Archive for category Social Issues

Cellphone Etiquette at the Table

Wandering though life, I often encounter the occasional person who seems to have missed an etiquette class. Or several. In particular, I have noticed that a very large number of gaffes occur at the dinner table. So as a gift, I provide the following guide to using your cellphone when sharing dinner with family, friends, and friendly companions:

Rule #1: Don’t.

Rule #2: See Rule #1

If your phone rings, vibrates or plays an obnoxious ringtone (all ringtones are obnoxious) there is only one polite action: Turn it off or mute it, while apologizing: “I’m sorry, I forgot to turn my phone off. Fixed!” Slip it back in your pocket and deal with it later.

In an upcoming post, I will cover cellphone use during conversation with another person. I’m sure you all look forward to that.

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The 2012 Election – I Surprise Myself

8142797777_17cc1e55ec_nDeb and I had the pleasure of meeting some of the key democratic candidates for office for, and within our state (Montana) today. Each spoke for a few minutes about their aspirations, and spent some time “working the room”; I bent a couple of ears, as anyone who knows me might expect, and got some fairly good answers, actually.

I don’t normally jump on a soapbox, politically, but this year… here we go.
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The Constitution is not just a piece of paper

rippedObama (and let’s be fair here — also the congress, and the judiciary, and state officials) has repeatedly demonstrated either a complete disrespect for, or absolute misunderstanding of, the constitution.

From the inversion of the commerce clause, ex post facto laws at both the federal and state levels, sweeping usurpation of article 5 powers via the judiciary, to blatant violations of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th amendments, our government is — at best — operating in an unauthorized fashion, wielding powers it was never granted by the people, and ignoring its obligation to protect the rights it was explicitly charged with protecting in return for being allowed to operate at all.
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Predicting where IOS and OS X will go

Every time I read one of the sycophantic articles predicting OS X is going to become like IOS, I have to laugh. That’s not going to happen, at least, not in the long term. So in the spirit of the new year, when every fool (I’m speaking most definitely of myself here) proceeds to stuff foot deep into mouth, I offer the following IOS, OS X, iPad and iPod predictions:
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Starting Out – priorities and pratfalls

It occurred to me in a moment of introspection that I, probably like many others, had my priorities set entirely wrong when I populated my very first apartment with… well, with stuff. And later on, my first home. If I knew then, what I know now. Sigh. Well, can’t fix that, but I can sure issue some good advice that others can benefit from if they so choose.
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Nuclear Attacks – Survivable, say Feds

The feds have published a happy little book (available here) that lets us know we can expect to survive small nuclear attacks. The blogosphere has been muttering about it, mostly to the mistaken tune of “OMG, Global Thermonuclear War!”

But this booklet isn’t about a sophisticated attack by missile or bomber; this is about little tiny nukes, up to 10 kiloton, the kind of thing you might expect from an unusually sophisticated basement terrorist manufacturing operation. It is a guide for local officials that detail everything from what to expect in terms of injuries, damage and fallout, to what to do about people’s pets.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Today is a good day to remember the true spirit of the pilgrims. They would occasionally take a day off from shaming community members in the town square stocks and recreational witch-burning to deliver typhus-infected blankets to the native American Indians nearby, in the fond hope that they be decimated under the loving eyes of God, consequent to the long European tradition of biological warfare against those one would prefer go away. Lest you think the Pilgrim’s work ethic be implicated here, know you that from time to time, they would also organize and do their very best to commit genocide on the local Indian populations in fine traditional fashion, utilizing both sharp and blunt objects – stabbing Indians was equally as well regarded as bludgeoning. In addition, Indian men, women and children received equal consideration in this matter, so you can see that this is truly a multi-dimensional egalitarianism. This may be regarded as one of the true seeds of American fairness.

These are true facts. If this is not how you regard Thanksgiving, perhaps you should re-examine your knowledge of history. Google for UAINE and/or the Wampanoag tribe. Spend a few minutes reading up on actual pilgrim practices.

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Robotics and Sex – Social Consequences

My prediction: The days of women’s lib will come to an end with a screeching halt when robotics come into their own. For two primary reasons:

First, because domestic and working robotics will provide people with the free time to court and interact (something notably lacking in today’s multi-job, rushed world.) Since that’s actually kind of fun, or at least, I think it is, I suspect courting between real people will become common behavior. Again.

Second, if a fellow can buy a social companion that is as exactly up for sex, cuddling and whatever other interests he has… that whole “I wear pants and cut my hair short and makeup is too much work” thing will evaporate like it never existed if a lady actually wants a flesh-and-blood companion.
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