• The guy in the custom suit paid $70.
• The four guys with the newest cars chipped in a combined $28 between them.
• The last five tossed out change totaling $2 (though the ones that got to-go meals went to the bathroom when the bill arrived).

When the guys who didn’t pay a penny returned from the bathroom, they were furious that the guy in the custom suit had clearly refused to pay his fair share.

In righteous indignation they picked up their to-go meals and stormed out.

Wait… If you think THAT sounds stupid
Then you REALLY don’t want to hear the 2012 State of the Union speech, where Barrack Obama defended the idea that the guy in the suit refused to pay his fair share.

The top 10% pays 70% of ALL income taxes 
The top 50% of income earners cover 98% of the entire tab. The other half of the nation pays only 2% of the bill, with those that consume taxpayer funded social services paying nothing.

Source: Kiplinger.com - Where do you rank as a taxpayer?

Now… what’s this about not paying “their fair share”?

Obama is one helluva public speaker
He has to be to make an argument that logically fallacious sound “inspiring” to some… but with an economy on its way to becoming Greece, we don’t need a good speaker, we need a President that understands economics (or at least simple math).

Anyone that bought into his “Warren Buffet’s secretary” argument needs to hide their head, or at the very least buy a dictionary and a math book.

I'm Rob Jones... and I approve this message.

What makes a forum “die”?
If you’ve been on the web a while you’ve seen it happen. For whatever reason the regular contributing members go away and the place either becomes a ghost town or becomes over-run by bots posting links to Ugg Boots, male enhancement products, and adult links. At that point it’s useless to go there, as nothing of value is being said.

A forum is a social structure
Any social group can break up for a number of reasons. People simply losing interest in the topic is one… which is why scant few instances of active “Beanie Baby” forums can be found. There’s also the chance of personality clashes driving a wedge that causes a group to fracture and disband. But unlike social groups in real life, a major factor in a forum is the administrator and moderator function.

Starting a forum from scratch is a daunting process, and is an entirely different topic. That said, with regard to the continuing success of a forum that’s established, most that’ve been involved consider Moderation to be the single largest factor to the continuing success or downfall.

That said, let’s look at Forum Moderation… the right vs wrong way.

—————————–
DOING IT WRONG
As you stated, moderation is a major factor in the life or death of a forum. Spammers contend OVER-moderation is the problem, but in my experience forums lose good members more frequently to…

• Lax moderation – spammers flood the place, and productive members get tired of wading thru the textual equivalent of sewage
• Arbitrary & Capricious moderation – Rules are applied with a very uneven hand

—————————–
DOING IT RIGHT

Consistent Moderation
There are other factors to be considered, the whole community aspect, the overall attitude of the admins and mods, etc… but a large hurdle to keeping a forum going is to have a clear set of guidelines that are easily found and understood and regular enforcement of those guidelines. Members need to know what the boundaries are, know that if they report a problem it will be dealt with.

Genial Moderation
Guidelines should be exercised firmly but genially, and evenly so people arent left guessing what they can or cant do. Never use the infraction system where a gentle PM will suffice, particularly in the case of valued contributors.

[NOTE: I've been known to be less than genial with the guys that clearly fit the "dogs" description below. I'm learning to place it a little more between the lines, but contrary to widely circulated rumor... I'm not perfect.]

Feed the Lions, Shoot the Dogs
Exceptions should be made only where common sense dictates, with the benefit of a doubt accorded productive members that have proven to use good judgment. The rules are made for the benefit of the forum, not the other way around.

The Lions
Trust is EARNED, not GIVEN, and after a member has proven their value it is not inconsistent moderation to give a little more latitude on link drops than someone who just arrived. If you know they arent taking advantage of the system and you know their affiliations you can relax a bit, over-moderating them isn’t productive.

The Dogs
Anyone immature enough to enter a forum and assume (without glancing at the guidelines) its just fine to start cutting and pasting their URL all over needs immediate moderation to make it clear that this is not the norm.

Who are “the dogs”?

• Obvious spammers posting solely for the benefit of their sold sigs
• SEOs starting threads to ask what link juice is and how it can benefit their site
• Speed-posters going for count
• Serial trolls that visit for no purpose than to insult people

These should be removed immediately and without mercy. They add no value.

—————————–

CONCLUSION: Make rules clear, and inspect what you expect
Nothing is more frustrating to productive members than to follow guidelines while watching others ignore them without consequence. The alternative to consistent moderation is a dead forum.

I'm Rob Jones... and I approve this message.

In response to our comments one friend inserted the following:

Oh for pete’s sake. Everyone is acting like he cursed on national TV or got caught in some heinous act. Who among us hasn’t had a brain fart in their life? I could care less how good (or not so good) of a speaker our next president is. I only care if he can turn our country back around.

Do debates really matter?
I have no quarrel with her statement… just think this isn’t turning out to be Rick’s year. That could change, but he’s going to HAVE to have an amazing transformation in his debate performance for him to recover, and it has to start immediately.

Why?
Because debates have a way of making or breaking candidates. Let’s look at a few elections during my lifetime and compare:

—–

Kennedy vs Nixon
Kennedy’s stage presence on TV was a factor in his win.Those who heard it on the radio tended to score it as a win for the more experienced Nixon, who had command of the facts and a lot more experience. Those that saw it televised tended to score it as a win for the cool as a cucumber Kennedy rather than the profusely sweating and visibly uncomfortable Nixon. It looked like a polished MBA grad talking politics with a used-car salesman.

—–

Reagan vs Ford
In the run for the GOP nomination, Reagan deflecting Ford’s reference to his age with scripted but well delivered humor made it look like a choice between a rookie and a pro. Paraphrased:[I] “Sure age is a factor, but I refuse to make an issue of my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”[/I] Ford never really had a chance. The camera was Reagan’s home court.

—–

Reagan vs Carter
The sequence most recall was the deftly executed loose change analogy. Reagan stopped in the middle of a discussion of economic policy to pull a few coins from his pocket and make a down-to-earth point about economics. Not that it was that deep, but it was on a level everyone could identify with, and as stated by one pundit, only Reagan couldve pulled that one off…  Ford wouldve dropped the change, Carter wouldve screwed up the metaphor, and Nixon probably would’ve just stolen the money.

The economy was in a shambles. Inflation was skyrocketing, interest rates were above 20%, the national identity was in a post-Vietnam funk. We had been in a sustained hostage crisis with the fledgling new government of Iran, and bearded guys that looked like they dressed at Macy’s White Sale were dictating terms to us. Our embassy was taken over pretty much without a fight… Marines were denied the chance to defend it.

Reagan exuded confidence and strength. Carter looked like Mr Rogers. Carter went down as a 1-termer.

—–

Quayle vs Benson
Dan Quayle’s VP debate against the seasoned veteran Lloyd Benson foreshadowed his future skill for discovering political landmines with his own feet. Attempting to forestall criticism of his dismal level of experience, he mentioned that he was the same age JFK was when elected president. Benson countered with the now famous line about having known Jack Kennedy personally, having been his friend… followed by the clincher… “and you sir are NO Jack Kennedy”. Had Benson been atop the ticket instead of in the VP spot they’d probably have won the race.

—–

Bush (SR) vs Clinton
In the wake of the Gulf War, Bush senior was considered such a shoe-in that all major potential opposition refused to run against him. The nomination virtually went by default to a political longshot… the little known governor from an electorally insignificant state with a lot of political baggage. Clinton was reportedly a womanizer, had managed a deferment to avoid military service of any kind during Vietnam, and dealt with his history of marijuana use with the famous “but I didn’t inhale” line. His campaign was poorly funded and his staffers were comparative rookies.

In stark contrast, Clinton was matched against a seasoned political veteran, wealthy, well staffed, and with the benefit of being the incumbent.  A WW2 hero, former VP, former CIA head, former Senator, former ambassador, a favorite son of a state with electoral clout, and who’d just decisively kicked ass on an unpopular dictator in a popular conflict in record time with little loss of life on our side.

The ONLY thing Clinton really had on his side was a personal magnetism that made even those who opposed his politics admit he was a likeable guy.

Bush thought he had it won and virtually refused to campaign, creating the ill-fated “Rose Garden strategy”. The plan was to act like he was above campaigning,  just far to busy being President to prepare for this unseemly campaign thing against a clearly inferior wannabe from BFE.

Clinton, on the other hand, showed up for debates with a Kennedyesque presence that propelled him to a win against seemingly overwhelming odds. Possibly the best example of presence trumping experience and qualifications.

—–

Bush (GW) vs Gore
George W was a poor debater. There was something vaguely unsettling about handing the nuclear football to a guy that couldn’t pronounce the word “nuclear”. That given, he was up against Albert “I created the internet” Gore.

Gore had a penchant for overstating his accomplishments and the general demeanor of a wooden indian. He droned on incessantly about a social security lockbox while Bush did to English what butchers do to hogs.

The uncontested winner… Saturday Night Live. No wonder the election was almost a statistical tie.

—–

Debates are not the whole shootin’ match (BUT)
Obviously if stage presence, delivery, and the ability to think on your feet was the only criteria, Dennis Miller would now be ending his 2nd term. These are nice attributes, but it helps to also have some substantive things to say. That said, more people vote on likability than study political issues, and at least debates usually weed out guys that’d develop a deer in the headlights stance in a confrontation with foreign brass.

So basically it isn’t that I wouldn’t vote for Perry, I just think his candidacy is faltering on his lack of debate skill. I don’t know if he’s a better or worse candidate than his rivals, but I’d like to see the choice made on the basis of his ability as a candidate rather than his seeming inability as a debater, but he has to improve at that or historically he’s toast.

In truth it’d be hard to find ANYONE I wouldn’t vote for if the choice were between them vs Obama. Having seen what he apparently meant by “Hope and Change”… I’m hoping for a change, so good luck to all of the GOP hopefuls. Let’s stick to policy and skip the silliness fellas, cause there’s just too much at stake.

I'm Rob Jones... and I approve this message.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

The GOP Lives up to Their Promise (Finally)

I mean, for a while there it looked like this candidate selection process was gonna be a snooze. GOP hopefuls gathered at podiums and droned on about taxes, the economy, wasteful spending. Geeze. Do these lunkheads not know I can login to the Politics and Religion section of any webmaster forum and get definitive answers to that crap in a heartbeat?

So instead of wasting our valuable time pontificating about stuff nobody really cares about, c’mon, give us what we REALLY want.

Well, that wish has been answered

Because instead of blather about jobs and economic recovery, we finally get to the meaty stuff that millions of out of work underemployed Americans taxed so DC and their corporate buddies can line each others pockets TRULY care about… Herman Cain’s sexual proclivities and Mit Romneys religious convictions.

I for one spent the first several debates wondering why the hell nobody had the courage to ask Mit how many wives he *really* has… or whether Herman Cain might at some convention in the 90′s have hugged some delegate just a little too long for comfort. THESE are the burning questions that drive Americans to watch debates, and we will not go unfulfilled.

Frankly I’m a little disappointed

What are the most important guys in the election doing? Are the opposition researchers asleep at the wheel, cause as far as I can tell nobody has interviewed Cains high school prom date to find out if that uppity lech tried to cop a feel on the front porch. Nor does anybody appear to have checked Romney’s wallet for the Illuminati membership card that is bound to be there.

[They own everything ya know.]

Anyway, notwithstanding these minor failures to follow up…

At least they’ve done the appropriate thing and formed the traditional circular firing squad. Now instead of having to listen to meaningless drivel about economic issues we can watch accusations, counter-accusations, denials, and self-righteous bluster just as God intended. Let us all join as one to focus our ire on the only two guys in the room that have experience having to meet a payroll. If we concentrate on getting them to talk about sex and religion instead of that other boring crap maybe we can get yet another career politician into the office.

Better yet… maybe we can have four more years of bliss and prosperity under the benign largess of the offices current occupant.

Good show boys. For a bit there ya had us worried.

Coincidentally that probably holds true if you got here any other way, cause how smart could I be to have just wasted the best linkbait paragraph I’ve ever written on an un-monetized blog?

Batteries Not Included
Occasionally I have been known to mention that it’s silly to wonder why kids don’t have properly developed value systems when they’re raised by TVs and X-box’s instead of moms and dads. I might do this for any number of reasons:

* Its true
* I’m bitter at having been raised by mere humans
* It’s in the by-laws of the “People-over-50″ union and I hadn’t hit the quota
* Always did want to sound like Andy Rooney

Every generation thinks the one below them’s brain-dead, and is just as sure  it’s due to their appallingly easy and decadent lifestyle that has never required them to trudge two miles in the snow (uphill both ways) to reach  [(A) school  (B) drinking water  (C) flush-toilets  (D) Starbucks  (E) other]… so it’d be redundant to write about it again. So basically I’m saying you can ignore everything from here up, as this too isnt what I’m posting about.

Now it’s tempting to make this post about stuff the post isn’t about, then stop.
I’ll fight the urge (far as you know).

To make a long story short, it’s too late to make a long story short
So here’s the point of the title. When I was in college a couple of frat buddies and I worked together, and spent days entertaining ourselves with names for sequels to “Coma”. Basically any movie name offers ample opportunity, some better than others.

* The Good, the Bad, and the Coma

* Coma from the Black Lagoon

* Comablanca

We’d toil quietly for a stretch, then somebody’d say “A Fistful of Comas” or somesuch and we’d all crack up. Afterward we might have a deep philosophical debate on why “Singin’ in the Coma” was vastly funnier than “Coma in the Rain”, or why Jimmy Stewart probably wouldnt be right for “It’s a Wonderful Coma”.

I’m sure this says something about the heightened level of sophistication prevalent in the college greek system, but mostly speaks to the enormous number of brain cells we destroyed in the same general time period.

Anyway, thought I’d toss it out in case anyone needs and activity to play along with on a car trip or a rainy day when the batteries have lost their charge. When the novelty wears off you can switch over to the game Kat’s playing in a Facebook thread where you replace a word in a famous quote with “duck”.

That’s about it. If you made it to here you truly oughta get a hobby. Have a great weekend, and remember…

‎”This above all: to thine own duck be true.” ~ Hamlet

I'm Rob Jones... and I approve this message.

Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly.
Shut up he explained.

But hey, I had good days too. Regardless, got lucky, the kids came out pretty darned good.

My dad was the “go-to” guy for a lotta folks
He was always helping because he knew how, and people knew he knew. If he begrudged it he never mentioned it. It was typical to find he’d been at someone’s house and spontaneously repaired their pool filter or carburetor, almost always while wearing his best clothes. He just rolled up his sleeves in whatever he had on and did what needed to be done. Getting paid for his expertise wasn’t a real priority, he helped because he could.

“Popper is a fixer”
Dad’s role in life was best summed up by a toddler in an incident when we were headed over to his house with the kids. As we exited the car I kicked out a coffee cup (which I always carefully store on the floorboard of my vehicle) into the street and it busted. Sensing my frustration, Kelly, who was fairly new to speaking in full sentences at the time, said “You can take it in to Popper. Popper is a fixer.” She was right, that’s pretty much what he was, a fixer. Kids catch on quick.

Dad was part of what’s become known as “the greatest generation”… the guys that fought and won WW2, then jump started the boom of the 1950′s from an economy that’d been in a depression when they left… while spawning “the baby boom” in the process.

Archive photo of Mom and Dad plotting the baby boom at Ft Worth Botanical Gardens.

They were a self-sufficient bunch
The last in our country that predominantly grew up “on the farm”. They had that farm work ethic, you got up early and worked from “Can til Can’t”, and they knew how to do things. They knew everything from engines to firearms to long division. I consider myself a good shot, but still recall in awe seeing him take a target off a telephone line, offhanded, from a moving car, with iron sights. [Hey, long drive, we were bored, way out in the sticks.] And lest I be impressed I managed a Finance degree before PCs… hand drawing spreadsheets aided by a calculator… he got a Mathematics degree armed with a slide-rule. He wins.

The guy never bought anything he could fabricate
And having been a machinist in the Navy and an engineer by trade, there wasnt much he couldn’t fabricate. Drove me nuts. He’d spend two hours creating a part I could’ve picked up at the store for $2, but the guys raised in the depression didn’t go “store bought” if they could do it themself. McGuyver could have taken lessons from the man.

I owe a huge debt not just to my dad, but to many of that generation
They were the fraternity that raised us. Some that come to mind…

Joe Dunham – My RA leader (think Baptist Boy Scouts)
Joe never begrudged us his time. He took us camping, took us fishing, taught us the ropes (literally), and a lot about ethics, duty, brotherhood, and self-reliance. Sometimes intentionally, more often by example.

When I was in first grade we were on the old SilverLake Fishing Barge pulling an overnighter, I was whimpering about having to use this gross-to-the-extreme bathroom. [Lol, kids whine about anything.] He gave me a comparison about the hand dug latrines they’d lived with in the war. To this day I’m not positive if he was in WW2 or Korea, and I kick myself for being too young to think to ask.

Thinking of this brings memories of snipe hunts (our initiation for the new members on a campout), belt-lines (we learned our actions had consequences), slithering on my belly thru the grass in late night capture the flag games, and wandering dry creekbeds at a weeklong camp in the summer. It’d drive today’s lawsuit-scared leaders to death. Joe knew kids weren’t real breakable.

He lived in a well kept modest home with his wife and kids, and sold insurance. I was a teenager before I realized he had a job besides teaching kids that were only his responsibility because he chose, letting us know when to use a bowline knot and when to use a sheetbend.

Another that comes to mind: Joe Taylor
Joe was also one of my RA leaders for a while, but also taught our age group “Sunday School” for many years. His son was my best friend in elementary school, and I went camping and fishing with Joe and his boys.

Joe taught me to use a plastic worm to fish, adding a new weapon to my repertoire (my dad was solidly in the “live-bait” group). Caught my first catfish on a fake worm at a stockpond while camping with him. I recall those campouts when I see the 3-inch scar down my arm where his kid and I used a board over a saw-horse as a makeshift teter-totter. Accidents happen, skin heals, memories are worth a few scars.

We learned a lot from him, and at some point I recall him mentioning he’d been a POW in Germany. Again, I didn’t grasp the gravity.

All we knew about POW camps we learned watching Hogan’s Heroes. For all I knew he’d had a great time with a lovable but klutzy guard who said “I know NOTHINK!” a lot. We had no idea we were in the company of quiet heroes all around us, men who had sacrificed much, men who pretty much saved the world, and they never mentioned it.

My uncles and pretty much most of the guys I knew as a kid
…all served in the wars that immediately preceded my birth. My dad, one of the youngsters of his family, got old enough to  join the Navy right as the war was closing. He did a tour in the South Pacific while there were still pockets of die-hard Nippons that didn’t know the war was over. Who knew these guys could critique movies like “Battle of the Bulge” and “Midway” better than the rest of us cause they’d seen the play?

What I did know was things like fishing for flat-head with my dad on the Pontchartrain levee in 4th grade after he’d worked all day. At no point did it occur he might be exhausted from work, nor how lucky I was he’d spend the time many parents don’t do today. Just wondered how he could snack on those awful sardines we were using for bait.

And though this has stretched long, here’s the point. None of the guys above, nor others that contributed similarly… were as far as I’m aware a huge financial “success” by standards of today, nor appeared interested in it. Normal houses, no expensive toys. Just not self-centered. They lived productive lives, raised their family, did their job, and helped in their community. Their values did not involve a dollar sign.

In my 30′s… Success was measured in dollars
When Dad died I reassessed. I looked at wealthy but useless guys living like sharks that cant stop moving or they’ll die. Then looked at those who shaped my life. Dollar signs are an inadequate tool to measure by. Don’t get me wrong, money’s fun, BUT devoting your entire existence to becoming the richest corpse in the cemetery is a wasted life even if you accomplish it.

As penned by Robert Louis Stevenson, here’s a better model to measure by:

That man is a success who has lived well,
Laughed often and loved much;
Who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who leaves the world better than he found it,
Whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a rescued soul,
Who never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it;
Who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had.

I'm Rob Jones... and I approve this message.

The cameras are equipped with visual recognition software that calculates the calories each child consumes. The software is said to be smart enough to adjust for a partially eaten apple.

This initiative is a part of a government funded 2 million dollar pilot program to create a pilot program that spends 2 million dollars in government funds. Oddly there was no mention that spending education dollars on smarter cameras might eat into the budget devoted to producing smarter kids.

Great, we needed more irony in our diet anyway.

This of course probably wouldn’t be necessary if kids actually played games that didn’t have batteries or plug into an outlet. Maybe we could cure the obesity thing with a few more games of dodge ball… unless somebody thinks getting hit with a rubber ball does more damage to their ego than becoming a candidate for the next season of “The Biggest Loser”.

Do we *really* have so much money in our education budget that this is considered a viable education expense? C’mon guys… repeat after me… reading, writing, arithmetic. If you’re just trying to find a place to spend extra dollars, consider spending it on the teachers.

Being in a position of authority does not give anyone the right to physically assault me at any time in my life. If you were to physically attack me in any manner you’d be arrested, put in jail and subsequently sued. Battery is a criminal offense and no position of authority puts anyone above the law.

So why would you think that it would be okay to do that to me as a child?

My response follows… it’s long, but if you have the notion the statement above is right, try to wade through my reply (below). I have this suspicion people are too damned willing to accept “a good argument” that agrees with what they feel despite the simple fact that it isn’t born out by results. At some point we really need to notice the facts on the ground don’t support the reason current rules are in place… and many children now feel entitled to act out without repercussion.

Yeah I know… this proves “I’m old”. Sue me. There was a time when we valued experience.

——————————————–

“Rights” are a legal concept. “Assualt” is a legally defined term. 
Our rights in this country are set forth on paper explicitly. Unless something violates those, while you may object, it is not a violation of your “rights”.

Not every form of physical contact of which you disapprove is automatically against the law or constitutes criminally actionable “assualt”. For the first 200 years of our countries existence there was never any suggestion that corporal punishment violated any “rights” or constituted “assault”. It was just the way children were taught not to do things.

Exhibit A:
Meet Texas in the barbarous ’60s and 70′s
As recently as my own childhood (born in ’57) it was standard for principals, coaches and most teachers to use a paddle to enforce rules. Female teachers generally brought in a male teacher with a strong arm, tho some administered their own “licks”. Paddle dimensions were typically 3-4″ across and length typically about 2 1/2 ft.

Preference of wood varied. Shop teachers often crafted the beauties hanging in various teachers offices. Mr Murphy (Science teacher) went high tech, his was 3/8″ plexiglass with holes drilled in it. You could tell who’d been crosswise with Murphy when we dressed in athletics… the distinctive pattern lasted about a week.

“Thank you sir”
Nobody got dragged around by the arm, we knew the standard drill. If we violated the rules we got busted. The coach/principal/dean was judge, jury, and executioner of sentence. Right then, right there, no chance of appeal. If he deemed it necessary, we grabbed our ankles and lick(s) were administered. After which we turned and shook his hand and said “Thank you SIR”. Failure to follow the procedure meant additional licks. Failure to accept the punishment meant expulsion. Girls almost never got licks, they generally got detention instead, but they seldom pushed the limits like teenage boys are prone to.

Things you could get busted for were numerous
It wasnt a litigious group, basically if you did something that was against the rules and got caught, you might get busted. Some teachers/coaches were more prone to that action, and we all knew who would nail us if we did something in their class and planned accordingly. It could be as innocuous as failing to meet the dress code. I was busted for not shaving once in 8th grade, busted for gambling (pitching pennies) during woodshop, various other infractions. You could of course also get it for fighting, mouthing off to a teacher, entering class after the bell, or other breaches.

Yes… it was an evil era, and the violence caused lifelong trauma 
Skinner (my best friend) and I got caught fighting. Hey, he shot me in the face with a high pressure hose, as in “you could put an eye out with that thing”. We were given a choice between licks or “putting on the gloves” to finish it. As licks sucked, and the alternative allowed us to finish what was started, we chose the gloves. FTR, he won when a well placed shot to the solar plexus paralyzed my ability to breathe… can’t swing if you cant breathe. Note to self: Avoid fights with the captain of the football team, especially if he has Golden Gloves experience. A few years later we were “Best Man” at each others weddings. Yeah… violence causes lifelong trauma. Suure. 

More “violence for fun and games”
At one point Mr Bledsoe (a shop teacher) noticed a minor fracture in his paddle. The guys in shop were a macho crew, so he declared a contest. The guys that wanted a shot at owning the instrument of torture that was his beautifully crafted pecan paddle could line up and take a lick each until it broke to the point of requiring replacement. It would be awarded to the guy he broke it on. Nearly everyone in there had been hit with that thing a few times, and we wanted the trophy. Last time I looked it was still in a closet at my mom’s house.

Bottom line, we simply understood that society has rules…
We followed them if we wished to remain in our society. These were NOT love taps, they were ”lift your rear in the air and leave a magnificent bruise” hard. I got a boatload of them, as did my friends. It wasnt something we went to mommy and daddy about and asked them to call a lawyer… it was understood that if we didnt follow the rules we’d accept the punishment for that action. Our parents would have thought us daft for whining.

Exhibit B
We had MUCH greater access to weapons in that era 
We all owned firearms and were familiar with their use.

• - There were NO 5 day waiting periods for purchase,
• - You could buy firearms by mail,
• - There were no bans on “assault rifles” or high capacity mags,
• - The concept of a “gun free school zone” had never been discussed, much less implemented
• - Every male I knew carried a pocket knife

Also… every male I knew owned one or all of the following… a BB/pellet gun, a .22 rifle, a shotgun (either pump or semi-auto), and a deer rifle… usually in 30-30 or 30-06. You could have held off a regiment with the firearms accessible to the kids in my junior high, and most of us were excellent marksmen.

We occasionally brought them to school and store them in our lockers on days we planned to go hunting after school. Nobody cared. Nobody feared. We were responsible gun owners from childhood and we were accustomed to following the rules of our society. We KNEW there were consequences if we didnt. We were raised that way.

By the reasoning common today… 
It is widely accepted as “fact” that

• (A) kids treated to corporal punishment are prone to violent misbehavior AND
• (B) access to guns causes misuse of guns.

Problem is… we had MUCH greater access and virtually zero formal rules about guns, and we were treated with what is in todays terms “violence”. BUT… there were no school shootings in the time I was raised in high schools or under. The only one at University level was at the University of Texas in the 60s. Half of Austin returned fire with deer rifles retrieved from the racks in pickups and then a few armed citizens plus an off-duty cop went up after him and shot him dead.

We had the means and supposedly the motive, why didnt we have school shootings? Why are todays kids that are largely raised without the “violence” the ones who introduced us to “school shootings”?

“Results” trump “a good argument”
In our era there were NO instances like Columbine. In the current “we dont beat kids” society there have been MANY shootings from grade schools thru grad school, despite (if not because of) less corporal punishment and a plethora of gun laws. My generation, clearly raised by means you consider violent… was remarkably LESS prone to react to negative stimulus with extra-judicial lethal force than kids growing up now.

We had far more access to the tools to exercise ”a little street justice”… 
…But the concept that we were little princes entitled to break rules and not have a finger laid on us was absolutely foreign. Many kids today are, to be blunt, coddled wimps who think anyone (including parents) that administers physical punishment should be placed behind bars. God help them if they join the military with the expectation mommy and daddy’s lawyer will be of service if they get break rules.

Trust me, kids raised under today’s standards are in for a major education if they enlist in the USMC. I was an officer candidate in the Marine Corps at Quantico VA in the mid 70s… and the stuff everyone is claiming is “torture” in the Brad Manning case is actually far less stringent than the treatment of guys that were upcoming officers living in my squadbay.

Earlier generations were raised with realistic expectations of how life works. But now…

• Children can’t play dodgeball because it’s just too violent,
• Can’t be punished without a court order and two lawyers present,
• Discipline by a parent or teacher could result in the adult being imprisoned,
• Every child on a sports team gets a trophy regardless of performance,
• Soccer and t-ball games are played without keeping score to protect their supposedly fragile self-esteem.

If this crap really worked, explain why school shootings came with this principle and was noticeably absent before it. If the “logic” supporting the current ideas were sound, it’d be the other way around. People that believe the current methods work need to quit telling us about the labor pains if they can’t show us the damned baby. 

BOTW was originally started as an awards site in ’94, the same year the precursor company to Netscape released the MOSAIC browser that helped bring the net into more public use. The prestigious “Best of the Web” awards were big stuff in the young internet community of the time, and ran into the late 1990′s. The awards were created in April of’94, and I suspect “spam” was invented about 5 minutes later.

The original BOTW awards logo

Shortly after the awards program shut down the rights to BOTW were purchased by the infamous “BOTW boys” and developed as a general directory… and internet (as well as t-shirt and hoodie) history followed. You can see that story (and the 25% off BOTW promo code good thru end of the month) at the BOTW Blog post, Best of the Web 17th Birthday Promo.

Be sure to watch the 1994 video of Bryant Gumbels “What is the internet anyway?” dialogue with Katie Courie. How times have changed.

Incidentally, that blog is getting a makeover as we speak. Can’t wait to see the final product. It’s being set up to match the look of the much sleeker BOTW corporate site… http://bestoftheweb.com/ .

Nothing else exciting to add here, just figured I’d toss a little link love at this one so my webbie friends don’t miss out on the big BOTW birthday promo.

Just outta curiousity, when are you going to send one of those guys to my house instead of these clueless moronic inbred sonsabitches you’ve been sending, cause I’m really looking forward to it.

Not that it wasnt fun when you sent the last guy
It was interesting watching him walk around talking to some girl on his bluetooth about some other couple that was having romantic issues. Still, I got the nagging feeling he didn’t give a rats ass about my cable issues.

In his defense he did discover that the crew prior to him set up the cable in such a way that my “dedicated” computer line was getting about half the signal it was supposed to get. Now for the record, though I know little about cabling I DID end up being the one that figured out a workaround to it… but then I had the advantage of being able to concentrate, I didn’t have a girl in my ear aggravated because I had interrupted the important conversation to talk to guy about some pissy little cable issue.

Of course before that…
You had the guys that didnt show up at all when I was to be hooked up. Oh I confirmed the appointment and all, but they couldnt find the house even though I got yet another call while waiting, just to make sure I stayed put while they didnt come. They never showed, and nobody called to say they wouldn’t I waited for nothing. Good times.

Wait, your service does NOT work on windy days?
Notwithstanding the self-aggrandizing horse-shit you say on your commercials about your cable service…you never at any point say that it will NOT work if theres a hint of wind in the air. Might have been a pertinent detail to point out when I signed up for your service.

Don’t get me wrong, I dont think you are stupid
I admire your balls. You have the gutsiest revenue plan on the planet. You charge people for a service they need, and *usually* you deliver it. Then once in a while you cease to deliver it, or make the delivery of the service they are paying for intermittent on it’s best days.

Here’s the great part…
When the customer calls to ask WHY you arent delivering what they pay for every month… you charge them about half their monthly bill to have a guy come out to their house and investigate why you arent doing what you agreed to do in the first place.

Added bonus
If they do a poor job of fixing the problem, even better, cause you’ll charge that customer AGAIN if the fix doesnt hold. Pretty smooth. Kudos to you… Somalian pirates would blush at your boldness.

Can you say DTPA?
In Texas, the term for what you’re doing is encompassed in a piece of law called the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. You may not be familiar with it now, but when you are, it’ll be too late. Think about the number of people the AG could include in a class action suit, and you’ll LOVE the section about “treble damages”. That’d have an effect on your balance sheet felt all the way to your call center in Mumbai or wherever the guys that take my calls are really located.

Seriously, you have technicians on their way to my house tomorrow
I’ve complained about this problem before, and you even supposedly fixed it in October. I am not paying for your failure to fix it. I’m tired of you promising one thing and delivering something far less. Here’s how real customer service works: Nobody wants to hear about the damned labor pains, we just want to see the baby.

By the way…
If you send another self-absorbed punk with a bluetooth conversation going from the moment he steps in the door… hope you have a sterling health insurance program. He’s gonna need medical assistance to get that freakin bluetooth from where it’s gonna be located when he leaves.

Have a nice day. ~ Rob