Girls kicked out of school after racist rant goes viral on Youtube: What happened to free speech?

From The Huffington Post:

After two minors from Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Fla., posted a nearly 14-minute-long racist rant on YouTube, the girls are "no longer students at the school."

Watch the video for yourself here:




You may not like what they were saying, but what happened to free speech? For the most part they were simply speaking their opinion about the racial makeup and differences at their school. Maybe their assessment was entirely incorrect but maybe it was the truth. At the end of the day it's their viewpoint and they're entirely entitled to that viewpoint. We should defend all speech no matter how much it differs from our own views or offends us.

Apologies have now been issued by the girls:

"I am one of the girls who were in the racist video that got posted. I’m writing this so that I can tell people how truly sorry I am. I could never, in a million years, have pictured this happening with me involved. I wasn’t raised to hate people for their race, and I still don’t. I made a horrible decision in being a part of this video ... "

It has been reported that the girls received several death threats and now had to have police protection.

Does nobody else have a problem with this? We have to put fear into people and beat into submission the people we disagree with and force them to apologize? It's complete bullshit. No one should ever have to apologize for their opinions. If you have a certain perspective or way of looking at things, as long as that's your honest opinion why is that something to be ashamed of? For all we know her school really could be full of a bunch of kids who don't give a shit about their future and that's what she was reacting to. Instead of pointing our finger at someone talking about a problem, why not look to see what she's talking about? She just might have a point.

By the way, take a look at this line from the apology letter:

I know people are wanting to blame the parents for this, for our opinions and what we said, but I want it known that I wasn’t raised how I portrayed myself in that video. My parents never taught me hate or to judge someone like that. I honestly don’t know where that came from, but it was wrong no matter what.

You don't know where it came from? Oh I don't know, it could be that you experienced things and formed an opinion on them and then voiced that opinion?

Have a spine. How embarrassing for someone to have to pretend they don't have a viewpoint or feel shame in holding it. If that's what you really feel, then stand by it. Maybe the way you voiced it was in bad taste, but if there is a real problem going on in that school then that concern needs to be raised.

Telxon scanner down the pants

We here at People Liking People have noticed a disgusting practice at our local grocery store which is likely shared by retail establishments all across the country: employees putting the Telzon scanner down the back of their pants - in between their trousers and their dirty underwear down their ass crack. We first noticed it a few months ago and thought "wow, I'd hate to be the guy that has to use it after him". But now we're noticing it all the time with many different employees - evidently it's standard procedure.

Does nobody think it's gross that everyone's sticking this thing down their ass crack, and then the part that was down the guy's ass is the handle that you have to hold on to? The device has a string thing attached to it, why don't you use that instead? Or get some type of belt to hang it on to. Just think of how many germs have got to be on your average Telxon scanner handle. If there were ever a reason to not work retail, this would have to be it.

Ripoff or Inspired by? Eddie Money, The Doobie Brothers, and Robbie Dupree

We've been listening to a lot of different music here lately at People Liking People, and we love finding similarities in different songs as well as seeing how artists do things differently in the context of a similar song. Sometimes you can tell an artist was clearly inspired by a musician that came before them, and other times it's more of a blatant rip off. Today we present to you 3 songs that we invite you to listen to in the order in which they were written and see if you can't hear that there might have been some "borrowing" going on.

The first original song here is Baby Hold On by Eddie Money, which was released in December of 1977.



Baby Hold On stands out for its drum and bass guitar groove that continues throughout the whole song. Now check out The Doobie Brothers' What a Fool Believes, a completely different sounding song which came out just a month later in January 1978.




Now that you have those 2 tracks in mind that were released in 1977 and 1978, listen to Robbie Dupree's Steal Away, which was released in 1980.



Steal Away uses the same foundation as Baby Hold On but takes a smoother drum and bass approach instead of the stop/start feel of Baby Hold on. It also adds in additional keyboard elements seemingly taken straight from The Doobie Brothers' What a Fool Believes.

Is this the case of a blatant rip off or accidental similarity? You be the judge.

New Facebook Investors Will Be Bagholders

You've probably heard all the excitement lately over the news that Facebook will be going public - on Wednesday they filed their IPO prospectus with the SEC. They are soon to be trading on the NYSE and the company is predicted to be valued up to $100 billion. This means that thousands of investors are going to be putting up their money and betting on the future of Facebook, hoping to score big returns.

Google went public back in 2004 and anyone who bought Google shares then is doing very well right now with their return on investment. But is Facebook another Google? Does it really have the staying power and growth potential?

We see it more as another Myspace. And social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook don't have the type of staying power that search engines like Google do. They're more like a fad or fashion trend, although they can definitely stay popular long enough to rake in some dough. But these sites have a life cycle where they reach their full potential within a few years, and then as the excitement wears off and their users get bored, inevitably something else comes along that becomes the next big thing. And right now we're at the very end of the peak for Facebook's popularity. It has already had its been run, the big run is not in the future.

Young people are always what drives the next hot site, the next innovation. Facebook is still "cool" right now, but how about in a couple years when a whole new generation views Facebook as their mother's social networking site? It's going to happen, and it won't be long before it does.

Facebook is about to get a shitload of money though, and it definitely won't go down without a fight. Expect to see a bunch of new features and services rolled out over the next few years and witness their attempt to turn it into something much more than just a social networking site - just as Google became much more than just a search engine. But at the same time they're rolling out these new features, they're also going to be facing pressure from investors to monetize their popularity. Investors won't just be flooding in money to Facebook to be nice, they're going to want to see big revenues coming in. So at a time when Facebook is almost at its "old and stale" phase of the life cycle, they're going to be bombarding their members with annoying ads and other ways they can get money out of them. It's only going to make it that much easier for people to switch to the next big thing when it comes along.