[MD] Intellectual activity

[Platt Holden]

[Arlo] 
> Taking a coffee break here at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu,
> watching mongoose frolic on the lawn of the Zen Garden. 

Arlo must be feeling guilty for taking advantage of the fuel supplied 
by Iran or some other dictatorial country to fly his plane to and from 
Hawaii. No telling how his trip has affected the oppressed citizens of 
those countries so he can watch mongoose frolic.

> Craig had said about Nike valuing paying the athlete $10 million, and
> the athlete valuing accepting, so why should a third party intervene?
> 
> Gentlemen and ladies, we are the third party, and we are already
> involved. Because, you see, Nike would not value paying the athlete $10
> million dollars if it did not KNOW that such a product endorsement will
> likely manipulate the "value" consumers place in buying Nike products.

What's the "we" business? I don't own a pair of Nike shoes nor would I 
be influenced by some athlete endorsing them. For Arlo, always the 
collective. 

> Here is where Pirsig's assessment of the "vendors of style" from ZMM is
> most accurate. Little has changed since Pirsig wrote those words, and
> I'd argue that they have gotten worse.

I'd argue they have gotten better since high button shoes and the  
Edsel.

> SA, you mention the production mode (including everything from
> production type, to wages to geographic area) of Nike shoes, sayihng "We
> as a country still have the $ to buy these shoes and market these shoes,
> as long as, we depend upon other countries."
> 
> This is what makes the evening news, with its latest Manufactured
> Nightmare of "Illegal Immigration", so fun to watch. Isn't it?

One wonders what part of "illegal" Arlo doesn't understand.

> Americans
> love their cheap products and business loves their cheap labor. What we
> sadly miss is that each purchase is not simply a value decision on an
> "object", abstract and existing independently of the production mode
> through which it comes to be. A purchase is a value endoresment of 8
> cents an hour wages, no health care, overseas production, mass
> production, and all the ins and outs of how that product got to market.

Yeah, like I'm going to go to Walmart to pick up a box of Wheaties and 
worry about how the product got to market. 
 
> A few weeks ago, 20/20 (I think) ran a special on the founder of
> Starbuck's coffee. In it, he says that one reason his coffee costs more,
> is that he gives ALL his employees who work more than 30 hours a week
> full benefits. When you buy Starbucks, you are doing more than making a
> valuation of the cup of coffee in your hand, but also a valuation of how
> that cup got their, including farming practices, treatment of employees
> and community integration.

What medical benefits General Mills provides its employees or whether 
the company is integrated into the community is the last thing on my 
mind when I buy a box of Wheaties. Should I feel guilty on that 
account?  

> When we buy 39 cent heads of lettuce, we are doing more than buying that
> single vegetable. We are buying "illegal immigration". Those who are
> arguing from total deportation or total citizenship are really arguing
> for $3.39 heads of lettuce, what that lettuce would cost if lettuce
> growers had to hire and pay legal U.S. citizens. Those who want Weaver
> foods fined for employing so many "illegals", should be vocal about
> their desire to pay MORE for their frozen dinners.

If I ever have the privilege of having lunch with Arlo, I'm going to 
watch very carefully to see what he orders. Every item on the menu 
probably has some awful human rights violation associated with it in 
Arlo's mind.   
 
> And, consider, why is it different for an "American" to lose her/his job
> to a foreigner HERE than losing her/his job to foreigner overseas? Why
> is one "the free market" and the other "criminal"? If we want to pay
> only 8 cents an hour for wages, what's the difference between them
> coming to us, or us going to them? 

The difference is those coming here are illegals. Are you proposing we 
open the borders to all comers? 

> SA also says, "China, major human rights failures, but we need their
> business so we shallow our independence to keep them satisfied, and yet
> how much of this relationship with China will come back to hit the U.S.
> in the butt?"
> 
> This is just part and parcel of the hypocracy of the Moral Warriors in
> this country, who taut America's Moral Duty to bring her moral fiber to
> the world, and yet courts evil and inhumanity whenever it is financially
> convenient. Remember Hussein? We knew about his abuses long before the
> war, and yet we gave him money and guns and turned a blind eye, so long
> as his evil kept the region destabilized. Its never about the Moral High
> Horse, its always about what is financially or politically beneficial
> for the government at any given time. Human rights mean nothing.

Arlo climbs on his moral high horse called "human rights" and whatever 
other moral high horse he can find to tell us all how we have sinned, 
are sinning, and will continue to sin.  

> OK, the mongoose are chasing birds and I am going to the Polynesian
> cultural center to talk about Hawai'ian language revitalization. 

Why? Hope the taxpayers aren't paying for that boondoggle. 

Platt