Hey Apple!! What the F***???
Wow. As time passes, these clowns at Apple just get more and more--Well, more like most other American Corporations. And in case you Apple guys are confused, NO, that is not a compliment. In case you missed it, Apple is pissed that Real Networks created a software tool that would allow songs in their
format to play on the iPod. Now, I'm just saying what I think, but I have a feeling I'm speaking for a lot of people. On my computers, my PDA, even my Cell Phone, I BOUGHT the hardware. One of the rights I believe that gives me is the right to install any software I care to. It is simply NOT acceptable for the creator of that hardware to tell me I can use it for this purpose, but not for that purpose. After I buy it, they should no longer have the right to control my useage. Here's a suggestion: GIVE the iPods away, or rather, allow them to be used by the consumer while you, Apple, retain ownership. Yes, just like your cable box. That way, you would be well within your rights to control the way I use that piece of hardware. But as soon as you make me BUY it, I can install what I want. I can throw it off a bridge. I can glue it to my car as a hood ornament. Why should Apple even care where I get my songs--As long as I'm listening to them on an iPod, they won. Well, at least until the battery dies. But that's another post....
Flip-Flopper
Alright, I'm a little confused here. I always thought that one of the hallmarks of wisdom was the ability to reconsider conclusions in light of new information. I mean, isn't that pretty much the foundation of the scientific method? Continuously evaluate beliefs and opinions as new information becomes available? So now the Bush administration is trying to paint Kerry as a "Flip-Flopper". This is, apparently, a new political slur, that means essentially that you have changed you opinion or position. One thing's for sure, you have to admire their logical consistancy, even if it is at its most fundamental level illogical. They are attempting to make a virtue out of stubbornly sticking to conclusions and courses of action even long after facts have proven them to be ill-formed, incomplete or even downright stoopid. And by that measure, anyone who chooses to re-evaluate their position and alter it to reflect data that wasn't originally available is somehow weak, or lacking in determination. I have to say, I see it quite differently. Someone who blindly sticks to a specific course of action that is now demonstrably WRONG and somehow wants to take the position this makes them a strong or wise leader is clearly deficient in the critical thinking department. So the next time you hear Bush or Cheney repeating again and again that the entire plan is to "Stay the Course" think about what they're really saying. And for that matter, the next time they accuse Kerry of "Flip-Flopping", consider the possibility that this may be more complementary than they perhaps intended.
Another (odd) Legacy of 9/11
So when the wind blows a certain way, the traffic pattern for landing at San Jose Airport is routed directly over my house. Sometimes, I'll be in my yard and I'll hear a jet overhead, and I'll look up. And if it's a 767, sillouetted against a crystal blue sky, I'll flash back to seeing those planes hitting the buildings in New York and suddenly it will look ominous and creepy. I wonder if that will ever go away?
Talking God
Capital G God. The big guy. Twenty thousand years ago, God was a necessary construct. Loved ones died, crops failed, there was disease, deformity, floods, earthquakes, eclipses. A whole litany of things that the scientifically unsophisticated human population was at a loss to understand or explain, let alone control. So they invented God, or more accurately, Gods. The idea was that these all powerful beings controlled everything, but they could be influenced with various offerings to act mercifully or even beneficially towards the population. Never mind that they tended to act like egotistical, spoiled children, they provided the comfort of an explanation for a world that all too often denied understanding. Fast forward a few millennia. Now it's the 21st century. We understand weather, and disease, even eclipses. And in every careful scientific study, the explanation for any given phenomena has turned out NOT to be God. Cold Fronts, bacteria, DNA, Plate Tectonics, sure, but no scientific requirement for God. So, I hear you saying, since the concept of God has survived all these years, it must still be providing something important to the humans that cling to it. Hmm, let's see. Isn't pretty much every intractable conflict in the world based upon religious intolerance? Hindu-Muslim. Catholic-Protestant. Israel-Palestine. (Hmm, ok, there's a lot more there than just religious disagreement). And the big one, the one that will continue to define our lives for the foreseeable future, Christianity-Islam. For that matter, God has never talked to me. Nope, never met the dude. But much as these supposedly advanced aliens visiting our planet in their UFOs who only reveal themselves to toothless hillbillies with a second grade education, God only seems to talk to a certain class of swindlers and grifters, whether they be Pat Robertson, the Clerics who run Iran with an iron fist, and similar others who use their special, intimate relationship with God to support their own agenda. It seems to me that the concept of God has outlived it's usefulness. It now functions as a destructive force, allowing charlatans to prey on their constituencies, governments to justify war and assassination, and children to be raised to hate. Let's at least consider the possibility that the world would be better off if we found a way to leave God in the dustbin of history.
A note to Religious Ideological Fanatical Zealots Everywhere:
Yep, you're right. This is America. Land of the free. And yes, you are free to live your life in any twisted, arbitrary fashion you wish. You have constitutionally guaranteed rights to worship, live, raise and educate your family and proseletyze just about any ideologically driven set of beliefs you can come up with. What you do NOT have, implicit or explicit, is any right whatsoever to force your sick fantasy ideology on me, or anyone else, for that matter. If you have strong feelings about abortion, you can simply not have one. And that will allow you to feel oh so superior to the rest of us. If you don't like a radio or tv show, you can simply choose not to listen or watch it. Why should it bother you that other people are watching it? It's certainly not having an impact on your life. And if there is a set of sexual mores or a lifestyle you do not approve of, you certainly have the option not to chose it for yourself. Again, why should it bother you in any way if other people you don't even know choose that lifestyle? In America, you certainly have the option to live in your little insular communities, raise your children on hate and intolerance and try to perpetuate your religious zealotry, and I for one promise I won't try in any way to stop you. In return for this small act of forbearance, I'd like you to keep your ideology away from me and mine. This way, we can all indulge in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness in our own ways.
The World in Which we Live
Ok, so now it's news that a hostage DIDN'T get Beheaded? And as far as we've come, we're still using the word beheaded? Who woulda thunk that "Beheaded" would not only be part of mainstream conversation, it would be in news coverage on almost a daily basis? Now I recognize that the atrocities we inflict upon our fellow humans are many and varied,but could we PUH-Leeze stop it with the head-chopping off? Ok, sure, dead is dead, but come on, you guys, wouldn't you prefer a more hi-tech reputation, such as you can get by assasinating people with air-to-ground missiles or leveling entire apartment blocks with Bradley fighting vehicles?
