As if to put an exclamation point on my post yesterday, this appeared in the Tribune today: A mass drive-by shooting last night in Back of the Yards. 13 people shot including a 3 year old boy:
Continue reading “A Sad Followup”
Category: Rants
A Sad Milestone
According to recently released crime statistics, the FBI ranked Chicago as the Murder Capital of the United States. The relevant numbers are as follows:
In new crime statistics released Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 500 murders in Chicago in 2012, up sharply from the 431 recorded in 2011. New York reported 419 murders last year, compared with 515 in 2011.
By the looks of it, Chicago will surpass that number this year with 311 homicides to date, according to statistics complied by RedEye.
Continue reading “A Sad Milestone”
Because We Can…
…is never a good justification for doing anything.
Unfortunately, it is a common phenomenon in the world today. I saw quite a bit of it when I worked in Information Technology.
Programmers routinely add “functionality” that serves no earthly purpose to a perfectly serviceable system, Because We Can. In business, executives spend gazillions of dollars on projects that are barely implementable and offer dubious or non-existent gains in productivity, Because We Can. Our government tries to deliver unicorns, cellphones, and healthcare to everyone in the land through labyrinthine, bureaucratic monoliths, Because We Can. This is the kind of thinking that contributed to my mental collapse while at IBM.
But enough about my psychoses. Here is a lovely example of Because We Can from the world of architecture:
South Korea Will Soon Be Home To An Invisible Skyscraper
Anybody see a problem with this? Anyone? Bueller?
Let’s forget for a moment that this building will be erected near the Incheon Airport outside Seoul, and take a look at the reasoning behind it:
The architects claim that the Tower Infinity as it is called will, “provide the World’s first invisible tower, showcasing innovative Korean technology.”
Uh huh.
In reality, it’s just a system of cameras and projectors. It’s been done. Just not on this scale, or in such a wildly inappropriate application. The architects go on to say that Tower Infinity will display Korean technology by, “establishing its most powerful presence through diminishing its presence.”
Yeah, it’s presence will be diminished all right, just as soon as the first airplane smacks into it!
Not to worry though—Given how overly-complicated technology works in practice, this building will probably look less invisible and more like Microsoft’s notorious Blue Screen of Death.
h/t Ace
The Trials of the “Creative Class”
I laughed so hard scotch shot out my nose and my ears!
Ben Schachter, Professor of Visual Arts (ahem) at St. Vincent College, writes in The Weekly Standard bemoaning the less the rosy reality of life under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) for artists musicians, and writers.
Right out of the gate he writes:
Nancy Pelosi waxed rhapsodic in 2010 as she imagined the benefits of Obamacare: “Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.”
Well, that was the economy we used to have. But as Obamacare begins to kick in, artists, photographers, writers, and other members of the “creative class” who have access to health insurance programs through numerous professional organizations will lose that coverage. [emphasis mine]
Say wha?! Since when has an “artist” ever been able to survive without a day job? Unless you’re Pablo Picasso, Paul McCartney, or Stephen King, you can’t live off of art!
He goes on to explain how many artists associations/guilds, who once offered group insurance at reasonable rates for their deadbeat artist membership, are now dropping those plans.
No kidding. Welcome to the real world hippies!
Actual hardworking, productive Americans are finding themselves in the same boat, as their employers drop health insurance benefits due to exorbitant rate increases engendered by ACA. If large corporations are cutting their employees loose, vis-a-vis health insurance, why should the non-productive, dilettante creative class get a pass?
Unless they are older or suffer from some preexisting condition that made coverage hard to obtain, freelance artists, designers, and musicians forced to enter the state-run exchanges are far more likely to see their rates go up—or to face the individual mandate penalties. This will be especially true, as alert observers of Obamacare implementation have noted, for those under the age of 30.
Psst! Hey, you guys! Put down the bong and listen to me: Just because you spend your days making dream-catchers, doesn’t mean you’re exempt from the stupid choices you make in the voting booth. We’re all getting it in the keister with this abomination. The staggering thing is that ACA will really hurt the folks who make our economy work, and that ain’t you.
Listen, I feel you. I’m one of you! I’m a nere-do-well writer for cryin’ out loud! But hardship for the “creative class” is hardly a national catastrophe. So yes, as Mr. Schachter writes, you probably oughta sell you sitar, get a haircut, and then get a job.
Shine on you crazy diamonds!
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It’s an addiction. I try to look away, but it keeps drawing me back.
Like Quint at the end of Jaws, I slide inexorably down the deck of my sinking, little boat only to be chewed and then drowned in the gaping maw of some gargantuan monster of insanity…
Howz that for some purple prose?
The news is what I mean. I told myself I’d lay off, but I keep seeing stuff like this:
Continue reading “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
Who Can I Sue??
‘Tis the season, so everybody wants to talk about how dangerous football is. 
Mike Brown, owner of the Cincinnati Bungles and son of NFL icon Paul Brown, recently voiced his skepticism about the link between concussions and dementia.
If you don’t follow football—what the hell is wrong with you??—you may not have heard that a large group of former players is suing the league for concealing the risks of playing with injuries which could lead to long-term health problems.
Um, duh?
Even a human being as dumb as a football player, surely must understand that banging into another human being at a high rate of speed, repeatedly over several years, has got to be bad for you.
I know I’ve screeched about this before, but it really burns my toast when I hear this brought up again and again. Of course the media is lambasting Mr. Brown for his remarks. Yes, Mr. Brown is a bit “old school” and this kind of frank talk is to be expected, but c’mon people!
The default position in America today is that when something bad happens to us, first deny any personal responsibility and then find someone else to blame. Once that someone is identified, sue the socks off ’em!
Now, I suffered a few concussions playing football. Anyone who knows me, or spends five minutes with me, would definitively declare me impaired. Therefore, that must be the root of all my problems.
Anyone know a good lawyer?
An Ounce of Prevention…
Here’s the scenario:
You’re an itinerant magician, trying to make a buck in this narcoleptic economy. You roam from place to place doing tricks, creating illusions, pulling the odd rabbit out of a hat, in the desperate hope you’ll put a smile on someone’s face and a few shekels in your pocket. Then, suddenly, catastrophe falls upon you.
An killer tornado—with sharks in it—bears down on the town where your performing. Simultaneously, a giant electromagnetic pulse is released from a nearby exploding star, all while a hitherto undiscovered pocket of white-hot “magma” churns beneath you in a hitherto undiscovered geologic fault, ready to blow you sky-high at any moment.
What will you do to save the rabbit?
Hey, it could happen. At least the government wants you to be prepared. That’s a good thing right?
As a taxpayer and an animal lover from way back, my only reaction is a double-facepalm with half-gainer.
Did I mention that the world is completely unhinged? Did I mentioned that our government is run by imbecilic Vogons?
Where are my pills?
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
The temptation was too great. Try as I might to avoid the news, hoping in vain to maintain my sanity, world events just keep offering up chances for the human race to demonstrate how unhinged we all are.
With you, I was saddened to read of the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco this past weekend. As horrible as a plane crash is, it seems much worse when it looks like the cause points to human error. Unfortunately, the tragedy wasn’t bad enough for the uptight, busy-bodies of the Asian American Journalists Association.
You see, this past Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times, ran a piece on the crash with the headline “Fright 214.” Now you and I dear reader, being innocent of prejudices, and lacking a need to grind the axe of the perpetually aggrieved, see that as a play on words which tries to convey the fear of the passengers, albeit a corny one.
However, the perpetually aggrieved members of the AAJA saw that headline as a racially insensitive joke, because the airline in question is Korean. They saw it as the kind of thing Krusty the Klown might say, not the editorial staff of a major metropolitan newspaper. In case you missed the offensive “joke” like I did, it goes along the lines of, “Me so solly,” and “I likea flied lice.” Read the headline again and you’ll get it…sadly.
Continue reading “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?”