Opt Out is All Backwards

So, I really began to get annoyed when I'd receive or send an email from gmail, and began to notice a link at bottom or top of the page related to content of the email. Someone sends a message discussing a problem with a fence latch and there's a link to fencing or gates or some such. Another sends an email which discussed a found dog and there is one for dog grooming.

Supposedly you can opt out of ads which are automatically tailored to your perceived interests. It is downloaqding and I hope it isn't just another open door to big brother in one carnation or another.

My thinking is: things of personal and intrusive nature should be OPT IN, not OPT OUT. If I take advantage of the "introductory offer" on a service or product, I should not have to time my cancellation just right to stop the automatic billing, which invariably goes up. I should be asked, "OK, you tried it. If you like it, you will now be billed a gazillion bucks because you are probably hooked. Do you want to pay for one month, or do you want to be billed monthly through our convenient and friendly automatic billing system which we affectionately call Bennie the Bat"

They don't do it because it is more profitable to do it otherwise. Chase us down, catch us if you can, to avoid further charges. Some are highly deceptive, the rest are just annoyingly sleezy business practitioners. I know the rationalizations, but it sucks and everyone, including those who promote it, know this to be true.

It is a symptom of a culture which has lost a common code of courtesy and moral compass. Hell, that isn't news. When they started calling rap which was rife with references to Ho, Bitch, Kill cops, kill others, racially biased and charged lingo, art, we knew we'd jumped the shark as a constructively evolving culture long ago.

Can't do anything for that. I will say that there are rappers who have a talent. There are many who are basically just DJs playing loops of music they didn't create and rhythms they did not create, talking pure gibberish on top of it. It sells and I wouldn't make it illegal. But I do not call that art.

In an odd way, I trace a lot of it back to the fear of freedom. It is a sign of people who are resigned to living under the thumb, so they rebel in ways that make no sense. It is a warped thing. Many would argue with me about cause and effect when it comes to cultural phenomena, so I will just leave it out.

Gas is $4 per gallon in San Diego so I am driving less when possible. It does scare me to see an entire nation being duped. Not to mention the rest of the western world. Again, all you can do is clean your room, smile at loved ones and focus on what really matters; sex, rock n roll, and staying healthy. Being one who craves the happy vagabond life from time to time, it does get difficult. Oh well.

Come to think of it, there is much in life that is of the nature that you are counted in unless you find a way to opt out. It is sort of like being presumed guilty until you prove otherwise. Some of us know we are guilty; we were raised to know this. We just resent strangers knowing it, too.

UPDATE: the opt out thing on google is a trick. You have to download google chrome, which then wants to "back up" history and everything else online for "your convenience". You try to avoid so much busy body tracking by downloading the opt out thing, but to do that you have to download an overbearing program that wants to get in your business.

Do no evil? Really? Isn't that google's motto? Must depend on your definition of "evil" or on what "is" is, or what "do" means.

I guess if Alec Baldwin gets paid millions to be an allegedly comedic actor, anything is possible. I watched an episode of 30 rock just to see if I was wrong. What a poorly written, lamely acted bunch of garbage. The guy is just not funny. Kudos, though for no laff track on that show.

The most of appropriate use of a laff track would be on news broadcasts, state of the union speeches, and pretty much anything involving political people or bureaucrats giving press conferences or otherwise yakking in public. That should apply to first ladies as well. Debates would be far more entertaining, too. At least it would ease the pain of trying to stay informed through radio and tv sources, and take the edge off of people who would be royalty telling you how to sneeze, raise your kids, eat, and anything else involved in living.

Doesn't it seem odd that so many people beyond child bearing age have such an interest in things like birth control? Geez. If ever there was something we don't need to pay people to debate, that is it. Perverts. They just can't stay out of your pants and you don't even know them, or invite them in.