The Dumbest Conversation Heard On Radio - Kansas City 96.5 "The Buzz"

This morning I've heard what I think is the dumbest conversation on the Radio. I was changing stations, searching for some morning talk show and that's how I got to "The Buzz" on Kansas City 96.5 FM - I am not sure what the name of the station is.
I listened for only about 10 minutes - the last 8, purely out of astonishment how idiotic the conversation was and how ignorant the participants were acting.
Immediately, just from the jargon use, you can tell that the show is geared towards young audience, but I wonder why the producers automatically assume that young and cool equals dumb.
For some unknown reason, at some point one of the hosts (apparently the only one not on drugs at the moment) started a foreign news discussions about the presidential elections in Iran. After a brief debate whether Iran has "like a" king, a prime minister, or a woman [for a head of state] the one host who did not sound drugged or lobotomized announced that Ahmadinejad is a "very bad man", which was unanimously accepted by the rest and the hosts gladly moved on to less knowledge and attention intensive topics.
Once they got out of the deep foreign news waters the conversation was lively. The topic was some news about a major social networking website. The hosts competed to show off their savvy-ness with the "technology". Turns out, on "The Buzz", the ability to put together an intelligible sentence is less important than having online social networking "skills" to brag with. Another proof that online social networking is evil and an excellent tool for idiotizing young people.
The last thing I've heard was a discussion of a report about a local woman, who asked the city to limit the number of days for shooting fireworks. The apparently sober host led a contest for coming up with insults for that woman.
When I finally changed the channel, they were still competing to come up with ever more clever insults, which were dull at best - the toppers were "she has no friends" and "she probably lives with her 9 cats". Not surprising lack of originality, considering the hosts' heavy use of online social networking. It's like a f***ing kindergarten - once something is said it gets repeated by all the brainwashed zombies until the sun explodes. Makes you wanna scream.
So there you have it - dumb is cool on "The Buzz", 96.5FM, Kansas City, where being a moron is perfectly fine, as long as you say a lot of "uhm"-s, "like"-s, and "whatever"-s, have a social networking website account, and are willing to plug that into any conversation.
This is officially the dumbest conversation I've ever heard on radio.
Congratulations!

GOP's Re-branding (of DNC)?!

Google Search: "rnc to re-brand democrats"

So, the republicans' plan to win the public support again is not to actually try to get better, or be constructive, but to call democrats names like "socialists".
How idiotoc that "plan" is?! It sounds like it comes from a script for a bad high school rivalry movie.

Is that the result of combined hundreds of yeas of expensive education and unlimited access to wealth?! Calling names?! Really?!

This would have been hilarious if it was not so disgusting.

Is that the GOP way of making the country better?! By slander?! How honorable[sarcasm]!

Where are the decent, honest, and bright people in GOP? What kind of twisted moral degenerates are running the party?!!!

Enforcing the Law by Breaking the Law?!

The story is that this guy led the Birmingham, AL police (and few other depts.) on a chase, endangering the lives of many people in a wide area. No doubt the police did their job and chased the criminal until they caught him. So far so good - he is a dangerous criminal and must be stopped. That's why we have police force, gladly pay for it, and proudly support it.

The second part of this story, which can't seem to find common sense reception in people's minds is that when finally the police ran the criminal off the road and he was thrown out of his van and laying motionless and obviously unconscious on the ground, all present officers started beating the unconscious body for about 10 seconds.
Now, I'll admit that I felt some primal satisfaction that the criminal got to suffer a violent apprehension and if he died while being thrown out of the van or got shot by an officer trying to stop him, I'd probably say that he deserved it, but I also think that beating him while unconscious would have been more appropriate if not the police but a lawless street gang was chasing and caught him.

But what I think does not matter here. What matters is what the Law says. In different commentaries of this story a lot of people are angry with the Birmingham, AL police chief for firing the officers who took part in the beating. I understand the anger, after all those police officers risked their lives and one almost got killed during the chase. What no one of those folks is saying is how exactly the police chief should handle something like this - he is in charge of enforcing the Law and those officers broke the Law. At least for now righteous anger does not legally justify breaking the Law by anyone, let alone by a Law enforcement officer.

For those who are angry about the fired officers - they were not fired for being mean to the criminal, they were fired for breaking the Law. Why is this so difficult to understand for so many people?! The only conclusion I came to is this one:

the years of intentional politicising of the public opinion make a lot of people see the situation as cops being unjustly fired for beating a black criminal, who is being helped by slick lawyers and out of control human rights activists.

Some people say things like "in other countries" the cops would have shot him dead right away. I agree. Also, in other countries, where there is no Law and professional police training to get in the way of rightfull anger, the cops could have decapitate him on the spot, impale his body, rape his wife, kill the rest of his family and burn his house to the ground, if they felt like it...

Thank God The United States of America is NOT one of those countries.

The Importance Of Diversity

Story: Gallup Poll: Diversity not a priority for Supreme Court - Los Angeles Times

Perhaps is time to revisit the meaning of diversity in public life and in the society at large. It's unfeasible, and counter-productive to continue approaching this issue as goal to achieve mandatory quota or a balanced mix of race and ethnicity.
Let's stick with the original goal of giving everyone equal access to public office, regardless of sex, race, and origin. Regardless should mean making those classifications irrelevant, not mandating that all groups are represented. This not only does not help but it becomes a serious obstacle for building a truly inclusive and tolerant society.
If the goal is to eliminate gender and ethnicity as qualifiers for eligibility (it does not matter for what), we should focus on the qualifications, and fitness of the candidates for the position, not if they are the "right" gender or ethnicity. That's discriminatory by definition.

It's Only Common Sense

It's official - Dick Cheney has more respect and admiration for Rush Limbaugh than for Colin Powell. This weekend on CBS he stated that if he had to pick between Colin Powell and Limbaugh, he'd choose Rush.

Like an addict in denial, the Republican party has been struggling to identify the reasons why people are growing increasingly hesitant to side with them on elections. They have been tirelessly working on the "new face" and the "new message" of the party, and still can't quite understand how to make the conservative agenda more appealing to moderate voters.


Walt Handelsman, copyright 2009 Tribune Media Services



Here are a few hints, coming from a non-partisan perspective:

1. Don't publicly insult a decorated general of the United States Arm Forces, by putting him second to an out-of-control drug addicted shock-jock, who makes living by deliberately antagonizing the public.
2. If you are trying to reach moderate voters, tone down (best - get rid of) the radicalism.
3. Try being constructive and positive. Talk is cheap - any fool can sit on the sidelines and yell insults. People follow leaders who roll up sleeves to build something of value instead of endlessly complaining.

To paraphrase the former vice-president: If I'd have to choose a leader I'd have to go with Sanity and Moderation.

Tony Auth, copyright 2009 Universal Press Syndicate

Comercial-Free?!?

Using advertisement for advertisement-free online video to adverise.

Just like ... s**t-free poop of a crap. It's not waste - it's bi-product, and "bi" means we are getting double the value and that's good, right?

My $0.02: Please, just advertise. Stop trying to trick us - we live in the same world and we know what you are up to. If you are going to annoy us, please have the courtesy not to try to make it sound like it's for our benefit. Just show your banners and promos as usual. Don't try to sneak up on us, trying to catch us off-guard. That only works once. With TV there was not much choice - you see an annoying ad popping up in unusual spot - you flip around the channels and if there is nothing else better than what you were watching you eventually come back to it.

Internet offers a lot more choices. Like for example now - I see this clever turd (see the picture) pushed at me while watching something online, and I leave immediately to blog about what I think of it. While I do that, I carefully make sure to hide all the brands, I personally make point not to watch at the advertised time, and I also tell everyone I know not to do it. Unlike with TV - you can't count on me to come back for lack of better things to do online - there is always something else interesting on the Internet. Always! And with the short attention span, well cultivated by years of watching TV, cluttered with obtrysive adverisement, chances are I won't even think for going back at least for couple of days. Or ever.

Now, what was it you were selling?

Extra Delivery Charges

Last night, we ordered a pizza. When the pizza got delivered, the Domino's delivery guy unilaterally decided to increase the price because he "drove 10 miles to get here" and he will be "loosing money" if he does not charge extra for the delivery. This came totally unexpected. Usually we pay whatever the price is and give tip on top of that. Keep in mind that there is an explicit delivery charge over the price of the order, which is charged at the time of ordering and the delivery guy's "charge" came on top of that and before of course his tip...
The fact that it was Domino's is irrelevant in this situation, although they could benefit from not annoying their customers so soon after the bad publicity they got just few days ago.
I understand the delivery guy's desire to make more money but the way he chose to do that I find absolutely inappropriate not to mention that this guy had caused Domino's to loose us as customers. We wanted to give them a break, after the YouTube video with Domino's employees grossly mishandling food came out, but we draw the line above paying phony charges.
So, next time you order a pizza, make sure you ask about any additional charges that might be imposed by the delivery person. It will save you few dollars but most impotantly, the annoying feeling that you are being taken.

The meaning of "Car Culture"

"... there are many auto-industry executives who maintain that the [electric cars] hype has gotten well ahead of reality. There is no infrastructure, in the form of battery-charging stations, to support pure electric models ..." (times.com)

The skeptical opinions towards the market's readiness for electric cars (and new technology in general) all have a major problem: they all assume that driving patterns and people's needs will stay the same as they have been for the last 50-60 years. While nobody can also predict the opposite, the past suggests some conclusions about people’s attitudes towards new technologies.

Let's think about the meaning of the term "Car Culture". During the last 100 or so years, people have created a lifestyle around the availability of a new technology (cars). When the internal combustion powered cars were still a novelty, only the geeks, eccentrics, and adventurers were excited about them. The traditional view was that they are dirty, noisy, dangerous, and with limited application. And they had a point - back then life was different. For a while horse-drawn buggies and cars shared the roads until people decided they prefer noisy, dirty, and dangerous cars than a horse which was considered mainstream and most suitable for the existing lifestyle. Putting everybody in cars probably seemed pretty far-fetched.

Now, just like then, we have a brand new technology available, which is somewhat of a novelty and does not quite fit our traditional lifestyle. Today's skeptics, just like the ones 100 or so years ago just can't imagine that lifestyles and consumer culture change faster than expected. Newspapers are going away, smoking is not popular anymore, online social networking was not even invented few years ago and now people are making expensive business decisions and planning their careers based on its specifics.

The only concern car makers should have is building and selling a product with what's available today at a reasonable price. Let the market decide if they like it and how to use it.

And enough with the charging stations nonsense argument - electricity is available everywhere. The same goes for "experts" saying that the grid won't handle the load. The only expertise that goes into a statement like that is in short sight. How did the grid successfully adjust to handle the inventions of the electric dryers, freezers, and air-conditioners, and why is charging a battery any bigger challenge than that?

Sore Losers

Are there some lines between pathetic, and dishonest? How far is too far?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sore_loser

http://www.drkutner.com/parenting/articles/sore_loser.html

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sore_loser

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sore+loser

http://www.pyzam.com/funnypictures/details/8393?cat=sports

Killers With Cell Phones

You can see them everywhere - truck drivers, holding a cellphone to their ear, with the other hand on the steering wheel. There is all kinds of talk on the news and in private conversations about dangerous teenagers, talking and texting behind the wheel, but you don't hear so much about semi truck drivers doing the same.
Several states are trying to solve this by imposing fines on drivers caught using a handheld phone, but that must be hard to achieve when the trucks are zooming at 70+ mph on the interstate.

Over a century old idea promises bright future

video
Story: Fox News: California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space
Click on the story to show/hide the source

Take:
Why does it have to take over 100 years for the humanity to take advantage of good ideas?

PBS: Tesla - Master of Lighting
More than 100 years ago, the Croatian-born American inventor Nikola Tesla demonstrated transmitting electrical energy over a distance.

In 1900 "Of the 4,192 cars produced in the United States 28 percent are powered by electricity, and electric autos represent about one-third of all cars found on the roads of New York City, Boston, and Chicago."(PBS Timeline: History of Electric Car)

What other good ideas are still laying around not used to their full potential for whatever reason?

The Impact of Social Networking

Story: TG DAily: "Facebook dumbs you down"
Click on the story to show/hide the source

Take:
This new social phenomenon is impacting the most impressionable part of the society in a less than positive way. While hijacking the good name of technology and limiting our kids' imagination and desire for knowledge, it provides the perfect anonymity for predators, who otherwise would have not had the guts to approach a child. Further more, by empowering pointless narcissistic drivel, those websites encourage a culture of false popularity, achieved by often disclosing private information, bullying, or publishing materials that can easily ruin someones life and career.
Sales professionals have embraced this phenomenon as a platform to influence markets. HR managers are looking for qualities like "fluent in Myspace". Good move - while Asians and Europeans are encouraging interest in engineering and science, we are boning up on MySpace and Twitter "skills". There is no way they become more advanced than us, right? (sarcasm).
Some companies are even conducting research and building marketing strategies, spending real money, based on questionable deductions from what a bunch of adolescents clicked on while bored out of their minds. I hope those sales folks build a loyal customer base because in few years, when those kids grow up and get low paying fast food jobs, due to lack of real skills, knowledge, and drive, they will have very limited disposable income to buy foreign-made cars, electronics, and everything else for living, which we'll have to import because there is not enough qualified work force to produce it at home. Then, it will take a lot of selling to low-income buyers to keep that sales job safe.