored group or class, would choose to stay there rather than come to America? Can you imagine one of them saying, "Yeah, there's alot of horrible things going on in my country because we have a dictator, but I don't want to go to America, because BUSH is there"? Even more tellingly, and at least one person said this in the comments on Parade.com, if you offered "tef" or any similar commenter the chance to live in any country with a REAL dictator, would a single one of them agree to it? HELL NO.
What kind of a person reads about the horrific conditions the dictators are imposing upon their citizens and then takes time out of what 99% of the people who ever lived would see as a life of unimaginable laziness and luxury to compose a post to declare that BUSH is worse than those madmen? Hate Bush all you want, it's a free country, blame him for everything that goes wrong everywhere on Earth, stupidity isn't illegal, more's the pity, but show some frigging respect for the people in other countries who actually have VALID things to complain about, who know what REAL suffering, poverty and fear are, and maintain some shred of perspective and grip on reality when you compare Bush to other leaders, and America to other countries, in a public forum.
Do you know what the really sad thing is? After seeing the abuse that Bush has taken, no sane person would want to be the president... so what are we going to have in the Oval Office in the future?
Monday, January 23, 2006
Nothing is free
We all know that things like sunlight and air, and intangibles like friendship and love, are free; what I'm talking about here are those goods and services to which a monetary value is normally assigned... which means nearly everything. It seems totally unnecessary to point out that things for which $ must be paid ARE in fact paid for, but some people still don't get it, apparently.
The recent example I saw of this, and you knew there was one, was a friend in another country who was astonished to discover that in America we pay for cell phone service, because in her country being connected to a cellular provider is "free." This isn't a little kid I'm talking about who said this, or someone with a developmental disability, this is a reasonably bright woman in her 30's; she genuinely thinks that the ability to have a dial tone on a cell phone, and make and receive calls, has no costs associated with it, and thus no one is paying for it... she thinks that only actually making a call costs something, because in her country you only get charged when you make a call. Now mind you, she still has a regular phone, and knows that it costs a certain amount each month even if she makes no calls, so she doesn't even have the excuse of not being used to the idea of a usable phone costing $ automatically; just because she doesn't get a special bill for just cellular service, is that any reason to think that it's "free," eg that's it's just magically appearing out of nowhere?
I made it clear to her that in her country the cost of the cellular network is either paid for by:
a) Taxes (if the gov't is involved in any way)
b) The insanely high monthly price they pay for regular phone service
c) The high price they pay per minute for the calls they make (they naturally get no pre-paid monthly minutes or free calling)
d) Some combination of these things
It had honestly never occurred to her that the costs of running a cellular network weren't being covered by donated goods and volunteer service, or whatever, but that somehow it HAD to be paid for by the users, and probably by non-users as well... and that unless it was being funded 100% by the charges on calls made, she WAS paying for cellular access even though due to her financial situation she never makes any outgoing calls (can you imagine having a cell that you can't ever make calls on?).
This incident reminded me of a truly pitiful thread I saw on a forum a while back, in which people were talking about the various sorts of taxes they paid in their states, and concluding that, since not all states impose sales or personal income taxes, those things are just cheats to take people's $ and... well, they didn't seem to know what that $ went to, but they were sure that it wasn't anything necessary. They also argued that there shouldn't be any property tax, because it was "unfair" to have to pay "extra" for a property beyond the mortgage. It ticked me off so much that I posted a response, along the lines of:
"Where do you think the $ comes from to provide all the services you get from your state and local gov'ts? The Federal gov't does NOT cover all of it, so the states have to make up the difference somehow; the various sorts of fees and licenses you pay for DO cover some things, but the rest of that $ has to come from YOU in the form of taxes... so unless you live in Alaska, where severance taxes on oil extracted from the state pay for pretty much everything, you have to pay some combination of sales tax and personal income tax. In addition, your local gov'ts need more $ than they receive from state and Federal sources, so they have to levy property taxes to cover THEIR services to you; the lower the sales and income taxes are in a state, the less the state has to hand out to counties, and thus the higher you have to expect property taxes to be... somehow, some way, the combination of those taxes has to cover your services from state and local gov'ts. If you want to eliminate all those taxes, the only way would be for the Federal gov't to pay for everything, and then your Federal income tax would skyrocket to cover it, doubly so since alot of the $ they receive gets eaten up by bureaucratic processing... there's NO FREE LUNCH."
That shut 'em up. :-)
You'd think that most people DO grasp the connection between taxes paid and benefits received, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard/seen people saying that we should have, for example, socialized medicine, and in the same breath screaming about how they're paying too much income tax... HUH?!! America is a gigantic country, with an intricate and inefficient bureaucracy, and the most expensive way to do anything is to have the Federal gov't pay for it; if you think your health insurance is expensive, just imagine how much the same services would cost you via taxes if we had national health care.
You'd think that most people grasp in general that anything they get was paid for by SOMEONE... but think about how many complaints you see about online services that allow free access to and/or use of their stuff (which costs THEM $ to offer up) having banners or popups to try to defray the cost. Are we REALLY so childish that we think that everyone, not just our parents but total strangers too, should finance things for us, that everything should be just handed to us by people who shouldn't dare contemplate trying to make a little $ so they're not draining their savings to provide us with handouts, much less make a PROFIT?
Yes, we ARE just that childish; as a nation, we want to pay a little bit in taxes and have the gov't give and do everything for us, and we want the companies we work for to provide us with an endless laundry-list of fully-paid benefits without reducing our salaries, and we want everything online to be free and without advertising... we must subconsciously expect rich people, or Martians, or Santa Claus, or a heavenly choir of angels to show up and pay for everything. Until that happens, just remember that every time you hold out your hand to be given something, someone else had to open up their wallet; nothing is free.
On a lighter note:
I was working on my laptop yesterday, and was vaguely aware that one of those eHarmony.com ads was on, with that smug old guy talking about how their magic compatibility calculations are the way to insure lasting relationships that got even better over time; my husband, emerging from the hallway, retorted at the screen, "Oh yeah, well WE have NO areas of compatibility, and OUR relationship keeps getting better over time... how do you explain THAT?". We don't go around proclaiming how wonderful our relationship is like some folks do, but I'll take that sort of spontaneous affirmation of the power of our bond over hand-on-heart declarations any day.
Today, we were talking, and I suddenly needed a potty break; I told my husband that, and he immediately headed for the other bathroom, telling me that he had "sympathy urges" and needed to go because *I* was going.... and I said, "Two hearts beating as one is romantic... but 2 bladders emptying as one is less so." We both howled with laughter.
I read a long time ago that similar senses of humor was the best indicator of REAL relationship compatibility; sorry, eHarmony.com, but your 573 levels of compatibility pale by comparison.
The recent example I saw of this, and you knew there was one, was a friend in another country who was astonished to discover that in America we pay for cell phone service, because in her country being connected to a cellular provider is "free." This isn't a little kid I'm talking about who said this, or someone with a developmental disability, this is a reasonably bright woman in her 30's; she genuinely thinks that the ability to have a dial tone on a cell phone, and make and receive calls, has no costs associated with it, and thus no one is paying for it... she thinks that only actually making a call costs something, because in her country you only get charged when you make a call. Now mind you, she still has a regular phone, and knows that it costs a certain amount each month even if she makes no calls, so she doesn't even have the excuse of not being used to the idea of a usable phone costing $ automatically; just because she doesn't get a special bill for just cellular service, is that any reason to think that it's "free," eg that's it's just magically appearing out of nowhere?
I made it clear to her that in her country the cost of the cellular network is either paid for by:
a) Taxes (if the gov't is involved in any way)
b) The insanely high monthly price they pay for regular phone service
c) The high price they pay per minute for the calls they make (they naturally get no pre-paid monthly minutes or free calling)
d) Some combination of these things
It had honestly never occurred to her that the costs of running a cellular network weren't being covered by donated goods and volunteer service, or whatever, but that somehow it HAD to be paid for by the users, and probably by non-users as well... and that unless it was being funded 100% by the charges on calls made, she WAS paying for cellular access even though due to her financial situation she never makes any outgoing calls (can you imagine having a cell that you can't ever make calls on?).
This incident reminded me of a truly pitiful thread I saw on a forum a while back, in which people were talking about the various sorts of taxes they paid in their states, and concluding that, since not all states impose sales or personal income taxes, those things are just cheats to take people's $ and... well, they didn't seem to know what that $ went to, but they were sure that it wasn't anything necessary. They also argued that there shouldn't be any property tax, because it was "unfair" to have to pay "extra" for a property beyond the mortgage. It ticked me off so much that I posted a response, along the lines of:
"Where do you think the $ comes from to provide all the services you get from your state and local gov'ts? The Federal gov't does NOT cover all of it, so the states have to make up the difference somehow; the various sorts of fees and licenses you pay for DO cover some things, but the rest of that $ has to come from YOU in the form of taxes... so unless you live in Alaska, where severance taxes on oil extracted from the state pay for pretty much everything, you have to pay some combination of sales tax and personal income tax. In addition, your local gov'ts need more $ than they receive from state and Federal sources, so they have to levy property taxes to cover THEIR services to you; the lower the sales and income taxes are in a state, the less the state has to hand out to counties, and thus the higher you have to expect property taxes to be... somehow, some way, the combination of those taxes has to cover your services from state and local gov'ts. If you want to eliminate all those taxes, the only way would be for the Federal gov't to pay for everything, and then your Federal income tax would skyrocket to cover it, doubly so since alot of the $ they receive gets eaten up by bureaucratic processing... there's NO FREE LUNCH."
That shut 'em up. :-)
You'd think that most people DO grasp the connection between taxes paid and benefits received, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard/seen people saying that we should have, for example, socialized medicine, and in the same breath screaming about how they're paying too much income tax... HUH?!! America is a gigantic country, with an intricate and inefficient bureaucracy, and the most expensive way to do anything is to have the Federal gov't pay for it; if you think your health insurance is expensive, just imagine how much the same services would cost you via taxes if we had national health care.
You'd think that most people grasp in general that anything they get was paid for by SOMEONE... but think about how many complaints you see about online services that allow free access to and/or use of their stuff (which costs THEM $ to offer up) having banners or popups to try to defray the cost. Are we REALLY so childish that we think that everyone, not just our parents but total strangers too, should finance things for us, that everything should be just handed to us by people who shouldn't dare contemplate trying to make a little $ so they're not draining their savings to provide us with handouts, much less make a PROFIT?
Yes, we ARE just that childish; as a nation, we want to pay a little bit in taxes and have the gov't give and do everything for us, and we want the companies we work for to provide us with an endless laundry-list of fully-paid benefits without reducing our salaries, and we want everything online to be free and without advertising... we must subconsciously expect rich people, or Martians, or Santa Claus, or a heavenly choir of angels to show up and pay for everything. Until that happens, just remember that every time you hold out your hand to be given something, someone else had to open up their wallet; nothing is free.
On a lighter note:
I was working on my laptop yesterday, and was vaguely aware that one of those eHarmony.com ads was on, with that smug old guy talking about how their magic compatibility calculations are the way to insure lasting relationships that got even better over time; my husband, emerging from the hallway, retorted at the screen, "Oh yeah, well WE have NO areas of compatibility, and OUR relationship keeps getting better over time... how do you explain THAT?". We don't go around proclaiming how wonderful our relationship is like some folks do, but I'll take that sort of spontaneous affirmation of the power of our bond over hand-on-heart declarations any day.
Today, we were talking, and I suddenly needed a potty break; I told my husband that, and he immediately headed for the other bathroom, telling me that he had "sympathy urges" and needed to go because *I* was going.... and I said, "Two hearts beating as one is romantic... but 2 bladders emptying as one is less so." We both howled with laughter.
I read a long time ago that similar senses of humor was the best indicator of REAL relationship compatibility; sorry, eHarmony.com, but your 573 levels of compatibility pale by comparison.
