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You know what I find more annoying than an evangelical who tells me I’m not “saved” because I’m Catholic?
More annoying than Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on my door?
More annoying and patronizing than flat-earth creationists?
Sanctimonious athiests who think they’re God’s gift to Mankind. Oh right, I mean Mother Nature or Blind Luck or Evolution’s gift to Mankind or whatever. Just because you’re athiest doesn’t make you any smarter than anyone else, and doesn’t mean that the rest of the world has been swindled. I am going to punch the next athiest who says “I don’t believe in Jesus Christ for the same reason I don’t believe in Santa Claus.” Not only is this callous, inflammatory, and the most unrightfully condescending drivel anyone will ever be allowed to say on national television by the likes of Bill Maher (although I don’t think he’s said that exactly, correct me if he has. I wouldn’t be surprised), but the existence of Santa Claus can be mathematically disproven, not to mention that Santa Claus is said to still exist and clearly doesn’t.
And the existence of Jesus? Definitely a lot more evidence pointing toward the existence of Jesus (and God) than Santa.
For crying out loud.
Subsidies suck. A subsidy, for those who don’t know, is what happens when the government decides you’re too stupid to buy the right things and gives the industry money in the form of tax breaks or even just flat cash.
Today I tasted just how bad subsidies are. In Kroger, I found a small section of Coca-Cola imported from Mexico in the “ethnic” section of the store. I am somewhat of an aficionado of food, and am a notoriously picky eater. I’m the guy who notices when the waitress brings him Pepsi instead of Coke. However, I’m not the asshole that berates her for it, I just drink the Pepsi and think about how I wanted Coke.
Anyway, in the United States, corn is subsidized. This means that crap like “high fructose corn syrup” is cheaper than cane sugar. This is not true in any other country. Some people complain about high fructose corn syrup, as a sweetener, is worse for you than cane sugar. Whether or not this is true I don’t know, but what I do know is that cane sugar tastes better.
You know how you take a sip of sweet sweet Coca-Cola, and it’s cold and delicious and you’re swallowing and then… oh. What’s that? That’s an aftertaste. It’s sticky and gross. I for one prefer my Coke with ice so I have something to chew to get the aftertaste licked. That aftertaste is the high fructose corn syrup. So, in short:
Mexican Coke tastes like a completely different drink. It’s delicious and sweet and after you swallow, it’s gone. It tastes like a drink that took a country by storm. It is the Coke your grandparents talk about. It’s not the glass bottle, it’s the cane sugar. Mexican Coke beats the pants off of American Coke 10 to 1.
And we don’t have it because corn syrup is at an artificially low price thanks to the American government. It’s not that corn is actually cheaper, it’s because the American taxpayer helps Coke pay for every gallon of corn syrup they buy regardless of whether that American has ever had a Coke product in his or her life.
So the next time you buy a Coke, or really any mainstream American soda, in a vending machine, drink deeply. And when you’re done and you have that terrible sticky aftertaste in you’re mouth, think to yourself: American Coke is what a controlled economy tastes like.
I have a friend who is studying to be an Industrial Designer. As I spent quite some time in an Engineering School I have always been irritated at some of the designs I saw when I walked into his studio. In the Age of Apple, many of the designs strive to be simple, or “elegant,” and lose sight of what the object’s original function was. Today, he sent me this link. The following picture is the centerpiece of the page:
There isn't even a mouse.
This desk illustrates everything that is wrong with many Industrial Designers. It’s a cute little desk, and look, it has a useful shelf. The keyboard stows to save space. It’s simple and an eye-pleasing light wood and pictured in our Apple White background (which looks just like my home office). Oh but wait, there’s no mouse, or even a mousing area. And that chair looks like the punishment chair they give you in the 3rd grade when you won’t quit spinning in the chair during “computer lab time.” The desk is an ergonomic nightmare placing the user way below the monitor looking up and getting the crick in his neck of his life. And the only computer that could ever fit there is an iMac, and there isn’t even a hole in the back for its single cord.
This desk is simple, elegant, and fails at being a competant desk. Someone needs to go back to school.
