Once in a while I get stuck on my own questions. The thing behind the header is one such item.
Others follow.
- I have a difficult time understanding how Yale University (a prestigious and expensive school here in the U.S.) could give a degree to a student who can barely make coherent sentences when he speaks. Does Yale care that they have lost their prestige with many of the American public?
- When did MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) lose its way? They were started by a lady who was grieving for her lost daughter, killed by a drunken driver. The idea was to force law enforcement officers and judges (more on that in another post) throughout the country to enforce the laws against drunk driving. It has degenerated into an organization that wants every single vehicle (we have more cars than people here) to have an ignition interlock installed and working. With a no start feature if it detects that glass of wine you had with dinner two hours ago. They want cars impounded of those who get a ticket (for the first or fortieth offense) and sold at auction. And driver's licenses cancelled if you're arrested. Not convicted, just arrested. Mad's actions have become so Zero Tolerance centered that the lady who started and was president of the organization has resigned. My question is "wha' happened"?
- American television has become an advertising first, entertainment and education second, medium. In spite of a Federal Communications Commission no-no note, shows now consist of at least 35% advertising. That's over 12 minutes of being harangued in a 30 minute show, 23 minutes in an hour, untold number of minutes in a sporting event. Some "networks" run print ads over the show they are telecasting so you can be entertained by a full hour of ads. It is very distracting. I've timed some of the ads run during various shows and I guess it depends on how much time their sales people can peddle on a given show. If a citizen complains they love to point out that advertising pays for the "free" television they watch. One network president even said that mute buttons should be removed from TVs. His reasoning indicated that we would be stealing the shows if we didn't watch the commercials. I don't watch the pointless and inane "comedy" shows nor the cruel "sports" shows nor do I watch the thousand and one "infomercials" they display. Question: Isn't it time the FCC started enforcing their own guidelines?
- When did the U.S. decide it was ok to buy food from foreign countries? When we produce more food than we can consume, sell to the rest of the world and even pay farmers not to grow food it seems this action is an oxymoron. And food from certain unnamed (by me) foreign countries who are not known to practice American style hygeine. Don't say it's cheaper. One trip to the hospital from a disease or infection would pay for several years of various food stuffs. Question: When do we wake up and say something like "OK, buy caviar and some wines and exotic items, but do not buy the basics? We were avoiding many diseases until you started to buy from third world countries."
- Why do some bloggers have 6, 8, 10 or even more websites? I can understand two, mebbe three, but larger numbers? (cuckoo has three, one in Hindi, two in English, a couple of others have two). Where do they get the time? Do they ever go to the dinner table? The bathroom? The mailbox? What happens when they have to stop and clean all the garbage out of their browsers? When do they bath? Open a beer? Read the paper? Surf the web?
- When did America decide to ok slavery again? I'm talking about wages and conditions here. There will be a post about it in the future.
- When did the Federal Bureau of Investigation (filled with CPAs and Attorneys) decide an entertainer, in fact a stage magician, was violating a federal law when he was accused by some woman of raping her? Mebbe I am in Kansas? Or Oz?
- When did we decide it was ok to break the law and suffer no consequences? When did the Bar Association decide that the end justify the means?
I'm looking for some smart answers here. So I'm asking the smartest people I know.
