Fifty Years Ago...

...Kurt Vonnegut nailed it:

"Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America.  Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created.  Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage.  And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enomously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed.  Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun."

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)

(h/t Avedon)

Time to Reevaluate My Apple Loyalty?

The only computers I have ever owned have been Macintoshes.  My family owns four iPhones and two iPads.  I rationalize this based on the satisfaction that I get using electronics that work the way they are supposed to, with pleasing, intuitive user interfaces.  Then there's the whole Steve Jobs cult of personality thing that I may be buying into subconsciously.

Anyway, Apple the corporation has some issues, such as its reliance on Chinese facilities employing questionable labour practices.  This latest story about excluding convicted felons from their worksites seems gratuitously harsh, and causes me to wonder if it's time to consider other products.

(h/t Erik Loomis at LGM)