Archive for the ‘Ridicurous’ Category

Security Theatre, the Orange Edition

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

I like how the authors at Debka summed it up:

“The horrendous sight of another Western airline crashing over the US on Christmas Day 2009 was averted by a fluke and the resourcefulness of passengers and cabin crew – not by the anti-terror agencies’ high-tech gadgets, vast budgets and airport security measures.”

Now let’s look at this next posting, this time from Slashdot:

“”Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing. The regulations are a response to a suspected terrorism incident on Christmas Day.”

Further discussions that I’ve had with people on this subject suggest that the “regulations” even include small children, and definitely prevent anybody from using the lavatory. You see, now the terrorists can dick with us without actually killing or even hurting anybody. Now I’m sure that very few people on the planes nowadays have enough backbone to openly question this new policy, such as “how is this supposed to actually prevent somebody who has 80 grams of PETN from attempting to blow up this plane?” Everybody in the flight is probably just too scared that if their 2 year old child acts up, that they will end up on the no-fly list and arrested upon arrival for daring to question an authority that has obviously no logic or reason to back it up. They’d also probably be very likely to shout “terrorist” at anybody else who dares to question this authority so that they themselves will not be noticed by the authority. (The best defense is an offense no?)

I surely hope that such retarded regulations are not in place when I am on a flight. I have flown El Al multiple times, and I know what real security is like. I also know what it is like to have several places that I frequented blown up by suicide bombers – from the Purim bombing at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv to the trampiada at Tsrifin to any number of public buses. In spite of all this, I go about living my life like I normally do. I do succumb to bag checks and metal detectors at public places in Israel, but you can be sure that I would raise my doubts and demand to be allowed to take a piss if any ridiculous regulation such at this was passed in Israel. So I am here disapproving of this idea. The USA has gone back to making women drink their own breastmilk. What a very pathetic society we live in today.

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Security Theatre

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

I’m just trying to reconcile this… I cannot bring a bottle of water past a security checkpoint anytime I wish to fly, but a man somehow sets off a “small explosive device” on a Delta Airlines flight between Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Detroit? I’ve even had bottles of water that I had with me on El Al flights confiscated from me in Newark…

Shouldn’t airplane security focus on real security and not things that give the misperception of security?

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The Real Story About the War in Gaza (aka “Cast Lead”)

Monday, January 19th, 2009

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Hey Shrek, Nice Ass

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

 

There’s something about people in more well-to-do areas of North America that annoys me a lot.  Everytime I go to see the 4th of July fireworks, there’s always a ton of people who think that by putting a blanket on the ground and a few chairs that they now somehow hold a lease to that piece of land.  However, they always neglect to actually sit and keep an eye on their stuff.  My philosophy has always been this:  if your ass isn’t there, you have no claim to it.  I have been tempted on more than one occassion to take random blankets and chairs and remove them, and dump them in a much less attractive fireworks-viewing location.  The only thing that stopped me from doing so is the fact that I was still thankfully able to find a spot to sit in, though it wasn’t always the most comfortable.  What would it take to have this behavior stop?  Maybe some petty thieves from the city coming around and stealing whatever nobody kept an eye on.  Oh hey, good idea in fact…

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No (remedial) Child Left Behind

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

I was recently participating in a discussion about the public school education system in the USA recently on Slashdot.  The basic premise of the article being discussed is how the No Child Left Behind Act actually leaves the advanced students behind.  I’ve seen a number of people who are of the opinion that if a child is sufficiently advanced academically, that said child can entertain himself when he finishes his work in a mere fraction of the time allotted to his classmates.  This does not make sense, because it tries to force children into yet another mold.  Not every child wants to entertain themselves.  Some children are very advanced but crave the guidance of a teacher or other elder.  I have experienced this firsthand in my life as well when I was a child.

 

I never wanted to be just sitting for 20 minutes at the end of the test, and I was one of the highly advanced children in my class. I was not allowed to do anything except sit still at my desk by my 2nd grade teacher. I was not allowed to doodle, read a book, or anything else.

I was sick of being taught how to do simple addition and subtraction by time I was halfway through 2nd grade that I started to refuse to do the same bull over and over again. Maybe a lot of the people in the world only remember things if it’s been pounded into their heads with a metaphorical sledgehammer, but I wanted to move on. The problem is that my refusal to do work was taken by the school board to be reflective of my not being ready to move on because I was being insubordinate, and they even wanted to put me in the behavioral disorder program because I had started causing trouble in class for the teachers.

Interestingly enough, I’ve read studies about the behavioral disorder program at public schools in the USA, and most show a high percentage of male students in the program. This percentage is very disproportionate – I believe the average was said to be between 70-90% of the students in the average BD program were boys. I’ve also read that the average boy is characterized as being more likely to be insubordinate and require justification for doing work than the average female student, and this is interpreted by the educators as something abnormal instead of something that is inherent and normal.

In the end, my parents fought tooth and nail with the school board and kept me out of the BD program. Unfortunately, they could not get the school to shoot me up a grade because I refused to do my homework. (A vicious cycle that perpetuated until I finished high school. I didn’t do redundant homework year after year, but they wouldn’t advance me because I didn’t do my homework. Test scores were inconsequential to them.)

The public school system in Illinois, and quite probably most (if not the rest) of the USA, is the factory mentality. Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall Part II (from the movie version of The Wall) makes me think a lot about our school system here. Send the kids down the conveyor belts and turn them into hamburger meat. One size does not fit all; it never has, and it never will. The problem with Honors classes and *some* “gifted” programs is that they entailed more work, but not more thought and learning. Work does not necessarily equate learning.

I was lucky that at the same time I was having problems with most of the teachers in my normal classes, the “gifted” program at my grade and junior high schools did provide new material for us. We learned a bit about chemistry already in grade school such as titration and chemical properties of common compounds that we use on a day to day basis. In 7th and 8th grades we were already dissecting frogs, fetal pigs, and sharks and learning about the anatomy in far more detail than the rest of our classmates. The classes that I behaved the best in were the classes that I was most challenged in. I rarely if ever gave my “gifted” program teachers any problems at all.

Since I’m many years out of k-12, and because of stupid laws such as NCLB, I fear that in many places these programs for the advanced students have been cut in order to use more resources on the remedial students. If so, the dumbing down of America continues.  This can and will have detrimental effects on American society.

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A Christian Leader?

Friday, January 4th, 2008

One thing that I don’t understand about the USA is how this whole concept of separation of religion and the state does not seem to exist anymore.  A former governor of Arkansas named Mike Huckabee has claimed to be a Christian Leader, and is a supporter of teaching the non-theory of creationism, is running for president.  He even won the Iowa caucus playing his cards heavily on religion.

CNN also got into the mix by running a show on December 24 or 25 this year which focused completely on “What Jesus would do” with regards to the politicians running for office.  I know what Jesus would have done now after knowing that Pontius Pilate would nail him to the wood…  he’d stay out of politics altogether.  But really, who cares what Jesus would do anyway?  Not all of us believe in him.  I believe he existed, but not that he was at all special.  As was said in The Hitchhiker’s  Guide to the Galaxy about Zaphod, “he’s just this guy, you know?”  Why is the media feeding this Christian right movement with these useless shows?

Ironically, I have no problem with the fact that Israel is the Jewish State.  But perhaps it’s not all that ironic at all.  Despite the fact that there are movements in Israel that would love to have Halachah  as *the* law of the land, I can see it in a different light.  First off, even if they did push it into being *the* law of the land, there is a very vocal minority of Muslims, Christians, and Druze living there that would have to be granted their own governance over their own religious affairs (which is actually the way it is currently anyway).  Secondly, at least in Israel it’s Jews putting this onto other Jews.  It’s not Jews putting the rule of Halachah onto the Bahai that live in Haifa.  It’s not Jews teaching that the story of Bereshit (Genesis) is to be interpreted *literally* as the way that life came to exist.  In fact, I think it would be hard to find a yeshivah that would teach that the theory of evolution is unfounded because the Tana”ch says otherwise.  From my experience, the story of Bereshit is considered to be supplemental to the science that we have.  Thirdly, modern day Israel was established as a homeland for the Jews, which is in sharp contrast to the reasons behind the founding of the USA.

I hope that the upcoming elections this year will not disappoint me.  Here’s to hoping that a competent politician – one who truly understands the meaning of the separation of religion and state – is elected to be the next president.

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They don’t make them at all like they used to…

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

About a year ago or so, I invested in a new vacuum cleaner. I went to Sam’s Club and came back with a Hoover Windtunnel 2. I noticed that almost all vacuums nowadays are made out of almost entirely plastic. The vacuum was operating quite well up until last night, when somebody inadvertently stepped on the rubber edge of the front of the unit, and ended up breaking 3 of the 4 plastic screw posts. These screws hold the brush in place so that you can properly vacuum a carpet. I am furious now, because I couldn’t vacuum up around the bird cage. I also wanted to vacuum the bedroom as the building maintenance crew had to tear out some of the drywall due to mold and ice crystals forming.

Now, to complicate things even more, I cannot seem to find the receipt for the purchase of the unit. It is going to make it difficult to get Hoover or Sam’s Club to fix or replace the unit without this very important piece of paper that proves that I bought the unit and didn’t fabricate it myself.

But still… has everything gotten so cheapened that just one wrong step breaks a $260.00 vacuum? Couldn’t even part of it be made of metal so that you don’t break screw posts? When I was a kid, we had a Kirby vacuum cleaner that lasted 15 to 20 years. The shell of the Kirby was made of an aluminum allow, and I could kick it as much as I want and was more likely to break my foot than the vacuum.

… a whole machine stopped by a single mistep…

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Bah Humbug, revisisted

Monday, December 24th, 2007

Ok, so the Christmas season (and it really truly is in fact as long as a weather season in the Chicago area) is all but over (thank gawd!)….  It seems that the vast majority of shopping occurred at the very last minute. Heck, on the 20th, a drive that normally takes me about 10 minutes ended up taking me 40 instead.  The cause of the backup? The traffic was all heading to one of the local shopping centers.  I was and still am completely irate about it.  What on earth is the purpose of starting to advertise Christmas sales at the end of September if everybody just ends up waiting until the last 5 days prior to the holiday anyways?   It makes absolutely no sense to me at all. In fact, it just goes to show that stores could all start their big Christmas sales 2 weeks prior to the actual holiday, save a ton on advertising, and make it so that we don’t have to listen to Christmas music for up to two months prior to the holiday.   (Honestly, the music makes even some of the people who I know who do celebrate Christmas want to go postal after about a week of hearing it everywhere one would go.)

This is a plea for mercy; a plea for compassion. Starting next year, PLEASE don’t start up with Christmas crap until after Thanksgiving. I don’t want to see or hear a peep about Christmas until then.   I beg for all that is good and sane in this world, please consider it.

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Bah Humbug

Friday, October 12th, 2007

What has this country become over the past 30 years? Don’t mistake me – even though Christmas is not a part of my culture and I do not feel any need to partake in it, that does not mean that I am against the existence of the holiday. Nor am I against the occasional ignorant person who believes that everybody celebrates it when he says “merry christmas” – I know the intentions are good. But it’s all starting up now in the end of September.

Case in point – “Tree Classics dot com” was already advertising on Chicago’s WBBM radio 780 AM as early as the week starting September 16th. Let me ask you this: Who the hell needs to buy a stupid fake tree for their house 3 months in advance? Or more importantly, as I don’t really care what people do in the privacy of their own homes provided it has no ill effects on me or the people in their vicinity, why do we already need to start cramming the advertisements down our throats so early?

My second case in point… The Waltons. Why is it that I walk into Sam’s Club nowadays and get bombarded by ridicurous merchandise for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas already? Whatever happened to being able to deal with one holiday at a time?

I remember as a child living in the Chicago metro area that you never saw or heard a peep about Christmas until Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). In fact, I am not even sure if it was called Black Friday back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I don’t recall nearly as much cramming-Christmas-down-your-throats as there is today. I even overheard a couple other patrons of Sam’s Club commenting about how it’s not even Halloween and the Christmas merchandise is already out on display.

Here is a message to all those out there who believe that it is a conspiracy to attack and degrade your holiday when people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”:

1. Did you used to like taking cough medicine when you were a child? Did the fact that it was crammed into your throat make it any more appealing?

2. Not everybody in this country celebrates your holiday. The world does not revolve around what you celebrate. I wouldn’t even suggest wishing “Happy Christmajamarokwanzikah” (or whatever the actual word is; Jon Stewart care to help out?). What about the Wiccans? Doesn’t anybody care about them? If I’m not mistaken, if anybody has a real claim on Christmas as their holiday, might it not be the Wiccans? Wicca is based upon old European pagan religions is it not? Is Santa Claus not really just based upon an old Danish pagan holiday? What does a coniferous tree, chopped down and stuck in a pot in your house have to do with the supposed birthdate of Yeshu (Jesus)? Nothing. It too is based upon old Germanic pagan traditions.

In any event, why must you cram your holiday down everybody else’s throats? How can you even cram it down your own throats? How many celebrators out there are disgusted by the way things have become overly commericialized and overly zealotized?

I have a proposal: Why don’t we just have two seasons of the year? One season lasts for 24 hours, and starts at sundown on December 24th and continues until sundown on December 25th (which, by the way, is a remnant of Jewish culture remaining in Christianity). This first season we will call Christmas. The second season encompasses all the remaining days of the year, and we will call it the Christmas Shopping Season.

Christmas will continue to entail all the current customs and traditions commonly associated with Christmas currently. The Christmas Shopping Season will be just like it is currently between Halloween and Christmas when you start not being able to even step foot into any shopping center, store, restaurant, or bar without hearing constant Christmas carols (enough that you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat screaming at the top of your lungs about a nightmare you just had involving Frank Sinatra and the dogs that bark Jingle Bells), except that it encompass the entire new Christmas Shopping Season. Hey, we all know that it’s heading in this direction already, so why not skip the middle stages and go for broke?

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