Random observations in my Monday moanin’…
= The U.S. Army had an elaborate recruiting set-up at a shopping mall over the weekend. The display included tents with shooter video games and banks of computer stations. A “Soaring Eagle” Computer Tournament was operated at the computer stations. I saw a good number of minors tapping away at the computers. In fact, most of the computer-oriented activities were big attractions to minors. Doesn’t the Army know that -- just like torture -- recruiting minors is illegal under international law?
= The Army had plenty of “freebies” at the mall to hand out: decks of playing cards, computer game CDs, pseudo dog tags, computer mouse pads and more. The freebies were care of the military’s desperate multi-billion dollar recruiting budget, which is paid for by our tax dollars. Noticeably absent from the scene was protesting anti-tax teabaggers who oppose wasteful spending.
= Incredibly, the media blared the supposed identity of
= In the credit card reform debate in
= This caught my eye in Sunday’s editions of the Lansing State Journal and the Chicago Tribune: separate stories related to Mexican/Latino issues were both accompanied with prominent photos of individuals sporting Mohawk haircuts, a rare look you would find among the thousand of people participating in the covered events.
= Lansing (MI) incumbent Mayor Virgil Bernero officially announced over the weekend that he will run for re-election. I don’t know what to make of the fact that Bernero was voted both the favorite local politician and worst politician in the Lansing City Pulse’s recent Top of the Town contest.
= Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in press accounts warning that
= I’m surprised that I’m surprised about the amount of television people watch, as evidenced by the streaming commentary across Twitter. After years of limited TV service, I recently expanded my cable service to get more channels. Not much has changed. Programming is very weak. Somewhere along the way, the medium jumped the shark.
-- Rico Thomas Rico
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2 comments:
Regarding the "mall recruiting", what is the definition of "recruiting"? Can the US military argue that since they will not accept enlistment under age 17 there is no recruitment? (Not that I'm in favor of what they're doing, just curious).
I have not seen a legal definition of "recruiting." There is a "plausible deniability" factor I would expect the military to use when called out on their recruitment of children under 17 -- similar to the denials made by marketing professionals who target young people through TV ads.
One of the government's instructional manuals for military recruiters tells them to "own" the school their work in. In other words, be visible, active and accessible to the whole school population. You can hardly separate out the 17 - 18 year olds in that environment.
At the mall, there were very young kids enthralled with the military's computer tournament and other youngsters having "fun" with the shooter games in the tents.
Generally, the whole scene could be categorized as "false advertising" because the true realities of military service -- the war, the killing, the dangers, and the hazards -- were never mentioned to anyone, young or old.
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