It used to be that when you went into an establishment, such as a restaurant or fast food place, there was a certain "flavor" of the place. The Employees (waitresses waitstaff, servers, servatrons, counter people, whatever) were either friendly, grumpy or somewhere in between. Now it seems like whatever corporation runs them is dictating not just how they are to act (and it IS an act), but what they are to say.
There is a chain of burrito restaurants that was started in the Atlanta (not "the A.T.L.") area called "Moe's". The whole concept of the chain is a little quirky, the music they play is only from dead musicians, the food has weird names like "Homewrecker", "Joey bag of Donuts", "Alfredo Garcia", etc. But one thing that made the place unique, was, every time a customer walked into the place, everybody behind the counter would holler "WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!" It was kinda corny, and cool at the same time. Well, the concept caught on, and now so many times, when you walk into a restaurant, someone hollers "WELCOME TO (insert name here)!!!" Couldn't they figure out something different?
Also in Atlanta, there is a wonderful restaurant chain called "Chick Fil-A". I know some of you only know them as a fast food-type restaurant, but here they have actual sit down areas with servers. I noticed a few months ago that whenever you say "thank you" to an employee, their response was "My pleasure". I mean EVERYBODY says "My pleasure". You can sometimes get three or four "My pleasures" out of an employee. Now do you think Chick Fil-A only hires people that say "My Pleasure"? Of course not. The company is dictating to all employees that the only response to "Thank you" is "My pleasure". They can't say "You're welcome", "Sure", or "No problem" (I hate hate one anyway). It sounds like the Stepford Wives. It can get knee-deep in "My pleasures" in there.
American business has dumbed down customer service so much so they don't actually have to hire people with customer service skills, they can just hire someone and order them to say certain things in certain situations. This relieves the manager or HR from actually having to think. I can see an evaluation going like this: "OK, Jane, you get Needs Improvement in "Welcome to Bob's", but Exceeds Expectations in "My pleasure". Why, I once heard you say "My pleasure" 14 times to one customer, keep up the good work." I expect and demand that my employees be friendly to customers, but they are free to use their own words.
This carries forward in other aspects of life, as soon as one company comes up with an original idea, everybody has to copy it. It's like "Oh, Apple made a music player? Let's make one that looks just like it and does the same thing." Speaking of which, how many things can be called i(something)? Make a hit TV show, and there are dozens of clones, many by the same producers.
Now, there's parody, which I love. This blog is a take off on Bill O'Reilly's "The No Spin Zone". Parody and satire is different than just copying something. Mad Magazine and SNL makes a good living making fun of something else.
The fashion fad world is also infamous for the lack of originality. One person wears their shirt 4 sizes too big, and everybody does the same. Hang your pants below your ass and the world will follow. " Boy, that's unique, let's copy it!"
And don't get me started on the spoken word. "Where's the beef?", "I can't believe I ate the whole thing", "Dine-o-mite", etc. These were creations of Madison avenue and Hollywood. One that's taken over the world the past few months is...
Well, let's just say that I'd like to throw "throw (blank) under the bus" under the bus.
That Weird Uncle
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
I guess this is racist too
I guess this is racist too:
(It mentions an increase in food stamps and Obama)
Record Number of Americans Rely on Food Stamps
Congress is under pressure to cut the rapidly rising costs of the federal government's food stamps program at a time when a record number of Americans are relying on it, says ABC News.
- On May 31, the House Appropriations Committee reviewed the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that includes $71 billion for the agency's "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program" (SNAP).
- That's $2 billion less than what President Obama requested but a 9 percent increase from 2011, which, critics say, is too large given the sizeable budget deficit.
- A record number of Americans -- about 14 percent -- now rely on the federal government's food stamps program.
- More than 44.5 million Americans received SNAP benefits in March, an 11 percent increase from one year ago and nearly 61 percent higher than the same time four years ago.
- Nearly 21 million households are reliant on food stamps.
Opponents of the program argue that money from the food stamps budget -- with what they call its increasingly lax requirements -- needs to be shifted to other programs such as education and child nutrition. The program's supporters argue that at a time of economic decline, such welfare programs are even more important to try to keep Americans from spiraling into poverty.
- The cost of the food stamps program has increased rapidly since it was established by Congress in 1964.
- It cost taxpayers more than $68 billion last year, double the amount in 2007.
- Nutrition assistance now accounts for more than half -- or about 67 percent -- of the USDA's budget, compared with 26 percent in 1980.
- That shift in focus, critics say, is ineffective because it hasn't put a dent in poverty or hunger in the United States while taking away money from other programs, specifically agricultural programs that should be the main focus of the agency.
Source: "Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program amid Record Number of Recipients," ABC News, May 31, 2011.
Bizarre Venezuela Prison Has Pool Parties, Drug Deals - Armed inmates call the shots at San Antonio
Bizarre Venezuela Prison Has Pool Parties, Drug Deals
ARMED INMATES CALL THE SHOTS AT SAN ANTONIO
By Luke Kelly-Clyne, Newser Staff
Posted Jun 4, 2011 11:47 AM CDT
NEWSER) – The specter of imprisonment usually doesn't include poolside parties, dance clubs, weapons galore, and easy access to BlackBerries. But San Antonio penitentiary, located on Venezuela's Margarita Island, isn't usual. Though its 2,000 inmates risk being shot by guards if caught venturing outside the walls, the New York Times reports that those content with staying within their enforced bounds are afforded an unprecedented degree of luxury. And these are anything but white-collar criminals.
Though none of Venezuela's prisons are immune to overcrowding, corruption, and a shortage of professional guards, the prison on Margarita Island—a popular point of origination for drug shipments to the Caribbean and the US—is one of a kind. Prisoners essentially run the place, and members of the public regularly visit to gamble, buy drugs, and relax by one of the four prisoner-built pools. (The warden wouldn't discuss, but the Times has video.) Says one Russian woman serving a drug trafficking sentence: “This is the strangest place I’ve ever been.” It even makesthis prison in Mexico look tame.
Nancy Pelosi rates "Pants on Fire"
The Truth-O-Meter Says:
Promotes a chart saying that Barack Obama has "increased the debt" by 16 percent, compared to George W. Bush, who increased it by 115 percent.
Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 in a chart posted on her Flickr account
Nancy Pelosi posts questionable chart on debt accumulation by Barack Obama, predecessors
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi posted this chart on her Flickr site, where it was later re-posted by a user on MoveOn.org. But we found major problems with its math and methodology.
A reader recently pointed us to a post on the website of MoveOn.org, a liberal group. The post features a bar graph titled, "Who Increased the Debt?" that offers figures for the past five presidents:
Ronald Reagan: Up 189 percent
George H.W. Bush: Up 55 percent
Bill Clinton: Up 37 percent
George W. Bush: Up 115 percent
Barack Obama: Up 16 percent
We can see why a liberal group would tout such numbers, since -- if accurate -- they offer powerful counterevidence to the claims by conservatives that President Barack Obama has been a spendthrift who’s set the nation on an unsustainable fiscal path.
But the reader who sent it to us was surprised to see the debt increase under Obama was so small. So we decided to check the numbers.
Ronald Reagan: Up 189 percent
George H.W. Bush: Up 55 percent
Bill Clinton: Up 37 percent
George W. Bush: Up 115 percent
Barack Obama: Up 16 percent
We can see why a liberal group would tout such numbers, since -- if accurate -- they offer powerful counterevidence to the claims by conservatives that President Barack Obama has been a spendthrift who’s set the nation on an unsustainable fiscal path.
But the reader who sent it to us was surprised to see the debt increase under Obama was so small. So we decided to check the numbers.
See the whole article at:
PolitiFact | Nancy Pelosi posts questionable chart on debt accumulation by Barack Obama, predecessors
Phillip Garrido Use Stun Gun to Kidnap, Rape Jaycee Dugard
I hope this scumbag gets a broomstick up his ass every day for the rest of his life!
Garrido Used Stun Gun Before Raping Jaycee
SHE COULD HEAR TERRIFYING 'ZAPPY NOISE' AS HE APPROACHED
By Mary Papenfuss, Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2011 3:46 AM CDT | Updated Jun 3, 2011 6:30 AM CDT
(NEWSER) – Phillip Garrido used a stun gun to kidnap 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard and to keep her in line while he raped her, according to Jaycee's just released gut-wrenching grand jury testimony. Garrido had a temper, and he would fire up the stun gun so Dugard could hear the "zappy noise" as he approached the backyard shed of his California home where he kept her locked up. She finally convinced herself she was doing someone some good by at least keeping the brute from other young girls, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. "He said he needed help with his sexual problem, that he had a real problem, and that I was helping him," Dugard, now 31, said in her testimony. "The impression I got was that I was helping prevent something."
Dugard was repeatedly raped by Garrido, a methamphetamine addict who called the extended attacks "runs," according to the 157-page transcript. He called Dugard "Snoopy," and she never once said aloud her real name from the day she was kidnapped until she was found by police, she testified. Sometimes Garrido's wife, Nancy, tried to help Dugard, saying: "I'll take this run for you." Garrido also used a stun gun to snatch Dugard at a bus stop. "All of a sudden, his hand shoots out of the car window, and I feel this shock," Dugard said. "All of a sudden, I'm in the car," under a blanket, and he's saying, 'I can't believe we got away with it,' and starts laughing." To find out what Garrido's punishment is, click here.
Sarah Palin: Paul Revere Warned the British
"He who warned, uh, the ... the British that they weren't gonna be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and, um, by making sure that as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free ... and we were gonna be armed." - Sara Palin
Yeah, that's the ticket...
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Gas Grills Are Un-American
(NEWSER) – Gas grilling isn’t just lazy: “It's nihilism in a tank, and it has to stop now,” writes Josh Ozersky in a passionate ode to charcoal grilling. His effusive Time column rhapsodizes about coal, elevating it to the level of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (“It shouldn't require an expensive appliance to grill. It should be equally within the reach of every American.”) while suggesting that gas grilling, on the other hand, justifies what the Communists said about Americans during the Cold War: That we’re “weak and lazy, … addicted to our own capitalist comforts, crippled by affluence and the soft life.”
“Why would someone spend over a thousand dollars … on a machine that does its primary function so badly? Because it's easier to light? Because it looks cool? Because they don't like the taste of wood and smoke and the perfume of hardwood fumes?” As we move from the cold darkness of winter into the spring and summer months, grilling becomes more than just a mode of cooking: It’s “an affirmation of our status as citizens of the land of plenty, free to eat and drink the sunny uplands of human freedom.” When we insist on using a gas grill, we give up “not just flavor, but also the whole feeling and joy and physical connection that a person gets to his food when cooking naturally,” he concludes. “To grill over wood is to be most fully human.”
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Utah Law Makes It Illegal to Act Sexy - Mormons are outraged!
(NEWSER) – Be careful how you act in Utah: If you get too “sexy,” you could find yourself arrested under a new law. The law broadens the definition of solicitation—agreeing to trade sex for money—to include “lewd acts” that imply youwant to trade sex for money, like exposing or touching yourself. It was intended to help undercover law enforcement officers, who are sometimes asked by prostitutes to expose themselves in order to prove they’re not cops. Such requests are now illegal, the AP reports.
But two escort services are suing to halt the law, claiming that it could lead to the arrest of licensed employees, like strippers or escorts, who are acting sexy as part of their job. "Most girls who touch their breasts are not telling you they're open for sex," says the attorney representing the escort services, noting that a similar law was struck down as unconstitutional in 1988. He worries that under this law, police could hassle legal businesses and potentially arrest exotic dancers for “suggestively thrusting.”
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Court asked to balance information age advances with constitutional protections - The Washington Post
Now this is a tough one folks, This involves a case where the law placed a GPS device on a suspect's car and tracked him for a month, eventually gathering enough evidence to convict him.
The US Court of appeals overturned his conviction, even though the Supreme Court has already ruled that a person has no expectation of privacy in public. The appeals court ruled that the police must obtain a warrant before placing such a device on someone's vehicle. Other appeals courts have ruled that the law does not need such a warrant. Solicitor General Neal Katyal is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court.
While the court ruled that the 28-day tracking of Jones’s every movement in his Jeep was too much, saying “the whole of a person’s movements over the course of a month is not actually exposed to the public because the likelihood a stranger would observe all those movements . . . is essentially nil.”, I believe that the issue is not whether the police can track someone, as they can the old fashioned way, but whether they can legally "enter" a person's domain (car) and place a device without their permit. Courts have already ruled that a person's vehicle is just as much their domain as their home is, the police cannot search their car without their permission, or a warrant. The outside of a vehicle should be as protected as the inside, a vandal spray painting a fender is just as guilty of damaging property as the one spray painting the seats.
Read the article at:
That Weird Uncle
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Mark Levin on Gasoline prices
...gasoline taxes by state (combined local, state and federal), ...range from a low of 26.4 cents per gallon in Alaska to a high of of 66.1 cents per gallon in California, averaging 48.1 cents per gallon across all states. How does that compare to oil company industry profits per gallon?
According to this post on Exxon Mobil’s Perspective Blog , “For every gallon of gasoline, diesel or finished products we manufactured and sold in the United States in the last three months of 2010, we earned a little more than 2 cents per gallon. That’s not a typo. Two cents.”
The chart below shows the difference graphically:
Romney: "We're going to hang him—uh, so to speak, metaphorically
(NEWSER) – Mitt Romney tried to play up his recurring theme of an Obama "misery index" at a GOP forum last night, but he's drawing attention instead for his choice of words that he immediately walked back. Noting that Ronald Reagan spoke of a similar index and "hung that around Jimmy Carter's neck," Romney said Republicans today must do the same to Obama. "We're going to hang him—uh, so to speak, metaphorically—with, uh, with, uh—you have to be careful these days, I've learned that, with an Obama Misery Index."
The Boston Globe noted it: "Romney almost immediately caught himself, with the English major declaring 'metaphorically' speaking, but the mix of nervous laughter with applause indicated at least some in the audience realized its potency," writes Glen Johnson. The Atlantic,ABC News, and Politico also picked up on it, prompting Romney's spokesperson to write: “It is not what the governor meant and that was very clear in what he actually said. It’s a ridiculous exaggeration of his actual comments.” Probably a safe bet that particular metaphor won't surface again, though.
Why they don't want WalMart in town - Maggie's Farm
Do you want the unions and government telling you where you can shop?
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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