Political Correctness Has Gone Too Far
Permalink | January 30, 2008 by John in Entertainment, Ranting and Whining
In an effort to make sure I’m legal and support my musically-focus IP creating brethren, last year I basically tossed out all my MP3s and re-ripped my entire library of a few hundred CDs from scratch.
For all the music I do own and have been accumulating for a couple decades on CD (don’t even get me started on the hundreds of cassettes I own), there were perhaps a few dozen albums and miscellaneous songs I got from other people. I inventoried them and decided which ones I wanted to purchase. One album that is not available anywhere, that I had borrowed from a friend, is a compilation titled “Jägermusic,” ostensibly put out by the JägerMeister company as a promo. One of the few songs I wanted off that album was “Cartoon Nightmare” by Insane Clown Posse. No problem, pull up iTunes, and 99¢ later it’s on my iPod.
But I didn’t listen to it until now. Crap.
They don’t edit out the word “hell.” They don’t edit out the word “shit.” Nor do they edit other various and sundry talk of obscene actions against life and limb.
They edited (garbled) this line, “I hijack planes and fly them into record label towers.”
Are Bedards Gullible?
Permalink | January 17, 2008 by John in Family, Ranting and Whining
Lately I’ve been getting a ton of bogus chain e-mails forwarded from the Bedard side of my family, mostly political in nature.
As always I fact check with snopes.com. If the message is especially slanderous, I ‘reply-all’ with my findings, usually “false,” on Snopes. The standout gems of late include how Barack Obama is a radical, madrassa-indoctrinated muslim, and the North American Union, or how the U.S., Canada and Mexico are supposed to be combined into one union with one currency called the “amero.” Both, of course, are false. But these are just the two most recent examples. I’ve been fact-checking my family’s e-mails for years.
I’ve been guilty of being gullible, more so when I was younger. What I’m starting to believe is that the gullibility is a Bedard trait, whilst the healthy cynicism I have that keeps my gullibility in check comes from the Stewart side.
I get my stubbornness from both. 
$400 Montana Property Tax Refund
Permalink | October 24, 2007 by John in Money, Ranting and Whining
I still have to file for my property tax refund. I’m assuming I’ve paid enough to get the full $400, especially since they let you claim the taxes over the past few years.
I was talking to a renter who was grousing about not getting the refund and I started getting irritated. You pay rent, you don’t pay the mortgage or the taxes. Sure the rent is applied to those expenses, but there is no direct correlation. The property owner assumes most of the risk, risk that the water heater will blow, risk that the market will force a lowering of rent amounts below what will cover the mortgage and taxes, risk that they won’t be able to cover the mortgage and taxes with the rent, risk that the renter will not pay, risk that the renter will damage the property beyond normal wear and tear, etc. The renter ostensibly gets freedom from maintenance and all those risk factors.
So, renters should pipe down or buy a place and assume the same risks as property owners.
Now excuse me while I go XBox 360 shopping in anticipation of my fat refund check…
Paradox
Permalink | July 27, 2007 by John in Ranting and Whining
I am simultaneously in awe of people who know more than me and disgusted with people who know less.
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IPHOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNE!!!
Permalink | July 6, 2007 by John in Ranting and Whining
All my news feeds have been overrun by iPhone posts! Especially the web design feeds. The reviews and whining about the lack of an SDK and/or Java are starting to give way to tips and tricks and speculation on the next generation iPhone. How crazy is that? People just spent $600 on a phone and they’re already looking forward to the next one.
And no, I wouldn’t get one even if we had AT&T in Montana. I don’t use 80% of the functionality of my new LG VX8600 phone.
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