Owner: Motiveless Crime URL:http://motivelesscrime.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:28:35 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A witty and well researched blog written by a liberal arts student in the Midwest. Amazing insight and current events figure prominently. Updated regularly and always entertaining. Very mature material. Site statistics:Click here
Snail Mail Ambushes 2007-06-13 15:09:00 Here is a form-letter that I wrote this past year and was used in a massive grassroots mailing that flooded our local senator's office with the same message over and over. Eventually he got the point. It is open for use, feel free to send it on to your own if you wish and are that motivated. Any comments welcome, as always:Dear Senator:President Bush and his administration are going too far. The federal deficit is currently under scrutiny and because of that Senator Domenici and President Bush have decided to sell off America’s lands to companies that will tear it from tree limb to tree limb. There are plenty of better ways to fund the federal government without auctioning off our heritage and the heritage of our children.America's national forests and public lands are home to some of the most striking beauty on earth. These areas provide clean drinking water for millions of Americans across the country as well as providing a much needed respite from the urban environment. These fo Read more:Snail Mail
Stealing First Base: How to Look Like the Good Guy 2007-06-13 12:11:00 James E. Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy Corp., is a smart man. His company, like many others in the U.S. power industry, has recently come out of the stone-age to declare that while government caps on carbon dioxide emissions have yet to be put into action, they plan on cutting their emissions without force! Not only that, somehow Rogers managed to finagle a widely published article released by The Associated Press that begins romantically symbolizing the entire operation of creating a greener and more ozone friendly industry by comparing it (in his own vision) to that of the Notre Dame or even St. Peter’s Basilica—what Rogers terms “cathedral thinking.” The educated reader can easily read through the lines of such propaganda. It isn’t as if the bells of impending doom haven’t been ringing for decades. Two things make this public relations move something that the American public will gobble up: first, lead with something grand and vaguely religious—Americans love that, secon Read more:Stealing
, First
An Op-Ed I Wrote that Was Beaten by the Paris Hilton PR Team 2007-06-13 01:04:00 Pop culture has now taken an even more drastic and dangerous turn in America. Hollywood starlets and playboys are finding their images plastered across not only tabloids but also newspapers that sell themselves on journalistic integrity across the world. Their lives have somehow come under extreme scrutiny by the world’s populace. Celebrity X’s most recent foray into rehab is somehow more important to world affairs than the civil war in Sri Lanka or the recent threats leveled by Putin concerning missile defense in Europe. To say that “tabloid times” have gotten out of hand would be an understatement at best. But who is really to blame for the state of mass media?Take for instance the most recent scandal in Hollywood: ParisHilton
’s entrance, exit and reentry into prison. After spending my day researching various international events I couldn’t help but notice that pictures of Hilton crying in the back of a police car, paired with various headlines (all seemingly callous and
PREFACE TO A MANIFESTO 2007-06-13 00:56:00 The most evil men in history, those that have been behind the worst atrocities that mankind has ever known, have accomplished their will by gaining powerful allies and draining them of their resources in order to further a larger and far more lucrative focus; total domination. We can learn much from these men and how they have accomplished and ultimately paid for what they did. But by far the most important thing to take from what the past has taught us is that the world isn’t always fair and the blood that is spilt when dictators wage war is never those of the rich, but nonetheless, its always just a matter of time before these men pay. When things are bad, we as humans tend to believe that it will never get better and that things can only get worse. Perhaps this is how history makes fools of us all. If we simply look to the past we can see the largest of civilizations and kingdoms reached great decadence before ultimately crumbling. The good and bad times both seem immortal while w
Ever wonder what it would be like to work at Google? 2007-06-12 19:04:00 I stumbled upon this article. The pictures give an interesting insight into what it would be like to work at Google
, considering its hard to put a face on a search engine. Ultimately the article itself was entertaining, as was reading the comments left behind. Apparently some people didn't realize it was a joke. I wouldn't mind bringing my dog to work...then again he would creep everyone out.http://www.motelmag.com/2006/10/worst-company-in-world-google-also.html Read more:wonder
An Economic Perspective: Women in the Marketplace 2007-06-12 18:44:00 In a world where the average real wage is on the rise and the female labor force around the world is also on the rise, how do we explain why women are so highly concentrated in both the formal and informal markets? Defining the jobs contained within these separate markets better sheds light on the disproportionate allocation of gender in the worldwide labor market. We understand that a market is defined by its main purpose; the buying and selling of commodities. The existence of such a market it defined by its primary controllers, commonly referred to as supply and demand. The labor market does not differ from any other market in this regard; businesses and organizations create a demand for workers which is met with supply in the form of workers. From this simple definition of the labor market we must realize that the labor market is based on duality. The market is divided into two separate categories, both with important distinctions. The two divisions are best known and the primary a Read more:Women
, Economic
, Perspective
, Marketplace
A Preemptive Strike 2007-06-12 15:18:00 As a first post I must admit that one of the key reasons that I am making this blog is to make a possible profit off of it. I am a child of the capitalist system yet the money I earn from this blog will be saved and used for a volunteer working vacation after I graduate in the coming year. Following that I am considering joining the Peace Corps. At times there may be articles appearing on this site extolling a new product or some site that I find interesting. These posts may possibly have been paid for, but my opinion will always be true. I do not sell out. Certain ads may appear on the site. These will be of my choosing and will be products that I support for whatever reason. If you question any of these products or have a reason for me to remove their ad, please let me know. Constructive criticism is welcome. Hate mail or religious crap isn't.At times I may discuss things that fall out of the basic outline that this site is built on. Get over it. It is my blog after all.
The Case of the Supremacist Feminist 2007-06-16 22:21:00 Last year I lived with a rather unstable feminist. I use the term feminist loosely considering she would be more accurately called a Feminine Supremacist. At the time we were living in a two-bedroom flat in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We had one other roommate, with whom “Carrie” shared a room.The apartment itself was rather unremarkable, but it was shelter and it was on a nice block in an area that is commonly known for its connection to the hit show and movie RENT. We did not have air conditioning and it was the height of a very humid June.The point in all of this background is really for me. I like to think that her actions and viewpoints were exacerbated by the extreme heat we lived with night and day, nonstop. Without some excuse for temporary insanity, I truly cannot get my mind around her staunch opinion that feminism isn’t about equality, quite the opposite.Carrie believed that feminism was some kind of vengeful movement, and she was more than happy to be a soldier
Fear Politics in the Classroom 2007-06-16 14:59:00 A recent New England News article is catching the attention of students and academics worldwide. It appears that the FBI is now attempting to use colleges and universities in its game of fear politics by encouraging them to be on the lookout for students and academics who could be posing as spies or have the makings of a terrorist. Being a student myself, I have to take offense.America has educated over half of the world’s terrorists, yet this is the first time in notable history where the government has created a large national program aimed at “raising awareness” about how unclassified research material could possibly be used by “foreign power” and should therefore be protected. They are telling school administrators that they should educate their academics on how to protect their vital research and also on how to spot a spy or terrorist based on the information that they request or question.Having been in college for many years, this alarms and sickens me to no end. As col Read more:Classroom
The Cold War Never Sounded So Good 2007-06-16 13:39:00 California’s Cold War Kids have finally graced mainstream America with their sound on the new album, Robbers and Cowards. The band, led by Nathan Willett on vocals, piano and guitar, has an image for being southern rockers who are heavily influenced by great and well-established artists such as Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground, Jeff Buckley and even Billie Holiday. But the Cold War Kids aren’t Southern and they certainly aren’t Bob Dylan wannabes.Cold War Kids have established themselves as the new “it” band across the US due to releasing six EP’s in less than two years plus their successful appearance at 2006’s Lollapalooza music festival. After establishing a somewhat grassroots fan base the group signed on with Downtown Records for the US and V2 for the rest of the globe. Obviously their backers believe they have managed to have caught the new “it” band of the year. Sadly, I fear this may be a simple mistake of not considering your audience.The Cold War Kids are all o
Something Before Bed IV 2007-06-16 00:08:00 Tomorrow I'll be posting my review of the Cold War Kid's Robbers and Cowards, which contains this gem of a song. The song itself is the most polished and radio ready on the entire album but doesn't really do anything but suck the listener in and cause a craving for more...trust me, the video is like a mini-epic (in a good way).
Coming up on this season of Motiveless Crime... 2007-06-15 14:39:00 In the next few days I'll be posting at least one book, music and movie review. Also look forward to an interesting true story about a friend of mine who to this day won't listen to me when I tell her that feminism is about equality, an article on rehabilitation becoming the latest Hollywood "it" selling point, and a scathing look at how the price of higher education has effected the education quality and outcome for an entire generation.I have an even better one that is similar (from an old issue of Adbusters) but much more dramatic. I'll try to find it to post. If you find this offensive, post a comment and shout your opinion...
The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction/Nonfiction? 2007-06-15 14:10:00 --Occasionally I will be posting reviews of books, movies and music. Some of the reviews may be concerning classics or movies/music that came out a long time ago. Hopefully bringing things from the past into the blog will cause others to enjoy them. America is too obsessed with the now. Learn from the past. This book is the perfect start.--And the Waters Turned to Bloodby Rodney Barker (1998) Science can be looked at as a series of serendipitous accidents. These accidents lead to discoveries that in turn lead to conclusions and changes in how we perceive the world around us. And the Waters Turned to Blood chronicles, in novel form, one such case. The fact that this novel is based on true events is both a positive and a negative. On the one hand the reader is mystified at the end of the book and somewhat frightened about entering bodies of water ever again. Yet, we also have to question whether this attempt at toeing the line between fiction and nonfiction is anything but commercializat Read more:Truth
, Stranger
, Fiction
Big Brother is Watching... 2007-06-15 12:48:00 --Just a primer about a term I use in this article. When I use the acronym "STS" it is a reference to a liberal study of how Science and Technology effect Society. I believe that all civilians should contemplate how science and technology shapes their lives and more importantly, see it from more than one perspective.-- Reconnaissance science poses many a questions for STS critique. The actual act of gaining scientific information under secret operation isn’t the main focus. What happens with that information is more important in relation to science on a broader spectrum. To understand how reconnaissance science works we must first understand that every bit of information is collected by a government agency under secret operations that in most situations would be considered illegal if caught in the act. Therefore this information is continually marked as confidential thereby limiting access to the massive amounts of data gathered. This information rarely, if ever, is seen by the civil Read more:Brother
, Watching
, Big Brother
Something Before Bed III 2007-06-15 01:14:00 I laugh the exact same way whenever he makes a fool of himself...its infectious.
Leave it to a Seattle newspaper to be smart enough... 2007-06-14 23:25:00 Leave it to a Seattle
newspaper to be smart enough to come up with this. I tried it on my cell phone company. It worked, though it created a somewhat odd conversation with the representative:"Thank you for calling _______, how can I help you?""Well to be honest I just wanted to see how long it would take to speak with someone.""That would be 1 minute and 13 seconds, sir.""Thank you."I hung up. Smartasses. Read more:Leave
Michael Moore is Sicko 2007-06-14 23:09:00 Is it wrong that I am SO attracted to this movie? The only joke they didn't pull was Canadian health care...which would have put it over the edge. I'm dying to see this movie even though Fahrenheit 9/11 was a bit overrated. MichaelMoore
isn't my favorite, by any means, but its about time the Health Care industry came under scrutiny!Special nod to the choice of song. "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones. Thank god someone knows that song besides me. Read more:Sicko
, Michael Moore
Giuliani Wants Accountability. I Want New York Back. 2007-06-14 22:42:00 Am I the only one that remembers what Rudy is responsible for? He is responsible for the Disneyification of Times Square and the general bleaching of Manhattan. He is the devil incarnate.His comments about accountability shocks me. Perhaps his ego is too big for the stage? I remember when I took a course on the History of New York City, his contribution was commonly considered to be detrimental to the city and inevitably he will go down as someone who hurt the face of New York.Giuliani
's only real contribution in his entire political career has been his reaction to September 11th. Imagine if that atrocity on humanity had never happened. Would he have a snowball's change in hell of being president of the United States? I think not.The only change that a man like Giuliani can cause if elected President is gentrification. Perhaps that is the new Republican Party goal; to Dinsneyify the US. Once we are a theme park, who wouldn't want to come spend billions in tourist revenue?Seriously, Read more:Accountability
Good News if you want to be an Expatriate! Bad News if you’re European! 2007-06-14 20:48:00 A recent article in the Wall Street Journal caught my attention in the past day. The article starts off on a shaky start, making it appear that it’s concerned about immigration laws, but the title is what caught my eye. Europe is in trouble in a way that America is not.Image how the vacuum works; foreign immigrants come to America (where the population outnumbers the jobs) and overflow the market with illegal immigrants who are willing to do the work in the informal and formal markets where Americans find such jobs “beneath” them. Europe on the other hand is experiencing the opposite problem. Instead of having too many immigrants, they have too few and their population isn’t booming. In fact the average worker in EU countries is at all time high as they grow older and fewer youth arrive to replace them.Take for instance the statistics for Germany. Over 3.8 million German workers are currently on the formal labor market, yet somehow the country is experiencing a major labor shor Read more:European
, Good News
, Bad News
Constructive Graffiti 2007-06-14 13:41:00 I've always found graffiti that is used for political purposes to be utterly fascinating. Hopefully I can find some of the graffiti that was all over El Barrio in NYC (resisting gentrification and the expanding Upper East Side). In the meantime, enjoy this picture that was taken in a Bloomington, IN suburb. Thanks to counterclockwise for the original upload. Read more:Graffiti
Dan Rather on FOX News Talks About Journalistic Integrity…oh the irony. 2007-06-14 13:36:00 --If you haven't already, view the video that this refers to in the post below this one, its over 7 minutes but worth it.--Dan Rather
is in hot water right now because he managed to say something that most of us have wanted to say in the past decade. Perhaps his choice of words are easily manipulated which is why his comments have been labeled as sexist, albeit by the person Rather was actually attempting to attack.This past week Dan Rather attacked CBS news and mentioned Katie Couric’s name, thereby allowing Les Moonves (the bigwig at CBS responsible for the News AND Entertainment). Les Moonves was the first one to scream “sexist” but it seems to be that he was simply trying to divert attention away from Rather’s comments about his leadership and the role of news in the media today.Rather’s comments were basically centered around the comment that shows like Katie Couric’s nightly news are “dumbing it down,” and “tarting it up.” Rather says the comment about “tar Read more:Integrity
, FOX News
Something Before Bed II 2007-06-14 01:58:00 I will comment on this and the recent article in the Wall Street Journal concerning the labor shortage in Europe, in the morning. I can't decide if my perspective is that he is right or wrong. Odd...
South African 'Dagga' 2007-06-14 00:04:00 A new shift in the cannabis trade is causing a group of entrepreneurial Englishmen to become very wealthy, overnight. A new kid is in town, this time in the form of high-quality and easily moveable South
American marijuana (known as dagga). The steep rise in profits is caused by the fact that profit margins for the plant are as high as 4,000 per cent. The marijuana in question is considered to be some of the most powerful and potent and now accounts for the vast majority of seizures in the UK. In the UK this strain can be sold for £3500 per kilo, yet it is sold in South Africa for a shockingly low-price of £20 per kilo. Importing the new source has proven to be relatively easy as those in charge were unprepared for the new wave of cannabis. Couriers depend on suitcases packed with the product to make it across borders that mostly originate in Ireland but also commonly France and Germany. In 2003, over 100 white South African
couriers were detained at Dublin International Airport. Du
I can't resist. 2007-06-14 00:01:00 This image is thanks to the bigwigs at DC Comics! Read more:resist
Columbia's Dying Market 2007-06-13 23:32:00 Cocaine trade has, for a very long time, been associated with Columbia
. More precisely the international cocaine trade is centered around the Andean region of South America. This is the area where virtually all of the world’s cocaine supply is grown. Cocaine base production also occurs in Colombia (10% of the global market) but more so in Peru and Bolivia (90% combined). The Colombian drug cartels main process is to buy the cocaine base from Peru or Bolivia and then mix it with the raw plant material in drug labs in preparation for exportation to the United States and Europe. In 1995 a major shift in international cocaine trade occurred when law enforcement agencies in the Andean region arrested or accepted the surrender of seven out of the eight Cali drug cartel leaders. This has created a decentralization in the cocaine trade of Colombia which, in turn, compelled most traffickers to change the way that they conduct their business. While at first the arrest of these drug lords cons Read more:Dying
, Market
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