Your Dog Won't Laugh if it Sees You Naked

Do you know if your dog sees you naked it won’t burst out laughing? I know this because I have tested it. Dogs are pretty much man’s best friend I guess. If you quit feeding a cat it will go to the neighbor’s house for food or even go and kill something but a dog will just sit there and starve.
You have most likely also heard the saw about “the more I get to know people the more I like my dog”. Dogs are supposed to have true unconditional love. Anyway I find it odd people so often are more outraged by people’s treatment of animals than of other humans. For instance, there have been several police shootings here recently, one at an Everett Restaurant and one on the Woodinville Duvall road where people were killed. In both those cases eye witnesses said the police had no reason whatsoever to kill those two men. Neither was armed. There has been almost zero public outrage.
However, if a couple State Troopers beat a couple baby seagulls to death the public goes completely nuts! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009510595_webseagulls20m.html (there is 107 comments). To the troopers credit they did say the seagulls were “being aggressive” and this is usually the same terminology they use when killing a person. They were “afraid” or the person was “walking toward them” even when unarmed, and instead of shooting them once in the leg they were compelled to shoot multiple times in the heart-lung area. I am sure these troopers felt real and unmitigated fear from those small birds.

Can you remember back to when the Marine threw the puppy off the cliff in Iraq and had a U-tube video posted of the event? http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080613/OPINION01/46575095 I would post a link but I am sure it is gone because it caused a FIRESTORM of controversy. The kid was local to the PNW, I think Monroe and even his family here was getting death threats. Jeez! But of course thousands of innocent women and children have died in Iraq and no one says much do they? Even the men fighting our troops are just trying to repel an invading force that really has no business being there. Wouldn’t you fight back if we had an occupying army in the US no matter how much you hated and despised our current administration? Of course you would, if you have any balls and you are a patriot. Now that the US army is not allowed in Baghdad without permission, the government has not asked for help or given permission one single time, the Iraqi people do not want us there at all under any circumstances, which of course is not only not surprising but makes perfect sense. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2009400213_iraq30.html

Why did I write this? Was it the incredulity I felt as I read about the latest PETA stupidity about not throwing dead fish at the Pike Street Market? No. It was this article today about a poor woman who happened to leave her two dogs in the car and they died. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2009400213_iraq30.html Reading the comments from the people, and their bitter stupid outrage, was jarring evento me, even though I am used to it, and a bit jaded. I am sure this woman loved her dogs very much and is horrified enough as it is. Leave it to the animal crazies though to kick someone when they are really down and to not really have much of a perspective about much of anything important

Yes I have a black lab Pinky(pictured), that I love very much. She made the King County “read to your dog” poster this month.

15 to 25 Year-Olds will Change the World!: Just Kidding

In the last month about fifty articles and blogs have come out addressing how kids/teens use various media and social interaction differently than adults. Apparently, the hook is that people in the 15-25 year old demographic will eventually come up and completely change the world and the way of doing things. Things like business and living, making money and paying bills right? Because isn’t that what we really care about? They will turn the social media world on its ear and everything will change to the way they currently do things..right? Isn’t that the fear that a business doesn’t have a leading edge strategy in selling to the next great new wave of consumers?
Many people have spotlighted this article by Matthew Robson, written for Morgan Stanley. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/teenage-media-habits-morgan-stanley . Basically the kid says teenagers don’t have a lot of money, they upgrade their phones every two years on their birthdays, because they have no money. They play a lot of video games and they watch TV, and they use their cell phones a lot. Does this really impact what a business strategy should be for the future? Will these fifteen-year-olds get older and out in public and have a job and change the way people do things? The answer is no.
Reading between the lines of his article the reason kids make the choices they do is that:
They have no money
They see no reason to act differently
Well that will change my deary, very quickly in fact. If you ask a 20 year old or a 25 year old right now what is their main concern, I will bet you cash it has to do with getting a cool job-score! Or making money in general. Sure they want to get laid (money), have fun and party (money), and have really cool toys (money), could be some want to actually get married and have kids (mucho money), or buy a house (extreme money).
They business world will change them in its’ due course. Like the action of a glacier it will move them. If you have been on Twitter at all, just about everyone on there is trying to network and get information, mostly to further their ideas, advance their pull, and of course make money. Yes I know all these reality shots sounds a little jaded.
Personally, I just graduated from college last year and I also work with many people in the hallowed 15-25 “solid gold” demographic (although not there myself). I remember having a conversation with a young woman working her way through school hooking. Her attitude was this: She wanted a college education to get a good job and make money. She could bust her ass 40 hours a week or hook for maybe 10 hours a week and make the same money and have more time for herself and homework.
As these young people matriculate into the work force they will not all be video game designers. One of the best “Fail” posters is a young boy sitting at a window it says: “Reality the toughest game of all”! Many will have jobs doing pretty much all the same crap we currently do, such is life. Sure, cell phones are king, everybody uses them, many of these younger kids will get Blackberries and I-phones and get on whatever social networks they think they need to, to make money and move up in the company. Some will start their own cool businesses and by far the lion’s share of those will fail.
Many of these kids are on Facebook and guess what? So is my 75 year old mother! Bottom line is this; the social media network that provides value, is easy to use, and helps people make money, will make money itself. MySpace didn’t do this, kids used the hell out of MySpace and for all intents and purposes MySpace is already dead.
My point is this, the kids will adapt to the world, the world of business, not the other way around. They will get haircuts, cover their hideous tattoos as much as possible, or get them re-done, and they will travel to social media conventions for the wishes of their company. They will start to discuss insurance and 401K plans with their friends. They will get Costco cards and yes, they will use Twitter, (or its equivalent), to try and make a buck. Once mommy and daddy quit paying the bills it is a rude awakening out in the real world, wasn’t it that way for you?

Google and the Cone of Arrogance: The New Monopoly in Town

Responsive customer service is a hard find wherever you look these days it would seem, however, I choose to discuss the software/internet/search engine business and their approach to customer service. Due to a complete lack of customer service I no longer do business with Symantec. I was a good customer for years and they made a lot of money off of me. I had bought a new laptop and did a couple re-formats on old machines and they said my suite of software could not be reloaded again. I looked for a way to communicate with them so they would have the opportunity to do right by a loyal customer. Finally, I gave up, and the thing is there are many options available, and I have tried a couple I am happy with, like Kapersky, and there is no reason to ever go back. In a competitive business like theirs this is very, very stupid because I influence others as well.
Google lately has surprised me with their approach to communicating with them; try to do so, I dare you! I had an idea to make their products better and really there is no way to even get a hold of them. One commenter (James Gecko), on a blog comment wrote I could go to a “feedback forum”, yes I suppose I could James. IMHO, telling your customers to go post on a forum is the equivalent to telling them to fuck off, because you are too busy to help them. Let’s say I was in a line at a customer help desk and I finally get up to ask a question and the clerk says “Geez can’t you ask a simple question like that to someone ELSE in line”! That is equivalent to a “help forum” as far as I am concerned.
So to start some semblance of service the customer has to have an open, very easy to find line of communication available. Alan Hogan talks about the arrogance of Google in this post http://alanhogan.com/arrogance-of-google . Sure Google has a monopoly at the moment, they have about 85% of the search engine market, and that is a monopoly in my book. Basically the customer service issue is this: just try and contact them, see if it is even possible. I wrote this post “Google are you there”?http://425talker.blogspot.com/search?q=google to voice my frustration, I couldn’t get through the “cone of arrogance”.
I started to think to myself are Microsoft and Yahoo just as elusive to contact as Google? So I decided to run a test. It would be to go to the home page and count the clicks to “feedback”, or maybe “contact us”. Simple enough right?
At Microsoft.com, “contact us” was on the home page; three clicks later are phone numbers, e-mail customer service, and mailing addresses.
At Yahoo.com “send feedback” is on the home page.
http://www.bing.com/ has “feedback” right on the home page.
http://www.ask.com/ has two clicks to get contact info.
So, really Google you are in left field as far as any customer service gestures go. It is not so much you hear but you don’t listen to customers, (to read an analysis of the difference try this post by Lisa Hoesel http://conversationalchaos.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-we-hearing-or-merely-listening-to.html ), you allow your customers no chance to be heard in the first place. I am sure your many young billionaires are quite pleased with their new found purchasing power and it is hard to be humble. Competition can come quickly though as http://www.myspace.com/ has found out.
When Bing debuted I remarked I hoped it would be a success because Google really needs some competition, to light a fire under their complacent asses. I encourage everyone to spread the love around a bit in the search engine department. If they have no customer service now, imagine what it will be like with their new Operating System!

MAIL-online attempts to demonize the Knox family

Do these people look happy to you? Me neither. However, somehow, someway the MAIL-online wants terribly to spin it that way. The headline states: "Revealed: Foxy Knoxy's sisters posing happily for 'macabre' photos at the house where Meredith Kercher died"

At first it seemed to me Amanda Knox was guilty, but as time goes on it seems more and more that she is being railroaded. The fierce preoccupation Europeans seem to have with her sex life and her partying at the University of Washington seems like something out of our own Puritanical fascination with anything sexual related.
It only seems natural these people would want to see where all this supposedly happened since there is at least a coin flip of a chance they will ever see their sister or daughter out in the light of the free day again.
This kind of slanted journalism is that much worse when you realize these Italian jurors are not sequestered, they are being bombarded with this every day in their lives. I am really wondering how Amanda Knox can expect anything like a fair trial.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199111/Revealed-Foxy-Knoxys-sisters-posing-happily-macabre-photos-house-Meredith-Kercher-died.html

Freedom: Fourth of July style

On this Fourth of July I ask you what is “freedom”? In the US we have all been brainwashed from birth and told we are so much “freer” than the rest of the poor world, we should be so grateful. What really is it, and how do you compare it? Have you ever noticed that the people who say that we have so much freedom in America and we should prize it so, are people who never travel and have no real idea what is going on in the rest of the world?

Here is a definition for a baseline from http://www.dictionary.com/ :
free⋅dom
 
Use freedom in a Sentence
–noun
1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.

2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.

3. the power to determine action without restraint.

4. political or national independence.

5. personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.

6. exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually fol. by from): freedom from fear.

7. the absence of or release from ties, obligations, etc.

8. ease or facility of movement or action: to enjoy the freedom of living in the country.

9. frankness of manner or speech.

10. general exemption or immunity: freedom from taxation.

11. the absence of ceremony or reserve.

12. a liberty taken.

13. a particular immunity or privilege enjoyed, as by a city or corporation: freedom to levy taxes.

14. civil liberty, as opposed to subjection to an arbitrary or despotic government.

15. the right to enjoy all the privileges or special rights of citizenship, membership, etc., in a community or the like.

16. the right to frequent, enjoy, or use at will: to have the freedom of a friend's library.

17. Philosophy. the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination. Compare necessity (def. 7).

What about number 1? We have more people in prison in the US than any other country in the world, by far! Currently we have over 2 MILLION people locked up, many for minor offences like drugs, and by far and away most of them are people of color does that sound like a free state to you?

How about 2? Have you simply tried to drive to work up 405 or I5 and seen the cops sitting on the side of the road ready to pull people over if they drive slightly too fast, or are in the wrong lane, or have a light out, or talk on the cell phone, or don’t have their seat belt on? If you have ever been outside the US you know you will not see this kind of harassment anywhere else in world, it is bizarre what we put up with every day.

What about 3? Try and build an addition to your house without jumping through a myriad of rules determined by minor potentiates. Try and shoot off fireworks =on the wrong day to celebrate your “freedom”, try and go fishing or hunting without and folder full of licenses and certificates and vouchers for the multitude of fees.

4. Political or national independence. Do you think we are independent of other countries when we own China so much money right now we could never pay it back?

5. Do we have personal liberty?

6. I like the example “freedom from fear”, America is riddled with fear. Our news outlets don’t really even report actual news anymore so much as they hype fear. Going through the security checkpoints at LA airport recently about 17 TSA people performed a “security drill” everyone running around screaming BRAVO BRAVO!! There were only five of us beaten down tired travelers trying to go about our business. Do these displays make me feel safe? No. They waste my time and make me realize we have really lost something in America that used to be called balls. See number 8 here as well, “freedom of movement”? HA!

9. Might be OK if no one hears you and you aren’t a teacher or etc. etc. More and more people have jumped on that politically correct zombie speech thing. These people are comical as they try and stumble through life trying to keep up on all of our societies’ “community thought” on what is correct 0or, ok, or won’t ever offend anyone at any time even if it is true.

10. Freedom from taxation… and fees and B&O taxes and car fees and “sin taxes” and GAWD DAMN IT! We are taxed silly to keep all those police on the street and the largest army in the world with standing troops in every country I can think of, and more people in prison than anywhere else (some being tortured with no charges against them). It costs a fortune to keep up all these laws and rules and regulations over every tiny detail of our lives, a police state is very expensive.

14. I don’t think there is anyone alive that doesn’t feel our civil liberties haven’t taken a huge hit under Bush and Cheney. I have been disappointed so far in Obama’s action to turn back the clock to where we were before. Suffice it to say that there was a time when America’s civil liberties were the envy of the world. That time has been very limited. The civil rights act was what 1964? Until that late date people of color might have different rest rooms or be told to ride in the back of the bus. You see the freedoms that people in America take for granted have never been for EVERYONE just the privileged few. Our justice system for instance is for the rich.

15. The freedom to enjoy all the rights of the community? Really like what our justice system that is tilted to the rich so far it no longer even functions or our wonderful health care system that millions and millions of full time working people can not afford?

Yes I know the standard response in our free country. If you are not giddy in love with it the way it is, and the way it is transforming, then leave! If you do not buy into the brainwashed official line then leave.

I once talked to a guy from Laos who made the comment “you Americans think you are so terribly free but you are not”, and shook his head. He had lived around the world. I asked him to name a country that was “freeer” for the common working man than the US and he said Thailand.

Consider this: I know many, many people working here now that were not born here. Almost to a person they have no intention of staying here. They are here to make money. When they retire they are going back home to Canada, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and others. They are not here for more freedom and they are not impressed with our freedom at all. They think we are ruled and regulated and micromanaged and taxed to death.

Make sure today you buy your fireworks from the right stand today and check the regulations on your local city, county and state to make sure you will not be arrested by the police or ATF or labeled a terrorist and put on a do not fly list. Check your noise regulations. Make sure someone of the proper age and wearing the correct safety gear is lighting the fireworks. Make sure you hang your flag properly (there are tons of rules about the flag).