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Comments Posted By SmotPoker

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Indeed I can KT. A place called Mikey’s Burgers and Fries which has 2 places near me and a 3rd soon to open in the next town over. From what my daughter who’s had 5 Guys burgers has said they are exactly like those. Same taste, same type of fries. Good stuff. Supposed to have good malts as well.

» Posted By SmotPoker On December 15, 2013 @ 6:31 pm

You know you’ve pissed somebody off when you order some burgers to be delivered during some pretty heavy snow, the delivery driver passes your place twice prompting you to scramble to the door still lounging in your sleep pants, and slippers so that you can grab their attention, and end up having the door that never locks right unless the deadbolt is used close shut behind you, and somehow finding the ability to all of sudden manage to stay locked…..

I’m not superstitious, hell I’m not even a little stitious, but something isn’t adding up. In light of this I wish to put forth a sincere apology to whichever wizard, or witch I managed to piss off. I’m really sorry, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Thanks.

» Posted By SmotPoker On December 15, 2013 @ 1:42 pm

We were hitting the thread pretty steady, but I doubt that was the root cause of the problem. We were really going strong for a bit.

» Posted By SmotPoker On December 14, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

I think a lot of it has to do with the diversity inherent in the progressive community. So many voices, each with ideas competing to be heard as opposed to the conservatives who are hive minded, and are in lockstep against anything that pulls the nation forward rather than protecting the status quo.

Try having a conversation with 3 different cannabis growers, each with a different process for their labor, each swearing that it is superior to the other fellows. It’s like trying to herd cats. It’s very much like in progressive community. We are cats, each seeking our own direction rather than banding together in lockstep.

Is it a good thing? To be honest I don’t know. I celebrate diversity, and diverse thoughts, but there is something to be said for having some hive mentality allowing us all to work as one rather than as millions of different voices shouting from the wilderness. I truly do not know…

» Posted By SmotPoker On December 13, 2013 @ 10:31 am

I have a subject that is near and dear to my heart. It concerns the young people of this generation. I’m talking about kids my daughters age 18-25.

My daughter has a Macbook Pro, (against my strenuous objections) that she uses for college. I tried to explain to her the damage that Apple does both at home and abroad, but I fear it has fallen on deaf ears. Having grown up having her every desire fulfilled (MY FAULT, I know) she has no concept of what others that are less fortunate go through in life. She’s never had to live in a place like Detroit, or Inkster, MI where she would be a distinct minority. She hasn’t seen people living on the streets. She fails to see the damage that has been wrought in the age of ever increasing government intrusion, and corporate political power run amok.

Luckily(?) I have seen those things. I’ve lived through them. I’ve felt hard times myself on a personal basis. So how do we get through to them that this is NOT the America those of us that came of age in the 70’s and 80’s grew up in? What’s it take?

I spent over a decade in the semiconductor industry. I traveled all over the world to different fabs (manufacturing facilities). I’ve seen first hand the dormitory conditions in Asian nations such as Singapore, S. Korea, and Taiwan have in place for their workers. Most of their workers come from the rural areas of these nations with little education, and even less opportunity. I’ve seen the workers getting paid what amounts to slave wages, toiling away for 12 hr shifts, only to go home after their work to their dreary dorm with 3-5 roommates that they share nothing in common with, except the blight of being born poor.

Today, we see that companies like Apple or GE that export both jobs, and money to avoid taxes, and fair wage laws in the US. How can we make our children see the evil in this practice? How can we get them onboard against such behavior? Far too many are striving to have what everyone else has, failing to see the damage done with their purchasing power.

I’m not ranting against the young people of today, many of them are quite aware of the damage being done with their hard earned dollars, and do take stands against “the man”. In fact a lot of them are far ahead of where I was in having a social conscious at that age. Alas, far too many of them simply don’t care. I’ve got mine, so fuck it, no skin off my nose….

That must change, it has to change. We are digging our own graves, and the only voices we hear are commands to dig faster. That has to change. I ask again, how can I relay the damage done, the plight of the exploited workers that have no options if they wish to eat, and have a place to live? How do you open eyes that refuse to see?

I wish I had taken some pictures of the campuses I have seen, the worker bees all dressed the same shuffling to work with the masses. I wish I had taken the time to snap some photos of the dorms filled with grown adults living like college kids under the authoritative thumb of their employer, their rights restricted, curfews, and rules against fraternization.

I remember one fab in particular that I found to be completely gross. Before entering the clean room one must put on a “bunny suit” that covers your body preventing you from contaminating the product. Part of those suits were booties/boots that you pulled from a bin. Now, that in itself isn’t so bad right? Guess again, the bin you pull the boots from are the discard bin that workers leaving the fab place their boots in. Imagine the skin crawling feeling as you put on a pair of warm, sweaty, boots that just came off another worker….Ewwwwww!

How do we teach them to become ethical consumers rather than mindless consumers? I’d love to hear some thoughts on this matter. I know when I was that age, very little mattered to me outside of my own little monkeysphere, and it was to my, and societies detriment that we are paying the price for today. We must stop the cycle.

» Posted By SmotPoker On December 13, 2013 @ 10:07 am