I am a Darwinist...so what?

I once saw a variation of the Jesus fish on someone's car - difference was, it had feet and said "Darwin." I loved it. I really think the whole idea of "survival of the fittest" makes more sense than most things. Constantly carrying the weight of others who cannot survive on their own is apparent in many aspects of our livelihood - we can look at any element of humanity and see, i.e. politics: we constantly support every single person who cannot support themselves. In reality, we should be offering them opportunity not giving them a free ride...the government was not put in place to support every drug addicts,illegal immigrant, etc.

Though this topic is vague and I just led with a ramble, the Amy Winehouse death inspired me to write about it.

Since I saw the video of Amy Winehouse smoking crack, I have had a quasi-phobia of her. The sagging skin, sunken eyes and black beehive gave me the heebie jeebies. She literally looked decrepid, though she has been dead for years. I could not bring myself to hear her name or see a photo of her without having a chilling, unpleasant feeling.

Thing is, what did she really offer to society? It was already a sin that we put her on a peddastool for our youth to see - we used to praise her music; award shows honored her with trophies and live performances...all the while she is a drug addict who is mostly famous for a song that taunts those who thought she should get help for addiction. We were idolizing the worst possible example of a person for our youth and upcoming generations to be subject to. In fact, she didn't even try to hide it. At least in the 50's and 60's, it was a faux-pas to be a druggie, so celebs tried to hide it. Not anymore - and now we have become a celeb-worshiping country, despite the character and unlawfulness of the celebrity themself.

And now she's gone, and has been for almost a week now, yet at least one in ten headlines references her. Whether it's putting blame on her ex-husband for introducing her to drugs or her parents saying it's because she stopped drinking - either way, it's done and over and it's Darwin at his finest. She chose to marry a druggie, she chose to use the drugs; to drink the booze; she chose to go back to all of those things despite rehab. She was a weak person and not an example for anyone to follow. She sealed her fate. It's a shame when anyone dies; but it's part of life.

Instead of pointing fingers, make her an example. Should you be a weak person, you may very well end up as Amy Winehouse.

Commercial Product Fail of the Week: Netflix

Time and time again we are betrayed by our beloved discount services. We watch companies pop-up that offer some of our favorite things or services at cheaper prices than we currently have at our dispose. Even the mothership of cheap/discount products, Wal-Mart, trick us in to thinking we have a new one-stop location for an item or product.

This time, Netpricks, I mean Netflix, have Walmartized themselves. Netflix offered convenient video rentals for our tool shed home (tool is a term I learned a few years back that refers to Americans never having to leave their house for everything they need). Netflix's services were a mere $7.99 per month - wow 7.99!? We couldn't rent two DVDs from Blockbuster for $7.99.

Blockbuster...RIP. Thanks to Netflix, you could get cheaper movie rentals without ever even having to leave your house (except of course to walk to your mailbox). Such services at such rates successfuly and rapidly started to shutdown Blockbusters all over the country.

Aha victory for Netflix. Their biggest, and basically only competitor was no longer a factor. Now that they have the video rental market to themselves, it's time...time to raise prices?? Less competition = higher subscription rates and thus, less need to charge even $7.99.

Big business at it's best. And no, the argument regarding a need for more resources (people, places, etc) doesn't hold true for Netflix. They are operated out of one huge warehouse. Think about it, they just need envelopes and DVDs - it's not even like they have a ton of each DVD to send out - otherwise there would be no need for a wait list for your favorite movies.

So, here's to you Netflix. You put Joe the Plumber (err DVD store clerk) out of business, and successfully shut down your biggest competitor. Looks like it's time to add the American people to the list of those you screwed. Problem is, we are YOUR customers. Unlawful rate increases for an unchanged product/service is an ugly side of corporate America that we DO NOT like - bad economy, high gas prices and now greedy Netflix higher-ups, trying to squeeze yet another dollar or 7.99 out of us.