Sort-of Disclaimer: Before …

Sort-of Disclaimer: Before I get inundated with hate mail, I suppose I’d better remind my readers that I don’t necessarily support any of the views represented in today’s links. I feel it’s very important that opposing and alternative perspectives are heard. Many of the links today are clearly not in the majority. Please read with an open mind and realize that [for a lot of people] the world does not revolve around whatever country you live in or whatever religion you believe in.

I find it rather interesting that I’m finding several references in Islamic and and Palestinian news channels calling Israel the “51st State.” If this is such a widely recognized perception and point-of-view in the Middle East, why is the American news media ignoring it? Here’s an article that articulates this point-of-view with some pretty strong words. Remember the video of Osama bin Laden saying that America deserved what they got because of their support for Israel? I admit that I’m ignorant on this issue; why is Israel so important to America? Send me links (will post links/comments tomorrow, keep them coming).

It’s also interesting to read these Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Letters to the Editor back in August, 1998 after the U.S. bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist attacks that destroyed American embassies in East Africa.

This anti-imperialist rant also clarifies some of the feelings in the Middle East regarding America’s military interests in Israel.

Little-known fact: In 1954, the New York City Council appointed a committee to study the possibility of NYC becoming the 51st State.

Other contenders for the 51st State title:

Tim McCoy writes in with a Windows XP analogy/rant:

Can you imagine if you had a 3 year old Sony 36-inch
color TV and you ordered cable and the cable guy said
that you need to buy a new TV in order to use their
cable and that your 3 year old TV will never work.
Then you told him that you just moved to this area and
the previous place you lived had cable and your 3 year
old Sony worked fine. And he said, “Well yeah, but our
cable is better.” They you said, “Oh yeah, in what way?”
And he said, “Well you get fewer channels, it costs
more, and oh by the way, your VCR will not work
anymore because you might be taping our signal.”

The Apple iPod looks pretty cool. While it’s designed specifically for storing and playing MP3s, I wonder how long it will be before someone is able to create alternative applications for it. Like a GPS mapping program, or a restaurant locator (with menus!). Could the iPod be Apple’s first step back into the world of PDAs? Think about it, a PDA with a 5 GB hard drive and firewire port. Wow.

Reality Distortion. You know, it’s kind of disturbing sometimes how the entertainment and advertising industries intentionally distort reality. An example that keeps cropping up in movies and TV commercials is the yellow Checker Cab. Despite the fact that these cars haven’t been made since 1982 when the Checkers Motor Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan ceased production, I continually see bright yellow Checker cabs in commercials and movies. I just saw one honking at a Jeep Cherokee in an ad for the 2002 model. I live in NYC, and I don’t think I’ve seen a Checker Cab in the two years I’ve lived here. I don’t know why this bothers me, but it does. It bothers me in the same way that Hollywood’s fake computer graphics bothers me.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at October 23, 2001 06:51 PM

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