This is progress?

It's been awhile since I posted a full-scale rant here. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm thoroughly fed up with the elimination of CD players from the dashboards of vehicles. (And I still have mixed feelings about not installing my old CB radio, but there's essentially no knee room in my Jeep.) Having  to use a "smart phone" to play music would be more tolerable except my iPhone and my Jeep don't always agree with each other and I'm the one that ends up with the figurative black eye. And let's not begin to get into whether the current situation gives cops too many pretexts, other than expired tabs, to pull drivers over for texting while driving and similar activities.

Now, today I learned about two or three other pain in the patoot developments that need to be brought to a screeching halt. First, from this report that I saw on Slashdot: Apple Plans To Scan US iPhones for Child Abuse Imagery. It would appear that our friends in Cupertino have a very different concept of innocent until proven guilty and unreasonable search and seizure than did the founders of the country. In addition to Apple's planned further intrusion (invasion?) into our  privacy, today I came across an article in The Nation: Corporate publishing wants to turn all readers into renters. We’re trying to stop them. I get heartburn often enough reading about right to repair limitations on things like cell phones (Apple) and tractors (John Deere). The Better Half seems to enjoy her ebook reader. I wouldn't own one for reasons including those flagged in the article.

It seems to me, what with the frequent adjustments from our federal government in guidance on how to stay safe during our pandemic, the mess federal Democrats have made with the expiration of eviction protection (why didn't Congress enact legislation?), the constant gridlock by Republicans and frequent timidity from Democrats, it's time for the occupy movement to recruit some more luddites and activists, bring Ed Abbey back from wherever he's been hid in the desert, and organize a general strike. Our leaders need to be much more responsive to existential threats like climate breakdown, political breakdown (remember January 6, 2021? why's the former guy  still walking around?) and levels of inequity that have grown to massive proportions, else why have we elected them to lead what once was known as a democracy?

As for me, since I recently learned that Your Computer Isn't Yours, I'm going to learn Linux and start shopping for a small aftermarket CD player that might fit in the Jeep, plus I'll remember to turn off the cellular data option on my phone.

The Second Coming

By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.