On The Third Hand

You know, it doesn’t help if you have a tsunami warning system and don’t use it.

Not quite safe for work (depends on your boss) cartoon commentary on the Muslim reaction to the cartoons. Here (Flash - will take a while if you are on dialup.) Found via the comments at the indispensible Rantings of a Sandmonkey. The author of that blog, btw, has quite a bit to say on the subject himself (just scroll).

I will say that I pretty much agree with what the purple character in the cartoon has to say. Though I think I would have made a bit more distinction between ‘Muslims’ and the supporters and purveyors of hiraba (terrorism).

I certainly hope not. Dafydd ab Hugh points out what we would have to do to win such a war. In (verbally) graphic detail. Note that he thinks the proponents of the “at war with all Islam” side do want a military war - like WWII (I agree, from what I’ve been hearing) and that is the scenario he paints.

Florida teen skips school, sneaks to Iraq

Via Eclectic Chapbook.

A lot is heard about the intrusion of advertising into the nations public schools. A few years ago the Seattle school system provoked a raging debate over it’s plans to allow advertisements on the uniforms, book covers, gym walls and sports fields. In Seattle’s case, and I suspect most, it was a question of money. Any ad revenue gained would be utilized to maintain programs that were threatened by failure to pass proposed tax hikes.

In recent years the debate has centered on soda vending machines and whether or not corporate logos should be openly displayed on them. The GAO even weighed in on the controversy with a report titled, “Commercial Activities in Schools,” that warned “marketing professionals are increasingly targeting children in school, companies are becoming known for their success in negotiating contracts between school districts and beverage companies.”

All of this leads to a question. Is the worst yet to come? Our neighbors to the north, Canada, may have the answer. And it’s not encouraging.

For the past several months, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., one of the country’s largest publishers of university textbooks, has been quietly trying to coax companies into buying advertising space in their texts.

“Reach a hard to get target group where they spend all their parents’ money,” says a McGraw-Hill brochure touting its planned ads. “Do you really think 18-24 year olds see those on-campus magazine ads? Do you really think they could miss an ad that is placed in a very well-respected textbook?”

The Whitby-based publisher, which has made presentations about its prospective textbook ads to more than a dozen advertising agencies, says in its brochure that ads can be purchased nationally or regionally, and “can be so targeted, you can even buy a specific major.

“We’ve never offered this before and we’ll only offer it to the right organizations,” McGraw-Hill’s brochure says. The company plans initially to charge as much as $1.40 per book, and the ads would be inserts, instead of being placed permanently alongside text.

The plan is not without skeptics, Randy Stein, a partner at Grip Media Ltd said, “There are some things that should remain pure and sacred. What’s next, university professors with logos on their blazers like NASCAR?”

With McGraw-Hill having a large presence in the US you have to wonder if this Canadian scheme to advertise in textbooks will migrate southward. It should be noted McGraw-Hill is only looking out for the kids, really… honest!

In a subsequent statement to the Toronto Star, MacDonald wrote that the publisher’s textbook ads have two purposes: to bring “beneficial corporate and social awareness campaigns to the attention of students” and to “generate revenue to support programs which help professors and teachers cope with the rapid changes in their environment.”

What type of rapid changes in environment are they talking about? Class size? Global warming? Frosty Canadian winters? And why do professors and teachers need ads to “cope” when any advertising is aimed at the students?

Why do I smell a little social engineering coming down the pike? And any beneficial corporate campaigns are all nicely wrapped up in that $1.40 price tag. The publisher is pitching to advertisers at the same time as it is trying to survive a recent sales decline. The company has seen a 7 per cent slip from the $95 million the company generated in 2002.

So beware US, this travesty may be headed your way.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity

I think I’ll stop using drive-throughs as my own personal protest against this nonsense.

The local pizzeria or fast-food drive-through might fill your order, but it is increasingly likely they won’t take your call.

More and more pizza restaurants – including two chains in the Washington area – are relying on operators at call centers to take orders for delivery and give employees more time and space to focus on food preparation.

Two fast-food restaurants are testing the use of remote order- takers to cut down on errors.

People taking orders can be thousands of miles from the restaurant preparing the food. One chain has workers in Southern California taking orders from Florida. Another chain has workers in Pennsylvania talking to customers in Reston and other Washington suburbs.

“We envision order-takers sitting in offices or sitting in their homes. They could be one mile away from the restaurant or 2,000 miles away,” said Jeff Chasney, executive vice president for strategic planning at CKE Restaurants Inc., the Carpinteria, Calif., company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. chains.

Well pal, I envision a screw up of the first order. It’s dammed hard enough to receive an order that is not only the type of food ordered but in the correct amount, from three feet! (Hey, you. I ordered five fries, not 3 and this Paris Hilton burger has “special sauce” on it. I said NO SAUCE!) Now they want to send your order through a labyrinth of fiber-optic cable thousands of miles away.

And you just know this had to happen. In ride the PC Police on their trusty diversity steeds:

Domino’s Pizza Team Washington, which has 60 locations in the Washington area, started using a call center in Oklahoma to take orders from Spanish-speaking customers about two months ago. Customers call the store and are directed to another number, which connects them to the call center and allows them to place the order in Spanish. The order is then sent back to the store through a high-speed Internet connection.

Well gee, why didn’t they go PC all the way? Why aren’t the remote call centers located in Spanish Harlem NY, or Little Havana in Florida?

You want PC, you want an Oklahoma call center? Ok fine, but I’m playin the racial discrimination card. This white bread American loves the fish tacos from San Diego’s Roberto’s or Royberto’s drive-throughs. To rectify this racial imbalance here’s what needs to be done. When ordering my Roberto’s battered and deep fried white fish, in a soft corn tortilla topped with cabbage, white sauce, salsa and a lime I fully expect my order to be routed to an Oklahoma call center and to an English speaking operator.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity.

Since President Bush floated an idea that former military bases could be used as locations for increaseing the number of oil refineries I have been waiting. First for the announcement of the next round of base closures, that came on 13 May. Then for various and sundry “advocates” and “activists” to lay claim on the abandoned land.

As sure as the sun rising in the East and Howard Dean uttering something stupid every 24 hour news cycle the first claim has been layed. One hundred and forty three years after the first American Homestead Act the homeless “advocates” attempt a 21^st century version.

The next batch of surplus military base property should be available by the end of the year, said Rebecca Troth, Legal Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP).

The so-called “surplus property” is free for homeless advocates, though a group that successfully applies to use an old base or part of an old base may be responsible for infrastructure development costs.

Old military bases, said Michael Stoops, acting Executive Director of the Washington, DC-based National Coalition for the Homeless, are desirous because “they’re self-contained, they have all the facilities.” Additionally, he said, “most military bases are close to major cities,” making them easier to reach from areas hit hard by urban poverty.

In a self admission of ignorance, the article points out the 1994 Base Closure Act places homeless providers at the head of the line for use of retired federal properties. (much more on base closure and previous Congressional actions here)

To which I say, so what! The homeless and their “advocates” should have never been given priority over the local communities who have lost jobs and income by loss of a military base.

I’d bet the farm the citizens of Charleston, S.C, if given the choice, over homeless shelters and renewed economic interests for the former Navy base there they wouldn’t have opened any soup kitchens. To their credit they made the correct choice ten years ago. The same can be said for Massachusetts, with Georgia and California following the same model. The Pascagoula MS. Naval base is targeted in this round of closings but local officials aren’t ringing the phones at NCL or NLCHP looking for help setting up shelters, they have a better plan based on economic sense not politically correct BS put forth by national advocacy organizations.

I have a suggestion for Rebecca Troth, Legal Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. The current base closure list and all previous closures were and are based on saving the Federal Government tax dollars. A worthy endeavor most would agree. My suggestion is based on the NLCHP being a tax exampt organization and all donations made to it are tax exempt.

Shut down NLCHP and round up all your precious homeless - most of whom are itinerate by choice - pay them minimum wage, set them up on the Southern border and stop the flow of illegals flooding into the US.

End result; One less group of PC nanny state loonbats, a larger Federal tax base, and a safer place to live for 230 plus million Americans (need I mention less businesses with doorways that smell of urine?).

PS: Ms. Troth don’t come crying to me if you discover only a very small percentage of those offered these jobs fail to show or run the opposite direction. They have chosen not participate in society, not to work and will laugh in your face.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity

Tennessee wants to re-introduce slavery. For parents.

Every once in a while, a headline hits me with its blantant statement of the obvious. Like this one I just saw on Google News, from ABC:

Report: Child Deaths High in Poor Nations

I mean, really, did they expect child deaths would be low in poor nations? Where the people sometimes can’t even afford to eat?

And, as if the headline weren’t enough of reporting the obvious, in the body of the story, they make sure to mention that poor rural children in at least one country die at a higher rate than rich urban children. They didn’t mention any comparison between poor urban children and rich rural children, oddly enough. I suspect there might be a bias toward urban living on the part of that reporter…

San Francisco May Regulate Blogging

Just when you thought the Federal Election Commission had it out for the blogosphere, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors took it up a notch and announced yesterday that it will soon vote on a city ordinance that would require local bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission and report all blog-related costs that exceed $1,000 in the aggregate.

Blogs that mention candidates for local office that receive more than 500 hits will be forced to pay a registration fee and will be subject to website traffic audits, according to Chad Jacobs, a San Francisco City Attorney.

Why is it that I’m now tempted to post on San Francisco politics, a subject in which I ordinarily have zilch interest?

Hat tip to the BlogFather for the link.

Man Locked in Cargo Hold Flies to Philly

A young man loading baggage into an airplane in Milwaukee got locked in a cargo hold Friday and stayed there on a flight to Philadelphia, Midwest Airlines officials said.

“He was in the process of securing a wheelchair, tying it down,” airline spokeswoman Carol Skornicka said Friday night, “and they didn’t see that he was still in there when they closed the door.”

She said the man, whose name was not released, is a ramp agent who loads baggage and any other cargo that goes in the hold.

The cargo hold is heated and pressurized, so the unexpected trip to Philadelphia didn’t hurt the man, Skornicka said.

Lucky for him…

Alton attorney accidentally sues himself

Alton attorney Emert Wyss thought he could make money in a Madison County class action lawsuit, but he accidentally sued himself instead. Now he has four law firms after his money - and he hired all four.

Wyss’s boomerang litigation started in 2002, when he invited Carmelita McLaughlin to his office at 1600 Washington St. in Alton. Acting as her attorney when she bought a home in Alton and when she refinanced it, on both occasions she had chosen Centerre Title–a company that Wyss owned–to close her loans.

In the course of the attorney-client relationship, Wyss advised McLaughlin she might have a claim against Alliance Mortgage, holder of the first mortgage. Wyss believed Alliance Mortgage might have broken the law by charging a $60 fax fee when she refinanced.

Unfortunately, it was Wyss’ title company that collected the fees…

Oops!

Via J. Bowen, who says: “It had to happen.”