Inglorious Bastards

Worked on Christmas. I said WORKED on Christmas. My family and friends bemoaned it, but they are looking without context. Seven million Americans are unemployed. 4 million of them have been looking for work for a year or longer.

That being said it still sucks to work on the holidays. I even apologized to the coffeehouse folks as I walked in to pick up breakfast.

There was a time when working Christmas or New Year's meant double time and a half. Thanks to unions, workers were at least honored for the sacrifice. Honor..

I would say honor is missing in many places in America right now. Where's the honor in freezing workers' pay and rewarding management? Where's the honor in police officers being ask to crush descent? Where's the honor in bringing soldiers stateside and asking them to crush descent as well?

Where's the honor in voting for brands instead of candidates? Where's the honor in not attempting to keep them accountable? Where's the honor in complaining when you didn't write, call or occupy?

We can restore our country's honor one citizen at a time. We can make efforts to restore national integrity by managing our lives the way we'd want the govt to manage its affairs: responsibly and with a care as to how it would affect our neighbors.

If you can't occupy, call. If don't call, then email, tweet or post on blogs. Just make an effort to resist dishonorable persons hiding behind corporations destroying this country. Watch policy not parties. Watch out for your neighbor.

Boots on the Ground

Police officers are the boots of the corrupt and wealthy. They grind the poor and the visionaries beneath their soles, batons, water hoses and tear gas, so they can sleep on the back porch of the masters.

Not all officers are the Dogs of the Rich. Not all sheriffs hunt the foreclosed middle class like wounded ducks. Not all. But, if you don’t stop the boot from grinding, if you don’t stop the baton from striking, you are participating in the violence. You must do your part.

There will always be slave catchers, there will always be people who break the law for freedomsake. Conscience and history tends to favor one of the other. Which one are you?

One Bad Apple

Where has the love gone? Alot of ya'll are new to the game, I know about that Mac SE in college back in '87, I rocked the Centris in '93 and feed my family with the graphics work. It was beautiful.

Here in 2011 I find that Apple is tracking me. Where is the love? Since at least iOS4, Steve has been collecting latitude and longitude data on every iPhone and iPad user. Data that can be accessed by anyone who can access your mobile or computer.

When I read this on Twitter and then Gizmodo, that Apple 1984 commercial came to mind. You 'member - the bleached out white dudes marching toward that huge screen with Big Brother shouting on it.

Then the riot police chase this woman with a John Henry hammer into the hall where these drones are seated. She hurls the hammer at the screen destroying it, freeing the minds of the masses. Inspiring, but that was 1984.

Here in the twenty first century the interpretation is clear. The mindless drones are the Apple faithful (me once). The riot police is Apple, Inc. and the woman with the hammer are the jail breakers. Today Apple is the State! All power to the ppl!

Photo: MacBook Pro on glass table with photos beneath taken with iPhone3Gs, Hipstamatic app (Chunky, Cano Cafenol)