MiniSky: Thoughts About Everything

I’m stealing this from a post on my partner’s cooking website, www.wishuponastove.com, but I thought it was ironic enough to talk about separately.

The post notes a recent lawsuit brought by Brenda Lifsey against Kraft Foods, regarding the company’s guacamole dip.

“It just didn’t taste avocadoey,” said Brenda Lifsey, who bought the dip to use for a party she was throwing. “I looked at the ingredients and found there was almost no avocado in it.†Apparently the Kraft product has lots of ingredients, but less than 2 percent avocado! For more info, you can read the whole sad story here.

I’ve always viewed with a mixture of amusement and disdain the lengths to which corporate America will go to make money. In this case, it’s the substitution of cheaper products in an otherwise standard product for the sole purpose of increasing profit margin. Much like McDonald’s serves “shakes,†rather than “milk shakes.†Apparently, both avocados and milk take too much from the bottom line.

What is equally disturbing, yet much more amusing, are the lengths to which the American public allow themselves to be purchased by said corporations. A prime example of this phenomena is the marketing of Matchbox 20 and Ashlee Simpson (promoting SKECHERS, which is, as Jessica at GoFugYourself notes, a brand that looks totally, totally, freakishly misspelled the more closely you look at it!)

I was watching a re-run of The West Wing the other day in which several fictitious senators refused to vote to procure more money towards suing the tobacco companies. Their reasoning was not based on political or monetary concerns, but were rather based on “moral issues” (yes, I know, noting that they are fictitious characters is superfluous to the discussion). Regardless, I thought it brought up a good point. This country’s developing reliance on help from others has transcended the ridiculous to the absurd long ago. If you are aware that cigarettes cause cancer, you have nobody to blame but yourself. If you are aware that others may not like what you’re selling, does that make you morally reprehensible for continuing to sell that product to those same persons whom you know don’t want it? Of course not.

I think the Romans had a name for that: it’s called “caveat emptor.” Exercise some fucking self-control, ya’ mook! And if you can’t, don’t go crying to someone else just because you made a mistake. No one takes responsibility for anything anymore. We foster, we obfuscate, we rationalize, “Everybody does it.” That’s what we say. So we come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone’s to blame, so no one’s guilty. It would be nice if we could go back to a time, if there ever was one, where people would just take some fucking responsibility for their actions.

Okay, moving on, in the spirit of my initial post (upon reopening for business, as it were), I’m posting another video favorite of mine. Most likely, it will be for my own amusement and reference, but as they ancient Greeks said: “fuck it.”

This clip is from a band that was not on my radar scope until very recently, despite having been exposed to them in a small amount several years ago when they were featured prominently in the John Cusack movie, High Fidelity (which I still think should have been set in London, as per the book upon which the movie was based). Now that they have disbanded, of course, I am a great fan of their work, especially the deep cuts that failed to hit with even many devoted U.K. fans and critics.

That being said, this single is one of my favorites, and thankfully, they also chose to promote it via a music video. Here now is The Beta Band, with the single “Human Being.â€