Episode #191 – New Buzz – Randumb Thoughts Podcast

My comic book store is Covid paranoid Disney Pixar is still going Woke Elon predicts a red wave racism against straight white guys and wait. Cops are giving out gift certificates instead of citations. All that and more on this episode of the Randumb Thoughts podcast.

Hello and welcome to episode number 191 of the Randomb Thoughts podcast that is R-A-N-D-U-M-B Thoughts dot com online. I am your host Darren O'Neill and on today's show so many things going on so few of them good and we're not going to be discussing the January 6th whatever you want to call it.

I mean some people may call it an investigation. Some people may call it a witch hunt. And the reality is this is our government wasting millions, if not billions of dollars in the hopes that they can keep Donald Trump from running again, because that is what January 6th is all about. Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. And they've been trying to do it from the minute he got into office.

And it's funny still to me, so many people on the left who are calling Donald Trump delusional, for saying there was voter fraud, saying there were shenanigans involved in the election and those people must not be coherent enough to go back. The election before where I believe we even ran the audio here on random thoughts and we rarely do clips, but there are multiple clips out there of Hillary Clinton questioning the results, saying the election was stolen by, you know, Russian interference.

So, I mean, you have to ask yourself what seems more plausible to you, interference from inside this country, which Donald Trump that's his theory and it has not been proven. There has not been enough evidence that has been able to be confirmed to raise that to the level of calling it fact, although Hillary Clinton saying, well, it was the Russians that did it.

Which one to you seems more logical that there would be corruption from inside the United States, from inside the people counting the votes, from inside the people putting together these machines that are taking all of the votes, all of the mail in all of the bundled ballots. Where do you really think there is a larger possibility for corruption and then just go from there, but otherwise a big waste of time it's the anti Trump show. If you like that, then maybe you like that.

But I doubt many people listening in here will find it to be educational. Maybe you find it entertaining, but that if you like shows that have no plot, that just meander have really bad acting, you know, like reality shows, then I don't know, maybe you would like it,

but I went out yesterday into the real world because, you know, I only like to go out when the temperatures hit about a hundred degrees just to remind myself why I never like going out and we went out for a very good lunch at a little Mexican restaurant here that I had not heard of before.

I was just kind of randomly looking at Yelp to read reviews because I find I could probably do a whole nother podcast just responding to reviews that I have read on Yelp because most of them are somewhat insane, which is also, I guess, gives you a pulse on the average person in the United States, or maybe just the average person doing reviews. But I love Mexican food, so I did a search for Mexican food and the number one restaurant that popped up in our area was one I had never heard of.

It's actually a little place that took over for a previous restaurant that was very child centric or I mean, maybe Jonsi divorce centric because it was all based upon trains to the point to where there was a little counter kind of think of a low bar in the middle of the restaurant that makes a big circle so your food can be delivered by a model train. Now, the problem with the Mexican restaurant, I mean, the food was excellent, but they've been in there for about two years.

So they went in and really didn't do any remodeling so that big round weirdness with the bar stools all around it is still there. But the food was excellent and that's all that counts. And the business only

takes cash, which I applaud because we've talked about before. The evil that is the cashless society where everything you do is tracked, including Major League Baseball. Now, I think it was 27 or 28 of the 30 stadiums. Now you can't use cash, which I think is just horribly wrong because cash is legal tender. You should be able to spend it anywhere you want in America. Now El Salvador, if we can take a short side trip,

made Bitcoin legal tender. We talked about that a ways back and now we have lost about half of the funds that they had put into the Bitcoin because the Bitcoin is down, the Bitcoin is down bigly as comic strip blogger would say down to about $21,000 per Bitcoin today. It reached a high at one point of about 69,000 and we are in what they are calling a crypto winter now. But I digress. I mean cryptocurrencies are always like playing Vegas.

If you believe in cryptocurrencies, this drop is still not bothering you. There are people that will be delusional to be like no matter if it goes down to zero, I still believe in it. I'm not in that case, I still believe there is a chance that crypto will crawl from the mark and somehow stabilize itself. As of yet, it's crashing just as hard, if not harder.

I guess the case is definitely harder than the stock market at this point, especially due to the fact that you still give crypto a value based upon your currency. And in our case, the American dollar, which of course inflation. Thanks, Uncle Joe. Has made that nearly worthless. So your mileage may vary, and I believe crypto still may come around, which is why you know, if you have a few hundred bucks, you put it in and then you just let it go.

For me, I get donations from time to time in crypto and just kind of leave them in there, don't cash them out, which if I were to cash them out, I would have had quite a few thousand dollars now, not so much, but there's a possibility that things rebounded.

We'll see what I appreciated before I get too far off the track if I can use a train ism while talking about a once trains centric restaurant, which is now a Mexican restaurant, I appreciated the fact that they only take cash because one of the Yelp reviews that I had read was about a pub that we used to go to all the time

that before COVID added in a surcharge for people using credit cards. I probably talked about it here and I have no problem with that because I understand that when somebody buys something on a credit card, a percentage is taken out of that. And I've talked about that here. In regards even to the donations for the Random Thoughts podcast, which is if you send me a check in the mail, four or $5, I get $5. If you send $5 via PayPal, I don't get $5, there's fees.

And if you send $5 via any credit card, there's fees. So you don't get the full amount. That's part of the cost of doing business. And I have no problem with a restaurant saying, you know, if you're going to pay by credit card, there's going to be a difference in price. Now, I would just have gone the more positive route rather than saying, Hey, you're going to have a 3% surcharge if you decide you want to use your credit card.

I would have instead put, hey, if you got cash, we'll give you a 3% discount because even that little change, the wording of it, people's minds do not work in rational ways, even though they're the exact same thing. The saying that you would give somebody a discount, I don't think would make people anywhere near as mad as saying, well, if you're going to use a credit card, we're going to charge you more. No, just say the credit card. Price. That's the normal price.

But if you have cash and we don't have to pay a credit card fee, then so we're going to be nice and pass those savings on to you. How many commercials have you seen in the past? We're going to pass those savings on to you. People don't have the same reaction, even though it's the exact same thing. But either way, paying cash not a problem for me. I do not mind carrying cash.

The Kahney ASADA was still just as good no matter really how you pay for it, but that was the better of the experiences throughout the day. We decided to go into our local comic book store,

which is something we haven't done since COVID started. One because I really stopped reading comic books, bad eyes and stuff, comic books, a lot less fun, you know, but they have like all the fun goes and they have different game nights, at least they did before COVID. They have a bunch of the different role playing games that they keep in stock. They even now have some t shirts and some of the toys and models and all that kind of stuff.

So it's kind of a big pop culture kind of a store more than just being a comic book shop. But they were still fully and I do mean fully in on the mask stuff. The first thing you saw when driving up was, No, let me back up. The first thing we saw when pulling in was that there were absolutely no cars in front of the place. So it's like, are they open? But no, they were open and walking up to the front door.

The big sign on the glass front door is masks are highly suggested or wording to that matter, which was, Yeah, we're not forcing you, but we'd really like if you would wear a mask and no, I don't I can't wear masks. One preppy eyes and glasses really only one eye. When that fogs up, I there's really no reason for me to to be in your store because I then really can't see anything too. I've had COVID, so I'm not really worried about catching COVID.

I know I don't have COVID to I'm not spreading it to anybody. And this shop was it was weird coming back in from the non COVID world to the COVID world, because not only did they put up,

which I've seen going to places like Aldi and our other grocery store here, Myer, where they have little plexiglass that, you know, comes right between you, just that little area between you and the cashier. So your air coming out of your mouth maybe doesn't go right on the cashier.

I still don't think many people understand that air moves around barriers but yeah, at the comic book store they have a little square counter area where you go pay and rather than having just one plexiglass pane between the consumer, that would be me and the cashier, they decided to totally enclose that little area with plexiglass and only having a little cutout, which reminded me of like a really old like bank teller kind of a thing where you could put your item in there.

Some items that weren't going to fit through that opening, but you put your item through there and then they'll take it from you. The weirder thing was not only did they have that, so they have their big surrounded on all sides by plexiglass barrier with only a small enough hall to slide some merchandise through directly in front of said small hole where you could slide merchandise through was a table. So I mean, I'm six foot six and I have the kind of reach that Michael Jordan has.

I mean, exactly. I mean, I can't shoot the basketball like Michael Jordan, but if I were to stand next to Michael Jordan, we were each to put our arms out very close and I could barely get the item to the counter. So I don't know what kids and women and stuff are doing. It's like this is very inconvenient for the people shopping because you're still deathly afraid of COVID. I mean, again, I had it was no big deal.

I understand some people it is a big deal, but that was mainly in the early portions of COVID. And if you're so afraid of it by now and you're working in a retail setting, I'm guessing you've been vaccinated against COVID some people will claim that does nothing. I think it does something, but you can believe whatever you want. I also believe there are side effects. I also believe the Rene ones carry other issues with them, including heart issues.

I know the at the Johnson and Johnson Shed, I got carried a possible blood clotting condition with it, but that is within the first two weeks. And after that, I have not seen any other side effects of the Johnson and Johnson. And when I had covered, it was nothing more than the flu. And that may just have been because it was nothing more than the flu. It may be because the vaccine helped it. Maybe because it made it worse. I don't know. But I'm not really sure why at this stage of the game.

Why a retail store would still be that afraid. And of course, all of the employees as well were masked up. So the employees were masked up sitting behind plexiglass on all sides with the little hole between them and the dirty customers. And I mean, the whole reason for going in there was just kind of like, hey, I'm glad they're still around, because it always used to be fun to go in

and see what they have. And I ended up picking up a bunko of Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes, not because I needed it, but because it's like, well, you know, I kind of want to give them some business. I want them to stick around.

I mean, I know I could just go buy this on Amazon for like four or five bucks last, but the whole concept of supporting the local business is good, but they're going to need to drop the crazy covered stuff if they want me to continue going into the store because it was really no fun. It just didn't make any sense to have this kind of a thing still going on with the big plexiglass and wear masks and put your little item through the little hole. It's like, I don't know.

I mean, I was just at a restaurant where nobody was having a problem with anything. So I guess maybe, maybe just covered spreads more at the comic book store. Maybe they're just more woke I don't know.

But Disney and Pixar, of course, going Woke, Woke, Woke, and the Woke ism is hitting Disney here, which I think is good. Tim Allen, which a lot of you may know from the Toy Story movies. Well, I mean, you may know Tim Allen from that Home Improvement Show or Last Man Standing or his stand up or a very variety of other things. Santa Claus, that Santa Claus. Tim Allen's been in a lot of stuff. But he was the iconic voice of the Buzz Lightyear toy and the Toy Story franchise.

So what happens when Disney Pixar decides that they want to make what is being called a prequel? I don't know if it really is a prequel, but it's definitely in the same universe because they're telling the story of Buzz Lightyear, the real person, not the toy. So the concept is that the toy was based after a real person. So thus they really didn't want Tim Allen to voice it. It had nothing to do, I'm sure, with the fact that Tim Allen is conservative and anti Wolk and all that.

No, that can't be it. It has to be that. It was just they just wanted somebody else to, of course, voice a character that people are very, very, very familiar with. And familiar with the voice. So we want somebody else to do it because that would just make more sense, I guess. I don't know how. Patricia Heaton, friend of Tim Allen,

who starred in such shows as Everybody Loves Raymond in the Middle, tweeted out quotes, saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear. In all I can say is Disney. Pixar made a huge mistake in not casting my pal Tim Allen in the role that he originated, the role that he owns, Tim is Buzz. Why were they completely castrate this iconic, beloved character, end quote? I mean, I think we all know why GMs and I think we do.

I mean, Patricia Heaton also known for being a conservative, which I mean, she's a horrible person. How dare she question Disney, Pixar, the locust of the Woke, but she's right there castrating the character by removing the voice that everybody knows. Perhaps that just makes buzz like you're even more trans friendly, trans from one voice into another, from one personality into another.

He did continue on saying, quote, So the current Buzz Lightyear movie is an origin story, but the reason the character became so beloved is because of what Tim Allen created. Why remove the one element that makes us want to see it? Hashtag stupid Hollywood decisions, end quote. I can't disagree with that. When you think Buzz Lightyear you think Tim Allen, when you think Woody, you know, you think of that other guy that is also going very well.

And we'll talk about in a second here The Blaze, Glenn Beck's

network and online website news organization says, quote, The film has also been under scrutiny and will not be shown in a large number of Middle Eastern countries due to the presence of a same sex couple in the film. In a statement on the ban, United Arab Emirates explained that the couple's presence violates the country's media content standards. So I mean, this is interesting, right? I mean, why do we need this in a kid's movie, I guess, or any sexual stuff in a kid's movie?

I'm not really sure. Well, except that Disney is Wolk and wants to push an agenda to the youngest of the young. And I think that is the problem most people have. Even the most conservative of conservative. I don't think most people care what people do in their bedroom behind closed doors. I don't think anybody cares as long as it isn't affecting somebody in the outside world. And that's the same for same sex couples. That's the same for opposites.

X couples like keep your business to your business, keep it private. Now, when you start taking this and trying to indoctrinate young children, well, you know, it's kind of interesting that people have different moral standards in the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries are going no, not going to show it. And I'm sure they're going to be blasted as being hateful people. But this is the same thing they've done to the Catholic Church.

And religion, because you can't disagree with their lifestyle. You can't say, no, I don't like your lifestyle, even if you're not trying to stop them from doing anything, just saying no, I don't like your lifestyle getting you labeled as a hater. And that's a bunch of crap.

Now, Disney wants to push this and I hope that it costs them money Chris Evans, who I like overall, the guy they brought in to play Buzz Lightyear, says, quote, It's great that we are a part of something that's making steps forward in the social inclusion capacity, but it's frustrating that there are still places that aren't where they should be. End quote. Mr. Evans. Who are you to say were other places should or should not be? Who are you to judge the morality of other people?

Why don't you just shut the hell up It's always the people that are calling for social inclusion, that are mad that other people are living their lives in a different manner. Well, those people won't let me be me while you won't let them be them. The irony is really palpable here. It really and truly is. But the people in the middle of it rarely see it They rarely understand it.

The producer of this film, Galen Sussman, stated that they cast Evans in the role because the film is about the man who inspired Buzz Lightyear.

Quote, We weren't making a Toy Story movie. We're making buzz light years movie. And so first and foremost, we just needed a different person playing that light ear separate from the toy. End quote. Now, Miss Sussman, what kind of sense does that make? Because you know what toys are based around sometimes. I mean, sometimes toys are just toys, but toys that are based around a character.

I mean, when you buy an Elmo doll and you pull the little string or push the button out, whatever you do to activate Elmo. And Elmo says Amazon's mission to random tots the doll, the toy. It sounds like the character Elmo. When you buy action figures that have the vocal capability of something that will say in a movie, they quite often use the voice of the person to play the character in the movie to make it off their neck.

So the producer of this crap movie that comes out and says, well, we needed to get a different after because this was the real person behind the toy. Well, then you're saying the people that made Toy Story were morons. Because that voice wasn't the real voice of Buzz Lightyear.

Right? It doesn't make any sense. But this is what happens when the whoa! Don't know what to tell you when they're trying to explain why they're whoa. But they don't want to admit they're woke and just say, well, you know, Tim Allen, he's a hateful, horrible white man who is conservative and we can't have him in our movie. No, we cannot. They would rather lie to you and be like, well, no, here's a very good reason. And the reason is crap and the reason doesn't make sense.

And it's just laughable. So, I mean, this is a movie that seems like it should be one that loses some more money to the, quote, Disney Pixar Corporation. And when it does, I certainly won't feel bad about it. Now, somebody who's still got a lot of money, even though

I'm betting he's hurting from this crypto winter and everything else. Elon Musk announced that he voted Republican for the very first time, voting for Republican Mira Flores in a special election on Tuesday. That being yesterday for Texas's 34th congressional district. Musk added, quote, It was the first time I ever voted Republican. And he also predicted a, quote, massive red wave in 20, 22. He is also supporting Ron DeSantis for 2024 Which is interesting.

A lot of questions about Trump and the Santos and if DeSantis would throw his hat into the ring if Donald Trump runs again. And then there's questions of whether if Donald Trump runs and to Santos does not want to primary run against Donald Trump in the primaries then it's a possible number two choice for Donald Trump which is maybe a killer 12 punch. I don't know. I'm still teetering

because I saw what Donald Trump did to the economy in the United States, which was a really good thing after four years of Donald Trump. Everybody, it didn't matter how old you were, it didn't matter what your gender was, didn't matter if you were transgender. Didn't matter what the color of your skin was. You financially were doing better. After four years of Donald Trump than you were before. And you're certainly not doing good now.

Thanks to crazy Uncle Joey and his complete lack of understanding of the economy. Or maybe he has a full understanding that the people pulling the strings want a full and utter collapse of this country. We've suggested it before that that's exactly what they're doing

is making every wrong move to bring you down to a third world country level, because that is what socialists believe, that it is not to raise up the average person. It is not to take the people who are struggling and make them financially better, to help them grow financially, to help them grow their own fortunes. No, it's to bring everybody else down so everybody can be equal. It's not to help the poorest of the poor. The more it is to help take away money from those who are successful.

And that is an evil, evil way to go about it. Joe Biden and his administration trying to make things a little uncomfortable for Elon Musk. I mean, maybe there's a connection, maybe not over the whole space flights that Elon wants to take off in Texas.

All of a sudden, there's a whole bunch of rules and regulations and money that Biden saying you got to put this towards this and this and make this signage and you've got to put some money towards the conservation of this animal and that wildlife and this and that.

And Elon is just shrugging it all off right now. But he has got a lot of money and it'll be interesting to see where Elon's money goes for the 2022 and 2024 election, because as it was talked about here quite extensively, there is very little doubt in my mind that the money. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook slash media fame the money that he put in into a few key areas for the last presidential election had a massive effect on the outcome.

So maybe we're going to see a battle of billionaires going on for the heart and soul and the economic well-being of this country. Now that's going to be an interesting reality show to watch, no question. A story that caught my mind was a Canadian coffee shop

that was looking to hire some folks and on Instagram posted their job ad that said white cisgendered men would be at the back of the line if you're looking for a job. And of course, hilarity ensued because a lot of people pointed out the fact that that was not really fair, that that was racism in a whole different way. But we know all of this stuff is so skewed that people have been poised to believe, well, no, if it's a white guy, you can't be racist against white people.

No, you can only be racist against minorities. And I've never bought into that. I buy into the Martin Luther King Junior concept that everybody should be treated equally and that means nobody should be given a leg up as far as a whole representation of a people. Now, individuals, I understand every now and then need a helping hand, but it's not like, well, oh, you're all you're white or you're black. Well, of course you're going to get something extra. No, that's not fair. That is not equality.

And this coffee shop got a lot of bad press. They got a lot of viral load, and they didn't really like I mean, viral load, meaning that their post was passed around the Internet. I don't mean they got covered or anything like that. Going to be very clear. So they put out a response,

which I thought made things even worse than the original post, which is always when hilarity ensues for me, is when people say something stupid and then they come out and just keep digging and digging and digging. So I'll read you what their response was. And the response was way longer than it needed to be. But I think entertaining quote, we went viral there were several very important messages that I want to address here.

Much of the ongoing traffic is directed over from a Reddit post where the caption HBO's Coffee not hiring white cis males gave solidity to something we don't claim. However, firstly, I would like to apologize directly to any members of the LGBTQ to SB Plus and biopic communities that may have read our prioritizing the hiring of CIS white males as therefore a requisite for outing oneself.

If not presenting or as passing as white and cis, as if our terms of employment encouraged a type of potentially dangerous and definitively intrusive disclosure. I posted carelessly and it was wrong. As we've said before, intentions don't matter in this aspect of the post. I would change had I done it over again. We have always advocated for addressing mistakes rather than covering and ducking. I waited to hear from staff this morning to decide the collective course of redress.

And we have decided to leave the post up so as not to reference some things. Absence Well, right here, the original post gone. So this was something that was changed within a day of posting this, if not hours. But this apology or whatever this monstrosity is continues. Quote, My intention with the post was to articulate a deep prioritizing of white male candidates at present because we already have more than 50% of our workforce. Identifying is this white male? Myself included.

Now, I still don't understand just because your workforce I get going for more diversity. But forcing diversity if that's not the people that are hiring now if your intentionally not hiring people because they come in and you don't like the color of their skin or you don't like their whatever then yeah that is a problem.

But if you're in an industry that overall has a certain amount of high employment from one particular group and you're just going to say We're not going to hire you when you come in because you're white or you're male, then that's a problem. But again, 50% of our workforce identifying as this white male. Myself included, this is a settler colonial society with all of its inheritances.

There's also a white male dominated industry and when given the opportunity to open possibilities for underrepresented identities, we will do so. I handled it badly articulated it. Problem radically to polemically and have put the staff in a compromised position in the front of the house and with the phones ringing constantly, that's on me. I should have employed inclusive language when stating the obvious rather than the flippant back of the line statement.

There is a long history of affirmative hiring practices that have been excised in the ensuing viral state. Following the post when I articulated them poorly. It is also on me.

Lastly, but importantly, I have largely ignored the call outs and charges of so-called reverse racism or racism towards whites etc.. I have been mute on this because there are very different lived consequences of this so-called racism in white supremacist settler colonialism. While many have and will argue passionately that all discriminations are the same, they are, you idiot. The consequences of even partial occasional white exclusion are not felt structurally and institutionally.

This garnered the loudest share of the comments and it will continue undoubtedly. Drew Johnson, co-owner of HBO's Coffee. So if you're around both coffee, you decide whether you want to give this Jumoke and his coffee shop your business. The concept that Martin Luther King fought for is so far gone at this point that it's nearly laughable.

The fact that all people could have been treated equally, not based upon the color of their skin not based upon their gender, not based upon whoever they decide to take into the bedroom at night. Know this are all things you have to come out and flaunt. Now, I mean, if you want a job, obviously you have to tell this guy you're gay. Otherwise, you're not going to get a job. If you're a white guy. You have to come out and be like, Hey, I'm gay. Because you won't hire this white, straight guy.

So I got to be gay if I'm going to get a job from Drew Johnson. I don't know what that means, what you have to do for Drew Johnson. But that's all up to you. And this is something that is not just

unique to one stupid little coffee shop in Canada The best selling author, James Patterson, made a comment and then either walked it back or just beautifully just said what he needed to say. And then the people that aren't picking up on it didn't realize that this was more just sarcasm. From a pretty decent writer who's figured out a pretty good way to make money.

The guy writes a lot of books and he writes a lot of books fast because he works with coauthors and he's figured out the genius plan of, Well, I could just come up with the base story and I can tell another author about what these people are like, and then they can flesh everything out, which is why James Patterson seems to be coming out with like 18 books a year.

But in an interview with The Sunday Times, James Patterson lamented the struggle that he says white men are now facing finding jobs, writing in film theater, television and publishing. He called it, quote, just another form of racism, which is what you can't do. You can never say that because all of these businesses like these Yahoo! Coffee shop and we know what's happening in Hollywood that well, no, no, we need to diversify our the people we have on hire here.

So we're going to hire less white guys. I mean, you may be the most qualified. You mean you may have the most experience you may have the best track record, but, you know, you're white, so we can't hire you. And I don't know, to me, that screams as racism. At the very least, it's a form of discrimination. He says, what's that all about? What's a rhetorical question? Can you get a job? Yes. It is harder. Yes, it is even harder for older writers.

You don't see many 52 year old white males that quoting James Patterson, now, a day or two later, he came out with this statement, quote, I apologize for saying white male writers having trouble finding work is a form of racism. I absolutely do not believe that racism is practiced against white writers.

Please know that I strongly support a diversity of voices being heard in literature, in Hollywood, everywhere, and quote, you know, I don't really believe that statement from James Patterson, the guy who just the day before was like, yeah, it's just another form of racism. White guys can't find jobs because of the fact that nobody wants to hire white guys. It seems to me that his publisher, somebody said like, well, now, James, you need to you need to put out a statement here. This isn't good.

So I apologize for saying it said that he does not believe that racism is practiced against white writers, he says, but that's exactly the opposite of what he said the day before. So which one is real that he said this was just another form of racism or a day or two later being forced to make some kind of statement for whatever reason? No, no, I absolutely do not believe there's any racism. Yeah, sure.

Yeah. And the sky is red and the oceans green while it is sometimes I guess, depending if it's Saint Patrick's Day, but I digress. This is what's going on here. This is the kind of pressure that's on everybody in every industry. When you start pushing the woke this, when you start pushing way too much for the diversity aspect of things. And again, I am not for people being kept from getting a job if they are the most qualified because of the color of their skin or because of their gender.

But it also is not fair for people that otherwise would be getting these jobs to be like, well, no, we can't hire you because you're white or because you're a male. And if you think that's fair, then, you know, we have different aspects of what fair is. We have different concepts of what that is, I should say. And you'll have to explain to me exactly how it is. Feel free, reach out and let me know. I mean, of course you can make your own coffee at home.

You don't have to worry about going out to a coffee shop if you don't want to. But there was a story on just what kind of data some smart coffee makers are collecting and sending back to the mother hive in China. And of course, I just got a coring machine, which was not the company they were talking about here, but we know that the abilities are in these machines to go back to the mother ship let them know what's going on.

I mean, I was horrified when I hooked up my LG washer and dryer to the Wi-Fi which I, you know, shouldn't have done it, but at least you can put it on a guest network, stuff like that, attach it to a random email address because the first time I got the email from the LG washer and dryer saying, Hey, here's how many loads you've done this month. Here's your energy consumption. It's a little concerning. So you know, these coffee machines can do the same thing.

And the reality is for most of them, you shouldn't have to turn the Wi-Fi on if you don't want to. And if you are going to turn the Wi-Fi on

any of these Internet of Things devices, if you have these if you have the Wi-Fi coffeemaker, if you have the Wi-Fi washer and dryer, if you have the Wi-Fi light bulb, whatever it may be, to set up a guest network on your home network that does not have access to all of your other machines. So when those Wi-Fi devices are indeed hacked, when they are indeed owned by an outside sources they say that all of your data does not go with it.

Always good to have a guest network, even for family and friends coming over. They can get on the Internet but you don't have to worry

that they're looking at your private files. It makes sense. But as we were talking about earlier with Tim Allen, and the Disney Walk Through HBO's Light, your movie, Tom Hanks is in the news. And that's the guy that played Woody along with Tim Allen. But Tom Hanks, well, he's totally woke and he's getting Welker in an interview with New York magazine, was talking about his performance in the streets of Philadelphia. Was it just called Philadelphia?

I mean, the theme was Streets of Philadelphia that Bruce Springsteen did, but I believe the movie was just called Philadelphia. He says, quote, Could a straight man do what I did in Philadelphia now? No, and rightfully so. The whole point of Philadelphia was don't be afraid. One of the reasons people weren't afraid of that movie is that I was portraying a gay man. We're beyond that now.

And I don't think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy and quote, now, this is just terribly woke Mr. Hanks, and this is terribly detrimental to all of the gay actors and actresses who might actually want to play some straight people in a movie or TV show now and then. And that is exactly what Sir Ian McKellen said, who's I am.

DBI list of accomplishments and appearances. Absolutely fantastic. Everything from the Lord of the Rings to The Hobbit on down the line, Wikipedia says Sir Ian McKellen, English actor career spanned seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theater to popular fantasy and science fiction. He has received numerous awards, including seven Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Also received nominations for two Academy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, four BAFTA years. He's achieved worldwide fame for his film roles, including The King in Richard, The Third James Whale and Gods and Monsters, Magento and the X-Men Films and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.

While Sir Ian McKellen thinks that Tom Hanks is full of crap and I fully agree with them because he says he is openly gay, by the way, Ian McKellen, he says, quote, Is the argument that a straight man cannot play a gay part? And if so, does that mean I can't play straight parts and I'm not allowed to explore the fascinating subject of heterosexuality and Macbeth? Surely not we're acting. We're pretending. God bless. Sir Ian McKellen, thank you for bringing sanity to that topic.

And just like the coffee shop,

do you really want actors to have to hide who they are? If they want to play straight roles? This is very bad, Tom Hanks very bad. By saying only gay actors can play gay characters, that means it would seem that only straight people can play straight characters. And that's going to start limiting the roles for a lot of actors and actresses. It's going to cause them to deny who they really are. If they want to be somebody that can play those parts on the silver screen or on television.

And it's absolutely idiotic. Acting is indeed acting. It is making believe, it is pretending, it is exploring a character that is not like the person that is playing it. The best actors can play a wide variety of characters and pull them off and make you believe that they are that particular character. This is absolutely a horrible mindset, Tom Hanks, that only straight people should be able to play straight characters and only gay people should play gay characters.

There's been hubbub of only trans people being able to play trans characters. No, the job of an actor is to get into the mindset of a character as best they can, and it really doesn't matter what they are behind the scenes. If they can bring authenticity to the character, I don't care what they are off the screen. I do not care what they are in their real lives. If they can portray that character better than anybody else, then you let them portray that character. Why are you so hateful?

Tom Hanks? I will never really understand why you want to exclusionary, but that is the irony of so much of this stuff with the left is they're crying about not being inclusive enough in their answer is to be less inclusive. It's maddening, really. And I have one last story that I had to absorb for a minute.

And figure out exactly what was going on here, because there was an article in the local papers here in Chicago that one of the suburbs of Chicago, Lake Zurich, is now starting a program where they will be giving out gift cards to people who have certain infractions, rather than giving out a citation.

Now, once I realized that this is being funded by advanced auto parts I got what it was that Advance Auto Parts is looking to get a little bit of publicity, which they are, because now we're talking about them and I'm sure others are talking about them as well. And what they're doing is providing the local police department with 1500 dollars worth of gift cards. There's a few other locations that have done this already.

There is $25 on each card and officers who pull over some people for things like a headlight or a tail light not working, maybe turn signal not working, will be able to, instead of handing the people a citation, giving them a gift card to advance auto parts where they can go and get their broken tail light or headlight or turn signal whatever it is fixed and I think that's not a horrible idea. That's not a horrible idea, especially because a lot of people don't know their tail lights are out.

You should check those every now and then. Headlights, a little bit easier to figure out. But the headlights in some cars, they could be a real pain in the ass to try to change them yourself and make sure they're pointed right. You're not blinding other drivers. So I kind of like the idea now that I realized it wasn't on the taxpayers dime because this is a real turn around here.

Because normally if you're going to pull somebody over for having whatever lack of headlight or tail light, for instance, then they would be getting a ticket, which would be a fine, which means the city would be bringing in money. So this is giving away money instead of bringing in money.

And the only thing I would add to this is having the driver that gets said gift card prove within like a week or two that they went to advance auto parts, bought the part they needed and fix their car rather than just throwing the gift card in the glove compartment. The Advanced Auto Park district manager Darren Green refer to the program as a, quote, very important because headlights can cause some serious issues on the road. Well, yeah, or lack thereof.

Also, tail lights brake lights, turn signals can cause safety issues. We just want to make sure we are helping that motorist with a little bit of money to help them get that thing fixed. So they are safe out on the road, end quote. And I think that is a valid thing, I think for companies that want to step up and do that in their local cities, that's a good thing that the police are taking part in it.

You get somebody with a broken tail light, you say, hey, not only is your tail light broken, but here's a gift card to go get a ticket. I mean, that's nice in this world where everything is so negative that could maybe turn somebody's day around and it's a good thing. I like it as long as the cities aren't paying for it. And it is the auto parts store that's footing the bill. I'm happy to say advanced auto parts. You're doing a good thing keep it up.

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So I hope you're feeling better. I hope it was a mild ride as mine was just a couple of days you're kind of sick, but then back to normal. But Johnny comes in with $3.33. That is the magic number. 33 for all sorts of different reasons. Again, you get to put whatever number you want, whatever value you want, any amount helps, especially in this time of massive inflation, high gas prices my air conditioning is running right now because I didn't want to die, so any little bit helps.

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Continue to grow, and that way we can make sure that the microphones stay on, these servers keep humming and all of that good stuff. With that said, I hope you have an excellent week and I will be back to talk to you again next Wednesday with another edition of the Random Thoughts podcast. But until then, I am Darin O'Neill. Thanks for listening

and.