How the hell did we get to this place? I am not a religious person. I don't believe in God(big g) much, or often. Nor do I believe in Hell(except what happens to people here on earth, sometimes of their own making-often what humans do to eachother). BUT I do know that for most of human history there were some things people thought were "sins". And the Catholic church, which ruled much of that world for many years had a list of things that were "deadly" sins which would send you to Hell. One of those "SINS" was greed.
Definition of GREED(merrium webster-online dictionary)
: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.
And somehow people like gazillionare Mitt Romney and selfish, self-centered, ego manaic Newt Gignriech manage to be the poster boys for "fiscal conservistism" and "family values". What the WTF?!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Con Game
It occurred to me lately that one of the bad things about our culture and even in the world now is the fine print.
The business atmosphere of "free market capitalism" that adheres to the axiom,"let the buyer beware" , has devolved into business operations counting on buyers NOT being "ware", indeed, it manipulates the games to insure that buyers CANNOT "beware", and now seeks to protect the business from the buyer, when their shoddy practices are exposed. ANd this attitude of hiding the bad aspects of ingredients, (lead,corn syrup) products,(pharmaceutical drugs) business practices(slave labor, price gouging, insurance companies who increase premiums, but refuse to pay claims, due to pre-existing conditions"),business by-products, (all kinds of pollution, etc.) has not only permeated the business world it's firmly entrenched in politics.
In politics it either comes out as "spin" when something "not politically correct" which means it is a universally agreed truth-like say, "torture is wrong", "killing children and unarmed on-combatants is wrong-EVEN in war time", is now somehow "spun" to be "necessary" or "acceptable loss". And when the facts of these actions taking place is revealed, the people who exposer the truth are now portrayed as "evil" or "wrong" or "criminal".
Maybe these things -shoddy business (where the owners engage in many levels of bad practices, and don't want it commonly know), and politicians, (who call an act to increase air pollution levels, "Clean Skys") maybe they aren't related-but they seem like the same type of con to me.
And to get to my original thought on this-when Bjorn was charged w/ disorderly conduct and tried, 2 times, to appear in court and was told there was no charge, it seems like subterfuge on the part of the police that they then somehow magically "find" the charge 6 or 8 months later and use it to cause all manner of fines, and hardship. Because he exercise his right to free speech. Because that's the bottom line. "If you speak out against our rulers' shoddy business or the status quo, we will "get" you, we will fuck you up. You will NOT disobey or question."
Even if you take *only* the part where they "lost" his ticket so they could then later arrest him-and impound his car, it cost a couple hundred dollars, which is still a hardship. Add on the new no-insurance rules-and it becomes a sever hardship, which I really thought it was in the constitution that fines were NOT to be a sever hardship.(So that it's. A bit like kidnapping when the fines are so high).
Anyway. My summation is: the business con which requires fine print, robo signing of real estate papers, and fast taking commercials to "protect" businesses from "consumers"(aka customers) is the same con that is practiced on the public by governments who advocate "austerity measures" for their own people and torture for other countries' people, and it is the same slimmy police practice of "loosing a ticket", hiring a child molester to be a drug informant-and then refusing to arrest him for child molestation, grand theft auto, or assault.
We are at the mercy of con artists, how do we stop it?
The business atmosphere of "free market capitalism" that adheres to the axiom,"let the buyer beware" , has devolved into business operations counting on buyers NOT being "ware", indeed, it manipulates the games to insure that buyers CANNOT "beware", and now seeks to protect the business from the buyer, when their shoddy practices are exposed. ANd this attitude of hiding the bad aspects of ingredients, (lead,corn syrup) products,(pharmaceutical drugs) business practices(slave labor, price gouging, insurance companies who increase premiums, but refuse to pay claims, due to pre-existing conditions"),business by-products, (all kinds of pollution, etc.) has not only permeated the business world it's firmly entrenched in politics.
In politics it either comes out as "spin" when something "not politically correct" which means it is a universally agreed truth-like say, "torture is wrong", "killing children and unarmed on-combatants is wrong-EVEN in war time", is now somehow "spun" to be "necessary" or "acceptable loss". And when the facts of these actions taking place is revealed, the people who exposer the truth are now portrayed as "evil" or "wrong" or "criminal".
Maybe these things -shoddy business (where the owners engage in many levels of bad practices, and don't want it commonly know), and politicians, (who call an act to increase air pollution levels, "Clean Skys") maybe they aren't related-but they seem like the same type of con to me.
And to get to my original thought on this-when Bjorn was charged w/ disorderly conduct and tried, 2 times, to appear in court and was told there was no charge, it seems like subterfuge on the part of the police that they then somehow magically "find" the charge 6 or 8 months later and use it to cause all manner of fines, and hardship. Because he exercise his right to free speech. Because that's the bottom line. "If you speak out against our rulers' shoddy business or the status quo, we will "get" you, we will fuck you up. You will NOT disobey or question."
Even if you take *only* the part where they "lost" his ticket so they could then later arrest him-and impound his car, it cost a couple hundred dollars, which is still a hardship. Add on the new no-insurance rules-and it becomes a sever hardship, which I really thought it was in the constitution that fines were NOT to be a sever hardship.(So that it's. A bit like kidnapping when the fines are so high).
Anyway. My summation is: the business con which requires fine print, robo signing of real estate papers, and fast taking commercials to "protect" businesses from "consumers"(aka customers) is the same con that is practiced on the public by governments who advocate "austerity measures" for their own people and torture for other countries' people, and it is the same slimmy police practice of "loosing a ticket", hiring a child molester to be a drug informant-and then refusing to arrest him for child molestation, grand theft auto, or assault.
We are at the mercy of con artists, how do we stop it?
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