(Notes 1-7-2010: Yes, I am well aware that the Bratz are not dead yet. A search of toysrus.com reveals that Bratz products are still around. Darn! Oh, and I originally posted this entry on my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on December 4, 2008.)
Anyone who's read my blog knows by now that I hate materialism. I prefer to replace things only when they either stop working or become unreliable. I hardly ever shop at malls. I've never owned a car that was less than five years old. I firmly believe that "form follows function"; that is to say, I care about how something works far more than it looks.
Well, in 2001, a company called MGA Entertainment launched a line of dolls that promoted and even glorified materialism in the most arrogant fashion. Even the name screamed out "spoiled and materialistic": Bratz. I had hoped that parents would refuse to buy them and they would die a quick, quiet death in the "marketplace of ideas," right alongside the "New Coke," McDonald's Arch Deluxe hamburger, and stupid movies like Gigli and From Justin to Kelly.
Oh, but little girls loved them, and apparently, today's parents don't have the same sense of responsibility in dissuading them from making bad decisions that, say, my parents had. Otherwise, how would one explain the rise among children in violent behavior, drug use, obesity, and Type II diabetes? Or, for that matter, the success of Bratz?
I cringed every time I saw Bratz displayed prominently in some store ad, be it Toys R Us or Target, thinking thoughts like: How could people, in good conscience, buy this crap? Now there's Bratz babies and Bratz pets, and next thing you know, maybe Ford will come out with a Ford Explorer Bratz Edition.
But there is good news: Those pesky, materialistic, ignorant, disgusting, skanky, brutal, bottom-feeding trashbag ho's are about to become history.
See, Bratz designer Carter Bryant developed that ill-conceived concept while working at Mattel. Mattel sued MGA in 2004, and just yesterday, they won. MGA can't make any more of the infernal toys, and after the holiday season, they will be pulled from store shelves everywhere. What an unexpected relief. That's one more thing to look forward to in 2009--a New Year, Bush leaving the White House, the transition to digital TV, and no more Bratz.
So long as we're on the subject of materialism, I want to touch upon the dark side of last Friday. You've already heard or read about that 34-year-old security guard being trampled to death at that Wal-Mart on Long Island, and also that shooting at the Toys R Us in Palm Desert, California (thankfully, it was two men shooting each other, not some angry kid taking out some trivial frustration on innocent people as initially feared). It makes you want to rethink the concept of Black Friday (substantial discounts on select items for a limited time). Long lines are one thing, but if there's violence and lawlessness, stores may decide it's no longer worth the trouble. Is there really anything in the world--let alone in a store--worth smashing doors and trampling people for?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Volume 3, Number 32: Another Assortment of Small Stuff
(Note: I originally posted this entry to my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on November 21, 2008.)
Politics: I'm happy Barack Obama won. I look forward to seeing how he takes on the biggest mess any president has inherited since Franklin Roosevelt took over in the middle of the Great Depression. Locally, in a race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Gary Peters knocked Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg out.
Business: Speaking of the Great Depression, there is one important parallel between the mess we have now and the mess that took root during the so-called "Roaring Twenties," and it is that for years, consumers and corporations alike tried to fool others into thinking they were doing just fine by borrowing on credit. In the '20s, ordinary consumers could get a piece of the rising stock market by buying shares "on margin," which basically meant they only had to put down a 10% down payment to claim ownership of a given stock. Over the last several years, we've had everything from people living off of credit cards to the subprime mortgage crisis. Both of these messes could have been prevented--or at least reduced--if the government had watched over Corporate America instead of being bought and paid for by it. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then a million dollars of regulation is worth a billion dollars of bailout.
Sports: The Lions are 0-10. I'm 9-2 in a two of the six fantasy football leagues I'm in, and no worse than 4-7 in the others. Therein lies the reason why I play fantasy football--I'm more likely to experience a championship by playing fantasy football than by watching the Lions. In college football, I will root for Michigan to beat Ohio State--but not for the Wolverines' sake, and certainly not for Rich Rodriguez, whose job should have been filled by ex-Minnesota assistant head coach Mitch Browning over a year ago. It's to help Michigan State, which could get a Big Ten title with a win over Penn State and a U-M victory over OSU. The Tigers raised ticket prices despite finishing last in the AL Central this past season. Joe Dumars made the "shake-up" trade everyone was waiting for--Chauncey Billups and two other players to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson. I'd like to think that Iverson's grown up since his legendary "We're talking about practice" shtick several years back, and I know he led the Pistons to victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers just the other night, but as with the new head coach (Michael Curry), I will take a "wait and see" approach.
Entertainment: I've come up with two other ideas for TV shows:
Politics: I'm happy Barack Obama won. I look forward to seeing how he takes on the biggest mess any president has inherited since Franklin Roosevelt took over in the middle of the Great Depression. Locally, in a race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Gary Peters knocked Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg out.
Business: Speaking of the Great Depression, there is one important parallel between the mess we have now and the mess that took root during the so-called "Roaring Twenties," and it is that for years, consumers and corporations alike tried to fool others into thinking they were doing just fine by borrowing on credit. In the '20s, ordinary consumers could get a piece of the rising stock market by buying shares "on margin," which basically meant they only had to put down a 10% down payment to claim ownership of a given stock. Over the last several years, we've had everything from people living off of credit cards to the subprime mortgage crisis. Both of these messes could have been prevented--or at least reduced--if the government had watched over Corporate America instead of being bought and paid for by it. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then a million dollars of regulation is worth a billion dollars of bailout.
Sports: The Lions are 0-10. I'm 9-2 in a two of the six fantasy football leagues I'm in, and no worse than 4-7 in the others. Therein lies the reason why I play fantasy football--I'm more likely to experience a championship by playing fantasy football than by watching the Lions. In college football, I will root for Michigan to beat Ohio State--but not for the Wolverines' sake, and certainly not for Rich Rodriguez, whose job should have been filled by ex-Minnesota assistant head coach Mitch Browning over a year ago. It's to help Michigan State, which could get a Big Ten title with a win over Penn State and a U-M victory over OSU. The Tigers raised ticket prices despite finishing last in the AL Central this past season. Joe Dumars made the "shake-up" trade everyone was waiting for--Chauncey Billups and two other players to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson. I'd like to think that Iverson's grown up since his legendary "We're talking about practice" shtick several years back, and I know he led the Pistons to victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers just the other night, but as with the new head coach (Michael Curry), I will take a "wait and see" approach.
Entertainment: I've come up with two other ideas for TV shows:
- Clunker - In contrast to shows like Knight Rider and Viper (where already expensive cars are worked into crime-fighting machines), in this one, a government agency (or maybe a private investigation agency) has to rework a crappy old car like a Dodge Dart into such a crime-fighting machine, only to see it destroyed at the end of the episode. Kind of like "Knight Rider" meets "Pimp My Ride."
- DIA: The Divine Intervention Agency - What happens to souls that aren't good enough to go to Heaven, but not nearly bad enough to go to Hell? St. Peter puts them to work at the Divine Intervention Agency, going after condemned souls have either escaped from or eluded going to Hell (and defending the innocent from them).
- One is Life On Mars (about a cop who wakes up in 1973 after getting hit by a car; he resolves to continue solving crimes in his 1973 world but keeps coming across clues about what's happening to him in the present day). It's written far better than I expected (you should especially see the pilot episode) and I hope the writing doesn't go in a direction I don't like it going in (as Lost and Heroes did).
- The other, of course, is Kitchen Nightmares (where Gordon Ramsay finds more failing restaurants in dire need of a turnaround--my favorite episodes so far are Fiesta Sunrise and Hannah & Mason's, both due to filthy kitchens).
Volume 3, Number 31: Various Election Day Observations
(Note: I originally posted this entry on my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on November 4, 2008.)
When this year started, I would have been content with Sen. John McCain as the Republican nominee for President. I have contended for years that the grave injustice of that election year was the GOP nomination of George W. Bush over McCain, not the dimpled or hanging chads or whatever else took place in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election. As 2008 progressed, however, I have seen a McCain who looked more and more like he would be a continuation of the last eight execrable years.
One particular ad that aired earlier this year stood out very much for me: It quoted both Bush and McCain saying "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong," then played back both simulataneously to show that even the tone of voice was the same. In the meantime, the fundamentals of the American economy are not strong; they have changed for the worse over the last few decades. The USA, once a great manufacturing country, now imports far more than it produces. The rich have gotten richer (usually by breaking rules, abusing loopholes or abusing power), the poor are no better off, and the middle class is being killed off. (Note: I'm not blaming this entirely on the Republicans; the point here is that the statement, "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong," is wrong.)
The last three Democratic presidents all came from Southern states (Lyndon Johnson, 1963-1969, Texas; Jimmy Carter, 1977-1981, Georgia; and Bill Clinton, 1993-2001, Arkansas). In the last four elections where the Democratic candidate was from the north (1972, 1984, 1988, 2004), that candidate did not win a single Southern state. An Obama victory would mark the first time that a Democratic candidate from outside the South won the Presidential election since John F. Kennedy (Massachusetts) in 1960. Such a victory would thus prove that the Democrats can win the White House without despite a lack of support in the South (or, for that matter, without resorting to a candidate from that area).
As far as the Electoral College goes, I predict it as follows: Obama 322, McCain 216. The main difference between this election and the 2004 one is that Obama will win several states that John Kerry did not (Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia). But otherwise, I figure that the Southern states will remain red, as will most of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states.
Ohio is a microcosm of the whole country: The north is more urban and Democratic and is suffering from the same manufacturing job losses as the rest of the Rust Belt; the south is more rural and Republican. Also, in each of the last 11 elections, the winner of Ohio's electoral votes has also won the Presidency (the last one to win without carrying Ohio was, once again, JFK).
When this year started, I would have been content with Sen. John McCain as the Republican nominee for President. I have contended for years that the grave injustice of that election year was the GOP nomination of George W. Bush over McCain, not the dimpled or hanging chads or whatever else took place in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election. As 2008 progressed, however, I have seen a McCain who looked more and more like he would be a continuation of the last eight execrable years.
One particular ad that aired earlier this year stood out very much for me: It quoted both Bush and McCain saying "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong," then played back both simulataneously to show that even the tone of voice was the same. In the meantime, the fundamentals of the American economy are not strong; they have changed for the worse over the last few decades. The USA, once a great manufacturing country, now imports far more than it produces. The rich have gotten richer (usually by breaking rules, abusing loopholes or abusing power), the poor are no better off, and the middle class is being killed off. (Note: I'm not blaming this entirely on the Republicans; the point here is that the statement, "The fundamentals of America's economy are strong," is wrong.)
The last three Democratic presidents all came from Southern states (Lyndon Johnson, 1963-1969, Texas; Jimmy Carter, 1977-1981, Georgia; and Bill Clinton, 1993-2001, Arkansas). In the last four elections where the Democratic candidate was from the north (1972, 1984, 1988, 2004), that candidate did not win a single Southern state. An Obama victory would mark the first time that a Democratic candidate from outside the South won the Presidential election since John F. Kennedy (Massachusetts) in 1960. Such a victory would thus prove that the Democrats can win the White House without despite a lack of support in the South (or, for that matter, without resorting to a candidate from that area).
As far as the Electoral College goes, I predict it as follows: Obama 322, McCain 216. The main difference between this election and the 2004 one is that Obama will win several states that John Kerry did not (Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia). But otherwise, I figure that the Southern states will remain red, as will most of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states.
Ohio is a microcosm of the whole country: The north is more urban and Democratic and is suffering from the same manufacturing job losses as the rest of the Rust Belt; the south is more rural and Republican. Also, in each of the last 11 elections, the winner of Ohio's electoral votes has also won the Presidency (the last one to win without carrying Ohio was, once again, JFK).
Volume 3, Number 30: Pipe Wrench Fight!
(Note: I originally posted this entry on my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on October 9, 2008.)
We had the Star Wars kid in 2003, the Numa Numa Dance in 2005, and Can't Tase This last year. But this year's Viral Video of the Year has got to be Dustin McLean's "Literal Video Version" of the music video for A-Ha's Take On Me, in which McLean replaces the song's lyrics with lyrics that more closely depict what happens in the video. The really hilarious part starts around 2:12 with the fight/chase scene ("I told you to stay away from my magic frame!"). Check it out.
We had the Star Wars kid in 2003, the Numa Numa Dance in 2005, and Can't Tase This last year. But this year's Viral Video of the Year has got to be Dustin McLean's "Literal Video Version" of the music video for A-Ha's Take On Me, in which McLean replaces the song's lyrics with lyrics that more closely depict what happens in the video. The really hilarious part starts around 2:12 with the fight/chase scene ("I told you to stay away from my magic frame!"). Check it out.
Volume 3, Number 29: TV Show Ideas
(Note: I originally posted this entry to my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on September 27, 2008.)
About a year ago, in response to CBS' short-lived reality show, Kid Nation, I suggested that the premise would work a lot better if the ghost town were run by ex-cons. Ex-Con Nation is still a thought in my mind, but in the meantime, I've had a few other ideas for TV shows:
Hell's Kitchen: New England - For the past four years, Scott Liebfried has worked under Gordon Ramsay as the sous-chef overseeing the blue team in Hell's Kitchen. Now, Chef Liebfried returns to his old stomping grounds for his own Hell's Kitchen (he previously worked in Long Island, Boston, and Martha's Vineyard). He carries himself like a cop, treating his chefs like they came straight out of America's Dumbest Criminals. (note to mark: insert YouTube links in which Chef Liebfried rips into contestants) In fact, I'd even promote him as "America's Culinary Cop." Added twists: From time to time, Chef Liebfried will give a contestant the choice of either going to culinary school (but leaving the competition voluntarily), or staying in the competition (in which case Chef Liebfried will almost certainly not offer the scholarship again to that contestant). (This last bit is inspired by the part in season 3 where, after eliminating Julia, Chef Ramsay gave her a free ride to culinary school.) Finally, instead of "Fire" by the Ohio Players, the theme song will be "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix.
Tuned Out - You've seen all kinds of shows that do nothing but comment on celebrity news, pop culture, other TV shows, and the like--I Love the '70s/'80s/'90s, those top 20/50/100 countdown shows like you see on E! and VH1, and more. And you see the same people on them--comedians who don't have anything better going on (like Patrice O'Neal and the Sklar brothers) and celebrities who are between gigs (like Chris Jericho before he returned to the WWE). Why not put 13 of them in one house and see who's the best, and give them their own show? Now, British TV ubercynic Charlie Brooker (who has a show on the BBC called Screenwipe where he has all kinds of things to say about TV shows and commercials) has invited 13 such people to live a big house where they do nothing but watch TV and make all kinds of commentary on what they watch. At the end of every episode, Brooker will be in a room with 13 TV sets--one showing each of the contestants--and will tell them which ones will stay, until he gets to the one to be eliminated, at which point he says, "I'm sorry, you're Tuned Out," and picks up the remote corresponding to that set to switch it off. The winner--hopefully the one with the wit that is the quickest, most well-rounded, most acerbic, most creative and/or most original--gets to host his/her own show in which they get to comment on TV shows, pop culture, celebrity news, something along those lines.
New Wave Corporate Raiders - A group of ex-cons are sent back to the year 1982 to murder some Wall Street execs and take their places. But why, and who are they working for? Will they do what they're told? Is anyone going to find out about them, and if so, how? The series will serve as a thinly veiled attack on Corporate America and Wall Street and the practices they've employed since the days of Reagan.
The Kevin Fisher Times - This one, I've had on my mind for years. Set in the year 2002, it's about a newspaper columnist who finds himself trapped in a parallel universe. In this universe, the technology to travel between universes has existed since 1945 (courtesy of an accident that caused Flight 19 to disappear from our universe and appear in the parallel one). Global media corporations have control over the technology and will do anything and everything to prevent the government, intelligence agencies and the military from finding out about it. Why? Put bluntly, the marketplace of ideas is a gold mine. Media executives from this parallel universe also travel to ours in an effort to exchange ideas with their counterparts (for example, the film "The Terminator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, is based on another film of the same title taking place in the parallel universe, except that it was made in 1978 and starred Jack Nicholson and Sissy Spacek).
Tooth and Nail - It's a sitcom about a dentist who sets up his office at some strip mall and falls in love with a manicurist who also has a shop in the very same strip mall. OK, it needs a boatload of work, but the idea came at a time when I wondered if TV shows weren't created with the title first and more important stuff like plotlines and characters second. Case in point #1: Neat & Tidy, a parody of action/adventure shows from around 1987 that got its title from its characters, Nick Neat and Tena Tidy. I kid you not. This short-lived syndicated series is now referred to in the Internet Movie Database as Adventures Beyond Belief. Case in point #2: In 1988, Mr. T used to have this syndicated action show. The producers of the show decided that both his character and the female lead character both have last names that start with T so the show could be called "T and T" in order to cash in on the name recognition Mr. T had.
About a year ago, in response to CBS' short-lived reality show, Kid Nation, I suggested that the premise would work a lot better if the ghost town were run by ex-cons. Ex-Con Nation is still a thought in my mind, but in the meantime, I've had a few other ideas for TV shows:
Hell's Kitchen: New England - For the past four years, Scott Liebfried has worked under Gordon Ramsay as the sous-chef overseeing the blue team in Hell's Kitchen. Now, Chef Liebfried returns to his old stomping grounds for his own Hell's Kitchen (he previously worked in Long Island, Boston, and Martha's Vineyard). He carries himself like a cop, treating his chefs like they came straight out of America's Dumbest Criminals. (note to mark: insert YouTube links in which Chef Liebfried rips into contestants) In fact, I'd even promote him as "America's Culinary Cop." Added twists: From time to time, Chef Liebfried will give a contestant the choice of either going to culinary school (but leaving the competition voluntarily), or staying in the competition (in which case Chef Liebfried will almost certainly not offer the scholarship again to that contestant). (This last bit is inspired by the part in season 3 where, after eliminating Julia, Chef Ramsay gave her a free ride to culinary school.) Finally, instead of "Fire" by the Ohio Players, the theme song will be "Fire" by Jimi Hendrix.
Tuned Out - You've seen all kinds of shows that do nothing but comment on celebrity news, pop culture, other TV shows, and the like--I Love the '70s/'80s/'90s, those top 20/50/100 countdown shows like you see on E! and VH1, and more. And you see the same people on them--comedians who don't have anything better going on (like Patrice O'Neal and the Sklar brothers) and celebrities who are between gigs (like Chris Jericho before he returned to the WWE). Why not put 13 of them in one house and see who's the best, and give them their own show? Now, British TV ubercynic Charlie Brooker (who has a show on the BBC called Screenwipe where he has all kinds of things to say about TV shows and commercials) has invited 13 such people to live a big house where they do nothing but watch TV and make all kinds of commentary on what they watch. At the end of every episode, Brooker will be in a room with 13 TV sets--one showing each of the contestants--and will tell them which ones will stay, until he gets to the one to be eliminated, at which point he says, "I'm sorry, you're Tuned Out," and picks up the remote corresponding to that set to switch it off. The winner--hopefully the one with the wit that is the quickest, most well-rounded, most acerbic, most creative and/or most original--gets to host his/her own show in which they get to comment on TV shows, pop culture, celebrity news, something along those lines.
New Wave Corporate Raiders - A group of ex-cons are sent back to the year 1982 to murder some Wall Street execs and take their places. But why, and who are they working for? Will they do what they're told? Is anyone going to find out about them, and if so, how? The series will serve as a thinly veiled attack on Corporate America and Wall Street and the practices they've employed since the days of Reagan.
The Kevin Fisher Times - This one, I've had on my mind for years. Set in the year 2002, it's about a newspaper columnist who finds himself trapped in a parallel universe. In this universe, the technology to travel between universes has existed since 1945 (courtesy of an accident that caused Flight 19 to disappear from our universe and appear in the parallel one). Global media corporations have control over the technology and will do anything and everything to prevent the government, intelligence agencies and the military from finding out about it. Why? Put bluntly, the marketplace of ideas is a gold mine. Media executives from this parallel universe also travel to ours in an effort to exchange ideas with their counterparts (for example, the film "The Terminator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, is based on another film of the same title taking place in the parallel universe, except that it was made in 1978 and starred Jack Nicholson and Sissy Spacek).
Tooth and Nail - It's a sitcom about a dentist who sets up his office at some strip mall and falls in love with a manicurist who also has a shop in the very same strip mall. OK, it needs a boatload of work, but the idea came at a time when I wondered if TV shows weren't created with the title first and more important stuff like plotlines and characters second. Case in point #1: Neat & Tidy, a parody of action/adventure shows from around 1987 that got its title from its characters, Nick Neat and Tena Tidy. I kid you not. This short-lived syndicated series is now referred to in the Internet Movie Database as Adventures Beyond Belief. Case in point #2: In 1988, Mr. T used to have this syndicated action show. The producers of the show decided that both his character and the female lead character both have last names that start with T so the show could be called "T and T" in order to cash in on the name recognition Mr. T had.
Volume 3, Number 28: Bad News On Top Of Bad News
(Note: I originally posted this entry on my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on September 23, 2008.)
As you know, after a tide of failures and near-failures among America's largest financial institutions, the federal government recently announced a plan to bail them out... at the cost of increasing our already outrageous national debt.
It has a lot of people outraged, asking, Why? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said just earlier today, "There is a lot of blame to go around - a lot of blame with big financial institutions that engaged in this irresponsible lending ... blame to the people who made loans they shouldn't have made, people who took out loans they shouldn't have taken out." Shouldn't the greedy people responsible for this crisis be the ones to pay? The way the bailout is set up right now, it's exactly like the other bailouts that have taken place (the savings & loan bailout, for example)... the honest, responsible middle class citizen is being made to pay for the greed of the rich and the irresponsibility of those who took out the loans they couldn't afford to pay.
In China, we have another example of greed by a few people who don't care about the well-being of the many leading to disastrous results: A number of baby milk manufacturers were found to have had melamine (the same chemical at the heart of the 2007 pet food scandal) in their products. In one example, a supplier of the Sanlu Group deliberately diluted their milk and added melamine to it in order to enable it to pass a certain test (called the Kjeldahl protein test) after Sanlu rejected earlier shipments.
I don't know which fact is worse--the two brothers at the aforementioned supplier who completely disregarded consumer safety by adding the melamine, the fact that Sanlu only notified stores and not consumers, or the fact that nobody would have known about the problem until a New Zealand-based part-owner of Sanlu informed the New Zealand government about it, which then informed the Chinese government. You read that correctly--the New Zealand government was the first government to act on a China-based problem.
Finally, this morning, yet another college shooting took place in Finland. 10 are dead; the shooter turned the gun on himself and died from his injuries (which begs the question, why in the world didn't he take his life to begin with?).
And I've been thinking... We as a society need to maintain the same values that make us human in the first place--respect, compassion, love, moderation (the opposite of greed), and reject those values that hurt the quality of life such as greed, selfishness and violence. I am astounded by the number of people who know that something is wrong, but do it anyway; as well as those who know that it's wrong and yet don't fight against it.
As you know, after a tide of failures and near-failures among America's largest financial institutions, the federal government recently announced a plan to bail them out... at the cost of increasing our already outrageous national debt.
It has a lot of people outraged, asking, Why? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said just earlier today, "There is a lot of blame to go around - a lot of blame with big financial institutions that engaged in this irresponsible lending ... blame to the people who made loans they shouldn't have made, people who took out loans they shouldn't have taken out." Shouldn't the greedy people responsible for this crisis be the ones to pay? The way the bailout is set up right now, it's exactly like the other bailouts that have taken place (the savings & loan bailout, for example)... the honest, responsible middle class citizen is being made to pay for the greed of the rich and the irresponsibility of those who took out the loans they couldn't afford to pay.
In China, we have another example of greed by a few people who don't care about the well-being of the many leading to disastrous results: A number of baby milk manufacturers were found to have had melamine (the same chemical at the heart of the 2007 pet food scandal) in their products. In one example, a supplier of the Sanlu Group deliberately diluted their milk and added melamine to it in order to enable it to pass a certain test (called the Kjeldahl protein test) after Sanlu rejected earlier shipments.
I don't know which fact is worse--the two brothers at the aforementioned supplier who completely disregarded consumer safety by adding the melamine, the fact that Sanlu only notified stores and not consumers, or the fact that nobody would have known about the problem until a New Zealand-based part-owner of Sanlu informed the New Zealand government about it, which then informed the Chinese government. You read that correctly--the New Zealand government was the first government to act on a China-based problem.
Finally, this morning, yet another college shooting took place in Finland. 10 are dead; the shooter turned the gun on himself and died from his injuries (which begs the question, why in the world didn't he take his life to begin with?).
And I've been thinking... We as a society need to maintain the same values that make us human in the first place--respect, compassion, love, moderation (the opposite of greed), and reject those values that hurt the quality of life such as greed, selfishness and violence. I am astounded by the number of people who know that something is wrong, but do it anyway; as well as those who know that it's wrong and yet don't fight against it.
Volume 3, Number 27: Kwame Is Out!
(Note: I originally posted this entry to my Yahoo! GeoCities blog on September 4, 2008.)
Just when I thought Kwame Kilpatrick and his attorneys would find another way to extend Detroit's nightmare of lies, corruption, misplaced priorities and irresponsibility, that nightmare is about to end.
Earlier today, Kilpatrick agreed to a deal in which he pled guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice, agreed to resign as mayor of Detroit, surrendered his law license, forfeited his pension, agreed to pay $1 million restitution to the city of Detroit, and also agreed not to run for public office for five years. In exchange, six other felony charges were dropped, and he will get a greatly reduced jail sentence (120 days; obstruction of justice is a 5-year felony offense).
I am both happy and angry. Happy, obviously, that Kilpatrick is resigning, but angry because lots of money, time and energy were wasted, mainly because Kilpatrick spent so much money covering up his lies, causing his opponents to spend a lot of time and energy in exposing him and fighting against the cover-up. All that waste could have been avoided if Kilpatrick had some sense of responsibility.
Per Detroit's city charter, Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel, Jr. is expected to become the 61st mayor of the city in two weeks. He has been working on plans to restore credibility to the office of Mayor and to get rid of all the nepotism and cronyism Kilpatrick brought to the city offices. But as anyone whose parents or grandparent fled the city in the late '60s and early '70s knows, Detroit has light years to go.
There are tons of abandoned warehouses, factories, stores, houses and other buildings that need to be torn down. One example leapt out at me a couple of years ago as I took the ramp from southbound I-75 to westbound I-94. Looking to your right, I saw a large area of nothing but grayish-white buildings in poor condition, all of which looked 50 years removed from happier, more prosperous times. This area is bounded by four streets (Harper, Piquette, Mansur, and Hastings). What really galls me, too, are buildings elsewhere in Detroit that obviously haven't been used in years, yet have "FOR SALE OR LEASE" signs on them. Someone's got to tell the owners of such buildings that they are a loss. They're magnets for drug trafficking and graffiti. It's time the city's brownfields were converted back to greenfields.
Whereas people used to live and work in Detroit 50 years ago, today, most people live in one suburb and work in another, and some have to drive long distances just to get to work (e.g. from Royal Oak to Northville, or from Troy to Dearborn). And all that driving means having your own car--try getting from Royal Oak to Northville using SMART buses, which are not a viable form of mass transit. With gas prices the way they are now, living in the suburbs is becoming that much more expensive for people. Thus, the city has the opportunity to recreate the situation of living near where you work--provided they can attract new business and find ways to attract residents (preferably those who don't have children, due to the next problem on the list).
Detroit's Public Schools are a national embarrassment. Ridiculous amounts of money are squandered every year on buildings and technology that a number of suburban districts would die for, and yet the teaching is inferior, the students don't graduate at the same rate, and neither their parents nor the leadership nor the management seem to care. The failure of the city to properly secure its closed schools and reallocate those schools' resources (textbooks, computers, supplies) to other schools was particularly aggravating. DPS needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, with teachers who know the material they are teaching and are willing to bring out the best in their students, and administrators who can get the students' parents to give a damn about their education.
Just when I thought Kwame Kilpatrick and his attorneys would find another way to extend Detroit's nightmare of lies, corruption, misplaced priorities and irresponsibility, that nightmare is about to end.
Earlier today, Kilpatrick agreed to a deal in which he pled guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice, agreed to resign as mayor of Detroit, surrendered his law license, forfeited his pension, agreed to pay $1 million restitution to the city of Detroit, and also agreed not to run for public office for five years. In exchange, six other felony charges were dropped, and he will get a greatly reduced jail sentence (120 days; obstruction of justice is a 5-year felony offense).I am both happy and angry. Happy, obviously, that Kilpatrick is resigning, but angry because lots of money, time and energy were wasted, mainly because Kilpatrick spent so much money covering up his lies, causing his opponents to spend a lot of time and energy in exposing him and fighting against the cover-up. All that waste could have been avoided if Kilpatrick had some sense of responsibility.
Per Detroit's city charter, Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel, Jr. is expected to become the 61st mayor of the city in two weeks. He has been working on plans to restore credibility to the office of Mayor and to get rid of all the nepotism and cronyism Kilpatrick brought to the city offices. But as anyone whose parents or grandparent fled the city in the late '60s and early '70s knows, Detroit has light years to go.
There are tons of abandoned warehouses, factories, stores, houses and other buildings that need to be torn down. One example leapt out at me a couple of years ago as I took the ramp from southbound I-75 to westbound I-94. Looking to your right, I saw a large area of nothing but grayish-white buildings in poor condition, all of which looked 50 years removed from happier, more prosperous times. This area is bounded by four streets (Harper, Piquette, Mansur, and Hastings). What really galls me, too, are buildings elsewhere in Detroit that obviously haven't been used in years, yet have "FOR SALE OR LEASE" signs on them. Someone's got to tell the owners of such buildings that they are a loss. They're magnets for drug trafficking and graffiti. It's time the city's brownfields were converted back to greenfields.
Whereas people used to live and work in Detroit 50 years ago, today, most people live in one suburb and work in another, and some have to drive long distances just to get to work (e.g. from Royal Oak to Northville, or from Troy to Dearborn). And all that driving means having your own car--try getting from Royal Oak to Northville using SMART buses, which are not a viable form of mass transit. With gas prices the way they are now, living in the suburbs is becoming that much more expensive for people. Thus, the city has the opportunity to recreate the situation of living near where you work--provided they can attract new business and find ways to attract residents (preferably those who don't have children, due to the next problem on the list).
Detroit's Public Schools are a national embarrassment. Ridiculous amounts of money are squandered every year on buildings and technology that a number of suburban districts would die for, and yet the teaching is inferior, the students don't graduate at the same rate, and neither their parents nor the leadership nor the management seem to care. The failure of the city to properly secure its closed schools and reallocate those schools' resources (textbooks, computers, supplies) to other schools was particularly aggravating. DPS needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, with teachers who know the material they are teaching and are willing to bring out the best in their students, and administrators who can get the students' parents to give a damn about their education.
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