The Metric System

The Metric System

The metric system has never really been fully implemented in the United States. 
That was never Congress' intention when they enacted that law.  The whole idea of introducing a "new" measurement system was conceived and designed to confuse the American consumers.  They never intended to adopt the metric system, they intended to rip off the general public, in the name of "conforming to the rest of the world."  If we were so magnanimous and flexible, why is the rest of the world STILL manufacturing products for the United States market, using our "old" standards of weights and measures?  Why is gasoline still sold by the gallon?  Ounces of whatever we choose to consume are clearly marked on our product labels.  The metric conversion is a humongous boondoggle, foisted on an unwilling public by "public servants" who do nothing if they cannot be first in the service line. We, the people should demand an end to the confusion and theft of our money and our freedom to choose. 

If it works, DON'T FIX IT.

From the title of this post you probably get the gist of this post.  I feel compelled to write it anyway.

I have noticed in my dealings with various websites around the Internet, that often, as a matter of fact, more often than not, the web developers and managers decide that something isn't working, or doesn't work as well as it should.  Unilaterally.  Often, it has been the tried-and-true, FUNCTIONAL programs we all seem to like and rely on.  Facebook.  MySpace.  ReverbNation.  Music Xray.  Even our browsers...Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape Navigator (remember that one?!?) 

Why?  Progress. 

Sometimes, the newly improved programs or sites are, indeed, new and improved.  Oftentimes they are not.  I have recently (10 minutes ago as I write this) had the displeasure of being told by the website, and I'll name names, Music Xray, that my browser was out-of-date and would not work with their website.  They provided a link to a choice of four different browsers, all of them free, all of them with their own little quirks (my opinion, my blog).  Internet Explorer was provided as one of the links.  I like Internet Explorer.  I clicked the link.  I was taken to a Microsoft site, and within ten seconds, a message came across my screen that told me that I was running IE8 and Windows XP Pro.  The message continued with the assurance that my browser was the most up-to-date browser available for XP.  With that information, I returned to the Music Xray website and again attempted to log in, this time with the knowledge that my browser was indeed, up-to-date.  Same result.

Now, I am not a neophyte with these computer things...I studied programming in college.  One of the things, one of the cardinal rules of programming that I was taught was this:  People will have different operating systems.  Make it work, no matter what system they run.

With that in mind, I attempted to contact Music Xray's tech people, through their "contact us" link.  It allowed me to enter my entire complaint.  Now I'm getting somewhere, right?  Wrong.  As soon as I hit the "Send" button, it took me to another site where a few "problems" with their website were listed, along with a "Does this help you or do you still need to send your complaint" link.  Well, someone else had had exactly the same issue as I.  So, I clicked on that, and it took me to another page.  I kinda think it was done to make things easier for them, but it definitely did NOT make things easier for me.  After I read the response, (and the heated exchange ensued, back and forth)  I decided that no, it did not help, and I attempted to return to the previous page.  It had been closed, somehow, and even hitting the "back" button on my browser would not take me there. 

They're not gonna treat me like that, are they?  So, I went through the process again, this time, it only took about 5 minutes to get back to the complaint page.  I typed in my complaint again.  This time, when they tried to send me to the "Does this help..." page, I said no, it hadn't helped and tried to send my complaint.  I don't know where it went.  I don't care anymore.  If they are going to treat me with my UP-TO-DATE  system as a step-child because I won't "Upgrade" to Google Chrome (apparently, there is some control  game going on here...uh-oh...this is a Google blog...we'll see if that matters....) then they don't want my business.  And I am a PAYING customer on Music Xray. Maybe my ten dollars isn't significant to them.  I wish I could say that about ten dollars.  But it will be a long time before I decide ten dollars is chump change.  I can't be certain how much I've spent on their site, but each time I submitted a song to one of their "opportunities", I paid.  At least until I could no longer access the site.  I guess this is the new reality...the customer isn't always right.  Welcome to the 21st Century.

The Global Wolf Pack

When did it happen?  It wasn't an overnight thing.  It happened gradually, one or
two of us at a time.  Then the movement picked up momentum.  Suddenly, here we
are.  A pack of blood-thirsty people-wolves, anxious to tear the flesh from our own
friends and families.  Anyone with a perceived weakness is fair game.  If you get
caught parking your car in the wrong spot.  If you get caught taking an "extra"
dessert.  Whatever the "crime" of the moment is, the pack mentality will take you
down. 

It has now morphed into more serious, real crimes being treated with equality to
the perceived aberrations.  As I write this, there is a scandal on the television news
concerning at least eleven members of our Secret Service, the supposedly elite
law-enforcement and presidential protection group.  Seems they got caught literally
with their pants down.  Human reproduction is a natural thing.  Without it, the human
race would disappear.  But now, the act itself, if performed outside of ever-changing,
undefined, make-it-up-as-we-go circumstances, has been criminalized.  Anytime the
pack, led by the media wolves, senses the blood of an offending, often innocent party,
it attacks in a relentless, unflagging ripping and tearing of the emotional flesh.  It is
not a question of guilt or innocence.  It is a "get them, they did something wrong to
someone" type of attack.

Everyone and every deed is suspect.  You have no idea when the pack will turn on
you, sensing an illegal or immoral act on your part, even when none has transpired.
We are all human.  By definition, we are not perfect.  But the pack mentality demands
perfection.  Hence, we are all fair game.  Just let one of the television personalities
mention your name as a perpetrator of the currently despicable offense, and watch the
pack turn on you.  Whether or not you committed a crime is immaterial to the pack. 
Their sole goal is to rid the pack, or the planet of your kind.  They will resort to
anything to achieve that goal, often becoming perpetrators and victims themselves. 

Where am I going with this?  Here.  The Bible, generally accepted as the "good" book.
says, in regards to the crowd gathering around a woman of questionable character,
(here is where you insert the various and sundry offenses listed in the paragraphs above)

New International Version (©1984)  John 8:7  When they kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to
throw a stone at her."

Okay, there it is in black and white.  From over 2000 years ago.  In God's Word.  And not
an isolated, uncorroborated quote.  There are cross-references:

Also from the Bible, New International Version (©1984)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew 7:1  Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romans 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else,
for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you
who pass judgment do the same things.


I don't think I can say it any clearer than that, so I'll close for now.

The Age of Non Responsibility

When I started this post, I was really angry.  Some idiot on the TV news
had just enunciated, "It wasn't my fault..." and proceeded to lay blame on
some huge, deep-pocketed corporation.  And the people around him were
buying his "mea non culpa".


              The Age of Non Responsibility

We have finally reached it.  A new age.  We started with the Ice Age, or
the Pleistocene Age, or whatever science wants to call the times that
came before us.  Then, there were the Gay Nineties, (1890's) the
Roaring Twenties, (1920's) the Swinging Sixties, (1960's), the whatever
'80's and now, into the new Millenium. I am finally willing to admit it. 
Which makes me a non-participant, I think.  We have entered the new
age, the Age of Non-Responsibility.

What? you say...what do I mean?  We have entered an age where the
prevailing mindset is, "it's not MY fault."  No matter what the facts, no
matter where the smoking gun, no matter what proof to the contrary,
we as a herd (we do tend to react with the herd mentality) are not to
blame for the results of our individual actions.  You abuse your children,
it's not your fault, it's how you were raised. Blame your parents. You get
caught with a gun, it's not your fault.  You needed protection from the
bullies, so put them in jail.  You have an accident on the freeway, and run
into the back of someone else's car.  It's not your fault, the brakes on the
car didn't work, so blame the manufacturer.

When when when are we going to say enough?!?  The kids are your
responsibility.  I don't care if your dad beat you black and blue, you
didn't like it, did you?  Then WHY would you do it to YOUR kids??
Stand up, say, "Your honor, it's my fault, I did it."  Your dad may not
have paid his dues while here on this earth, but in the afterlife, he has
to answer to his maker for his transgressions.  And, even if you don't
believe in an afterlife, you still have to answer to your KIDS for how
you've treated them.  Hopefully, you're gonna be old someday.  You
wanna do THAT alone?

Okay, you bought the gun.  There are laws, licensing, and ways to get
the bullies off your back.  You don't have to shoot them.  Sure, they are
assholes, but that doesn't make it okay to shoot them.

So you were on the 210 and someone stopped short in front of you. 
First, why in hell were you following so close?  You ever hear of the
"one car length for each ten miles per hour" rule?  Oh, that's right,
the rules are for everyone else.  And now that you hit her, and totaled
her car, it's not your fault because the brakes on your car were faulty,
and the manufacturer is to blame?  Give me a break.  If you bought the
car, you tried it out, and the brakes worked fine for the past three years.
Now that you've wrecked her car, your car and who-knows-what else,
you need to blame someone else, so the manufacturer gave you bad
brakes?  Come on.

They have a saying in prison. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the
time."  It means, in case you need translation, if you cannot live with
the consequences of YOUR actions, then DON'T do what you are
contemplating doing.  I think the translation is not even as clear as
the saying.  But don't blame me.  It's my computer's fault.  Sue IBM.

Litterbugs and the Law

Since when has it become legal for our public servants, namely the police and EMTs from the fire department, to break the anti-littering ordinance?  I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and it is almost a daily occurrence (in my life...) to find strewn along the highways and city streets, disposable plastic gloves...you know, the kind the doctor uses to examine you. (If you don't believe me, I have photographic proof. Send me an email, and I'll send you several photographs.) They are usually at the scene of an arrest or a traffic accident, and usually, in pairs.  Some are white or off-white, but most of them these days are purple or turquoise. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work our police do.  They encounter all kinds of people, and need the protection of these gloves to keep from becoming victims of the potentially diseased interrogants.  AIDS is still incurable, and very deadly.  But littering is still against the law...and these folks are sworn to uphold that law. 
Would it be too difficult to put a trash bag in the trunk of the patrol car, and when finished with the gloves, simply put them in the bag? Rules are rules, and these public servants cannot legitimately enforce a law which they themselves break regularly.  If they are not guilty, then none of us are.  Let's clean up our act.

Chemical Independence

                                  Chemical Independence
       Isn't it wonderful, what science has done for us?
They have come up with chemicals to cover up the unpleasant
odors of everyday living.  Isn't that wonderful?!?
       On first impression, yes...very.  But, upon further examination,
we need to NOT use those chemicals.  Here's my reasoning why:

1.  The chemicals mask good odors.  We never use our sense
 of smell to detect possible pleasantness.

2.  The chemicals mask bad odors.  We learn to not use our
 sense of smell to detect unpleasantness.

3.  The chemicals mask potentially dangerous or fatal odors.  Again,
 we learn to not smell danger.

      In this ever-changing world, danger looms at every corner. 
One of the ways we, and all of our fellow animal occupants of planet
Earth, have managed to survive and even thrive is by using our senses
to detect and protect.  We detect danger when we smell smoke, or
foul odors, even putrid food. 
     When we smell smoke, we look for the source, almost invariably,
a fire. Fire is a natural enemy. 
      Another natural enemy is the bacterium, so small that it evades
our eyesight.  When these bacteria invade a food source, spoilage
occurs.  Food that is spoiled is unpleasant to smell. We don't like
this smell, and that is an inbred, natural instinct.  It is self-preservation
at work. If we do not smell this odor, we assume the food is safe to
eat...not always the case.  Especially if the food has been treated with
a masking chemical.  It's kinda like a sneaky lie.
      Natural gas.  Yes, natural gas is an enemy.  In its purest form,
it HAS no odor.  They (yeah, scientists) solved that problem by
coloring the natural gas with an unpleasant, distinct odor.  We have
learned to detect natural gas by that odor.  But with those chemicals,
covering an unpleasant odor of natural gas is a snap. I don't know
of anyone dying from natural gas that has had the odor masked, but
it can and will happen.
     Predators.  Yes, predators.  Not the kind that prey on little
children or women...the kind that will eat you. We are animals.
Animals eat other animals.  Other animals eat us.  Sometimes, they
are big, like tigers or alligators.  Sometimes, they are small, like
rats or roaches, even bacteria.  It makes no difference.  We are all
going to be eaten.  Predators all have distinct odors.  The native
Americans were able to smell the buffalo or other animals they
were hunting.  They were able to feed themselves because of
their sense of smell.  We have trained ourselves to not smell.
     We have progressed so far that we shall soon see
extinction if we continue to undo nature's safeguards.  We need
to learn to use them as they were intended, not disable them.

The Biggest Losers

I feel cheated. 
I have been watching television for the past fifty years. 
During that time, I have been led to believe that when I got to the age
I am today, there would be shows I would enjoy watching, much as
the shows my father and mother enjoyed when I went to bed as a child.
Shows like "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza", or "Perry Mason".  Now here I
am, fifty years later, and the great television "wasteland"  has indeed become
just that...a wasteland. Or to use a painfully obvious pun, waist-land. It seems
that America has evolved as a nation.  Where we were once sveldt, slim folks,
with an occasional fatty with a hormonal disease, now we are gross, fat slobs. 
We eat until we cannot eat any more, and then go for dessert.  After we have
gorged ourselves into grotesque caricatures of our former selves, we spurn
pitying looks and insist that we are entitled to even larger presences; we are
so fat as a nation, that there is an over-abundance of potential contestants for
a television show...no, a television series about fat people losing weight.  With
such a clever title, how could we possibly resist watching, right?  WRONG. 
I am the Biggest Loser.
You are the Biggest Loser. 
We all have lost the entertainment value of television, as it makes bigger and
bigger stars of people who didn't have the self respect and common sense to
control their diets in the first place.  These people are not stars.  They are
(pardon this pun) really losers. They ate and ate, and when they had done so
much damage to themselves that their lives were seriously in danger, they
found that our society would actually cheer them on for doing something they
should have done for themselves anyway. 

And throw money and fame at them.