Commentary

Open 24x7, No Lines, No Waiting

by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, August 21, 2009

If you have ever been to Europe in August you are familiar with the notion of businesses locking the door for the month while the owners take to their vacation villas and cabanas. That you can't get your dry cleaning back until after Labor Day is your problem.

It used to be the advertising and media businesses were kinda like that with half days on Friday so buyers and planners could beat the traffic out to the Hamptons. But thanks to the internet/mobile-accelerated pace of business, August is just as busy as October, only you are struck with pre season NFL games instead of Florida vs Alabama. The news is no exception. Look at these tidbits you missed (if you kept your promise to your wife and stayed off your crackberry while the kids were in the lake):

There Goes the First Amendment...
A Vogue cover girl has won a precedent-setting court battle to unmask an anonymous blogger who called her a "skank" on the Skanks in NYC blog. In a case with potentially far-reaching repercussions, Liskula Cohen sought the identity of the blogger who maligned her so she could sue him or her for defamation. A Manhattan supreme court judge ruled that she was entitled to the information and ordered Google, which ran the offending blog, to turn it over. Since I don't have a lawyer on retainer I will refrain from my usual hysterically funny item-ending commentary such as "If you saw the picture of Liskula that accompanies the story, you might..."

If God Didn't Like Them, Why Didn't He Just Strike The Buses with Lightening?...
Ads, sponsored by the Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers, reading: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone," were yanked off the side of buses by the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority after receiving complaints, then after meeting with the atheist group, reversed course and put the ads back up. The ad campaign is part of an expanding national effort by Washington D.C.-based United Coalition for Reason, which has placed ads on buses or billboards in several cities, including Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, Phoenix, New Orleans, Charleston, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Mo., Denver, Boulder, Colo., Long Beach, and most curiously of all, Moscow, Idaho. The Transit Authority has since decided its advertising policy was outdated, and is changing it to better align with other policies regarding civil rights, the state's obscenity and profanity laws and the diversity of the community. The word God will be allowed under the new advertising policy. The recession in ad spending had no impact on the decision; I swear to God.

If They Made Cars in Your City, Time Inc Would Kiss Your Ass Too...
Time Inc has established a "reinvention bureau" in Detroit operating from a 95-year-old home, recently purchased by the company, in the city's historic West Village neighborhood. Writers and editors will live in the house for a year, blogging and writing about rebuilding Detroit. The articles will appear in Time-owned publications in business, sports, real estate and in shelter magazines like Real Simple and Coastal Living. To make it perfectly clear there is nothing eleemosynary about rooting for the Spiritual Capital of the Rust Belt, Time has begun to pitch advertisers a group-buy across titles running the reinvention coverage. I presume that includes a $4500 clunkers discount.

Jonsing for G-Mail...
An Internet 'detox' center looking to cure online addicts -- a first of its kind in the U.S. -- recently opened its doors in Fall City just a few miles away from Microsoft's headquarters. The 45-day program -- which costs $14,500 -- is designed specifically "to help internet and video game addicts overcome their dependence on gaming, gambling, chatting, texting and other aspects of Internet Addiction." Thankfully there was no mention of porn.

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4 comments about "Open 24x7, No Lines, No Waiting".

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Alan Stamm, August 21, 2009 at 10:42 a.m.
Oh George, here you go again . . .
I do try, really, to read in the spirit of "a light-hearted look" -- honest. But when your first subhead seems to suggest the right to defame is constitutionally protected ...
. . . well, then my light, bright mood melts faster than tutti frutti in August.
Dubious Achievement Awards-style lead-ins are a creative style . . . when the cleverness fits.
Now I'll go watch the kids in the lake.
Reply

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, August 21, 2009 at 11:02 a.m.

Isn't there a "law" about the right to face your accuser? Let's not confuse the 2.

Michael Roberts of Rexxfield, June 30, 2010 at 10:20 p.m.

It is imperative that the institution of <a href="www.rexxfield.com/howtoidentify-anonymous-bloggers.php">anonymous freedom of speech</a> be safeguarded as an important aspect of the checks and balances in our community to report ruthless works done in the shadows for all to see. However, as in all noble things <a href="http://www.rexxfield.com">free discourse</a> can be subject to abuse. Yet the cost must never be borne by a clean-handed person or organization.
Still, there are many asocial idiots who use this liberty for malicious purposes. Like a cat to a mouse, they enjoy tormenting or hurting others; they're essentially driven by the suffering of others; the victim's desperate attempts to escape is their twisted prize. Ordinary citizens such as 95% of the individuals reading this story are unable begin to imagine what drives these individuals. I challenge you to stop for a moment, try to imagine not having a conscience.... it is plainly unimaginable.
This deplorable public blight has become uncontrollable in the preceding 10 years due to unmoderated anonymous online e-slander. In internet libel law suits where judges have ordered that anonymous and vindictive bloggers are to be uncloaked publicly, these orders are normally a cause of offense to a small yet noisy crowd of zealous people that think that free speech deserves to be unconditional and that a talker or author should not be held accountable for his or her words, irrespective as to accuracy or deceptiveness of the utterances. Some presume that if these same noisy groups were to observe the devastation of a cyber bullying attack and the vocational, emotional, physical, and social wellness of themselves and their loved ones; they wouldn't be so passionate in their protests.
A natural attribute of <a href="www.rexxfield.com/blog/2010/04/internet-libel-podcast">anonymous cyber slander</a> is that it has less credibility when critically considered by savvy and open-minded readers. However, there is an interesting dynamic with the crisis of vicious and anonymous bloggers. Although these allegations might smell of shenanigans, if the target is to be "Googled" for employment, consulting applications, babysitting work (or dating), then the person carrying out the reference checks needs to look at the likely PR hazards from attaching to the poor dupe. Although the potential employer is probably able to see past the fulmination, the decision maker will need to wonder about what their customers and partners will think if they are not as clever and objective.
Regards, Michael of Rexxfield
We would do well to consider what JFK said in 1963: "The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society", this applies as much to secret but lying cyber defamers as to secret societies of which he spoke.

Michael Roberts of Rexxfield, June 30, 2010 at 10:21 p.m.

It is imperative that the institution of anonymous freedom of speech be safeguarded as an important aspect of the checks and balances in our community to report ruthless works done in the shadows for all to see. However, as in all noble things free discourse can be subject to abuse. Yet the cost must never be borne by a clean-handed person or organization.

Still, there are many asocial idiots who use this liberty for malicious purposes. Like a cat to a mouse, they enjoy tormenting or hurting others; they're essentially driven by the suffering of others; the victim's desperate attempts to escape is their twisted prize. Ordinary citizens such as 95% of the individuals reading this story are unable begin to imagine what drives these individuals. I challenge you to stop for a moment, try to imagine not having a conscience.... it is plainly unimaginable.

This deplorable public blight has become uncontrollable in the preceding 10 years due to unmoderated anonymous online e-slander. In internet libel law suits where judges have ordered that anonymous and vindictive bloggers are to be uncloaked publicly, these orders are normally a cause of offense to a small yet noisy crowd of zealous people that think that free speech deserves to be unconditional and that a talker or author should not be held accountable for his or her words, irrespective as to accuracy or deceptiveness of the utterances. Some presume that if these same noisy groups were to observe the devastation of a cyber bullying attack and the vocational, emotional, physical, and social wellness of themselves and their loved ones; they wouldn't be so passionate in their protests.

A natural attribute of anonymous cyber slander is that it has less credibility when critically considered by savvy and open-minded readers. However, there is an interesting dynamic with the crisis of vicious and anonymous bloggers. Although these allegations might smell of shenanigans, if the target is to be "Googled" for employment, consulting applications, babysitting work (or dating), then the person carrying out the reference checks needs to look at the likely PR hazards from attaching to the poor dupe. Although the potential employer is probably able to see past the fulmination, the decision maker will need to wonder about what their customers and partners will think if they are not as clever and objective.

Regards, Michael of Rexxfield

We would do well to consider what JFK said in 1963: "The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society", this applies as much to secret but lying cyber defamers as to secret societies of which he spoke.