If companies are so worried about making profits, perhaps they need to change their business models. Overcharging the consumer for substandard products or services is NOT GOOD BUSINESS!

Charging a reasonable price and doing good work/producing well-made products will get people to use that product/service, thus making you money. They will tell others of the positive experience, then others will want it and seek out that product/service; hence, you make MORE MONEY!

Unfair pricing, bilking consumers will only turn them off and make them keep their money in their pockets as they decide the service/product isn’t worth it, even if they need it, they’ll do without for as long as they can, possibly until you’ve closed your doors because you were too expensive and/or someone else cheaper has come along.

Try taking a long-term view: if you offer value and honest, affordable services/products, people will come and KEEP COMING, making you more money over time. A constant profit — and who wouldn’t want that?!

     How is revamping the same old product innovative? If you didn’t produce your best the first time, maybe you ought to put a bit more effort and thought into developing a product BEFORE ever releasing it. It’s as if products are now the new Operating Systems, which aren’t really new just “prettier”.

     Once Upon A Time - just watched the episode that aired yesterday, 3/18, and thought it good. It had just enough Henry, the queen’s costuming was good (though I sort of wanted her more in a hooded robe while riding down the Queen’s Road), David/James/Charming is proving to be a bit of a jerk, and all the little intrigues continue to interest me. I do like the Queen and Rumple being at odds with each other, but I hate his giggle; it’s really irritating! I suppose it’s a quality they would want in a villain.

     The dwarves are cute for their fat, little noses and ears that stick out. I still have a thing for the actor that plays Grumpy, but that aside I think they are adorable as the Seven Dwarves. Their smiles are infectious. Jimminy <sp> I sort of want to squish. He is a bit of a wimp…and is a bug, after all…LOL!!

     I have to find something a bit more serious to talk about, but I think I’ve spoken of my hatred of humans enough for now…

tobia:

The love story that changed history: Fascinating photographs of interracial marriage at a time when it was banned in 16 states

Just 45 years ago, 16 states deemed marriages between two people of different races illegal.

But in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, who was white, and his wife, Mildred Loving, of African American and Native American descent.

The case changed history - and was captured on film by LIFE photographer Grey Villet, whose black-and-white photographs are now set to go on display at the International Center of Photography.

Twenty images show the tenderness and family support enjoyed by Mildred and Richard and their three children, Peggy, Sidney and Donald.

The children, unaware of the struggles their parents face, are captured by Villet as blissfully happy as they play in the fields near their Virginia home or share secrets with their parents on the couch.

Their parents, caught sharing a kiss on their front porch, appear more worry-stricken.

And it is no wonder - eight years prior, the pair had married in the District of Columbia to evade the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which banned any white person marrying any non-white person.

But when they returned to Virginia, police stormed into their room in the middle of the night and they were arrested.

The pair were found guilty of miscegenation in 1959 and were each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for 25 years if they left Virginia.

They moved back to the District of Columbia, where they began the long legal battle to erase their criminal records - and justify their relationship.

Following vocal support from the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches, the Lovings won the fight - with the Supreme Court branding Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional in 1967.

It wrote in its decision: ‘Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival.

‘To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.’ [Read more] 

»blackndns.

I watched a news story and heard one earlier in the week pertaining to South Carolina’s new voting law requiring a photo ID at the polls. They described the problems faced by many Blacks to fulfill that requirement due to birthing practices there where many were born by midwives that often didn’t report the birth and how that then created the problem of no Birth Certificate available to provide proof for acquiring an ID.

I can understand the need to prove who you are to prevent voter fraud. I can understand the lack of means (money) or records for those not born in a hospital or where no record was made of their birth. What I can’t understand is why people would walk about without an ID, even when it doesn’t pertain to voting? How is anyone supposed to know who you are should something happen to you? I also don’t understand why, once again, it seems that Blacks are choosing to make this about being Black and Whites being about the business of denying them their rights? Does someone have to make you have an ID before you actually get one? I wasn’t raised - and that might be the thing - to not believe certain documents were necessary to have as a citizen: Birth Certificate, Social Security card, Government issued ID/License.

I understand that there are areas in the country where being raised in a rural area doesn’t lend itself to living up to the ideal I propose of everyone having those 3 items. I think, however, that maybe those who weren’t fortunate to have had their births recorded simply be out of luck and make it their goal to not have that happen to their children. Sure, that may mean that they are disenfranchised this time around, but will insure their progeny are not - not by the present law, anyway.

I think I mostly am having a problem with Blacks once again looking to blame someone else - Whites - for what is their responsibility. I have experienced firsthand the complaints about “The Man” and how “he’s keeping us down”; but often I found it was due to the complainers own laziness, thoughtlessness, carelessness that he/she suffered, not The White Man.

I know it’s unpopular to suggest that the plight of “Black America” is it’s own fault; but after centuries of suppression and slavery, decades of discrimination, and decades of every-growing equality socioeconomically or socially, real or imagined, isn’t it time that we start taking care of ourselves and stop blaming someone else for our shortcomings? Deal with the drug and alcohol addiction, unwed/childhood pregnancies, lack of education, intense self-esteem issues and familial dysfunction, ne’er-do-well attitude and behavior of the Black Community that serves to hang itself and stop hanging our woes upon our White Savior who has yet to appear. Let’s focus on improving ourselves within our own context and not continue to try to emulate White Society to the point of self-destruction: having nice things and TAKING CARE of same is expected, but you don’t have to be so materialistic or heartless in it’s acquisition; you don’t have to let money rule you. (Did you pick up on my condemnation on White Society’s focus on materialism?)

     I’m watching “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown” only to have it interrupted by a Special Report that Whitney Houston is dead at 48. That really could have waited until a commercial break. We all know she had drug issues. These things happen! Sad, yes, but not totally unexpected. I’m talking Charlie FUCKIN’ Brown!!!!

“…and then you offer him a used Valentine? Let me tell you something [Bitches]! Charlie Brown doesn’t need…” Ala Linus.

     Leave what few enjoyable classics alone for me to watch uninterrupted by something totally inconsequential to all but her family and friends. God damn it!! WTF?

     Just watched Once Upon A Time on HULU (yes, I’m giving it a plug) and think it was the BEST EPISODE so far! Why? Read on…

     1. I like the laying off of the overly-dramatic Evil Queen scenes and those featuring the boy.

     2. The subplot with Snow and Charming is juicy, given that she’s supposed to be pure but hot for a married man. Not so lily white now, is she?…Hehee

     3. I have to admit that several of the dwarves were cute, though it may just be the make-up. The actor who plays Grumpy, however, is handsome minus the make-up. :)

     The only thing I didn’t care for was Rumplestiltskin’s acting. I think he’s a bit over-the-top and annoying. His giggle was really a bit much and he seems to be trying to hard. He was an annoy prick on Stargate: Universe without much effort and I think he can be impish and despicable with much effort here, as well.

     Overall, I give this episode 9 stars. Lost one for being a little cliche.

     After watching a news story about a video, recorded via cellphone, of a rival team’s fan being sexually assaulted by one or more people and no one doing anything to prevent it, I can only come to the conclusion that some people deserve to die. Not just the inhuman rapists, but the onlookers who are so bereft of humanity that they stood by stoically, even seeming to revel in the abasement of another human being so heinously. All of the participants are equally culpable, if for no reason than simply being there. Anyone who would stand by while something like that takes place, even if they are afraid of being attacked for opposing the group or would claim to be caught up in the “Mob Mentality”, should be removed permanently from this plane of existence. They can serve society as examples of the price for being assholes since they chose not to exhibit proper Egalitarianism. As it’s written,”Do Unto Others as You’d Have Done to You.”

     Am I wrong to willingly mete out death in judgment? In a word, NO! Prison is not working. Maybe a few instant deaths will change social behavior, even if it means living with a little more fear in our lives. It would be a healthy fear, much like that of a parent who would mete out corrective punishment for antisocial or “bad” behavior. There are more than enough people to afford a few indiscriminate, socially-acceptable “offings” to dissuade “bad” behavior. We could have a poignant reminder in the death of Ted, the asshole who beat someone for no other reason than having nothing better to do, or Jessica, who ignored anyone and everyone when she was on the cellphone, as a means of us not doing similarly antisocial activities.

     Is this too Draconian?

     I went to 7-11 after work to buy a lottery ticket and a young lady was in front of me, buying a coffee and doughnut (Am I wrong to dislike the use of donut by some people?). I noticed the sign that read 2/$1 doughnuts and watched as the one she bought rang up for $.99. I asked if she realized she could have gotten 2 for the price of that one and was greeted with a mildly blank stare. The clerk chimed in that it was too late and the girl didn’t seem to mind. She happily paid the $2.60+ and left the store. I was appalled to think how frivolous she seemed to be, not getting her money’s worth, and at the clerk who could have had the decency to inform her of a potential means of getting more bang for her buck. Did I miss something?