Archive for the Society Category
MLK Day (January 16, 2023)
Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Society on January 16, 2023 by e-commentary.orgOur Future: Tenants And Slaves (November 28, 2022)
Posted in Our Future?, Society on November 28, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Tenants and slaves.”
J “Slaves and tenants.”
. . .
K “BlackRock and others are buying up all the houses and then renting them. Soon we will be mere tenants.”
J “UnitedHealth and others are destroying medical practices and then devouring them and then demoting the physicians and staff into low paid indentured servitude. That is happening in other industries. Soon we will be mere slaves.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Tenants And Slaves
You’ll Own Nothing and You’ll Be Unhappy
Soon we will be mere slaves and tenants
In tonight’s final score, it was Tenants zero, Slaves zero.
Weaponizing Turn Signals (September 19, 2022)
Posted in Our Future?, Society on September 19, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Turn signals are a subtle way for community members to communicate with each other. A community member signals that he or she is making a move that could impact others in the community.”
J “So many people out there are so angry and bitter and frustrated and dangerous. A vehicle provides a socially accepted weapon and driving it offers an opportunity to wield it. A private tank on a public road if you will. The little sliver of public road ahead of the driver may be the only thing that he or she can control for a few brief moments.”
. . .
K “He is a grandfather and an otherwise reasonable and passive person. After reflection and experience, he has decided not to use turn signals because they trigger others. When he sees a safe opening and uses his turn signals, the vehicle in the other lane accelerates and cuts him off. So he does not provide a clue and instead just changes lanes without notice and an opportunity for the vehicle to accelerate and cut him off.”
J “I use the turn signal to test the tank driver in the other lane. The tank often speeds up and passes creating an opening that allows me to change lanes. Unless the following tank also speeds up. With my blinker broadcasting my intentions all the time.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at “If I Get Diagnosed With Stage 4 Cancer . . . .” (December 13, 2021), Fight Or Flight In The Face Of Fear? A Principled Reaction To Stand (November 30, 2020), Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015), The Populace Is “Dis-ed”: Discombobulated, Disequilibrated, Disquieted, Disconcerted, Dislocated, Disillusioned, Disappointed, Dismayed, Dissed And Dis-ed (February 8, 2021), The Vaccine: The Shot Felt Round The World (November 23, 2020), Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War. A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020) and The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Imagine . . . using your turn signals
Forget world peace. Visualize using your turn signals
I’m not a mind reader. Use your turn signal!
Happy Equinox
Spiritual And Intellectual Eunuchs (July 25, 2022)
Posted in Society on July 25, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “That description about captures it.”
J “Catchy too.”
. . .
K “Obsequious to those in power.”
J “Sycophantic to those above them.”
. . .
K “Never took a stand.”
J “Never joined a sit-in.”
. . .
K “Their biography reads: ‘Born – Consumed – Died.’”
J “Or ‘Amassed credentials and lucre. Never really did anything of substance or permanence.’”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Fight Or Flight In The Face Of Fear? A Principled Reaction To Stand (November 30, 2020) and “If I Get Diagnosed With Stage 4 Cancer . . . .” (December 13, 2021).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Born – Consumed – Died
Make waves
If you stay silent and fail to rock the boat in this war between good and evil, your life might be easier, but your children’s won’t.
Conformity is doing what everyone else is doing regardless of what is right; Morality is doing what is right regardless of what everyone else is doing.
It is remarkable how many people believe themselves intellectually superior for repeating what authority tells them. It is also remarkable how school is structured to reward students for repeating what authority tells them. I wonder if there is a connection?
There was a very cautious man
Who never laughed or played
He never risked, he never tried.
He never sang or prayed.
And when he one day passed away
His insurance was denied,
For since he never really lived,
They claimed he never really died.
(Anonymous poem)
Expanding The Goal In Soccer (July 18, 2022)
Posted in Society, Sports on July 18, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
J “One yard wider.”
K “One meter wider.”
. . .
J “People want points. The games should produce lacrosse scores. 10 – 9 or 14 – 13 or 17 – 11. Two digits for each team.”
K “Purists will object, buy I am a purist who does not object.”
. . .
K “Thirty years ago, the back-pass rule in soccer was implemented to universal and enduring acclaim.”
J “Forty years ago, the shot clock in college basketball vitiated the four corners stall that was legal yet undermined the flow and possibilities of the game.”
. . .
K “Expand the goal by a meter. Enrich the game by a mile.”
J “Or just a yard. And enrich it by a kilometer.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary on sports at On The Vernal Equinox (March 21, 2011).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Make the Beautiful Game more pulchritudinous
Independence Day (July 4, 2022)
Posted in Society on July 4, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
J “What does it mean to most folks?”
K “Sales and bar-b-ques. Some folks do reflect on its significance.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at July 4 (July 4, 2011) and September 17 – Constitution Day (September 19, 2011).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
What does Independence Day mean to you?
The Other Sabot To Drop (April 18, 2022)
Posted in Society on April 18, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Shoes, not shoe. And they are all size 15E hobnail combat boots.”
J “There are as many shoes set to drop as you might find standing around at an Imelda Marcos yard sale. No one knows which shoe or when, but they know a shoe is going to fall.”
. . .
K “Everyone was lined up like the figures in the sculpture ‘The Breadline’ by ‘Georg Segal’ displayed at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. A year ago, they would have staged a fathom apart and dutifully atop the squares on the floor. Lined up today about a meter apart, each inched closer together as more tax donkeys joined the queue to post their tribute on the last day. So I did what I do and did field research. Sullen lugubriousness became sudden loquaciousness. Others were willing to talk and wanted to talk. The uncertainty and anxiety are evident. The fear and dread are palpable. Then I went about doing the next chore.”
J “What was terrible before Covid is far worse today. Nastiness is contagious. Inconsideration is infectious. Venality and vileness are viral. Lying is now a way of life. Humanity has taken a dive that it will not recover from in our life.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Fight Or Flight In The Face Of Fear? A Principled Reaction To Stand (November 30, 2020), Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015), The Populace Is “Dis-ed”: Discombobulated, Disequilibrated, Disquieted, Disconcerted, Dislocated, Disillusioned, Disappointed, Dismayed, Dissed And Dis-ed (February 8, 2021), The Vaccine: The Shot Felt Round The World (November 23, 2020), Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War. A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020) and The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Unauthorized
This server could not verify that you are authorized to access the document requested. Either you supplied the wrong credentials (e.g., bad password), or your browser doesn’t understand how to supply the credentials required.
“Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Seven Years Later (January 10, 2022)
Posted in Our Future?, Privacy, Society on January 10, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Seven years ago, the threat seemed distant and curious and academic.”
J “And now it is close and disturbing and real.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at “Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015).”]
Bumper stickers of the week:
We moved a few books around. Travel is now in the Fantasy Section. Sci-Fi is in Current Events. Epidemiology is in Self-Help.
There are few things more challenging in this life than encouraging another person to think independently.
MLK Day
TeeVee, The Fondle Slab And L’Internet (May 17, 2021)
Posted in Fondle Slab, Internet, Our Future?, Society, Television on May 17, 2021 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Last time I ventured a guess, I concluded that I watch about 30 hours of traditional television a year. Some of the viewing is logged under ‘social science research’ rather than ‘entertainment’ or ‘educational’ activities. You will not be surprised to be reminded that I still have no television cable service.”
J “About 50 hours, give or take about 50 hours. Or a little more or less. Some of our watching is hybrid television. The only boob tube in the house is ensconced in the corner in the basement near other things in storage.”
. . .
K “Now the amount of time I am enslaved by the fondle slab is another story. A daily nightmare really. Too much viewing. Je suis addicted.”
J “You may cut the cord, but we all are tethered by the signal. If I could do it, I would do away with the Internet entirely including all the positive avenues and opportunities it has created. Eliminate. The. Internet. Period.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at ““Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Revisited: The “Fondle Slab” Enslaves Us All (January 28, 2019)”.]
Bumper sticker of the week:
If you are not paying for the product, you are the prey
Good Health Is Soooooo Overrated. Age And Aging In An Aging America (April 12, 2021)
Posted in Health Care, Society on April 12, 2021 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Fifty years ago, we compared PSAT scores and now we contrast PSA scores.”
J “Life goes on. Praying for a high four digit number has matured into praying for a low single digit number.”
K “After reviewing the digit deduced after the blood draw and then inspecting the situation with the digit, she pronounced the verdict with three magic words. ‘Small. Soft. Smooth. You’re good. For now.’ Another temporary reprieve from the grim reaper.”
J “Boys get prostate cancer and girls get breast cancer. Hard to question that God treats everyone equally.”
. . .
J “The grand irony is that a ‘positive’ outcome is a ‘negative’ outcome and a ‘negative’ outcome is a ‘positive’ outcome.”
. . .
J “He voiced the verdict with three malevolent words. ‘Progressive. Debilitating. Incurable’.”
K “The death sentence is not even a complete sentence. Those words should be added to George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on television and should not hear until very late in your lifetime.”
. . .
K “For the self-unemployed, their last day on the job is also their last day on the planet.”
J “For the truly self-unemployed, their last day on the planet and the day they go may also be the last day they go without a job.”
. . .
K “Trying to make a call using the television remote was unavailing.”
. . .
J “Humans never escape the planet and never escape the hierarchy on the planet. Check out the nursing home hierarchy. A patient may have arrived in a flashy ride suggesting that they have arrived, yet everyone is assigned and navigates the same generic wheel chair without even a distinctive hood ornament.”
K “I hear you. Everyone wears the same loose-fitting sweat suit and is not able to flaunt a Hart Schaffner and Freeman suit or a Kate McCarthy outfit.”
J “Street cred in the facility is a function of the number of visitors. That’s it. Bodies replace dollars as the benchmark of status and power. How many home boys or home girls come to visit you.”
K “I hear you. When I walk in, all eyes are on me as they chalk up another visitor for him. And almost all of the visitors sign in with the same surname sported by the patient. And a few in-laws.”
J “Which is the way status should be calibrated earlier in life. If you have friends, you have cred. You have it made, and you have made it.”
. . .
K “Over the decades, the preferred rides have transitioned from Cadillac to Mercedes to Lexus to an uncertain heir today, yet everyone ends up in the wheel chair before departing in the hearse.”
J “And so far, no one is able to haul a U-Haul behind the hearse.”
. . .
J “The banality of senility is merciful. He does not know what he does not know. If he understood and fully appreciated his plight and circumstance, he would go seriously crazy/insane/nuts.”
. . .
J “Some staggeringly high percentage of the money spent on one’s health care is spent in the last six months of life. And that is the phase of the biography that is the least glowing.”
K “Endure the last six months and then forget about them and remember the earlier years.”
. . .
K “He lost his appetite for life and his appetite. As his last act of free will, he elected to cease eating. He was too old for and refused to get another transplant. Five days later, he transplanted himself to a new place.”
J “I see it all the time. I suggested to someone to inspect the pill box. She passed on Saturday and bequeathed an undisturbed pill box for S (Sunday), for M (Monday), for T (Tuesday), for W (Wednesday), for T (Thursday), for F (Friday) and for deliverance day. Or another fellow gobbled up S and M and T and W and T and F and S and S all at once and obtained his deliverance.”
K “Some folks really know what is best for them. She was tired of the menagerie of red pills and blue pills and ecru pills and looked up at the earnest middle-aged doctor and ventured: ‘Sonny, why don’t you just prescribe medical marijuana and we’ll call it good?’”
J “Medicare should cover medical marijuana.”
. . .
J “The conversation is the same. They talk about their health problems, the health problems of the people they know, and the health problems of people they do not know.”
K “Health problems do come up.”
. . .
K “When the page remains blank for more than a few micro seconds, I will know.”
J “My pages are blanking now.”
. . .
K “The neighborhood is changing at a quicker pace. The folks went out walking and later slowed into strolling. Stollers are replacing walkers. The new kids may only use the stroller once and are only able to afford to install one vehicle in the great American two car garage.”
J “You start on four legs, transition to two, and then transition cum cane to three and then with a walker to four.”
. . .
J “Nature does not make the decision. The MBAs usually make the final decision. When the costs of care for him grew and could not be billed as easily to the inmate or others, the facility ups the level of morphine and opens up a bed/billing platform. They can always justify it by saying the patient was in pain. She was obedient at taking orders but incapable of hiding the lie and the crime.”
K “Technically, it’s murder, but it is also just standard operating procedure.”
J “I know someone who asked the staff to defer administering the dose until morning to allow some family members one last visit, but they administered the dose so that he passed in the early a.m. They could bill for the day and possibly fill the billing platform with another inmate that same day.”
. . .
J “You leave their stuff at the back door this week and then go through the front door to see how much they are charging for the stuff you left at the back door last week.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at “Oh, And Happy Holidays! (December 24, 2018)” and “On Ambition: “And Then You Die” (June 29, 2009)”.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, three legs in the evening, and no legs at night?” Answer:
Aging: I can’t recommend it
All the wrong things are stiff
At this point in life, one deals with loss not with gain
At this point in life, I need three months to get into shape and three minutes to get out of shape
Napkin fashioned into a name tag at the Home/Facility: “I am your daughter Lisa”
Everything hurts and I’m dying
I’m as old as the old people
I thought getting older took longer
Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional
Growing old disgracefully
OK Boomer
“You say that if you have your health, you have everything. You don’t have a Camaro.” Eight year old who is now older
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the hell just happened
I may be old but I got to see all the cool bands
Old age comes at an inconvenient time
“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating . . . and you finish off as an orgasm.” George Carlin
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’.” Hunter S. Thompson
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” Gabriel Garcia Márquez
“The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near.” “Roadhouse Blues” Doors
“Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend.” Lao-Tze
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