Like everybody, I get lots of credit card offers in the mail.  Typically, I open them up, find the application with my name on it and shred it.  However, I received one recently from American Express that was a bit different.  In addition to the normal information and application, there was a fake credit card attached, but not just some plastic card with a fake name and false numbering…see for yourself.

Note that rectangular area surrounding the numbers "3759"…Look, it folds out!

So what is it?  Well, its a USB connection.  That’s right, they seriously expect me to plug this thing into my computer and have it take me to a webpage for their marketing material.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to take something I received in the mail from an unknown source and stick it in my computer.  Not gonna happen.

Reminds me of the espionage scheme that was actually used to infiltrate some government and corporate computer systems.  The bad guys would locate the office of the agency they wanted to infiltrate, then they would scatter a handful of USB thumb drives in the parking lot.  When the employees came to work, some would find these thumb drives, pick them up and promptly go into their office and plug them into their work computers.  Voila, access granted.  True story.

So I’m not sure what marketing genius at American Express came up with this mailer, but it would be interesting to see what the actual response rate is on these things.  Given the level of computer literacy, it might actually be higher than I would expect.

This last month was another LOST month.  My vow to limit my viewing to one season per month fell by the wayside quickly.  Instead, I decided to catch up to the Season 6 episodes currently airing on ABC.  That meant I had another 50 or so episodes to get through in March.  No problem.

Along with that, I watched 5 movies and a short "documentary" on Pink Floyd’s making of The Dark Side of the Moon.  Here is the list is no particular order.

• Cold Souls
• The Hangover
• Zombieland
• The Man From Earth
• Antichrist
• Pink Floyd:  Dark Side of the Moon
• Lost Season 3 (23 episodes)
• Lost Season 4 (14 episodes)
• Lost Season 5 (17 episodes)

As usual, click through to see the ratings and short reviews.
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I’ve been quietly sitting on the sidelines as the Texas State Board of Education has gone about re-writing the Social Studies curriculum standards that will be in effect for the next decade and could affect textbooks bought in many other states around the country.  I’ve done this partly for my sanity and partly because I’m sick of seeing these idiots use their position to push their far right religious agenda into the schools by removing figures they see as "liberal" and replacing them with more "conservative" figures.  The change getting the most press is the removal of Thomas "wall between church and state" Jefferson and replacing him with John Calvin.

But on the positive side, Don McLeroy lost his primary election and will no longer be on the Texas SBOE after the next election later this year.  The downside is, he gets to continue to do damage until that time.

Recently, Roger Ebert stepped into the ring to take a swing at this gas bag of an opponent, and he scored a knock-out in my book.  It’s worth the read and the associated videos help to underscore the points being made.

The best is saved for last:

"Does it make me a liberal if I believe Jefferson has been more central
to American history than Calvin? That Lincoln was our greatest
president, and Davis not our President at all? That the Theory of
Evolution towers with majesty above those who, in some cases, believe
the earth may be 10,000 years old, and that men walked the earth with
dinosaurs? No, it doesn’t make me a liberal. It makes me an educated,
rational being. Unfortunately, in some precincts of Texas that may
appear to be nearly as bad."

Ditto.

We hear this phrase all the time…it’s a colloquialism that pervades our society.  We use it for everything from the mundane such as "Thank God they aren’t out of beer!" to the more emotional such as "Thank God that car didn’t kill me!".  I can understand these, it’s just a saying for the most part, not something we truly mean.

But then there’s what I heard a friend say one day.  I’ll paraphrase a little, but the point is the same.

"How dare I feel sorry for myself when I have so much and others have so little.  Thank GOD for my health, my family, my friends and for all that I am blessed with."

This was said with thought behind it, not just blurted out as the reaction to a recent event.  On the surface, it sounds like a nice sentiment, no?  Giving thanks for what you have to a higher power who bestowed them upon you.  But as it sunk in, what hit me was the implication that GOD had given him these things.  GOD had insured he had good parents, made sure he was healthy and had good friends.

So does this also imply that GOD ignored or decided not to give these things to those less fortunate?  GOD decided to give some people bad parents, or to make them orphans?  GOD decided to make others sick or disabled?  Is he saying that GOD preferred him over others?

I guess I shouldn’t berate him for expressing thanks for his relatively good life, but I feel his thanks are misdirected.  Why not thank your parents for raising you well, or thank your friends for being there for you.  As for your health, it’s more a matter of your genetics, lifestyle and where you live that decides that.  Do you have access to clean drinking water, access to good food, do you exercise, do you have easy access to doctors and medications when you become ill?  In other words, were you born in the right place?

Why attribute all your good fortune to some divine power?  If you do that, should you not also blame GOD for everything bad that happens to you?

Life is a matter of circumstance.  You don’t choose who your parents are or where you are born.  And to imply that some supreme being decides who will be given the advantages in life and who will be born into a disadvantaged life seems ludicrous.