Moonage Webdream

Looking at things that probably don’t need to be looked at

Archive for the ‘Current Affairs’ Category

Aug-13-08

Kim wears short shorts

posted by Moonage

Well, my alma mater has made the news:

Kymberly Clem, a 20-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University, wore the dress Sunday after purchasing it from the mall in Richmond the previous day, the Richmond Register reported Tuesday. After just a few minutes inside of the mall, a security guard approached her and expressed concerns over the length of the garment.

Here’s the picture of the offending outfit:

Now, according to Kim, according to the guard:

“The only thing he said was that other people didn’t like the way I looked, so he wanted me to leave.”

She then took the issue a little bit further:

“I want to speak for everybody else who has been discriminated against but has never said anything,” she told the Register.

Kim’s gonna learn a valuable life lesson from all this. When you’re young and completely naive, total freedom sounds great. However, with that freedom comes responsibility. Not too many people concern themselves with responsibility. That’s why we have laws. If people did act responsibly all the time with concern for the welfare of others they affect, we’d have no need for laws. Now, the way I see this situation is Kim, for whatever reason they chose, was asked to leave a private business. There is no law against that. She has to prove that a Constitutional Right she has was violated in the process of removing her from that private business. The right to dress inappropriately is not one of those Constitutional Rights. Her Constitutional Right to shop was not infringed either, she just had to put more clothes on in order to do it.

The second lesson learned here is taste is subjective. “Whatever she wants” is unfortunately, not legal. I mean, how would she feel if someone other gal had showed up looking like this:

If they had, Kim would never have been asked to leave. In fact, she would never have been asked anything at all since no one would have noticed her in her frumpy overbearing outfit. And, while she may enjoy the fact that she’s young and healthy and therefore her flesh should be exposed for all married men to enjoy ( which I do agree with ), the fact is as our excessive lifestyles of consuming mass quantities of steroid pumped greasy Big Macs being washed down with Bolt Colas and exercising by seeing how many six ounce lifts we can do means that in short order, Kim will more than likely look like this:

At which point I’m sure she’ll be just as quick to suggest someone dressed like Kim take it to the strip club instead of the family shopping mall as her husband cranes his neck to get a little bit more than what the dress was intended to show but that gal obviously intended to.

Did I mention strip clubs?
Natalie Portman's Golden Globe Performance

That’s what Natalie Portman wears to the mall I hear. I don’t think they asked her to leave.

The last problem I have with Kim’s plans for the lawsuit is her statement about people being discriminated against:

“I want them to apologize and let them know that in this day and age, a woman has a right to wear what she wants.”

That Kim, violates my constitutional rights. If a woman can wear whatever she wants, then men should be able to wear what they want.

Do you really want that?

Frankly, I’m all for a good strip show in a mall. It’s the only thing that makes going to malls bearable for me. However, I married smart in that I got a woman confident enough to know I’m not going anywhere else. So, she just shops and I just watch the people go by. I can’t really believe, especially in Richmond, which is definitely a college town, that there would be enough women intimidated by that dress. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot less roaming First Street on any given Thursday in Richmond. I also can’t believe there is a heterosexual male in Richmond that would ask that dress to leave. So, my five yeats in Richmond totally belie what I’m reading here. So, I’ll just have to accept the fact I guess that times have changed and the Richmond I grew up in and loved has changed to the point where young girls wearing very little clothing are now expected to show their privates in bars and not in shopping malls. What a very sad thing my party town has come to.

I’m putting this under Pavlov because of the obvious power Pavlov has over shopping males. ( Well for that matter, the obvious power ANYTHING has over shopping males. )

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Apr-16-07

Blacksburg Massacre

posted by Moonage

My heart and soul go out to the people of Blacksburg.

Before anyone tries to make some kind of tormented martyr out of this guy, he was an asshole of the worst possible proportion.

I don’t care what his excuse was.  And, don’t try to pin this on everyone else as this being "society’s fault".  Someone close to him had to know there was something bad wrong with this guy and didn’t take any action.  That’s not society’s fault, that’s the fault of the individuals who failed to do anything for, or to stop this guy.

He’ll rot in hell.  Anyone else that might have known what he was going to do will as well.

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags:

Aug-27-06

Flight 5191 Crashes in Lexington

posted by Moonage

A horrible accident occurred today near my hometown today. Comair flight 5191 crashed taking off from Bluegrass Airport.  49 of the 50 people aboard died.  No names have been released as of this time, but a lot of friends and family of mine use that airport frequently.  I know my family’s safe, but still waiting to see if anyone I knew was on it.  A friend of might be assisting in the identification of the bodies.  I fly out of there occasionally myself.  This is kind of a bummer.

But, what is striking me as almost surreal is that the reason the plane crashed is because it took off the wrong runway.  The runway it took off of is a very short runway for small aircraft.  It’s not lit, and it’s very short heading straight into a rolling hill.  Now, I would have assumed it being a dark runway would have alerted the crew that something was amiss, as it was rainy and foggy this morning.  But, where I fall short of trying of actually pointing any fingers is because of another incident that I remembered quite well, as I witnessed it when it happened.

From the NTSB reports page:

……SHORTLY AFTER RECEIVING APCH CLEARANCE, THE CREW SPOTTED AN ARPT WITH RUNWAY LIGHTS ON, ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN AND LANDED. THEY WERE SEVENTEEN NM FROM THEIR SCHEDULED DEST.

On July 7, 1987, a 737 heading for Lexington landed in Frankfort, KY.  This is a SMALL airport for small aircraft.  I still remember they had to put that airplane on a truck and haul it to Bluegrass.  The strip in Frankfort is way too small to take off on.  So, using the wrong strip is not unprecedented in Lexington.  Fortunately, in 1987, no one was hurt.  This time wasn’t so lucky.

What’s even scarier, Third Amendment has a LONG list of planes landing at the wrong place.  All of this just leads me to wonder what actually goes on in a control tower.  The thing about Bluegrass is it’s a small airport.  It really only has two strips.  One is huge, the other not.  They should have been able to see where 5191 was.  I’m sure all the answers will come out fairly soon on this one.  I’m not sure I really want to know the answer tho.  I might have to fly out of there again.

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags:

Dec-20-05

Miami Seaplane crash video

posted by Moonage

PoliticalTeen have somehow teamed up to get ahold of an amateur video of the airplane crash in Miami yesterday.  It is unreal.  Caution advised.

http://thepoliticalteen.net/2005/12/19/miamaplanecrash/

Here is another Grumman G73T. 

Sample seaplane

The Mallards were built from 1946 to 1951.  In the 1970’s, new engines were put on the Mallards and called the G73T.  Which leads me to my issue.  When is an airplane too old to fly?  When does the metal used to construct an airplane become too worn out to be safe?  Who makes that determination?  I mean, a FIFTY-EIGHT YEAR OLD AIRPLANE does not strike me as being safe under most circumstances.

Secondly, I never liked the design of those Mallards in the first place.  They just don’t look that structurally sound to me.  Look at what you’ve got connecting the engines to the fuselage.  It ain’t much.  To hear that one of the wings broke off in Miami yesterday doesn’t surprise me in the least.  I think it’s time we just retired all the Mallards.

I have flown the route that plane took.  It wasn’t a Mallard, but it was an old decrepit looking airplane.  The first one broke down and we were several hours late arriving in The Bahamas for our wedding/honeymoon.  They finally found another old decrepit airplane.  I didn’t feel safe, but I had no choice.  It’s time we retired all old decrepit airplanes.

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Jul-23-05

Safest and Riskiest Cities

posted by Moonage

In what I think is a sign of the times, Risk and Insurance webpage is now including risk of terrorism in their list of safe and dangerous places to live.  I toyed with their list just a little bit to get an idea of where to live if you’re kinda paranoid about anything:

Metropolitan Area Sev. Thunderstorm Hurricane Earthquake Terrorism TOTAL
Sacramento, CA 1 1 1 1 4
Atlanta, GA 2 1 1 1 5
Buffalo, NY 2 1 1 1 5
Cincinnati, OH 2 1 1 1 5
Cleveland, OH 2 1 1 1 5
Columbus, OH 2 1 1 1 5
Grand Rapids, MI 2 1 1 1 5
Greenville, SC 2 1 1 1 5
Indianapolis, IN 2 1 1 1 5
Louisville, KY 2 1 1 1 5
Milwaukee, WI 2 1 1 1 5
Newark, NJ 2 1 1 1 5
Phoenix, AZ 2 1 1 1 5
Pittsburgh, PA 2 1 1 1 5
Rochester, NY 2 1 1 1 5
Baltimore, MD 2 1 1 2 6
Charlotte, NC 2 2 1 1 6
Detroit, MI 2 1 1 2 6
Fort Worth, TX 3 1 1 1 6
Greensboro, NC 2 2 1 1 6
Hartford, CT 2 2 1 1 6
Kansas City, MO 3 1 1 1 6
Las Vegas, NV 1 1 2 2 6
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 3 1 1 1 6
Nashville, TN 3 1 1 1 6
Oakland, CA 1 1 3 1 6
Oklahoma City, OK 3 1 1 1 6