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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 08/10/2007 : 05:46:16
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Mark Moford is arguably one of the best writers on current events active today. In this essay, he has said what I've long wanted to say but couldn't come up with the phrasing. Totally Free! Click Here Now!:
What You Win If You Just Stop Caring
Our National Obsession, The Thing We Simply Cannot Resist, The Most Magical Word of All
by Mark Morford |
In short, freebies ain't what they're cracked up to be.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 06:02:41 [Permalink]
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I had to read down a fair bit in that essay. At first, I was concerned the bookstore was making people take free bibles to counteract the Potter books.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 07:24:59 [Permalink]
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At one of the New Age expos, I think it was the Whole Conscious Expo a few years back, they handed us bags on the way in to tote our free samples in. Since the bag had the expos logo on it, and was made of natural fibers, free was off to a pretty good start.
Michelle was off and running. There was much free green stuff to be had from beverages to tea packets and a vast assortment natural supplements and “completely natural and healthy power bars” and such. It was free heaven for the discriminating higher conscious type person.
She tried everything. She ingested teas, grasses, muffins, more teas and all manner of green stuff.
Suddenly and without warning she started to feel “not so great.” I looked at her and her eyes were practically spinning in her head. Even for a person who consumes enough Red Bull a day to keep a normal person up for weeks, she was zonked and speeding. I don't know how many directions she was being pulled from, given the nature of the natural, but she was not happy at all.
When I asked her what she was thinking by trying every sample of any mysterious but healthy beverage, derived from plants hand picked from our dwindling rain forests, she look at me as though I were crazy.
They were free…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 07:44:37 [Permalink]
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It has been my experience that a dose of the clap is always free as well, and who wants that?
I know that Moford's right because I too, turn down freebies that I don't particularly want nor need. I've recieved some odd looks for it, but never a conversation. Someday, someone will comment on me going away empty-handed and I will get to use the above gonorrhea analogy. Should be fun....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 08:24:42 [Permalink]
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What's worse than what we take for free is what we pay for. (written while guzzling Diet Coke by the gallon)
| is, of course, the American way. We are not the slightest bit trained to care about waste, excess, the mindless accumulation of needless things. The notion of simplifying, of saying no, of intentionally and mindfully choosing to keep ourselves free of all the superfluous crap that's hurled at us by a product-drunk culture is so far from our junktastic ideology it is, as evidenced by my cashier's baffled reaction, nearly unthinkable. |
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 08/10/2007 : 09:53:57 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
What's worse than what we take for free is what we pay for. |
The ones which puzzle me most are the people who pay extra for personalized license plates that basically advertise the car they're driving. For example, "MYVETTE" or "68COBRA." I could understand this if the drivers worked for, say, GM, but I doubt many of them do. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 10:04:53 [Permalink]
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| Thats not nearly as bad as the walking billboard culture, where everyone is paying to be advertisements for everything from Nike to Coca-cola. NASCAR is the worst though, instead of a sports jersey to support the person(s) you like you get a t-shirt with a tide logo. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
| Edited by - BigPapaSmurf on 08/10/2007 11:26:54 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 11:23:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
Thats not nearly as bad as the walking billboard culture, where everyone is paying to be advertisements for everything from Nike to Coca-cola. NASCAR is the worst though, instead of a sprots jersey to support the person(s) you like you get a t-shirt with a tide logo.
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How true, how true. Another is the Harley Davidson logo.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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perrodetokio
Skeptic Friend
275 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2007 : 13:42:36 [Permalink]
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What about that stupid trend in the late 80´s? COCA-COLA´S OWN CLOTHING BRAND!
People would pay 60 or 80 dollars for a red jumper with a huge white Coca-Cola logo on the front!
That´s something only people who work in Coca-Cola´s bottling company should wear.
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"Yes I have a belief in a creator/God but do not know that he exists." Bill Scott
"They are still mosquitoes! They did not turn into whales or lizards or anything else. They are still mosquitoes!..." Bill Scott
"We should have millions of missing links or transition fossils showing a fish turning into a philosopher..." Bill Scott |
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Take one; they're FREE!!
