Random Thoughts

Originally posted Sept. 28, 2005

Fustercluck Week is mellowing a little today...although we seem to be continuing this odd practice of not delivering our own newspapers to our own building. It happens a few days a week...totally at random, too. WTF? I had to go buy a newspaper from a display box this morning. The company owes me 50 cents. I will collect.

So get this...we got a fax the other day (one of several thousands of faxes that come through here each week...of which only a small number is actually something relevant to us...die, trees, die!) from FEMA, entitled "Telephone Scams Target Hurricane Victims."

Here's the beginning of what it says:

"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While disaster victims are working to get their lives back to normal, con artists are busy with telephone scams designed to further traumatize those who have already suffered great losses.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are warning people to be especially alert to anyone contacting them by telephone claiming to be a government official or FEMA representative.

Recent reports of fraud include con-artists calling victims asking for personal information such as Social Security and bank account numbers so they can get them money for repairs or rent."

Pardon my French, but how freakin' pathetic. Up until recently, I think I was a sheltered California suburb girl who wanted to believe all people are inherently good in some way, and that negative circumstances are what contribute to turning people "bad." But things like this serve to change my opinion.

Are some people really born "evil"? Are we products of our environment, or do we have innate qualities instilled in the womb? What does it take for someone to do something as low as call up someone who has lost everything -- their house, their city, their life as they know it -- and try to take advantage of them? I can't imagine a worse thing to do to these hurricane victims. What scum.

What is it that really motivates people to carry out heinous acts? What is their frame of mind...do they think what they're doing is OK? Do they not care? Do they think they won't get caught? Are they not, as we say, "all there"? There is a lot about human behavior I don't understand. In retrospect, I should have minored in behavorial science, or sociology, or psychology. That's if I had had time for a minor...had I not been so freakin' overambitious in college and focused so intensely on journalism.

This FEMA press release also makes me consider the nation as a whole right now. We are not doing well. We're falling apart, and instead of helping, people are looting, taking advantage, poking holes in weak spots that should be shored up with human kindness and hospitality. Am I saying no one's helping? No. What I'm saying is, for every 10 people out there busting their butts to lend a hand, there's a few black flies in the chardonnay seeking to undo it all.

We, as Americans, are too much a society of one. We seem to only care about ourselves (and by that, I mean on an individual level) a good deal of the time, or about what other countries are doing and how we can get them to do things our way. I don't know how, but our citizens need to learn more about respect and selflessness. There is probably no solution to that...just saying, instead of helping heal a broken limb, we seem more inclined to just hack it off.

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I was musing last night...I think Hostess may have a dirty mind. Its three most well-known products are Twinkie, Ho Ho and Ding-Dong. Hmm. Wonder what inspired those monikers. If it involves the Hostess CEO, a seedy motel room and a Vegas showgirl, I don't want to know. Or maybe the answer lies in the name "Hostess." Yeeeessss (Mr. Burns fingers) ... that could be it.

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I have wondered for a long time...why is motorcycle pronounced motorSYCKLE, but bicycle is pronounced biSICKLE. Both contain the word "cycle" ... why are they said differently? Why not biSYCKLE? 'Twould make more sense anyway -- a cycle with two wheels. Bi-cycle. Hmph.

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The A's are out of the AL West running and the Giants are well on their way to joining them if they lose to the lowly Padres tonight. Wait...we don't want steroids in baseball because why??