Boycott Disney
In the past two months Disney has made two severe transgressions, and for that reason, I call for a boycott of Disney. I am not going to go to any Disney movies, buy any Disney products, or go to any Disney theme park.
The first of these is that Disney is a junk mailer. I got a piece of mail from them recently, with the letters ATMG in the address. Those letters mean Advanced Toastmaster Gold, which is solely a Toastmasters term, and in fact is trademarked by Toastmasters. Apparently Disney got a hold of a list of Toastmasters and started sending out mass mail to the people on this list. This is a direct violation of Toastmasters policy, which states that lists of Toastmasters and clubs are to be used only for Toastmasters purposes. Disney Enterprises has violated this policy.
The second concerns Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a film critical of Bush since Planeattack in 2001. I have heard that Disney will not produce the film. Thereby they have proclaimed that they do not believe in freedom of speech. Disney wants to suppress free speech, evidently. I know they are a private corporation, but movies, for instance, are produced only by corporations, and so this denies people the right to see the movies they want. I watched Moore's Bowling for Columbine, about the gunhappiness of America, and found it to be one of the best films I have ever seen. I want to see Fahrenheit 9/11 as well. That does not mean that I necessarily agree with Moore; in fact, I suspect that there is some material of questionable validity in the film. But I still want to see the film itself, and regardless of the content, I expect it to be as good as Bowling for Columbine.
For these two reasons I am boycotting Disney until it stops sending out unwanted material and until it starts producing wanted material.
A Journey through Blogrealm
Blogtrek
Blogtrek
2004/05/05
Torture in Iraq and other places caused by a word
The latest thing out of Iraq is the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US military servicepeople and by civilian contractors. This has really dented America's image. The Arabs are incensed by this. We harp all over the place about sexual harassment and sexual crime, and then the Army does it to prisoners in Iraq. This country still holds 500 prisoners or so without charges in Guantanamo, and there are other places where our country is possibly mistreating prisoners. What's the cause of this? I think I know. It's a word.
Oppression of others is in our history. First the Eastern Native Americans, who were forced to march out of their territory, causing many to die. Then came the Confederates. Their cause was flawed by their practice of slavery, but that still did not justify the brutality of Sherman's March, which in some cases wiped out entire towns. Then Sherman showed his brutality again to the Native Americans, this time to the Plains tribes of Lakota and Cheyenne during the late 19th century, culminating in the Battle of Wounded Knee. There were the My Lai massacre and numerous other incidents. What justifies most of these incidents? A word.
Most of us would be appalled at these acts. Killing is forbidden in our laws and carries a heavy penalty. Forcing sex on someone, robbing them, injuring or torturing them are all serious felonies carrying long prison sentences. No one would think of doing these things except where a certain word is used. What is that word? F--k? NO.
WAR.
Union forces justified their acts by saying that it is a war, the Civil War. If it is a war, you can go ahead and kill and torture the enemy or even commit sex crimes against them. We justify it as bravery, and keep score of how many enemy fighters we have shot down. Soldiers kill enemy, and then they are praised as heroes. Now sometimes war may be justified, but these may be precious few. Certainly the events of the past three years do not qualify.
The reason why these acts are rationalized by those who do them is that they say it is a war. We hear this all the time. This nation is at war. That isn't even the case. The hunt for Al Qaeda is a police manhunt, not a war. The US action in Iraq may have been a war at first, but since then it has been an occupation, not a war. Calling these a war is what I feel has caused these wanton acts which would not be tolerated in a peaceful American community. It is time to start acting more civilized. There are major problems out there that require cooperation. Most of all, it is time to stop saying "War on Terror" and War in Iraq". Stop saying "WAR".
The latest thing out of Iraq is the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US military servicepeople and by civilian contractors. This has really dented America's image. The Arabs are incensed by this. We harp all over the place about sexual harassment and sexual crime, and then the Army does it to prisoners in Iraq. This country still holds 500 prisoners or so without charges in Guantanamo, and there are other places where our country is possibly mistreating prisoners. What's the cause of this? I think I know. It's a word.
Oppression of others is in our history. First the Eastern Native Americans, who were forced to march out of their territory, causing many to die. Then came the Confederates. Their cause was flawed by their practice of slavery, but that still did not justify the brutality of Sherman's March, which in some cases wiped out entire towns. Then Sherman showed his brutality again to the Native Americans, this time to the Plains tribes of Lakota and Cheyenne during the late 19th century, culminating in the Battle of Wounded Knee. There were the My Lai massacre and numerous other incidents. What justifies most of these incidents? A word.
Most of us would be appalled at these acts. Killing is forbidden in our laws and carries a heavy penalty. Forcing sex on someone, robbing them, injuring or torturing them are all serious felonies carrying long prison sentences. No one would think of doing these things except where a certain word is used. What is that word? F--k? NO.
WAR.
Union forces justified their acts by saying that it is a war, the Civil War. If it is a war, you can go ahead and kill and torture the enemy or even commit sex crimes against them. We justify it as bravery, and keep score of how many enemy fighters we have shot down. Soldiers kill enemy, and then they are praised as heroes. Now sometimes war may be justified, but these may be precious few. Certainly the events of the past three years do not qualify.
The reason why these acts are rationalized by those who do them is that they say it is a war. We hear this all the time. This nation is at war. That isn't even the case. The hunt for Al Qaeda is a police manhunt, not a war. The US action in Iraq may have been a war at first, but since then it has been an occupation, not a war. Calling these a war is what I feel has caused these wanton acts which would not be tolerated in a peaceful American community. It is time to start acting more civilized. There are major problems out there that require cooperation. Most of all, it is time to stop saying "War on Terror" and War in Iraq". Stop saying "WAR".
2004/05/02
Virginia Beach
I went to a Toastmasters conference on Virginia Beach this weekend. I found it to be an interesting place. The colors of the buildings are colors that can't be named very easily; for example, is it yellow or green? Is it purple or pink? I call such colors Miami Vice colors, naming them after the television program. They were abundant at Virginia Beach. The beach there is interesting - one can run around in bare feet on it because for the most part there are no shells. There is a concretewalk (it is not a boardwalk since it is not made of boards) along the beaches separating them from a long line of high-rise hotels designed to give the maximum number of people a view of the ocean from their room.
There was a bunch of rambunctious teenagers or young adults there and they filled up the swimming pool. The most interesting things there were the signs that say spiral lightningstroke sharp !! with a cross over it indicating "no". In other words, no cursing or using foul language. To me it is a commentary on American culture, especially that of young people that signs are required that are like this. Other signs use words to say that no obscene language, sexual behavior and so forth is allowed on the streets, and also that violation of the law is prohibited. Huhh? Where in this large world of ours is it ever permitted? That would be a contradiction.
The conference featured two contests: a table topics contest and a 5-7 minute speech contest. In the table topics contest a topic is given. This year it is: What is your road like? That is an interesting question. I say in my case that it started straight, had to detour and led me to being lost in the woods. Others came up with their own answers, including some with a circuitous route (rhymes with "clout") and some with a straight route (rhymes with "boot") in which the person knew what he was going to do. The 5-7 minute speech (or International Speech) contest included one speaker decrying the human tendency to keep score. They did a wrong to us so we got to do it back to them. Give unto them as you would have them give unto you. They entertained us so we got to entertain them. The speaker debunked this notion and suggested that doing what you honestly want is better than trying to keep score. However, Toastmasters, with all of its point systems, including that for Distinguished Club, Distinguished District, and so forth, notoriously keeps score on everything. Maybe Toastmasters is not that healthy.
I say join Toastmasters, improve your speaking and leadership skills, and forget the points.
I went to a Toastmasters conference on Virginia Beach this weekend. I found it to be an interesting place. The colors of the buildings are colors that can't be named very easily; for example, is it yellow or green? Is it purple or pink? I call such colors Miami Vice colors, naming them after the television program. They were abundant at Virginia Beach. The beach there is interesting - one can run around in bare feet on it because for the most part there are no shells. There is a concretewalk (it is not a boardwalk since it is not made of boards) along the beaches separating them from a long line of high-rise hotels designed to give the maximum number of people a view of the ocean from their room.
There was a bunch of rambunctious teenagers or young adults there and they filled up the swimming pool. The most interesting things there were the signs that say spiral lightningstroke sharp !! with a cross over it indicating "no". In other words, no cursing or using foul language. To me it is a commentary on American culture, especially that of young people that signs are required that are like this. Other signs use words to say that no obscene language, sexual behavior and so forth is allowed on the streets, and also that violation of the law is prohibited. Huhh? Where in this large world of ours is it ever permitted? That would be a contradiction.
The conference featured two contests: a table topics contest and a 5-7 minute speech contest. In the table topics contest a topic is given. This year it is: What is your road like? That is an interesting question. I say in my case that it started straight, had to detour and led me to being lost in the woods. Others came up with their own answers, including some with a circuitous route (rhymes with "clout") and some with a straight route (rhymes with "boot") in which the person knew what he was going to do. The 5-7 minute speech (or International Speech) contest included one speaker decrying the human tendency to keep score. They did a wrong to us so we got to do it back to them. Give unto them as you would have them give unto you. They entertained us so we got to entertain them. The speaker debunked this notion and suggested that doing what you honestly want is better than trying to keep score. However, Toastmasters, with all of its point systems, including that for Distinguished Club, Distinguished District, and so forth, notoriously keeps score on everything. Maybe Toastmasters is not that healthy.
I say join Toastmasters, improve your speaking and leadership skills, and forget the points.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)