GHOSTBUSTERS CLUB EDITORIALS 2
Stanley Milgram's famous experiment on obedience as a form of conformity, 1961-1962, Yale. Milgram, wondering why ordinary German citizens blindly followed Hitler through thick and thin, built a machine giving the illusion of administering electic shocks of varying intensity to "learners" recruited from the theater dept. "Teacher" subjects were measured by their obedience to authority, administering shocks ranging in intensity from slight 5 volts to XXX 450 volts to learners giving incorrect answers on a memory test. 65% of Milgram's subjects, ordinary New Haven CT residents, obeyed. Studies overseas had similar results. Milgram tested his last subject 4 days before Adolf Eichmann was hanged for war crimes he committed in obedience to his superior officer, Adolf Hitler. Many films and stage plays have been written and presented about Milgram and his experiments. For his work Milgram was vilified by officials who felt their authority and income threatened.
Philip Zimbardo's August 1971 Stanford prison experiment. A prison was built in Stanford's Psychology Dept basement. Student volunteers passing physical and psychological exams were randomly placed in groups of prisoners and guards. The key word here is random selection, each subject having an equal chance of being placed in a particular experimental group, without which the experiment is skewed and incorrect. The experiment, planned for two weeks, was terminated after 6 days.
These studies make good Hallmark Hall of Fame material for today's generation, on broadcast TV stations with good reception instead of on cable TV.
* LINKS Stanley Milgram Milgram's study Philip Zimbardo Prison Experiment
Other recommended reading: The Wave by Todd Strasser
Every year women stampede sales floors like Oklahoma Sooners anticipating arrival of annual two-carton shipments of swim suits barely able to fit a rabbit, often made of inferior fabrics falling apart the minute women wearing them even think about going into the water. Those who swim all year must move fast and grab enough suits to last them before they're all snapped up for the year. Those not there waiting since before dawn for the truck to pull into the receiving bay lose. Those whose clothes size is larger than that of a cat also lose. Only upper-income women can obtain good swim suits on demand. Despite growing need there is a severe shortage of plus-sized clothes available in San Jose thrift stores and giveaways. Stores and manufacturers only carry clothes up to a certain size.
Charities' loss of support is their own fault for poor service and intrusive requirements. More concerned with rules than service they need accountability. Not dependent on paying customers as thrift stores are, giveaway service is often so poor that lawyers tell clients not to go there because of the intense risk of catching the eye of some police department reject for whatever imaginary offense they can think up and getting in trouble. Clothes giveaways require I D, residence and other proof, which are none of their business. Some issue plastic ID cards to track users. Staff claims to need patrons' ID to get federal money. The government only needs to know how many served and how many plus sizes, not who's served.
Squadrons of loudly bleating, card-carrying sheep with Bibles in hand and sometimes deliberately posted by staff as sentries tattle on those who forge ahead and don't save for them. This gross invasion of privacy is set up for staff and followers to know who to call police on and where to send them. Police are tired of these calls especially since they're never about anyone they're looking for. They say so at neighborhood meetings. Desperate plus-sized users going through all the hoops trying to please, sticking their necks out for nothing and getting bitten, only find nothing useable and must jump through the hoops again for assistance. All there ever is in larger sizes is rules and morals sermons.
Businesses fire unfit employees on the spot for driving paying customers away. I let those I complain to, assuming there really is someone up there somewhere to complain to and not get rules sermons instead of help, know I don't want to drive away good people, just bad ones. I share credit with other complainers who come forward. If retaliation is expected let them say so in their complaints. Asking patrons to tolerate poor service for any reason is inexcuseable. Seniority is no substitute for service. If an escort service wants decent people only, what about other places?
Agencies tying assistance and employment to religious participation should NOT receive public funds. Unwanted religion, like unwanted sex, involves a captive audience. Both are illegal in the United States and should be illegal everywhere. Praise God our Constitution forbids contingent earbanging at public expense. Let's keep it that way! Separation of church and state, not found in some countries even today, is one of our greatest strengths. It's bad enough charities have no accountability as to personnel and policy and are allowed to exclude or restrict women. Rescue Missions require chapel attendance - earbanging - and include religious counseling or else you can't eat or stay there and they can enforce it. They only provide shelter for men, better able than women are to fend off predators still at large. They exert tremendous religious pressure on people and have the nerve to complain about not qualifying for public funds. If I had any problems at all I would not want a religious or political approach.
The list goes on. I scratch the surface here, about clothes. It feels good to hear the phrase "anybody who's anybody", referring to street and near street people. Soup lines, a good place to meet and know them, often drive decent people away and only serve housepets.
I get a closer look at nonprofits because I'm not the governor or a reporter or some Rockefeller they dye grass green for. Religious observance and volunteerism don't make a person decent, and vice versa. Give decent people a chance. Why waste it on the other kind? I'm tired of hearing them defended. Give decent people a chance instead of wasting it on jerks. Like any other business your goal is to attract paying customers and donors, not repel them. Better to be short staffed than to have the wrong people. I'm a conservative spender. I don't want my money handed over to unpleasant people I wouldn't even save let alone serve. Mediation is useless. What's needed is direct action in our favor for a change instead of theirs. One monkey doesn't stop the show. What's bad is if there's only one monkey or if all the monkeys are the same.
Blame vacant apartments on the economy, lunar phases, meteor showers, chicken pot pies, cloud formations, the President's high golf score or even on drunk drivers but charities can only blame donor fatigue on their own poor service and their refusal to acknowledge and rectify it despite complaints. I hear of other towns with lots of full-time, bus-served walk-in-and-browse warehouses in which any garment, any size, is 50 cents every day, no shortgage of larger sizes, no questions asked even in giveaways and no A W A to put up with either. Why can't it be like that here in San Jose too? Let San Jose's riffraff shop themselves around other towns in vain and rightly so. We don't want or need them here, either.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL
* SAN JOSE Staff members are chosen from only the worst people. Volunteer and mandate programs in exchange for clothes and/or other items no longer exist.
* MOUNTAIN VIEW San Jose SVDP rejects Hugo and Virginia are foisted off on Mountain View shoppers instead of fired outright as they should be. People disgusted with poor service there walk out and never return. I've heard other Mountain View bus riders complain too.
* SAN FRANCISCO Instead of the walk-in or volunteer policy agencies should have, assistance is chosen by lot every week before dawn for 40 men and 35 women, eligible only once every 4 weeks, according to their website.
Serve SVDP right to get robbed for refusing to rectify personnel problems. CW (street buzz) hopes authorities never catch the perps. They "steal from the poor" by refusing to rectify SVDP's adverse, legally unsafe situations.
COME Emanuel Lutheran Church 3rd & San Salvador downtown San Jose. Staff and users alike are the worst, most assaultive people the church can find. It's been like that for years but there's nobody to complain to. Their back stairs are padlocked in two places so "unauthorized" people can't get the clothes because staff wants to save them for the jerk element they serve. It's ADA inaccessible as well as a fire hazard.
CITY TEAM only opens for clothes 1 1/2 hours once a week saying that's all the time they're allowed to access the warehouse. At least they quit earbanging for clothes and they admit there's never anything in plus sizes.
THRIFT STORES receive their merchandise as donations they don't have to buy. Savers charges up to three times as much for what few plus-sized garments they may have on hand.
POTTER'S HOUSE not only requires prayer and religion but also an interview in which you make a pledge to change. They deserve to be robbed and deceived. Their program is all lies and propaganda with nothing worthwhile to offer. All hat and no cattle but they still solicit and recruit. It's a racket gullible people still buy.
Social Ministry at St Joseph's Church downtown. Volunteer staff is lousy and people who go there nowadays are worse and worse, making the place more and more unpleasant. I only go there if I'm over there, which isn't too often. Friendly service and happy patrons is possible, I seen it elsewhere, why not here? Asked why I don't volunteer there, you wouldn't want me there. If I did work there I'd be your biggest conscientious objector and refuse to serve nasty people. I discriminate. I'd either clean the place up or send it to hell. There's no excuse. Besides would you hire nasty, unfriendly people? Put the Friendly People Only sign out like De Anza Security recruitment does every quarter and say No A W A like bands do when advertising for members. Please give decent people a chance instead of wasting it on jerks. People only wanting snacks should just play through like in golf and be on their way instead of having to wait through long lines of those needing service.
Bay Area Homeless Alliance (baha.org) has links to charitable agencies in the San Francisco bay Area. San Francisco's BAHA chapter charges subscription fees to access their database.
CONCLUSION: It's cost-effective if charities had more accountability to donors, users and the public. Let them earn their funds with good service.
Dear Ann Landers: I, too, avoid high school reunions. I came to America from Europe. My English was poor. The in crowd thought everything about me was wrong, even my clothes and hair. Enduring their snickers I always ate lunch alone. I invited 6 girls to my 16th birthday party. Only one came and she left early. My parents never knew I cried myself to sleep that night. In my junior year a girl ate lunch with me. Also ignored by the in crowd, she didn't care. Marching to a different drummer, she had her own music. She came to my home one afternoon bringing her little sister to play with mine. We became great friends. She played her guitar and sang like an angel. She invited me along as she visited USO clubs and sang for the soldiers. She was a big hit wherever she appeared. One night going home from a USO club I bet her $10 she would become famous. She did. Her name is Joan Baez. - Rosie
Dear Rosie: What a heartwarming story. I hope Joan Baez sees this column or someone who knows her will bring it to her attention. Besides her marvelous voice Joan Baez is a beautiful person with a loving, generous heart.
Choose the man. Don't let him choose you. Be selective. No one can make you happier than Mr. Right or more miserable than Mr. Wrong. No wife is more alone than one whose husband ignores her.
Children? A direct link to his ex-wife. They're always first even if grown. You may also be assessed for their support.
His philosophy, character and views on women's and other social issues? That's his view of you.
Shared humor makes good times better and bad times less difficult.
He's married, separated? His wife doesn't understand him? You won't either.
He tries to move in with or borrow money from you? He's a con artist.
His family hates and avoids him? You should too. They know him better.
His car is clean, serviceable, insured and his driving safe.
Stay-at-home mom? Choose a man with adequate income.
Career? A man who hates his job will resent time and attention you give yours.
Avoid men who ever threaten, hit or humiliate you. A bad temper gets worse after marriage.
How he treats his mother and others is how he'll treat you.
You won't find him in men-only clubs or in bars.
Dear Ann Landers: I'm 16 and tired of being yelled at. "Stop smoking. Get off the phone. Hang up your clothes. Do your homework. Clean your room." How can I get them off my case? - Sick of Parents
Dear Sick: Stop smoking. Get off the phone. Hang up your clothes. Do your homework. Clean your room.
Anthropologist asks Hopi Indian why so many Hopi songs are about rain. Rain is scarce here, the Hopi said. Is that why most of your songs are about love?
Why are women having sex with their boyfriends sluts and guys studs? This is sexism. If we get angry and fight we could make a change. Fight for your rights!
Women change their minds how attractive a man is when they learn his character. Nice guys are better looking than dominant ones.
The presence of pimps in a social setting is very very unpleasant.
35% of Personals sections advertisers are already married - -
Marriage: friendship recognized by police.
Divorce lawyer sends Valentines signed "Guess Who."
Accidentally sat
On palm pilot, bought a house
Through the Internet
He does what I say
Definition of a slave
A man wanting sex
Michael Jordan - was cut from his high school basketball team.
Ludwig von Beethoven - his music teacher said as a composer he was hopeless.
Walt Disney - was fired from a newspaper job because he had no good ideas.
Thomas Edison - his teacher said he was too dumb to learn anything.
** Has anyone ever told you you couldn't do something you set out to do?
Osama bin Laden displaces Pamela Anderson in cyberspace. People interested in America's flag outnumber those curious about Britney Spears. For the first time in Internet history, popular search engines report that "sex" dropped off their top 10 search lists after World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Popular searches became almost exclusively Sept 11 sites. Most perennial favorites like Pamela Anderson Lee, Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys left the list. Sex, a longtime favorite usually in the top 10, dropped to 17.
Jim writes: I handled Army SAMs (surface to air missiles) in the late 1950s. Our Nike Ajax and Hercules missiles could blow up planes 5 minutes into flight. 5 minutes is an eternity when a missile stand goes on red alert. There's missile stands around targets of value such as New York and the Pentagon. A high official ordered no response. Any comments??
D M writes: I took 200 Ritalin pills a month for 7 years. Friends say it's too much. I hear 60 mg can cause a heart attack. A psychologist says I'm still ADD. How long can you take Ritalin without compromising your heart or health? How does Ritalin affect pregnancy? Is there research?
Dear D M: Doctors won't tell you that amphetamine Ritalin contains speed. Drugs build tolerance, dependence and reliance on foreign chemicals. Drugs intensify external stress by impairing your capacity to cope. Dangerous substances accumulate and recirculate through your body while needed vitamins and minerals are excreted. Anything pregnant or nursing women ingest, good or bad, affects the child. You may survive drugs but your descendants might not. Drugs affect you too later on. ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is a cultural construct to sell dope. Negative research on Ritalin is discredited because Ritalin is a moneymaker and legal. Multitasking shuts down people and computers, like when a car engine overheats. Do one project at a time. Turn the radio off while
studying. Drink orange juice, not coffee. Good luck.
Hate chili? Tired of tamale pie? Tired of soup lines serving it over and over? Tired of lectures on thankfulness, going elsewhere to eat, and what donors bring? Complain! Soup lines are to serve users, not vice versa.
Gallery of married men if that's what you're into