Sunday, December 20, 2009
Welcome To Shel's Rants & Raves
A place where I will try to entertain you and make you think. A place where I welcome you to share your thoughts on the subjects I post. Subjects are things that annoy the hell out of us in everyday life. I will try to post a new one every week allowing a week for discussion if anyone actually reads this.
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Screen Formats
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or are the people in the movie and TV industry completely unable to come to a decision?
I’ve just purchased a Hi-Definition TV system a wide screen Mitsubishi 73-inch TV and I now believe myself ready for the “1080p Digital Age.” However, to my dismay, I find when flipping channels on my new TV that absolutely nothing ever seems to fill the television screen. One channel, there are black bars at the top. The next channel, there are black bars on the sides. The next, there are black bars on the bottom but smaller.
Also, if I pick a channel and stay there, every picture is different, and during commercials the image black bars bounce all over the place from top to bottom to sides.
Has no one informed the people in TV or advertising about the 16-by-9 screen format on all new TVs? Were they home, sick, the day the memo was passed around at the office? This must be the case because while almost all new TVs manufactured are generally 16-by-9 screen format, no one making TV shows or commercials is using this format.
This concept also apparently extends to the directors of movies, too, because very few of my DVDs or even my new Blu-Ray DVDs seem to fill the screen properly either. Is this screen format like some communicable disease, spreading and mutating so that the picture is never the same?
I blame the government and the FCC for this one. When problems like this affecting multiple industries and millions of people come up, our government should properly herd them in the right direction so some uniformity can be achieved. However, the FCC seems to have fallen down on this one. Or maybe it’s a case of just being asleep at the switch.
Directors of movies are having to stop filming things in 2:35-to-1 unless they start manufacturing TV in 2:35 to 1. There are entirely too many screen formats -- 4-by-3, 16-by-9, 2:35-to-1 -- and nobody is willing to do what the others are doing. Come on people! Let’s get together and agree on a picture size and then get the government to force everybody to do things in this size.
Introspection
ReplyDeleteHave we become so arrogant we listen to no one?
Recently I've become more and more aware that most people are no longer listening to
those around them. When I was growing up it was always considered "cool" to ignore the
advice or wisdom of your parents, but lately this seems to be spreading to friends,
co-workers and significant others as well.
Have we truly become a nation of people who will accept no criticism? The art of
introspection seems to be dying a slow death. Have people in the United States
become so arrogant and self-assured that we no longer value the opinions of advice
of colleagues or friends?
It seems it doesn't matter whether it's a girlfriend or wife advising you on a choice
of shirts, or scientists refusing to listen to the views of other scientists. As soon
as criticism of our views, choices or work is offered our defense mechanism goes into
high gear. We no longer examine the statement to see if it has merit or value. Instead
we immediately go into a defensive stance and retaliate, defending our view, idea or deed.
This was usually not a method associated with people with a higher education. They were
after all college graduates, educated people who were supposed to pride themselves on
their higher thinking and deductive reasoning. They were trained to listen, observe and
deduce from the information presented. But I am beginning to find it prevalent in all
walks of life, whether it's an associate telling me how he's going to fix a problem or
a company that ignores it's customers.
Psychologists will tell you that this defense mechanism stems from our own insecurities.
But have we become so frightened by the other people out there that we feel we have
to snarl and growl to frighten them off? Will the lions eat us for dinner if we don't
protect ourselves, perhaps. I'd like to say I'm immune to this condition... but sadly
I can not. We all have a tendency to protect our turf. This used to be solely a male
condition, but with women's liberation and new power female they have adopted our ways.
In some cases even more protective, because they feel we may think them weak if they
don't lash back in true male fashion.
Here is a prime example of the concept I'm talking about. I'm 63 years old and in 63
years no company has ever asked what I thought about their product. Oh sure, they
sometimes send me surveys that they say are about my opinions but if you examine them
closely you'll find that they're really just cleverly disguised forms to determine
your demographics, or worse yet marketing information they can sell to another company.
I bought a $30,000 Ford Mustang GT, did Ford ever ask me if I was pleased with the car,
ReplyDeletewas their anything they could improve on? The answer is no, they never did. Oh sure they
sent me a survey from the dealer asking if I was pleased with the service I received
while purchasing the vehicle. But no one ever asked me how pleased I was with the car
or if I thought there were some improvements that could be made. Presumably they
figured they'd thought of everything on their own and my input wasn't needed. Would you
not call this arrogant?
This is not an isolated incidence either, I purchased a $4,000 dollar TV set and the
only questions the company had for me were what magazines did I read and did I have a
computer and an Internet connection. Clearly they could care less whether I was
pleased with the TV set or not. Their only goal was to gather as much information about
me as they could short of asking me how much I had in the bank. Don't you find it sad
that in 63 years not one company has asked for input or evaluation?
Of course I don't even want to mention the Government who has decided that your too
stupid to come to a decision on a whole range of issues, so they'll decide for you.
Whether it's smoking, abortion, seatbelts or anything else, they know best. They tell
me one of the hottest topics this year will be medical care. Issues like medical care
for seniors without insurance and drug prices and availability of drugs for those
who need them. So have you received any survey from your government asking for your
thoughts on these matters? Of course not, they're to busy arguing amongst themselves.
Nor will they listen to each other either.
It doesn't matter whether it's a guy blowing his horn at you while you're driving,
or a company not caring about their own product or a government who believes you to
be to stupid to make your own decision. Whatever happened to introspection? When
somebody blows the horn at me, do I immediately starting screaming back at him or do
I examine the situation and see if perhaps there's not something I've done wrong?
Have we become so self-assured and over confident in the United States that we no
longer examine our decisions and choices? We no longer accept input from friends,
parents or associates? Is this truly becoming a world of "My way or the highway",
or can we cure ourselves and seek enlightenment from others?
Sheldon Frick
Observation – 3%
ReplyDeleteI myself personally have found a way to revolutionize the tax structure, one that
will benefit every taxpaying citizen in the United States. Everybody pays 3%
federal taxes. Now there are those you who will say that this isn’t enough
because we’re already pay around 15% and that there is nothing revolutionary
about this. But you misunderstand me I mean EVERYBODY.
There are NO exceptions to my 3% rule. We don’t care if you have no children or
eight children, 3% no exceptions. There are no more deductions for anything, none
whatsoever. Everybody pays 3%. If your gross income is $30,000 dollars for the
year you pay $900 dollar in taxes. If you gross income is $200,000 dollars you pay
$6,000 in taxes. It’s very simple 3% no matter what your gross income. I don’t
care what medical bills you have or what loans, the same price for everyone.
Now here comes the revolutionary part. 3% means businesses too. If you own a small
business that grossed $500,000 dollars for the year you owe $15,000 dollars in taxes.
I am not interested in what business expenses you had, or company vehicles you
purchase or social security you paid to employees, 3% flat no exceptions.
If your General motors and you made two billion dollars in gross income then you
owe $60 million dollars in taxes.
When I say no exceptions I mean it. That goes for churches too no exceptions.
If you collection money from church goers and run a bingo game on Friday nights and
this generates an income of a million dollars a year for your church you owe
$30,000 dollars in federal taxes. Everybody pays the same amount. There is no more
arguing over who’s paying what, 3% no exceptions. Whether you’re rich or your poor,
whether you’re a blue collar worker or the CEO of IBM, 3% no exceptions. Same for
businesses, I don’t care if you run a Mom & Pop Garden Nursery or your Microsoft
3%, no exceptions.
This will end the need for complicated tax forms listing all your deductions and all
the crap you normally need to fill out 3%, that’s it. Everyone can file an EZ-1040
form for all I care. Now some of you may say this would get rid of all the people
auditing things in the IRS. No so, they’d just be doing a different job.
Instead of investigating whether the truck you bought is a business deduction,
they’d be auditing people to make sure the government is getting their 3%. And if
you’re worried about a lot of accountants and CPA’s being unemployed don’t be.
I think you’ll find they have a whole bunch of new customers in the church group.
I believe if everyone paid that 3% with no exceptions, it would generate the same
amount of money they’re already getting. It’s the fairest system in the land,
everybody pays the same amount. It’s the motto of the United States
“All men are created equal”. We just carry that forth to “All people pay the same
amount.” What could be fairer than that.
Here’s something even more radical than my 3% solution to taxes. Everybody pays 3%
ReplyDeleteno exceptions. But you can pick where you want 50% of that 3% to go, Congress and
the Senate and the government department of budgets will still control the other
50%. We could list various categories on you tax form and you fill in the amounts
you want to go there. All those amounts still have to total half of your 3%,
but you chose how your tax dollars are spent.
If you support a strong military presence in the world, fine put all of your 50% there.
If you support drug help for senior citizens and stronger social security, fine put
your money there. If you want to spread it around in a dozen categories, fine as
long as it totals 50% of your 3%. That way no one is unhappy to learn that the
government is giving money for a research grant in to the sex life of ants with
your hard earned dollars. You decide what you support and how your tax dollars are spent.
To make it easy on the taxpayer there might be say 50 general categories on the form
where you can fill in a dollar amount. Plus your normal 1.5% where you have no say.
There could be a little paragraph for the 50 or so categories giving you some
explanation of other things under this category like they give you on a voting
ballot explaining the complex statement in simpler terms.
Congress would be completely unable to transfer funds from one area to another.
Everybody has to pay taxes in America. It seems that the problem is that people
don’t object to the taxes, but to how the tax dollars are spent. This solves the
problem. Something that is popular and important to people will receive a larger
portion of the money. Something that is unpopular with the people will receive a
smaller portion of the money. Congress will still have the other half to bolster
up things that it considers important and this might also generate a whole new
area for politicians to campaign in. They would try to generate interest and
support in the areas they feel are important and encourage people to put
their 1.5% in there.