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Keep Your Kids Home From School?

jxpx777:

I can’t believe this is the kind of crap that people come up with. Just a few years ago, questioning anything the president did was tantamount to treason. It’s amazing how the times have changed in just a relatively short while.

Let me say it plainly. Keeping your kids home from school so that they don’t hear the President of the United States of America is the dumbest things I’ve heard all year. But, it’s only September, so there’s plenty of time for you ridiculous people to set a new mark.

First, he’s the freaking president of this freaking country. He has Secret Service, Air Force One, The White House, and all the rest of it. If nothing else, one has to respect the office.

Second, what is he going to say to your precious child? “Boys, you should all be gay. Girls, you should all get pregnant by the first straight boy you can find and then have an abortion.” Absurd. He’s going to tell your kid to work hard and take advantage of all the opportunities they have. He might even encourage them to take a little responsibility for their education. If you’re that worried about what he’s going to say, watch the damned thing (It can’t be much more than a half an hour.) and have an actual, thoughtful conversation with your kid about what they thought and why you agree or disagree.

Finally, consider the message that you’re sending to your kid. Here’s the message: “If you so much as think that you are going to disagree with what someone has to say (even if that person is the President of the United States of America), you don’t have to give that person the time of day.” Let me know how that message tastes when it’s reheated and served back to you when your kid is a teenager.

Conclusion: Stop being a lazy parent. Your kid is going to be exposed to things you do not agree with. Perhaps it will be by the President in a planned, announced, well-publicized event. But maybe – just maybe – your kid is going to hear someone say “fuck” in the hallway of her school. Or maybe your kid is going to have an atheist classmate berate him as an uncritical, backward, thoughtless waste of carbon for believing in God. The truth of it is that every day (if you’re really engage and think about it) your kid is going to be exposed to things that you do not agree with and that you would rather she wasn’t exposed to. If you’re abdicating your parental responsibilities to communicate and to instill in your child the values you believe to be important in such a way that come what may your child will know what he believes and why, don’t blame one person who happens to be the President of your country for trying to talk to your child. You sure as hell aren’t.

Posted via web from jxpx777’s posterous | Comment »

Brilliantly stated.

Kodak: A Different Approach to Printing

Printers do not get a whole lot of attention when it comes to minimalist computing. After all, one should strive to be paperless right? But seriously, let’s get real. There are times when you do need to print something. Be it a document, directions, a photo – the paperless society is a myth right up there with Santa Claus and free beer. That said, printers are a complete scam. They are the modern version of the razor. Let me explain.

You see, at some point after you get to shaving age, a little box shows up in the mail. “What is this?” you say. Well, son, that there is the latest greatest ultra-quintuple razor with new and improved patented fast guard technology. It’s normally fifteen bucks if you buy it at the store but, today, it’s yours, free. Take it with our complements. Of, and here is a fifty cent off coupon for some blades when you need to replace them.

Well, it seems like a good deal until you find that the package of blades is two thirds the cost of the razor, and that you are going to be buying a lot of them…

Printers = Razors

Ink = Blades

This is one of the reasons I have been recommending the latest in the line of Kodak printers to a lot of my clients. They have come up with a more reasonable strategy – Sell the printers for a little bit more, sell the ink for a lot less, market the heck out of that:

I have had a chance to play with them quite a bit and, I can tell you, the quality is as good as anything else you can get in this area. They are also, in my opinion, nicely designed. I can say for sure that the next inkjet printer I get will be a Kodak.

While we are at it, a final printing tip – make sure you get a printer that can do duplex (two sided printing). Make it the default setting. Mother Nature will thank you (as will Mr. Miser).

Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess

Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess

“The truth is that a lot of people complain about craigslist. Buckmaster is correct that few of them complain about the design. They complain about spam, they complain about fraud, they complain about the posting rules, they complain about the search, they complain about uploading images. They complain about every way a classified transaction can go wrong. They seldom complain about amazing new features they imagine they might possibly want to use, because they are too busy complaining about the simple features they depend on that don’t work as well as they’d like. By eliminating marketing, sales, and business development, craigslist’s programmers have cut out all the cushioning layers that separate them from the users they serve, and any right they have to teach lessons in public service comes from the odd situation of running a company that is directly subservient only to the public. Here’s the lesson: The public is a motherfucker.”

Tumblr and Yojimbo

shawnblanc:

I’ve had this unrelenting suspicion over the past few weeks that Tumblr is such a successful publishing platform because of its near frictionless system.

Tumblr, like Yojimbo, is an Everything Bucket. There is no fear or intimidation on what to write, when the options are flung wide open and custom packaged to treat any and every type of post as a first-class citizen.

To prove my point and help myself write the article, I’ve set up this Tumblr account. Well, that, and I wanted to see what it is that Marco does all day.

Welcome Mr. Blanc. We hope you enjoy your stay.