Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday Stampede Kills Worker At Wal-Mart

Today, the news reports that a Wal-Mart employee has been trampled to death by shoppers smashing through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart the morning after Thanksgiving—commonly known as "Black Friday." The unidentified victim, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried in vain to hold back a crowd of hundreds just after the Green Acres Mall store opened at 5 a.m.
I have long been dismayed by mindless shoppers whose state of consciousness appears to be little more than that of preprogrammed buybots, often obstructing my aisle as they gaze uncomprehendingly at a box of cereal that's about as half-empty as the cranium cavities in which their discount options percolate in lieu of actual thoughts. As America's system of voracious capitalism teeters on the brink of collapse and presidential appointees pay ad-hoc homage to socialism by siphoning off hard-earned taxpayers' money by the billions to mismanaged monolithic mega corporations, the shopaholic masses know little better to do than to spend their quick-devaluing dollars on cheap "luxury" goods manufactured in friendly dictatorships with low wages that will soon fail, become outdated, or are carted off to self-storage facilities as closets, basements, and attics clutter with earlier acquired crap.

Wal-Mart, as one of the most predatory and anti-worker enterprises, has become a mecca for minions of susceptible lower-income earners, where they can exercise their lack of education, culture, and purpose by unloading shopping carts stocked with big brand boxes into their gas-guzzling SUVs, only to return hungry for the next sales event. Just as they can't see themselves as unfulfillable voids with a unsatisfiable appetite for soon useless stuff they can't be expected to see other lifeforms as more indispensable. By clearing the doorway of human debris Wal-Mart avoided a riot and possibly more casualties, conveniently citing consumer safety as priority #1. Save for a minor incident Black Friday was carried out around the nation for what is was intended: to shovel as much money into the pockets of retailers as possible and ring in the Christmas shopping season during which we are expected to commemorate the miracle birth of Jesus whose image personifies suffering, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, and an appeal to the best in us...

I give the American Dream as the backdrop in this unfortunate mall clerk's fading nightmare on Main Street another ten years before its fairy-tale veneer will have entirely peeled back and exposed an utterly subdued, intoxicated, on credit living nation that's just as easily manipulated by power-grabbing politicians as by the morally bankrupt multi-national corporations that control them. Lofty shopping mall names like Green Acres may foreshadow a future of empty storefront facades they once adorned if todays' relentless consumerism continues to indiscriminatingly feed the all-devouring locust called Capitalism.

About Holiday Sales
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bush's Parting Gift, Another Great Depression?


Many comparisons have lately been made between our current economy and the Great Depression. While future historians may have a better view of the severity of both incidents, a real comparison can of course not be made unless we strain ourselves to give equal weight to a majority of causes. The comparison is not only questionable, but seems to suggest that we'll be facing the same hardship now as the nation did back then. There's no doubt that both times a financial crisis spearheaded what some would call a catastrophy, but what I see as a collapse of Capitalism. I'm not saying this will be the end of Capitalism, as it can recover and I'm sure it will, but right now it's flat out on its back and if that isn't a collapse then what is...

Indeed, the patient is Capitalism and its recovery is not expected any time soon. It's all too clear now that pure, unadulterated greed lies at the core of a system that sprouted from the industrial revolution and turned the globe into a mine field of interdependent economies and a landfill for the results of glutinous consumerism. In the end just promises of future product availability turned out to provide the strength that held up the house of cards the economy had become. Capitalism, which after all believes in itself and free markets, deserves to be left to its own devices to recover—however painful that process may be. All the money now thrown at it will be wasted if it's only used to keep the machine running without looking at what it exactly produces. But, the people now protesting, the taxpayers, should also realize that they have been feeding the private jet uppercrust by indiscriminately buying their spit & shine crap, useless mass-produced trinkets, and stuff that doesn't work, is badly designed, badly engineered, and produced by poor suckers without shoes in dictatorships. So, in the end it's us that are sick and we better understand that real medicine never tastes like sugar water.

Under Bush, regulations that were in place to control corporate behavior have been relaxed to the point where Wall Street ran euphorically wild with the bulls until all was exhausted and greedy CEO's got into their private jets to beg in Washington for more party money from you, the taxpayer. It's a scam that has been played by the Republicans since they took control of the White House. We were promised victory in Iraq, lower gas prices, Obama's, uh, Osama's head, national security, and ended up getting bilked for billions of dollars while being spied on domestically. They controlled everything until two subsequent elections taught them that America had enough of these out-of-control control freaks that call themselves conservatives but conserved nothing, except for their hatred of gays, immigrants, and the French.

Now, I have no doubt that the greedy corporate bastards that got us in this mess will be the same that get us out, as they control the government, global resources (that may include you!), product manufacturing, infrastructure, media, and market (that certainly includes you!). Of course, they will also be the ones shaking things up by buying failing companies for a fraction of their worth and letting others die. In the process, many may die, either physically, or figuratively (and I hope that isn't you, or me!), before the markets stabilize and then it will begin a new cycle with the kind of outcome that will lead to comparisons with the Great Depression.

Only the people at the base, the workers, citizens—consumers all—can change the course if they are beginning to think and shop differently. As we've seen now—and I hope it's a lesson—it's our money that controls the players at the top, not the other way around, as "trickle-down" Reagan-onomists and rightwingers have had us believe for too long. Luckily, as has been proven by Obama's election, the books he wrote, and the discourse that took place in blogs and other media helped turn hapless citizens into informed buyers. The Obama brand may still disappoint, but its emergence stands in sharp contrast with the old-school baseless attacks the political right depended on. This is a different time and this time we know better. We're no longer the unshaven great unwashed from the Great Depression era. We've got blog power!

Let us hope that we can do better and that an open dialog about what our real needs are may lead to better products that address real needs at prices that reward everyone in the product cycle fairly. To follow what things are heading in that direction I recommend treehugger.com.

About Financial Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Huckabee: Gays Haven't Crossed Civil Rights Violence Threshold


While Mike Huckabee holds on to the view that gays haven't yet crossed the Civil Rights Violence Threshold, he apparently doesn't realize that such statement sounds like an invitation to turn gay-bashing up a notch, now that Newt Gingrich has also publicly declared that there is a "gay and secular fascism prepared to use violence." Oh, boy! The gays and seculars are coming, armed to the teeth with rakes and clubs!

Seriously, ultimately all issues of race, gender, equality, etc., will need to be settled by the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, it's stacked with conservative political appointees. At the core of all arguments against equality is either stupidity, bigotry, faith or a combination of all three, which is what is commonly projected by those publicly airing their fearful opinions. What we see here is only the beginning of the battle. The "concerned" citizens need to be separated from their biased fears and begin accepting that any form of discrimination is hurtful and shameful for a nation that sees itself as civilized, modern, and advanced.

We're not talking about "others" who happen to be "different." We're talking about our children, born from our blood. To deny them anything less than what we reserve for ourselves is selfish, loathsome, and despicable.

Religion and State must be separated as per the Constitution. Religious groups are nothing but cults, even if they belong to big brand name cults. The Law ought to be fact-based, and since marriage is recognized under the law as a contract (whatever you think about it from your cult perspective) it should be applicable to all citizens, regardless of age, sex, gender, etc. America has a terrible past when it comes to discrimination and still voices ring out loud and clear to continue doing just that. It is what made Dick Cheney and his wife so evil in my eyes, having a gay daughter, yet denying her equal rights.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Friday, November 14, 2008

Netflix Rocks With Roku...

This year circumstances prompted me to buy a new HDTV. I settled on the Series 5 Samsung 32" after reading nothing but great reviews on the web and although it was more than I wanted to spend, Cirquit City extended a $100 discount, just because I asked and maybe also because I heard rumors they're going bankrupt. They may be giving even more discount now that it's official. After looking at the different sizes I settled on 32" because broadcast picture quality is not always great as often extreme video compression leads to blocky and blotchy on-screen artifacts especially when motion is involved—something that's just amplified on a larger screen. So, I figured the 32" size and the fact that the Samsung has an extreme high response rate this model delivered the most bang for the buck in terms of features, sharpness, rich blacks and color fidelity. I briefly had an LG in the same size that I returned because there were things that bothered me where the Samsung more than delivered.

If, like me, you're not all that interested in the HD broadcast channels (Bikini Destinations [implants galore], or cooking shows) the next best thing is playing a DVD. Now, recently Netflix made Watch Instantly available for Mac owners and I had tried it, but since I work all day on my Mac using it also for movie watching is not appealing to me and certainly can't compare to watching a movie together in bed.
Alas, a trip to Netflix revealed that there's also a $99 device (a small box by Roku) available for instant watching on your HDTV. I decided to give it a shot.

Now, I also own the Apple TV, a device I've had for a few years and which last year became capable of renting and watching movies on. Unfortunately a recent issue HD movie rents for $5 and is good for only 24 hours, whereas the Netflix Watch Instantly feature is free and affords unlimited watching movies and TV shows with any 1 DVD at-a-time plan of $8.99 or higher.

While not as good as the screen quality of Apple TV (which cost $229, has a 40Gb hard drive while Roku only streams and with which you can do so much more, like playing and buying music, TV shows, watching YouTube, etc.), the Roku delivers higher quality on your HDTV compared to watching Netflix on your computer. Supposedly, within months the service will begin including HD quality as well, at which time it should be very competitive with the Apple TV, except for price, where Netflix is the winner. Still, that's not where it all ends, as not all Netflix content available on DVD are (yet) available as Watch Instantly content. The same goes for Apple TV, where Hollywood reigns supreme. However, where Apple TV has been lacking in independent movies, the free Netflix movies have a decent offering of those.

Of course, within time all this technology will change again, but for now the combination HDTV-Netflix-Roku is pretty irresistible for movie fanatics I think, especially with the same box soon being able to stream HD content. Netflix seems to have out-competed Blockbuster and surely Tower Video and positioned itself for online streaming at affordable prices. Even though there are competitors, such as Hulu, with Netflix's vast customer base my money's on Netflix.

I hope my experiences have given you something to consider if your situation is somewhat like mine—technology-wise, of course.
Ciao!

A dinosaur bailout...

Towards the end of the presidential election the McCain camp attacked Obama on his liberal socialist agenda in the midst of a period in which Wall Street, lenders, and the auto industry is begging for citizens' tax dollars. It's not that the people want socialism, it's the capitalists that in their crumbling greed have discovered that when vision fails, innovation lags, and products miss the mark, government by and for the people affords one last money grab before extinction or survival of the fittest prevails. Before they got on their knees they have fought unions, wrecked the environment, bought politicians, and distanced themselves as far as they could from the common man, dangling a world of soulless luxury in front of us to get us to max out our credit just to keep up with the Joneses. The dinosaurs had grown too big for their brains and moved too slow and ultimately demise was their fate. A different world emerged in which smaller, smarter, and better adapted to the environment creatures existed. Let these mammoths die and watch smaller, smarter, and better adapted to the environment companies emerge. People have to learn to do things themselves again and not have dinosaur corporations do the thinking for them.