Cynical, cynical.

[memnus]

Depressing symptom of Utah #whoknows: Ever tried buying condoms in a Utah grocery store? Any other state, they're generally stuck innocuously between the tampons and the baby food, giving shoppers all their reproductive options in one place. But around here - at least at Smith's, the one store I'm familiar with - they're brought out to the pharmacy section of the store. Ok, makes sense I guess. But it's worse than that. They're kept in a glass case, generally right under the prescription counter, the kind you generally need to flag down an employee to get into. Once, I saw a sign on the case declaring it to be unlocked, but that doesn't change the fact that you have to single yourself out to get to them - and that scared kids are going to be that much less likely to use them. Worse, if you go in after pharmacy hours, the gate that blocks off the prescription counter (which DOES get locked) blocks off the condom case as well! That emergency midnight condom run might as well be foiled. Ok, yes, you can go across the street to Walgreen's, but there's no self-checkout there. A teenager buying condoms still has to look someone in the eye and, if not verbally so, say "I'm headed off to have sex soon." Combine that with an unhealthy dose of cultural shame about that fact, and you have plenty for LDS Family Services to do.

In today's news, Big Brother is watching Second Life (BBC News). Do they really think that ter'rists are going to set up a Bomb-Making Island? What, exactly, constitutes "suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world"? What virtual world or MMO actually has the backend available to do that kind of data mining?

I only wish this were in the Onion: U.S. Military makes purchasing decision on value of product instead of lobbyists; Congress vows to find out what went wrong. I sincerly hope that someone in the DoD has the balls to stand up for this decision. Ok, first I hope there was an honest decision process behind it. Since I can't be pissed that it had to be a decision in the first place, I have to start somewhere... right?

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Comments

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

I feel like I were more sane if this were not the case, but I can absolutely see the condom thing from the store's perspective. Dx It's not just a Utah thing to put condoms and pregnancy tests in hard-to-reach cases, it happens in a lot of states, and often the policy varies from store to store. I can't speak about Utah specifically, since I'm sure they've got their own set of issues, but usually the reasoning behind this setup is that condoms and pregnancy tests are the most shoplifted items known to mankind, regardless of whether or not they're kept in the open or whether or not the store has self-checkout. So while I understand how much more at-risk it may put some people, and how it may inadvertently reinforce the culture of shame that surrounds sex, I also don't think it's fair for stores to only ever receive payment for those kinds of items from the apparently rare people like me who honestly don't give a crap anymore. :P

I don't know that there's really a good solution to that, honestly. I suppose ideally everyone would just say "fuck it" to the cultural shame, instantaneously rendering it completely powerless.

[zhukora1.livejournal.com]

*feel like I would be


argh.

[miriyam.livejournal.com]

I agree. The Osco at Northwestern University has the condoms in a locked case for precisely this reason -- college students steal shit.

One of my favorite stories involves my boyfriend and me (in high school) going to buy condoms at the Osco as part of an experiment to see how the checker would react to two teenagers buying condoms.

The process ended with "have a nice time" where she meant to say "have a nice day". It was pretty funny.

[notsteven.livejournal.com]

Is there anything that gives more background on the military contract? Given how little info the article has, I could just as easily see it framed as "US Military chooses foreign company over American company for military upgrade vital to national security; congress vows to investigate". Or even "US Military chooses company to upgrade military by throwing darts at proposals; Congress vows that this time it might actually exercise oversight, if it doesn't get distracted by shiny objects".

[memnus.livejournal.com]

Nothing I've seen has given any of the actual reasoning behind the decision, unfortunately. I just added my own headline.

[floccinau.livejournal.com]

It's relatively close to accurate. From http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/story/297027.html:

“More passengers, more cargo, more fuel offload, more patients that we can carry, more availability, more flexibility and more dependability,” Gen. Arthur Lichte, the commander of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, said of the Northrop Grumman-EADS KC-45A tanker.

It's really ridiculous. I can certainly see wanting combat aircraft to be a totally domestic production, but for what is basically an airliner with extra fuel tanks, I don't see a legitimate argument against foreign production.

The really funny part is that the bidding was opened up after Congress nixed the Pentagon's plan to subsidize Boeing by renting tankers from them at truly exorbitant rates.