Depp Insult

I just heard that Johnny Depp said, “regardless of what [The Rum Diary] makes in, you know, Wichita, Kansas, this week — which is probably about $13 — it doesn’t make any difference. … a lot of times, outside the big cities in the States, they don’t want that.”  I find this outrageous.  Wichita isn’t just about making planes (even though it is called The Air Capital of the World).  And I bet it has more culture than most people outside of the state realize.  I don’t even go to Wichita all that much and I thought about Wichita Grand Opera and the Tallgrass Film Fest right away, and shortly after that I thought of River Fest.  For Depp to imply that the people of Wichita, Kansas are ignorant hicks who can’t appreciate an ‘intelligent film’ is just completely unfounded, and he obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

An ignorant comment about ignorance?

Potentially Offensive

Manly diet drink
That’s 10 calories;
Almost offensive.

manly women

There’s this ad that starts out looking like it’s an ad for an adventure movie, and then the guy in it turns to the crowd and says something like, ‘ladies, are you enjoying this?  Of course you’re not’.  And I can’t help but think, ‘are you serious?  Of course, there are some women who would be interested; but now that you’ve said that, they might not be.’  I mean, I know they’re trying to sell a diet drink to men, but that doesn’t mean that they have to be potentially offensive to that subsection of women.

Potpourri and Bath Salts

I keep hearing about people
Who smoke (or snort, I think)
Potpourri and bath salts.

What are they thinking?
I want to know.
Especially of those labeled
“Not for human consumption”.
And the manufactures can’t leave that out
Or they would surely be sued
(If they haven’t been already).

People are now pushing to
Make these things totally illegal.
(Like that’s going to stop people
From doing things that are completely stupid).

Maybe making ingestion illegal
Would be a solution.
But, somehow, I don’t think that would work.
It’s not like the products are marketed that way
And they’re already pushing illegality.

Let’s make aerosol paint illegal
Let’s lock up mouthwash
Let’s get rid of cough syrup
Let’s ban bad foods, while we’re at it.
Maybe these things should be regulated
(If even that’s the right step).

But, wouldn’t it be better
To just make sure people are informed?
Let them know to beware of misuse
Let them know fat, sugar, and calorie content
And other nutritional information.

Let people decide what they wish to expose themselves to,
At least to some extent.

Regulations aren’t always wrong
But they’re not always right either.
If it’s mostly a personal issue
Then it should probably be a personal choice.

110% of the Oil

Recently BP said the spill was only 5000
And have dismissed higher estimates
But now they are collecting 5000
So, they have to increase the estimate
But it will still likely be low
And even if other estimates are way too high
It seems likely that  an average could be too low
And yet, we can’t know for sure
Because outsiders can’t get in
And look at the data independently
So, which numbers do we trust?
Or do we trust any of them?
Eventually we’ll probably know a good approximate
But is that good enough?
We will still have a massive mess to clean up
And it’s quite possible that it won’t be completely
There is still oil from the Valdez over 20 years later.
So, how likely is it that won’t happen again?
Once the spotlight is off, people tend to forget.

Rip Out The Garden

A friend is told he can plant
And comes up with an innovative planter
But once he starts to get some produce
He’s told by the one who said he could plant
That he has to pull it all up
Or the city will do it for him
And make him pay for that ‘pleasure’
It’s not right to speak out of both sides of one’s mouth
Like the official dealing with my friend
But it’s far more common then we’d like to believe
For officials to act worse than Vogons.

Be Reasonable

This may sound strange, but I think the Democrats are being too reasonable in response to the outspoken Republicans.  And note, I say the outspoken ones; there are plenty that aren’t being obstructionist.  But the ones I keep hearing about in the news are making the whole party sound petty and childish, and make me wonder why anyone would vote for them (if they even hold office).  Several of the people I’ve heard about don’t hold any office (and some never have), but they speak like they are the ultimate authority.  I think that the more reasonable Republicans need to step up and say something.  I also think that both the Republicans and the Democrats need to call out those Republicans who are being so completely uncooperative; the Republicans especially, because those people are making their whole party look bad.

I have to admit, I’m kind of surprised that I’m even saying this.  I generally group politicians together regardless of party; sure, there are some that are ok, but most of them don’t impress me much.  And I thought I was going to go in a different direction when I started writing this.  But I really do think that the Republicans need to stand up and defend their party more than I think the Democrats should take them down because they aren’t.

A Year Later

It’s been a year and much has been done
But there is much left to do
And many are getting impatient
Because what they expected is not happening as fast as they thought it would
But the opposition is being just that
And doing all they can to stop any progress
In fact, they seem proud of this
And gloat about doing it
Yet many blame those they are opposing
Instead of those who are throwing up roadblocks
And I just don’t understand that
How can people not see what is plainly there?
It’s not like they are hiding what they’re doing
They hold it up like it’s a shining example
A shining example of what, I don’t know
But they hold it up nonetheless

Not enough time has passed for all the ills of the country to be the majority’s fault
Yet they get the blame for it nonetheless
They may have some infighting of their own
But it doesn’t seem as bad as the opposition.

Only 365 Shopping Days Left

I started to hear about Christmas stuff around Hallowe’en this year.  It seems like every year it just gets earlier and earlier.  I remember when I was a child there wasn’t a lot of buzz about it until after Thanksgiving; but now I start to hear about it a month earlier.  I think it might have something to do with retailers trying to make more sales by artificially extending the season.  But people do seem to think that Christmas is a good time of year, so others might be contributing to it as well.  Still, I tend to hear about commercial endeavors more often when it’s that early; so, if they keep up this trend, then people might well always be shopping for Christmas (though that’s not really very likely).

Let The Punishment Fit The Crime

I really didn’t address this aspect in my last post so I thought I do that now; I think the biggest problem I have with zero tolerance policies is that they don’t take the circumstances into account.  No matter why people bring a knife into a school (or do something else that would infringe upon the policy) they would get the same punishment.  It’s a lazy way to deal with things.  It’s one thing if someone comes in brandishing a knife and threatening people; it’s a completely different thing if someone brings a knife to use it appropriately.

My oldest brother, who always has a pocketknife on him, has told me that one time in one of his high school classes he took out his knife to cut something that needed to be in one of his (I think ag) classes, and I don’t even think his teacher noticed.  Of course, this was pre-Columbine, but not by too many years.  But, if for some reason he’d gotten in trouble for it, I would hope that they would have taken into account that he used it properly and didn’t cause harm or threaten harm to anybody.

I mean really, someone could threaten someone else with their schoolbooks, that doesn’t mean everyone’s schoolbooks should be taken away.  It means that if someone does that then that person should be punished accordingly.  A knife, in and of itself, isn’t a threatening thing.  We use them to prepare food; and we use them to help us eat food; we even use them to break down boxes and do other useful things.  The presence of a knife isn’t, by itself, a threat.  Even if it were, it would be a short-range threat.  Sure, it could be thrown, but that would be as inaccurate as throwing a book.  And either one would be punished.  But, just bring a knife (especially some kind of utility knife), shouldn’t be punished as severely as threatening someone with a book.

One-size-fits-all-justice isn’t justice at all.  There are mitigating and aggravating circumstances for a reason; intent is important.  And such considerations shouldn’t just apply to kindergartener or first graders; the boy who brought the camping knife to school is getting an exemption of a kind because he’s so young, and the school district has lightened their policy for kindergartener and first graders, but only those two groups.  I think they need to apply that to all grade levels.  Maybe some kind of graduated policy, not just according to age, but also according to past record and severity of infraction.  If someone doesn’t do anything wrong until senior year and that person is only involved in a minor infraction than that person should have a less sever punishment than someone who has multiple severe infractions, even if that second person is only in grade school.  Like I said, let the punishment fit the crime.

Zero Tolerance

Zero tolerance is ZERO TOLERANCE; it means NO exceptions.  When I first heard about such policies I thought they were stupid, and wondered how long it would take for others to realize that, too.  Recently, on the news, I heard about a young boy who brought a camping knife to school and has been suspended for 45 days because of a zero tolerance policy; and his mother was all incensed about it.  The thing is, I kinda wonder if she was all for them when they were first implemented.  I have no reason to believe that she did, but it still occurred to me.  A lot of people are all for policies until those policies affect them.