Archive for Rant

5 Comebacks For Your Racist Relative During The Holidays

Thank you Franchesca “Chescaleigh” Ramsey. A worthy watch whether you have racist relatives or not. Luckily the few relatives I do ever see are the racist out of ignorance types and not the hateful kind, they just don’t have a lot of actual day-to-day interaction with non-whites (not that they necessarily don’t want to it’s just their reality is a 50 miles radius of 99% whiteness). So I have to remind myself to not get angry/frustrated with them, which automatically puts them on the defensive and only further alienates them, but rather come prepared with sharpened swords and mind darts. Francesca helps build the arsenal. Kill ‘em with wit.

Also, big ups to Boogie Down Productions “The Racist.”

-thos

(Mic.com turned me on to the original article/video)

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Sigh Files

Sigh, when how one looks is the focus of the press are actors are compelled to have plastic surgery and sites like usually progressive Gawker participate, it should make me want to throw in the towel, but instead, I think I want to double down.
Sigh
Renée Zellweger’s New Face Is Too Real by Amanda Hess.

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On the Perfect Crime

Stephen Dubner from Freakonomics says “So what’s “the perfect crime”? It turns out that if you are driving your car and run over a pedestrian, there’s a good chance — especially if you live in New York — that you’ll barely be punished. Why?”

I’d argue being a cop killing a black male is probably just as easy.

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DC Taxi Cab Protest

Today DC Taxi Cabs are staging a protest by causing traffic slowdowns in D.C.

Their main complaints are about services like Uber and Lyft.

  • Uber will drive people out of NW on weekends
  • Uber does not discriminate by race when picking people up
  • Uber will drive people to SE and not claim they are off duty when asked
  • Uber never claims the credit card machine isn’t working

A local taxi driver, who requested to only be identified as “Schlechter Mensch,” complained “First they moved from the zone system that I could use milk a few dollars out of people who didn’t know better, to the meters which have such high fees Manhattanites think I’m ripping them off. Then I’m not supposed to talk on the phone the whole ride.” He told me while clipping a passing cyclist and throwing a cigarette butt out of the window.

Taxi drivers in DC, whose moral compass ranks right up there war profiteers and oil executives, will likely keep on complaining about this to every unfortunate rider.

Find more information here

Taxi in the bike lane

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The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized

With apologies to Gil Scott-Heron:

The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized
You will not be able to stay home, blogger.
You will not be able to plug in, log on and sign out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on facebook and tumblr,
Skip over Hulu commercials,
Because the revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be monetized.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Geico
Online with limited commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Obama
live tweeting and streaming on YouTube,
with Bill Gates and Zuckerberg sipping five hour energy
drink from a SXSWi sanctuary.
The revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
TED Conference and will not star Natalie Portman and Steve Wozniak or Colbert and Stewart.
The revolution will not give you six minute abs.
The revolution will not get rid of spam.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds thinner,
because the revolution will not be monetized, blogger.

There will be no pictures of you and Derek Jeter pushing that Living Social deal down the web on the dead run,
or trying to slide that LCD television into a stolen healthcare plan.
CNN will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 tweets*.
The revolution will not be monetized.

There will be no pictures of pigs tazing down
people in the YouTube replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs tazing down
people in the YouTube replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Houston being
run out of LA on a rail in a tragic death.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Russ
Feingold strolling through Madison in a Red, White and
Blue liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

The Voice, Real Housewives, and Glee
will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Don finally gets down with
Jane on Mad Men because people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be monetized.

There will be no highlights on Tumblr
news and no pictures of Occupy protesters
and Michelle Obama blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Miley Cyrus,
Kayne West, nor sung by Alicia Keys, LMAFO,
Bruno Mars, Toby Keith, or Bon Iver.
The revolution will not be monetized.

The revolution will not be right back after a pop up ad
about a white list, white hardware, or white people.
You will not have to worry about Intel inside,
solutions for a small planet, or thinking different.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not give you wings.
The revolution will not save you 15% on car insurance.

The revolution will not be monetized, will not be monetized,
will not be monetized, will not be monetized.
The revolution will be no podcasts blogger;
The revolution will be live.

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Two Security Fails

Today I encountered two security fails.
1) When chatting with Sprint customer support they need your account PIN to update your records. After the conversation is over they email your transcript with your PIN sent in the clear.
2) When signing up to pay a travel fee to gain entry to a South American country they confirm your signup by sending you your username and password in the clear.

Good job!

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