"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

i bought a table, did you?
August 25, 2006 - 6:34 pm

sometimes, i'm a bad consumer.

and now for a bit of social commentary.. forgive me if mix up details, i'm going from my mind.. with no sources to reference.

cbs was planning to show a season (at least the start of one) of survivor with the teams based on race. you know.. white, black, asian, hispanic...

it seems this is totally unacceptable to some folks -- and my question is why?

the answer, it seems, is it's discriminatory.. it's wrong.. it's about hate.

my reply is then.. why is (was) it ok to do teams of men and women? not only that.. but men and women broken out by age?

to these same folks it's ok to discriminate by gender and age? race is somehow special? sounds to me like some folks are just a tad too invested in the idea entitlement and oppression for their own good.

isn't the "goal" to be treated as an equal? what could be more equal than getting your own team on survivor? perhaps i'm the only one that makes sense too.. i'm ok with that.

in other other news.. but still some social commentary. nothing's more american than the notion of "innocent until proven guilty". of course, being american, we don't let that annoying word "prove" really slow us down in judging guilt.

to what do i refer? why the linger case of jonbenet. a story i thought i'd be lucky enough never to hear again, but my luck has long since run out. during the case a great many folks were _positive_ one (or both) of the parents killed her. people were confused why charges weren't filed. in a great many people's mind, the whole idea of a court case was pointless.. it was clear the parents did it.

now, out of the blue, is this kaar fellow. the media cries "the real killer has been found!" and a whole buncha people said "oh shit, i was wrong..."

how do make up for that kind of wrong? the mom is long since dead.. i've no idea where the dad is.. but just think of all the shit they endured being accused and judged by the country (world?) in this case? try to imagine so many people thinking you killed your own child -- go ahead, try.

how do you do deal with that?

what neighborhood do you think the ramesy's felt anywhere near welcome in?

how do you think they felt going to buy food with all the looks and whispers?

i can't imagine it. i can try, but really, i can't. now comes along this kaar fellow and he confesses. he says he did it. people are itching to test this and that -- dna and his story. he's convicted in the mind anyone who reads one article, well, nearly every mind. afterall, he said he did it. why would he lie?

did he? i've no idea.. i do know the last thing i saw said the dna they tested didn't match.

what's my point? american society is about lipservice. we like to say we are for this or that.. but really, we arn't.

we want lower taxes, but we want the government to pay for healthcare and a whole lot more. we say we are for freedom and democracy, but we can't be bothered to vote (sure bush got like 50.7% of those who voted, but go google just what percent of folks who could vote did.. and it something like bush getting 25% of the possible total vote -- that's scary). we love to say innocent until proven guilty, but waiting for proof is so damn inconvenient -- especially when that proof gets in the way of my preconceived notions.