I Am Not A Flag Waver...

 ...but I do try to show respect for the American flag. After all, it is the symbol of our great nation from its founding, as expressed in the 13 stripes  representing the 13 original states, through today with the stars within the blue field, the Union, representing the union of all current 50 states (no Mr. Obama there are not 57 states). 

 

 So, when a merchandiser uses that symbol in an obvious attempt (as I see it) to solely attempt to increase profit  - on or around the founding day of our country July 4th -  I say fuck him I am not knowingly going to be buying a thing from that merchandiser. In this case, I specifically direct that opinion toward Troy Aikman.

Now that he owns a U.S. based brewery, he is placing American flags on the cans of beer he produces and trying to make it appear as if, or so it seems to me, he is being, and his beer somehow is, patriotic.

 

I do not mind businesses using images of our flag in advertising or on their products. What I mind is when they do it and then boast about doing it to appear patriotic when my guess is that the underlying reason they are doing so is to increase profit. The perfect example of such happening seems to me to be Troy Aikman appearing to be doing that right now just before Independence Day with his beer. More at the source. 

 

Mr, Aikman, in essence, has called out non US beer brands for doing so, putting an image of the U.S. flag o their products, but the thing is, he apparently is doing everything the same except that his company is based here within the USA. That, in my view, does not give him free license to exploit the patriotism, our flag or Independence Day.

 

I would think, a good and truly patriotic citizen, who knows how to respect our country, our flag and our Independence Day and who truly cares about them would never exploit them to such an extent as I think he is doing. I believe he is doing exactly that thought in order to increase his profit and to diminish the profits of other companies doing the same because their beers being made abroad. 

 

As an American citizen (and I am assuming he is one), who apparently considers himself a patriot, I think he should hang his head in shame because while those foreign companies should not exploit our flag, I am of the strong opinion that a truly patriotic American Citizen should not do so either because a true patriot should know better, know enough about flag etiquette and care about our country enough never to do so himself in the manner that Mr. Aikman appears to me to be doing it right before Independence Day! 

 

All the best,

Glenn B

 

 

 

 

Were They Too Tight To Put A $5.00 or $10.00 Lock On...

 ...the breaker box that controlled the electricity for a fridge that had over a million dollars worth of experimental samples within it? The they being the  owner(s) of, managers of, or scientists who worked in the research facility that just lost 1 million dollars worth of lab samples, I think only in part, due to janitor error. More at the source. 

 

You would think that the rocket scientists folks who ran that lab and or those who ran the experiment would have had the smarts to put a lock on the box so there could be no unauthorized access to it, thus assuring that an alleged mistake like the one reportedly made by the janitor could not happen. Well, at least would not happen unless someone purposely broke the lock. I doubt the janitor would have resorted to breaking the lock; the guy reportedly thought he was doing a good thing by turning on the breakers when he in fact was turning them off. 

 

Another thing that should have been done which seems unlikely to have been done, in my opinion, is that any staff who could access the room(s) in question should have been briefed beforehand as to what they could touch & operate and as to what they could not. That would be one of the very basics of assuring that such a mistake would not have been made and thus such an expensive amount of scientific samples would have more likely survived unmolested. My guess is such training was not given but that is just a guess.

 

So, as I see it, it is not solely the fault of the janitor if in fact the janitor's fault at all. Sure he allegedly screwed up but he would not have been able to screw up, or at least been much less likely to do so, had the lab owners/managers or those running the experiment(s) done anything at all to actually physically secure the power source to their precious samples and maybe to train the staff. Of course, despite them seeming to me to be at least partly at fault, maybe more so than was the janitor through their possible negligence (at least for the possible lack of a lock and possible lack of proper training), it is probably very doubtful that those genius eggheads folks will ever admit any fault in this matter if they in fact did not have the box locked and never gave such training.

 

All the best,

Glenn B